Food and Water

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Food from before P-Day

After P-Day, and the power going out pretty much nation wide, most food stores began to spoil and rot quick enough to be made unusable due to lack of refrigeration. Anything that wasn't tightly sealed also stood the risk of getting infectious fluids in it. And do note, that at this point people were trying to avoid all forms of infection by the nanites, not just mutations! Foods such as meats, milk, butter, eggs, and similar went bad within the day without being kept cold. Without proper seals, any opened packages eventually came in contact with contamination. For the first few months, people made due and lived off of food stores that they had, or salvaged unspoiled, sealed foods from anywhere near by. As these supplies dwindled, other food sources soon became needed.

Nanites and Food

With a dwindling food supply and no real way to get more food outside of trading, people took to less conventional means to keep their bellies full. Breast milk and semen becoming good substitutes for actual food to the ferals, those with more refined tastes, and less likely to suck their meal from another in such a way, needed something else to substitute. For this Zephyr had a plan. Using the same nanite technology the resulted in mass transformations, they were able to convert base materials on hand into more pleasing and standard foods. After purifying the materials, the product could be ran through another process to change it into just about any standard food item required, using different combinations of nanites for each kind of food. This procedure insured that a steady supply of edible product was available for consumption till other methods became viable, including trade and farm production.

Where did all the matter for all this come from? Well, do note that there are no 'bodies' around. The air is nearly saturated by free floating material, just waiting for some nanites to collect it and use it. This permitted a great deal of various fluids to be created and used. Also, during the early times, the nanites were more unstable and still refining various processes and attempting to properly rework the human body. The necessary material could be 'milked' from just about anyone, even from ferals. Anything that can't be directly used by the host body is instead converted into one of these fluids.

Food Today

Today food production has actually stabilized quite a bit. Some farms now exist in Fairhaven up in New Dawn for example, as well as out in Eureka and scattered about outside the bubbles. However, food that is produced the old fashion way takes a great deal of time by comparison to using nanite processing to convert otherwise unused material into the food that the basic person needs these days. However, actual food does have some advantages. It tastes better, and having little to no nanites in them to begin with, carries absolutely zero chance to effect your nanites in any way. It is expensive, and not completely reliable, but for the right price, you can know for a fact that the steak you are eating came from a good old fashioned cow.

Water after P-Day

Much like food, any water not sealed up would run a high risk of coming into contact with infectious fluids. Bottled water, sodas, and other contained drinks would remain safe, unless directly tampered with. Drinking unsealed fluids is almost a guarantee to cause yourself an infection of some kind. River water, lakes, underground water, wells, everything not sealed up would be a source of contamination. Anyone who wanted to remain un-mutated would have to limit themselves to only bottled fluids.

Nanites and Water

Nanites in the water actually turned out to be an over all good thing. By using the nanites present in the water, and some repurposed builder nanites, it was able to be made safe to drink. Drinking untreated water, however, carries the same risks as drinking nanite vials, though at a lowered overall rate. It should also be noted that nanites in water are too diluted to be able to mutate someone through skin contact, so swimming in water, bathing, etc, will not introduce enough nanites into your system to cause a transformation.

Water Today

Today there is a plentiful amounts of water available due to the purification methods brought about by more research into the small mako charges that allow you purify milk make it easy to purify water, which is a much lower source of infection. Purifying water of the nanites takes very little time and very little power to do. The gallons of water it would take to keep all the agents in the field are purified every day with little trouble. The Prometheans do have the ability to purify their water, but given that it has such a low chance on infection these days due to the dilution of it, most don't see need.

The Consumption of Others

Consuming another creature is completely possible, and has benefits for doing so. However, you cannot completely absorb another into yourself with very very rare exceptions. When you do consume another, whole, then you leach from them whatever resources your body is needing. Then, you pass them from your system, whole still, and much worse off for the trip. The person is still alive, and will wake up, feeling very deficient in a few basic needed nutrients. Basically, the nanites in the person you have consumed will continue to transmit that this is a living creature, and is protected by nanites. Your nanites will not then completely break them down, but will take what they need from your victim Consumption of someone in part is much more practical. Consumption of an arm or a leg will just result in the other person not having that body part till it can, eventually, grow back. The same goes for just about anything short of decapitation and massive cranial trauma. However, even in such cases, a good nanomagic user could still save them.