[BlueAngel]

I'm working on a short story, but need a plot suggestion to finish it. I started this one from scratch, no planning, and my brain isn't cooperating.

Here's the synopsis of what I have so far.

A chimera (human with added animal genes) turned thief is remembering the childhood friends (twin brothers) who saved her from a life of starvation and homelessness, and the moment they were separated. Its been years, and now she has a dangerous job, and her desire to see them again is getting stronger.

I'm thinking of having the brothers involved in the job a somehow, and maybe one of them being killed off. Not sure how to put things together yet though.
I was also thinking of having her fall in love with one of the twins, too. That could also make some interesting trouble.

Suggestions are appreciated. :D

~Angela

[BlueAngel]

Okay, I've written a bit more since my last post. The thing she's been hired to steal is a batch of drugs related to gene therapy. One of the brothers has gotten there first, and only just realized that his rival is his lost childhood friend.

The drugs themselves are needed for augmented humans like him and his brother, without it they can't maintain their altered bodies.

Any thoughts?

[PeteMC]

I'm not quite sure what you're asking really - why don't you write what you outlined above, and see what happens?

[BlueAngel]

I'm asking about what the drugs would be doing exactly to help someone maintain health of a genetically augmented body. What kinds of symptoms or sicknesses would they succumb to without a certain maintaining factor contained within said drug?

I apologize for not being clearer before.

I'll post what I have written soon in the stories section, I just wanted to get a better understanding of the drug's purpose and how to make it plausible.

[Aneurin de Batz]

I'm guessing you're looking more at supplementals or something, unless the augmentation had somehow damaged the immune system.

One of the key problems with GM things at present is the imperfect process, which results in genetic weaknesses that leave them more prone to disease, and also problems in hormone and enzyme production.

So, your characters could maybe be after a cocktail of immune boosters, or some kind of treatment for a genetic condition - maybe mood stabilizers to deal with personaility issues arrizing from hormone imbalances - all sorts of enzymes like carbohydrases, proteases, or Insulin because the body can't produce them on it's own.

To swing off at a slight tangent, maybe the process has caused degeneration of muscle tissues (triggered by reduced cell replication - the opposite of cancer) that requires micomachine therapy to rebuild the tissues as they degrade, but require constant careful maintenence to avoid overproduction and underproduction.

That help at all?

[BlueAngel]

Yes, thank you. :) Are there any decent sources online or otherwise to read up on this kind of stuff? Just so I can get the facts straight. :rolleyes:

[PeteMC]

Right, I see what you mean now. I think Aneurin's pretty much answered the question then - a living organism is so incredibly complicated that I assume if you mess with the config of any of it, you're going to have a whole host of other things that need constant attention to keep it all working (I am so not a scientist!).

Some sort of nanotechnology maybe, regular injections of micro-machines that can manufacture the missing enzymes/hormones within the body, or repair cell structures as they break down, or something like that?

[Aneurin de Batz]

GCSE/Highschool (depending on whether you're from the UK or the US) biology stuff will describe the basic process of gene substitution - although maybe not in the detail you want.

Also, some university and college websites have lecture recordings posted on their websites - not all, mind you, but some. MIT used to have some, though I can't find them at the moment.

Try Google Books as a source, and if you have the patience or are interested enough, the Royal Society in London will have some scientific papers, as will things like the Linnean Society.


A problem you might run into with research, however, is that we're not really sure how genes influence each other - they all seem interconnected in bizarre ways that are hard, if not impossible, to predict. In other words; mess about with genes and all sorts of things could happen.

[MisterKeitel]

You need a villain, a sidekick for the protagonist to talk to and a goal. So, lets say these animal-human hybrids are the end-result of illegal testing by big pharma corporation in a search for wonder drugs in and age when killer virus plagues are ravaging humanity. It's an age when the general populace is paranoid about disease, kind of like the US was about terrorists a few years ago, and about communists before then, and how they were afraid of blacks, jews and asians before then. So, the drug companies creates these highly disease resistant freaks. But some of them escape the compound and have to live underground and criminals in a world that both outlaws their existence and purses them for their medical benefits. So, your protagonists has to break into the heart of a corporate lab for some mugguffin that will save the world. One of the brothers is her partner and love interest, but the other twin is now a bounty hunter working for the US fedgov tracking down other freaks, kind of like Decker in Bladehunter or the Jew Hunter in Inglorious.

[BlueAngel]

Thank you PeteMC, and MisterKeitel. Plenty of help. :) The ideas are flowing better now. ;)