#the existence of the giant version of it on top of the skull... which doesn't look entirely insect-like............. not mentioning that

[ratcandy]

I have a question that's been bugging me since I read musings! I'm sure it's probably obvious, but- was Sozo already being infected with cordyceps before or after he ate the Menticide mushrooms?

Ik his rlly bad itch were from cordyceps spores, but I have been curious if him eating the Menticide mushrooms worsened that process (ie would he have been fine but the Menticides somehow ALSO rooted in him) or was it jusr purely him getting hooked on the drug?

Sozo was infected before he ever ate the menticide! The cordycep spores are airborne, so the moment they touched his exoskeleton, they just had to extend hyphae inside that was It For Him.

aka He was pretty much doomed the moment he set foot in Anura

BUT eating the menticide certainly did not help matters!! I think the Menticide either 1) Is the cordyceps-adjacent thing, and is an opportunistic pathogen (capable of living without a host but will infect if given a chance). So it infected him via spores but ALSO screwed him over upon ingestion, OR 2) Was just drugging the shit out of him as he ate it which didn't do wonders for allowing his body to fight off the cordyceps, AND/Or, 3) The cordyceps and menticide have some sort of mutualistic symbiosis going on

In Musings I sort of hinted that this is something menticide/the cordyceps (if separate things) only does to insect folk, hence why followers/the Mushroomos themselves are not infected. And also hence why there aren't many insect folk present in Anura.

(Though I know there is at least one insect follower form,,, and they probably should also suffer pretty bad, but this is why I also suggest perhaps the menticide and cordyceps are different - though perhaps mutualistic - organisms? Because if the insect followers can eat them/be near them but remain uninfected, that may be due to them not being in Anura, and therefore not getting Got by the cordycep airborne spores)

For mutualism I think the cordyceps cause their host to start eating the menticide, which seems to thrive upon being eaten, which then also allows the cordyceps to better infest its host. Which would explain why we revive Sozo via the parasite on his head (the cordyceps) but he returns to "normal" when deprived of Menticide. Like he's still infested by the parasite but he's not Drugged anymore

Does that make sense? I hope so I'm answering this in the middle of class and my ideas are sort of cluttered and not solidified, though I can say for 100% certainty my intention in Musings was that he was already infected before eating the Menticide