#the sculk dog au

[citrine-elephant]

don't worry, leon's got a plan. it's a stupid fucking plan, but uh... plan!

had to sketch out the idea.... thicker licker, or the warden licker. thought about em being more gorilla like, then it turned into a l4d tank. and then....

leon's story is... well, it's hard to be sneaky on poorly reset broken ankles that still aren't fully healed... guy's had a rough time.

his plan is "pipe bomb distraction"... your guess is as good as mine if it works!

[phosphorescentspaceman]

I also love the thought of the Warden detecting Xephos, deciding he’s not a threat purely through smell (as mechanically the Warden sniffs out the most “suspicious” entity around it which helps it prioritize obliterating players)

and the sculk being like “…can we keep it?…yeah okay, yay :)”

Clean. Cool. Ozone and fireflies. Cocoa butter and vanilla. Not salt-warm-iron-danger. Not dangerous. Not a danger to Home.

He's safe - please, let him stay, let him stay with us. He's bright. He's one of us.

Please warden, let him stay.

Not a danger. Nice and quiet. Is friend. Can stay.

[lookinghalfacorpse]

hey sorry, i've got a maybe slightly unhinged question about veteri-mycosis but asking unhinged questions about ppl's fics/AUs is like my niche in the drecosystem so whatever. can dream communicate with sam through the skulk? i was reading a book about mycorrhizal networks and it seems like a thing that could be possible in the universe you've created, given what we know about IRL fungal communication and especially given that the skulk growing on/in dream is SAM'S, right???

:)

VETERI-MYCOSIS, EXTRA (??)SCENE(??) 1 read the full fic here

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Sam never saw colors before. He didn't even know how to imagine them, considering that no one's descriptions ever made sense.

Dream said that all the materials used for the main cell were dark. "Dark" wasn't a color per se, but a range of colors, and too much of it was disorienting for those with sight. Apparently. To rectify it, you could bring "light" into a space, which also wasn't a color, but it illuminated color where it existed. Dream needed light when he inspected the construction progress, but it didn't make the materials any less dark. It made no sense, really.

"Don't worry about it," Dream told him, "In all fairness, you probably get around better than I do."

It was possible to look at something and determine its beauty. Apparently. To a human, nothing could be beautiful in the dark unless it engaged another sense, like sound or smell. Music was still beautiful in the dark. Dream once said that the sculk had teal, glowing parts to it, and that he was able to find it beautiful.

Sam knew every puddle on the west side of the city. He knew when the frog that was hopping around in the north was frozen in place by sculk, and he knew the moment it died of suffocation, its lungs overtaken. He knew it all, and he never "saw" it. He never even "heard" it, really, or "smelled" it. He just knew. And it was beautiful.

It was helpful, honestly, when the sculk started to overcome Dream. Could there be a better way to monitor your prisoner? There wasn't much to monitor; he barely moved, and he eventually lost the energy and lung-power to engage in some of the things he used to do to entertain himself, like sing. Things could be beautiful in the dark if they engaged another sense, like sound. Sam listened, and it was beautiful. When it stopped, and Dream was so well claimed by sculk that Sam could sense his heartbeat from anywhere in the city, it was also beautiful.

In the midst of battle, Sam lost track of that heartbeat, but he received something else.

Visions of color; fuzzy and non-specific, but vivid and alive. Visions of pain, visions of panic, visions of crying and of being held. Technoblade's voice. Warm food and tea. The soft fur of dogs-- much like Fran's.

Could there be a better way to monitor your prisoner?

(Dream had frequent flashbacks to the prison. More than just the prison; he had memories of the city itself, of the places he'd visit when the prison was still being built, of sculk-ridden buildings he thought he never stepped foot in. He knew his memory was ruined, but it still seemed odd. In these flashbacks, he wasn't even holding a torch. He walked around like he didn't need them.

There was a frog that was hopping around in the north that was frozen in place by sculk, and he knew the moment it died of suffocation, its lungs overtaken. The soft fur of a dog-- much like Em's. He knew. He knew.)

He knew.

[hybbart]

Revenge is gonna live, right?? He's just a poor dog in this au. Please let their child live. .

Loving this au!

Who knows? :)

I've actually already drawn a future springtime picture with him, so he'll be around for at least that long. (I need to do more dog studies, though, cause he's a pain to draw. If he ever stops showing up that'll be the inspiration for why.)

Have a few little facts about him that probably won't come up, to make up for any potential future sins:

His full name is Rancher's Revenge because Tango names things like they're race horses.

Tango calls him Revenge or Revy for short

Jimmy just calls him R.R., occasionally Revy.

Keralis calls him Rolkien Rolkien to annoy both of them.

He responds to all of them.

Tango is his favourite because he's warmer.

He's a mutt, some type of shepherd mix.

I originally kinda wanted him to be a poodle, because water, but I wanted him to have upright ears and curly long fur would be a pain to depict with his injuries he starts with.

Sculk infection isn't really something that ever goes away since there's no cure, but light exposure can kill the blooms and cause it to go dormant.

They could rescue Revenge because it was mostly in his mouth and eyes and wasn't rooted deep enough to get to his brain.

He is blind from the infection, his eyes are totally gone.

Luckily he still has good hearing and smell.

Unluckily for Jimmy, he can still bark. Jimmy's started wearing his earmuffs more because of him.

His collar was a chain. It's been on him since he was a puppy so it had cut into his neck and healed over. This was mostly inspired by the most traumatizing episode of animal cops I ever watched as a kid.

I imagine he was owned by the same raiders who took the rancher's things, before his chain broke and he escaped.

[citrine-elephant]

mmm if leon gets his ankles shatter good enough, he'd be fucked for like... four months it looks like? depends how this idea pans out but maaaybe post-plaga brain pumps out some funky hormones to heal him a lil faster.

maybe he can be in captivity for a few months. four months. needs some time to hobble around and annoy the unknown monster below the facility.

bonus: even if he's got thick bandages under his shackles, when they're inevitably tugged, it's definitely agonizing uwu

[citrine-elephant]

starts drawing (DI)lf leon, ends up drawing a scrunkly mutt <3

[citrine-elephant]

drafting up and idea for a scene. too impatient to NOT share

[hybbart]

for the ranchers apocalypse au, since you mentioned that jimmy would wear earmuffs more often cause of revenges barking does that mean it’s a bit harder for jimmy to hear when people are talking? also as someone who’s also very sensitive to sounds my family and i resorted to signing basic asl when i use my noise canceling headphones in order to communicate our needs, do you think the ranchers figured out a system like that too?

A bit harder to both hear and see since he also sees sound, so signing doesn't help much when overwhelmed - when he would use his earmuffs - specifically. His earmuffs are also not fit to his inhuman ears so they don't work amazingly.

It would be like blindfolding him if they did anyways since it's his primary sense. At the end of the day it's how he navigates the world so he's equally uncomfortable with no sound. They're more so for when he needs a break.

That being said it is the reason he lived out in the boonies pre-apocalypse. Crowds are pretty hellish if he's not prepared for them.

Barking is def something they quickly try to train Revenge not to do willy nilly, but he's still young with zero prior training and only Tango's worked with dogs before. He also uses sound as a primary sense, though, since he is blind. Tango is basically the only primarily visual individual in the group!

They do have signs they've made between them, though, cause that's also just a good idea when dealing with zombies and especially sculk.