Ethical values

Many Rejuve authors choose to alter one or more aspects of the Rejuve Universe as Lurking Dragon presented it. Reasons for this vary from a desire for a more / less extreme system of punishment to wanting less focus on spanking or simply not being aware of certain aspects of the universe. Lurking Dragon himself seemed happy for people to do this, so long as they set their stories on a colony or during a different time period.

The following is a list of aspects commonly criticized or changed due to moral or ethical reasons.

Penny Sentences
Sentence length and severity may be changed for a number of reasons; the author may feel the setting deals with penitatas too harshly, or not harshly enough. Others may prefer their characters to spend more time at a certain age, whilst others may favour reducing the number of cycles but increasing each cycle's duration. Some authors may also choose sentence and/or cycle length based upon what suits their long term narrative goals.

Lurking Dragon never gave any hard and fast rules as to sentence length, we have only the examples shown in his story to go by and as such it is difficult to tell when a sentence length is being deliberately changed and when the author is trying to be true to the setting.

Special Punishment Days
Related to the severity of the sentence are the Special Punishment Days (SPDs hereafter). All SPDs are far more severe than regular spankings, and these are reduced in intensity, frequency or omitted entirely by fan writers. Perhaps because of the influence of Kayla, one of the most well known Rejuve stories most authors do recognise Christmas as a SPD even if no others are used.

Some writers also choose to include "Nice" versions of Special Punishment Days, which may be variants on existing holidays (such as Christmas) or new holidays altogether. The Chronicles of Vaahn has an example of such a "nice" SPD, paradoxically titled "Bad Christmas".

Finally, authors may omit the requirement for Penitatas to ask for their punishments. This is most likely done because the author dislikes the practice.

Judicial Rape
According to the Rejuve Universe Guide, a Black Circle Penitatas is placed into the care of a known pedophile, who is encouraged, and indeed required, to sexually abuse the Penitatas. However, by the time period in which the Melody stories take place, these sentances are less commonplace, and are possibly no longer issued at all.

Authors typically address Judicial Rape for one of the following reasons;
 * to make it clear such actions are illegal and immoral.
 * to portray the protagonist or another major character serving such a sentance,

Authors against Judicial Rape usually find some alternative around handling extreme case penitatas, such as
 * removing the sexual content or creating a new class such as or Kayla's Very Hard Time..
 * Placing restrictions on their movement
 * adding harsher spanking routines along with routine public embarrassment

Relationship between Parent and Penitatas
The nature of the relationship between Penitatas and parent is an inherantly dissonant one - the Penitatas looks to the parent for their physical and emotional needs, yet the parent also represents the first and most frequent source of their punishments, most of which are much harsher than what a normal child would receive. Critics of Lurking Dragon's work often point out that the system shows little to no support for the Penitatas - the parents are encouraged to administer unearned spankings as often as possible, are open Spankophiles, and clearly take pleasure in their child's suffering, even to the point of finding it sexually exciting. takes this a step further, placing the Penitatas with a known paedophile who is legally entitled to sexually abuse them.

Authors who disapprove of these traits typically respond by either requiring that "spanko" parents curb their own personal interests - they administer spankings out of judicial requirement, not personal pleasure - or remove spanko parents altogether. The author may also overtly state within the story structure that sexualizing Penitatas is a crime.

It is also likely that the author will actively play up the parent's role as a carer, making it clear the parent's duty is to look after their charge and not just punish them, as well as ensuring that frequent, genuine affection is shown.

Parental Licensing
Related to the above, in the Lurking Dragon setting a Penitatas parent is not required to have a Parenting Licence. Though, "Training" is Referenced at least once. Indeed, it is suggested by some authors that many Penitatas parents in Lurking Dragon's setting would be dismissed if a licence were required. Naturally, authors who disapprove of how the Spankos are presented in the Melody series typically include the requirement for Penitatas caregivers to be licensed parents in their works. Spankos may or may not be permitted to parent "Black Circle" Penitatas, depending on the author.

Persona Non Grata
Meaning "an unwelcome person", in this context persona non grata refers to the mindset that a Penitatas is not entitled to many basic rights others take for granted. There are two main points to this;
 * 1) That as Penitatas are criminals proven to be lax in judgement they are not to be trusted.
 * 2) That a Penitatas is not entitled to protection from the First Principle.

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Allegations of Corruption
Some authors, perhaps because Lurking Dragon's stories depict the Penitatas system as more severe than how the Rejuve Universe Guide states the system should be, develop the opinion that the Corrections Council, if not the leadership of the confederation itself, must be corrupt. This may vary from moral corruption (open to bribes), ethical corruption (uncaring toward how Penitatas are treated) or sexual corruption (actively taking sexual gratification from the Penitatas system, directly or indirectly).

Lurking Dragon himself goes to some length to assure the reader that the system is just and fair; punishments are recorded so as to provide hard evidence of no wrongdoing, or are performed in public to ensure multiple eye witnesses. However, detractors argue that these checks and balances are, in fact, proof that the system has become perverted.

Other Changes
Below are examples of other changes that may be found in Rejuve fan works. These changes tend not to focus on the Penitatas system itself, or do so in cosmetic ways only.

Terminology
Changes in terminology may take place either due to misunderstanding of the existing system, a desire to show a change in time period or planet, or simply for the author's personal preference. This can cause confusion to some readers if the nature of the change is not made clear.

Another common alteration is the change of the name "Confederation" to simply "Federation." Where this takes place, it is not uncommon for authors to refer to technology based upon that found in the Star Trek universe. Kayla is an example of such a story, in particular chapters such as Destiny's Meeting.