#This is loottsss of text (classic me) but there's some material for you!

[grokebaby]

PLEASE I've gotta know more about Jetter she is so PRETTY !! Does the species of fungus that infected her have any lore ? Is she he like ok with just living with it now ? Is there anywhere I can read more about him ? ?? AUGH sorry if this is overwhelming I love your chars <3

HEEM no need to apologise!!! This is definitely the most soul touching ask I've gotten in millions of years!!!

As a note: there's still posts on my blog where Jetter is referred with he/him and that is bc she's a very old character and I've certainly had a bit of a journey with her. In the recent years I transed her gender (MtF) and tho in universe she's yet to crack the egg, this character goes by she/her. I wanted to clarify that, bc I was gonna answer that you can see more of her by going through her tag (#Jetter) but some posts are old and from the time before I started revamping her! So like at least that part is outdated. Most stuff relating to her interesting floral mutations has stayed the same tho :]

About the infection: It's a species of parasitic plant and yes it does have lore! It's a very adaptable and "intelligent"/advanced species that can inhabit several kinds of hosts. Most typically it's life cycle goes one of two ways

1. Ground originated: A seed sprouts from the ground. It tends to grow best several feet Below surface, as it takes up lots of space. It can lay dormant underground for a while, many years even, until sprouting to detectable, active levels. The type of seed that takes root in the ground is usually an american football sized bud, surrounded by thick shell. The plant's goal here is to spread and grow, so it starts leeching off of any and every other plant or floral lifeform it can to do so. It can hijack trees, plants and some fungus species, which grants it longevity, since if it just sucked them dry immediately, the plants would die quickly and thus it'd be robbed of further sustinence. You'll find this a theme with the plant. Once it's big enough to detect above ground, it's usually too late/extremely difficult to eradicate. Once reaching a certain level of physical maturity, it goes in with the chemical attack. It's flowers produce an overpowering scent that has strong hormonal effects, acting sort of like a sedative, while also making the lifeform affected more fond of the plant. Just like, making you feel all nice and great so you just wanna stay with the plant. It's one of the lures. Another lure is fruit. To begin the second stage of spread, the plant must get a lifeform to ingest parts of it. Pollen, fruits or flowers typically work best. Once ingested, it begins adapting to it's new environment aka the living host. It hijacks parts of the brain and goes from parasitic to symbiotic, to sustain the host obviously. From then on it's goal is less to spread and more just flourish and survive, but the host can still infect other people in certain ways, but only if the plant has properly taken growth into the body (at which point it can't be removed safely anymore).

2. That ofc brings us the second life cycle which is attained from an infected host. Typically, if the host dies, it's body acts as a growing ground for the flower's seeds and the cycle restarts. But while alive, some ways of spreading it to others usually includes another person ingesting or being struck with parts of the plant. For an example of the latter, like. If the infected person sneezes and pollen or stuff gets into someone's eyes or mouth. If the infected person starts growing fruit or berries though, those are no longer infectious to other people, though they can be used as lure nonetheless (*flirtatious wink*). Oh also if the infected person bites or otherwise breaks skin on someone and gets pollen there and the wound is left to fester..

About the symbiosis: As I mentioned the plant has some heavy chemicals at it's disposal so in order to cooperate with the host it'll use those chemicals to communicate with the brain. At it's early spread stages it's mostly just taking it's time to take root and see what the new crib is like. The adaptation period can be really clumsy. Once reaching the stage where it can properly communicate with the brain, things tend to go smoother. It familiarizes itself with the host's brain slowly, to work with it best, and though this stage can take a while to perfect completely, the plant is able to make basic requests and stimulate simple activities. Like making the host drink lots of water or bathe so the plant gets water, making the host hungrier so it eats for two, calming them down via happy chemicals if it detects the host overly alarmed ect. It's like Brain 2: Electric Boogaloo except it's a plant brain. At the later stages (after 2-4yrs of being infected, depending on complexity or size of host), the plant is able to adapt better to work with the host in more complex ways. It'll gain access to senses, both the host's and it's own (points at those massive flowers growing on Jetter), so it won't just be flailing around. It'll also start "understanding" things the host already knows, like social contexts and what's considered appropriate, who's your mate or family, allies, enemies ect. Note: the plant isn't conscious, it's doing all this with chemical signals and using the brain as it's central processor. There's not another "person" inside the host - and tho they can have conflicts with what the plant would see as best vs the host knowing I can't Just Do That, it's not comparable to being possessed or anything. No split personality situations here, just a plant moving into your body.

Jetter and the plant: Okay so she got it while patrolling her home kingdom's lands (she was a commander), and got immediately infected bc nobody knows wtf that is yet. It takes a bit for any symptoms to show so she directs a few more investigations about the plant until people start acting all funny and odd and so her troops retreat until further notice. Few days later she's bedridden and talks funny and moves funny. Seems all drunkenly and disoriented. Has really vivid weird dreams. Not necessarily related to the plant but Jetter herself: She confessed to her crush (coworker, male) sometime earlier and got rejected but nobody knew of it, until now, when said crush tells about it to their authorities. It quickly becomes a scandal Because (Homophobia and/or said crush showing his true colors: aka asshole). So Jetter is suspended until further notice, esp bc of her infected state and she's hospitalized/put under surveillance. Fast forward through some really awful times and she fucks off of her kingdom entirely, taking on to a wanderer lifestyle. For a while she mostly has just some odd motor dysfunctions and occasionally just blacking out or going into a zombie like state (she's barely here but awake and the plant is practicing trying to function with her). She's definitely not feeling very comfortable with all this body invasion stuff esp with how her life is turned upside down so there's alot of personal conflict with the plant settling in but it eventually smooths out as she recovers from the awful events she went through, and starts to work just fine with the plant. At least since she's a loner and nobody has to see her rolling around in the dirt and standing face up in the pouring rain. Or attacking other plants that her little symbiotic pal sees as threats.

At her current story stage, the plant has grown it's own sensory organs (again points at those two massive flowers), and is starting to get comfortable in this host, being mostly helpful or harmless by now. Still, bc she's been a loner for so long, the plant hasn't needed to get accustomed to functioning appropriately around other people, so, she'll definitely have the plant put her in embarrassing situations in the future when she returns to civilization again more full time. Unintentionally mind you. The plant doesn't realize it'd be inappropriate for some strange lady to start wrecking up a florist shop without context. So, to sum up, she's in the mid to latter stages but not fully integrated yet. Needs more fine tuning, but she's at the better, easier part of her journey with this plant. Just one more hurdle to get through once she like. Gets friends. And is around people consistently. Oh and the uh, internalized transphobia and homophobia. That too.. She had some struggles and Idk I guess she's "Okay" w the plant now but bc it still needs fine tuning it's more like this, kinda awkward but still helpful thing you have to apologise to other people about occasionally and stuff. Inconvenience. Like "No, I'm not drinking from that puddle. Let's drink from a spring. No, I'm not rolling in mud. When everyone's looking.. No, I'm not gonna tear up that flower. It's harmless." stuff like that