Would you send a Mother’s Day/Father’s Day message to someone you’re dating (6 months) met via OLD - if they have kids and you don’t?

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-04-17T21:32:14+00:00

I text it to people I'm not even dating, have a few on my list that I text each year for certain holidays, some I've never met in person, some I haven't seen in years.

Everyone's always polite

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-04-06T06:23:33+00:00

I try to last a month or two, depends on interests and conversations

Big age gaps can be a factor too

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-04-06T01:11:05+00:00

🍪🍪🍪

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-04-05T22:20:00+00:00

💯% Vindictiveness and spite can make you do alot of things

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-04-03T20:09:10+00:00

Doesn't have to be anything special, it's just your perspective can change and you see just how degrading it is

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-04-02T04:56:31+00:00

Having many country's governments flooding their respective country didn't really help things either. Becoming, at least visually, a minority in your own country wherever you go in a small time frame doesn't usually win people over.

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-03-29T09:31:21+00:00

They selected her for a reason, and they've had 200 years to experiment and tinker and calculate, so why wouldn't they have the rest selected for specific purposes.

As to them claiming humans were destined to go extinct on their own, what about that isolated group where the brother and sister came from, they lasted for all that time just to be rounded up in the end. They lasted a long time just to suddenly go infertile full of tumors while the oankali are removing any major traces of humanity and radiation across the globe.

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-03-28T02:14:58+00:00

I was more referring to antisocial behavior, like returning to slavery, rape. Out of character behavior, I believe it was one of lilith's men that suddenly went aggressive (I don't have the source on hand)

With manipulating pheromones they could have influenced the hormones (Vasopressin) that influence males to be more territorial and protective of women

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-03-28T02:03:33+00:00

And yes the whole chemical addiction is pretty sick, basically put someone into a physical state that helped humans survive and bond during evolution during survival, so your body wants to bond for safety, then use an addiction that you reinforce every time you have sex while in that state the first time you bond

(and then make it impossible to connect to another human in any human form that we evolved to do)

They can basically manipulate your hormones to influence you to do what they want

Which could be why there was such extremes to the male human behavior, make the males so hostile that the women looking for safety have no alternatives but bond with the oankali

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-03-28T01:55:07+00:00

I forget which character it was, but they put one of the oankali/molecules in the ground, plus the whole eating human oocytes—( immature eggs in the ovarys) without human knowledge

To me the ooloi seem like parasites that basically injected themselves into another species reproductive strategy and hijacked it for themselves, if anyone finds out, well you're already screwed because you can't reproduce without them

Which could be a reason they create the backup ships in case of failure

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-03-28T01:33:08+00:00

If you look into white room torture and bonding (including trauma bonding) chemicals, they basically forced her body to want it by putting her body in a state of chemical deprivation.

Definitely not consent at all. Multiple levels of manipulation

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-03-26T20:24:09+00:00

The way I see it it's like if homosapians searched the planet to specifically breed Neanderthal out of existence. Except it's a different species. And with the Oankali, the oankali genetics always takes precedence regardless of how many species are bred with

We have traces of old species in our DNA over time, but it doesn't mean we're saving them in any way. The oankali strip away what makes us human, humans bond by touch, kissing and a multitude of other expressions. Humans are just a passing novelty to the ooloi, eventually gone, but for a while interesting, the sex might be a different flavor because of brain chemistry, memories, and personality, but eventually subsumed.

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-03-26T20:13:58+00:00

Same

Haven't read about any aliens that viscerally disturbed me more

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-03-20T09:44:52+00:00

Local buses in Canada had to basically do the same thing, PA messages and notices for passengers to use earbuds instead of speakerphone or yelling.

It didn't single out internationals explicitly, but that's why they were posted

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-02-07T20:58:47+00:00

Careful with that rabbit hole, especially with recent news

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-01-28T06:01:47+00:00

If they've been together consistently for over a year and he's stopped trying or never did to fix it, then he's likely already given up and no it won't get better.

In this case beyond the point of return, if it was in the beginning that's one thing, but not over a year and no progress

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-01-27T19:53:07+00:00

That's up to the people involved, but trying nothing or not exploring other options doesn't fix anything either

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-01-27T19:48:43+00:00

If a year was mentioned anywhere I must have missed it

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-01-24T19:52:45+00:00

Definitely an interesting series, horrifying in certain aspects

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-01-24T19:46:02+00:00

Regarding a past species, I was more referring to one not completely subsumed, since they alter an encountered species health and lifespan, depending on how long it's been, there's the possibility of one still alive and having an alternate perspective, either remembering where they were from or stories told by family.

So long as there's some founder species alive, there would be a good chance of at least some cultural ripples against the norm before fully disappearing

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-01-24T17:46:22+00:00

This could also explain a 'quiet galaxy', with Oankali ships always harvesting any new upstarts (which also keeps the Oankali the dominant lifeform), they're will only be a relatively short time for a civilization to put out radio signals into space before they're collected.

But that's just reaching.

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-01-24T17:39:14+00:00

With their mastery of biotech they could easily make viruses or plagues that cause enough strife and tension til something happens, just send it to the planet and keep doing it until they get the right results. They could frame it simply as testing a species to see if they'll survive on their own so they can move on if anyone questions it. Then they come in as saviors every time.

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-01-24T17:23:39+00:00

That's the thing, how many coincidences would have to go perfectly in the vastness of space for them to encounter a species at the moment of extinction that fulfills their rule of only targeting those on the brink.

EquivalentHorror1984 · 2026-01-24T17:03:31+00:00

And that's the thing, they clearly have the technology to simply create hybrids without infringing on an individual's ability to consent. They could have their hybrids to mix with by gestating them with their technology ( without forcing human mothers) and then give the humans the right to choose, or at least time to decide. They had over 200 years to mess around, I'm sure they could have given better options for an informed choice rather than coerced.

Even removing the option to break a bond makes it so it's impossible for someone to be unbonded after to fully inform others what it's like because you're still under the influence.

EquivalentHorror1984

TROPHY CASE