Cherimoya Rotsac

Databank Text

Rotsac cherimoya. A tunicate-like animal which collects alcohol from decaying matter to produce a creamy, flavorful mucus.

1. Cherimoya
   Named for its resemblance to the terrestrial cherimoya fruit (or custard apple). It can be eaten whole or sucked on through a straw; the exterior tunic is soft but the heart, nervous system, and other organs should be spat out. The rotsac contains mercury sulfide, which will eventually accumulate to dangerous levels in the human body.

2. Peculiar metabolism
   As a rough inverse of the lucifer rotsac, the cherimoya rotsac converts alcohols to sugars rather than decomposing sugars to alcohols. The cherimoya achieves this with a chemical pathway that does not occur on Earth. Aqueous cinnabar provides a source of mercury to oxidize alcohols into simple sugars. The cherimoya has no other behaviors: it simply stores sugars as it grows into a taut, full adult.

3. Symbiotic partner
   Because of its plentiful stored sugars, the cherimoya is a common symbiotic partner for organisms like the cage gorgon.

4. Enteric reproduction
   The cherimoya rotsac is gonochoric — either male or female. However, it does not release eggs or sperm into the seawater. Instead, its reproductive cells are eaten by organisms feeding on the cherimoya. They seek out other cherimoya rotsacs’ gametes in the digestive tract of the host. The fertilized embryos are then expelled by the host organism, providing them with nutritious waste to bootstrap their growth.

Assessment: edible. Your digestive tract may briefly become pregnant.