Vreddites

This species has arisen on a planet called Vredd. At the moment, the species is at a turning point. Their intellect has only recently (in evolutionary terms) separated them from similar species, and brought the into a fertile tropical valley. At this time, there are only about 20,000 Vreddites on the planet, most living in tribes.

Vreddites’ locomotion is performed by a large “foot” that makes up the large bottom of their body. This foot allows them to hop around, while two appendages on their back, the kickers, can propel them at higher speeds than the hopping alone. The kickers are also useful for delivering a powerful blow, assuming your target is behind you.

One Vreddite, named Wyeenk, was once mocked by Little Choy. Once, I was planning on doing a comic about the Vreddites before I got going on the Secret Government Robots instead.

Uzzer is the leader of a tribe that has been driven into the mountains by stronger tribes. Life is hard for the mountain-dwelling Vreddites, having to deal with temperatures much colder than their species is used to, and food is scarce. Uzzer wants the best for the tribe, but if they can’t get back into the valleys, they may starve. But the valleys are full of other tribes who don’t want to share. Some drastic action needs to be taken, and it is going to end poorly for someone.

Edowa is the tubemaker of her tribe. The making of air tubes is one of the most advanced technologies on the planet at this time, mostly used by combining naturally growing bamboo-like plants with squeezable bulbs that blast pressure through the tubes. Most tribes are complacent to use these to propel rocks as weapons when hunting, but Edowa’s tribe has taken to experimenting with other uses, such as propelling water through long distances for crops or for fighting lightning fires.

Nyllyn is from a tribe that lives near a large waterfall. Though they like the waterfall, it has been a cause of death for several tribe members, which causes problems. It is a Vreddite tradition for survivors to eat their dead, so that they will be forever a part of the tribe. But when a Vreddite dies in a manner such as falling off a waterfall and being swept away, as Nyllin’s sibling did, there is no body to be eaten. To this day, Nyllin is terrified that her sibling’s corpse will return in some dark night and force its rotting remains into Nyllin’s mouth.

A Fact About Vreddites: Vredd is a very cloudy world, so its sun is not seen with great frequency. This is one major reason why Vreddites have yet to realize they are seeing the same sun every time. By their current thought, it is imagined that suns are large, bright objects that happen to pass by occasionally.

Universe: Blue

When last I PDR Updated, I thought I had gotten better and just had a minor lingering cough. As suggested by the fact I am doing another post about it, I was not back to full health.

Phase Four: March 22 to April 3

This is the period in which I thought I was on the mend. I was working and, though I was lethargic, was mostly living as normal. The only suspicion I had of the cough that wouldn’t go away was that, at least once a day, I would go into a serious coughing fit wherein my body would try for about ten minutes at a time to get something to come up, but nothing ever would. It was annoying, and even occasionally painful, but I just assumed it was a quirk of the cough that would go away with the rest of it.

The Weekend O’ Healing

On Monday and Tuesday the third and fourth of April, I did not work for two nights. I decided this was the weekend I was going to get rid of the cough. I bought various things from the pharmacy that either looked like they might help (such as this vaporizer thing that is supposed to throw out healthy fumes), or which I had been recommended by people (Epsom salts, I was told, might make a bath more healthy). And I continued all the healthy stuff I had been trying for weeks (as an example, Google had told me that pineapple juice was good for breaking up phlegm, so I had drunk tons of the stuff. Those examples are the tip of the iceberg, but I did all that and also slept as much as possible. I figured that, if all of that couldn’t get rid of the cough, nothing could.

Wednesday April 5

I worked again this night. The cough was still there.

Thursday April 6

I finally caved in to the advice of family and friends that I should go into a clinic and get the cough looked at. I was certain I would be told that it was just a normal cough and not to worry about it and it would be a waste of everyone’s time. Instead, about five minutes after I got there, I was on my way to get x-rays at the hospital. About five minutes after I got the results of the x-rays, I was being booked for surgery.

Phase Five: The Hospital

I was brought to a room in the thoracic section of the hospital. Time was meaningless for me there, so I can no longer go chronologically with my notes. The medical situation first: I apparently had a lung that was sealed off, full of fluid, and collapsed. Because I looked healthy and was walking under my own power and stuff, the doctor figured it probably wasn’t infected. That is, until we got a tube in my back and began draining it and found out that it was VERY infected. I believe that I was told that if they knew how infected it was, I would not have been given the slow draining tube surgery, but would have been brought in for a proper cut-me-open surgery. But we were draining, and the fluid was coming out of me, slowly. They would, once a day, put a chemical into the tube to break up the gunk sealing the lung, and the rest of the time, the tube was used to drain whatever comes out. That was my life for that time. The tube in my back did, of course, make it hard to find a sitting/sleeping position that wasn’t incredibly awkward. I went for x-rays and ct scans multiple times, the latter including radioactive dye being put in my blood. I got a “PICC Line” stuck in my arm, which is another tube (I am an expert at getting tubes in me by this point) that goes in my arm straight to my heart. I am certain I have forgotten things about my stay, but… I kind of want to.

Mentally, the stay was worse. As I said, I felt mostly fine. I certainly wasn’t in a state of mind where I thought I needed to be stuck there, so the fact that I actually needed to be stuck there was pretty galling. I got pretty restless in there.

Thursday April 13

This was the day I got out of the hospital! And then had a nap! And then went back to the hospital!

In the morning, the tube in my back was removed and I actually got freed from the hospital not much later. It was pretty great. Because my infection is so bad, I am going to, for six-weeks, be visited daily by nurses who will administer an antibiotic through my PICC Line. I basically slept until it was time for that only to be told by the nurse who arrived that my PICC Line was clogged and I had to go to the ER to get it unclogged. That meant I spent six hours of my “first night out of the hospital” back in the hospital. And given that the PICC Line is already giving problems, I am imagining the worst. I don’t even know what kind of surgery I’ll require if the PICC Line clog turns out to be a daily thing. It’s going to be annoying to find out…

Update From Later That Night

Friday April 14

Well, I made it through today’s visit with the nurse who uses my PICC Line without finding out that it had re-clogged. I made it through today. That gives me a little more confidence, if a temporary kind of confidence.

The Bessaji

The Bessaji are a species of humanoids native to a planet orbiting a binary star system. They have developed a high level of technology and now use hyperrocketships to travel to other worlds where they create cities under glass domes. While there is no one dominant government or culture or religion among the Bessaji, they still identify as a strongly united species and do not often mingle with other lifeforms they have encountered. They are generally not violent to other species, but prefer to avoid them altogether. They have set up traps around star systems they have claimed which can depower unauthorized spacecraft, leaving the occupants to die in powerless ships if they try to come to Bessaji space.

The Space Plunderer, opponent of Gus Comet, is a member of the Bessaji race, but he has been exiled and would never be allowed to return to the Bessaji homeworld.

Lucyd Den is a worker on a transport ship working in the star system where the Bessaji homeworld is located. Because it would be unsafe to use hyperrockets within the limits of the system, transport ships travel between the planets at relatively slow speeds, taking months per trip. With so much time spent on their ships, the crews of these ships have basically become cultures of their own. The population of Lucyd Den’s ship is over a thousand. Because populations can increase, the ships feature modular compartments that can be added as needed. Lucyd Den is not liked on the ship and has been strongly considering locating to some other ship, but has to wait months before the option is even possible.

Redish is a Bessaji cyborg. The Bessaji have the technology to combine their computers with biological entities, though many of their cultures prefer not to do it. The colony on the planet Geraasish, however, have found it very helpful to modify their brains. Geraasishians are also, Redish included, more likely to see the value of cooperating with other species, and it is one of the few places where trade with aliens takes place, though it is all kept on the down low.

Besno M’Nwenz is a sort of monk in a religious order that worships the dual stars of the home system, though he lives in a colony on a planet in a single star system. He makes occasional pilgrimages to the home system to see the stars in person, but must always return to his colony to do good works. There, he prays for nothing more than a new star to come mate with the lonely one there.

A Fact About the Bessaji: In their ancient past, before they reached out into the stars, the Bessaji had tails. This feature evolved away during the recorded history of the species, which spans nearly a million years by our reckoning. Ancient depictions of species, even though they are direct ancestors, now seem like a wholly different species.

Universe: Green