BY LETTER
Supenguins
Provolved penguin clade |
 Image from Steve Bowers |
Supenguins are the various species of Terragen penguin which have been augmented to sophonce. Supenguins were originally provolved by the vec biontogenist VLotte.1 during the late 3rd millennium a.t on the icy Utopia Sphere world of NueAntarctica, which continues to host a thriving supenguin population to the present day. Supenguins have a reputation for being a particularly playful and fun-loving people, and share a large number of traits with their subsophont cousins.
Supenguins are physically similar to their baseline ancestors. Most supenguin clades have hands at the end of their flippers, allowing them to operate basic tools. Although some have decided to keep their distinctive black-and-white coats, many Supenguins have augmented their genome to give their feathers unusual colours and patterns. Many Supenguins will change their feathers on a regular basis as fashions come and go, and certain genemods have allowed them to change the appearance of their feathers depending on their emotional state. Much like their ancestors, Supenguins are particularly fond of swimming, with some clades having augmented themselves so as to allow permanent underwater habitation. Even amongst land-based clades, cold, artificial lakes and canals are considered essential on supenguin ships and habs.
Advanced bioengineering technology has allowed Supenguins to have a more variable diet than baseline penguins, with most Supenguin clades being able to consume as many kinds of food as nearbaseline humans. However, Supenguins are noted to have retained their fondness for fish, and have concocted any number of seafood recipes using many different kinds of fish (i.e splice, xeno, etc.), with NueAntarctica's busy fish markets being one of its many tourist attractions. A common game amongst many Supenguin clades is the sport known as boganning. Boganning is derived from a method of play common amongst baseline penguins, which involves the players sliding on their bellies down an icy slope into the cold water below, with the first player to reach the water being declared the winner. Slopes used for boganning (known simply as Boganning Slopes) may be of natural or artificial origin. It is not uncommon for different obstacles to be placed on Boganning Slopes in order to weed out weaker players. The Annual Boganning Championships are held on New Alexandra Island on NueAntarctica, and the event always draws a large crowd of tourists.
It should be noted that although most Supenguins have become adopted to modern technology, some have decided to adopt a more primitive existence. Despite some protest from Pan-Sophontist groups, thousands of city-sized reserves have been built on NueAntarctica, which house both baseline penguins and primitive Supenguins.
[1] Named after French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot (lived 222 - 138 BT). Little is known about him, other than the fact that he authored the first scientific descriptions of a number of different species of Terragen birds.
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Text by James Rogers
Initially published on 13 October 2015.
Initially published on 13 October 2015.
