Abbreviations: Crystal Embedded Tree (CET), Unresponsive Crystal Embedded Tree (UCET), Crystal-Compatible (CC), Crystal Sap (CS)
Test 1, Tree Survivability: CET will move canopy to allow light to reach it, CET will react to perceived threats and push them away, trunk grows around crystal to rapidly enclose it, crystals should be kept safely away from the area where the trees can push, or at least be in a closed container
Test 2, Now With Less Danger, Hopefully!: Dead wood is unreactive to crystal insertion
Test 3, Let’s Appear Like We’re Doing Something Important: CET will draw water uphill to their roots, CET react slowly to thrown object, CET react to noise, some trees do not show any reaction to crystal embedding (UCET)
Test 4, The Fruits of our Labors: CET fruit appear to be larger
Test 5, Deprivation: Removal of crystals from CET returns tree to inert state, dense vascular growth occurs around crystal
Test 6, Preliminary Infection Test: CET can repel insects, no apparent effect on disease or mechanical damage
Test 7, Apple Examination: No apparent crystal formation in fruit of CET, no observed crystal sickness in pigs from eating CET fruit
Test 8, Escalation: Addition of crystals to UCET does not appear to generate response. It is the advice of this researcher that two crystals be applied in most cases, and no more.
Test 9, Location: Branches are particularly difficult to work with, focal point of magic dissociates from inserted crystal, horizontal slits for insertion appear easier on tree and researcher.
Test 10, Reintroduction: UCET remain unreactive under the removal and reintroduction of crystals, there is no obvious external signs of difference between UCET and CET
Test 11, Deadwood: Crystals will not repel termites if inserted into deadwood
Test 12, Transformation: There appears to be macroscopic structure of vascular tissue in reactive versus unreactive trees, this observation made after embedding of crystals, no data collected before crystal embedding on potentially reactive or unreactive trees
Test 13, Uppery: Each crystal allows for an additional simultaneous pushing or pulling action by the tree
Test 14, Stumped: Live stumps of trees with grow to envelop crystals, this is not enough to keep a trunk alive
Test 15, Prediction: Trees with highly ordered vascular structure will use embedded crystals, trees with disordered vascular structure will not
Test 16, What’s Inside: Oily film on crystals, tubes forming around them, similar to an enclosure of any other object. Appropriate vascular structures are spaced evenly similar to the ring of primary meristems in the average dicot. Also happens in the extremely thin layer of phloem, evidently.
Test 17, The Alterations: Sap from CC tissue, from here on in called CS, seems different from regular sap on quick examination. Magical conductivity test inconclusive. Seemingly CS only occurs in CETs, and CC tissue is empty there. Rest of phloem works normally.
Test 18, Mysteries of the CC Tissue!: leaves show evidence of CS being present at a small bulb at the base of the leaf, best seen when leaf is held up to the sun in a small, more transparent area near the petiole. CC tissue is found in roots and branches as well, seemingly ubiquitous in the plant. CS is oily, yet grainy, and seems to not be poisonous - does not appear to contain any sugars. CS appears to be a suspension (hence its grainy texture) of some kind, though this requires further testing. Boiling leaves residue in the form of a very fine powder resembling sand. CS does not dissolve in water, it seems, or dissolves very sparingly. Further investigation of this is needed.
Test 19, the Basic Nature of CS: CS residue, interestingly, does not appear to dissolve very well in either water or oil, and is in all likelihood colorless. This points to the idea that CS is a suspension of some kind, and not a solution. The significance of this is yet to be discovered.
Test 20, Inheritance: clonal colonies are either all CC or all non-CC, as evidenced by the patterns discovered in the Traitor Bean.
Test 21, Collectivism: a few shards inserted into a single tree in a clonal colony appear to work on the entire colony.
Test 22, On The Origin of CC: CS, when injected into non-CC tree, seems to contribute to the formation of CC tissue, hinting at a possibly symbiotic origin of CC tissue, such as it being the symptom of an infestation by a heretofore unknown (due to apparent harmlessness) parasite or disease. Non-CC trees may be resistant.
Take a bucketload of CS, insert a crystal shard into it. Observe results.
After that, add another shard, observe results.
And then a third for good luck, observe results.
Have Farrek watch over the entire process from a distance, and have him test the usability of crystals while in CS and merely coated in CS, both with his finger inside CS and without contact unless something dramatically interesting happens in the previous steps of the process.
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Topic: Roll to Innovate - Turn 31: Crystal Fever! (Read 16594 times)