Entry: Janc Limm.

Something a little different today. It owes a debt to Eclipse Phase; I went to the library today, but couldn't find any transhuman sci-fi. Instead, here's this, formatted as a Wikipedia-style article, a bit of an experiment.

Janc Limm

(Jack Lamark redirects here)

(The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.)

Janc Limm (born Jack Lamark January 23, 2258, third-generation sentient) was an actor on the vidcast Prospect. One of the first Uplifted octopi to become a celebrity, he was seen as a vanguard of a growing Uplifted subculture. He quit the show abruptly in 2269, becoming a radical spokesman for the creation of octopus societies separate from humanity.

Limm is currently awaiting trial for the 2271 murder of human Chris Johnson.

On Prospect

Prospect, a science-fiction vidcast about the titular exploration ship, was Limm’s first major acting role. The show began in 2263, when Limm still went by his birth name of Jack Lamark; his character of Robert Brockington was the ship’s rough-talking mechanic. The show was an immediate success, and Lamark became the first Uplifted multi-millionaire. The human stars were similarly successful, but for many off-Earth viewers, Brockington was the first octopus whom they “knew”. Once this was noted by the producers, Brockington became a more prominent character, often serving as a deus ex machina to save the ship.

In 2267, during the off-season filming break, Lamark vacationed at the Gulf of Oman octopus colony; when he returned to the show, he had changed his name to Janc Limm and was an active advocate for Uplift culture. At publicity events, he was outspoken about his politics, railing against the Directive’s policies and urging autonomy for the Gulf of Oman and Great Barrier Reef colonies, divided into sovereign octopus and bottlenose districts.

Limm has since publicly stated that he confronted the show’s writers several times over the way Brockington was portrayed in the following seasons, particularly his anti-social nature: both Uplifted and natural octopi are cooperative, social creatures. As the series continued, clashes, over this and the controversy Limm was stirring at publicity events, grew more frequent. Limm was eventually suspended from the show for half of the fifth season, with Brockington stranded on an alien world while the Prospect’s crew tried to rescue him.

In 2269, Limm terminated his contract with Prospect. He reportedly quit over a plotline that would link Brockington and human pilot Rose Ashely (actress Maggie Langham) romantically. The show continued to air until 2272; it is now in syndication.

Radical Politics

Between 2269 and 2271, Limm kept the public’s attention with radical publications and webcasts; directed both at humans and Uplifts, he called for separate Uplift and human societies. He claimed that Uplifts, with different physiologies and psychologies, required different societies: traditions and values that emerged from a human context had little application for octopi. To hold octopi to an irrelevant code, he argued, would be unjust and leave them unfulfilled.

He attracted a large following among octopi, who often lived on land part-time; bottlenose were less receptive, as they already lived separated from humans. Chimpanzees were only slightly more open than bottlenose were.

At a 2271 protest of the Directive headquarters in New York, he was struck by a rock thrown by octopi counter-protestors and rushed to Beth Israel Hospital.

Place Within the Inexplicable Movement

Limm’s time on Prospect and radicalization happened at a time of growing Uplift population: the third generation of octopi was coming of age, as was the seventh of bottlenose. Third-generation octopi would be the first to go to space in number, where their physiology would make zero-g movements and repairs simple, as human genetic engineering had intended. The lifespan of octopi, previously less than ten years, is now estimated to be at least thirty.

While the Inexplicable movement of radical Uplifts had been active for at least five years previously, Limm’s outspoken persona brought mainstream attention to the movement. Its ideas matched his, and while other Inexplicables explored the intellectual and academic implications of their doctrine, Limm was the movement’s spokesman.

He and the Inexplicables were opposed by a counter-movement of Uplifts who argued that radicalization alienated humans and perpetuated stereotypes of animalism and inhumanity. They pointed to the role written for Brockington as an example of ignorance of octopus society and tokenization, which the Inexplicables could only feed.

Death of Chris Johnson

On July 16, 2271, Chris Johnson was reported missing by his wife. Johnson was the producer of a popular children’s vidcast series, The SpaceyFaces, featuring a cartoon ensemble of human and Uplift characters. Notably, it was one of the first vidcasts to be marketed towards non-human markets, including both bottlenose and octopi. Limm’s last public appearance before this was July 13, followed by complete silence on his webcasts.

When Johnson’s body was found in a dumpster in New York, forensic evidence led the police to raid Limm’s underwater home on August 1. They found Limm hyperactive and anxious, having gnawed off three of his limbs – an action commonly linked to manic depression in Uplifted octopi.

Limm will be formally arraigned on February 10, 2272, but has already made statements to the press from prison. He explicitly averred responsibility for Johnson’s death, but said that the victim was “indoctrinating young octopi with a value system that they did not, cannot, and would never choose for themselves. If this show sinks, then the death was justified.”

During his time at Adirondack Correctional, Limm has been restrained to prevent him from further mangling himself.