The Moms of the Dope Universe

I wanted to take a little time out to honor all the mothers out there. Hey I know it sounds corny, sappy, and soft, but there really is an interesting business purpose to this discussion. Every day is Mother's Day to me, so I'm not too high on holidays because those tend to have an exploitable business purpose as well.

When I got on down to analyzing this, I found motherhood takes on just as important a dynamic within the Dope Universe as it does in your own universe. Let's take a look at some of the moms who've been introduced thus far within the pages of our eBooks:

Lieutenant Marileva Dike-Sims

Marileva is the mother of Jago which means she has a teddy bear for a son. Now her motherhood was a bit retroactive since this child existed before she and Edmund met within the pages of SpaceStation Colt: Damnitio Exeum (2009).

So Jago was not the result of consummation and did not come from any previous relationship of Edmund's because, frankly, what other woman would deal with a grown dude who walked around with a teddy bear calling it his son aside from a true love? Granted many more happen to recognize the child as a real entity that walks, talks, and feels than the skeptical few who don't, so those who do are said to already be on an ascendant path. I'll probably qualify and further explain the statement in a later post.

Marileva assumed this responsibility of being Jago's mother because every child deserves one - especially a child conceived through the most immaculate of conception as the symbol of the truest love I've ever seen and continues to exist as a tangible result of that love. To that kid, his parents are his universe, and like most kids, he wouldn't be around without them even more so in this particular case because of the (inanimate object) circumstances. The result of a matriarchal twist on an old, somewhat sexist, and borderline disturbing tale of (nonconsensual) divine intervention for the purposes of impregnation through osmosis, she net her firstborn child without the labor pains, having to put her career on hold, or being some vessel for an Ethereal agenda.

For those not completely offended and turned off by what I just wrote, I'm thinking a lot of people salute you, Lieutenant.

General Nelissa Hickinbotham-Rally

Another thing I just noticed on this list is none of the moms listed have completely taken their husband's or man's last name. FYI.

Anyway Nelissa is the mother of Tevan Rally who you might've read about when the author was going through his second (three-times) daily status update story, "Gentleman I/O: Reclamation". Another Ethereal overtone comes into play regarding the sacrificing of one's own child for a different good. Notice I never wrote a greater good because a sacrifice like this must be nothing short of horrifying for the mother.

That theme plays out across several of our eBooks, and it's something to keep your eye on. The commentary surrounding the idea is fascinating in terms of how it speaks to the realities on the ground for those involved with having to make those types of grueling choices or deal with the emotional aftermath.

The General does almost too good a job of shielding those emotions, so out of all the moms on this list, I really wonder about her. Sometimes I think she's not fully vested in the whole child-rearing thing. My mouth dropped when I read the story, and I found myself extremely thankful for my own mom.

Charlene Eriksen-Smith

Not her though. She betrayed me. Lied to me. Kept me from my biological mother.

As far as my (disowned) adoptive, so-called mother is concerned, I'll try to temper my response to a professional discussion about how raising myself along with her remaining biological daughter, Erica, affects me. There were good times. Although I was adopted, I-I never felt like an outsider. Charlene treated me as if my (disowned) adoptive sister and I came from out the same womb.

For that, I'm grateful. And this is probably why our situation hurts so much. How could a woman so loving and nurturing, who raised me from (my) birth, keep me from my own mom? It doesn't make any sense. I didn't ask for any of this. It's not my idea of a good time to hate you, so why'd you put me through this - this situation?

Perhaps when I'm ready to hear the answer, I'll sit down and actually ask her.

Edith Jensen

On to a more uplifting note, Edith is the commissioner's lady friend and the unwed mother of Ardina and Devore. Added to this, Commissioner Gyro is missing in action, so she's become a single mom. Now he didn't exactly duck out on his responsibilities as people are trying to kill him at the moment, so distancing himself from his family might keep them alive a little while longer.

Even still, she's taken to the duty of raising those children on her own, and I cannot give her enough credit for the pressure of the task (especially under these circumstances) or the envy it invokes within myself and my lady friend, Sylvia, when we watch her going through her paces. Ardina and Devore are surprisingly well-mannered despite the tragedy they find themselves marred in, and I've extended the resources of the Shokan to them in order to ensure they're all well cared for.

Support is one of the biggest things another can give a single parent, and Edith does have that in spades with the Second Earth Special Police Force, but it doesn't take away from the credit she deserves when the Shokan and Police Force aren't around. None of us are getting those kids up, running them to school, picking them back up, helping them with their homework, feeding them, providing a home for them, getting them to bed - basically handling business. All the while, she's worried about her man probably off on some foreign planet in harm's way. Her situation reminds me of a military spouse who not only waits and hopes but holds down the fort by carrying the weight of the home front squarely atop firm shoulders.

Commander

Ah my beloved mother. She has a daughter Angelica and myself to her credit.

Some would consider Mother to be treacherous, but I don't see it that way. Everything she or Father did was done to retrieve me. And honestly, I pity anybody who would get in the way of a mom searching for her child. Now mine wound up killing a bunch of people along the way to see us be reunited, but again I'm cool with that.

One of the most accomplished women among this list, I don't write this particular part to say she's wealthy or affluence translates to being a good mother because that's simply not true. What Mother ascribes to is the notion a child should be given a better life than she had, and for the most part, she's delivered on this promise. Sure she turned over the Doran Aristocracy to Angelica, but it's what she did to rise to the top of the deadly bureaucracy that makes the inheritance - well, frightening. If she weren't my mom, I'd literally be terrified of her. Heck I'd probably wind up having to kill her.

Instead I'm writing to say I love her. Once we reunited, everything in my life became so much more clear. On this topic, let me leave you with a thought: You should know by now the eBooks from our SpaceStation Colt Imprint come with full-length original soundtracks. The second track on "Music Inspired By The Enforcers: Freedom to Wield Will" is called 'Grendel Versus Oedipus'. Now what do you think our interpretation of those two stories is when both characters are put in conjunction to sum me up? It's some of the best music DJ VoiceCrack ever composed, and it speaks to what Mother was trying to accomplish when she brought me into being. My beastly spirit and her firm control over that via her genetic rank is truly something to marvel at, and I'd do anything to please her. Not that! I have a lady friend. Minds in the gutter.

Callisto

She is the mother of EJ, MJ, Derek, and Vanessa. Part of a parent's worst nightmare, Callisto outlived her children who were taken from her - savagely murdered by a faction-spanning plot meant to defeat her.

How did she respond? She nearly destroyed the universe. This story line is the pinnacle upon which the foundation for the Dope Universe is solidified. It's the driving force behind this entire iteration of eBooks we're releasing, the one plot point the writer took over a decade to not only make amends to this character but make up for having written such a hard angle, and a character revival of sorts that has seen Callisto's return to both prominence and infamy.

The 22+ classic stories preceding our 2009 resurgence are actually in our Free Stuff section on the web site. Those stories are not very good, so I don't recommend you sift through them, and I don't mind writing that, but they did create the springboard for everything we're trying to do moving forward.

Callisto somewhat epitomizes the mama bear who couldn't protect her cubs and wound up trying to recoup the priceless toll in blood. With so much love to give to a sizable family, she had her heart ripped away and has made it a point to never allow those responsible to ever be able to do something so malicious again.

The Slorg Queen

Honorable mention goes out to the mom with the most kids ever. The Slorg Queen has zillions of offspring to go along with insane amounts of grandchildren and incalculable numbers of great-grandchildren. Since the beginning of creation, she's been popping them out like that bubble wrap we like to hear when we squish it.

Nobody knows how the Slorg Queen keeps up this pace, and my Shokan scouts were having the toughest time of finding out if she was still fertile - still procreating. Obviously something must be pleasurable in all that, and Slorg queens are known to take the genetic material from random mates at a given time of spawning numerous individuals over time.

One thing I do know is even in a universe still expanding, pumping out children is not sustainable. Now the Slorg Queen is extremely old - one of the oldest known beings predating Humans, Dorans, and Pillorians by aeons, so she's also pretty wise. Her motives aren't purely sexual as seen by her conveniently hopping in bed with the Space Force after the Slorgs went to (an interesting choice of) war with them to start up joint terraforming exercises. There's a story behind that, and I don't have all the details worked out but to say she did what was required to ensure the future of all her children and the entirety of their successive generations.

Like all the moms on this list and throughout an eternity of motherhood, sacrifices are often made, not often acknowledged, but always appreciated. So don't wait until Sunday to do something nice for yours or put off until a holiday the chance to dedicate some thoughts to the person who put up with your prenatal nonsense for however long the gestation period for your species is.