The Threat of Annihilation

"I'm going to beat you to death with your own asshole," he said. He spoke so quietly that I might have though he was talking to himself if he hadn't been staring me in the face. "I mean it."

He had been standing in the middle of the dark sidewalk, but I hadn't seen him until he spoke. My heart thudded as he seemed to appear directly in front of me. His clothes, skin, and hair were the faded color of nothing.

I blurted out an expletive or two in my surprised and jumped back a pace. He simply stood there with an unreadable expression, his unblinking eyes studying me. For a moment I was at a complete loss.

Since he didn't seem moved to threaten me any further, I moved to step around him. He followed me with his eyes, but remained otherwise motionless. I continued past him, failing in my attempt to act unruffled. I was afraid to look back, but I felt him watch me leave.

She Melted Into The Biomass

I watched her as she crossed the street, throwing off unconscious vibes of attitude and sex. She wore black, tattered rags, artfully draped. I wasn't sure whether she had fashioned them herself from junk or paid a fortune for them to some inscrutable fashion designer. As she moved, the dark fabric offered glimpses of pale, smooth flesh.
She strode down the street confidently, almost boldly. Her intense presence made her strangely conspicous in the drifting sea of anonymous faces. Still, she seemed utterly unaware of the impact she had on nearly everyone she passed.
She stopped briefly at flashing garment display, and I caught her expression. Her brow wore a slight crease, and she bit her bit her lip. She seemed deep in thought, absorbed in the glittering showcase.

I was looking right at her. She turned her head slightly and shifted her weight. A large businessman in a long coat stumbled, looking slightly startled. Suddenly, she was looking right at me, a terrible awareness in her eyes. She glanced at the man, and my eyes followed. He had stopped. He leaned against a storefront, looking confused, and sat down hard on the sidewalk. I looked back, and she was gone. She had melted into the biomass with an ease I would have thought impossible just seconds before.
Dropping the sneaky facade, I ran to where she had just been. On the worn cement were three small drops of blood, smeared by passing feet. I heard concerned voices, and looked up. People were talking to the man sitting on the ground, asking him if he was alright. He still wore a puzzled expression, his staring eyes focused on nothing. On my way back to the transit station, an ambulance flew past, full of light and noise.

On Vulcans

Decades of study have shown that testosterone can impede concentration, reduce motivation, and slow learning. Many drugs exist that can either counter some of the undesirable symptoms caused by the hormone, and others directly reduce the generation of testosterone in the body. Those commonly known as "Vulcans" however, take a different approach. The man's testes are the source of all (or nearly all) of the testosterone created in the male body. While drugs invariably have side effects, the complete removal of the testicles has been found to sharply reduce the volume of annoying hormones in the system while causing relatively few problems.
The medical world calls them Voluntary Castration Patients. The term shortened to Vol-Cas in colloquial use. The term "Vulcan" quickly replaced Vol-Cas due to the similarity in sound and the Vol-Cas Patients' tendencies to be stone-faced, humorless, emotionless, and highly intelligent -- much like the pointy-eared race of beings in the fictional Star Trek universe. Vulcans are also generally pale and thin both due to their hormone deficiencies and because they spend so much time in windowless labs, workshops, and offices. For reasons not entirely understood, Vulcans live 24 years longer on average than men who keep their testicles.
The procedure is hardly popular, but those who choose this path are almost invariably men with an insatiable desire to accomplish more and learn faster -- and who have no patience for or understanding of the more delicate emotions. These men devote their whole lives to their intellectual passions and forever abandon the unstable sex-driven emotions of the inferior majority they laughingly call "Humans."