Many of you reading this may have considered this: If a human mixed their genes with another species, would that be transhumanist? The answer is somewhat complicated.
That doesn't quite matter in Spatium Sperma.
In here you have the properties of a cell mixed with the genetics of a human being in a way that results in a human that is not *QUITE* human. Then you add the functions of said cell, perhaps biometal for some subspecies, or animal genetic material to spice things up or fully bring out the cell's capabilities.
While Spatium Sperma humans ARE human, they are not the same baseline species anymore.
Physically speaking, transhumans in Spatium Sperma go from regular, boring humans in form, to some wild forms, either by default or after mutations take place. In fact regular humans are a minority, despite making up roughly 25% of the total population, as many normal births tend to default to the basic human form.
But I do have some quick examples for you here, three in fact.
Egulas: Humans mixed with snake DNA, forming naga like people with acidic properties (Designed after stomach cells). Immune to acid and tasked with maintaining caustic levels in certain organs, as well as fixing any leak that has to do with `regular' melting agents. Great swimmers, but somewhat unnerving since they lack eyes and instead see things through thermal vision or chemical receptors.
Lektean: Humans with a mix of horse and mouse DNA, with the horse genetics aiding in the creation of a quadrupedal form, while the mouse genetics are there for size, speed and general neurotic behavior (Meant to be nerves). Messengers with perfect memory when given a task, cute with big eyes and extremely zippy.
Aerion: Humans mixed with frog DNA, designed to be extremely light and work around oxygen rich environments (Pneumocytes design). Largely translucid in appearance (you can see inside of them!), these Human Cells can jump extremely high and are capable of breaking down crystalized oxygen with their hands while also being able to withstand extreme cold.
There are many more subspecies of humanity, different races with different abilities, limits, weaknesses and purposes. This alone should shatter the idea of humanity STILL being humanity.
And yet, thanks to the `Predator's' meddling, humans from the `Predator' could reproduce with regular humans and create more regular humans.
Theoretically. That is never going to be tested anyway.
However, going back to the abilities: The `Predator' has ensured that many races are capable of doing most things, but hyperspecialization is a thing. Compared to old humanity, where differences between certain breeds, or races, was still a thing even after bioengineering entered into play (some genetic backgrounds just have advantages or disadvantages here or there, it is nature), those old variations are nothing when compared to just how different two humans can be from one another.
Utility and function over anything else. The `Predator' couldn't care any less about human sensibilities or fairness after all.
That is why one of the points for this transhumanist transformation went to change a core base of the human genetic material in particular.
Most human subspecies have a very basic proclivity, or better say a `need'.
While all Human Cells require sex regularly, a compulsion forced by the `Predator', Sex Cells and any Cell that has to do with sex, hormones or reproduction, has an IMPERATIVE for (meaning it could be extremely detrimental, mentally or/and physically, if not partaking in) sex. All other human subspecies will end up going mentally unstable and feeling like shit without sex, but these ones will actively die (and be brought back) in incredible pain if they don't have sex regularly.
Immunological Cells and Muscle/Bone Cells require physical activity, not necessarily combat, very regularly. And by this I mean EXTREME physical activity (you must feel tired to the point of needing a long period of rest), though fighting is an universal way to get their `fix'. Lacking this basic need will weaken the Cell until it becomes lethargic, then goes to sleep and, in extreme cases, suffers cardiac arrest while on a long lasting coma. A way to remind them to do their duties.
Similarly, most other Cells that are meant for a particular job will need to at least participate in such tasks in a minimal way every few days, if not weeks. The less extreme the activity, and the less priority it has within the `Predator', the more `relaxed' the need will be. However this doesn't mean that the effects that come after ignoring such `desires' is any less damaging: Going for long enough will end in even WORSE outcomes than those Cells with more pressing needs suffer. This is because the `Predator' knows such people have ignored their duties for extremely long times.
As such the `Predator' has `hijacked' human brains since their absorption and assimilation. As even birth and growth are tied with the `Predator' while inside of its mass, the monster ensures that the new humans, born inside of its mass, have `premade' minds.
Of course this bears saying: Being premade certainly doesn't make anyone any less of a free person... if you ignore that the whole species is a slave to the `Predator' anyway. However it is one dark aspect of transhumanism within the monster.
Humans are born (or spat out of the Grow Pods) fully matured and with basic knowledge to work with everyone else. But they are also grown with compulsion to obey the `Predator's' every command and act in a way that may be considered similar to a `doll': Perfectly human, but somewhat wooden. As if they were clones that have no real personality or thought. Fast breeding, growth and learning, alongside the `Predator's' own desires, has its costs.
And, despite this, their personalities fully develop away from this `prefab' into a fully authentic one that has to do with their own likes, dislikes and experiences. What doesn't go away are the compulsions for certain works and needs, but those are ingrained into not the person, but the bodily needs of every Human Cell. Natural humans, those that came before and have been modified, have an easier time ignoring compulsions, but they still need to act accordingly out of need.
This is not all of course: Physical alterations, new capabilities, new needs, no childhood at all and pre-programming are just some of the modifications made to humanity in this transhuman world. And all of them are, no matter how you look at them, extreme.
Then we get into how sex works.
If quick pregnancies and the need to pass your child into a Grow Pod in a Cloning Center wasn't enough of a change after everything else, then you get a further modification to the human basic designs: Nearly everyone can get pregnant.
In a sense, everyone but the few `Full Males' is a `female' or `possible female'.
Feminized males and Busty Boys are basically men with so much estrogen in their system that they look like women and almost sound like them, with the latter also having large breasts on top of it all. Adding to them are shemales and hermaphrodites; the latter being a fully fledged female with extra equipment and generally a `larger' everything, while the former is similar, but approaches the `male' sex by losing her female parts and being much more capable of developing a more toned body.
Of course, we also have regular women and men. Both of these are much rarer than their `anomalous' counterparts in Spatium Sperma however.
With the desire of the `Predator' for its new subjects to multiply quickly, all but ONE of these `sexes' can be impregnated. The original model being the hermaphrodite: Male and female in one neat package, they are generally hyper sexualized while having a perfect balance of sizes, wants and needs, while being capable of reproduction normally, though further mutations and modifications are possible.
Shemales are capable of getting pregnant or impregnating too, much like their more common sisters. Decidedly impossible without the `Predator's' help, they are just slight deviations of the Hermaphrodite variant in ways that are mostly cosmetic.
Femboys and Bustyboys are slight variations that, more often than not, are less `manly' than regular males or the hermaphrodites/shemales they share a space with. Originally likely designed to be female, or the sexual mixture of the previous examples, they are, technically, males. However, femboys can easily develop the ability to become pregnant through sex/semen ingestion and usually develop breasts and an even more feminine form, turning into Bustyboys over time and sexual sessions. Meanwhile most naturally born Bustyboys are simply a much girlier version of shemales with a slightly more boyish tone of voice, which also includes a smaller frame and lesser ability to develop musculature.
Whether these alterations were intended or not, they have been integrated in the Human Cell genetic code, creating, in a manner of speaking, more `sexes' while also altering the original ones. Almost nothing has been left unaltered.
It is here when things stop being normal, though.
By now `normalcy' should be a foreign concept, yet you must understand that everything mentioned to this point is what you would be able to see regularly in Spatium Sperma: A fully changed and modified humanity that, yes, is human, but has had its everything altered.
Then you see how people further change themselves, many times willingly, and you start questioning things.
The most basic alteration is an alternate form of reproduction: Human Cells can absorb another person (Orally, vaginally, anally, urethral) and turn them into either sexual discharge (but only when it detects that the load can/will breed someone else), or into eggs to create new life.
A complete and utter disgusting thing... At first.
And something that many desire.
Many baseline Human Cells will allow themselves to be transformed this way; used to impregnate others, or as egg cells, to be born anew as a different race of Human Cells. It is an event that is pleasurable both for the one absorbing and the one absorbed, to the point where the body has changed enough for the feeling of being dissolved in the wild (Acid or other means) to lose its painful process. In fact not only the Human subspecies of the Human Cells do this: Many other Cells may be attracted to the idea through their life.
It is at this point you should understand that Human Cells have a very easy time mutating. In fact Mutagen is common in Spatium Sperma, but still rare enough that few really get to enjoy its effects: Most of the time Mutagenic agents and Crystalized DNA is only found through exploration or defeating dangerous bacteria and viruses. Once that happens though, such elements can be kept safe and then sold.
Anyone with a Mutagenic Agent or Crystalized DNA can use them in a Cloning Center to alter themselves. Are you interested in looking like an anthropomorphic bee when you are, for example, one of the previously mentioned Lekteans (mousetaurs)? Well, you won't take the taur nature away (some things cannot be modified away), but the appearance CAN certainly. In fact there are many other cosmetic changes that can be applied, but many go beyond just `cosmetic'.
Do you wish to grow tentacles that can manipulate things?
It can be done.
Do you wish for your breasts to grow lips that are fully functional?
Perfectly possible.
Do you wish for height increase, the ability for your balls (if you have a dick) to be pregnant, for your cock to become what is known as a `cocksnake' and much, much more?
Get enough Mutagenic Agents or Crystalized DNA and you can create miracles.
Or horrors.
It depends on who you ask.
And then we descend, not ascend, to the highest level of rarity and, in some cases, perversion.
The Conjoined.
Twins, triplets and even higher numbers of births are more common and safe in Spatium Sperma, but they aren't always `safe', in a way. Much like some of those that were crammed in Pods together during the Jump Event that landed them in the `Predator', not every child wakes up alone in their body after they mature.
The Conjoined are individuals that are composed of, generally, between two to three different people, though up to five have been documented and it wouldn't be impossible for the rare six or seven strong Conjoined to exist. These individuals all share a body, but not one mind, and more often than not have an armanious (if not fully cooperating) lifestyle.
Conjoined individuals may look strange, even frightening, at first glance; Sometimes they have a singular, `normal' body that has more eyes and mouths than normal, their size and form adapting to these changes to make them look pleasant and even beautiful, though most people seeing them for the first time are likely to be surprised, or worse.
It is also not uncommon for the Conjoined to have multiple heads, arms, sexual organs and legs, as well as much larger bodies, usually creating what one would consider a `human hydra'. The `Predator' actively does its best to make them anything close to `normal' and `appealing' to the eye (in part achieved through its modification of human perception), but this is no guarantee, and generally it becomes more difficult to default to a relatively `normal' form the more people become one.
And yet this, while rare, is considered normal.
All of this is just a sign of how far humanity has changed.
Many speculate there is even more out there, more than is known, or more than has been tried..
One thing is true, though: Humans remain human, and change, exploration and... depravity... are all part of us.
Spatium Sperma only makes some of those things more obvious than they once were.
