Subject: Re: I think we can agree...
Author:
Posted on: 2009-04-30 05:01:00 UTC
So long as you recognise that actually makes a Sue and a half (and I dread to think which half) I'm sure she'd be happy to let you wear her hat.
I was talking with Cassie, and the question of Sue organs came up. We know how a Sue looks externally. But, has anyone done an autopsy on a Sue? Are there any internal organs on a Sue? Or any extra ones? How is their brain chemistry different from normal ones?
Also, in the name of Agent Naomi, if the internal workings of Sues are different, what non lethal poisons are there that will humiliate them?
a half finished dissection of the 'Sue to go with the microbiology of the 'Sue piece I had. I'll have to dig it out.
It was most scholarly and had a lot about the Sue Brain structure.
I don't know if it would do any internal damage, but you could always try sulfur mustard, also known as mustard gas. it causes horrendous burns. that would be very humiliating to a Sue. or if you are aiming for long term unconsciousness you could use EA-3167, which would cause the victim to remain unconscious for several days with a very small dose(injected into the bloodstream). or, again, for burns or blisters, Lewisite. I would imagine it would have a similar affect to the mustard gas.
While he's not an expert on biology (he's a History major/English minor), he has at one point (largely out of frustration) conducted impromptu brain surgery on a Sue with particularly bad grammar and a tendency towards chatspeak.
Surprisingly, she DID have a brain, but not much of one. The entirety of the brain was shrunken and pretty sickly-looking, but the left hemisphere was considerably more so than the right. Which makes sense, considering that the left-brain is typically associated with analytical functions, and those parts of language relating to proper grammar.
I've found a Sue, who, after being subjected to torture which involved burning her eyeballs out with a hot sword, somehow managed to regrow said eyeballs, despite being full-blood human and coming from a continuum which follows Real World laws of physics and biology. Her eyes are now solid crimson, she has heat-vision, and she can replay past events on her retinas.
Would the DoMSE like said eyeballs recovered for research purposes?
Randomly regrowing eyeballs, rolling around? Dangerous. So of course you should try! :D
... stinging nettle poison might do for our purpose. Watch 'em twitching while they're trying to be cool :)
So...an acetylcholine/formic acid/histamine/serotonin cocktail?
Would any researchers be interested in blood samples from somewhat exotic Sues? Given the proper gathering equipment, my agents could arrange to get their hands on some.
That's not organs, I know, but it is biology. What makes someone live for longer? *didn't do past GCSE biology* I wonder if their bodies decompose at the same rate as a human... And probably shouldn't be wanting to test that now.
Also, on livers and alcohol, there doesn't seem to be an in between between "total lightweight" and "never, ever drunk", so clearly some of them are just defective.
I'd say that they don't absorb calories in the same way as a human either. Maybe the shrunken stomach like WikiMaster suggested, or maybe it's something to do with the intestines.
That means that some may have stomachs that function the same way as humans, although the fact that they stay thin even after they 'give up their bad habit' may mean that this is a red herring. Also, there are indications that their reproductive systems function differently than those of humans. The lack of menustration whih I mentioned in the other post is only one of them. For example, almost no genetic defects relating to looks and personality traits are passed down Suvian children.
Also, it's possible that the Glitter in the Sue's blood is a mutagen tied to the author's will. This explains why Increasing or Decreasing the level of it adds to Suvian charactheristics (Intelligentpetin and other substances may also have an effect). Since the consensus is that Marysues are non-sentient, it could also mean that the glitter can prevent sentience from forming, although it can create an imitation of the soul(purposefully made to be sucked out to advance the story's 'plot
). I make no definite conclusions, however.
...Glitter prevents sentience, but it creates imitations of souls...?
I spy a bit of a bias here.
What I mean is, several fanfics show Sues having souls that are sucked out and eaten by their designated enemies. Since many people think that Sues are non-sentient (this is my weakest point), those sould could possibly be imitations, especially since a majority of Sues belong to worlds where sentience=soul(like LOTR).
Ah, much better clarification. Thank you.
Of course, we could have a long and rambling and ultimately pointless argument about whether a canon who believes himself to have a soul actually has one, or whether he's simply mistaken, since for them to exist, even in a Word World, a lot of Science has to go right out of the window. But I'll grant that there's certainly something, be it a soul, a spirit, a mind, or just an emergent feature of a working human brain, that can be sucked out, for example, by Dementors.
As for Sues' lack of sentience, I'm not convinced on that one yet. They are able to communicate with Agents, after all, and it's not known whether the Suethor constantly has her attention on her fic. And if the Suethor's not paying attention and hasn't written her Sue interacting with Agents, then presumably that interaction is of the Sue herself's volition. And I can see this ending up drawing a lot of parallels with artificial intelligence, so I shall stop there for now.
I can accept that. Of course, the Sue interacting with the Agents sent to kill it may have been because it was temporarily transferred to the control of another author. Of course, that raises uncomfortable questions for the Agents, especially those who can see the words beyond the words. I'm going to stop now.
...What? I can steal Trojie's hat if I want to. :P
How long you live is determined by your cells' ability to regenerate, if memory serves. They keep replacing themselves throughout your life but as you get older they get less good at it. That's a really bad way of explaining it, but most of the details are buried in either a) the back of my brain or b) one of my books downstairs which I can't be bothered to go get. But basically if your cells could always regenerate perfectly then, barring illness, you could live pretty much forever.
Decomposition is more about bacteria and such eating you when you're dead. Would bacteria like the taste of Sue? Can bacteria discriminate like that? Could Sues perhaps be poisonous to bacteria? Or extra tasty? Who knows.
At a guess I'd say the only nourishment they take from normal human food is the sugar (for that special saccharine sparkliness), and possibly such things as aspartame and monosodium glutamate. So unless they're living on chocolate and junk food, calorie intake would be minimal, thus explaining the gaunt physique.
Also on the drinking front, the idea of getting absolutely trashed as a means of being sociable and not to facilitate angst is clearly utterly alien.
However, there's no theory yet that covers the composition of their 'soft parts'. Sorry!
They are less important to the regular maintenance of the body than ours are; judging by the fact that 'natural' Marysue deaths take very long, with few exceptions. Also, the majority of badfics indicate that Sues have hearts (To be pirced through by arrows to produce a 'tragic death'), lungs (to scream at the top of), and stomachs (though they may be shrunken, in order to preserve the Sue's thin body). They also seem to be unable to menustrate, even though they can get pregnant at an alarming rate. It is unknown if those are related.
They get pregnant easily yet don't bleed? That sounds awfully familiar... *sigh* Send them over, this sounds like one for the DMpreg. *hefts bell, book, candle and debugger*
In fact, story reasons may override any suvian charatheristics as long as the Author demands it. That further strengthens the theory that Glitter is tied to the will of whoever runs the story. Since Semi-Suvian OC's have only been recruited when the Author's attention is removed from them, that could mean that if the Sue could be cut off from it's Author's baleful influence (through Glitter withrawal or the severing of the mystical link itself), it can gain non-suvian traits, like sentience and common sense. Of course, only a few main characters and many side ones have only been cut off from Authorial influence, so I can't say for sure.
But the Sue is herself often a manifestation of the author. If the link between author and Sue is severed, could the Sue survive? Surely she would be as a body without a brain, in the absence of the will that commands her?
Of course, one could make the argument that the latter already have brains, as an unintended consequence of the story. As for the former, a change in the authorial influence may have generated brains for them. However, I don't know how it happens. any theories?
That Sues are already bodies without brains. Pure lust creatures, really. Will, however, may be another issue.
I'm wondering if perhaps the Glitter that's in the blood is in fact some sort of active chemical/biological ingredient that swirls around an otherwise mostly-normal body (except in the case of half-unicorn, half-elf, half-human Sues) and causes these bizzare changes...
Think Trojie's hat would fit me?
The question is, where does the potency come from? Is it because the Glitter is the embodiment of authorial will, or just connected to it? We cannot ignore the role of the author in the formation of the sue.
There is another question, however. What happens when a reasonable OC gets transferred into the control of a Suethor, or a Sue is transferred into the control of a Goodfic author? Do brains just degrade or develop instantly? In the latter cases, where would the barain develop from?
I've wondered that myself...seeing as it turns out that I'm not the only one tackling the "Blue Soap."
And it's 'brain'.
So long as you recognise that actually makes a Sue and a half (and I dread to think which half) I'm sure she'd be happy to let you wear her hat.
Or, at least, that was the general consensus last time I checked.