Chimera Squad-era thought: venom donation, for more widespread development/distribution of nano/medikits? Similar to blood donation, but viper-specific, and probably a lot less of a rigamarole to get done (albeit, still comparably taxing-- venom is an "expensive" substance to synthesize in the body). Since we already milk snakes IRL to make antivenom, it'd make sense!
Which leads to question: if your viper/thin man OCs would be up for doing that whenever that gets set up in your verses, or if they can't be assed :'3
Hm, that’s an interesting thought. I can see it 50/50 depending on the Viper and their respective dens.
You’ll have those for it, and within those there may be a few as seeing it as a way of penance for what the Elders did or what they did while working for the Elders. Mindset will range from civilian to combat Vipers and if they were willing or unwilling under the Elders.
I imagine when things get worked out over the months and years, some decent kickbacks and incentives will be made for the donators.
Those that disagree with the donations will also have a wide range from those who will see it as exploitation of them and their bodies, do not want to go through the uncomfortable and taxing process, don’t care in general, or are in secret opposition to all the changes(want the Elders back).
Also see nearly all remaining Thinmen would be for it, especially those that didn’t get further modifications. I imagine their massive venom sac(s) crammed into their thin frame would get very uncomfortable. Also the same with any Viper that just produces too much venom!
Also, now I’m wondering if Thinmen and combat Vipers may have accelerated venom production… which would suck so much as that would be taxing on the body. Probably less on the unaltered/less altered as I can see them having multiple venom sacs compared to a thinman, and they could be interconnected allowing what’s in a reservoir-like sac to be transferred to the main sack for spitting.
And for my ocs? It’ll be mixed like the above.
Asherah, her children, and her den would be for it. She really views it as penance before the medical benefits. She tries not to strong arm her daughters and few sons into doing it, but does get judgey towards the ones that constantly skip out on it. She’s fine with them doing every few months, but lying about for a year gets you the look and talk.
You know, given the Elders' many mistakes wrt the aliens, the Chosen, and the invasion... how successful do you think the Avatar Project would've actually been, if it'd gone according to plan, in terms of keeping the Elders alive? Would it solve any issues with longevity (that is, would the Avatars be able to live as long as the Elders' original bodies, or do you think they'd inherit human mortality)? Reproduction? Or do you think the Avatar Project was doomed from the start, considering how frequently details would slip through the cracks in the Elders' other endeavors?
I'd see the Avatar project being a mixed success with it eventually failing or backfiring on the Elders at some point, but there are so many factors that could come into play.
Read more for this will be long.
How long will the new bodies last? I doubt they'd stop seeking ways to further modify them in and increase their psionic power (for that eventual foe they need to stop running from and fight) which they'd probably reach the point of their new bodies degrading the same way as their original ones did or something much worse. Also, who's to say their original DNA blended with humans(and everything else) won't also trigger issues down the line? Looking at you Warlock with how aged you look compared to your siblings, though he's a combo of however his conversion went and the gene editing, besides waaaaaaay to much psionic power being poured into him.
One thing that's always itched at my mind is how does the psionic possession work with how ever that gameverse views a conciseness and soul? Is it a permanent transfer over? Do they need to keep their original bodies still around and in permeant stasis so they can control their new bodies? Also, how the heck did they make the new bodies have zero conciseness or a weak one that they can override and fully erase? Do they have to constantly suppress the original personality or risk being shunted out or killed due to feedback?
Though I readily ignore that mobile game Legends due to several reasons, it did have a few interesting characters such as Specimen ZERO a.k.a. Void. Void ends up touching on the idea of a will already inhabiting the body. For one version of its creation, there was a clash when an Elder tried to inhabit it, causing the Elder to lose and a spontaneous unique conciseness to form for the Avatar. For another version of its creation, the Elders mind partially imprinted on it which eventually evolved into its own unique personality that resisted any future attempts to be controlled or erased.
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Edit: Misread mortality as morality, here’s the information for that I did in a follow up reblog post
Now for that mortality, probably would have a longer lifespan than a normal city and native(non-city) human. How long? Who knows since the carbon dating from EU/EW would be inaccurate for several reasons(and then XCOM not even getting a chance to do that with 2’s timeline). Could potentially see a few low hundreds. And probably the first sign of wear and tear that can’t be fixed they would jump to a new body and recycle the old one.
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Inherit human morality? Eh, no. Don't really view human DNA would do that to/for them at all. They seem too ingrained in their current ways to change(and feel like that would put too much of a special spin on human DNA.) It would probably take a massive epiphany via some massive loss that leaves them hurting badly for them to rethink their ways and then that is having to fight through how ever-long they've been settled in their self-righteous hypocritical ways for a minuscule shift to begin. Or the Verge epiphany, but, probably have to separate the Elders from each other so their hive mind doesn’t block out the empathy/sympathy they could learn from others.
Don't see them picking up human(or any other alien) reproduction. Building bodies like they do for the Hybrids would be most efficient and allow the upmost control and customization through the entire process. Maybe the Elders could explore parts of themselves they lost(not just reproductive)? Unless they purposely removed or rejected things for whatever issues.
I can see some things slipping out before the completion of the Avatar project to their alien forces which probably would get mixed reactions from those the like/worship them to those that hate them. Can see some slips that get to the human populace that would have to be constantly discredited to obfuscated with the propaganda machine, but eventually something would have to come out once the project in completed and the Elders would be moving on to... well whatever their next interest/mission is. Maybe "some" truth would come out when they establish whoever will the be "caretaker" of the Earth before they leave.
Though, I don't see the Elders abandoning Earth entirely, or leaving to fast(are their other Elder ships heading to Earth?) Humans were finally the perfect species they had been seeking so long. I can see them garrisoning the planet(and solar system) and further controlling the world and micromanaging humanity to the point their constant meddling would end up reshaping the species like they do for all the other species under their thumb.
There's also the "what if" of them doing the spite ending of turbo blending everyone in the Cities(and probably the controlled-settlements too) at those Gene Clinics when XCOM was causing too many problems. Which, man, that level of spite would bite them in the ass so hard.
Yeah, you want to give the Commander the middle finger and try and guilt-traumatize them to come back into your fold by harvesting a chunk of the already, decimated human race. And by doing that, you best have a really good way to store all that genetic material long term and hope however the harvesting went didn't damage some of it, or else your new bodies have a very limited shelf-life since you no longer have adequate amounts of that unedited (mostly) version of that species to harvest anymore!
And one cruelly hilarious thought, after everything they did to finally get their new bodies, what if they aren't enough to finally face that foe that they're running from? All that work only for it to end disastrously for them and all the others species they've dragged into the mess.
I probably have some other ideas that’ll come to me that I’ve forgotten and may make some future posts.
