Enigmarch 2023: Day 6
Mar. 6th, 2023 01:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tahnanPDF; text below. You can check your answer here.
You, on both counts.
They never believed in your theory that any living thing could be reduced to a string of three letters, which you call its "DNA". (You haven't decided what that stands for yet, but it sounds so official. Delta, nu, alpha: it just rolls off the tongue.) The genius—genius!—of your theory is that it allows you to combine living things into new, larger creations with just a stroke of the stylus! So what if those creatures are monsters? So what if their DNA uses that strange Latin alphabet, and seems to involve words of a language that may not evolve for another thousand years? The best part of madness is that such trifles do not bother you for a moment. Not when you can demonstrate that eagles and humans share 2/3 of their DNA: that's just science!
You look around at the cages, each containing a monster: capricorn, centaur, echidna, griffin, harpy, hippogriff, merfolk, merlion, minotaur, peryton, and sphinx. ("Look 'em up if you don't know what they are!" you yell, to no one in particular.) Each one perfect, each one a simple six-letter DNA pattern, a combination of two animals. (Your sphinx doesn't have wings. Wings on a sphinx are clutter. And of course you don't distinguish men from women—harpies and minotaurs are built from the same human DNA.) On the table at the center of the lab, your notes on their "recipes":
The goat-deer thing, if you get it right. A laugh that will terrify citizens and shake the foundations of buildings. But first, that recipe....
Enigmarch, Day 6: It's Alive! It's Alive!
The prompt for day 5 is MYTHICAL. Is that funny? Is someone laughing? Oh, yes, you know they're laughing. They've always laughed—they laughed when you were thrown out of Mt. Olympus Lyceum, laughed and pointed and called you mad. Well, who's laughing now? WHO'S MAD NOW?You, on both counts.
They never believed in your theory that any living thing could be reduced to a string of three letters, which you call its "DNA". (You haven't decided what that stands for yet, but it sounds so official. Delta, nu, alpha: it just rolls off the tongue.) The genius—genius!—of your theory is that it allows you to combine living things into new, larger creations with just a stroke of the stylus! So what if those creatures are monsters? So what if their DNA uses that strange Latin alphabet, and seems to involve words of a language that may not evolve for another thousand years? The best part of madness is that such trifles do not bother you for a moment. Not when you can demonstrate that eagles and humans share 2/3 of their DNA: that's just science!
You look around at the cages, each containing a monster: capricorn, centaur, echidna, griffin, harpy, hippogriff, merfolk, merlion, minotaur, peryton, and sphinx. ("Look 'em up if you don't know what they are!" you yell, to no one in particular.) Each one perfect, each one a simple six-letter DNA pattern, a combination of two animals. (Your sphinx doesn't have wings. Wings on a sphinx are clutter. And of course you don't distinguish men from women—harpies and minotaurs are built from the same human DNA.) On the table at the center of the lab, your notes on their "recipes":
- A clergyman of a local church
- A large number (of)
- Checks the flavor of
- Dangling ornament of bound cords
- Glued
- Lowland plains of South America
- Put through trials, as students or theories
- Rigatoni and ziti, among others
- Smooth food reduction, as of almond or tomato
- Sweeping panoramic views
- Threw a series of projectiles at
The goat-deer thing, if you get it right. A laugh that will terrify citizens and shake the foundations of buildings. But first, that recipe....