Subject: Huh.
Author:
Posted on: 2010-06-26 06:24:00 UTC
I appear to have been the first person on the Internet to use the term "ontovore."
Subject: Huh.
Author:
Posted on: 2010-06-26 06:24:00 UTC
I appear to have been the first person on the Internet to use the term "ontovore."
Note: I do not have Permission yet, so I assume this is non-canon.
Herein, I present the theory regarding Sues, Glitter, their lifecycle, their biology, and their origins that I've been nursing for months.
Glitter is a hexagonal, organometallic molecule made of a unobtainium-gold ring with complex organic-phlebotnium chains extending from the unobtainium vertices. Within the ring is a extremely massive pseudoparticle, known as a Suvion, formed from a particle-like "knot" of Canon Energy and a quantum plothole.
Glitter comes in two forms- "circulatory" and "neural." "Circulatory" Glitter cycles through the bloodstream, picking up Canon Energy from an extra organ located within- indeed, mostly replacing- the frontal lobe of the brain (normally associated with, among other things, abstract thought). This organ, composed mostly of a solid crystal of Glitter, parasitically strips Canon Energy from the host continuum. Suvians are ontovores - they feast on the very fabric of reality itself.
The "circulatory" glitter then passes through the rest of the body, joining up with the oxygenated blood from the normal circulatory system. (It is worth noting, at this point, that energized Suvian blood bears a distinctive Urple sheen, reminiscent of the red displayed by oxygenated human blood.) The Glitter passes it's Canon Energy to the rather misnamed "neural" glitter.
Although the structure of Glitter is optimized, in all cases, to pick up and discharge Canon Energy from the central Suvion, both kinds of Glitter have slightly different structures. In "circulatory" Glitter, the structure of the phlebotnium-carbon chains is optimized for stabilization and storage of Canon Energy. In "neural" Glitter, the structure is optimized for what might be called communication.
The Suvian body is, in it's essence, a mass of Glitter- everything else is merely camoflage. The "neural" glitter, in large agglomerations, displays a sort of intelligence- the discharges of energy between individual nGlitter molecules scale up to act like a neural network- a sort of brain. In a Suvian, the process in taken to full scale, creating a sentient, although very crude, organism. This neural network can rearrange itself to create "virtual circuits" that direct and shape Canon Energy to create a body, and to alter reality to produce "speshul" powers.
This body really doesn't "function" at all. The closest analogue would be the Starship Titanic, from Life, The Universe, and Everything- it looks like biology, but could never actually function if not supported by the frame of leached Canon Energy. The whole Suvian body is, in medical fact, a giant mass of cancer cells, a tumor both literally and figuratively.
It is this pseudobiology that leads to the weird and inconsistent results of many DMSE&R reports. For instance, the biologically impossible, unworkable, and frankly bizarre genetic code reported in the most recent report is due to the fact that Suvian heredity is not genetic- but memetic.
Suvian heredity is actually carried in the form of memory, memes stored in the neural network of the Suvian brain. Concepts, character traits, backstory, appearance...these ideas are what the Suvian neural network bases it's constructed body on.
The method by which this memetic code is passed on is as strange as the whole of Suvian biology itself. A Suvian's life begins as a mass of glitter, floating in a nourishing, oily mist of complex, and rather implausible, organonarrative compounds. The Suvian then assembles the memetic fragments it is left with into a genetic code- and using it to assemble itself a body.
(Incidentally, Author-Wraiths and Posession-Sues are actually made of this mist- they are Sues who failed to fully form and instead embedded their Glitter network in the body of a canon character.)
(As another aside, Suvians also have only the glitter they were left with at birth to work with- their Canon Energy is of a sufficiently low grade that they cannot manufacture Unobtainium. This means that the more complex and 3-dimensional a Suvian's memetic code is, the more fraction of their Glitter must be converted to "neural," so less is left over for the "circulatory" side, so the lower degree of "speshulness" the Sue has.)
Anyway, as the Suvian matures and moves through the plotline, it continually leaches canon energy out of the story. It charges some of this in their cGlitter, until eventually it builds up to the point where the Suvions can no longer contain the Canon Energy. They become unstable, until they spontaneously fission- using up all their Canon Energy and destroying their cGlitter to create a one-way plothole to World One. Their false body recycled into Canon Energy to feed the vortex, they are left in a state identical to a Posession Sue- a state that we refer to as a "Plotbunny."
These "Plotbunnies" live for only twenty-four hours on the cGlitter powering their neurons, as they lack the cGlitter required to gather energy- rather similar to a butterflies' adult form. They must find a human mind in the right state (the weaker ones must choose one in a state of insomnia, drug, or boredom-induced delirium), and latch onto it, integrating their Glitter network into the brain and using up their last vestige of power to fire the right neurons before they die. Their memetic code now injected into the host through a form of literal, virus-esque Mind Rape, it combines with the host's existing memetic network to produce a fetal Suvian through a process referred to as "Inspiration."
Once the idea has reached a certain state of development-always far less than would be medically wise- it is "born" by escaping through creative pathways in the human mind- the same ones normally used in full Authors to create whole new continua. As the average Suvian lacks the power to do that (in most cases- see Eragon and Twilight) it simply forces the author to write fanfiction, giving birth to it in an existing continuum.
Looking over this lifecycle, it is clear that Suvians are degenerate, lower forms of the purely-memetic lifecyles of the average canon character. It is my personal theory that they evolved in some forgotten shlock sci-fi continuum, an aborted story that failed to fully blossom. These conditions would be ideal for the formation of a primordial Suvian- abundant free Phlebotnium and Unobtainium, plotholes galore, active complexes of memes colliding and reacting..
There is still more evidence for this theory- the birth of modern Fanfiction (and with it, Suvians) occured in the Original Series Star Trek continuum- one whose tangled skein of contradictory canon was ripe with the plotholes needed to transport one fatal mass of Glitter into an unsuspecting continuum. Perhaps some fatal plothole opened up between the worlds, spurred by the links that Star Trek shared with almost all SF- yet more evidence for the theory.
Anyway, having left all their natural predators behind in whatever aborted world they came from, and faced with a multiverse infinitely richer in Canon Energy than the tattered scraps of their unheard-of, unread, unwatched, abandoned pseudo-continuum- they multiplied, like a virus or a cancer (although some tolerable, and even good, OCs went with them). And thus, all of modern Fanfiction, and the scourge of Suvians, were born.
(By the way, do I get a point for using "meme" and "memetic" in the content and meaning for which they were intended?)
"A nourishing, oily mist of complex, and rather implausible, organonarrative compounds." Hormones, perhaps? Sues tend not to exist in brains capable of much logical thought, which Lustin certainly seems to hinder. It's especially applicable if you follow the theory that authors have a fundamental difference from non-authors, a sort of "narrative complex" if you will... I forget where I found this theory, but it certainly sounded plausible.
If the Sueness of a character is determined by the amount of nGlitter over the amount of cGlitter, then couldn't this be a theory of all OCs, including canons? Good OCs are simply Sue-like organisms with a high amount of nGlitter, and therefore less cGlitter and "speshulness". Although, there would be a threshold where the amount of nGlitter overwhelms the amount of cGlitter, turning the OC into a boring lump of matter with no individuality whatsoever, good for little more than a bit part.
On the other hand, my theory has some vaguely blasphemous principles--it suggests that some of the best canons (Tolkien, for example) are merely populated with relatives of the creatures we despise, only differentiated by a chemical imbalance. Ah well--such is science.
On the other hand, there would be a defining point at which the amount of nGlitter over the amount of cGlitter is too small, and we could clearly define "This is a Sue," "This is not a Sue." Ah, that would be glorious...
That actually was included in my original theory (and, as you note, implied in the current one), but I dropped it because the same "vaguely blasphemous principles" probably wouldn't fit with the PPC.
The Suvion is a Quasiparticle, not a pseudoparticle.
Congratulations!
If not, I propose that a page be made using this magnificently-written thesis.
Bravo, Mr Eldritch. Bravo indeed.
Let me see...
http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/ScientificTheoryofSuvianOrigins
http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/SueLatinNames
http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/TheSuvianProteome
http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/TheSpectrumofSuvianSpecies
http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/Experiments
More theories would be great! Make up a good title and post it on the wiki. Put it in the "PPC Science" and "Theories and Conspiracies" categories.
Come to think of it, the Sues-as-parasites idea that was discussed here last month really needs to go up on the wiki, too. I should get to work on that.
I think this works really well. It explains everything from the variance in Sue-species to Sue-wraiths to how writers call them into being. I love the application of faux-science, and yes, I think you get points for using "meme" and "memetic" properly. ^_^
I'm not sure about Suvians having any original homeworld, though. I feel that the potential for them exists everywhere, but the concentration of Canon Energy generated by Authors on World One is why so many come from here.
I wonder, though, how the element Narrativium might play into this theory. Is that perhaps another name for the Canon Energy you describe? Or not, since Suvians could be said to produce very low levels of Narrativium by causing the existence of stories? Or is that just a side effect, not something they actually do?
~Neshomeh
Narrativium and Canon Energy really are one and the same- I simply didn't use the word "Narrativium," as it implies a chemical element, which would not work with my theory.
And low-circulatory-Glitter 'Sues actually do put out more Narrativium than they put in by acting as nucleation points of stories- it's the high-cGlitter Suvians that damage the host continuum continuum by stripping more Narrativium from the plot fabric than they put out.
In short, some Suvians are parasitic, but symbiotic relationships exist.
Login button fail.
This theory is pretty good, I think, and also rather complex too. Nice work.
However, I'm afraid its mechanics wouldn't work very well with the PPC continuum.
Interesting. And somehow - I don't know. But to me at least, it makes sense if you ignore a few laws of physics, accept the Suvion, and live in HQ. I do not really think this theory would be considered seriously in World One, but aside from that... ?
Nice! :)
I appear to have been the first person on the Internet to use the term "ontovore."