Risk Analysis

from Zeni Mason.

Hey Laylla,

Thanks for your question. I thought about it for a while, and it was very interesting to consider. I figured I should send you my results as a message rather than presenting them personally - give you more time to digest them! If you disagree, do let me know! You should have my contact now - you can use it to let me know when you’re done reading and want to make a decision, too.

I’ve found there to be three different worst-case scenarios. Ranking them and choosing a clear winner is very subjective - so I decided against doing that and will list all three options.
I do hope that you don’t find these too upsetting to read. If you need support or have any questions, I’m a message away! Remember that these are all hypotheticals, and indeed very unlikely to happen. I’ve also attached a more comprehensive list of side-effects that are milder but considerably more likely to occur - I thought you should know about those, too.

Density Control Failure

The protection layer might, under extreme circumstances beyond what we could’ve known to check for, react by seizing up. It may reach its highest achievable density - at which point it would be about as flexible as your average sheet of plastic. That is to say, not all that flexible at all. Moving, if that happened, would mean a lot of muscle strain, and likely pain. Doing it a lot might cause breakage in the now-firm material, and the resulting shifting around of individual pieces might cause bleeding. This effect would last for at most a week, as that is the lifecycle of the system, before it self-disassembles and gets absorbed into the body.

System Rejection

The protection layer is grown from your own bodily cells - instructed to do so by our pills. The body should accept it without hesitation. However, individual immune systems are nearly impossible to predict with perfect accuracy. If your body chooses to attack the newly grown protective layer, this might accelerate degradation - meaning you may have to replenish with new pills more frequently. The energy your body would expend on pointless attacks would also likely cause you to feel more fatigued, likely for a long-time, if you choose to continue the treatment. At the end of the treatment lifecycle, every week, you can simply stop taking new pills and all traces of it will leave your body within another week.

Containment Failure

The modified cells that cause the protective layer to be grown could assimilate, so to speak, other unmodified cells. The mutation would then turn ‘cancerous’ (As an illustrative term) and spread into the body, causing potential organ damage, if not failure, if left untreated. However, such a mutation would be easy to detect and trivial to remove - even in the unlikely event that the mutation disengages the self-disassembly.

I would like to avoid saying my opinion about how bad these are or aren’t. I’ve explained them as plainly as I can, while also giving some thought to what we would do if they did occur. The rest is in your hands now - I don’t want to influence your decision any further.

Like I said, please contact me when you’re ready to make your choice. Even if you decide against the treatment, I would like to know about that, so I know how to proceed.

Until then,
Zeni :)