A/a'a\~

Pregnancy and child-rearing, for humans and for most other sophonts, is an expensive, time-consuming process. The next generation in an investment that breeding adults must constantly protect, females by eliciting the help of others, and males by ensuring that they are not cuckolded by another. Early humans evolved hidden menstruation to balance the interests of male and female; a/a'a~ took a different path.

A/a'a~, the oldest known sophont and the builders of the first Bypass links, ensure the investment of both parents by, essentially, never pulling out. Males, which spend their adolescence in trees, descend to ground level to mate with terrestrial females. Upon choosing a mate (a process which may take years), the two couple, and then spend the rest of their lives together. The copulation vent on the underside of the tail/leg (not to be confused with the birth vent on the lower back of the female, or the cloacal vent on the underside of the hide foot) of the male and female fuse together. The male's tail-leg atrophies. There is some exchange of circulatory fluid, and a mediation of immune systems, mimicking. Neither respiratory nor digestive systems fuse, however, meaning that both members of the pair must continue to eat and breathe. When one dies, the other almost certainly will as well.

Young are born from a vent on the female's back, where they receive further incubation sandwiched between the pair until they are ready to walk. They then remain close to their parents, learning language and some survival skills, until they leave to live on their own. For the a/a'a~'s pre-technological ancestors, adolescence was spent entirely apart from adult supervision, and from the opposite sex. Even today, there are well-developed subcultures for "teenage" boys and girls, which are strikingly different from adult culture.

Upon copulation, adolescent a/a'a~ become legal adults, and are treated as single individuals. Incompatibility between mated pairs is treated as a psychological disorder, and remediated with therapy and drugs. Divorce, while technically possible with surgery, is never attempted. Anecdotal evidence says such measures always result in the suicide of both ex-partners.

This is not to say that all a/a'a~ breed. Social pressure ensures that up to a third of adolescents never pair off, and remain as "lost" boys and girls. The role of lost people varies with culture, but they often become artists and entertainers. Historically, lost girls were conscripted as soldiers. Otherwise, designating people as "lost" is the a/a'a~'s preferred method of birth control. Other techniques, such as surgical and chemical castration, are vanishingly rare.

Socially, a/a'a~ value deliberation and sagacity, and feel uncomfortable acting without exhaustive preparation. Once they do commit themselves to action, they are unlikely to stop.

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Whew
Here's the first of the sexy aliens from bensen-daniel.deviantart.com/#/d5d9lvl

Thanks to for some ideas about the mechanics of this process. Also thanks to for the inspiration: [link]

All comments are welcomed, both about the art and the science.
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Done while listening to: Komarr (god Bujold is an f-ing genius)