Editing Questions/Question 102

{{Question
	|QuestionFaqPage=Test Drive Meme - May 2025/Event FAQ
    |Link=https://kelesis.dreamwidth.org/2600.html
    |Topics=
    |AskedBy=techmaturgy
	|DateAsked=2025-05-06
	|QuestionText=Now seems like a pretty good time to follow up on <a href="https://alogos.dreamwidth.org/1341.html?thread=24893#cmt24893">this</a>. It may or may not be immediately evident during Viktor's wellness check that he is...not well. If asked, he will explain the nature of his illness (degenerative lung condition brought about from prolonged chemical exposure as a child) and will generally be fairly pessimistic about his prognoses. <br><br>UNLESS. I am interested in the questionable science route that we talked about in the initial inquiry, and wondering if this might be the most logical springboard for it. Viktor himself would be potentially willing to try experimental procedures or untested measures, and might perhaps offer to track his symptoms/progress/side effects for them if it's helpful.<br><br>tl;dr if he wanted to make himself a Patho-Gen guinea pig that is also a plant. what would that look like<div class="edittime"><em>Edited <span class="datetime"><span class="comment-date-text"> </span> <span title="02:35 pm (techmaturgy's time)">2025-05-06 06:35 pm (UTC)</span></span></em></div>
    |DateAnswered=2025-05-10
    |AnswerText=Of course Patho-Gen would be willing to help Viktor out, the maintained (or restored) health of their Augmented guests is of utmost interest to them....<br><br>Should Viktor express interest in what Patho-Gen has to offer, they will inform him candidly that this is <b>top-secret technology</b> that they've been testing for... a time. Those who he speaks to initially won't even <i>know</i> what the tech is, only that it exists. They will refer him to follow up with Patho-Gen HQ.<br><br>Should he take them up on the offer, Viktor's free to go at any time in the month. Patho-Gen scientists will inform him that he can begin "now", or come back another time, but regardless of his choice <b>they cannot tell him what they're doing to him at this time.</b> However, the scientists/doctors who come to meet with him assure him that while this technique they're trying on him hasn't been successfully tested on humans, they have reason to believe based on laboratory settings and experiments that it <i>will</i> work. However, they are sure to treat it with a respectful gravity: he would be the first, and theoretically, it could be used to help treat Karterian citizens who've sustained arcane radiation poisoning.<br><br>All of this to say, they <i>want</i> this to work.<br><br>If Viktor complies... they will sunnily shake his hand, and thank him for his willingness. And then, he will lose consciousness.<br><br><br><br><details><summary>Viktor will be gone for about three days, give or take; he will have only one moment of fitful wakefulness... <b>cw: Drugging, Medical experimentation, Dubious medical horrors</b></summary><br><br><blockquote>There's only one moment where consciousness will visit him in this area, and he'll feel so drugged that he cannot move his body. The room is dark, but machines are alight with squiggling lines and measurements, the sound of an erratic beeping that doesn't quite match his own pulse. There's something in the back of his mind, while he's in this state. A voice that doesn't belong to him.<br><br><i>"You can't save us. You have to persevere and worry about yourselves."</i><br><br>There's a primal shriek down the halls. It sounds like a woman, or maybe a beast... An exotic creature from the zoo? There's a clatter, a clang, and a grotesque <i>piercing</i> sound of a blade into flesh before- <i>oh.</i> When he hears what a human woman sounds like when she screams, it'll become clear to Viktor that the first scream wasn't human at all. The second, however, was a woman. Following her scream comes a commotion down the hall, a stampede of clattering footfalls coupled with the hiss of a hydraulic door closing. Alarms continue to blare from beyond his room.<br><br>When a person comes into the room, they're breathing hard. They walk up to Viktor's IV, totally unaware that he's alert. <i>"Please, let these ones work,"</i> comes a mutter under their breath. They inject something into the tube, and he'll be out like a light once more.</blockquote><br><br><br>Rise and shine! Viktor is in Patho-Gen HQ, in a regular hospital bed. It's far nicer than the one he initially woke in to start with; he has a view of the city, nice white sheets, a comfortable set of pajamas they've fit him with... The clothes he'd been wearing before are hung politely on a hanger. <b>The strange vision he had will feel dreamlike and surreal.</b><br><br>What Patho-Gen will explain to Viktor is this: He's been fitted with a second Augmenter. It's "inert," they say: there isn't a soul in this one. It should bolster his existing immune system and work together with his Terra-type soul to 'grow' in a direction conducive to his health. This is just the start of their efforts of course- and they'll warn that it may not work right away. That Viktor may even experience more negative, or uncomfortable feedback as his body adjusts to this 'hypercharging' of his ability to heal. Theoretically, it should permit his body to develop healed tissues in place of the ones that have sustained damage, even as far back as childhood. It is, after all, tech intended to help those who have developed arcane radiation poisoning.<br><br>They aren't sure what symptoms Viktor will face. They would love to learn what he experiences as he goes, as they attempt to determine what alterations would be best to help those who <i>don't</i> have Natural Souls like Viktor does. Once he feels well enough, Viktor will be escorted from the hospital. They'll even offer to help him to the Valentia, should he desire it.<br><br><br>What to expect if you decide to let Viktor go through with this: Will it fix his lungs, his myriad of other physical ailments? Not exactly. In the short term, Viktor is likely to feel moderately <i>worse</i>- with symptoms ranging from increased fatigue, nausea, and an unceasing sense of absolute dread. His Corruption will advance, but parts of it will come in strangely, either oversized or discolored or just failing to function as a living plant should. It's struggling, fighting to adapt to something, and will carry Viktor along with it whether he likes it or not. <br><br>For the first month, it's primarily just miserable, but he sure is <i>growing</i>, and he certainly isn't dying. The strangest part of all, is that amongst his malformed leaves, his Corruption may begin to take on the characteristics of those he spends the most time around. So Viktor might develop some feathers after spending long enough around an Aves, or his skin and leaves may crystalize in the extended company of a Golem. These growths may rot away, or may persist in some uncomfortably 'healthy' fashion, continuously developed and adapted to if his companionship changes. A wide enough circle of friends, and Viktor could develop into a proper amalgamation....<br><br>By the second month of this treatment, he will begin hearing voices. It will become quickly apparent that he's picking up on stray thoughts of those around him (as you see fit). It's intermittent and at this point uncontrollable, and could make existing in a crowd that much louder and unpleasant, to have this absolute <i>torrent</i> of information poured inside of his head. And the more he hears, the more his body may continue to develop/mutate, spurred on additionally by a distressed mental state. The worse he feels about it, the worse it gets, basically, as his body fights to adapt to a threat, even if that threat is his own perception of himself.<br><br>At the third month, Viktor may finally begin to feel some sort of equilibrium, or some kind of improvement(?). He <i>is</i> still alive, for one thing. And while the mutations continue, they're having some sort of regenerative effect. He may be a mess of plants and foreign growths, but he will be a <i>stronger</i> mess, the eye of the storm. If he's wounded, his body may display an uncanny capacity for self-healing- with an emphasis on the <i>uncanny</i>, as a cut fills up with fur, or teeth, or stone. But he will heal, at all costs. The voices are clearer, easier to keep track of, and they're there even when no one else is. They may not make any sense, but they're clear. This too might be something easier to adapt to by now, as if some part of his mind has been threaded through, expanded and rewritten by his growths to be able to handle the noise.<br><br>If you wanna go through with this, just get in touch with us at month 3 for more fun symptoms! Whatever Patho-Gen has implanted Viktor with will gradually have an impressively regenerative effect, but it won't be a clean sort of regeneration: oftentimes, parts of his body will over-compensate or borrow from inappropriate tissues to heal or augment itself to adapt to a changing world.</details>
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