#and the rot is like the zombie ant fungus

[arx-aru]

ok so. Both dungeons with Cleanrot Knights as bosses have 2 interesting quirks in common:

the "goons" (theoretically)protecting them are Servants of Rot and Miranda Flowers

there are items & casualties explicitly related to Rykard

From these we can speculatively-tentatively-theoretically extrapolate a few things:

a. Due to item descriptions associated with Servants of Rot, the present Malenia-Miquellan inhabitants of these caves arrived after the Battle of Aeonia, or were infected/indoctrinated by survivors of it

b. The placement of the Servants of Rot in relation to the boss!Cleanrots suggests they either view themselves as or are aligned with the Cleanrot Knights, presumably in a subordinate fashion

c. The cave in Caelid(Abandoned Cave) is littered with destroyed (Rykardian)Iron Virgins; the one in Liurnia(Stillwater Cave) has an outlying room filled with corpses, one being a Sage(wearing the same attire as Gowry) and another having seemingly been shot by Serpent Arrows... this translates to, most likely, the Miquellans and Rykardians having fought each-other at these locations

(The Serpent Arrows and Serpent Bow(found next to a derelict Iron Virgin) are both explicitly tools(or 'minions'??) of the Formless Serpents, connected with the Serpent Worshippers of Mt. Gelmir)

with another round of speculation telephone these dungeons, presumably 2 of the most thought-out Cleanrot encounters, seem to serve as suggestion of 1) a direct relationship between the Cleanrots and the Servants of Rot, 2) multiple post-Aeonia Miquellan-Rykardian skirmishes, 3) the loose, Doylist drawing of a parallel/comparison/contrast of some variety between Serpent pagans and Rot pagans

[cherubchoirs]

What if Micheal had some sort of little bug or mushroom or little spider that would replace lost tissue. Like the type of fungus that makes 'zombie' ants and spiders.

But it's like symbiotic and not trying to take control of his body.

i have thought about something that helps maintain or even build back a bit of what he's lost, like little bio-engineers. i almost like to think of v2 and raphael collaborating on creating a creature for it...like i mentioned before wrt angelic v1, angels do have the power to create basic life and so raph could create something with intentional purpose if he set his mind to it. however, because what he can make would be exceedingly simple, v2 would then have to augment it as a sort of half nanobot bug with the express design of maintaining michael's tissue. so they go back and forth with this, raph bringing all the tiny bugs he made and v2 trying to upgrade them while maintaining their ability to reproduce, supporting their instincts, keeping them entirely nondestructive and not just. kill them. it's a process!!! but just thinking of them finally succeeding.....both of them introducing them to michael.....and after a few days, he can feel it. he can feel his rot diminishing, he can feel the decay slowing to a stop and he is finally free of that constant, awful wasting. AND IT MAKES ME CRAZY BC. v2 has always felt like it had no point from the moment it was made, so being able to bring michael such genuine happiness, such a deep sense of peace and hear him say that it saved him WELL. well. i think it would mean a whole lot to it!!!!!

[the-magpie-archives]

MAG 6 - 'Squirm' - Speculations on parasitic infection.

This statement has many interesting aspects, but one that catches my attention is the subtle details of just how Prentiss's parasites seem to infect.

Harriet says she felt like she was stabbed, but doesn't mention worms or obvious rot on Prentiss, which would have been noticeable even in a moment of shock. This, and the fact that she wasn't wounded implies that the spreading of the sickness is not only caused by the worms.

From their description, Prentiss's worms are more like larvae than your standard worm, and the thing about larvae is that the eggs they emerge from are small, delicate. Anyone that's dealt with maggots knows that you can't just get rid of the maggots, you need to destroy the eggs too, but this brings me to another point.

Because of how delicate the eggs of a fly are, its common for them to lay them on things, and even in things; this is sometimes called flystrike. When I was a child I had a bright green pet caterpillar, I kept him in a jar and fed him leaves, and was so excited for him to turn into a butterfly! He never did though, instead I watched him torn in half from the inside out as fly larvae crawled from his corpse. If a fly laying its eggs under the skin of a caterpillar could do that, imagine what a human could do to another with this mutated, powerful, fear-driven parasite.

Harriet's eventual demise wasn't all that different from that of my pet, but as all things are with humans, it was undeniably messier. This dramatic end also puts me in mind of Ohiocordyceps unilateralis, more commonly known as the zombie ant fungus. After its host has served its purpose it very dramatically blooms, spreading the infection further to keep its species alive.

The parasite being spread by intercourse implies that either extended physical contact or transfer of bodily fluid can also cause infection. To me it makes more sense that it's fluids, as I think Timothy Hodge would have noticed anything physical, he seemed to be quite perceptive. The parasite being spread by fluids is interesting, as that could mean it has more fungus-like properties and spreads it's spores through the bloodstream, thereby affecting everything else.

This would mean that the methods of infection are: transfer of bodily fluid, flystrike, and the traditional worm burrowing. Correlating it as best I can, it seems to me that the worms exist as both parasite and fungus- something obviously not possible in reality, but definitely pleasing to the otherworldly fear entity of rot and filth!

Prentiss, as the source of it all, seems to have the ability to plant the eggs, which in turn can grow the worms. Whilst a host grows these perhaps the spores inside of them can spread others that they become physical with. I like to think that then the spores could grow and change into the worms, which in turn can infest others, leaving spores to create even more, creating the perfect flesh hive.

[neotriobrainrot-reborn]

Because I am legally insane about Mushroom Girl, here is a fanmade moveset for her!

Also, imma call her Rosary for namesakes.

Epithet: Fungus

Description: Allows her to create fungi with a variety of effects, but at a cost

Consume(passive)

As an effect of her epithet that’s been there before she even knew she was inscribed, her hands act as a fungi of sorts in a general sense (with some differences). As soon as she makes contact with anything organic, it’ll slowly rot as if it’s being eaten alive while recovering some of Rosary’s HP/STAMINA proportional to how much of the target it consumes. And it will continue to rot until she stops making hand contact. Everything organic, from plant life and trees, to actual living creatures (including humans) will suffer from this effect. Because this is a passive part of her epithet, she can’t turn this off. This is a part of her epithet that she hates, and the only way she has been able to alleviate it is by putting on thick gloves to avoid contact.

The speed in which objects will decay depends on the size. While plant life would decay quickly, it’ll take a lot longer to decay something like a tree.

[This is mainly from the definition of Fungus, which is “Any of a group of spore-producing organisms feeding on organic matter, including molds, yeast, mushrooms, and toadstools”]

Sweet Poison (passive)

Another passive side effect of her epithet is that she can’t be harmed via poison/venom. In fact, her body will actually convert poisons into painkillers, slightly reducing the damage she’d take from attacks.

[Funnily enough, the inspiration for this actually came from the grasshopper mouse. It’s essentially resistant to poison that would kill animals 100 times its size, and actually converts the toxin into painkillers.]

Cordymon Zombie

Rosary summons a bright pink fungus that will orbit around her finger. By pointing at a target(summons) and clicking her thumb in a finger-gun gesture, she can shoot the fungus towards her target, which will explode in a puff of spores upon contact. After some time, the summon will not only fall under Rosary’s control via a summon-fungus springing out of the summon’s head, but the fungus will transform a summon into a slightly but significantly stronger state.

It’s to note that this only works on summons, and it has a size limit. While it would work on stuff like Sylvie’s sheep extremely well, it wouldn’t do much to a summon like Graham. This also doesn’t work on anything that isn’t a summon, like a person for example. At best, shooting this at a person will only give them a sneezing fit for 5 seconds.

The move is also light in weight, which means that someone with even a small wind based attack can blow the fungus away before it can even make contact, effectively making them useless.

[Inspiration is obviously the cordyceps/zombie-ant fungus lol]

Oyster Club

She can create a small clutter of blue fungi with white poke-dots and with eyes that looks like a cartoon doodle in her hand. Upon hearing someone’s voice enough times, it can mimic the person efficiently with great accuracy and clarity. Unfortunately, the Oyster summons can only store 3 copied voices at a time, and if a 4th one is collected, it forgets the oldest stored voice.

[Inspiration came from a YouTube video called “Five Minutes of Blue Oyster Mushrooms Talking”]

Golden Agaric

Upon summoning a golden fungus similar to an Agaric fungus on her head and saying the phrase “Golden Agaric, impart your wisdom!”, the summon takes control of Rosary’s brain. This appears useless to any witnesses, but the fungus amplifies her 5 senses and her reaction speed, allowing her to fight beyond her own capabilities. Unfortunately, she relinquishes all control of herself to the summon, and while the summon is generally more pragmatic when it comes to helping her, it’ll do what it thinks is best for her. Fortunately, this only lasts for five minutes

[Funnily enough, this move was entirely inspired by the magic conch in that one SpongeBob episode. Is it goofy? Yes. Do I love it? Also yes]

Weakness

All of her summons are extremely flammable, and like her summons, she’s extremely weak to heat based attacks. She’s a lot more susceptible to a heatstroke than the average person

Let me know what ya think. I had fun writing this!

[coiled-dragon]

Thanks for the tag!! I just hit 80 Renfield fics today! Here's to us all being past brain rot stage and to the point of zombie ant fungus brain and are just taken over by dracfield 😄

EIGHTY FICS!!!! EIGHTY!!!!! You absolute madlad you! hahaha ♥ Im sitting at 44 for Renfield myself which is still wild to me, because my previous like.... 'score' for fics in one fandom was 19! And I didnt know if Id EVER beat that! and then Renfield said 'hold my beer' haha

Also truuuueee~ Im not done with them at all but I am on a lil vacation where im splashing in a few other interests heeheehee ♥

[bat-under-a-bridge]

Dragon Cordyceps

LIke how those fungi infect ants but with dragons. They feed and grow off of magic. They evolved from a dying species of giant bugs to infect dragons. The dragons when full infected become more dangerous depending on the type. A fire dragon would lose its ability to breathe fire to not harm the fungus and its spores, plant dragons become ten times more deadly, being able to grow and spread the fungus at extreme speeds.

Over time the dragon’s mind gets taken over by the fungus and they retreat to a certain graveyard-like area as a last resort to keep it from spreading. They die there and just rot for a while. Until the dragon’s body runs out of magic and the fungus just picks the body up and goes to move around to spread and gather magic. But the zombie dragons are half rotten and some are really big, but despite this they are actually really passive and non threatening. Until the fungus becomes threatened and the zombie dragon attacks.

Big dragons covered in mushrooms that have been wandering for hundreds of years. Small dragons that have one mushroom on them infecting bigger ones by bites. Dragons going to the gravy site to make sure the fungus doesn’t spread towards any other magical race.

Just. Dragon cordyceps. Magic feeding mushrooms just sounds cool???

[xtruss]

No, You Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Fungi

— By GiulianaFurci and Merlin Sheldrake February 19, 2023 | Time Magazine | Ideas — Climate Change

Orange oak bolete fungus (Leccinum quercinum) showing spore dispersal pattern over 24 hours on black card. Yves Lanceau—Nature Picture Library

By now, you’ve probably heard about “zombie fungi”, which are able to puppet the behaviour of their insect hosts with magnificent precision. One such fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, infects carpenter ants. Once infected by the fungus, ants are stripped of their instinctive fear of heights and climb up the nearest plant. In due course the fungus forces the ant to clamp its jaws around the plant in a “death grip.” The fungus then digests the ant’s body and projects a stalk-like structure out of its head, from which spores shower down on ants passing below.

Unlike the fictional killer zombie fungi in the recent post-apocalyptic HBO series, The Last of Us, zombie fungi have never been found to infect mammals. But it’s no surprise that they animate our imaginations: Thinking about fungi makes the world look different. Fungi comprise one of life’s kingdoms—as broad a category as “animals” or “plants”—and are key to understanding the planet on which we live. They are inside you and around you. They sustain you and all you depend on. As you read these words, fungi are making soil, producing food, making medicines, nourishing and killing animals and plants, and influencing the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Fungal fact is more remarkable than fungal fiction. And as we look towards the future of life on a damaged planet, what can we do to nurture generative relationships with this mind-bending and hugely diverse group of organisms?

Most fungi live most of their lives not as mushrooms, but as branching, fusing networks of tubular cells known as mycelium. Mycelial networks have no fixed shape. By remodeling themselves they can navigate labyrinths and expertly explore their surroundings. Globally, the total length of fungal mycelium in the top 10 centimetres of soil is more than 450 thousand quadrillion kilometres: around half the width of our galaxy. Most plants depend on symbiotic fungi which weave themselves through roots and leaves, provide plants with crucial nutrients, and defend them from disease and drought. Bacteria use fungal networks as highways to navigate the crowded rot-scapes of the soil. Of the carbon that is found in soils—which amounts to twice the amount of carbon found in plants and the atmosphere combined—a substantial proportion is bound up in tough organic compounds produced by fungi. Fungal networks comprise an ancient life support system that easily qualifies as one of the wonders of the living world.

The growing wave of interest in fungi is welcome and long overdue. But why now? What has led to the current surge in fungal fascination? Exciting new research made possible by technologies such as DNA sequencing plays a large part; now more than ever, we are better equipped to unravel their secrets and understand their complexities. Thrilling fungal discoveries have found receptive audiences in part due to a growing awareness of the interconnectivity of the living world. Fungi are powerful reminders of the intimate, reciprocal relationships that sustain all life. Moreover, fungi make good poster organisms for network thinking: The recent wave of public interest in fungi has coincided with the rise of network concepts across many disciplines, from computing, sociology and neuroscience, to economics and astronomy.

But perhaps the strongest driver of popular fungal interest has been the growing awareness of the many ways we can partner with fungi to adapt to worsening environmental and health crises. Fungi are metabolic wizards and their chemical accomplishments have long shaped human life: bread, cheese, soy sauce, penicillin, a host of powerful antiviral and anti-cancer compounds, cholesterol-lowering statins, and immunosuppressant drugs that enable organ transplants—not to mention alcohol (fermented by a yeast) and psilocybin (the psychoactive component in psychedelic mushrooms which shows promise in treating severe depression and anxiety). Voracious fungal appetites can be deployed to break down pollutants such as crude oil from oil spills, in a process known as mycoremediation. In mycofabrication, building materials and textiles can be grown out of mycelium and used as replacements for plastics and leather.

Although fungi are key allies for humans, it’s also true that a small minority can cause major problems. Fungal infections kill around 2 million people a year. Fungal diseases of plants result in billions of dollars of losses—the rice blast fungus ruins a quantity of rice large enough to feed more than 60 million people every year. Fungal diseases of trees, from Dutch elm disease to chestnut blight, transform forests and landscapes. The impact of fungal diseases is increasing across the world due to trade and unsustainable agricultural practices, and the widespread use of antifungal chemicals has led to an unprecedented rise in new fungal superbugs that threaten both human and plant health.

Given that we have no option but to interact with fungi, how might we ensure a healthy future with them?

First, fungi need to be included within conservation frameworks. Fungi play vital roles supporting planetary biodiversity. When we disrupt them, we jeopardize the health and resilience of the organisms on which we all depend. Despite the fact that we are destroying the planet’s fungal communities at an alarming rate, most environmental legislation and international assemblies such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) or the Convention on Biological Diversity of the United Nations (CBD), together with many large international NGOs, refer to the conservation of Flora (plants) and Fauna (animals). Adding at third “F”, Funga, to the list would write this neglected kingdom of life into conservation and agricultural policy frameworks, and unlock crucial funding for mycological research, surveys, and educational programs.

We also need to invest in fungal research. Fungi are a kingdom of life that has not received a kingdom’s worth of attention, and our ignorance is easily summarized. Current estimates suggest that fewer than 10% of all fungal species have been described. It was only in 1969 that fungi were recognised as their own distinct kingdom of life, which has entrenched a disciplinary bias: There are fewer opportunities to research fungi than animals and plants. Even though fungal pathogens are on the rise, no vaccines have been developed against fungal infections, and the small number of existing antifungal drugs are becoming increasingly ineffective. A deeper understanding of fungal life will support vital conservation and restoration projects, and will also drive much-needed innovation in fungal technologies.

Above all, we must invest in fungal education. Fungi are largely absent from school and undergraduate curricula, perpetuating our fungus blindness and actively distorting our worldview. Accounts of the living world that do not include fungi are accounts of a world that doesn’t exist.

Fungi have long sustained and enriched life on Earth. We are unthinkable without them, and yet, we are only just beginning to understand the intricacies of fungal lives. It’s time we give them the attention they deserve.

— Furci is a field mycologist, foundress of the Fungi Foundation, Harvard University Associate, Co-Chair IUCN SSC Fungal Conservation Committee, National Geographic Explorer and Dame of the Order of the Star of Italy. Sheldrake is a biologist and author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures, one of TIME's "100 Must Read Books of 2020." He works with the Society for the Protection of Undergound Networks

[vulturevanity]

I'd like to take a moment to share a headcanon I've adopted for my Max Heart fic's lore. It doesn't actually come up in text, but it's part of the Creation Myth that involvss the weapon that the villain uses against the Cures, and it somehow became very relevant the moment Fusion first appeared.

First, a bit of background inspiration: the Cordyceps is a parasitic fungus that infects ants and slowly turns them into "zombies" whose only purpose is to look for a place to plant themselves where it can infect more ants after they die. The fungus doesn't know that's what it does -- it is, after all, just a fungus, and it doesn't have the ability to formulate complex cognitive processes -- but its evolution took such a turn that this rather gruesome path is the most effective way it has of reproducing.

Similarly, in my kinda-sorta canon compliant AU, Zakenna is a parasite.

Futari Wa's theme is Yin and Yang. The balance between opposing Light and Darkness, in which neither can exist without the other. The denizens of the Dusk Zone's initial objective is to spread Darkness to all of the worlds, upsetting that balance and destroying everything in the process. It seems fascinating to me, then, that the Dusk Zone itself is also being slowly consumed by that very same Darkness, and thus the Dark King needs the Prism Stones: he needs to live so he can spread the Darkness that is consuming him to all the worlds. And these two objectives are so simple and yet so contradictory that I can't help but think way too hard about it: would any sane person do such a thing? This isn't greed, it isn't conquest, it's dying for the sake of death, and living at the cost of life. Anyone with a working brain could see the madness of this.

And I thought, did something caused this? And I thought, at a different moment, what the hell is Zakenna? And I put those two together.

So my headcanon is that Zakenna is a parasite that caused the darkness which is simultaneously killing the Dusk Zone and making its people want to spread it around. It helps because it's in its nature to want to spread darkness, but it's not capable of doing that on its own. And this is now, by complete coincidence, backed by the fact that Fusion, the amalgamation of Zakenna (the entity of darkness), Uzaina (the entity of rot), Kowaiina (the entiry of fear) and Hoshina (the entity of greed), just wants to absorb all of existence for themself, with no ulterior motive other to become stronger.

And I just think that's neat!

[kenyatta]

Whether​ or not mycelium in fact behaves like a neural network, fungi certainly seem to have a highly evolved interest in the brains and nervous systems of others. The psychoactive effects that psilocybin-producing mushrooms have on humans are well known (though seriously under-researched), but the most virtuosic feats of mind alteration – if that is the right way to describe it – are performed by the numerous species of fungus that can control the minds and bodies of insects. These are sometimes called ‘zombie fungi’, and they act with what Sheldrake describes as ‘exquisite precision’. The fungus Ophiocordyceps infects carpenter ants. Inside the body of an infected ant, it begins to develop a mycelial network. Hyphae travel through the ant’s body cavities, into its limbs and organs: an infected insect becomes about 40 per cent fungus. Once this fungal growth is complete, the normally ground-dwelling ant leaves its nest and climbs the nearest plant. At a height of around 25 centimetres – ‘a zone with just the right temperature and humidity to allow the fungus to fruit’ – it orients itself towards the sun; at high noon, it clamps its jaws round a leaf vein, in a ‘death grip’. Mycelium grows out of the ant’s feet, plastering it to the leaf. Sutured into place, jaws rigid, the ant’s body is then digested by the fungus: a small mushroom grows out of the ant’s head, releasing spores which drift down onto the ants passing below, beginning the cycle again.

Massospora, a species completely unrelated to Ophiocordyceps, infects cicadas: it rots away the abdomen of an infected insect, leaving it tipped with a yellowish plug of spores that looks like a mass of pollen. Infected cicadas are not incapacitated or ill: in fact they become ‘hyperactive and hypersexual despite the fact that their genitals have long since crumbled away’. Rushing between mates, they become ‘flying salt-shakers of death’, dusting other cicadas with Massospora’s spores.

It’s unclear how such exact behavioural changes are effected. Ophiocordyceps fills an ant’s body with hyphae and takes control of its actions, but it doesn’t invade the ant’s brain, which is left intact; Massospora confines itself pretty much to the cicada’s abdomen, leaving the rest of the body alone, in order that the insect can continue to move around and attempt to mate while the fungus completes its life-cycle. It is possible that the control is achieved by means of minutely precise pharmacological interventions in the brains of the hosts: Massospora manufactures both psilocybin and cathinone, a stimulant related to the recreational drug mephedrone, which is otherwise found only in plants such as khat (Catha edulis, whose leaves are chewed widely in East Africa and beyond). So the fungus is perhaps administering both amphetamines and psychedelics to its cicada. But nobody really understands quite how this would work. The mechanism by which Ophiocordyceps produces exact and perfectly timed bodily actions in an infected ant is also a profound mystery, except that it most probably involves ‘fine-tuning’ the ant’s ‘chemical secretions in real time’.

Precise and complex effects of this sort are far beyond the reach of human medical pharmacology; Sheldrake compares the way these fungi command their hosts to phenomena such as spirit possession or the speech of mediums. Like an incorporeal spirit, the fungus does not have a body, instead entering and possessing something else’s. The ascent up the plant and the death grip are not the behaviour of the carpenter ant but of the fungus, which is using the insect as a kind of exo-suit: ‘For part of its life, Ophiocordyceps must wear an ant’s body.’ How rapidly, how finely must the network be communicating and acting to puppeteer the central nervous system of a living creature, to measure distance and conditions, to determine direction and time of day? The question of fungal sentience hovers in the background, like the ambiguous ghosts of spirit photography.

[twowish]

Chapter 3: Moldinator

The inside of the mansion is a sea of green. The floor, furniture, walls, and ceiling only exist in splotches among the fungus blanketing every surface. It gives the home an overgrown feel, as if its wealthy inhabitants left some time ago and now all that remains is rotting away, neglected and forgotten.

From the shapes beneath the mold and the bits of interior that are visible, the decorations and furnishings look about what Noelle expected from a mansion: expensive, lush, and elaborate. There’s fancy looking fixtures, and large picture frames - maybe paintings - that are now obscured by fungal infection.

Scattered around them are clusters of mushrooms, mostly small, but a few large, and all brown, white, gray, or pale red - though it’s a little hard to make out in the darkness. They aren’t as prevalent as the mold and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to their placement.   

They’re standing in a foyer now, and Noelle wonders what Rita’s mansion must have looked like before the mold makeover. It’s current state makes her shudder. It’s just like the set of a horror movie. Sure, she liked watching them, but being in them? No, she’d much rather be in her apartment with one on her TV, crocheting, with no one to complain about the subtitles.   

Claude is panicking on Felix’s shoulders. His paws grip harshly onto Felix’s scalp as he screeches.

“Buddy, what? What is it? Chill out. You - you want what?” Felix tries to comfort him, but Claude is inconsolable.

Noelle watches Felix struggle, unsure how to help and feeling guilty for dragging both him and his raccoon into this.

Claude’s still in a panic when Felix trots past Noelle to catch up with Moldinator who’d wandered ahead of them.

She follows, scanning all around her for any sign of Rita or the auspice. With the size of this place and the mold covering so much would they be able to find either?

Moldinator still has the water gun drawn when Felix reaches him. “Quiet!” he warns. “We want the upper hand on the fungus witch.”

“Uh, maybe you do,” Felix says, regarding Moldinator with suspicion. “Listen, you got any more of those masks? Claude’s kinda, you know, breathing too.”

“You want to give a mask to that pest?” he says turning around.

“Pest? Claude’s not a pest, he’s-”

“I know a guy who’d fix your raccoon situation right up, yessiree. Make you a hat so fast! Want me to spray it? Chase it off?” He lifts up the water pistol as if it were actually a handgun.

Felix removes Claude from his shoulders and holds him protectively at his side. “You do anything to this raccoon and a fungus witch is going to be the least of your problems.”

Moldinator doesn’t respond. He’s still got the gun trained on Claude as Felix glares at him. Then he lowers it, and waves a hand dismissively. “Got bigger things to bust than your personal infestation.” He finally gives Felix a mask before turning away from him. “Just keep it out of my way.”

Felix shoots him what is probably an incredibly dirty look that’s hidden by his face mask as he tries to fit Claude with his own.

“Is he okay?” Noelle asks.

Claude visibly calms as Felix adjusts the mask. “Yeah, he’s just, you know, particular.” Felix huffs. “Doesn’t mean he’s a pest though.”

Not a great start for Moldinator. Noelle hopes they run into Rita before he does. The way he’s talking about the “fungus witch” doesn’t exactly inspire trust within her either.  

Moldinator crouches low, slowly moving forward through the mansion with both hands on the water gun, like a policeman moving in on a suspect. They follow after.

“Hey,” Felix says in a harsh whisper she’s only just able to catch. He waves her closer to him, keeping his voice low as she approaches. “I don’t-” she misses the next couple words. “We should-” more inaudible whispers. “Right?”

Noelle shakes her head and reaches for her phone, her hand bumping against the pocket watch auspice she’d been unwilling to leave in the car. She opens up a note taking application and hands it to Felix.

He stares at her for a moment, confused, before everything registers. Then he takes the phone and taps away at it as Claude climbs back to his shoulders, pressing raccoon paws against his new mask.

Moldinator’s still advancing up ahead. Felix hands her the phone as they move forward, straggling behind him. At least typing is quiet.

This guy’s got some personal vendetta against Rita. Also he’s kind of an ass. I don’t know if we should stick around him. What do you want to do?

She types back, Maybe we should try to find Rita on our own. Tell him see ya later, Moldinator?

Felix nods. “Hey Moldy!” he calls. “So, thanks for helping us illegally enter a home and all, but-”

Moldinator whips around, a finger to his lips “Shhhhh. And don’t you ever call me that again.” He squats near something, staring at the ground. “Now, come see this.”

Felix makes an obscene hand gesture at Moldinator’s turned back as they approach him.

Movement catches Noelle’s eye. There’s a line on the floor that seems to be shifting - a thick, black streak weaving along the ground. She leans closer, eyes squinting.

It’s ants. What appeared to be one mass is actually a bunch of ants all moving in the same direction like a tiny river of little black bodies - but there’s something off about them.

Ants always seemed automated to her anyway, with the way they function in colonies, but these ones seem downright robotic. They’re marching forward to some unseen goal in uniform lines, no ant out of step.

Most peculiar of all is what’s sprouting from their heads - tiny mushroom stalks rise from each; little radio antennas forcing them forward. The endless parade of small soldiers goes down the hallway and up a large, ornate flight of stairs.

Noelle has seen this before. This looks so familiar, but she can’t quite place why.

She hears the memory of Aunt Darcy’s voice. “Oh, well, now that’s just awful.” In her mind’s eye she can see her aunt covering her face with her purple shawl in the movie theater seat beside her. Up on the screen a mushroom stalk is erupting from a newly turned zombie’s head.

“Cordyceps!” She says, louder than she intends to.

Moldinator and Felix turn to look at her.

“At least, that’s what they called it in The Walking Fungus. Turned those it infected into zombies.”

Felix backs away from the ants.

“Don’t worry, outside of B movies, it can’t affect us,” she tells him.

“Ophiocordyceps unilateralis,” Moldinator says. “Fungus witch is pulling out some new tricks.”

“Have you,” Noelle hesitates. “Have you got something against Rita?”

“Got something against the witch spreading some foreign fungi around, yeah. Take a look at this place! She ain’t Rita no more.”

“What does that even mean?” Felix says aggressively.

Moldinator gestures wildly around. “Look at all this! Look what she’s done! Look at these ants! If you were hoping to find Rita, you might as well leave. All that’s left is the fungus witch.”

“What are you planning to do?” Noelle asks. She might only know Rita through her messages with R-da-1st, but Moldinator’s grudge is making her feel protective.

Moldinator hitches up his utility belt. “Whatever needs to be done to bust this mold.” He turns back towards the line of ants. “Starting with this mess.”

As he draws the water pistol, Felix looks alarmed. “Hey - Hey wait! Don’t!” He moves toward Moldinator, arms outstretched, ready to stop him from firing on the ants.

Noelle watches him, confused before she wonders with sudden panic: Could Felix feel the pain of the ants?

Moldinator sprays a stream of the liquid on the ants just as Felix shoves his arms, making him lose his aim. Claude clings to his head and shoulders, nearly flung from him in his sudden movements. The heavy chemical smell wafts over them again.

A handful of ants twist and writhe on the ground, covered in the liquid, and eventually go still. The rest of the insects seem undeterred, simply dodging around their fallen members in neat, ordered lines.

Felix winces, eyes screwed shut, but nothing appears to happen. He blinks, staring at the dead ants, then sighs in relief.

“What the hell was that about?” Moldinator demands.

“You know what you could have done?” Felix yells.

“My job!”

Noelle ignores their arguing and asks, “Can you even talk to them?”

“Talk to them?!” Moldinator says. “Is that what your problem is? You got some kinda varmint vocals?”

“Sure do!” Felix says. The fur on Claude’s back bristles. “And what wish did you get, huh? To be the textbook definition of ‘asshole?’”

Moldinator finally holsters the water gun again. “No. Wished for a steady office job at twenty-four and I got it.”

“So why aren’t you there now?” Felix still sounds angry.

“Because,” Moldinator points a finger at him. “The building I was working in was infested with mold. The company did nothing about it, and eventually faced numerous lawsuits. The office was condemned and destroyed, along with my wish. Poof! No job! I could’ve whined about it, but no! I chose to be Moldinator.”

“That’s the worst origin story I’ve ever heard, Moldy.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“I will-”

“Felix!” Noelle interrupts, and both men turn to her. “Can you talk to the ants?”

Felix runs a hand down the side of his face, shoots Moldinator one more nasty look, and crouches beside the line of ants still continuing up the stairs. “Talking to bugs is always so weird. They don’t really… speak. It’s more like, I dunno, impressions.”

Noelle kneels beside him. “Still, think we can get any information out of them?” Currently her most pressing concern is how dangerous the fungus witch - Rita - really is, and stopping Moldinator from doing anything rash.

“Guess we can try.”

Claude leans as far away from the ants as he can on Felix’s back. Like the mold, he’s clearly not a fan.

Moldinator folds his arms and watches, his posture emanating indignation, even with a face hidden by the mask and sunglasses.

“Hey ants, what’s the deal?” Felix says as the ants continue their march.

Claude’s tail swishes back and forth in the silence that follows.

Felix stands, shaking his head. “These guys are gone. Whatever that fungus did, well, they’re not home anymore.”

Moldinator sighs. “What do you think Cordeyceps-”

“Wait, wait, I’m getting something. It’s just - it’s just one though.” Felix walks down the line of ants, searching.

Noelle follows behind scanning for any ant that looks out of place.

Felix continues, stopping every once in awhile to ask, “Hello?” or “Where?”

They follow the river of ants until they reach a small hole in the wall that the ants are pouring out of.

“There,” Felix points.

A single ant without a mushroom stalk is milling about the hole. As they watch, it runs from ant to ant, wriggling antennas at them, but they give no response; just continue to march in their relentless procession.

“It’s not infected.” Noelle says.

“Maybe he’s immune?” Felix asks.

“Maybe. But I think most ants are female.”

“What’s it matter? You gonna name it?” Felix says sarcastically.

Noelle considers this. “Yeah, we’ll call her Antgelina.”

Felix groans. “You couldn’t pick, like, Sally, or something.”

Noelle huffs. She has to admit that she finds his exasperation at anything even slightly resembling a pun amusing. “Sally’s no name for an ant.”

“Fine, we’ll put it to a vote,” Felix says. “All those in favor of ‘Antgelina’ raise your hand.”

Noelle raises hers. Behind her, Moldinator sniffs and then raises his as well. Claude gives a small bark atop Felix’s shoulder and much to his human’s clear annoyance, puts a paw in the air.

“Okay,” Felix says, rolling his eyes. “Antgelina it is. I guess. Antgelina, what’s up?”

He listens for a few moments.

Moldinator taps a foot. Part of Noelle wishes he would go on without them, as she and Felix had planned, but another part of her can’t help but feel they should be keeping an eye on him - for Rita’s sake.

Felix stands. “Ant gal knows nothing. All I got was, ‘glass home, broke, sick, follow, why big ant.’”

“Big ant?” Noelle asks.

“She wants to know why I’m a big ant and- hey I told you talking to bugs is weird.”

Noelle sighs, not sure what she expected. They’ve seen no sign of Rita and there’s still so much of the mansion left to search. “I suppose we’ll just... see where the ants lead.”

“Yeah, well, uh, Antgelina wants to, uh, come along.” Felix says, looking as if he feels as silly as the words he’s saying.

“This just what y’all do? Pick up pests?” Moldinator says.

Noelle reaches in her pocket for the copper watch. The ant might be useful around the mansion; their own tiny tour guide. Besides, who wants to be left alone when all your friends are zombies? She opens the cover and hands it to Felix, “Think she’ll climb in here?”

Felix takes the pocket watch and sets it down beside the ant. “You wanna come along? This is your ride,” he tells her.

She twitches her antennae and crawls aboard, settling down on the watch face that had long stopped ticking years ago.

Felix picks up the pocket watch and carefully closes it. “Antgelina has joined the party.”  

______

Back at the bottom of the staircase, they gaze up at the mold-encrusted flight. Moonlight emanating from skylights catches the threads of mold on it every so often, almost glistening as it weaves along every step and around the banister. The stairs look rotting and foreboding, like a ship sunk to the bottom of the sea. The only movement on them is the steady line of ants continuing their solemn advancement upwards, hugging the right side.

Moldinator now has not one, but two squirt guns full of that harsh chemical out and in front of him.

Felix has Antgelina’s pocketwatch clasped in both hands, glaring suspiciously at Moldinator as Claude rests around his shoulders.

Noelle is wary and exasperated. All she wanted was to talk to Rita and find the auspice. Moldinator, on the other hand, is poised to attack.

“Stay low,” he says, progressing on the wide, elegant staircase. “And stay behind me.”

Felix gives her a pointed look.

How were they going to play this? As much as she just wants to find the racket, she can’t do it at the possible expense of someone else. Rita had seemed perfectly fine and reasonable in all their correspondences leading up to meeting at the cafe. Moldinator on the other hand? Less so. “What are you planning on doing with Rita?” Noelle asks, taking one careful step up the stairs, Felix following behind.

Moldinator uses the tip of one of the water pistols to push up the brim of his hat just a fraction, and looks at her. “I’m taking out the fungus witch any way I can.”

“Take out?”

“Eliminate. It’s what a Mold Buster does.”

“You’re going to kill her?” Felix snaps.

Moldinator lets out a small, sarcastic laugh. “No, no, just the mold.”

“But, what if you can’t eliminate one without the other?” Noelle asks, the hair on the back of her neck standing up. Sticking with Moldinator is growing unbearably uncomfortable.

His voice lowers, threatening. Noelle can barely hear it when he says, “Well we’ll just find out, won’t we?”

Noelle swallows. “We could try talking to her first? Instead of going in guns ablazing.”

Moldinator whirls on the staircase, coming face-to-face with her.

Felix bumps into her as she halts in her tracks, startled.

Moldinator holsters one of the guns, the liquid inside sloshing, and wrenches the sunglasses from his face. One angry, bloodshot eyeball stares at her, while the other is an empty socket - there’s no roundness to the closed lid. Pale scars dart around the outside of the missing eye.

“You think this is the first time she’s gone green?” he says.

“Gone green?” Noelle asks, confused and unable to break her own two eyes from Moldinator’s one that’s so full of self righteous fury.

“That’s their little nickname for it. Last time it happened she took my eye. You understand now? Do you get it?”

“Do you get that you’re ridiculous?” Felix says behind her. “Walking around here with water guns and-”

Moldinator interrupts him “If you don’t understand the gravity of-”

There’s a voice suddenly from up the stairs - a woman’s voice. She yells something, but it’s too echoey for Noelle to make out. Whoever it is sounds desperate and afraid. A door creaks.

Moldinator glares at them a moment longer before jamming his sunglasses back on his face and dashing up the stairs. He takes them wildly, like a man possessed, two at a time, footsteps pounding away from them and reverberating off the mildewed walls.  

Noelle begins sprinting after him before she can even properly assess the situation. What was once simply retrieving an auspice has suddenly turned into a rescue mission.

Felix appears beside her, tearing up the stairs, one hand running along the banister, the other still gripping the pocket watch. Claude clings for dear life to his head.

Noelle’s pulse pounds in her ears, eyes fixed on Moldinator. He’s too far ahead and getting so close to the top of the stairs. She can’t remember ever having to scale a staircase so fast. She’s only able to ignore the protest of her muscles with the adrenaline rush.  

Felix is gaining on him, but it’s too late; Moldinator reaches the last step.

“Moldy!” Felix yells up after him.

Moldinator loses his balance, slipping on a streak of green at the top of the stairs, and falls face-first on the landing, his gun sailing away from him.

He struggles to get back up, sliding again on the mold underfoot, panting and struggling.

He manages to get to his feet just as Felix tackles his legs, sending him sprawling to the floor once more. The pocket watch chain slides down Felix’s arm and collides into the tile with a smack.

Noelle reaches the top of the stairs to see Claude run from Felix’s shoulders to Moldinator’s head. He snatches the sunglasses off Moldinator’s face, and tosses them aside, letting out a triumphant raccoon screech.  

She carefully avoids the obstacle course of appendages. Moldinator’s water gun rests by a railing overlooking the first floor of the mansion and the ants are making a neat curve around it. Her eyes follow them down a hallway to the right.

There’s a door ajar, a vertical line of moonlight radiating out of it. Was that the creaking they’d heard? Was the woman’s voice Rita? She’s so close to finding out.

Moldinator makes desperate grabs for her feet as Claude bats his hands away. She makes it past them, sprinting for the door, the ends of her scarf trailing behind her.

Noelle can hear Felix and Moldinator yelling and scrambling after her, but she doesn’t look back. All there is, is that line of moonlight and the stream of ants flowing into it. Even when she can hear footfall catching up to her, she focuses only on that glowing, thin, pillar of light.

Noelle throws herself into the door, and there, bathed in moonlight from an enormous window, and surrounded by a ring of mushrooms and ants is Rita Cardoso, the fungus witch. 

She’s holding a very old tennis racket.  

Previous Chapter 

[myth-lord]

The First Monster Manuals of Dungeons & Dragons are mostly the best ones. But which monsters are most often found in the first Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manuals? And which are the most loved/famous/wanted ones?

Monsters that Appeared in each first Monster Manual of Dungeons & Dragons of every Edition. - Balor - Basilisk - Beholder - Black Dragon - Blue Dragon - Bugbear - Bulette - Carrion Crawler - Chimera - Dire Rat (or Giant Rat) - Displacer Beast - Doppelganger - Dryad - Efreet - Ettin - Fire Giant - Flesh Golem - Gargoyle - Gelatinous Cube - Ghoul - Gnoll - Goblin - Gorgon - Green Dragon - Griffon - Harpy - Hell Hound - Hydra - Imp - Kobold - Lamia (*) - Lich - Lizardman - Manticore - Marilith - Medusa - Mind Flayer - Minotaur - Mummy - Naga - Nightmare - Oni (*) - Orc - Otyugh - Owlbear - Purple Worm - Rakshasa - Red Dragon - Roc - Roper - Sahuagin - Salamander - Satyr - Shambling Mound - Skeleton - Specter (*) - Sphinx - Stirge - Treant - Troll - Umber Hulk - Vampire - Wererat - Werewolf - White Dragon - Wight - Worg (*) - Wraith - Wyvern - Zombie

Monsters appearing in 4 of the 5 First Monster Manuals (= Monster Manuals in which they not appeared) - Aboleth (1st) - Air Elemental (4th) - Ankheg (4th) - Banshee (3rd) - Black Pudding (4th) - Centaur (4th) - Cloud Giant (4th) - Cockatrice (4th) - Couatl (4th) - Dire Boar (or Giant Boar)(2nd) - Djinn (4th) - Dragon Turtle (4th) - Drider (1st) - Drow (1st) - Earth Elemental (4th) - Ettercap (1st) - Fire Elemental (4th) - Frost Giant (4th) - Gelugon (2nd) - Gith (1st) - Glabrezu (2nd) - Grimlock (1st) - Hezrou (2nd) - Iron Golem (4th) - Mimic (4th) - Night Hag (2nd) - Osyluth (2nd) - Phase Spider (4th) - Remorhaz (4th) - Rust Monster (4th) - Shadow (4th) - Succubus (2nd) - Tarrasque (1st) - Violet Fungus (4th) - Vrock (2nd) - Water Elemental (4th) - Will o Wisp (4th) - Winter Wolf (4th) - Yuan-Ti (1st)

Monsters appearing in 3 of the 5 First Monster Manuals (= Monster Manuals in which they not appeared) - Barbazu (1st & 2nd)(*) - Behir (1st & 4th) - Bombardier Beetle (4th & 5th) - Chuul (1st & 2nd) - Cloaker (1st & 4th) - Cyclops (1st & 3rd)(*) - Death Knight (1st & 3rd) - Duergar (1st & 4th) - Erinyes (2nd & 4th)(*) - Fomorian (1st & 3rd) - Gas Spore (3rd & 4th) - Giant Ant (4th & 5th) - Gibbering Mouther (1st & 2nd) - Grick (1st & 2nd) - Grell (1st & 3rd) - Hamatula (2nd & 4th) - Hook Horror (1st & 3rd) - Intellect Devourer (3rd & 4th) - Kraken (1st & 4th)(*) - Kyton (1st & 2nd) - Lemure (2nd & 4th) - Peryton (3rd & 4th) - Yeti (3rd & 4th)

Monsters appearing in 2 of the 5 First Monster Manuals (= Monster Manuals in which they appeared) - Axe Beak (1st & 5th) - Bullywug (2nd & 5th) - Catoblepas (1st & 2nd)(*) - Choker (3rd & 4th) - Crawling Claw (2nd & 5th) - Dao (2nd & 5th) - Destrachan (3rd & 4th) - Devourer (3rd & 4th)(*) - Faerie Dragon (2nd & 5th) - Green Slime (1st & 2nd) - Helmed Horror (4th & 5th) - Leucrotta (1st & 2nd) - Magmin (3rd & 5th) - Marid (2nd & 5th) - Merrow (2nd & 5th)(*) - Mohrg (3rd & 4th)(*) - Morkoth (1st & 2nd)(*) - Rot Grubs (1st & 2nd) - Scarecrow (2nd & 5th) - Slithering Tracker (1st & 2nd)(*) - Su Monster (1st & 2nd) - Trapper (1st & 2nd)

Monsters appearing in only 1 of the 5 First Monster Manuals (= Monster Manuals in which they appeared) - Aurumvorax (2nd) - Cave Fisher (2nd) - Deepspawn (2nd) - Gloomwing (2nd) - Hatori (2nd) - Gremlin (2nd)(*) - Stinger or Scorpionman (2nd) - Vegepygmy (2nd) - Crimson Death (2nd) - Yellow Musk Creeper (2nd) - Kelpie (2nd)(*) - Korred (2nd)(*) - Bebilith (3rd) - Babau (3rd) - Ethereal Filcher (3rd) - Ethereal Marauder (3rd) - Girallon (3rd) - Gray Render (3rd) - Howler (3rd)(*) - Vargouille (3rd) - Fire Bat (4th) - Quickling (4th)(*) - Swordwing (4th) - Chasme (5th) - Nothic (5th)

Monsters that Never Appeared in a First Monster Manual, but which should in future Editions. - Abyssal Maw (First Appeared in 3rd Edition) - Advespa (First Appeared in 3rd Edition) - Ahuizotl (First Appeared in 3rd Edition) - Bladeling (First Appeared in 2nd Edition) - Bloodthorn (First Appeared in 1st Edition) - Boneyard (First Appeared in 3rd Edition) - Crysmal (First Appeared in 1st Edition) - Darktentacles (First Appeared in 2nd Edition) - Disenchanter (First Appeared in 1st Edition) - Dustdigger (First Appeared in 1st Edition) - Ethereal Slayer (First Appeared in 3rd Edition) - Flail Snail (First Appeared in 1st Edition) - Froghemoth (First Appeared in 1st Edition) - Greenvise (First Appeared in 3rd Edition) - Kazrith (First Appeared in 4th Edition)

NOTE: That I count the creatures from the remake (3.5 Edition Monster Manual as well with 3rd Edition)

NOTE 2: 2nd Edition is a mess, I used the Monstrous Manual for this, the one with Crimson Death and Deepspawn in it.

NOTE 3: I left out all the creatures I don’t care for, but Hobgoblins, Stone Golems, Hippogriff, Merfolk, Ogre and Hill Giants (example) are also in ALL First Monster Manuals in each Edition.

NOTE 4: Creatures with (*) behind their name = In one of more editions of D&D they changed A LOT, turning into very different creatures than they were before. Some changed back (like Lamia) for others the change was final until maybe the next edition.