[IN THE NEWS] Plant-Animal Hybrid

Ever wish you didn't need to eat? Well, there is a Sea Slug that can do just that thanks to its ancestors stealing plant DNA allowing them to create genes necessary to make green chlorophyll pigment. They then steal chloroplasts from algae they eat to conduct photosynthesis.

LiveScience.com wrote: [link]

"The sea slugs live in salt marshes in New England and Canada. In addition to burglarizing the genes needed to make the green pigment chlorophyll, the slugs also steal tiny cell parts called chloroplasts, which they use to conduct photosynthesis. The chloroplasts use the chlorophyl to convert sunlight into energy, just as plants do, eliminating the need to eat food to gain energy.

"We collect them and we keep them in aquaria for months," Pierce said. "As long as we shine a light on them for 12 hours a day, they can survive [without food]."

Something like this has to have been toyed around with at some point in the AtB setting. A few years ago I did write up an adventure called "The Green Death" which involved a symbiotic plant that dominated it's human and animal hosts, but this concept opens up a whole new dimension of possibilities.

Here's a little mutation package you could add to your game:

Animal Photosynthesis Package

BIO-E Cost: 25
Appearance: This mutant's skin and hair/fur/feathers/scales now have a dark green pigment from the natural chlorophyll.
Power: With exposure to light, the character's natural chlorophyll and chloroplasts needed to convert sunlight into energy and reducing, or alleviating, the character's need to eat depending on the character's level of activity.
NOTE: A majority of the character's body must be exposed to sunlight for this power to be affective. Clothing reduces the effecivness of this power dramitically.