Editing Questions/Question 388

{{Question
	|QuestionFaqPage=FAQ/Main FAQ
    |Link=https://alogos.dreamwidth.org/1341.html?thread=311101#cmt311101
    |Topics=
    |AskedBy=wondrously
	|DateAsked=2025-05-02
	|QuestionText=Back with more stuff &amp; things<br><br>1) For the field research station, we were wondering if Patho-Gen would give them magic batteries or other equipment to power the lights and equipment out there? We enjoy the comedy of them needing to lug batteries back and forth to be recharged each time, but were figuring that if they could scrounge enough supplies they can eventually rig their own solar panels or hydroelectric thingamajig (also very funny). <br><br>2) <a href="https://karteria.dreamwidth.org/4578.html?thread=434658#cmt434658">Fel agreed to bring back samples</a> from their expeditions. We were curious if anything particularly abnormal/interesting would come back from:<blockquote>a) analyzing mutated plant and animal remains samples, particularly those close to the cenote that were most mutated<br>b) comparisons of water samples from the cenotes, the swamp, the ocean, and the tap water in the city, specifically looking for Katalyth contamination<br>c) probably ill-advised attempts to handle very, very small shards of Katalyth under a microscope, was not sure if Patho-Gen would supply any PPE, but they will be trying to figure out safe ways to handle/contain the Katalyth (I saw thick glass jars somewhere might work, but if there is anything else they could figure out)</blockquote><br>OOCly we're really looking to give the nerds something to do and flavor for our prompts, so if the answers to most of these are JUST ABOUT WHAT YOU'D EXPECT that's perfectly reasonable - or if they point them in another research direction that'd be cool too 8') Thank you very much! 
    |DateAnswered=2025-05-02
    |AnswerText=1. You may do whichever is most entertaining. Patho-Gen would probably be willing to lend out <i>some</i> method of charging/powering things (please don't dissect the generators), but they could be particularly stingy with it. They would encourage the science crew to do their best to source/buy/otherwise rig up some means of powering themselves in the mid-to-long term. But if they need a boost to get themselves started initially, they could get it.<br><br>2. How about these samples....<br><br>a. Even in death, and undergoing the process of decomposition, the bodies aren't quite behaving the way they might be expected to. Oh, they're rotting, or drying out... but anywhere more physically intact, it's like there's something there that's continuing to rewrite them, reordering their tissues in some futile, nonsensical pattern. Under a microscope... there's an unnatural flexibility there, but some of the changes don't require any special equipment to watch. The deer's growing more eyes, sightless and unblinking; the plant's leaves turn from fern-like to spiny. Nothing's coming back to life, but it's slowly trying to change all the same, as though it could evolve its way out of death.<br><br>How they appear <i>otherwise</i> is... variable. Muscle and bone and fur and stems and bark- in themselves, they are largely functional, normal. If there's specimens with extra limbs, it might be variable how well those limbs work- whether they're attached properly to the skeleton, whether their joints make sense, whether their nerves were sending signals anywhere. But the animals and plants around the cenote are largely healthy, so these mutations are mostly functional, or at least not massively debilitating. <br><br>b. There are <b>high</b> levels of Katalyth concentration in the cenote. Please don't drink it. The swamp water is variable; there are some points where it's practically 'clean' (it's still a swamp though, so be careful), and other points where it's clogged thick enough that it rivals the cenote. So it depends on how thorough the sample-takers are. (There is not much of a pattern to it, the fields of safe-versus-not-safe are patchy, intermittent.) Karterian tap water is fairly clean. There is trace contamination- a reason why city health is still declining, even with the barrier. It's minute amounts, but this can't be great to drink or bathe in for year after year. <br><br>The ocean close to the Karterian shore (so around Water's Edge) is about as clean as the tap water when it comes to Katalyth contamination. The barrier helps keep it from being worse than that. It is also relatively clean of other contaminants; there's <i>some</i> remnants of oil/wastewater, but they were being honest that they'd been good about cleaning it up. It's... clean of most things, really. It's not dead, but all the little critters that should be in a healthy seashore are almost absent. <br><br>The ocean <i>elsewhere</i> is both higher in Katalyth and higher in ambient life, though it's not dramatically worse/better in either category. It would be relatively safe to swim in for Augmented (just don't go out too far) as long as you didn't step on some underwater Katalyth deposit.<br><br>c. That is indeed very ill-advised. As for whether they would provide any sort of PPE... so long as the science team doesn't admit to what they want to use it for (analyzing Katalyth), they understand that general safety is important! The Augmented would have to work out their own way of getting bits of Katalyth safely back... thick jars would somewhat work. Basically, put as many layers between you and it as possible. It will remain an unpleasant travel companion, and an unpleasant specimen. But it's possible to do without dying.<br><br>As for what it looks like under a microscope... it doesn't have a structure that makes <i>sense</i> for a physical entity, neither organic or inorganic. This close, it's possible to tell that it's constantly moving, changing (similar to the phenomena observed in the mutated animals). It's minutely squirming, even growing- but the structure it has follows its own sort of pattern. It's like language, written so delicately that to even observe it will cause it to crumble. Trying to read it is... <b>it's horrible</b>. It has a similar effect to touching it, as if this too is a way of connecting with it. And it wants(?) to be connected with- or at least, it's very reactive to it.<br><br>That said. It <i>can</i> be studied this way. So long as characters take breaks, change around who's breaking their mind on it- they could make progress recording its 'words'. It will be a mentally exhausting affair, inviting immense depression if not outright despair. (If they go this route, more information can eventually follow....)<br><br><b>Side effect:</b> Doing this will hasten a character's corrupted traits, and may additionally provoke developments in unlikely directions, if you choose. (More eyes, distorted limbs, parts that just don't <i>work</i>. This is separate from Natural Soul corruption, and doesn't convey any particular powers. It's merely disfiguring and unpleasant. The extra parts may or may not drop off or recede on their own, may turn gangrenous, and so on. But it's an opportunity for some extra body horror for the science krew, or for anyone else they decide to put in front of a microscope and force them to look at Katalyth for too long.)
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