Challenge #04202-K184: F(r)actions

Parasites are not always a bad thing, it is found in areas where people end up with SOME parasites in their systems, allergic reactions to things reduces. But parasites also means a body can be damaged, starved of vital nutrients. So now it becomes, are these microscopic creatures vital to the survival of the species, or should it be systematically removed from their biology, vaccinated into oblivion, and therefore freeing them from constant, voracious, hunger?

https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-04090-k072-festival-of-change -- Fighting Fit

Deathworlders are generally terrible at long-term planning. Most of their history contains ample evidence of this statement. Forgoing long-term public health in favour of short term excitement, political gain, or fiscal profit is a popular one. Then of course, there's the hardy perennial war against their worst enemy - themselves.

So when the Thranityr got news of the parasite that caused the Vorax appetite, there was an immediate argument about what to do about it.

There was the faction for tradition - which included the Vorax tradition of eating their dead. Which, incidentally, was how the parasites got passed along in the first place. There was the faction for a cure, citing the potential for peace between the species henceforth. Which the traditionalists decried as siding with weakness. A third faction - told to shut up by the other two - offered to let willing volunteers try the cure, and then standing back to watch what happened next.

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