Sea Slugs

* See also ADAM
* See also Little Sisters
* See also Sea Life
* See also Pets
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AKA "ADAM Slugs" 
The Sea Slugs ( actually shell-less mollusks ) were the Source of the chemical components of ADAM, which enabled the Genetic Modification Technology in Rapture.
Discovered by Dr Brigid Tenenbaum 
In the game, Sea Slugs are found INSIDE the Little Sisters ( and in BS2 are accessible out in the Ocean ). If the Player chooses to 'harvest' Little Sisters to obtain ADAM, then they get to see what is pictured here ( after a convenient green mist has covering over the act of ripping it out of the abdomen of the child ), 
"EXORCISED" ???
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"Supposition : The Sea Slugs Gained the Ability to Generate ADAM from a Large, Glowing Biomass ?" :
A Mysterious Magic Glowing Mass ? Radiation ? ( Which 99+% of the time Kills instead of Mutates ) Please, lets have this MMORPG be more Sci-Fi ... ( Bio-Luminescent bacteria feeding on Rapture's sewage is a bit more realistic. )
The games Story doesn't exactly specify how this ADAM thing came to exist. The Stem Cell activating mechanism could be an evolved type of self-repair which exists in the real world for some Sea Life ( and some land-dwellers like frogs that can slowly regenerate limbs and lizards their tails ). But why is it in a 'bite' ? That sounds like it is a Poison/Venom, which would disrupt/kill the bitten Sea-life prey/predator - an evolved biological mechanism. 
Why it should/might repair a human on biting is a separate issue : It may be a rare natural circumstance which Tenenbaum luckily spotted. Such a chemical would THEN take alot of research work to analyze and make it useful.
The ADAM component is NOT actually Stem-Cells ( which would have the unique individual's DNA to work ). Instead it is a chemical which stimulates/facilitates rapid Stem-Cell production/conversion, creating tissue which is THEN guided through the human's own genetic material to do physiological repair. 
With external DNA/RNA added it would build tissue able to actuate the Plasmids/Tonics abilities ( requiring significant and very specific physiological/structural changes to the body ).
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The Slug Whisperer :
Somebody's moniker/nickname. Probably unlikely this person is named that for their skill with training rabbits.
Fontaine would have had a whole Farm of Sea Slugs to generate ADAM directly for the quantities his business required. And when production was insufficient, then the 'Symbionts' (children Slug Hosts) were developed to step up production by more than a magnitude.
Personnel who tended the Slug tanks at the various ADAM facilities ( like Fontaine Futuristics ) often had this moniker. Some skill was required in the care and feeding of the Sea Slugs which produced raw ADAM.
In the MMORPG, there will probably be the chance for the Player to have their own 'home' aquarium containing Sea Slugs of various kinds recovered from out in the dark Ocean, OR to come upon some having been kept by Splicers ( Hmmm, toad-licking idea ... extrapolate ) The ADAM-producing Slugs ARE valuable, so one would expect them to get good care.
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Food Chain :
I wonder what kind of Sea Life there must be out there, and if Sea Slugs are on the menu in the food chain ????
ADAM enhanced XYZ Beasty ... Something small eats our favorite type of ADAM Sea Slug, and then something eats that ( and it gets more concentrated as it moves up the food chain ) .... 'Moby Dick' was seen in the SOUTH Atlantic ...
Hmm, with the Splicers cravings for ADAM, it is a wonder we never saw them munching on corpses ... (Hmmm ...)
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ADAM's Natural Origin :
ADAM likely is a combination of bio-chemicals which cause animal tissue to revert to Stem Cells, and most logically originating/evolved by those 'Sea Slugs' to use as venom to disable their prey -- Which are likely MOSTLY in a lower (than human) order of lifeforms. Thus they should act with a similar biological mechanism - something basic enough to work on mammals, as they did on humans 
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All this Genetic Modification - What about Genetically Altering Sea Slugs ??
No doubt research was done along these lines -- At minimum by Fontaine to try to make the Slugs generate more ADAM ( unsuccessful apparently, and thus requiring the expense/difficulties of using children as 'hosts' ). The Novel's story even had them being so scarce as to force/require using the 'Gathering' process. 
Realistically, Fontaine would have been forced to STOP selling genetics altering ADAM when it was widely shown to poison/derange people -- Thus eliminating the need for greater quantities. 
( Note - The Novel's author, John Shirley, bought into the original game story illogic of ignoring Rapture Free Press existing, and he had the violence/insanity begin EVEN EARLIER, and he took the commercialism/capitalism at all costs philosophy even further. ) 
For the MMORPG, ADAM would still be something to research -- For The Cure New Rapture would be doing more research into ADAM ( which also might include making other ADAM products safer and with far less side-effects ). ADAM still had great potential use for its medicinal properties -- What the earliest ADAM products WERE originally developed for.
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Man Biting Sea Slug - Discovery :
But why does it bite - the Slug likely has a Venom meant to poison/disable prey/enemy. But just like the way real venoms and natural toxins are being used for specialized use in medicine today, many Venom properties can prove very useful for various therapies and drug treatments. The dose the man got on the Neptune Bounty dock, who Tenenbaum noticed, was a small dose, which lead to the lucky occurrence of his healing, instead of being maimed/killed ( which a smaller 'prey' organism likely would have gotten ).
Note - when fish/other organisms are captured at great depth, and are brought into a Surface level atmosphere, they almost always die (explode actually) because of the pressure of the gas within the fluids of their bodies suddenly having the pressure relieved ( like a shaken soda-can being opened, or a boiler explosion ). So how did a living Sea Slug get into the dock area at Neptune's Bounty in the first place ???
Another tale for the MMORPG.
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Sea Slugs, if found near Rapture, live in water temperatures near freezing ( and if related to the geothermal vents, those environments have major fluctuations - near freezing to boiling ).
Inside a Little Sister its a nice toasty 98.6 F ( or something near that ), which the Slug would have to survive. Perhaps the 20-30 X increase of ADAM production is partially related to this raised temp - some kind of metabolic speedup ( besides other interactions with the human physiology ).
The Idea that Splicer Corpses continue to produce MORE ADAM ( explaining why corpses are left lying about ), and that would be when those bodies assume 'room temperature' which isn't always particularly warm in much of Rapture's ruined areas.
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PIX OF IN GAME SEA SLUGS ( IN MINERVAS DEN DLC )
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ADD PIX OF SEA SLUG BEING RIPPED OUT OF A CHILD ( INSTEAD OF THAT VAPOROUS 'IMPLIED' CHILD MURDER BY KEN LEVINE )
ADD PICTURE OF GLOWING SEA PLANTS 
THE ORBS ON THAT TASTY SEA PLANT GIL LIKES
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Do Sea Slugs Feed On Adam Infused Plants ? :
Do Sea Slugs feed on ADAM infused plants, or do the Slugs produce the ADAM themselves and the plants are just a nutrient ? Otherwise why did the Rapture scientists not simply grow/cultivate and harvest ADAM straight from the ADAM Infused Plants ?? I suppose there would not have needed to be Little Sisters in the game, if ADAM could be harvested from plants. (( This was also introduced in BS2 ))
We are not sure what ADAM really is. It should be something that causes body cells to revert to their Stem Cell form to be re-purposed into different tissues, and thus be susceptible to genetic modification ( IT CANNOT BE composed of Stem Cells itself ... definitely NOT Human Stem Cells ).
For a Sea Slug to have a reason for having ADAM ( described as administered in a bite seen when it was discovered ) : With that function it could act like a Venom, disrupting any compatible organism it was introduced into, either as a poison defense or to capture prey to eat.
It is possible that Sea Slugs could eat and concentrate the ADAM, but the plants hadn't previously been a key source one way or another. The presence in the Fontaine Futuristics Hidden Lab of the ADAM-infused-plants might have been be an attempt to produce ADAM - disrupted by Rapture's 'civil war', or failed by being impractical when too hard to cultivate, or not containing sufficient ADAM, etc ...
When were these plants discovered ? We didn't see any details about the earlier Sea Slug ADAM production ( before Little Sisters), and perhaps large aquariums of these plants were THEN used to help feed the ADAM producing Sea Slugs. Perhaps later Little Sisters were regularly fed substances from these plants to assist in the sustenance of the Implanted Sea Slugs ?
"Eat Your Vegetables Young Lady or No Grape Jam !!!" ... "I DON'T WANNA" !!! ...
"Mr Bubbles, you're lucky YOU don't have to eat that nasty green stuff like the Angels tell me to ..."
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"Hyp-no-tize !!!" :
Why there should be Hypnotize Polyps on same/similar plants ( Oh, so handy having a Plasmid-effect built into those ...) is a separate issue. Maybe Not ADAM, but some other poison IN those things ??? Target being More 'Stunned' than 'Hypnotized' ??? Perhaps that poison effect was discovered FIRST, then they figured out how to have it be produced/projected via a Plasmid ? ( Genetic transplant using patterns of existing Biological mechanisms would be the way most Plasmids were created. )
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Sea Slugs in Little Sisters - EXTRACTION :
I would expect to extract the ADAM ( which seems to be part of a Venom ) would require some attack-on/discomfiting-of the Slug inside the child ( maybe a mix of slug blood or electroshocks ?? ) which would cause a defensive release of venom around the Slug. That is then collected through induced regurgitation upon the Little Sister.
Rinse and Repeat ...
So a rather unsavory image to actually illustrate in the game -- and secondary detail - as so much was vague for more important details ( probably due to the limited content data space on Console Game systems, etc ...)
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