New TF Story

[Tinn]

Hmm... Things seem to be coming to a head. What with all the news reports and everything there's bound to be some CDC attention on the Body sooner or later.

I'm reckoning the CDC won't be able to do much but maintain a ceasefire, though, probably after enraging the body a few times. No, I believe the ultimate resolution of this story will be Mary's doing. The Body is not a pleasant debate partner, but given a few lucky breaks she seems to be able to run rings around it, intellectually.

On an unrelated note, I wonder how good the body is at photosynthesis? I suppose a fair few of the alien words it's visited would have had some life form or other that got its energy from a sun. Maybe that's how the body avoids starving to death once it's eaten a world?

I just thought of something. Given the body's highly adaptive nature and its method of spreading via extreme long range interplanetary seeding, there's a fair chance that Mary's Body would be quite different to other versions of the Body found elsewhere, depending on their individual migration paths. What would happen if two different branches of the evolutionary tree met? Fight-to-the-death? Mutual seed sharing? Some kind of slime merge? And how would the minds come into it?

[SoylentOrange]

You're right that a lot of the higher-order intellectual tasks are beyond the Body's comprehension, and MAry's going to use that to her advantage later on.

Yes, the Flesh can sustain itself via photosynthesis, but only just. It needs to eat something in order to grow larger. That's how the meteorite "seeds" stay alive, first by devolving to an extremely primitive form and second by surviving just off of photosynthesis.

As to what would happen were two seeds ever to cross paths on the same planet, I will say the The Body is the same wherever it goes. It's knowledge of various DNA strands might differ,but the core personality and drive would be identical, and in point of fact the two "Bodies" would probably merge together and not even know the difference- one Flesh is all Flesh, after all.

Whatever poor victims the "Mind" might be, however, is quite another matter... ^^;

I would like to see that idea come to fruition sometime. After Mary's identity crisis of course. I get that vibe coming from her on occasion. Besides, The Flesh haven't been stopped yet and who knows how many solar systems its eaten. What's another seed on earth gonna do besides speed up the process?

[SoylentOrange]

True, but then it's not "Mary's Story", and that's what the whole thing's focused on. Maybe after this one's done I can maybe do a side-story about another world where two seeds meet.

If you could do that, I for one would greatly appreciate it. Back to Mary though, things are going to get blown way out of proportion. Military of every sort will try everything in their power to understand or destroy The Flesh. Meanwhile poor Mary runs intelectual loops around the Body to keep it from eating everything. Katie is having a harder time dealing with the Body as it is and Shandra has to be careful not to upset Mary while still trying to escape from her. Mary's stress level will be tested in the near future, no doubt about it. At least I think so.

I've been wondering though. The lair is somewhat mobile, right? Could Mary absorb all the tentacles that make up her lair and move to a secluded place? Away from the eyes of the innocent public. Making her a giant for a short period of time of course.

[Tinn]

Originally Posted by mrcellophane

I've been wondering though. The lair is somewhat mobile, right? Could Mary absorb all the tentacles that make up her lair and move to a secluded place? Away from the eyes of the innocent public. Making her a giant for a short period of time of course.

While it's definitely mobile, I doubt it'd be able to move very stealthily, mainly because it's too damn big. The weight alone would probably put a dent in the pavement. If it's distributed over a wide area, then it becomes harder to hide.

I guess it could split into dozens of tiny creatures, but I doubt Mary'd go for it. THe more complex the body gets the less control she seems to have over minor parts of it... and I doubt she'd want the flesh to drive.

On the other hand, moving to, say, under a large body of water might be sensible. I can just imagine Mary's apartment building crawling its way down the highway to the beach (cue backing vocals)...

[Tinn]

Originally Posted by SoylentOrange

True, but then it's not "Mary's Story", and that's what the whole thing's focused on. Maybe after this one's done I can maybe do a side-story about another world where two seeds meet.

Oh, do please write us this story, Mr. Orange! When you're not busy, of course.

Actually, assuming Mary's Story doesn't end badly for either us or her, a seed meeting story might be an interesting sequel. Then again, it might be impossible.

Hmm... Actually, I wonder how common alien life is in the Mary's Story universe? Particularly intelligent life. The Body seems to find Mary's thought processes strange, but that might just be the psycological equivilent of human thought being jury-rigged by an amateur electrician.
Come to think of it, maybe the Flesh explains the Fermi paradox.

Ah, I feel sorry for all the previous minds of the body... I imagine most of them would feel trapped in the flesh, immobile, virtually immortal lifeforms stretched over the entire surface of their planets, only the Body for company, waiting out the long eternity 'till death from starvation or supernova... Even for a creature with sub-human intelligence it'd be mind-cracking torture.
Then again... the body seems to have some kind of wierd telepathic (radio?) tentacle control thing going on. Maybe with a large enough (i.e. planet-sized) 'antenna' there could be some communication with other Minds, or something. Or maybe contacting alien brains via the body would be the last straw so far as sanity was concerned...

[Esquire]

Originally Posted by Tinn

On the other hand, moving to, say, under a large body of water might be sensible. I can just imagine Mary's apartment building crawling its way down the highway to the beach (cue backing vocals)...

Latin chanting. Or would that be best for The Final Battle?

[geneticks]

Or they could move the lair through the sewers, or even live in them !
The Body would love to eat sweet crocodiles...

[bagman1]

Is this story over or just forgoten?

[SoylentOrange]

Forgotten by everyone here, I guess- no one ever comments on it. ^^;

[GenYun]

My arse! this is one of the best on-going storys here. More I say! \o/