...A half human, half snake hybrid. Or, at least - an attempt at one.
[ his voice is very, very serious and soft, still looking in the direction of the screen. ]
I imagine what your Sage would have called a 'chimera'. A genetic experiment by a group of scientists called the Nuwa Project, aiming to do almost the exact same thing - playing God with human beings through genetic manipulation.
...in the barest sense of the word, there is. [ that darkness in his expression stays; he finally moves, though, shifting just enough to look at the cat in his lap and pet it on the top of the head, just for the sake of distraction. ]
Do you remember anything about the shadows, from the week that I executed Four?
...The strain of the Rainbow Virus that made me possible is the same one that allowed those genetic experiments to continue. It is capable of burning a body down to its barest components, rotting their cellular structure, and then using the shell of what's left to rebuild again. Like melting down iron and turning it into a sword.
[ it's easier to explain that information clinically and scientifically, at least, though lu bixing's cloudy expression hasn't changed. ]
...It is only through using strains of the virus to rebuild that any sort of genetic transfer was remotely successful. And it came at an impossible cause of pain and suffering to others with very rare success. You would have to be, quite literally, brought nearly to the point of death and then reconstructed, piece by painful piece, and every second that the Rainbow Virus existed could be a second that it leaks out of a lab and destroyed an entire galaxy.
...The virus itself was leaked from a laboratory in the Eighth Galaxy called the Reinberg Lab. The unchecked destruction of the Rainbow Virus killed 3.8 billion people, in the Eighth and inflicted suffering on countless billions of others. It's extremely contagious and extremely deadly and it took decades to get the infection under control in the normal population: that happened not long before I was born.
[ lu bixing delivers this in that same way - scientific, serious. quiet. he doesn't touch on the way he was 'born', for both of their sakes. ] Not only that, but once it was discovered it could be used in that way - [ a slight nod to where the screen sits ] - the people who ran the Nuwa Project began trafficking adult and children left and right to use as genetic experiments along with it. The death toll is staggeringly high.
[ he says, quietly. so. it's up to zelgadis, really, if it's hopeless, or not. ]
In certain conditions, it might be different. Under the hands of a different scientist. [ his own hands? is he arrogant enough to think that? lu bixing isn't sure. ] It wouldn't be easy, and there's no guarantee you'd survive it, either.
So... I don't know. Your condition was also caused by magic, and not by science. I wouldn't even begin to know where to start, with that.
It may be closer to science than magic, in some ways. Though executed with magic... the theory, the preparations, are scientific in nature.
[He stares into the darkness of the blank screen.]
... I've spoken to numerous chimera researchers on the subject. I remember one likened his craft to that of drinkmaking. Said that it's simple enough to combine ingredients, as he poured his juice into my ale... but to then remove the juice, and only the juice? It would simply be too difficult, to the point of calling it impossible. I'm sure it was the first nonalcoholic thing he'd had to drink all day... but I often remember that encounter.
[He ruined Zel's drink. And spilled juice on his clothes.]
I know well that any process to unmake a chimera would likely be a difficult one. That it could involve stripping this body down to its core components and remaking it. The pain and the risk... those are things I've prepared myself for a long time ago.
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no subject
[ his voice is very, very serious and soft, still looking in the direction of the screen. ]
I imagine what your Sage would have called a 'chimera'. A genetic experiment by a group of scientists called the Nuwa Project, aiming to do almost the exact same thing - playing God with human beings through genetic manipulation.
no subject
Even in distant worlds... the same thing. I wish I were more surprised.
... Was there -- [His voice is quiet, and it falters for a moment.] is there a way to reverse it?
no subject
...in the barest sense of the word, there is. [ that darkness in his expression stays; he finally moves, though, shifting just enough to look at the cat in his lap and pet it on the top of the head, just for the sake of distraction. ]
Do you remember anything about the shadows, from the week that I executed Four?
no subject
I remember something about a virus and a vaccine...
[And a chorus of desperate, pleading voices. The melting shadows. The syringe.]
no subject
[ it's easier to explain that information clinically and scientifically, at least, though lu bixing's cloudy expression hasn't changed. ]
...It is only through using strains of the virus to rebuild that any sort of genetic transfer was remotely successful. And it came at an impossible cause of pain and suffering to others with very rare success. You would have to be, quite literally, brought nearly to the point of death and then reconstructed, piece by painful piece, and every second that the Rainbow Virus existed could be a second that it leaks out of a lab and destroyed an entire galaxy.
no subject
But that... then there is a way, it just...
[He wants to rationalize it. He wants to make it work in theory. Because he needs it to work. Something has to work.]
-- What do you mean, an entire galaxy?
no subject
[ lu bixing delivers this in that same way - scientific, serious. quiet. he doesn't touch on the way he was 'born', for both of their sakes. ] Not only that, but once it was discovered it could be used in that way - [ a slight nod to where the screen sits ] - the people who ran the Nuwa Project began trafficking adult and children left and right to use as genetic experiments along with it. The death toll is staggeringly high.
One little life, traded for billions of others.
no subject
[It's an unfathomable number of people. Billions.
...]
That's it, then...? It's hopeless?
no subject
[ he says, quietly. so. it's up to zelgadis, really, if it's hopeless, or not. ]
In certain conditions, it might be different. Under the hands of a different scientist. [ his own hands? is he arrogant enough to think that? lu bixing isn't sure. ] It wouldn't be easy, and there's no guarantee you'd survive it, either.
So... I don't know. Your condition was also caused by magic, and not by science. I wouldn't even begin to know where to start, with that.
no subject
[He stares into the darkness of the blank screen.]
... I've spoken to numerous chimera researchers on the subject. I remember one likened his craft to that of drinkmaking. Said that it's simple enough to combine ingredients, as he poured his juice into my ale... but to then remove the juice, and only the juice? It would simply be too difficult, to the point of calling it impossible. I'm sure it was the first nonalcoholic thing he'd had to drink all day... but I often remember that encounter.
[He ruined Zel's drink. And spilled juice on his clothes.]
I know well that any process to unmake a chimera would likely be a difficult one. That it could involve stripping this body down to its core components and remaking it. The pain and the risk... those are things I've prepared myself for a long time ago.