#cellfolk

[cyanogen-miasma]

after some research memory is not so simple as 'each neuron stores one thing'. neurons in the hippocampus process memories and pass them off to the neocortex (? i think.) I'd imagine hippocampus neurons name themselves after a memory they processed that they found to be significant.

Hence 12th Birthday Party (Nobody Showed Up)

by the way, on the subject of names. most cells are nameless. Kera is just referred to as 'the keratinocyte' because it's the only keratinocyte that the other cells outside the skin have ever seen. Lymphocytes probably have identification numbers, or they are named after the base sequence for their unique receptor. Lim also doesn't have a name and is just referred to as 'the self-reactive lymphocyte'.

[cyanogen-miasma]

let me cook

I thought I should complete the sciences trifecta and make some biological characters

I've always had a fondness for "people get shrunk and explore inside someone else's body" storylines because of the fun ways people re-imagine the inside of the human body

I've had various ideas for my take on this trope but I'm going to start here with this silly critter I'm calling an "animalcule" (which is an archaic word for various microscopic animals - in this universe a plant cell would be called a plantacule, fungal cell is fungicule, etc. unicellular organisms are just referred to by their actual names. all these are collectively referred to as "cellfolk"). This one is a keratinocyte. I'm tentatively calling it 'Kera'. Kera gets lost inside the Self (the body it lives in) when a puncture wound from Outside causes it to get swept away in the blood. It manages to avoid the fate that usually befalls a keratinocyte and goes on wacky adventures with various other animalcules within the Self.

[cyanogen-miasma]

brain cells (the ones that specifically store memory, i'll have to do more research later) are named after the memory they store

this is probably an extreme oversimplification of how this works but can you imagine cell gang going to the brain and meeting a cell who introduces itself as "12th birthday party (nobody showed up)"

[cyanogen-miasma]

said podocyte arms dealer, its name is Odo

it got tired of its job in the Bowman's Capsule and went rogue, now collects and sells kidney stones in exchange for ATP

podocytes are another one of my favourite cell types, silly fellers

[cyanogen-miasma]

this is inspired by that textpost that's like "dude your [unexpected microbe] just fucking bit me but I can't remember what the microbe was so I can't even try to look up what it was. I found it in a collection of posts with the theme of talking like you own a dog but the 'dog' is is an unexpected organism very far removed from a dog. if anyone knows what I'm talking about please help

[cyanogen-miasma]

go my lymphocytes

these aren't neccessarily new characters, just depictions of what the typical versions of a cell are supposed to look like (as opposed to whatever Lim is doing)

I think the cellfolk can have little uniforms. the armour is made of mineralised collagen and the fabric is made of elastin. they are coloured with iron ions. cellfolk don't have a modesty thing, it's more of a point of team (immune system) spirit. I think outside of the immune system, not many other cellfolk engage in it.

my replacement for the antigen spear is putting them in the hand instead. i think it looks cool. the main points of variation in killers and helpers is proportions and 'hair' (microvilli) (killers always are blue with horns, helpers are always green with antlers) even if they are complementary they don't have to be identical (eg, these two T cells are reactive to the same antigens but they don't have the same features)

naive killer t cells don't have the spikes out, but you can't tell a naive from a mature helper t cell

[cyanogen-miasma]

*coughs* whatever go my gametes

this is very not to scale as the ovum is a lot bigger than the spermatozoon.

ovum is also opaque compared to the spermatozoon due to its thick jelly coating

spermatozoon is a rare two-tailed sperm, but the crooked acrosome is more for character design reasons, its acrosome canonically is alright

their names are Ova and Erma respectively (waow I am so creative lol)

spermatozoon is kind of one of my favourite type of cell but this is something I can't say in public without getting weird looks because it's *gasp* involved in sex

[cyanogen-miasma]

this is the lymphocyte, I will be tentatively referring to it as 'Lim'

lymphocyte animalcules have weapons which represent their unique antigens. Lim keeps its antigen wrapped to avoid causing harm to cells around it.