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Oni2:Slaves of War/Polylectiloquy: Difference between revisions
unfinished thoughts on the Chrysalis
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:Besides the occasional purchase of a Chrysalis on the black market, the main solution for the [[BioCrisis]] will be the building of new ACCs. And that process is not going to be quick, that's for darn sure. Inevitably large areas where nations are poorer will get neglected. Most of Africa would die for sure; they may have originally received support from the U.S. and Europe to build the first bunch of ACCs, but when each nation has to look out for itself, Africa will be on its own. The overpopulated nations like India and China would suffer the greatest losses in population, but then again, they're probably going to be seriously industrialized well before then, and will have plenty of labor to build new ACCs with. Smaller and less-developed nations will definitely take it on the chin, assuming they didn't already when the BioCrisis first started. | :Besides the occasional purchase of a Chrysalis on the black market, the main solution for the [[BioCrisis]] will be the building of new ACCs. And that process is not going to be quick, that's for darn sure. Inevitably large areas where nations are poorer will get neglected. Most of Africa would die for sure; they may have originally received support from the U.S. and Europe to build the first bunch of ACCs, but when each nation has to look out for itself, Africa will be on its own. The overpopulated nations like India and China would suffer the greatest losses in population, but then again, they're probably going to be seriously industrialized well before then, and will have plenty of labor to build new ACCs with. Smaller and less-developed nations will definitely take it on the chin, assuming they didn't already when the BioCrisis first started. | ||
'''''Where do the Chrysalises come from?'''''<br> | '''''Where do the Daodan Chrysalises come from? What are they, really?'''''<br> | ||
This is the elephant in the room, isn't it? Oni never tells us. But one | :This is the elephant in the room, isn't it? Oni never actually tells us what they are, or even where they come from. But one possible origin seems so likely that it blots out any other ideas in my mind: the Wilderness. | ||
: | |||
:If we've gotten that settled, then the next question is the nature and purpose of the Daodan. Is it even 'flora or fauna'? | |||
:A. Animal. If this is the case, then the Daodan must be similar to our more symbiotic members of the animal kingdom, such as bacteria. We typically assume that the Chrysalis is a single organism, but what if it's a colony? | |||
:B. Plant. Flowering plants, in particular, benefit from outside help (from animals) to reproduce; some cannot reproduce at all without animals (Cf. [[wikipedia:fig wasp|the fig wasp]]). | |||
:C. Then there's the "mystery" domain of life, the organisms that are often not considered to be alive at all, but simply invasive or unusual genetic processes. In terms of complexity and independent existence, we have viruses at the high end, but as you go down the scale -- viroids, plasmids, prions, transposons -- you eventually end up with a continuous spectrum that reaches into the basic nature of genetic replication, inalienable from the actual process of life. | |||
:Need to consider the pros and cons of A, B and C here.... | |||
:Dropping these terms here for now: [[wikipedia:Host_(biology)#Host_range|host range]], [[wikipedia:Okazaki_fragments|Okazaki fragments]], [[wikipedia:Tobacco_mosaic_virus|tobacco mosaic virus]], [[wikipedia:Mobilome|mobilome]]. | |||
:'''Old text''' | |||
:Normally the Daodan lifeform is nonsentient and lethal, like the plant that killed Jamie, but when grown with human DNA in them, they become accustomed to it and can eventually be safely implanted in a human. | |||
::But what do they look like, and what do they do out there? They could just be some flower or something, but it would be more interesting if they were more significant to the altered Wilderness, like the tree in [[Nausicaa]] (not to beat a parallel into the ground). | ::But what do they look like, and what do they do out there? They could just be some flower or something, but it would be more interesting if they were more significant to the altered Wilderness, like the tree in [[Nausicaa]] (not to beat a parallel into the ground). | ||
::When I say "like the plant that killed Jamie", I'm not necessarily saying that very plant was the Daodan, but if it was, it sure would explain how Hasegawa discovered the Chrysalis. He was a logical man. Even in his grief, he might have thought to take a sample of the plant with him back to a lab, where he could analyze it and find an antidote so no one would ever die again. He would have found that the plant resisted all hostile pathogens, developing immunity almost instantly. This would have started his Daodan Project. (Cf. [[:Image:Dream_7_dying_Jamie.jpg|this image]] of the infected Jamie, who is displaying colored veins similar to the Imago effect seen in Muro and Barabas.) Eventually, Hasegawa found a way to introduce the Chrysalis, wherever it came from, into Muro, but only after much study and in a controlled environment. So even if that "flowering shrub" (as described in [[:Image:Dream 1 murder or mercy.jpg|this clipping]]) was the plant that yields the Chrysalis, it could be that the haphazard introduction into Jamie's body was too much for her to survive like Muro later would. Then again, she died by Hasegawa's gun, so we don't strictly know what would have become of her had that been the Daodan organism infecting her. Based on what we see later in the game, even if Hasegawa was mistaken in thinking she was going to die, he probably still inadvertently made a merciful decision by ending her life before the Daodan did what it was trying to do. | ::When I say "like the plant that killed Jamie", I'm not necessarily saying that very plant was the Daodan, but if it was, it sure would explain how Hasegawa discovered the Chrysalis. He was a logical man. Even in his grief, he might have thought to take a sample of the plant with him back to a lab, where he could analyze it and find an antidote so no one would ever die again. He would have found that the plant resisted all hostile pathogens, developing immunity almost instantly. This would have started his Daodan Project. (Cf. [[:Image:Dream_7_dying_Jamie.jpg|this image]] of the infected Jamie, who is displaying colored veins similar to the Imago effect seen in Muro and Barabas.) Eventually, Hasegawa found a way to introduce the Chrysalis, wherever it came from, into Muro, but only after much study and in a controlled environment. So even if that "flowering shrub" (as described in [[:Image:Dream 1 murder or mercy.jpg|this clipping]]) was the plant that yields the Chrysalis, it could be that the haphazard introduction into Jamie's body was too much for her to survive like Muro later would. Then again, she died by Hasegawa's gun, so we don't strictly know what would have become of her had that been the Daodan organism infecting her. Based on what we see later in the game, even if Hasegawa was mistaken in thinking she was going to die, he probably still inadvertently made a merciful decision by ending her life before the Daodan did what it was trying to do. | ||
'''''Where did the Wilderness come from?'''''<br> | |||
'''''What ever happened to Dr. Hasegawa?'''''<br> | '''''What ever happened to Dr. Hasegawa?'''''<br> | ||