FA+
Shop
5112 submissions
Experiment
A Thursday Prompt story
© 2023 by Walter Reimer
Prompt: exponential
The two canines, one male and one female, stood in the lab and gazed at the tank.
Inside the tank, a pale yellow mass sat, apparently unmoving.
“So,” the woman said, raising a paw to stroke her chin, “is it alive?”
The man chuckled. He appeared to be someone who smiled and laughed readily; probably part beagle. The woman was part Doberman. “Yes, it’s alive,” he said. “It’s a slime mold. I gathered a specimen of it up in Oregon.” He tapped the side of the tank with a finger. “It’s essentially a single huge cell, but it moves quite slowly relative to us.”
“And you decided to play with it.”
“Well, not exactly play, but – “
“You spliced DNA into its genetic structure.”
“Well, yes.”
The woman sighed. “What?”
“Pardon?”
Another sigh, this one edged with exasperation. “What genetic material did you splice into it?”
“Oh! Well, I used some material I isolated from a melanoma.”
She turned and gave him a sharp glare. “A melanoma?”
“Yeah. I had a skin tag removed last month, and I asked for a piece of it – “
“’Last month?’ How big was this slime mold when you spliced it?”
“Oh, about this,” and he held his thumb and index finger together, creating a circle roughly the size of a quarter. “Growth’s been slow, but constant.”
The woman facepalmed. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
“I increased the growth of a slime mold so we could study it faster – “
“No, you didn’t. You just created a – please, for the love of God, please tell me you didn’t take any of this out of the lab.”
“I didn’t, I swear! Will you please tell me what you’re thinking?”
“You’ve just created a world-destroying cancer,” the woman said, and the man’s ears went down and he took a recoiling step backward. “It’ll have to be destroyed before it fruits and any of its spores escape containment.”
-- Surveillance recording
A Thursday Prompt story
© 2023 by Walter Reimer
Prompt: exponential
The two canines, one male and one female, stood in the lab and gazed at the tank.
Inside the tank, a pale yellow mass sat, apparently unmoving.
“So,” the woman said, raising a paw to stroke her chin, “is it alive?”
The man chuckled. He appeared to be someone who smiled and laughed readily; probably part beagle. The woman was part Doberman. “Yes, it’s alive,” he said. “It’s a slime mold. I gathered a specimen of it up in Oregon.” He tapped the side of the tank with a finger. “It’s essentially a single huge cell, but it moves quite slowly relative to us.”
“And you decided to play with it.”
“Well, not exactly play, but – “
“You spliced DNA into its genetic structure.”
“Well, yes.”
The woman sighed. “What?”
“Pardon?”
Another sigh, this one edged with exasperation. “What genetic material did you splice into it?”
“Oh! Well, I used some material I isolated from a melanoma.”
She turned and gave him a sharp glare. “A melanoma?”
“Yeah. I had a skin tag removed last month, and I asked for a piece of it – “
“’Last month?’ How big was this slime mold when you spliced it?”
“Oh, about this,” and he held his thumb and index finger together, creating a circle roughly the size of a quarter. “Growth’s been slow, but constant.”
The woman facepalmed. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
“I increased the growth of a slime mold so we could study it faster – “
“No, you didn’t. You just created a – please, for the love of God, please tell me you didn’t take any of this out of the lab.”
“I didn’t, I swear! Will you please tell me what you’re thinking?”
“You’ve just created a world-destroying cancer,” the woman said, and the man’s ears went down and he took a recoiling step backward. “It’ll have to be destroyed before it fruits and any of its spores escape containment.”
-- Surveillance recording
Category Story / General Furry Art
Species Dog (Other)
Size 98 x 120px
File Size 35.6 kB
Listed in Folders
Comments