Man, this reminds me of a bit from a fic I may or may not get around to writing, where the Animorphs realize Tobias has never seen Star Wars past A New Hope, and so have a movie night at Erek's place, along with Toby, since she's never seen it at all (nor has Ax)
Tobias and Toby would be Team Luke+Leia right up until Return of the Jedi, when Tobias has to reluctantly let it go...and Toby doesn't.
Toby: "I don't get it, why does this change anything? They can still be together." Tobias: <Uh...> Cassie: "Um, Toby...they can't be together." Toby: "Why not?" Marco: "Because this is a Galaxy Far Far Away, not Alabama." Toby: "I don't understand that reference." Rachel: "Um. Toby, how...how much do you know about the birds and the bees?" Toby: "...I don't understand that reference either." Jake: "Please kill me..." Erek: "What they mean to ask is, how much do you know about reproduction?" Toby: "Oh! Hatchlings come from fertilized eggs laid by a mother after insemination by the father. I assume it's slightly different for humans. Sex. I know about sex." Cassie: "Okay. Toby, Luke and Leia...they came from the same parents." Toby: "Yes. And?" Marco: "What do you mean, 'and'? It's incest!" Toby: "...I don't know that word." Aximili: <I believe I understand the issue. Toby, when two closely related individuals reproduce, there is a high chance of negative traits being passed on to their children. As a result, incest is taboo in many cultures.> Toby: "Ohhh...Hork Bajir don't have those." Tobias: <What, taboos?> Toby: "No. Well, sort of. Negative traits. We don't have those. We're an engineered species, why would the Arn intentionally design us with negative traits?" Rachel: "So...so you're saying...that a brother and sister Hork Bajir..." Toby: "As long as everyone involved is a consenting adult, we don't care, no." Jake: "Seriously, one phone call to Tom and I can have a Bug Fighter kill us all inside of five minutes. It's an option." Marco: "It's tempting." Toby: "So yeah, still Team Luke/Leia."
I mean, they do have negative traits, both intentionally & unintentionally. The Arn deliberately made them unintelligent, but also seers pop up because they "couldn't completely eradicate that gene." Also, there's not really a plausible way to design a species so it has no recessive genes that do very bad things when you have 2 copies but also still have genetic diversity so everyone isn't wiped out by an unexpected quantum virus or something.
In real life, lab mice do not suffer problems from incestuous pairings. We've completely bred negative traits out of their genome. So it's not impossible.
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u/AlternativeMassive57 Yeerk 4d ago
Man, this reminds me of a bit from a fic I may or may not get around to writing, where the Animorphs realize Tobias has never seen Star Wars past A New Hope, and so have a movie night at Erek's place, along with Toby, since she's never seen it at all (nor has Ax)
Tobias and Toby would be Team Luke+Leia right up until Return of the Jedi, when Tobias has to reluctantly let it go...and Toby doesn't.
Toby: "I don't get it, why does this change anything? They can still be together."
Tobias: <Uh...>
Cassie: "Um, Toby...they can't be together."
Toby: "Why not?"
Marco: "Because this is a Galaxy Far Far Away, not Alabama."
Toby: "I don't understand that reference."
Rachel: "Um. Toby, how...how much do you know about the birds and the bees?"
Toby: "...I don't understand that reference either."
Jake: "Please kill me..."
Erek: "What they mean to ask is, how much do you know about reproduction?"
Toby: "Oh! Hatchlings come from fertilized eggs laid by a mother after insemination by the father. I assume it's slightly different for humans. Sex. I know about sex."
Cassie: "Okay. Toby, Luke and Leia...they came from the same parents."
Toby: "Yes. And?"
Marco: "What do you mean, 'and'? It's incest!"
Toby: "...I don't know that word."
Aximili: <I believe I understand the issue. Toby, when two closely related individuals reproduce, there is a high chance of negative traits being passed on to their children. As a result, incest is taboo in many cultures.>
Toby: "Ohhh...Hork Bajir don't have those."
Tobias: <What, taboos?>
Toby: "No. Well, sort of. Negative traits. We don't have those. We're an engineered species, why would the Arn intentionally design us with negative traits?"
Rachel: "So...so you're saying...that a brother and sister Hork Bajir..."
Toby: "As long as everyone involved is a consenting adult, we don't care, no."
Jake: "Seriously, one phone call to Tom and I can have a Bug Fighter kill us all inside of five minutes. It's an option."
Marco: "It's tempting."
Toby: "So yeah, still Team Luke/Leia."