Okay, there has been discussion on how Taint isn't a disease and is a perfectly natural side-effect of evolution. Those of you who are familiar with me will be aware that I suffer from an emotional aberration that gives me rapid mood swings. So long as I stay on Singularity's island with him, I'm fine, but if I leave, I could possibly hurt people.

I've heard about Sin-Eater and her Purity Clinic but that is only a temporary fix. I need something a little more permanent.

So in short... Can Taint be channeled or cured?

No, but it can be treated or surpressed.

You've already tried treating the aberration with drugs (it works, but not well and there are side effects).

That leaves Dorm.

Do you dorm?

No, but I've never put much effort into learning.

It's a pretty common trick, but most of the trainers I know are either with Utopia or DeVries.

Hmm, there are a few from the XWF. Superbeast is pretty famous for it.

Would you like some names?

Dormancy isn't always the best answer.. you trade away every shred of your novahood to do it. Due to my physical abberations, I was taught it to become inconspicuous. It doesn't solve taint, when you "power up" again it will still be there. SOmetimes getting to see yourself as "normal" once again and knowing that you're truly not... that can cause severe psychological trauma. I've known two novas who have take their lives after learning how to do this. Both had physically abberated forms and when they were forced to revert to them it tore at them horribly.

Well, the saying goes,sometimes the cure is worse than the curse.

Well, right now the curse is being on an island with only those tough enough to survive able to come close.

If she learns it, then she has options. If she decides she doesn't like those options, then she can say no.

Now, this is a urban legend of sorts...

But I heard that there are certain novas that can "switch" aberrations or change them into something different.

I find such customization sorta scary, but... If someone asked me if I wanted to take it head or gut, at least I'd have a choice.

Um Guys...This may seem like a stupid question, but what are you doing that's getting you all this Taint? I've been kicking for years and nothing's changed for me...

Well I dunno Billy... I just popped this way. Saimhe was playing in mind my mind and got her pretty wings. Maybe I am contagious?

I don't want wings unless they're variable directed thrust engine nacelles. Mounted to armor I'm wearing.

Billy, my story is like Totem's, I errupted this way, the doctors I've seen are still trying to figure it out. They say it could be my subconscious identifying with the symbol of the year of my birth, but I told them I'd have ended up canine that way, not feline....

I've always meant to ask Long. Did your form come to you before you became what you are? Did you ever speak with yourself prior to erupting or anything like that?

Who said that it is something that needs to be cured?

Totem, The Tiger has always been my favorite animal. I look at it and see natures hand at work. An Animal that is powerful, fast, adaptable, and honorable. When I errupted Shen-Kahn (My mentor) looked as I do, with the exception of him being a white Tiger, and me a regular Bengal. It was a mix of me identifying with it and my own feelings about the animal that shaped me I guess.

Not exactly what I was hoping but insightful none the less. Thanks for the info.

It's the best I can give you, because I don't really know why I look like this myself. Very few of my powers seem of the nature to cause this sort of abberation.

There doesn't seem to be one reason for taint. I suspect there are several.

Eruption:
Some of us erupt this way. Skipping the various theories for "why", eruption seems to be independant of other factors.

Natural Progression:
1) Some of us seem stable. We don't naturally progress.
2) Some of us seem less stable, we naturally progress but slowly.
3) Some of us just seem to attract taint. They just get it and get lots of it. Exactly why is unknown, but there are hints that many terats are like this.

Pushing:
It is commonly held that "pushing" yourself, for rapid quantum recovery and/or pulling power feats, especially on a regular basis, leads to taint.

Nodes:
There is a corrilation between larger nodes and taint.

And I assume all of these ways work together.

Look in a mirror. Now look at this [Link to Newpaper Picture of Sloppy Joe].

It'd be nice is one didn't lead to the other, right?

So Troll what the hell's your point here with the cure thing? You tell us there's no cure (2nd post in thread) and at the same time you send us Christian Chick-tract scare tactics (See above Picture) targeted at someone that's saying there doesn't need to be a cure. So I guess I don't know if you're just semantic science dancing with us, or what.
And was Sloppy Joe ever "less than Sloppy Joe"? Otherwise the example doesn't quite fit...besides being just like those Vegans who show me pictures of beakless chickens in cages to make me not eat meat. Yeah Taint's an issue for some people, but if, as you say there's no cure, what's unhealthy about trying to psychologically deal with it as Vanguards done (which sounds like coping or looking at it in a different light. YOu do realize the textbook solution to Depression is looking at life from a different perspective, right? If there's no cure, then why do we have to be nihilistic about it?). Telling people that if you "ignore Taint" you'll go to "Sloppy Joe Taint Hell" is bullshit, mainly because not all of us are "progressing" as it were (and I haven't seen a definitive answer to WHY some of us are gaining more mutations).
Bah. Just had to rant. I just hate it when people use Christian/Vegan shock tactics in an intellectual argument. Particularly while I'm eating.
Bah.
Sorry for the outburst, feel free to ignore this post. No seriously. I'll probably log on tomorrow and delete it myself, but in the meantime here it sits. My bad.

DAMN!

Go billy go! Go billy go!

That was some great burnination. I approve.

Ma'am you can send the taint this way and that if your of a mind to make it behave. You got to know right off it ain't no yard dog your talking about though. Pure bred wild thing through and through. You might make it mind but don't expect it to lick your hand or your like to lose that hand. Ain't no cure I know of. Course it ain't no disease either.

Sounds to me like the project folks done stepped in it again. Ya'all just got to think this thing through. The pure truth is there ain't no understanding of the taint to be got from reading a book or singing the hymn of science. And that is surely a problem if you happen to be a Project man. Old Doc Smith is just telling ya'all to watch yourself. Its best he can do since there ain't nothing him and the other project folks can do for you.

Never was a project man that could just up and admit they was stumped. Damn shame too. Wasting all them pretty words just trying not to say they got no idea.

I do not understand. What is Taint? I read the other thread but I do not understand. What is aberration? Being a tiger face man is aberration? So, different than human is being aberration?


So all novas have aberration.

Welcome back, Cody.

No Cull, not every nova has aberrations. It is more than being healthier, or living longer. It's doing things that mankind can't, or suffering from things that should be curable, but can't be cured due to the Taint-Buttering.

So, being Tiger-faced, or having rows of Shark-like teeth would be considered aberrations.

So, if I have shark teeth I have aberrations. If I have aberrations I have taint.

Saimhe, I can cure taint.

I assume at gunpoint.

I do not use guns.


I should be more clear though. I can cure taint in me. I have never tried in someone else.

Cull, can you cure taint in yourself, or can you alter your aberrations?
When you "cure taint" in yourself, do you also lose your nova powers?
If so, that is called "dorming down", and isn't a cure for taint. It is suppressing it.

If you can alter/remove aberrations, have you ever attempted to do this on another?

Well. Sometimes I have shark teeth. That is an aberration, right? And then I do not want to have the teeth anymore so I do not. So I have gotten rid of the aberration. Aberation means taint so I got rid of taint. Or, I want to have a snake tail so I can squeeze people, so I have a tail. I guess that is me making taint. Then I want legs again so I get rid of the tail so that is me curing taint.

I do not know what is meant by "dorming down". Is that when I look like me? That is easy. But I am still strong. I can still squish people, just not as easily. Am I "dorming"?

This is precisely why we need to kill the English language and only speak Novanese. If only to clear up these kind of connotation verus dennotation mistakes.
We're so talking about the same thing...but not.

Though this does bring up an interesting thing...If I learned to shape-change like Cull does would I still have my teeth? Or to speak to the Geeks (Bandwidth) out there, is Beast Boy's Aberration being green? (and why all his animal forms are toxic Goo green as well?)
:sigh:
I love it when comic books are actually applicable.

Billy, billy, billy ... that is the weird thing. The weird thing is that even though his dog form is green, people still confuse him with a real dog. What's up with that?

Cull, suffice it to say there could be numerous reasons for you doing what you do. None of it sounds like curing taint, or even aberrations, though.

Look on the bright side: If you could cure taint, hundreds of novas from all around the world would be hunting you down to beg for a cure, or to rip the secret out of your genes/mind.

Jager, man of mystery, whipping out the comic book references. Strange. And some how respectable.

As for there being someone out there that can cure Taint, it's like those conspiracy theories. There's a reason why probably haven't heard about them. Still if you search the Opnet there's two sites that claim to house someone who can do that very thing with taint. Probably crap but you never know. Sounds like I have a great expo/roadtrip coming up.
Now all i need is a Taint-monkey to come along for the ride.

Thanks.

Got to say I'm glad you didn't feel the need to kill me.

Cody, I Wiser One than I once said, "Hope springs eternal."

Billy, man I used to eat up comics when I was a little guy. Made me want to grow up and save the world. It took me a while to figure out I might want to ask the world if it wanted to be saved.

The World said "NO!" and I had to look into another line of work.

Lord knows if I developed the ability to permanently remove taint, I would keep it to myself. I would only help the ones I felt like helping and leave it at that.

The miss what started this may not want to hear this but... Maybe you ain't suppose to be able to make the taint go away.

Nodes is mysterious things but folks agree they work down deep same as the mind. And the mind is a funny thing. Sometimes it hides things away so's that you can't get a look at it proper. Sometimes it just don't want to see things plain for what they are. Then you got something what works to change the way things are being told what to do by a mind that ain't quite seeing things plainly.

The taint ain't no disease but that don't mean there ain't something wrong.

So, Saimhe asks a question and two days later we got talk about dorming from the self-hating ass-munch mother-fucker, rumors from Pink Ranger, Billy Scaryfucks little pearls of wisdom that actually make coming here worthwhile, a snootful of crazy from J. Dahmer, some comic book geek talk and some down in the mouth straight talk from my tatooed bro and ain't no one got a straight answer yet.

Saimhe sweetie, I got it straight for you.

Yes and no.

Sorry babe, but it's like the Dao, you're asking for the written Dao and the written Dao ain't the true Dao. You gotta experience.

You ready to walk that path?

Regan, are you looking for a cure for taint, or the resulting aberrations, or both?

Smith, think of this for a little wile is fire a good or a bad thing? Do we need to "cure" fire? What if taint is like fire,in the ways that it just is?

Note to my friends: If I'm on fire, please cure me.

Vanguard: Your analogy is a bit off.

No, no it is not. You are skewing the meaning. I did not say that taint is always benign. I said that it was like fire.

Like when controlled it will save your life. Also like when you do not understand it and play with it you could wind up making a bigger problem.

But if you wish to see taint as a bad thing, well by all means paint it black.

Some of us have difficult roads ahead of us and it is unfortunate for some. But I think we should focus on acceptance before trying to make everyone look the same. Mental problems, yes, those need to be addressed, but Totem and Long should be accepted for who they are and those who cannot get past a few feathers or some fur, those people need help more than Totem or Long does.