#<- for any needed refrencing for my non re mutuals who are just here for the chaos <3

[wazzappp]

Resident Evil 7 Mold discussion / Theory

Ok so this is going to be split into a few pieces:

What IS the mold

Infection process details as well as details about why Ethan didn't fall under her control

Hivemind hiarchy and enemy management on Eveline's side of things.

What IS The Mold:

Ok so first things first the Mold isn't actually a mold. We know from part one of the R and D report page 3, the mold is actually a fungus that a shadowy organization called The Connections had been manipulating for their own bioweapon purposes. This fungus is called the Mutamycite and is derived from the Megamycite (which we learn about from resident evil 8). They just DECIDED to call it mold because IDK WHY FUCK YOU YOU FUCKERS MOLD AND FUNGI ARENT THE SAME YOURE SUPPOSED TO BE SCIENTISTS YOURE SUPPOSED TO BE ACCURATE AUGHHHHHHHH anyway for the sake of general understanding I'm mostly just gonna keep calling it 'the mold'

The Connections created Eveline through trial and error of exposing an embryo to this fungus. The various body parts we collect throughout the game for both the cure and the E-Necrotoxin are actually from her failed 'siblings'.

Infection Process:

We know from part 2 of the R and D report found in the labs/mines that Eveline's 'Molded' creatures can be created through her mycelium which she secretes through her tissue which is AWESOME FUCK YEA FUCK YES MY FRIEND MY BEST FRIEND MYCELIUM LETS GOOOOO.

Wer'e coming back to details about the mycelium in a minute because WHOOP WHOOP HIVEMIND MOMENT but the actual infection process needs more examination. The way it's described in part 2 R and D report, it sounds like Eveline can either spawn these molded or turn them from people (coming back to the spawning in a sec don't forget about it)

We know they can be turned because of both the note at the beginning of the game keeping track of those turned and dead, the deputy's half turned severed head in the fridge, and the pre release 'Opening Hour' teaser where we SEE someones body be taken over in real time.

The details of the infection process are in Infection Report 1. So here is what the actual report says and then what my reasoning of it is.

"Initial Infection The mold ingests nutrients from the subject's body to propagate itself, and slowly takes over cells within the body.

As a side effect of this, the infected subject gains remarkable regenerative abilities.

During experiments, we removed arms and legs from test subjects and found that they were able to coapt the amputated limbs in a matter of minutes."

Its my theory that the reason the Mold is able to both sidestep the immune system and to cause this regenerative effect is because the mold itself is mimicking the biological structures it runs into. As it works its way through the body, it's replacing everything that exists, so naturally if any damage occurs it can just regrow since replacing that tissue is what it was doing any way.

This gets interesting when you start including more than one species during this initial infection process. Like the Dimitrescu daughters. After death and insertion of the cadou parasite they were swarmed with flies until they covered their entire bodies. The mold was able to assimilate their DNA as well as the human DNA of the daughters themselves, allowing them to transition between the two.

It is ALSO very important to note that Ethan is under this level of infection for the majority of the game. He has an amazing degree of regeneration without the side effect of Eveline's control because he hasn't reached the mid stage infection, which is described next. Its pretty interesting how the time periods of how long it takes for Evelines control to take hold changes from person to person. 3 years after infection and Mia is still resisting, but the Bakers fell under her influence almost IMMEDIATLY based off of the 'Daughters' DLC. It looks like things kind of went?? back to normal?? for a second there but its pretty ambigous. This could rely on a variaty of factors ranging from Eveline's strength (she seems kind of tired at the end of the game. maybe less powerful than when she wasn't over extending herself) and the state of the tissue she's infecting.

I think it would make sense that the mold can infect Dead tissue faster than Living tissue because theres no immune response whatsoever. Maybe thats why Ethan was experiencing stage 2 symptoms after only 12 hours even with Eveline's weakened state taken into consideration.

"Mid-stage Infection Once the mold reaches the brain, the subject's thoughts become "in tune" with those of the E-Series asset.

If this state continues, the host will lose all sense of ego."

It is VERY interesting that apparently we can see this fungal structure in x rays, which we know because of Margurite Bakers doctors note. This is really awesome because that means the mycelium structures are spreading into the brain and maybe starting to integrate the host into the hive-mind even BEFORE complete integration/assimilation. I wonder what would happen if you killed someone mid integration? Would only the memories/functions of the part of the brain thats been integrated be shared or would it just not go through at all? Also this hive-mind component is going to come back later so don't forget this either.

"Complete Infection After every cell in the body has been taken over by the mold, the subject begins to lose their human form. Physical mutations differ from case to case, but all result in him or her acquiring incredible physical strength.

Containing a subject at this stage would be extremely difficult."

PHYSICAL MUTATIONS BABY LETS FUCKING GO. Ok so if the mold is just replicating itself in a way where its trying to mimic the structure of the original host, why do mutations happen? Because with increased replication there also comes an increased chance of mutation. Jack Baker gets more and more fucked up as the bossfights go on, finally appearing as a barely human monster for the final boathouse fight. THAT IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO HIS BEING CUT IN HALF. The mold has a LOT to fix after that much damage has been done and with it comes an increased chance for mutation, plus when you take into account he's been 'killed' throughout the night, the mold making up his body has been put through a TREMENDOUS amount of strain.

We can also see after his death, while Ethan is chillin in a mold pillar, that his real consciousness is kept in the hive-mind Eveline has constructed for the area, which leads me to the next point.

Hive-mind hierarchy and enemy management on Eveline's side of things:

Ok remember the mycelium from earlier? I told you to remember them because it's coming back now. If you hadn't heard of this amazing part of fungi you're leaving fully educated now.

Mycelium are essentially the nervous system of a fungal colony. Just one spore can result in a network like this. Mushrooms are actually the fruiting part of a mycelium network, this is what goes on underneath the surface. You may have heard that clusters of mushrooms communicate with each other through their networks and this is true! In fact theres a colony of Armillara that spreads for over 2,000 acres (or 10 square kilometers) in Oregon. The uh. way they phrased it in the article was pretty disturbing tbh; "This was kind of a side project," Smith recalls. "We were looking at the boundaries of [fungal] individuals using genetic tests and the first year we didn't find the edge."

Mycelium communicate with their colony by exchanging information, sharing resources, and even hijacking other plants in the area as an early warning system for danger.

This is AWESOME because it means that Eveline's infection has indeed spread across the entirety of the Baker estate. Its assimilated all of the local plant life, all of the local wildlife (punching molded alligators into submission is badass) and appears to be able to spread through water as well (dead fish when re entering the boathouse after the ship section). Eveline has turned the entire area into her own fungal colony thats directly under her control.

So now we get to the nitty gritty about how this relates to the hive-mind hierarchy in the game. There appears to be not one but TWO hive-mind functions operating in this hellhole. Obviously we have the main hive-mind that Ethan Winters sees when he's stuck in that mold column. Because we see Eveline has been stored in the megamycite in the 'Shadows of Rose' DLC. it appears that this is like. a smaller hive-mind thats attached to the main one. If the megamycite's hive-mind was a house, this would be the shed; Separate but still connected. but I also propose that Marguerite has her own smaller, less complicated hive-mind for controlling her bug enemies.

During Marguerite's "Bug-pit" boss-fight, we can see that the bug enemies aren't just attacking at random, she's conducting them. This is just another one of Eveline's 'gifts'. I think she prioritizes mothers above most other family members. I think it would make sense because she was LITERALLY CREATED AS A VESSEL FOR MOTHER MIRANDA TO RESURRECT HER DEAD KID and theres further evidence in that she directly gifted Marguerite her dead siblings arm that can be used to make a cure that stops her from influencing someones mind (at least for a little while) for safekeeping (run on sentences my beloved).

Ok so back to the 'shed' analogy that I mentioned before. Theres a problem I noticed with the amount of people that go missing vs the amount of enemies Ethan fights throughout the game. We can see newspaper articles in the kitchen saying things like 'Over 20 missing in two years'. ETHAN FIGHTS. WAY MORE THAN 20 MOLDED. Even being generous that the news was wrong Ethans gotta be fighting what at least 90 Molded over the course of the game?? (im. so tempted to rewatch the whole thing and keep track of how many spawn. so tempted). Theres a simple answer to this problem. We know from the 'Shadows of Rose' DLC that grunt minds are stored in the hive as well as the more developed boss minds. I propose that these aren't new molded consciousnesses that Ethans fighting, its the same ones over and over again. Getting killed and sent back and respawned and killed and sent back and respawned over and over stuck in a rotating door of present in the real world and stuck in the 'shed'. The shed is the molded's own personal HELL they're just not mentally present enough to recognize it.