Average mass:	65 kg
Typical length:	0.7 m (contracted) to 4 m (fully extended)
Thermoregulation:	Endothermic homeotherm, 35° C

Description

Gummis are named for their resemblance to a huge wad of chewed up gum. They are typically colored in shades of red, orange, brown, magenta, or yellow; occasionally shading to chartreuse or violet. Gummis usually have several antenna-like sensory projections which feel ahead of them and many contain eyes. When moving they use multiple stubby leg-like pseudopods to hold themselves above the ground.

Although their shape is mutable, Gummis tend to have characteristic habits of form. One may tend towards rounded and compact body shapes, while another may be gracile and elongated with many projections. One may have a few sturdy limbs, while another may go for a large number of spindly limbs. One may have mitten-like grabbers, while another might have hands more like sea anemones with many slender digits around a main disk. Some are smoother, others more knobby or lumpy. In this manner, combined with their different colors, visually-oriented species can identify and distinguish Gummi individuals.

Gummis smell slightly musty, like a combination of mushrooms and coffee. When feeling extreme emotions, they give off a minty odor. Their breathing gives their bodies a slight pulsation.

Internal Anatomy

The Gummi brain is distributed throughout their body. Ganglion zooids are responsible for information processing and memory, and communicate via biological fiber-optic cables with other ganglia for a body-wide information processing network which is sentient and sapient. The use of fiber-optics makes them vulnerable to lasers, which can stun and disorient the Gummi if it penetrates its skin.

Despite this vulnerability to lasers, Gummis are very resilient to most other forms of injury. Redundant organs mean that they have no single point of failure to be destroyed by an injury, and re-configurable tubes that distribute their bodily fluids can pinch shut and re-route flow around injured sites. Destroyed zooids can be replaced with new ones in about a week. Nevertheless, too much injury will disrupt a Gummi's mind. The individual zooids may survive severe trauma and reform a body, but the consciousness that emerges will not be the same if the mind was completely scrambled. Such individuals may retain echos of memory or personality of their previous selves.

Senses

The velvety hairs that cover a Gummi are very sensitive to stimuli. They allow a hyper-sensitive sense of touch and pick up on vibrations in the air and ground to alert the Gummi to nearby objects and moving things. Gummis typically have several pseudopod feelers projecting in "front" of them that wave around and let the Gummi feel what is out there. Sometimes eye zooids will be set on the end of these feelers.

Special hearing zooids filter and amplify sounds to where internal sensory hairs can detect them. This allows a Gummi to hear. Gummi hearing is sensitive across roughly the same range as that of Humans, but can detect slightly lower frequencies as well.

The sucker-nodule zooids that stud a Gummi's skin are also very sensitive to taste and smell. Essentially, a Gummi tastes and smells everything it touches. The suckers also pick up on airborne odors, as do sensory zooids lining the air tubes. Smell is the primary sense that Gummis use to identify objects and each other.

Communication

A sample of Gummi script, from the epic of Groolor and Naogliioo.

Gummi vision is not as sensitive as that of a Human, so Gummis use their sense of touch to read fine print. Visual writing and symbols are still used for signs and other markings meant to be noticed at a distance, although these tend to use very simple shapes and colors because of the Gummis' lower resolution eyesight. Gummis also make extensive use of odors for signalling. Gummis will mark conspicuous objects with long lasting scent and pheromone smears. These are invisible and nearly odorless to Humans. These marks act as calling cards and advertise a Gummi's social status, condition, and emotional state.

Terminology Note: Gummis were first contacted by Americans, and most interaction with their species has been by Americans or people from former American colonies. Hence, the name for their language comes from the way it sounds like Gummis are going "Hoon hoon hoon". The antipodean meaning of "Hooning" never crossed anyone's mind, much as Australians and New Zealanders may be amused by the name.

Hooning: Named for the throbbing hums and hollow booms used by Gummis in vocal communication, Hooning is the major language of the Gummi species found in the Verge. Non-Gummis can learn to understand Hooning, but to speak it they need mechanical or electronic assistance to allow them to thrum and whistle at the same time (often with two or three simultaneous whistling and humming tones). While instruments are available to allow non-Gummis to speak Hooning, automatic computer translation is more convenient.

Hooning script uses lines to indiciate the pitch and duration of its whistles, and dots, circles, and blobs to specify the proper hum, thrum, or boom. The writing can be oriented in any direction, with the whistle marks on the left and hum blobs on the right when viewed along the temporal direction of the writing.

Moongwhii or Sequential: The Gummi trade language, spoken by nearly all Pirang and Tweechi, as well as most Gummis of the Verge. The name translates as "Sequential", and avoids making two or more sounds at the same time. (Consequently, Moongwhii is often called Sequential in the Human-occupied worlds of the Verge). The grammar is taken from Hooning and many of the words are similar … Moongwhii speakers can easily learn (although not always speak) Hooning, and Hooning speakers can quickly pick up and speak Moongwhii.

Gummis speaking human languages:

When speaking English, native Hooning speakers apply articles ("the", "a") inconsistently. They know they should be used, but often use the wrong article, put them in the wrong place in the sentence, use an article when none should be used, or drop them when they should be used.

They also have trouble with verb tenses. Hooning speakers will tend to indicate when something happened/will happen by including a descriptive time ("future", "past", "tomorrow", "every 300 kiloseconds", etc.), and otherwise tend to either use the infinitive form of the verb or apply tenses at random.

Languages that have classes of nouns (such as gendered nouns in the romance languages, the distinction between "he/she/it" in English, or measure words in Mandarin Chinese) cause confusion to Hooning speakers. They tend to either leave these out or apply the class at random.

Sequential uses the same grammar as Hooning, so native Sequential speakers have the same issues.

Locomotion and Biomechanics

This arrangement makes Gummis very stretchy and squishy. They can stretch an already formed pseudopod out to a distance of about two meters, or retract it back into a lump on their body. They can fit through gaps of about two centimeters across, although it takes time to squish through narrow gaps and small holes. A Gummi's equipment, on the other hand, might not be able to squeeze through.

It takes a Gummi about a minute to rearrange its zooids so as to form or dissolve an arm or leg (although they can grow and resorb multiple limbs simultaneously). Creating a feeler or digit takes about 10 seconds.

Gummis tend to move significantly slower than most other sapient species of the Verge. They are, however, capable of sudden, explosive bursts of stretching, such as a quick pounce or a sudden extension of a pseudopod to grab something. After such a burst, it takes a second or two for the Gummi to retract and re-set the stretched part.

A moving Gummi will form several feeler-eyestalks near its forward section and stubby pseudopod legs to lift it off the ground. When moving slowly, the legs will propel the Gummi along with a usual gaited motion. When the Gummi wants to move quickly, however, it will anchor its back end while suddenly stretching its front end forward. Then it will grab on with its front end and draw its rear end towards the front.

Suction pads allow a Gummi to stick to nearly any surface. They can move along vertical surfaces and overhangs with ease.

Gummis will often carry items around inside of themselves, tucked away in bubbles, voids, or cavities in their bodies. Parent Gummis carry their offspring around in this way, although once they become old enough the parent will leave an opening through which the child can extend sensory pseudopods.

Gummis are slightly denser than water, so they sink when swimming rather than float near the surface. Given time to form an internal cavity, however, they can swallow a bubble of air to keep them at the surface. By making the right size cavity, they can control whether their buoyancy is slightly positive, negative, or neutral by squeezing or relaxing the swallowed bubble.

Gummis propell projectiles by spitting them out, forming a sort of air cannon with a tube connected to an air reservoir that is forceably squeezed when the Gummi wants to shoot. In this manner, they can rival the power and precison of a Human's throw, but only for plug-shaped things that can fit tightly in its tube-barrel. Rocks, grenades, balls, and Gummi "drive-darts" can all be spat in this manner, but boomerangs, hatchets, spears, and similar odd-shaped projectiles cannot.

Diet and Feeding Habits

Gummis have several domesticated life forms from their home planet that are traditionally used as food. For example, there is the Gummi pudding. This is a low metabolism colonial life form that efficiently turns biomass into more pudding. Gummis will regularly cut parts of it off to consume, either raw or prepared in dishes of various degrees of elaboration. It looks like a blob, and is something of a combination of pet, livestock, houseplant, and garbage disposal.

Gummis will try just about any food item, and enthusiastically adopt dishes from other cultures. While they can engulf food items of even large size, in most cases they prefer the food to be chopped, mashed, pulped, grated, ground, or otherwise mechanically broken down before swallowing. Since encountering Humans, they have become enthusiastic converts to the idea of cooking food; they also borrowed the idea of fermenting food from the Mants, but the extra time involved and tricky nature of getting the fermentation broth just right makes this less convenient. Spices, sauces, and side dishes can all make the dining experience that much more pleasant. However, the Gummi digestive system is less able to handle exotic plant defensive compounds than that of Humans or Pannovas so spicy Human cuisine can leave them feeling a bit off for a while. In general, it is recommended that Gummis avoid alliums (like garlic and onions), chocolate, coffee, alcohol, and many spices – although curiously they are not affected by capsicum (the active ingredient of hot peppers). For Gummis curious enough to want to try these anyway, there are commercial dietary enzyme supplements that can aid their digestion to harmlessly break down these toxins.

Reproduction

To produce a new Gummi, specialized male and female zooids will be produced. Male zooids leave their parent Gummi and seek out reproductive Gummis with an active female zooid, which they impregnate. The pregnant female zooid will grow a larva inside of it. The larva eventually absorbs nearly all of the female before emerging as a new and genetically distinct zooid (only the pregnant zooid is cannibalized in this fashion - the colony as a whole is largely unscathed).

The parent Gummi will care for the new zooid and the subsequent emerging colony, providing food, shelter, comfort, education, and socialization in much the fashion of human parents toward their offspring.

Severe damage can result in the creation of a different Gummi personality once the zooids have re-organized themselves into a functioning colony. Gummis who are torn into two or more pieces may have each piece grow into a new independent colony of zooids with its own mind and personality. Because there is a strong genetic component to personality, these new individuals will tend to have similar natures to each other and the original much as Human identical twins are often similar.

Psychology

Gummis enjoy meeting new people. Especially weird new people, like alien species. Or monsters. The more strange and exotic the better. Gummis are reluctant to harm these interesting new potential friends (although they will defend themselves if directly attacked) and make every effort to talk and interact with them.

While most Gummis are not disturbed by wide open spaces, they feel most comfortable when squeezed into a tight shelter. When being social or resting but alert, the Gummi will usually have several sensory pseudopod stalks sticking out of its shelter. Human houses tend to be too spacious for them to really relax or unwind - they will crawl into drawers, cupboards, under furniture, inside box-springs, or into vents and conduits in order to rest.

Gummis are able to maintain ongoing stable social relationships with a much larger number of people than most other sapients. While Humans can typically know about 150 individuals and track how each known person relates to the others, for Gummis this number reaches into the several thousand, with some Gummis having social networks extending to the tens of thousands. It is theorized that this increased ability to know others is necessary for the form of their society based on connections and reputation rather than enforced structure and laws.

Society

Culture

Architecture

Gummi houses and buildings often accumulate into large lumpy masses that form the basis of an entire ecosystem. While native life from Gummiland does not require Gummi buildings to form land reefs, when present Gummi architecture can form the basis and foundation of a land reef.

Art

Dress

Music

Sports

Homeworld

Gummiland's native life included both colonial and non-colonial animals. Some forms of colonial animals evolved into Gummiland's autotrophes, entering symbiosis with photosynthesizing bacteria to get their energy from sunlight. These animals grew into coral-like concretions, making up the base of Gummiland's famous land reefs.

Gummiland was unusually rich with Antecessor ruins and relics. Even more Antecessor treasures were found in orbit around Gummiland's star. Mere chemical rockets would never have been able to escape Gummiland's high gravity, but by studying the relics on their planet, Gummi civilization learned how to build affector fields. This let them build replusor launchers to boost spaceships off their planet and discover the Antecessor troves in the outer regions of their solar system. It was in these space habitats that they learned how to build wormholes.

Phylogeny

Squirm

Many have noted a disturbing similarity of the biology of the Gummis and that of the Squirm. Both have specialized zooids adapted to a colonial lifestyle, communicating with near infrared light via fiber optic filaments. In fact, phylogenetic analysis using their genomes and biochemistry supports the hypothesis that the colonial life forms of Gummiland (including Gummis) and Squirm are more closely related to each other than to any other known life form. In fact, Gummiland colonial life is more closely related to the Squirm than they are to the non-colonial life of Gummiland. In both cases, the genomes show evidence that these species are not naturally evolved – both Gummis and Squirm appear to have descended from synthetic life forms that were engineered for some unknown purpose. This, of course, leads some to distrust the Gummis; conspiracy theories popularly paint the Gummis as in league with the Squirm. However, it is apparent that the life forms of Gummiland, Gummis included, have been evolving naturally for at least tens of millions of years. Further, the conserved elements of the Gummiland genomes that are held in common with the Squirm all appear to be biologically functional rather than related to behavior. Consequently, experts in the field find it difficult to credit the thesis that Gummis carry in them some subversive or destructive drive handed down from their shared ancestor with the Squirm.

Antecessors

It is speculated that Gummis have some deep connection to the Antecessors, although it is not clear what. It is often noted that Antecessor relics just plain react better to Gummis than to other sapient species. Ancient defensive systems that would blast down any Human, Mant, or other sapient that approaches may simply ignore a Gummi. Sometimes Gummis can activate or control antecessor tools where no one else can. Is this because Gummis evolved on a world rich in lost Antecessor tech, and it was an evolutionary adaptation to their environment? Or are the Gummis themselves lost Antecessor bio-tech that gained self-awareness?

Game Stats

Trait Notes

Depleting Damage – Exposure results in neural stun, with Dose of the Injury Score -3.

Distributed Brain – Gummis do not have a single spot in their body where they keep their brain that can be hit for special effects on penetrating injuries, or any equivalent of a head hit location. However, any penetrating body hit or a body hit resulting in breaking must roll a check of Vigor + Toughness against the Injury Score, taking a concussion point plus additional concussion points equal to the degree of failure.

Personality Traits:

• Free-Minded – Not bound by authority, tradition, or orthodoxy.
• Thigmotactic – Seeking physical contact with objects; notably, a preference for being squeezed into tight places and close quarters.
• Xenophilic – Welcoming change, new ideas, and new ways of doing things. Attraction to the unfamiliar, exotic, foreign; even the outré and bizarre.

Rapid Healing – A Gummi's zooids can rapdily re-arrange themselves to alieveiate the effects of injury. This does not actually heal the injury – the lost zoids are still gone and must be replaced (-1 Restriction) – but the symptoms of the injury (including impairment, crippled or severed limbs, bleeding, blocked airways, etc.) go away as if the injury was healing. This costs breath (-0.5 Restriction) and cannot heal Blood Points (-0.5 Restriction). Healing occurs at a rate of Injury Score +3 + Vigor/2 every three combat rounds.

Regeneration – Gummi regeneration is based on their Rapid Healing recovery timescale, rather than their actual healing time scale.

Hit Locations

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