#the scientist

[xxxsimplyhookedxxx]

This is one of the BEST covers for "The Scientist".

[villapaitalepakko]

crazy how any song can be trans if you're in your feels about it enough. tell me why am I getting gender emotional from Coldplay's "The Scientist" rn.

like, the lyric "questions of science, science and progress, do not speak as loud as my heart" as a powerful stance about the weaponization of scientific language against trans existence vs. the sheer strength of the love and joy our existence brings us????

or "tell me you love me, come back and haunt me" as a metaphor for letting go of your past, pre-egg cracked self but still choosing to love that person????? hello??!!!! can anyone hear me!!!!!

[postcardsfromyesterday]

[erratic-dragon-fruit]

May 12, 2284 / The Scientist / Lezama, Argentina

VIEWED: MAY 13, 2284 / SOL NOVUS / NEW ADELAIDE, ANTARCTICA

...

The analyzer’s results were… insanity. That creature’s DNA could have belonged to five different individuals with room to spare. I genuinely don’t know how it was even alive with all those incongruencies. It definitely proves my theory about their genetics is true, let alone what happened collecting the sample.

I made what might be an even more important discovery, though. I’ve noticed since I arrived here that splicer eyes are almost entirely pupil- probably to account for low light levels in the area. So that in itself is not surprising, but what I figured out is how I can use this against them. When the huge splicer was chasing me and the metal storm began, it looked up immediately and it seemed to be in pain. I think that the splicers’ eyes are particularly sensitive to bright lights. Their eyes are always trying to let in as much light as possible to see by, so a bright light will damage the sensitive parts of their eyes. Heat also seems to scare them, so maybe it’s an ancestral fear. The splicers’ original containment area seems like it was destroyed by solar beams, so it could have left a lasting trauma on the animals. 

When their containment was destroyed, the splicers’ genetic defenses would have been triggered. They escaped into the wild, heading for darker areas after being caught in a practical heat ray. Their mutations occurred there, giving them light-sensitive eyes to be able to live in a darkened environment. That gene must have become more prevalent as the eclipses continued, and now all splicers avoid bright light and large amounts of heat.

So after figuring that out, I came up with a plan (more like a test run but I’ll get to that) to see if I could actually put the theory into practice. I set up some floodlights all over the edge of the cenote and activated them all at once, and then waited for night, when splicer activity is usually higher. Nothing happened the entire time I was watching. I just assumed nothing was going to happen, so I took down the lights and traveled back up to Chascomús to see if I could find more evidence to refine the theory a bit. I ended up staying overnight because I fell asleep working, so the next morning I headed back to the camp.

What I found was terrible. The plants were all dying. Every single one of them, except for a few smaller grasses and bushes. I can only conclude that I did it, but I couldn’t figure out how I had caused it. The only positive was that it appeared that I had driven out the splicers from the cenote area. Then it hit me that that may have been the reason the plants were dying. I’ve long wondered how there was so much plant matter here, but I’d assumed it was because of the equatorial climate and direct sunlight. I realized that the splicers could somehow be boosting the photosynthesis rates of the local flora. Then I remembered that strange compound I found in the initial leapgrazer sample, and then in the predator splicer’s blood. I studied it more thoroughly and found that it could lead to increased numbers of chloroplasts in plant cells.

So the splicers must excrete the enzyme (which I’ll call synthilase for now)- through the skin, maybe- and when the nearby plants absorb it, their chloroplast production is increased, meaning they can photosynthesize effectively! And this is still my fault. I need to figure out a way to get the splicers back here quickly. These plants aren’t dead yet and this may be one of the last forests on the planet. 

I’m going to hide this journal under some tree roots- but I’m destroying the first part of this entry later. I’m uploading the rest of it to the Chascomús archives in case anybody comes here and somehow finds the center. No one can know about the splicers’ weakness, or the whole food chain will collapse from the bottom up.

Hopefully whoever finds this journal takes more caution than I did. I’m going to go and try to fix this mess I created- and hope the splicers haven’t gone too far. Stay hidden and keep hope, carbon fibers.

NOTE FROM VIEWER: osah, i still haven’t heard from you, so i must assume the worst, but still i make these notes. i’m afraid war is coming among the sols. i don’t know what to do- we already knew of fire’s repulsivity to splicers, and the scientist seems uninclined to continue their research. i suppose these records were a waste after all. and to think, all the effort we went through to sneak them out there without the other sols knowing. i need time. time to think, and to make a new plan.

FILE DELETED. PROJECT CODE ‘THE SCIENTIST’ DELETED.

Hey! This is the end of the original Innaturalis journal, as the initial assignment only required six entries. However!! there will still be more updates coming that expand on the world, they just may not be as science focused/accurate, although they do include a lot more mysterious interjections...

[erratic-dragon-fruit]

April 2, 2284 / The Scientist / Chascomús, Argentina

VIEWED: APRIL 5, 2284 / SOL NOVUS / NEW ADELAIDE, ANTARCTICA

...

What a whirlwind these past few weeks have been. I’m happy to report that I have finally obtained the sample I needed- but it was an unpleasant trip to get it.

The first thing I did to attempt to locate a first generation splicer was run a search for its mention from the archival center. I was able to locate multiple passwords by poking around in the last month, so I was finally able to enter the records of the organization that created the splicers- a genetics company called ‘Seritech’. I found records for every splicers’ intended genetic code, and comparing those to the leapgrazer sample, I can definitely confirm that it was not first-generation. In fact, barring a monumentally huge mutation, no splicer species has a natural lifespan long enough to have lived to the current year from their date of creation, which for the vast majority seems to be between May and October of 2159. One hundred and twenty-five years ago.

I wonder what the world was like that far back. I’ve heard that before the collapse, the world was much stabler. The sunlight didn't waver and eclipse. When the collapse happened the sphere wasn’t completely destroyed, and now the pieces blot out the sun a couple times a week. It’s terrible for the plants too- this forest has more plants than I’ve ever seen in one place. 

Back to the point- no point in rehashing the past. No splicer could have lived this long except for one. It doesn’t even have a name in the records but they made it sound like the predator to end all predators. Because of fucking course it was. And the archives listed it as four meters tall. I researched the hell out of that thing but couldn’t find any more information about it- or where one could be now.

I set out back towards my camp a couple hours before dark, just like I normally would after being at the archival center. This time something was different, though. I didn’t see any leapgrazers at the nest they dug on the town outskirts, and there’s normally at least six there when I pass it. There weren’t any quickstrikes flying overhead either- odd because they’re normally always patrolling for food. I suspected a big predator might be around, but I assumed it was an old-world jaguar or something along those lines.

I was wrong about that. When I got close to the tree line, I began to hear an odd shuffling sound from about 30 meters away. I backed away slowly, which seems idiotic now in retrospect. Nothing would prepare me for the monstrosity that emerged from the forest. It had a long grayish body, almost goatlike, covered in black-and-white streaks. It had large, serrated hooves (hooves!) that were split into three toe-like limbs on each foot. Its face was the most disturbing part, though. The eyes were huge and were almost entirely pupil, and it had a large, long proboscis that seemed to be at least a meter and a half in length. As I stood there a long pink tongue slipped out and then back in. The report on the creature said it was modeled on an old-world anteater. Well, this one sure didn’t eat ants!

I realized looking at it that it must have been the predator I was looking for- it was the right size and everything (maybe even bigger). I got a tranquilizer gun out of my pack and loaded it slowly, not breaking eye contact with the creature. I lifted the gun upwards and pulled the trigger. The splicer dropped near-instantly, odd for a creature of its size, and I sprinted over to it with my equipment, not knowing how long it would remain asleep. I quickly took the sample, but in the process the readout on the analyzer suddenly changed. The splicers’ genetic defenses had been triggered, and its body was attempting to find a mutation to reawaken. It must have happened very quickly because the splicer’s leg began to twitch. I disconnected the tubing and packed up the sample quietly, but it was already waking up. I sprinted away from it, trying to put as much distance between us as possible.

Then I saw it following me. Slowly at first, then picking up speed as it got closer. It must have been less than 50 meters when a huge fireball came down from the sky, followed by even more. The splicers’ eyes went wide and then shut quickly as it stared at the inferno. When the molten metal hit it, the splicer shrieked in pain and ran off in the opposite direction. I sprinted for my camp. I made it just as the firestorm picked up pace, but thankfully the humid atmosphere prevented any major fires.

NOTE FROM VIEWER: osah. i haven’t heard from you in three weeks, which i guess means he figured it out. i’m sorry. if you’re still alive and reading these, i have a plan…

It’s getting late now, but the sample is running in the analyzer and I’m studying the results tomorrow! Wish me luck, carbon-bound polygon.

FILE DELETED.

[erratic-dragon-fruit]

March 8, 2284 / The Scientist / Monasterio, Argentina

VIEWED: MARCH 9, 2284 / SOL NOVUS / NEW ADELAIDE, ANTARCTICA

...

I ran the blood test yesterday and I have very bad news- the sample was faulty. Three days ago I finally realized the best way to catch a leapgrazer wouldn’t be stealth, but instead setting a trap. So I grabbed some rope off the back of the ATRV and strung it around a tree branch. Then I grabbed some extra fabric from the trunk and spray painted it to the same shade as the leapgrazers’ horns. Both the males and females are extremely territorial, so the color would attract one trying to drive off competitors. I rigged the rope to trigger when something heavy enough hit the fabric, so that I could wait close by and sedate one once it appeared.

After way more time than I anticipated (more than five hours!) one finally showed up. It was smaller than the ones I saw down near Adelaide, but so are most splicers in this area. I sedated it and set up some sterile tubing to extract the sample. When I was almost done, the splicer woke up and detached the tubing! It kicked the storage container I was using as it ran away and spilled about half of what I managed to collect.

So at that point I had half a sample of contaminated splicer blood. I decided to analyze it anyway since it was all I had. While I was waiting I heard vehicles outside and getting closer, so I panicked and dove into the cenote lake. That was a mistake. The soldiers in the patrol must have heard me, because I heard them climbing down to the coast of the sinkhole. I dove to the bottom and clutched the rocks there, trying to stay below for as long as possible when I saw dark shapes streaking through the water. They looked big enough to be paddleclaws, but I wasn’t sure until I saw them spring out of the water and fight the soldiers. I’m really lucky I had practice climbing wet surfaces, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to climb up out of there. Once I reached the top, I couldn’t hear any signs of struggle or the paddleclaws feeding, so either the soldiers escaped or the paddleclaws do have a lair down in the lake.

NOTE FROM VIEWER: ignis knows, osah. there’s no other way to explain the soldiers going after the scientist. you know i’ve ordered mine to stay away, but this might be out of our hands now.

When I made the walk back to my camp the blood sample had finished analyzing, so I checked the results. They were… interesting. Among other things, the analyzer found high levels of a strange compound that I’ve never seen before. I can’t tell at all what its properties could be, but it seems odd that it’s even there. There’s also increased amounts of multiple minerals, but that’s probably just any stray dirt that entered the sample. The actual chemical contents of the blood aren’t what’s weird though. The DNA is what’s really the issue.

The DNA samples I got look oddly broken. The genome of the animal is all there, but it differs from cell to cell. And some of it is unwound completely with the molecules that are supposed to form it just floating around. Originally I thought the splicers could have the ability to re-write their own genomes, but now it seems like the changes may be involuntary or even harmful to the organism’s processes. The DNA also seems to be rapidly degrading even as I’m writing this. It may be another defense to protect against copyright infringement on the genome, although it may also be that this DNA is exceptionally unstable.

My working theory so far is that any sort of inserted flexibility gene could have been mutated in a solar ray storm into this bizarre occurrence. I think the splicers have some sort of reaction to stressful situations where they would otherwise be killed, and their bodies send signals to their cells for their DNA to scramble itself. It would be an incredibly risky action, as a single mutation could kill the organism in any number of ways. In addition to that, the mutations would be slow to even make a noticeable difference!

I can’t prove anything yet though, because the sample was contaminated. For all I know, the DNA breakdown was simply caused by reactions with the dirt in the sample. It also seems like this individual was several generations interbred with native life. I found many more congruences than there should have been with the old pronghorn’s genome. 

I need a sample from an animal that was one of the first splicers- one of the original edited organisms. I just need to figure out where one would be around here. This might take a while.

NOTE FROM VIEWER: we need to buy them as much time as possible to find one. meet me at my office later to discuss options.

See you later, carbon bundle.

FILE DELETED.

[erratic-dragon-fruit]

February 15, 2284 / The Scientist / Chascomús, Argentina

VIEWED: FEBRUARY 19, 2284 / SOL NOVUS / NEW ADELAIDE, ANTARCTICA

...

So… catching and sedating an animal that runs at roughly 113 kph for hours on end was maybe not a great idea. I’ve had no luck even getting within a couple meters of one, much less getting a syringe into it.

Instead I’ve thrown myself back into the archives. I found this old, rundown research facility in some town- and it looks much older than any other structures around here… it’s labeled as the ‘Chascomús Archival Center’. I’m guessing some kind of cultural preservation? It has a good connection to the signals I need access to, so I’ll be doing my archival searches from here now. I just wish any of that meant anything other than me being stuck in an old stupid building staring at a computer for eight hours a day. I’m sick of combing the same articles for information day after day! All of the information on the internet got screwed up during the sphere collapse anyway, and all that’s left is things from at least a decade or two earlier, before they even started gene-editing. I don’t even know why I’m doing this. I’m driving back to the site.

I found something. It’s not very detailed, but it’s a plan for a way to limit the spread of any escaped edited organisms. There are a lot of arguments on here… it looks like a conversation log. Something called a ‘forum’. The main points seem to be somebody asking how they should add a fail-safe to any mutant organisms. I see a lot of responses mentioning a “lysine dependency”... and then a lot more rebukes to that idea. There’s another point here though, if I open this folder… yes! The fail-safe I’ve noticed is here. The splicers actively avoid intermixing with native fauna.

This isn’t much to go on, but at least now I can attempt to trace the original asker to see any other comments they’ve made.

In the meantime, I can run a study on the populations here to see how many of them are clearly splicers, native, or mixed. That should give me a better idea of if the failsafe is working and whether it was necessary for the creators of the splicers. I mean, those things are aggressive so some measure of control would have been important no matter what, but there should’ve been a better way to contain them than preventing them from passing on the traits and hoping they die. Their edited genes are recessive anyway!

I don’t even understand how the populations would intermix. The old-world wolves I’ve seen and paddleclaws are so fundamentally different, I can’t imagine them living together. But then I come here and see them roaming through shallow waters, working together to hunt!

Maybe control of the organisms wasn’t the goal of the aversion to native life (which seems to not be working now regardless). It could be that splicers are more susceptible to hereditary diseases? They’ve inbred so much now in small groups that it’s a wonder they haven’t all- wait. Oh no. 

They can scramble their own genomes! It would explain so much- how female quickstrikes appeared from nowhere, how the inbreeding hasn’t killed them off, and how they’ve bypassed the aversion fault! And how the traits disappear so quickly in native populations! Their genetics can somehow adjust to the environmental pressures around them. But how would that even happen? It’s not like the genetics programs at the time were advanced enough to somehow add an auto-edit feature.

Maybe… maybe it wasn’t on purpose. If they were splicing so many different genes into one organism, some kind of ‘flexibility’ gene could have been implanted to keep the creature viable. And it mutated…? I need to do more research about the facility they were created in. And I need that blood sample more than ever now.

NOTE FROM VIEWER: hell, osah, if this theory turns out to be true, we’re in a lot more trouble than i thought. i’ll see you in a few days. stay safe.

See you next time, little carbon brick.

FILE DELETED.