What would happen if...(internal foreign objects in TF)

[Celestialwolf]

Not to resurrect an old thread, but this hit close to home, cumulusprotagonist. My little sister was born with a curvature in her back (scoliosis) and had an operation to insert titanium rods into her back this summer. These are a special type where every six months she will need another operation where they will literally ratchet the rods up a few notches to compensate for her natural growth (she is 5 right now). She is doing surprisingly well and looks so normal! We were truly blessed! If anyone wants to know more on the story, PM me.

As for how that relates to werewolves and shifting, once my werewolves are bitten, their bodies are healed of most any physical defects that could exist (I haven't thought of any exceptions yet). Also, when they shift, any foreign objects are expelled from the body. This is true of medical devices such as tooth fillings, rods, joint replacements; the same goes for bullets, implanted tracking chips, wood slivers, what have you. While it may be painful in some cases as the objects get removed, it's definitely necessary for werewolves and better than the alternative.

[Vagrant]

I actually like that outlook, Celestial.

Since my Werewolves are special to me, and since they're pretty much borne of a benign extraterrestrial nanotech virus, I saw no reason why the people who bestowed these gifts upon them would actually make them suffer.

(I was rather amazed to find out that Scott actually had a similar background for his Werewolves too, that was fun.)

The thing is, the people responsible for Werewolves in my tales are very benign, they can't interrupt the flow of a Planet's evolution, but every once in a while they'll do something helpful, this'll be based upon their own rules. They may kidnap a Scientist and implant most of the key elements for a cure to cancer into his subconscious, so it wouldn't come out right away but it would appear as though he'd figured it out. Things like that. They're pretty fun.

Werewolves was one of the things they did, too, and being the benevolent curators that they are (or try to be, they have screwed up a few times), they wouldn't add something that would necessarily cause suffering. After all, they're trying to bring joy and relief to the World (and many others) without stunting its cultural progression, causing people to suffer isn't something they'd want.

So as you said, my Werewolves would also heal any illnesses, they also happen to either be immortal or possessed of very long lifespans (they're not sure, yet). They can die though, the way most creatures can in fact, but if they're smart they get to live for a long time.

So they heal up pretty fast, and any objects within their body get degraded, broken down, and either expelled or used as fuel by their lycanthropic infection.

The nature of the powers my Werewolves have pretty much always fits with the attitude of the forces responsible for giving them those powers.

[Wingman]

That actually makes a lot of sense Vagrant, especially with nanotech since that eliminates the need for acidic blood or something to accomplish the same effect. Just change what's considered biodegradable for them, and that should clear up all but rare alloys and such.

Would be an interesting twist if the weres required metals and such (in the context of nanomachines) to repair or "upgrade" themselves.


I'm just wondering how something like titanium "scaffold" could be pushed out of your leg, or even torn out of whatever bone it was connected to. I mean, muscular action until the skin and muscle tears enough for the implant to be forced out due to regeneration-induced peristalsis? Or would it be a more gradual thing, such as bullets and shrapnel drifting around inside people?

[Vagrant]

Thanks, Wingman. I spent a long while thinking about the best way to accomplish what I wanted to do with Werewolves and that just seemed to be the best solution.

I've also scrawled some random notes down about the alien race responsible for turning Humans in the first place (in my Universe, at least). They're actually something I've been working on for a long time, so I have a lot of notes lying around. I just need to compile them at one point, with all that I've written about Werewolves too, and actually complete a tale proper.

[Lycaon]

That is so original Vagrant where did you come up with that? Like the wake up from a dream kind? Or back of the cereal box kind of inspiration? In conclusion, where can I get me some of that?

[Vagrant]

I have to admit, I do dream very vividly (maybe it's my diet?). I don't forget them too quickly either, they do fade over time and if I just ignore a dream, eventually I'll forget what I'm about.

I occasionally awake to some of those handy "Yes!" revelations, and in those cases I've trained myself to quickly bring my laptop out of hibernation so that I can scrawl down some notes in notepad. That's helped a lot with a number of ideas, because some things just... happen in dreams that I wouldn't have even considered, otherwise.

Dreaming vividly can be a mixed blessing, though; thanks to Howlitzer, last night I ended up dreaming about steampunk Horses having a tea-party, and for reasons I cannot grok, Magical Trevor was there too. I blame Howlitzer for this entirely, it's all his fault. He knows why! But I digress.

Anyway, it wasn't all dreams that brought them about, it was something of an obsession too. I've noticed that all fictional races seem to have anguish as the tomato ketchup of their particular recipe, and there seem to be imposed restrictions on them simply so they wouldn't become deities. I wanted to take a different approach, I wanted to remove all the restrictions, and the negativity, yet I wanted them to not fall prey to the deity trap. I wanted them to not be deities simply because they weren't, because they were too strange, too alien, and too far away from the Human conceptualisation of a deity.

Moreover, I wanted to create a race that exemplified my personal ideals and my ways of thinking. It took a long time to nail down the formula, and a number of helpful dreams, but eventually I got them where I wanted them.

They are so free, there are no chains to bind them other than their own conscience and sense of ethics, and that makes them so much fun to play with as a plot device in a story. They're often why things happen, and the results and their reactions can be quite fascinating.

The reason I started thinking on such a race was because years'n years ago, I knew my Werewolves would be based on some kind of piconstruct viral thingy (how unscientific!), and I needed an excuse for that, I needed a source. I couldn't get it to make sense for it to have originated on Earth, even if it was dormant on Earth before Humans evolved there, it just didn't make sense. So I knew I needed some form of extraterrestrial life to make it work, and I wanted to make 'em special.

So it's a mixture of unhealthy, years-long obsession and jury-rigging dreams into them, no matter how weird.

Also: ...I want to be inspired by the back of a cereal box. I'll have to sit and stare at one later to see if anything happens, anything other than making me want to eat cereal, that is. One never knows, though.

[Lycaon]

........yes

[Vagrant]

Sorry.

I'm terribly eccentric, I know. It helps make life interesting, so I never wanted to be too right in the head.

[Lycaon]

Oh know don't get me wrong, i completely agree, it just took me a second to register <---Me

[Leonca~]

Interesting idea, I hadn’t thought of that too much.
I guess my version would probably be considered overly convenient to most, because I basically put it together from all the various ideas that seemed like the most fun to me. Being magic based with a bit of biology thrown in, they basically carry over whatever human traits or injuries they have into the approximate version that would be seen in with animals (full wolf transformation). The magic doesn’t allow them to regenerate themselves, but it does cause their bodies to remodel quite a bit.
What would that mean for a piece of medical metal implanted into the body? I don’t know if this is the official idea I would want to use, but it is a very interesting one.
The metal might change with the body, magically reshaping to provide the same support in the werewolf’s new body (since shapeshifting doesn’t cure the underlying problem). I’m actually studying medical technology in animals, and many of the procedures that can be done in humans can be done almost the same way in dogs, all the way down to dental treatments like tooth caps and braces. Cost simply limits how advanced most of the treatment is for a dog, but theoretically I bet you could see just about anything done for their bones and joints as you could for humans.
So, perhaps a metal rod implanted into a human spine would transform into a metal rod that would be the veterinary equivalent in canine form?
No idea how this would work in the big bipedal wolf/human hybrid versions. Maybe it could work the same way, or maybe they would just have to hope they have regenerative powers.