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Article number 4. Full credit for the concept of this one goes to Updog in #site19 (thanks to everyone there who read the draft).
My intention for this was to write something short and quick, but it ended up being about twice the length and taking three times as long as I had planned. Oh well.
Image is from wikimedia - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Platanus_orientalis_fruit_body_01.jpg
released under CC2.5
It was actually that one that made me decide to link it them in the first place, seemed to fit nicely.
I think I could easily headcanon the Daevites having a thing for horticulture.
If the CotBG has anomalous machines while the Sarkics have anomalous flesh, the Daevites need their own niche to prevent copying the others.
I like it, as long as they don't get retconned into being basically cranky wood elves or faeries or something like that.
You took my idea and made it your own, honestly. This is a lot better than what I thought it would be. I like its simplicity, this SCP could have easily been longer if it hadn't been condensed. I really like the table as well - the way the trees reflect the physical wellbeing of their donors is very nice.
I'm overall very happy about this one :) upvoted, obviously.
Personally, I would have liked it if there was a log of images they found on the 3399-1 instances at the recovery site. +1 anyway
The build-up was good - if a bit painstaking - so I was disappointed that the payoff seemed just to be "this kid has no future - what could it be?"
I read it as the kid will only have miscarriages or stillborns. :(
Cute and poignant idea, but the biology isn't great. If I were to turn my pedantry up to the max, I'd like the genetics to be phrased like "D-5321 was confirmed as a heterozygote carrier of the CFTRΔF508 mutation which causes cystic fibrosis in homozygotes". Saying someone carries "the gene" for a disease like Huntington's isn't really correct; it's better say that the version of the gene they carry - the allele - predisposes them to a certain disease. The genetic basis for Huntington's in particular is even more technical - it's an interesting read if you're up for it, though. In a similar vein, I'm not aware of any alleles that confer increases resistance to all bacterial infections across the board - although I'd be interested to find out if I'm wrong! - and "rapid cellular decay" isn't a very specific diagnosis. If you want to say that all the cells are killing themselves on purpose for some reason, "apoptosis" is a good technical word for it. On the plus side, it also sounds creepy!
I mean, I upvoted, but I couldn't stop my inner biologist tutting at some of the phrasing!
P.S. I'd also like a more vivid description of what the images on these leaves actually look like. If they're translucent, tinged green, slightly grainy, whatever.
Yeah for a couple of those entries I was going for more of a general combination of factors that lead to one outcome or another - there isn't a single allele that causes myopia either as far as I know, but there are a combination of genetic factors that can cause it and thus make it hereditary.
And yeah, you're right about some of phrasing. In cases like this I actually try and avoid being that technical, because in my headcanon these SCP articles can be read by a whole range of Foundation personnel and they won't all share the same educational backgrounds. But, there's also the issue that I'm not a geneticist and figured it was safer to go with the "close enough" version than something that was specific and totally wrong.
I'll add a bit more to the description of the images, that's a good idea.
Really like this one! Not only do you expand on the whole Daevite horticulture thing, but the implications of this sort of engineered anomaly would be quite far-reaching for Daevite society if it was widespread. Makes me imagine that love and romance in their society is fairly uncomplicated, since the leaves would simply show you the best potential match(es).
Upvoted.
I like. It is well written, and would make sense for a magical race devoted to sacrifice and war, since one or another of them are going to get interested in things like plants and genetics. I could see them using this to decide who has children, and who has sacrifices born from their blood. Curious of what else they would breed and create via this and their magic.
And as a question that shouldn't affect you in anyway, What would the plants look like if they were to have a donor that had: genetic diabetes (type 1), Hyperthyroidism, Insomnia (clinically diagnosed), Asperger's syndrome, And had a family history of throat cancer? (Just being a nose because i'm curious of how you would represent these in a plant, as well as having these myself (don't need no stinkin' pity. hmmph. :I.) (If this kind of thing bothers you, just tell me and i'll remove it from the comment etc.)
Off the top of my head:
Genetic Type-1 Diabetes - the tree probably wouldn't grow at all.
Hyperthyroidism - the tree would probably be thinner than usual, and probably either noticably shorter or taller than normal. Maybe the branches droop downwards.
Insomnia - probably wouldn't make a difference to the tree at all.
Aspergers - hard to say, would probably manifest as some distortion or change in the images on the leaves, depending on the specifics of the case. Might not make any difference to the tree.
Throat cancer - probably the same as the last entry in the table.
Makes sense. Just was curious on how that would affect something like this, as to get me a more broad idea of how the tree shows what, per say. Chose things that were connected to me as a more obvious example to me, as i thought they were broad/different choices to me as well. That would be all :P
Insomnia might have an effect on the tree's growth and exposure to light, the longer it's in dark, the more stunted it's growth and might wither. Anyways, lots of ideas, very interesting idea that I'd love to see a few more things added to in the test logs
yeah
