Wapsi Square Forum

The presumption is that the human DNA was our siren/succubus combination of Leucoisa and Walter Rahal... but they weren't human.

Catawampus with the through detail.

Just Old Al wrote:

Opus the Poet wrote: They don't build pixies like they used to.

That's not a pixie that's a pile of spare parts flying in close formation...like a Sphinx.

"Now look, you badly aerodynamic pile of spare parts..."

Al

"HE DIDN'T!" snarled Phix as she read the commentary section.
"He didn't what? WHO didn't?" Neil asked absentmindedly while reading the paper.
"YOUR IDIOT LIME-DOG BUDDY! HE INSULTED ME ON THE WAPSI SQUARE FORUM!!!"
Lime-dog? Limey... dog... "...?...do you mean Al?" He queried.
Neil placed the paper on the table beside him, got up and sauntered over to where his wife was twitching in an animated fashion and viewed the offending commentary.
"Hmmm... you and he tweak each other regularly on this format... and you give as well as you receive... why is this so particularly odious?"
"BADLY AERODYNAMIC PILE OF SPARE PARTS?!? WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS?!?" by now, Phix's feral marks were showing, her body elongating and her clothes disappeared.
Neil quickly slid to the keyboard and typed a message- Pix regained enough composure to see what he was typing. Slowly, her body regained more human dimensions... her face lost it's markings... and she sat quite nude at the computer.
Neil looked at her with a cocked eyebrow and a smirk- without a word, she hit the "Enter" button. Then she turned and looked up at her husband- initially, there was embarrassment over the outburst... then a coy smile as she remembered she had no clothes on... Neil shut down her computer before they vacated to the bedroom...

Phix wrote:"Dear Al- I can fly without contraptions- so can my daughter. Talk to me about aerodynamics when you can do the same - Phix"

Scanning the Wapsi Square board over his morning coffee Al spluttered. "That mangy fleabag....contraptions indeed! I would sincerely like to see her match the load capacity of the C-130 I had the pleasure of flying, or the speed of the Pitts Special I threw about one day!"

Hearing the grumbling Ari stuck her head in the door of his office. "Who's annoyed you this time?"

"Madame Phix is twitting me because I don't have wings and need 'contraptions' to fly."

Ari smiled smugly and with a FLUMP deployed her plumage. "Well, she does have a point. Remember that paintball game?"

"I remember it well - but this slight shall not go uncommented-upon. And as for you, keep up the smugness and you will be in a cage learning to say "Polly want a cracker." The broad grin on his face belied the seriousness of any of his statements, and Ari laughed and said "Two falls out of three, boss."

"One feathered annoyance at a time, meduck. I need to respond to the tribute to confused genetic engineering, first."

Opening a fresh window Al typed:

Dave wrote:And, I don't think we have ever read any of the characters discuss who she was made from. That is, just who were the human donors of DNA into her makeup? Who is/are her human quasi-ancestors?

The easiest and simplest thing for the scientists to have done would have been to just use their own. No need then to worry about finding a supply or secrecy.

If they were looking for certain genetic traits that the scientists didn't have, though, then there are all sorts of possibilities open to a lab run by some sort of powerful shadow-government. Military personnel would be a fairly easy option with a vast selection: chose a likely candidate, have the candidate come in for a routine medical check-up, take a sample for "drug testing" or whatever, and then send them on their way. If you need more samples, they can just be called back for more "tests". Which means that Katherine would be a potential source, what with her Air Force background.

Most of the human characters would be unlikely sources, though. A nefarious conspiracy isn't likely to be interested in stealing DNA from some apparently unremarkable 30-year-old Irish-Mexican gal or independent photographer, and would find it tricky to come up with a plausible way of getting that DNA from her even if they were interested. Though it would be something if they had somehow managed to grab a sample of Shelly's DNA, without realising that she was part sphinx. That would make Castela's genetics even more "interesting", and more of a surprise to everybody. And might contribute in a fun way to Castela's temperament, given what we've seen of sphinxes.

Catawampus wrote:The easiest and simplest thing for the scientists to have done would have been to just use their own. No need then to worry about finding a supply or secrecy.

The current Superboy is, rather like Castela, a genetic chimera, consisting of some Kryptonian DNA, some other genes i can't recall, and some genetic material from the scientist who was in charge of the project at Project Cadmus (Or was it S.T.A.R. Labs?}

And, come to think, Grace, over at El Goonish SHive, is a combination of squirrel, and alien genes and a contribution from that project head.

I'm fairly Professor Utonium didn't use any of his stuff in Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup, though.

AnotherFairportfan wrote: . . . And, come to think, Grace, over at El Goonish SHive, is a combination of squirrel, and alien genes and a contribution from that project head. . . .

IIRC, "grandpa" wasn't the project head, and it wasn't exactly his genes.

--FreeFlier

So who's the human donor? Hayao Miyazaki?

FreeFlier wrote:

AnotherFairportfan wrote: . . . And, come to think, Grace, over at El Goonish SHive, is a combination of squirrel, and alien genes and a contribution from that project head. . . .

IIRC, "grandpa" wasn't the project head, and it wasn't exactly his genes.

--FreeFlier

Okay, he was the guy doing the actual work on her creation.

And as soon as Uryuoms are involved everything we think we know goes out the window, anyway.

AnotherFairportfan wrote: . . . And as soon as Uryuoms are involved everything we think we know goes out the window, anyway.

True.

--FreeFlier