I never explain where the TGer nanos came from and I don't really intend to, either. It can be seen as a deus ex machina situation (something from outside) and it's mostly about how people (and societies) end up having to cope with it.
By the way, "Tigger" is the pronunciation for "TGer", a host for the transgendering nanotech syndrome. The fact that a TGer's "energy" (emotional, physical and intellectual) goes up to match Pooh's Tigger in hyperactivity is just one more reason to call 'em that. This does not reflect either way on another author who uses the "tigger" nym, BTW; I didn't check to see if the "handle" was in use.
As has been used elsewhere, "enties" is an actively used word referring to NanoTechnic devices. As I answered one reader who remarked that I'd used the wrong word, I commented that the main reason "enty" hasn't be used is WNT... which, IMHO, should have been pronounced "WoN'T".
Some comments... I use "enties" here. Nano Technology was first posited (AFAIK) by Richard Feynman (his books, BTW, even those that don't cover "room at the bottom" are, IMHO, good reading) and later expanded and popularized by K Eric Drexler in his seminal work "Engines of Creation" which I've heard is now available for download as an e-bootk. Pedants could say that we shouldn't call 'em "enties" so perhaps "deedees" (for Drexlerian Devices) could be used. (As a side note, Drexler has been disappointed that the current efforts to use nanotechnology don't go anywhere near the capabilities he was expounding on in Engines of Creation.)
Back to the story line...
The first six months of the syndrome's experience didn't warn anyone of what was coming at the 6 month mark, so it started out as just a "Youth Bug"... which seemed like a fountain of youth.
Sure sounds good, don't it? But there's some small print attached. There is still no such thing as a free lunch.
At first blush it's just a "youth" bug that rejuvenates and reconstructs people, and looks like the greatest thing since biology was invented; however, the "Powers That Be" aren't all that thrilled letting just anybody get their youth back (and potential longevity that way).
And, in actuality, I'm implying that this bug does confer an extreme boost to potential life-span... with a price tag attached. So as much as people may get what they pay for, this bug is a case of paying for what you get.
The first examples in the "western" world were seen primarily in hospitals and even nursing homes given that the primary vector were some batches of IV bags. I don't go into any detail regarding alternate vectors.
As I discussed with another author working on a Tigger story he brought up some of the first-stage traits that I hadn't even considered as necessary.
First, there's somatic protection; the bug knows, roughly, what definately doesn't belong to it's host, so bacteria and virii are hunted down and eaten, for energy purposes which helps deal with a human in a weak condition along with reproducing more 'bots. Infections and their consequences (phlegm, edema, etc) will be resolved ASAP in order to improve the survivability of the new host.
That first stage of infection protects the body for all of the subsequent phases and settles in to study the new host.
These nanos (enties/nanovirii) need to coordinate their work and handle aberrations in the host (transplanted organs and prosthetics, for instance) so the host has to be mapped once the body is protected from recognizable pathogens; in effect, a supercomputer cluster is established in order to keep information as the enties map the genome to the existing somatic (body) structure.
There must be existing knowledge of a "basic" structure as implied in the story line (allowing quick response, etc) but there's still a lot of 'puting needed to map body versus genome. There's a whole process that hunts down any kind of retrovirus hidden within cellular DNA (At the same time some of the sequences that would help fuel the enties are inserted in appropriate cell types) in order to S&D hidden pathogens.
The most visible change can only take place after the mapping is completed and reconstruction has been planned.
Note that a large number of prostheses could delay the first reconstruction run-- it's a little hard to arrange to reject an artifical heart, for instance, or a plastic aorta, without a replacement in place. I have not yet entertained where a reasonable line would exist for the enties to give up on a host facing reconstruction. Some prosthetics cannot be worked around, for instance, without killing the host. I expect to negotiate this line when an author needs it for an actual story. (The mind boggles over what'd happen to the fictional Miles Vorkosigan should he face this "infection".)
Gross brain damage can be regenerated but the original "person" can't be. Depending upon the level of damage the host may need to re-learn everything as if from infancy. The good news is that this happens fast .
First reconstruction also ejects teeth that have cavities, it being somewhat easier to regen the tooth within the gums than to disturb the host with working "openly" within the active environment of the human mouth.
Missing limbs are easier but they require raw materials, so the host will have quite an appetite (which may take days to accumulate the materials) and the growth will happen slowly. It's impossible to regenerate limbs within minutes (or even hours) without some efforts at supportive care (cooling, for instance).
It is wise to note that regeneration/reconstruction has some important limits: regrowing a hand, for instance, does not mean it will be immediately usable without the host re-learning how to use it, so physical therapy will still be needed. (Think about the complications when a person has been blind or deaf for some time and has to re-learn how to understand what their eyes are seeing.)
So, after the main regen phase, things tend to stabilize for up to three months (from the first infection).
Why have I used a shower as the trigger for re-generation?
Cold water makes an effective coolant allowing the host to shed the heat of the transformation the enties are doing. (Jeff Rose had a rather more complex issue in his "New U"; you can probably find old copies on google groups.) Some kind of external coolant is needed when these machines are doing their work if it's going to be quick.
The reconstruction can proceed without a shower (or cold bath) as a cooling agent; the change will thus proceed much more slowly than otherwise since the host will be limited to the "unenhanced" human heat rejection mechanism (this is usually referred to as "sweat") which presupposes adequate hydration follow through. Thirst is not unreasonable to make someone stock up on water.
Obviously, the process can stall completely if the ability to dump heat isn't present... but the clock is still ticking for them. In effect, the machines will put things off. Deferred reconstruction assumes that they have up to three months to find the appropriate facilities.
Now it is possible for a newly infected female to be impregnated but this requires some unexpected conditions, to wit: the male must be newly infected (so that the first phase of somatic mapping isn't complete yet but he's already contagious) and the female must ovulate pretty much at the time of ejaculation.
The "youth bug" protects the already pregnant by working primarily in somatic support; a lot will depend upon how pregnant the female host is over how much regen can be done.
There are extra issues, of course.
This symbiote is designed to spread ... and spread widely.
So the sex drive gets pushed up. Male or female, sexual excitation seems to be "in-built", but the differences are far more intense for teen-agers.
The enties optimize for the "end of pubescence" as the target age for a host; while not at full size for an adult this is one of the "highest energy" states a human being can have (and still be sexually/reproductively functional). This age will vary from host to host.
There are some additional traits that females end up with: their nipples are bigger. It's a marker at the same time the feature acts as an attractant.
Teens (for some reason) have their sex drive pushed way up and the pheromone attractants are spread in order to lure an appropriate mate. Only by doing the best to satisfy this drive can the attractants be reduced (but not eliminated).
Those regenerated from adults also put out attractants but the time between satisfaction (even if only by hand) and the next ramp-up is longer. Apparently there was a recognition that youngsters can afford more time to fuck around.
(These pheromones are more effective on other Youth Bug hosts, see blue crisis, this helps pull the hosts together at a unified force. If some one is unsatisfied then the rest are more likely not to be satisfied.)
This first three months (up to the first "outside timed" green crisis) is one where former adults can, in effect, keep to their old sexual habits (or lack thereof).
If someone catches the bug during this first 3 month period they will face a "green crisis" unless they've been actively heterosexual.
Note: the enties will most easily spread by intimite sexual contact. It doesn't matter if it's heterosexual or even homosexual. Oral sex does it too.
The "green crisis" is the first kind of crisis a host will face; it won't happen for those who are active heterosexuals and, if it occurs, it's an indication that sexual contact must be dealt with immediately (if not sooner). To help survive the crisis a level of pheromones functioning as an attractant for the host will be, for the most part, overpowering. The sex drive of the host will also override all other concerns.
Identity is preserved in limited areas; eye color (iris pattern), retinal pattern, some key bones and fingerprints stay with the original. There are likely other identity factors I don't know of just yet that could be carried over.
Now for the hard part...
The first heterosexual contact is an "exchange". When there is coupling w/ one uninfected (and thus "unbound") host they will try to go twice so that the maps can be exchanged...
The couple is now "bound" for an exchange of shape. Over time their weights will slowly approach that of their exchanging partner.
Now a male, once bound to a female, can infect other females with impunity. A bound male can couple with an infected unbound female safely; females can stay unbound.
Males CANNOT stay unbound; at the time of a exchange they will go through it.
An unbound female infecting a male the first time will bond with him. A bound female may infect other males once she's been bound but the other uninfected males will lose their own form and take on the current shape of the infector.
So, let's say you have a hooker that gets infected and bound to an infected yet unbound male, so she (and he) will, in time, exchange shapes. A bound male would only infect the woman and the next uninfected (or unbound) male will bond them both. She's holding his shape as he's holding hers. Any subsequent "John" will take on her shape... but she won't take an imprint from them, so their shape is then lost... forever.
An infected (bound) male can infect multiple females without impact. An unbound male host will arrange an exchange with the first unbound (which includes uninfected) female he couples with. Subsequent females will then need to seek out a heterosexual (or repeat exposures) to maintain their heterosexual activity level.
There are some important exceptions, by the way.
For a person of a specific gender if there are NO indicators of the opposite gender around (i.e. "no fresh pheromone markers in the environment") the enties go latent in an unbound male. Once the markers are detected the timer will go off (so a male may be on a submarine with only other males for 3+ months but, upon exit to the regular air and (or) fresh pheromones, will turn green almost immediately).
Hosts must be heterosexually active in order to survive. In some ways this is a reward for being a host since even vanilla sexual contact will provide quite a reward and, over time, be conditioned in. Various kinks won't be as important but are unlikely to be selected against.
The enties protect the body, almost in a partnership. Life is extended... at a cost. One cost is that no-one can be a male for more than 3 months at a time. A close couple can flip back-and-forth every three months for as long as they want to, but, unless someone can stay female for 5 cycles (15 months) there is no opportunity to reproduce. This keeps a strictly monogamous couple from reproducing. Without at least two females in the relationship no one can avoid the exchange and so reproduction can't happen.
It can be argued that the extended lifespans conferred by the "bug" makes growth in the population inevitable, though this is counter-balanced by the basic reduction in fertility. Only when a female member of a "family" stays female for almost a year and a half can menstruation ensue and conception be possible.
Now for another twist. This bug give preferential treatment to female children.
The original gender of hosts matters when the gender of any offspring are being considered. When forming gametes the original host genome is used, but with a little twist: no Y-carrying sperm will ever be produced. Oddly enough, Y-carrying eggs may be produced.
How's that for a kick in the head? An o-female (originally female host) can be male and will not be filtered, so all of the sperm produced has the varying X chromosomes the original carried. An o-female as a male can fertilize an o-female who's female but the child will be female.
An o-male as a female can produce eggs of either X or Y but the probability of making a male zygote is only 50%. The problem is that the first ovulation of an o-male as a female has his X in it, then the second will have his Y with subsequent ovulations alternating the ability to make a male or female.
So only an o-male, as long as "he" has been in female form for long enough, can produce a son. Most o-males in the "first wave" will be pretty iffy about staying female long enough much less getting pregnant given social conditioning predating the youth bug.
So the deck is stacked against making males. The deck is also stacked against keeping males. One would almost be able to believe this was cooked up by radical feminists EXCEPT for the fact that heterosexual contact must occur to survive.
One of the primary consequences is that the male phase may be a smaller and smaller part of the population but the need for males will remain... and so "male management" will be needed in the far future to maintain a level of male phases in the population above, say, the 1/4 mark.
I would suspect an o-male would not mind being female up to half the time; the value of having male-phase tiggers goes up. While masculinity may be more valued it is impossible to hold on to.
Children infected with the bug will face somatic protection but no further reconstruction until they reach their "optimum age" unless there are other stressors that require further management of the host's health. Pubescent newly infected hosts, short of their cusp "optimal age", will be pushed forward if infected sexually. So a child may jump, from, say, 10 or 12 years old to their body shape/mass as it would be at 13-17, depending upon their "optimal age".
Somatic protection hasn't been discussed in depth up until now but it's a subject that can face some debate. That being said, I'll express some of my ideas here. Note that tiggers make awful targets and abuse/torture was obviously considered by someone when it was created.
The enties, even latent, are working to protect their host. Pathogens will be eaten right away. You can bet that any parasites are toast, too, so worms and the like can't stick around for any time. New invasions/infections can't even get started . The immune system is also kept up to date, never being rendered inactive by the enties.
Injuries will be analyzed and protective measures will tend to evolve if injuries are repeated. Stress and strain injuries will tend to bulk up muscle tissue (so body builders and athletes will be able to optimize their body structure for specific purposes) but habitual impact and penetrative injuries tend not to be tolerated for long.
Smack someone around who has somatic protection via these enties enough and they'll end up with a layer of fibers in their skin to distribute the impact and reduce the likelihood of bruises. Keep up the abuse and these measures will escalate. Cutting makes skin that can't be cut because it's laced with flexible diamond fibers. While torture can be made worse through these enties (because of an ability to heal in defense against one aspect while there are others) the ultimate defense is a good offense.
Imagine someone who's somatic protection decides that more active measures are necessary and has the power to build damn near anything. Beyond a certain point the host will be written off and the detonation will be pretty impressive.
So you don't abuse a tigger. If you do you learn not to. If you refuse to learn and choose to push it you won't be around for much longer to do it in the future.
It is rather difficult to kill a full tigger and will be dangerous to succeed. There are checks and balance to ensure the enties aren't being used to abuse a human.
If, for instance, one attempts at a slow killing of a tigger... the people doing it won't know what happened but the clean-up crew will wonder how a bomb that big was delivered. (See blue crisis.)
Explosions, crushes, anything that acts on the whole body in one blow will kill a tigger outright without triggering an apocalypse. It can be argued that any sudden death that disorganizes the body quickly won't do much damage.
If a tigger is killed in such a way that the body is mostly intact, that body is still a dangerous object to be around. The enties will use the body of the dead tigger and build new means to spread themselves to new hosts via far more aggressive means than "normally" implemented.
These nano agents can be hard to stop: Many of the ways we already use to sterilize biological agents won't impact the enties active efforts to spread.
Why is the Youth Bug not in its highly infections form all if the time? Spreading aggressively takes a lot of the resources that it must take from its host and the entie is trying to minimize the initial impact of the infection on the new host.
Consider that the enties are capable of some "intelligence" in circumventing protection mechanisms.
You shouldn't try to kill tiggers or you'll end up with a lot more.
The enties don't like drugs but alcohol is a treat for them but does the host no good. Alcohol will be seized upon as a fuel for the enties and will be consumed. Waste from an entie network will have a side effect of forcing pain and discomfort which will decondition the host from trying it again. Note that small amounts of alcohol (say wine, beer, etc) will be completely harmless since the enties won't have to burn through a large quantity.
If alcohol use continues despite deconditioning events the entie network will assume external attack. External attacks are not appreciated, BTW, so the protocol changes. Alcohol provides useful raw materials by which to develop weapons.
Other drugs, especially psychoactive, will be ditched quite directly. Anything discovered to destabilize the brain will be recognized, analyzed and rejected. Again, any repeated intake will bring the enties to the conclusion that the host is under attack.
Note that some effort is made to optimize the environment of the human brain so that various neuro-transmitter based psychological problems will, for the most part, be dealt with.
There's another crisis that can happen, but it's AFTER the first exchange has happened. I've not written about it yet but someone may want to beat me to it.
Let's assume a tigger goes through an exchange but doesn't have heterosexual contact within the 90-day window (male or female) before the next exchange cycle (though as a female no exchange may happen despite heterosexual contact but a male must exchange) the Blue Crisis will kick in up to a week before the exchange cycle would occur.
A blue tigger is dangerous and an indication that there is a need for those around them to arrange a partner. (The pheromones will help the host in finding/arranging a partner for an exchange.)
The enties also forms a highly infections agent once there are three days left on the clock until the green crisis for new hosts. As long as the contact occurs before they start to turn aquamarine the host (and those around) will be safe. Note: that this can only happen if a suitable partner is near enough to be sensed, otherwise the enties go latent. The latency will be shed at the first sense of a suitable partner.
An aquamarine tigger is pretty much already dead; the final detonation (and scattering of the enties to infect and, in effect, "punish" those who would try to "kill" a tigger by ensuring more tiggers are created) is apparently engineered.
A Tigger in the military is uncomfortable; with the active suppression of sexuality, a male soldier won't stay male. In some ways military formations will end up predominantly female as 100% tigger units get formed.
Female tiggers as troops are far more dangerous to normal males sexually.
You don't isolate tiggers unless you want to piss 'em off. If isolated but exposed to fresh pheromones from an appropriate partner the "Blue Crisis" will be triggered.
A simple pair of tiggers who can flip back and forth are the minimum "unit" that should be deployed-- to space or wherever.
Tiggers are slightly less tolerant of high-temperature conditions that "normals"; while extended exposure will cause the enties to become less active in order to minimize the stress on the host as they "go latent". There will be warnings (escalating discomfort, etc) to discourage the continuation of thermal stress.
Tiggers, given enough fuel (i.e. food) are more comfortable and effective in lower temperatures. While dancing naked in the snow is still a bad idea a tigger's enties will help in generating heat.
Never cook a tigger. Tiggers die destructively.
Tiggers can exercise to build up muscles to cover their work (and play). Tigger athletes will always be able to build up an advantage against "normals" so, in effect, will end up disqualified to compete with normals.
Note that all enhancements are lost on an exchange, so males who've pushed their physical condition will lose it on the exchange. Only females who are active yet don't make an exchange can retain enhanced musculature for more than 3 months.
It would seem likely that tiggers will, over time, get a bit more extreme in sports. Those who live for an adrenalin high will end up pushing the envelope until they find an injury that the enties can't fix. Skiers, for instance, will work their way to the "most dangerous" slopes.
Sadly, these people can still be dangerous to others.
There is a metabolic penalty for somatic protection (at the very least) and regeneration. The exchange also imposes some fairly extreme demands upon the host undergoing the transformation.
It starts out with a higher demand for oxygen. The appetite goes up as well and the ability to tolerate "marginal foods" is improved. A tigger can't get Montezuma's Revenge.
A hungry enough tigger can eat almost anything; it's only the mind interpreting input from the taste buds that might cause problems. The enties can, when they (and the host) are desperate enough (and with usable albeit unappetizing food supplies) cause the host to not pay any attention to what is being eaten.
If a tigger host is too fussy an eater the taste buds will report less and less and the appetite will grow so the host will be conditioned to be more tolerant.
Over time the tiggers within a family will tend to converge on a specific weight, if at all possible, to cut down on the reconstruction impact of an exchange. A short host will get taller to meet height "in the middle" with the host they are bound to.
Don't feed tiggers to animals. It pisses off the enties and they might get even. Or maybe more so.
Consider that something like a Bear may try to consume parts of a Tigger it's just "killed". Somatic protection shuts things down to protect the memories of the host while it decides what happened and what to do about it.
Don't eat a tigger. Or parts of a tigger.
If a reasonable portion of the brain's "backup image" is intact the tiggers will work on the consumer inside-out and re-construct the tigger from the animal's flesh... killing the animal. A lot of the flesh will be vaporised to carry off the heat of transformation.
Never forget to bring marshmellows. It'll probably look like spontaneous combustion. The Romans would have had to invent Marshmellows for their events...
$Log: writing-bout-TGers.x,v $
Revision 1.6 2004/10/30 14:11:30 jcl
Added some clarification and fixed some "poor phrasing".
Revision 1.5 2004/10/10 02:44:07 jcl
revised following input from "The Dyslexic One".
revision 1.4 locked by: jcl;
date: 2004/10/05 01:04:55; author: jcl; state: Exp; lines: +11 -2
more clarification.
revision 1.3
date: 2004/10/05 00:43:47; author: jcl; state: Exp; lines: +140 -77
clean-up and clarification.
revision 1.2
date: 2004/10/04 04:19:05; author: jcl; state: Exp; lines: +8 -6
fixed a section title and some minor (humorous) content
revision 1.1
date: 2004/10/04 04:07:05; author: jcl; state: Exp;
Initial revision
If you would like me to respond to your comments, you need to provide a return e-mail address.
Why provide feedback? Feedback is the lifeblood of authors here on asstr-mirror.org; we don't get paid in any currency beyond hits on the pages and feedback from our readership. Encouragement, questions, critiques, typos... as a reader you may be surprised how much your words mean to us.
It is a good feeling to know my words have been read ... and enjoyed.
If the above does not work for you, try: ASSTR Msg Form
Author: Jack C Lipton Title: Tigger Stories - A Writer's Guide Part: Universe: tigger Summary: Keywords: Revision: $Revision: 1.6 $ Archive: http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/CupaSoup/www/ Mailing List: FAQ: RCS: $Id: writing-bout-TGers.x,v 1.6 2004/10/30 14:11:30 jcl Exp $