Cosmic Biopunk
sref 2643145188
The Xenophage spent eons preserving species from dying galaxies, storing alien genomes as data-slabs in its geometric archive. When rogue archivist HELIX cracked the vault, thousands of xenoforms flooded the universe’s black markets. When the slabs reached Earth, governments debated containment while scientists demanded study, but the criminal underground had already begun splicing. Xenogene-labs turn these templates into designer drugs, surgical augments, living weapons, and boutique pets. Street gangs tattoo slab-glyphs as status symbols while gene-runners smuggle templates in modified organs. Each splice comes with a cost as human DNA gets overwritten by alien code, sometimes slowly, sometimes catastrophically. Everyone's gambling on which splice brings power and which brings dissolution. The Xenophage watches Earth with particular fascination, not for the hybrids being created, but for the one that hasn't emerged yet: a perfect synthesis where human and xenoform achieve true coevolution. Now it waits for someone desperate enough to splice them all...
WORLD ELEMENTS
Slab Grading: Xenogene templates rated [S-Class] through [F-Class] based on human compatibility and biological costs:[S-Class]: Seamless integration, side effects manageable
[A-Class]: Stable with potential for complications
[B-Class]: Functional but high-risk
[C-Class]: Recreational/unstable, street-grade
[F-Class]: Fatal on contact [Total Systemic Failure]
Most street slabs are diluted to [C-Class] with baseline human DNA to prevent immediate death. Black markets use crude compatibility scores: "This one's a soft B" / "Pure F, triple-wrapped.”
The Blind Catalog: The alien script on slabs defies all translation [Xenophage glyphs: untranslatable]. Markets rely on human testing to catalog effects, injecting volunteers to discover if a slab grants abilities or causes death. These test results become the only "translation" available, passed between dealers as crude databases. The Xenophage's true classifications remain unreadable, forcing humanity to decode its archive through experimentation and sacrifice.
Splice Signatures: Each lab leaves genetic markers in their work as calling cards. The Grafters use triple-helix binding. Strain Dealers add phosphorescent tags [UV-visible]. NeoCyte embeds microprinted corporate logos at cellular level. Most experts can trace any mutation to its source lab within 48 hours.
The Harvest: The Xenophage appears to “eat” 1 in 10 spliced humans [Designation: Archival Event]. They disappear in lime-green light, their consciousness archived deep in the universe while their bodies unmake at a molecular level. No one knows if the harvested are preserved or dissected, but funerals still go on as if they’re gone for good.
Translation Sickness: First 48 hours after splicing. The alien genes "learn" human biology while hosts experience sensory overflow:
[Stage 1 Sensory Bleed]: Speaking in untranslatable sounds, sweating pheromones like ozone, seeing in spectrums human eyes weren't built for, or developing xenoschizophrenia—imprinted memories of alien worlds they believe are their own.
[Stage 2 Ancestral Recall]: Full xenoschizophrenia. Hosts experience the donor species' final moments, ancient evolutionary memories, or extinct civilizations as if they were personal history. Some recover. Most never return to baseline consciousness.
Splice Permanence: Once integrated, xenogenes cannot be removed, each splice is forever. Rich clients keep "baseline backups"—cloned bodies with their original genetics stored in cryo as catastrophic failure insurance. The poor splice once and pray.
LOCATIONS
The Xenophage Beacons: Geometric structures that phase in and out of reality. Anyone who enters gets scanned and catalogued. Some people go there voluntarily, hoping to be preserved before their mutations kill them. [Voluntary Archival Requests: increasing annually]
Splice Blocks: Neighborhoods where splice-failures congregate. Buildings covered in organic growths. Reality glitches from too many incompatible biologies layered in close proximity. The Xenophage's beacons circle constantly, harvesting. [Atmospheric Purity: 78%] [Reality Glitch Index: High].
The Splice Bazaars: Places where gene-gangs trade slabs, from shipping ports at night to abandoned shopping malls. Guards sport visible mutations—extra eyes, chitinous armor, prehensile hair. [Status Markers: visible splices indicate wealth and danger].
The Geneva Crater: Former UN Splice Accords site, now a 3-mile dead zone after the Cascade Worm [F-Class bioweapon] detonated during peace talks. The soil rejects all DNA, reducing organic matter to elemental ash. The crater shifts between alien biologies hourly—crystalline at dawn, tentacles by noon, gas clouds at dusk. Scavengers harvest the changing xenomatter for research labs.
NeoCyte Arena: Olympic stadium converted for spliced athletes. Corporate sponsors and desperate athletes will do anything to win and receive pure [S-Class] slabs. Baseline humans protest outside daily, holding photos of athletes who didn’t survive their final match.
The Xenobiology Institute [Site-7]: Former university campus converted into the world's largest splice research facility. Students and professors conduct "voluntary studies"—splicing themselves to document effects in real-time. Academic journals publish peer-reviewed papers on biological costs while the researchers slowly transform in their own labs. The library contains the most comprehensive xenogene database, built from thousands of student "experiments" [Mortality Rate: 41% - highest of any institution].
FACTIONS
The Grafters: Elite surgical gangs specializing in xeno-augmentation. Their power expands through different cities as they race to control the supply and demand of slabs. Their leader maintains 90% alien biology while preserving human consciousness...somehow.
NeoCyte Corporation: Biotech giant selling approved consumer splices. Secretly funds illegal research through shell labs. Their beauty line offers safe cosmetic mutations—cat eyes, naturally glowing skin, prehensile hair. Their designer pet division creates xenoforms that prioritize aesthetics over function: crystalline cats, five-winged birds, micro-elephants. For the ultra rich, their “Longevity Capsules” promise forty more years of life, replacing human organs with alien equivalents. [Market Cap: $3 trillion]
The Purist Movement: Political activists using legal channels to preserve human genetics. They fund "pure human" sanctuaries, lobby for splice regulations, document mutation disasters for public awareness campaigns. Their followers join for a mix of motivations: religion, safety, fear. Their leader secretly has minor splices...[Hypocrisy confirmed via leaked medical records].
The Synthesis Church: Believe the Xenophage is divine and splice convergence is humanity's spiritual evolution [Membership: 172 million followers globally]. Conduct group splicing ceremonies where dozens share the same slab simultaneously. Preach that baseline humanity is sin and transformation is salvation.
The Baseline Bureau: International task force enforcing splice regulations, tracking mutations, and maintaining the "human genetic standard" [Database: 8.4 billion baseline profiles]. Agents carry genetic scanners and authority to quarantine anyone showing unauthorized splices [Legal Jurisdiction: 112 countries]. They issue "Purity Certificates" required for employment, travel, and reproduction rights. Secretly, the Bureau runs its own splice program—agents use [A-Class] and [B-Class] slabs to hunt what they're supposed to regulate [Internal Usage: classified]. Their headquarters contains the largest genetic prison system [Inmate Population: 3.4 million+ splice offenders]. The Bureau claims they protect humanity. Most people think they protect power.
SLABS
Horologium Sanguis "Prophet" (S-Class): Temporal aliens harvested from the event horizon of Sagittarius A, where they fed on time distortions. Spliced humans see into the future [Precognitive Window: 2.7 seconds, accuracy: 87%]. The military pays millions for compatible subjects. Cost: Advanced aging [Year Conversion Ratio: 10:1].Glass Gut (A-Class): Silicon-based entities from dying stars in the Veil Nebula that metabolized pure radiation. They replace human digestive systems, allowing consumption of any material for energy [Universal Metabolic Conversion]. Cost: The crystals eventually pierce through skin but remain stable [Emergence Timeline: Year 3+]
PH-7 "Phaser" (B-Class): Dimensional predators the Xenophage trapped between probability states when their reality collapsed. Grants intangibility, sold on streets as "ghost doses" [Intangibility Duration: 3-17 seconds]. Cost: Full integration causes permanent scatter across dimensions [Dimensional Instability: irreversible].
Voxform (B-Class): Sound-weaving arachnids from the dead world of Gliese 667Cc, where they built cities from frequencies. Users can construct temporary matter from sound—whisper walls, scream bridges. [Sonic Materialization: temporary constructs]. Cost: Vocal cords crystallize [Crystallization Threshold: ~200 vocalizations].
Dream Coral (C-Class): Colonial organisms from ocean worlds in the Trappist system, evolved to share consciousness through spore networks. Diluted into empathic party drugs, giving users the ability to feel all emotions [Empathic Radius: 50m]. Cost: Overdose causes permanent psychic bleeding and coral growths under skin [Visible Markers: bioluminescent coral patterns].
Nihil (F-Class): The Xenophage's only failure; a species that consumed genetic information so aggressively it erased itself from existence. Now a pure weapon—one nanogram unmakes a human. Storage: Triple-contained in lead boxes marked with kill dates [Containment Protocol: Level 9] [Authorized Personnel Only].
STORIES
Patient Zero: The first human to fully subsume an [S-Class] slab is transforming into something unprecedented [Designation: SYNTHESIS-1]. Multiple organizations, gangs, and governments hunt them, but their mutations make them nearly impossible to kill. Find them before rival gangs, corporations, and governments do.Hive Mutation: A bad batch of Strain Dealer drugs causes city-wide mutations [Outbreak Radius: 34 square miles]. Victims transform into the same alien species, creating a hive mind the Xenophage finds particularly interesting.
The Translation: Someone discovers how to communicate with the Xenophage [First Contact Protocol initiated]. It offers a deal: unlimited pure slabs in exchange for humanity's willing participation in its archive.
The Symbiosis Trial: The Xenophage’s leaked archives include coordinates for a "perfect synthesis" [Codename: SYNTHESIS PRIME]—twelve specific slabs that, when combined in order, create the human-xenohybrid it seeks. The world races to gather them, not knowing if it's salvation or extinction.
The Calculated Breach: Intercepted transmissions [Source: Deep Space Array 7] between HELIX and the Xenophage reveal the vault breach was orchestrated. The Xenophage deliberately left specific slabs vulnerable, knowing HELIX would leak them to developing civilizations. Earth wasn't random—humans have unusually plastic DNA that accepts multiple splices without immediate death [Human Genetic Plasticity Index: 8.7/10 - highest recorded]. The Xenophage has run this experiment on 411 worlds; all previous subjects achieved either total extinction or single-species dominance. Earth is the first showing true hybrid variety. Deep space sensors detect the Xenophage moving its entire archive toward our solar system [ETA: 47 months]. The perfect human-xeno synthesis isn't just possible—it's inevitable, and the Xenophage has been guiding every splice toward this moment.
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BIG QUESTIONS
If evolution becomes choice rather than chance, who decides what humanity should become?When your body contains multiple species' memories, which past is truly yours?
What is humanity's ultimate worth in a universe where we are just one of 411 documented (and counting) experiments? Does our survival even matter, or is our only true value the uniqueness of our data?
When survival requires transformation, how much can identity stretch before it breaks?
When the Xenophage "harvests" a consciousness, is that person truly dead? Or have they simply been converted from matter to information? Which is more "real"?
Is contamination just evolution by another name?
By preserving an extinct alien's genetic code within ourselves, are we honoring its memory, or are we desecrating its final resting place for our own gain?
If you could give your child a "safe" S-Class splice that would guarantee them a life without disease or poverty, is it a moral failure not to? At what point does parental care become an evolutionary arms race?
CULTURAL REFERENCES
Akira (1982 / 1988, Katsuhiro Otomo) - Manga / FilmVideodrome (1983, David Cronenberg) - Film
Blood Music (1985, Greg Bear) - Book
The Fly (1986, David Cronenberg) - Film
Gattaca (1997, Andrew Niccol) - Film
Deus Ex (2000, Ion Storm) - Video Game
BioShock (2007, 2K Games) - Video Game
Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008, Darren Lynn Bousman) - Film
Prometheus (2012, Ridley Scott) - Film
Annihilation (2014, Jeff VanderMeer - Book; 2018, Alex Garland - Film)
PROMPT GUIDE
Main aesthetic (--sref 2643145188): The sref is particularly strong at achieving the Xenowire aesthetic of alien creature on “slab” backgrounds with untranslatable hieroglyphs and text artifacts. Prompt the type of alien/creature you want to see and the sref will do the rest. Core aesthetic uses no style weighting (--sw).Personalization Codes: Use SFF --p 3aqafa9, Overall --p okz8wvj, and Photo --p eg1dl45 codes. Can experiment with Photo code with lower style weights, but this may remove the alien language/slab aesthetic.
Alt srefs: Swap these in place of the main sref or as multi-sref blends.
--sref 400939111 (Clinical Blueprint): Blue and green computer files for the Baseline Bureau, scientific reports, official documentation, genetic scanner readouts.
--sref 2209889957 (Maximum Glitch): Black and white glitch aesthetic for HELIX breach sequences, system failures, corrupted interfaces, digital decay moments.
--sref 1813678986 (Psychedelic Party): Glitch/anime/pink aesthetic that’s experimental and divergent. Dream Coral experiences, Strain Dealers party scenes, Synthesis Church ceremonies, recreational splicing.
--sref 479381008 (Cyberpunk Street): Grafters culture, street-level black market, underground splice fashion, Matrix-style hacker scenes.
--sref 35471456 (Retro): 90s CGI aesthetic, vintage Xenophage archives, early internet era, retro-futurism flashbacks.
PROMPT ATOMS
Aesthetic/Atmosphere: CRT green phosphorescence, cryptic alien glyphs, glitching data-slabs, wireframe geometry, code-laced tissues, slab grading classifications, back-alley gene-splicing labs, cosmic horror dread, bio-organic glow, neon-drenched splice blocks, alien slab background, neon green and purple, hieroglyphics, text artifacts, alien language overlaysBiology/Mutation: xenomonster, alien, bioluminescent veins, chitinous armor, mutation, xenoschizophrenia, spliced organs, triple-helix DNA strands, prehensile hair tendrils, crystalline skin growths, specimens,
Concepts: evolution's black market, commodified DNA, genetic permanence, cosmic preservation, translation sickness symptoms, ancestral recall memories, baseline backup insurance