>>23914774
it would be difficult from a physical perspective for chuubanite to bind to human dna specifically, since at that scale human dna, being made out of amino acids and the like, would look identical to any other kind of dna. symbiotes is one path you could take, but as they mentioned, that would imply saplings were only partially human. what about a virus or bacteria that can only survive in /uuu/'s climate that evolved to only have a noticeable effect on human dna in the form of a crispr cas9 sort of style of gene editing? once the genes are edited, itm doesn't matter what happens to the virus, though the longer you are in the woods, the more time the virus has to change you into a sappling. maybe the virus also has a sort of fountain of y/uoh/th property that extends the life of the person (not indefinitely no matter how long) depending on how long they stay in the forest. if it isn't a symbiote, virus, or bacteria, idk how it would work from a physical perspective. chuubanite might be magic, but it shouldn't be nonsense.
>>23918525
speaking of trades, would saplings be interested in anything from /meat/? we have a rentry with all our trading goods if you're interested.