The Connection PT2 by BritannicLoyalist, literature
Literature
The Connection PT2
Chapter Two: Unraveling Secrets
Over the weeks that followed his first golfing experience at "The Connection," Francis Green became a regular member of the club. The allure of the innovative golf course and the camaraderie he found among the members kept him coming back for more. Every weekend, he eagerly arrived at the clubhouse, his excitement growing with each step he took toward the first tee.
As Francis settled into his new golfing routine, he couldn't help but notice a peculiar charm about the club. It seemed to hold secrets within its walls—whispers of stories from years past, legends of the club's founding members, and hidden mysteries that intrigued his imagination.
One evening, after an invigorating round with his newfound golfing buddies, Francis was drawn to the vintage wing of the clubhouse. There, amidst sepia-toned photographs and old trophies, he encountered an elderly member, Mr Charles McGregor, seated in a cosy armchair.
Mr McGregor was a distinguished
NFT Cross-Chain Compatibility: Bridging the Gap B by Briyancage9354, literature
Literature
NFT Cross-Chain Compatibility: Bridging the Gap B
Introduction
The world of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) has grown exponentially in recent years, with creators and collectors alike participating in this digital revolution. However, the NFT space has been marked by a fragmented landscape of different blockchain networks, each with its own standards and ecosystems. In this blog, we'll delve into the concept of NFT cross-chain compatibility, a game-changing development that is helping to bridge the gap between different blockchain networks. We'll also explore how Bermuda Unicorn, a leading NFT marketplace, is leading the charge in this endeavor.
NFTs and the Multi-Blockchain Dilemma
NFTs are unique digital assets that have gained immense popularity across various industries, including art, gaming, music, and entertainment. They provide a way to represent ownership and authenticity in the digital world. However, a significant challenge that has emerged in the NFT space is the existence of various blockchain networks, each with its own
Some worldbuilding thoughts (velkhari) by NacionalCreativista, literature
Literature
Some worldbuilding thoughts (velkhari)
CONTENT WARNING: just rambling, contains male inflation, hardcore femdom, crazy ideas and concepts for fetish based worldbuilding.
Sorry in advance for my bad english :/
Recently i have been circling around the topic of populations and their growth, or should i say development. My initial description of the velkhari included the fact that their population is heavily unbalanced sex wise, there is aproximately 7 men for each woman. This absurd imbalance has brought concerns about the state of society and the roles each sex has to play, my main concern arose in reggards to the modernization of velkhari society, thus far the state of their world has been primitive, but it won't remain that way.
I know i always repeat this in every post and story, but i feel like it is necessary, in this world men are inflatable and this fact has altered the development of society as a whole.
Anyway as i said population, i might have overdone it with the imbalance, but i did so accounting for the high mortality rate of a prehistoric age, and considering that male velkhari are in essence weak lonely creatures.
The key part in this being that with the advancement of civilization, the mortality rate will plumet leaving behind a male surplus, a surplus that will inevitably reshape society.
Given how female centric and supremacist velkhari society is, I theorize that women will mostly be pushed upwards in the social hierarchy given that men as abundant and expendable by nature, will be made to fill up the low end positions.
That is not to say that there won't be women who are marginalized, in fact i believe that with more and more men being born a tendency might arise favoring more female births, this in itself could change lots about how things work. What will certainly occur is that in every field women will occupy positions of power which wont ever be contended for by men.
So this opens up plenty of spaces and new ideas, for instance male children being mostly unwanted might end in marginal conditions, however much like pets (loved by the majority of people, but not given personhood legally) institutions like adoption centers and similar facilities might appear, places where men are raised in bulk and reintegrated into society after being rejected by their particular mothers. Said places might even teach certain trades exclusive but not limited to men.
At the end of the day adoption centers will probably be funded by the goverment as a way to prevent men from becoming dead weight on a societal scale, but they will also serve as a place for women to consult in order to acquire low end men to serve certain functions, im not speaking about marriage, more like menial work.
Speaking of, in the industrialized and modern world, marriage will truly become a matter of pride for the women of high society.
Like i explained before (in another post) ruthless sexual selection on the part of women will lead to the refinement of male traits, so the men of the future will undoubtably be fit to fullfill the most outrageous standards, they will no doubt be extremely gorgeous, shapely and to an extent grossly hypersexual, their hair will shine with vibrant colors and their bodies will inflate to extremes not ever seen before. They will be almost the livid image of perfectly developed sex toys, almost custom made for each woman.
But thoose men won't exist for free, a knowing woman will recognize the signs, and knowing that her son or sons have potential to incurr into high society as husbands of some influential woman, she will play the hand shes been given. Agencies will exist dedicated to making the right match, women of all kinds will submit their sons to be registered into a sort of catalogue, and in the other side high end women will filter out the database based of their personal taste, ultimately the marriage will be arranged to the benefit of both parties the mother or legal owner and the future bride.
After acquiring what could be simply described as her perfect match, the woman will undoubtably presume her adquisition her exotic husband, her marvelous balloon toy, choosen to a t.
Not surprisingly marrying upwards in the social hierarchy might be the best outcome a man can aspire to in life, as the husband of a succesful woman, a man might be treated as a trophy or a simple sex toy, but compared to his less fortunate peers he will live out a rather safe, calm and pampered life, adding in the prospect of having children which for a large majority of the male population is unheard of.
In contrast, the men who arent particularly liked or appreciated by a woman may face the challenge of building their own fate, they will labour and take on jobs which will expose them to great risk, as the expendable gender, males will be expected to live out productive but short lives, eventually giving out to either the circumstances or their own inner dessires.
This large chunk of males who will inevitably find themselves frustrated, both due to the lack of sexual attention and by the lackcluster living prospects, will most likely resort to self destructive tendencies, i suspect popping to become a mainstream way to nope out of society, probably it might even be done as a statement in the most visible and eyecatching way, with men filling themselves to bursting point in the most busy of public spaces, utilizing colorful substances to leave a huge splatter behind.
The remaining males might actually fill their desiree for affection by bonding together and developing homoerotic relationships where one of the parties involved pretends to be the femenine and authoritative figure by objectifying and degrading the rest. However that format might not be representative of all relationships between males.
Another option for men might be found with other sapient species, like the vasii, a bee-like humanoid genre of beings, whoose population consist mainly of infertile worker females. This could prove largely beneficial as the vasii and the velkhari might grow to live and coexist in harmony, but several challenges would have to be surpassed to arrive at that result, for instance languague, the velkhari communicate with spoken words, the vasii use their anthennae to buzz.
There would also be the fact that velkhari sexuality and vasii sexuality are not exactly analogous, if a male velkhari started to swell the vasii female might just see it as nothing, in fact she would probably appreciate her mate being smaller not bigger than her, as vasii males are quite diminute.
In the matter of jobs for a largely male workforce, i suspect that with technology advancing leaps and bounds, a lot of really taxing physical labour will be done by men despite their relatively weak physique, places and activities previously thought as female oriented will be turned inside out as men take over, at the beigining it may become chaotic given how throught velkhari history men were kept as workers in less physically demanding and less cooperation based roles, but female leadership might be key to solve the issue.
One particular area worth exploring might be the military, as male soldiers would be preferable not for their battle prowess but because they are numerous and expendable compared to their female counterparts. I particularly doubt that many males would find the military appealing in anyway given how selfcentered they are, but if the situation became dire enough i dont think they would be given a choice.
Velkhari warfare remains a largely unexplored subject, as i have only ever described the use of men as airships to assault enemy positions, in a more modern setting i could definitely picture airships being viable still, just for being cheap and easy to produce, difference being that they would be sturdier, bigger and faster, not to mention they would probably use several men as buoyancy balloons instead of one, as a contingency in case of damage.
Boots on the ground action might not differ much from our world, except of course for the most outrageous body inflation aspects, projectile weapons have already been on use by the velkhari and they will probably evolve much further, i suspect chemical and biological weapons will dominate much like artillery did during some of our human wars, said weapons will exploit certain aspects of velkhari biology causing the target to expand to a varying degree and with distinct results, some might simply be designed to inmobilize, others might trigger an explosive finale for their victims.
Speaking of which, the applications of inflation and bursting in combat situations. Somebody once suggested to me that perhaps male velkhari could be used as parachutes to deploy airborne troops, or they could also be used as sappers to help build or destroy structures by using their inflatable bodies, or god forbid they may be used as living bombs, filled with compressed gas or oil, producing massive fire explosions. I have decided that indeed thoose will be some of the applications, but i would take it further, i suspect that given the right equipment and training male velkhari could be used as long distance discrete transportation units, im not talking about a blimp or hot air balloon sized transport, im thinking something compact 2 or 3 meters wide for 1 or 2 passengers max, using some type of really light compact gas, said vehicles might be used as couriers or to carry equipment over long distances.
Further into the future men might pilot themselves without needing a woman, and they might do so with certain mechanic riggings to adjust trajectory or buoyancy, so there's that.
Besides the most normal jobs, in which men could replace women, the positions only available for men will remain, and yes, thoose positions mostly require the "worker" to be a balloon, off the top of my head i can actually name a few unconventional jobs designated for velkhari men;
-advertising balloon, this one speaks by itself, males who's function is to just inflate and float in place or tied to a mechanical anchor point, with pictures, signs or words plastered all over them, obviously the bigger the balloon the more ad space. Not to be confused with decorative balloons.
Cargo balloon, using their buoyant bloated shapes these men are used to lift or move construction materials from point A to B, they are the closest thing to a full on utility blimp but on a much smaller scale, bonus points if the workers also use them as makeshift air matresses.
Fermenter balloons, this one is a tricky one, here goes a little lesson in velkhari biology, male velkhari possess a sack of sorts existing just under their skin, this organ is called Balloon, and its the anatomical part that gets filled with air when men inflate, said balloon has only two defined entrances one is in the oral cavity under the tongue, this one is called Valve, velkhari men can often easily open and close their valve, the second entrance is located in the penis as a second duct running paralel to the urethra, this entrance has been lovingly named Hose, velkhari men have no control over their Hose but locally they dont breath through their genitals so theres no risk of it just endeslly absorbing gas.
Anyway, the internal balloon of a male is a particular location, its an empty space and it has been at times used to store water, this comes in handy for fermenter balloons; these are males who are used as living fermentation vessels, they are filled up with various substances and then their Valves and Hoses are vacuum sealed tight for years. These are used to produce wine and other beverages, kind of fucked up, but the flavor might acquire some special refinement due to the process (i mean irl people drink coffee from grains which have been eaten and excreted by animals so i think this is plausible).
I have also been thinking about this concept of a hunting game reserve, so remember how i said institutions would be developed to funnel male velkhari into working, learning trades or finding overall function to their lives, so what with the males who say "fuck that" thoose who wont work and are nobody's love toy, the emancipated male free to rule himself, no owner, no wife, no tutor.
The game reserve is a home to this kind of male in exchange for some cooperation, basically this is a huge plot of land, several acres of wild forested terrain, surrounded by comfort installations, the reserve is a place were velkhari women can hunt men, this hunt being an emulation of a far less civilized time, the hunt does not involve violence, instead it is expected that the huntress shall inflate her prey and carry it back to display, some hunts are televised or have an active audience. The men who participate do it knowingly, in exchange they live comfortably in what basically is a resort hotel with the only downside being that they will be stripped naked and chased around every once in a while, of course the huntresses take pride on pursuing and catching men, they take pictures of their balloons but they can't claim them as property.
If thought about, the life of a constantly inflated male sounds like quite the boring ordeal, separated from the subjective aspects, the sensation and mindset, and with our privileged viewpoint as simple expectators of the whole situation we are left with what is almost an inanimate object, but an inanimate object that feels and thinks, this of course has gotten me thinking about the result of a situation like that. If we inflated a regular human and treated them like a living piece of decoration their mental health would deteriorate at record time pace, but velkhari men aint human, and they have dealt with this happening for millenia all throught their know history, so i wonder what kind of mindset and emotions would surge when being faced with similar scenarios such as the ones i have described before.
I suposse the answer lies at the beigining, velkhari men inflate for attention and ultimately this is supossed to land them a mate, is their way of peackoking, so i imagine that if a male were to remain the main focus and the subject of lustful gazes, from women, specially a girlfriend or wife, then they would remain relatively content even if their situation as a balloon is totally out of their control.
In other words a balloon that is pampered and always in the heart of his woman, will be happy and wont succumb to the degrading condition that hes made to live on. On the contrary a man existing solely as a thing, unloved and ignored by people will fall to the darkness a phenomenon that we shall call balloon gloom.