Editing Questions/Question 293

{{Question
	|QuestionFaqPage=Log - August 2025/Pre Event FAQ
    |Link=https://kelesis.dreamwidth.org/5063.html?thread=7091399#cmt7091399
    |Topics=
    |AskedBy=reprisings
	|DateAsked=2025-08-01
	|QuestionText=Hello! If a Terra type would try to either:<br>1. Unzombify the people (not that they would know how but, you know, to try!)<br>2. Try to...commune with and or manipulate the plants on said plant-creature...<br><br>What would happen? Bonus if it's a new Terra-type. Thanks!
    |DateAnswered=2025-08-02
    |AnswerText=1. A Terra-type could... try, in the sense of attempting to override the plants now nesting and feasting on their host. If the infestation is fairly <i>new</i>, they might be able to halt its advance, hold it still while they (or probably a helper), tried to remove it. Unfortunately, it would already be too late for the victim, as the brain is one of the first things that is flooded with the plant's toxins and tendrils, and cannot be cleansed without killing them. You could prolong their very miserable experience this way, temporarily restore enough self-awareness to let them feel and understand what's happened to them!<br><br>For a more advanced case, it would take multiple Terras (or a very experienced one) to override the seedlings' will and temporarily force them dormant. There would not be very much left of the underlying host, even were all the plants removed; the person they were is already dead, and all that's left behind is meat increasingly wrapped in foliage. <br><br>The only time it would be possible to save someone is if the seeding happened <i>right</i> in front of the character, and they acted quickly and successfully enough before it had a chance to penetrate and ruin the victim's brain.<br><br>Curiously, were an <i>Augmented</i> to get seeded, there would be more of an opportunity to save them. Unlike the locals, where the plant instinctively wrests control of the brain, in Augmented hosts the plant seems to actively <i>avoid</i> the whole area. It can still do a good bit of puppeting and feasting off the rest of the body, but they'll remain more conscious of it all.<br><br>They would still likely need significant medical intervention to survive if the infestation is allowed to progress unhindered. Terra-types would have a better-than-normal chance of stopping it in its tracks.<br><br>2. Communicating with the tree... characters are very welcome to try, and Terra-types in particular would have a better chance of understanding its feelings. They are all bad. It is in incredible pain, it is terrified and confused, not understanding where it is or what's going on, but it is above all <i>furious.</i> These are emotions rather than words; it's not using real language anymore, and it doesn't want to talk. It cannot be reasoned with, as it largely lacks reason, and even calming it through various means (as most Natural Soul types have <i>something</i> to disrupt or otherwise influence mental conditions) will put it into a catatonic state, rather than something genuinely calm. <br><br>Manipulating parts of the tree itself is also possible! A completely fresh Terra-type would have a harder time of it, as any freshly Augmented character would have a harder time making full use of their powers. But it would be a great opportunity to put those Shifts to the test, a real trial-by-tree. Similar to the seeded victims, Terras could impose their plantly will over outcroppings, or branches of the plant creature, temporarily directing their movement.
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