I've always viewed the Caterwaul and Skunkworks stuff as an alternate reality, occurring at the same time as ours, but impossible for any of us here to actually reach or even view. The languages they speak would not be recognizable by anyone from our planet (and much time was spent contemplating leaving things "interpreted" into our languages, or creating new languages and symbols and alphabets for the anthros. I decided on the former for ease of reading comprehension). So regardless of what is possible in OUR universe, it is not necessarily the same in THEIR universe. Likewise, Treska and Onika (and their kind) hail from an entirely different reality as well. Ditto with Penance. These three realities should not have any interaction or knowledge of one another, yet they do because of certain mistakes (intended, foreseen or unintentional).
Onika "arrives" in Valencia's garden because that huge black stone she has in it happens to be the "other door" for a portal located on Onika's home world. It was never intended to be used, but as Onika was running from certain death at the time, any port in a storm was better than the alternative. Luckily for her, the atmosphere was fairly similar (although the Caterwaul/Skunkworks world has 24-hour days and 365-day years, whereas Onika's world has 36-hour days and 788-day years). Onika's home world also has a sky with a far greener shade than our blue one (which is the same as the Caterwaul/Skunkworks atmosphere).
Penance was punished by her Superiors and banished to a realm no Succubus or Incubus had traveled to yet (the Caterwaul/Skunkworks realm). All three of these groups would not normally ever be aware of the others, but there's a reason for them "discovering" one another, and it all ties together. Penance is familiar with humans, as those are her typical prey. The creatures in the Caterwaul world have fossils of early, primitive humans, but none exist in that world. Alternate humans exist in the reality of Onika's native world, but they do not live on her planet.
--JMH, taking a brief break from unpacking and setting shit up again...
--- In SkunkworksAMA_at_yahoogroups.com, "Inkwell" <inkwell_01@...> wrote:
>
> The universe is big enough to have an almost unlimited
> supple of various lifeforms, both non-intelligent and intelligent.
> Some will look like us to some degree, to the point where we
> can't imagine what they would look like. The trick will be
> knowing when and where they existed
>
> A big question is what is the natural inclination of the
> universe towards creating intelligent lifeforms that
> can evolve beyond their "natural" process of simply
> maintaining life - to develop a consciousness that
> allows them to understand that their time on a planet
> is limited and can end by an event beyond their control
> at any time. Can an intelligent life form interact with
> the universe in a way to save itself by understanding
> and manipulating the physical properties of the world
> around them, (ie, respectively E=MC^2 and opposable
> thumb). There has to be a good balance between having
> intelligence and a physical manipulating ability to
> change the odds against extinction.
>
> Dinosaurs failed and as of now only Humans appear
> to have - perhaps - the right balance.
>
> Whales, Dolphins, Apes are intelligent but they are on
> the road to oblivion - unless things change for them.
>
Received on Wed Jul 31 2013 - 22:18:57 CDT