The McGill clan has been in Nebraska since the 1840's before it was a state. The family's original compound sits on the same 5000 acres since 1854.
The family has grown into a clan and they have holdings all over the state and far into the Dakotas. Though the family is greatly respected for their contributions to earth stewardship and subsequent charities they are mostly known in their small part of the world.
The family history is peppered with feats of great mental and physical prowess so much so that each successive generation takes it as common place.
Like the time Grandpa laid out his brother's prized bull with one punch when it was charging down on an unaware then 4yr old Wyatt McGill. There are many such stories and time for those later.
Great grandma Katy's people were from 1930's Kansas. The last 80 years of the family traditions has the addition of survival training and disaster preparations for the whole clan since the dust bowl scare!
It is considered a family quirk that the last four generations of McGill men don't marry until 35 yrs. of age or older.
Until they reach full maturity the males are long, tall, and gangly. Their appearance leading non familial local males to misjudge them on many levels especially pubescent testosterone powered challenges and general rowdiness. They are strong and wiry until they start bulking up in their late twenties early thirties.
Generations of blue ribbons and trophies from national, state and county rodeos and fairs stuff the McGill Clans shelves and attics full. Their breeding program is still superior and unmatched anywhere in the state.
Up until around thirty years of age the McGill males are goal oriented and sexual conquest is low on their list of important accomplishments. The teasing and ridicule from their classmates and peers seems to have strengthen McGill males resolve rather than having them capitulate to peer pressure. Not to say that they don't engage in sex it just isn't all encompassing to them like the other guys their age.
The females in this family group develop and mature faster than the males physically and mentally which serves them all of their long lives.
McGill females are intelligent beautiful compassionate, precocious, healthy athletic and very physical beings with natural ability to adapt. On the whole the McGill females and males show natural adeptness to whatever discipline they apply themselves. The girls compete with their brothers and cousins, soundly trouncing them physically all the way up to and some pass puberty (prior stage to MMSSP).
The attitude towards sex and procreation that the maturing pubescent males in the family maintain cannot be said of the female McGill. When puberty hits a McGill girl their physical awareness expands and becomes yet another way to interact with others and their environment.
Winnowing her way through her peer group, she looks for her future mate. The last statement is not implying that they are promiscuous but that puberty triggers a McGill female to inspect the local gene pool thoroughly for the best and brightest and then to move outward in this search for a suitable mate.
The approach to securing a mate is delineated by the sex of the Homo Novus in question. Penny finds sex to be highly pleasurable and still wanting at the same time. She is after all a McGill female.
The McGill male hit's about thirty years of age, husbandry and roots takes on a more intimate meaning than animals and crops.
When Karen joins the McGill Clan she is a very young biology teacher and names this quirk "The McGill Male Second Stage of Puberty" (little does she know how close to right she is). Her brother Tye, is a biologist, with a deep curiosity in genetics.
She's 27 when she meets and falls in love with 35yr old Wyatt McGill.
They have three children, the first a set of twins Wyatt Jr and Kylie
3 years later natural selection with the hard existence in which they lived on the family farm creates the perfect conditions for the genetic mutation that is the Homo Novus female.
The McGill clan produces their first Homo Novus female Penelope Raven McGill.
She is born aware. Her mothers' calm acceptance of the child birth process steadies and soothes the infant.
Upon her expulsion from the womb, it is her own birth cry that startles her into silence. She instinctively focuses on the tactile and optic stimuli. She draws and receives comfort from her mother when placed across Karen's chest. Waves of reassurance and soothing calm encompass mother and child. She is empathic. She both feels and projects emotion.
The Homo Novus Infant has twice as many nerve endings along her skin as Homo sapiens infants do. This genetic adaptation facilitates her empathic abilities and any others that may develop.
As with all infants, she learns through observation, it is a hard wired instinct that serves Penny all her long life. It seems how each Homo Novus infant's unique and innate outlook correlates directly with how that genius intellect will manifest itself.
The McGill Clan all love the land and are raised to be true stewards so the natural abilities though abundant and profitable were focused on their Clans compound, holdings and other land management.
Being tested for intelligence? They figured you either were intelligent or you weren't who cares how much? This isn't arrogance on their part it just doesn't matter to them it, isn't how smart you are but what you do with the smarts you have.
Karen is both surprised and pleased to see Penny advancements but looks at James Jr and remembers him standing in the rib at 7 mos. while holding on to the bars of his crib and the females in this family group develop maturity faster than the males.
Natural selection and the hard existence in which they lived on the family farm create the perfect conditions for the genetic mutation that is the Homo Novus female.
Penny is the youngest of three.
Her mother, Karen, a college grad and teacher fosters her daughters the love of learning. "Look it up" being her mom's signature saying.
"Here's how... Now you do it," being her highly physical father's.
There's nothing that James sets his mind and body to that he can't accomplish. Economy of movement with intelligence is what attracted Karen to him in the first place. His big heart sealed her love for him.
Her brother, Wyatt Jr, from an early age, is artistic, abhors dirt and loathes animals. That he would rather be in the kitchen with his Gramm's seems to be an outright affront to their father. Kylee is sweetness and light loves her parents and "her" farm and most especially loves to hold being older than Penny all through childhood and his Lil' Slugger is a daddy's girl.
Puberty hit Lil' Slugger like a 12lb sledge hammer. Three weeks saw Penny change from a flat chested tom boy physique to a pair of C's, and a 22 inch muscular waist that complimented rounded hips that kept knocking into furniture and doorways. It took her weeks to grow accustomed to her new physique. Her Dad is still recovering from the shock of it ten years later.
Since I've had revised the story I'll be adding a Primer for HNP. I believe it will cast light on the AU and OCC of the Characters. Please review it helps me keep the integrity and vision I've had for this fabrication.