So, I've been thinking for a while about how the whole Treefrey situation might be resolved. A lot of folks think Olly may devise a way to burn out only the tree and its seed without hurting Qifrey, and I think that's a possibility. But I was also thinking about how the tree is a metaphor for both trauma and chronic illness, especially with the broader focus in the narrative on disability, and wondering if Shirahama doesn't have plans for something a little more in the style of the Babadook? You know, where the thing isn't actually killed but just managed, given its place in your life. Carrying the metaphor through to the end.
So like...maybe instead of killing it, they'll find a way to suppress it. Like magical prozac, or a magical HIV cocktail. Something he'll have to take regularly for the rest of his life, but that will allow him to otherwise live normally.
And then I thought...remember how he couldn't approach Custas when the latter's tree was sprouting? I've seen other interpretations, but the most likely to me seems that there some kind of pheromone released by new trees as they sprout, that lets any other trees in the area know this is a good spot. The tree is looking for a safe place, and to that end it can sense when its host feels safe; so it would make sense if it could also sense when other trees in the area feel safe. It's like how green bananas will ripen if placed with other bananas, you know?
It would then also make sense, I think, if the trees could send out the OPPOSITE signal. I mean, it clearly remains sensitive to fear/anxiety/etc in its host...presumably until the host is actually dead, so that it can retract if conditions become unsuitable. It would make sense, then, that it would also remain sensitive to signals from other plants.
And like...this is a world where they have blood transfusions lmao. Even assuming they can't do blood typing, isolating the "fear" pheromones would probably not be super hard. Synthesizing it might be, so they'd probably be reliant on either uhhhhh periodically scaring a tree/host and collecting the pheromone that way, or finding some chemical that happens to mimic the pheromone closely enough. But if they can isolate and concentrate it, they might be able to get a good supply just in one go, and not have to collect more of it very often. Even if I'm being overly optimistic here, as long as they collect SOMETHING from the plant that contains that pheromone, it should work.
So, like, Qifrey could take a pill, or use a nasal spray or inhaler or cream (or even have some kind of perfume/cologne if people wanna get romantic about it lol), depending on how the tree normally senses the pheromones; and he would still be infected, still be chronically ill, still have his trauma, but now would be able to manage it without having to harm himself or others.
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