Pearls, like lycanthropy, are a medichine glitch. Fortuitous for some but harrowing episodes in body horror for most, the glitch causes loose material to conglomerate and slowly form pearls, just as in oysters and mussels. Unless the medichines are checked, infection is unnoticeable for the first month, but then the pearls reach significant sizes, beginning to to rub against each other and apply pressure to surrounding tissues.
Pharmed pearls have maintained an appeal despite nanofabrication. Many claim that fabbed pearls simply don't have the same smooth iridescence. The medichines of pharmers are programmed to only allow pearl growth just under the skin, from where they slowly emerge until they can be removed. Medichines are also recommended to accelerated pearl growth, for their use in healing over the craters left from removal, and to deaden the pain of what are essentially whole-body corns.
Mechanics
Victims of pearls suffer 1 SV daily due to pain, +1 SV per month infected.
Showing posts with label nanotoxin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nanotoxin. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
107. Bone Mites
Weaponized nanotechnology produces horrific corpses, that is, if there is a corpse left at all. Dissasemblers might be programmed to dissolve organic matter, but leave clothing and equipment perfectly intact, or dissolve only keratin, removing victims' nails, hair, and skin. TITAN nanoswarms are, if anything, more humane than their transhuman designed counterparts: they are fast and thorough.
The TITANs, of course, developed autonomous, self-sufficient and self-replicating nanoswarms far beyond what has been achieved by transhumanity. When the TITANs suddenly left, nanoswarms, like many other autonomous, intelligent, evolving and/or replicating TITAN tech, began growing, spreading, and changing. What the bone mites could have originally been intended for is a mystery,
Much like colonial swarms, bone "mites" (nanites) are eusocial, although as TITAN tech, their intelligence may be much higher. Whereas colonial swarms build their hives out of any locally available materials, bone mites use mammalian bodies (they have been noted to ignore avian and octopus uplifts). Specifically, the mites induce a form of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva in their victims. Once the victims have been paralyzed through ossification, the mites begin burrowing through the bone, forming tunnels and chambers much like an ant colony.
The mites do not kill their victims. In fact, they seem to take specific actions to keep their host alive, leaving the brain and supporting tissues intact, regulating their activity like medichines, and importantly, making slow changes to the structure of the brain. This last action has suggested to researchers that the mites have goal, that they do not live in ossified bodies because they have to, but because they need to use transhuman brains as a substrate for their own calculations.
Mechanics
Victims of bone mites lose 1 point of SOM, COO, and REF per hour. Once any of these attributes reaches zero, they are paralyzed. From then on, victims take 1d10 SV per hour until killed or rescued. Medichines prevent progression, but nanophages are required for total immunity.
While hunting for new hosts, treat bone mites as a nanoswarm. During infection, bone mites can be treated as a nanotoxin.
Notes
Inspired by SCP-439.
The TITANs, of course, developed autonomous, self-sufficient and self-replicating nanoswarms far beyond what has been achieved by transhumanity. When the TITANs suddenly left, nanoswarms, like many other autonomous, intelligent, evolving and/or replicating TITAN tech, began growing, spreading, and changing. What the bone mites could have originally been intended for is a mystery,
Much like colonial swarms, bone "mites" (nanites) are eusocial, although as TITAN tech, their intelligence may be much higher. Whereas colonial swarms build their hives out of any locally available materials, bone mites use mammalian bodies (they have been noted to ignore avian and octopus uplifts). Specifically, the mites induce a form of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva in their victims. Once the victims have been paralyzed through ossification, the mites begin burrowing through the bone, forming tunnels and chambers much like an ant colony.
The mites do not kill their victims. In fact, they seem to take specific actions to keep their host alive, leaving the brain and supporting tissues intact, regulating their activity like medichines, and importantly, making slow changes to the structure of the brain. This last action has suggested to researchers that the mites have goal, that they do not live in ossified bodies because they have to, but because they need to use transhuman brains as a substrate for their own calculations.
Mechanics
Victims of bone mites lose 1 point of SOM, COO, and REF per hour. Once any of these attributes reaches zero, they are paralyzed. From then on, victims take 1d10 SV per hour until killed or rescued. Medichines prevent progression, but nanophages are required for total immunity.
While hunting for new hosts, treat bone mites as a nanoswarm. During infection, bone mites can be treated as a nanotoxin.
Notes
Inspired by SCP-439.
Friday, January 30, 2015
30. Lycanthropy
The first iteration of the Lycanthropy nanotoxin was a medichine hack. A group of radical mercurial uplifts infected the medichines of the families of Cognite executives. Any hack of medichines is met with rapid and thorough security updates, which rendered that first form unusable, but the mercurials were able to cultivate a nanotoxin out of a sample of infected medichines. This nanotoxin form of the Lycanthropy condition is what is known to transhumanity today.
The nanotoxin causes keratin build-ups in feet and hands as the body attempts to grow hooves, in fingers and toes as the body attempts to grow claws, in lips as the body attempts to grow a beak, and in skin as the body attempts to grow feathers. By most accounts the growth of feathers is the worst, causing steady pain as they attempt to puncture through skin. The condition has never proved fatal, and is kept in check by medichines, but its slow burn brand of body-horror gives it an over-sized infamy. The toxin has even become endemic in some poor districts of Jovian habs, providing fuel for anti-nano and anti-uplift attitudes.
Mechanics
Lycanthropy is a nanotoxin [Moderate]
Type: Nano Application: Inj Onset Time: Immediate Duration: Indefinite
Those infected by Lycanthropy take 1 SV per day of infection due to chronic pain and body dysmorphia. Medichines prevent progression, but nanophages are required for total immunity.
The nanotoxin causes keratin build-ups in feet and hands as the body attempts to grow hooves, in fingers and toes as the body attempts to grow claws, in lips as the body attempts to grow a beak, and in skin as the body attempts to grow feathers. By most accounts the growth of feathers is the worst, causing steady pain as they attempt to puncture through skin. The condition has never proved fatal, and is kept in check by medichines, but its slow burn brand of body-horror gives it an over-sized infamy. The toxin has even become endemic in some poor districts of Jovian habs, providing fuel for anti-nano and anti-uplift attitudes.
Mechanics
Lycanthropy is a nanotoxin [Moderate]
Type: Nano Application: Inj Onset Time: Immediate Duration: Indefinite
Those infected by Lycanthropy take 1 SV per day of infection due to chronic pain and body dysmorphia. Medichines prevent progression, but nanophages are required for total immunity.
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