#dr. noxious

[shadowtoons]

One way welcoming someone new in the group ahdhwhcbd

[the-host-with-the-most-12]

This is Lutik!

HOOHOOHOO! WHy HELLo LUtiK! CAre TO Join My PArTy?! FoR the PRiCe of a FEE!!!

Barnaby NO!

[sparkling-chi-2]

Doctor Noxious by @shadowtoons-arinanon

[psi-shen-ask-blog]

Psi Shen has arrived near a building that is supposed to have the rumored doctor who was brought back from the dead. They have heard about him and was able to track him down at this very location. The reason of this seems to be unknown, and they don't seem to be in the mood for causing any harm as of late. So, they're at least going to try to get on his good side, and probably have him as an ally. Who knows? Just do whatever is necessary as Psi always tells themselves.

Now with their head covered with a hood and their body in a cloak, they had enough courage to slightly open the door, which was unlocked surprisingly. The doctor is in. They heard the voice of Doctor Noxious as they slightly poked their head through the door a little more, before they were caught peeking in by the doctor himself.

Psi wasn't showing any worry as they were noticed, but rather curious as to see the doctor with his now long hair. As they observed him, they managed to speak in a voice that seemed somewhat feminine.

Pardon me for the intrusion, but I believe I caught you at a very peculiar time... It appears you need some help with that long mane that is reaching the floor. May I be so bold and offer assistance?

@undeadtoll

He stared at the mirror… Holding his long hair staring, “… Maybe a hair cut should be required.” Then again, never once cuts his hair. Feel weird for him to do so-

But this long hair will be annoying to have around, really hard to think. “Odd can grow still..” mutters that to himself, never understood this at all. Thought be the same length. See the door opened just dropping the amount of his hair, turning around. “May I help you?”

[grimewart]

candy's checkup

[007-nightfire-yakuza-agent]

its so fucked up bro

its where we cross the equator n we have a lil ceremony where the ppl who havent crossed the equator b4 get hazed n i crossed the equator like. god idk 15+ times at least now in my career but the captain has decided for this line crossing ceremony that the crossing only counts w/ this company so even tho i crossed the line already on this ship the brutes want to come n shave my hair... i dont even care abt the rest of the ceremony dunk me in food waste make me drink noxious liquids its FINE i dont care but i have people to meet who like my hair. its so long n beautiful and i know theyre jealous because theyre old bald men. real yakuziacs will remember in cape town how the port guard wanted to choose a boyfriend n picked me, "de wan wi de hair".

the thing that rly fucks me off abt it is im not supposed to be here rn i was supposed to sign off in cape town and thus would have avoided the 2nd ceremony but the fucking cunts asked me to extend. they asked like they needed me im here by my grace. oh and furthermore the ceremony (that was cancelled today) is at 1300 which is normally when im fast asleep

tl;dr im MAD

[shadowtoons]

Harold in the Demiromantic colors

[the-host-with-the-most-12]

GuESs HOOOOOO!!

@shadowtoons-arinanon

[the-lady-selkie]

Harriet closed the door with her foot and bounced her way over to stand beside Xavier, "Oh, it cant be any worse than the stuff Uncle Harry had me help him with when i was younger"

She peer into the water filler encloure "huh, this is intersted, so what id it that you are working on" she asked cheerfully eager to learn more about that Xavier's work.

"

A young woman made her way down one of the many hallways in her home, a specific room in mind. Once she got there she flung the door open.

"UNCLE AVI" she sang out, looking for the man in question "Uncle Harry said you wanted to show me something in the lab today"

The instant he hears the door being flung open and that sing-song voice, the bat jumps from surprise, his ears flickering for a little after. But after he hears her reasoning, his eyes light up, a smile coming onto his face. He seems to be smiling a lot more these days.

"Oh, yes! Come in, Harriet!"

He then puts his mouse back in the cage, closing its door as he turns back to her. He then runs over to a water-filled enclosure where he has a body regenerating some of its limbs thanks to some magic and medicine and locks that up. "Just close the door behind you, dear; I have multiple risky experiments going on, and I do not wish to risk any of them escaping."

The bat then sighs and turns towards her, still smiling. "But yes, I wanted to show you what I've been working on, so you can understand what it is that I do."

[sparkling-chi-2]

Meet Le Chef! A joke character I made to pester one of @shadowtoons-arinanon 's characters. He is a self-proclaimed top chef of Kittlesworth (wherever the heck that is) and across several places, he has proclaimed to have been. Also, he thinks he is a magical cook for no reason.

And yes Dr. Noxious is by Mun :>

And Le Chef is by me

[undeadtoll]

"Every time I see you, I swear my heart skips a beat."

- Xavier to Nox

"Hm, is that so? Well, guess I gotta make out my effort to make it beat faster."

[thecreaturecodex]

Terochilus

Image accessed from the Ultraman Wiki here

[Terochilus is a monster that makes a big impression in Return of Ultraman (being the star of a two-part episode), but with very little impact on the franchise outside of it. Which is a shame. It feels like Ultraman's Rodan the way that Arstron feels like its Godzilla. It has a weirder power set than Rodan, though, with its toxic webbing and shooting lasers from its nose. It kind of reminds me of The Giant Claw, in the sense of being a superficially simple flying kaiju that is totally bizarre on closer inspection, and I designed its stats intentionally to be a counterpart to my cacagnea.

In the show, its webs emit toxic gas on exposure to automobile exhaust, making Terochilus another pollution-themed kaiju. Since cars don't exist in Pathfinder, I changed the trigger to the webs getting extra dangerous to fire, which is the typical adventurer solution to webbing. That, and it makes the Terochilus' lairing in volcanoes synergistic, and very dangerous.

Also, I can't prove it, but I suspect that Terochilus' pterosaur with feathers look inspired the winged fakeosaur that came in the same set as the ones that inspired the rust monster and bulette]

Terochilus

CR 19 LN Magical Beast

This creature resembles a strange cross between bird and pterosaur. It walks on two elephantine legs, and has membranous wings growing like a cape from its human-like arms. It has a head and neck covered with feathers, and a long straight bill.

A terochilus is a bestial, vaguely avian predator, something like a roc writ even larger. They are found lairing on volcanic islands and are extremely territorial—a terochilus patrols the water near the island for whales, large fish and the occasional sea monster to eat, and drives away anything else entering its hunting grounds. This territoriality extends to their volcanic lairs as well. A terochilus usually lives near the caldera and lines its nest with thick ashy webbing. This webbing is flammable, but burning it produces a highly potent toxic gas that causes immediate unconsciousness followed by systematic organ failure. The terochiluses are immune to these noxious fumes, and encourage periodic fires to burn the webbing and fumigate their lairs.

Terochiluses usually do not see creatures of human size and shape as prey. The danger comes from their territorial instinct—they attack boats that steer too close to their hunting grounds. If forced from their lairs by a stronger monster, they may settle closer to inhabited areas and wreak havoc enforcing their new territorial boundaries. In combat, a terochilus usually opens by spraying opponents with webbing, and then closing to melee with entangled enemies. A terochilus possesses a powerful breath weapon, which manifests as beams of deadly force fired from its nostrils. This breath weapon does not recharge quickly, and most terochiluses use it as a weapon of last resort only.

Terochilus CR 19

XP 204,800

LN Colossal magical beast

Init +9; Senses darkvision 120 ft., low-light vision, Perception +22, tremorsense 30 ft.

Defense

AC 34, touch 12, flat-footed 24 (-8 size, +9 Dex, +1 dodge, +22 natural)

hp 346 (21d10+231)

Fort +23, Ref +21, Will +12

DR 20/magic; Immune poison; Resist fire 30, force 30; SR 30

Offense

Speed 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (average)

Melee bite +27 (4d6+14/19-20 plus grab), 2 claws +27 (2d8+14), 2 wings +22 (2d8+7)

Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft.

Special Attacks breath weapon (150 ft. line, 1 minute, 19d10 force damage),hurricane hover,swallow whole(AC 21, 34 hp, 4d8+21 bludgeoning),toxic webbing, webs (+22 ranged, range increment 30 ft., 150 ft. range, DR 10/-, 21 hp, DC 31)

Statistics

Str 39, Dex 28, Con 32, Int 4, Wis 21, Cha 15

Base Atk +21; CMB +43 (+47 grapple); CMD 63

Feats Acrobatic,Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes,Dodge, Flyby Attack, Greater Vital Strike, Hover (B), Improved Critical (bite), Improved Vital Strike, Mobility, Power Attack, Vital Strike

Skills Acrobatics +21 (+25 when jumping), Climb +26, Fly +13, Perception +22; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception

Languages Ignan (cannot speak)

Ecology

Environment warm land

Organization solitary or pair

Treasure incidental

Special Abilities

Hurricane Hover (Ex) A terochilus gains Hover as a bonus feat. When it uses the Hover feat, it creates hurricane force winds in a 60-foot radius, regardless of its distance from the surface.

Toxic Webbing (Ex) A terochilus’ webs release toxic gas when they take fire damage. This gas fills a 30 foot radius from the webbing, and lingers for 1d4+1 rounds before dissipating. This toxin has the following properties

Web fumes—inhaled; duration 1/round for 4 rounds; save Fort DC 31; initial effect unconsciousness 1 minute; secondary effect 1d6 Con damage and unconsciousness 10 minutes; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution based.

[the-lady-selkie]

Incorrect quotes between Judas from @shadowtoons and The Widow from @murdxrxfcrxws and little Harriet.

Jadas, walking past Harriet:"Hello little evil one"

Widow, with an offended gasp:" How can someone say my little owl is evil?? She is the most precious little soul."

Harriet, in the middle of planning a detailed plan to commit arson in her mind: " Yeah, I'm adorable!"

[vi-sigoth]

Question you may or may not know the answer to: in the original mythology, do trolls get up to anything sexual?

I'm asking because I've recently been reading about trows, creatures from Shetland and Orcadian folklore that we think are related to trolls because of the similar name, the shared belief that they turn to stone in sunlight, the oldest description of trows describing them as huge and shaggy humanoids and the strong Scandinavian heritage of the Northern Isles. Anyway, the first account we have of trows, from 1529 (in John Ben's Description of the Orkney Islands, quoted by Jeremy Harte in Explore Fairy Traditions p.124) describes them as incubus-like beings (we even get a description of their genitals), which is corroborated by James Stuart's 1597 Daemonologie stating that incubi are often reported in the Shetlands and Orkneys.

All of which is to say, since the oldest layer of troll belief we know of in the Northern Isles is strongly sexual in nature, I'm wondering if there's a sexual component to older troll lore elsewhere and, if so, what it is.

Okay, that’s fascinating.

TL;DR, I have never heard about any sort of sexual component in Germanic stories about trolls.

Long answer: I don’t know a ton about trolls as they appear to the Celts, but as far as Germanics go, I haven’t personally found anything that associates them with incubi. Trolls seem to be as you say—shaggy, rough beings associated with rocks and mountains. Somewhat simple, almost elemental.

We have a strange line from mentioned in the Older Gulaþing Law regarding pagan practices in the 1000s; it mentions people engaging in “sitting out” (útiseta/utisete) to communicate with the dead or “trolls”. Útiseta is a practice typically performed by people like seeresses that can include holding vigil or sleeping upon a barrow grave, or sitting under a hanging dead body (a criminal or a sacrifice) to gain visions or visitations from gods or other entities.

This is a bit strange. Were people actually trying to speak with trolls? Did people actually see trolls as spirits of dead ancestors, or was this some sort of confusion that early Christian authors who were several generations removed had about pagan practices? We also know that elfs/alfs also seem to be conflated with ancestors or ancestral places. Perhaps these law writers saw people attempting to offer and commune with land spirits and simply just called them “trolls?” Another Icelandic document mentions útiseta and how it was performed to “provoke or wake up trolls.” Trolls were typically seen as a somewhat unhelpful type of land spirit, but sometimes marginally useful for invoking mischief.

For the Finns (whose native religion was heavily influenced by their Nordic neighbors) they associated trolls with the air and sky, able to be summoned and then dismissed by the thunder god Ukko:

“Oi Ukko ylijumala, Ukko, pilven pitäjä, hattarojen hallitsija (…)”

“Oh Ukko, roaring-one-above, Ukko, keeper-of-clouds, ruler-of-dark-storm-clouds (…)”

— Kalevala, rune 14: Death of Lemminkainen

Thor is also attributed with the power to summon violent storms; Johannes Schefferus mentions Thor having control over evil spirits:

“(…) deinde facultatem ei tribuunt in daemonia noxia, rupes, montes, lacus habitantia, quae castiget ac coerceat quan doque feriat fulminibus (…)”

“ (…) then they attribute to him (Thor) the power of noxious spirits inhabiting rocks, mountains, and lakes, which will chastise and control when he strikes them with lightning (…)”

As for the Swedes, see Carl Linnaeus’ work The Scanian Travel, 1750 regarding a medieval Swedish legend about trolls; some local trolls were having a year-long Yule celebration, and the lady who owned the lands sent one of her men to take their instruments and stop them from making a racket; he does so and they put a curse on the lady and her estate (and the estate actually did burn down).

Another interesting tidbit is that the Norse thought of any sort of evil or mischievous magic as trollsknap (troll’s magic)

So, evil, mean, stupid, causing harm to human, particularly as humans moved about the natural world? Yes. Sexualized harm? Not that I can find in the Germanic record. The authors I cited who wrote about Ukko/Thor’s summoning and smiting of trolls, keep in mind, are writing from a post-Christian perspective. To the ancient man, there were certainly evil beings, seen and unseen, present in the world, but the idea of a demon as we know it today would not have been familiar to them. Keep in mind, too, that in regards to the terms incubi and incubus, my best educated guess is they came to the British Isles and Orkney probably by way of Christianity, as they’re Latin words, so not ones that the Norse-Gaels and Picts before them that inhabited the island would have likely known before conversion. It’s very possible that Christian authors were trying to either:

a). Search for terms that the locals would understand (like how the monks that found their way into Scandinavia called Jesus “God’s Beserker”) or that—

b.) Ben was a native Orkadian, and like many who lived outside of urban centers of Christianity probably grew up hearing fused pagan/Christian folklore that would have included tales of creatures like elfs, fairies, will ‘o the wisps, and trolls, and “troll” was the best word he could find to describe a Latin monster that was adapted into Christian Demonology.

[flieslikeamoron]

WIP Wednesday

I guess I'm a little bit writing the one where Steve can't feel anything but Eddie. 

---

Dr. Owens’ office looks like a normal doctor’s office. Maybe a little too sterile. No pictures or posters on the walls. But you’d never know walking in that he’s some of kind of top secret military doctor or something. Of course the sign on the outside of the building says "Medical Supply Center." And Steve wasn't allowed to tell his mom Joyce Byers was bringing him here. And there was nobody else in the waiting room. But still-

When Dr. Owens comes into the examining room, he just looks like a guy in a lab coat. Like any of the eighteen other doctors Steve’s already seen. The eighteen other doctors who haven’t been able to figure out what’s wrong with him. It's some kind of neuropathy. Except they don't know why it's his whole body. It's hypoesthesia. Except that's really a symptom more than a diagnosis. It's similar to CIP. Except they don't know why it's not just the pain he can't feel. Or what's causing it. Or how to fix it.

“So tell me about what’s going on,” Dr. Owens says.

It’s kind of a relief to be able to tell the whole story. Steve had been able to tell the other doctors about getting cracked in the head with a plate, the fight, the concussion. But he couldn’t say polywog, demodogs, got sprayed in the face with some noxious Upside Down spunk… He can still remember the rotten taste of it coating his mouth even through the bandana. It wasn't too long after that this whole thing started.

He hadn’t noticed it then. Maybe his toes seemed a little numb, his cheeks, the end of his nose. It was winter. It was cold. Maybe when he took a girl out, holding her hand felt a little strange. Muffled. Maybe kissing her wasn’t as vivid as it usually was. Maybe when she sucked him off it took him longer than usual to come, but he got there. It still felt good. It was like the lights were dimmed a bit, not like he couldn’t see. And maybe he thought, after Nancy… Well, it didn’t seem so strange to him that he wasn’t as into the other girls. That nothing felt like it had with her.

It was kind of weird when he'd dropped a bottle of balsamic vinegar on his socked foot and it barely even hurt. He took his sock off later, and his toe was swelled up. The nail black. But it hadn’t felt like much. There was another time too. He cut his hand sawing open a bagel. Blood everywhere, his mom in a tizzy, and it was just a far away dull throb. 

He started to think something might be wrong then. But he kept hoping if he kept his head down, kept acting like it was nothing, then it would be nothing. The gate was closed. It had to be nothing. 

He told himself it was nothing until he woke up one random Wednesday a couple months out from the gate being closed, and it was like he wasn’t in his body. He couldn’t feel the sheets under him, the blankets on top of him. Couldn’t feel the heat blowing. Couldn’t feel his shirt against his chest or the elastic of his briefs. And when he pinched himself there was nothing. He’d done it harder, twisting, fingers digging hard enough to bruise. Nothing. He did bruise. He wasn’t invincible. He just couldn’t feel it. He couldn’t feel anything.

Not the heat of the shower. Or the cold when he desperately turned the knob. Not the scratch of his fingernails across his arm, hard enough to bleed. Not his hand on his dick. Nothing. He leaves the last bit out when he’s telling it for the doc. 

Dr. Owens doesn’t seem to think it’s all in Steve’s head, which is a step up from most of the doctors his mom has taken him to. But he can’t really say what it is either. Other than probably related to that thing where a whole other dimension had been leaking into the town for a year.

“We’ve had a few cases,” he says. “Of other-” He cocks his head over what word to put there. “Effects.” He frowns. “Hawkins has been exposed to all kinds of bio material, maybe even radiation, we simply don’t have enough information to understand. We did as much testing as we could at the lab before the gate was closed, and we’re working on reversing the effects. But there’s so much we don’t know. Each…” He looks for a word again. “Each affliction is different.”

Dustin calls what Steve’s got a superpower, but to be honest Steve thinks affliction fits better. A superpower is being bulletproof or flying or moving shit with your mind like El. Useful stuff. Steve burned the shit out of his hand the other day and didn’t notice until he smelled his skin cooking. Steve keeps cutting himself shaving because not being able to feel the blade on his face makes him doubt the muscle memory of it. Makes his hand uncertain. Steve can’t even get himself off. He tried a couple times in the beginning. His dick sort of half-heartedly chubbing up with the friction of a hand he can’t feel. He can’t get himself hard though. Can’t make himself come.

Afflicted sounds about right to him.

“Normally,” the doc is saying, “in an area exposed to toxins you’d see consistent effects: elevated cancer rates, lung damage, lead poisoning. But this…” He shakes his head.

“What kind of things are you seeing?”

“I can’t share names or too many specifics of other patients,” Dr. Owens says. “But we’ve seen some very unusual things. A girl whose touch seems to burn living tissue. A boy who seems to be exhaling some kind of poison, small amounts, but they build up when people are exposed to him for long."

"Jesus, I guess mine could have been worse," Steve says. "Did anyone get any actual good powers? Why is it all-" He shakes his head, rolling his eyes. "Afflictions."

"They're biological anomalies," Dr. Owens says. "Not magical powers."

"I don't mean magical powers, I mean like… El. She has a good power. I know it's her special brain or whatever and not magic. But did anyone else get something like that? Something useful?"

"El didn't get her telekinesis from the Upside Down. She was born with a special brain, like you said. And as for you and the others… We don't know." He tilts his head, leaning in toward Steve. Face pretty kindly for a secret government operative who probably has the authority to burn Hawkins to the ground if he decides it's too contaminated with- Biological anomalies. "I hope you’ll let us do some tests. The more information we have, the more likely we can figure out how to reverse it."

Steve can't imagine there's a test he hasn't had. His mom's been on a mission. Toting him from specialist to specialist. He's been all over the country. He's been scanned inside out and head to toe and toe to head and back again. He's given pints and pints of blood. He's gotten zero results. He's not getting his hopes up that this'll be any different. Owens basically said as much. They don't know what this is. How the Upside Down's changed people. But... At least these doctors know where to start looking. And hell, this is what Steve's here for. Might as well try.

His mom signs him out of school to see a fake doctor at a clinic that doesn't exist. And Steve spends a week in an underground bunker. They do new MRIs, new CAT scans. They strap Steve into a few machines he hasn't seen before. They hook him up to electrodes and videotape him all day long. They test out blunt pressure, sharp blades. Hot and cold and soft and hard. He feels nothing. They make him bruise and bleed while machines beep around him, spitting out long lengths of incomprehensible measurements. Nothing. They starve him for most of a day. That he feels. They keep him up until his head feels like swimming through tar. They give him drugs. He feels that too. Hungry, tired, dizzy, sick to his stomach. He can feel all of that. But anything they shove at him from the outside... Nothing. 

They scan him again, again, again. 

They don't know. They can't fix it.

---

It comes in handy that summer though. He isn't exactly going to break under Russian torture when he can’t feel shit. They can tear off his fingernails, hell chop off whole fingers and it won’t make any difference… No, that’s not true. He gets a queasy feeling in his gut thinking about being left with nothing but bloody stumps. But it wouldn’t hurt. He tries to make sure they take it out on him instead of Robin. Finally, something this stupid, shitty biological anomaly is good for. He can take it. As much as they've got. So she doesn't have to.

He can tell it's bad from the blood dripping into his eyes. From the way it's hard to talk. From the way Robin looks at him like she wants to cry. He screams because he knows that's what they want from him. Because that's the only way to make them stop before they do something really… Permanent. But he could take more. He could keep taking it until they kill him, and it wouldn't hurt at all.

Robin hugs him when they finally make it out. Sagging into him, clinging to him with exhausted relief at surviving the Russians, the meat monster, but also surviving what she told him in the bathroom. Steve's always been a fan of hugs. The solid comfort of bodies pressed together. But he can't feel the heat of her, the squeeze of her. He settles for the sweaty smell of her head right up against his nose. The sound of the wavering sigh she lets out. He tries to hug her back without thinking too much about if he's holding her too hard, not hard enough. His arms uncertain.

He looks at himself in the mirror at home once he's dropped her off. His swollen, blood-streaked face, his eye shut. The bruises deep and ugly. The nasty split of his lip. The break in his nose. It's like looking at someone else. Like the person in the mirror isn’t even him. He presses down on the worst bruise around his shut eye. Presses down and feels nothing.

[shadowtoons]

He can NEVER do no harm