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whumpfessional · 2 years

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Shock and Water pt. 2

Continuation of the two parter which starts here (hopefully I remember to add the link) and also of the larger story tagged #fire and death.

Whumptober prompt 10 - taser and waterboarding (what fun!)

Iris's turn with the interrogation.

CW: Torture, interrogation, drowning, taser/cattle prod, being restrained, restrained magic abilities, knife to the throat.

Iris had begun to pull at the restraints the moment the captain had left the room. There was something to them that was pushing down her fire, preventing her from summoning it.

“What a bitch,” Iris huffed as she tried to lean her mouth over to gnaw at the bindings, trying to interrupt the runic patterns. The strap across her middle stopped her short and when she tried that one, all she accomplished was getting a little drool on it.

She tried to shuffle the chair. It was bolted down.

Iris screamed in frustration, rocking to try to get her body out. Her feet slammed uselessly against the chair.

They had taken her necklaces. And her rings. And her earrings. It was ridiculous. Iris huffed again, looking around for anything that could help.

There was nothing, just the mirror she assumed was two-way staring back at her.

She looked like crap. Her hair stuck out in every direction, her eyes looked red and oh my god those bags. They had taken her nice leather jacket too, just leaving her in a crop top with jeans.

Bastards, Iris cursed mentally. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. They would slip up. She would get out of here. Thalia was somewhere in here and her grandmother was expecting them for breakfast on Sunday, which was… in two days? One? Iris realized she didn’t know how long she had been out for.

Her thoughts cycled and twisted, trying to think about who might’ve turned them in. She had made a couple enemies, sure, but more like got given a better Evening radio slot than them. Not get you and your wife murdered levels.

Though with the amount of dead she had talked to, Iris knew that people had been killed for less than that. Maybe someone had just seen them walk down the street.

Many untranslatable swear words flew through Iris’s head. There wasn’t a good Czech gender neutral cuss for someone so Iris began combining multiples in her head to find an ideal one. Kurva kinda worked, maybe hajzl kurva, toilet whore,

The door finally banged open again, the blonde coming into the room.

“Hajzl Kurva! A pleasure to see you again. Did my partner manage to convince you that this is a mistake?” Iris chirped until she saw the pail of water that the blonde carried with them. “Huh, decided to clean the room?” Her smiled waved slightly as the metal bucket clanged onto the floor.

The blonde stepped over to stand in front of Iris, looking down at her. “Have you considered whether you are going to cooperate?” They said cooly.

Iris stared back, “We did nothing wrong. I didn’t raise Thalia.”

The blonde just nodded, moving around to Iris’s side. They unclipped the restraint from the arm of the chair.

Automatically, Iris began to attempt to flail the arm wildly but the blonde was stronger than Iris had given them credit for and the arm was pulled over to be connected with the other restrained wrist.

Iris kicked out her legs in frustration but the blonde circled behind them. Something sharp settled underneath her chin and she froze.

“Better,” the cold voice came from behind her. “Now remember, we don’t really need you for the information we need. This is a real threat. I’m going to undo this chest restraint and if you make a single wrong move, your zombie is going to be cleaning up the mess. Give me a yes if you understand.”

A shiver ran up Iris’s spine and she tried not to shake. Between gritted teeth, she hissed out a quiet “yes”. The fear froze her body but the anger burned deeper inside.

The dagger was held in place while the other hand reached down to undo the buckle.

A joke came to mind about buying dinner first but it didn’t seem like the most appropriate comment.

The chest restraints fell to the side and Iris took a big gulp of air. There was less pressure against the fire inside of her but snapping her fingers resulted in nothing. The dagger left her throat as the blonde came around to the other arm of the chair, releasing the cuffs from the arms of the chair.

Iris was yanked forward roughly out of the chair but before she could lash out, a sharp course of electricity streaked over her. She let out a scream, knees falling out from underneath her as her muscles cramped and spasmed. “FUCK!” Her body twitched after the rod left her side, unable to pull herself upwards.

The blonde dragged her by the cuffs towards the bucket, clipping them into a ring that she hadn’t clocked before on the floor.

“What th-the fuck-“ Iris stuttered to the blonde, who crouched in front of her. “You fucking-“

The rod crashed down across her face, smashing it to the side. Iris gasped desperately, jerking against the cuffs to pull her hands to her face. The pain radiated out from her cheekbone, forcing her right eye closed.

A hand tangled in her hair, pulling her head to face them. “You chose my way, Iris. It didn’t have to be like that.” Iris glared up with as much hatred as she could muster.

The blonde let out a tinkling laugh. “Oh! Look at you! Scary witch.” They snorted, letting go of her hair before walking around to the other side of her. “Alright, let’s see.”

A hand wrenched into Iris’s hair and shoved her face down into the bucket of water. The frigid water stabbed at her face as she forced her eyes closed, holding what breath she had managed to take before being plunged under.

Oh god oh god oh god, she repeated over in her panicked mind. Iris could already feel the pressure building in her chest, in her throat, daring her to take a breath. Why did the water have to be so cold?

The blonde pulled back on her hair, yanking her head out. Iris gasped for breath, panting wildly. Her face slammed downwards into the water before she could steel herself. There wasn’t as much air in her lungs.

Her lungs were screaming. Her throat was screaming. Her body spasmed as she tried to keep herself from breathing in but her body made that choice for her and she breathed in the cold water and it stabbed and it hurt and she couldn’t breathe and-

Iris was pulled out, falling over coughing. Water splashed onto the floor as she hunched over shuttering. She couldn’t stop coughing, body desperate to get the water out from her lungs. Warm tears mixed with the frozen water on her face. She rasped in as much air as she could.

The hand touched her hair “-No! No no, wait!” Iris called out, shaking her head wildly. Panic crept in from all sides, overwhelming her brain. “Please no wait-“ she begged.

“Are you going to tell me how you made the zombie?” The cool voice conveyed a small taste of mirth. Were they fucking enjoying this?

“I didn’t-“ Back in the water. Mid-sentence. Needed to learn to save her breath. Try not to panic. Count heartbeats. It’s been too long. She needs air. Don’t panic.

Her body spasms as she begins to panic, thrashing wildly to get her head out. It’s been too long! Are they trying to kill her? The body fails, taking a breath.

She drowns. She’s pulled out. She goes back in. Rinse and repeat. She begins to forget what it feels like to breathe without it hurting, without daggers of ice stabbing into your lungs and throat. What little air she gets is mixed with questions, impossible questions. And then back under.

Iris has no sense of time left when the blonde drags her back to the chair, limp and shivering. She’s completely soaked, face a mess of snort and tears half washed away by the water and her lips chatter together, cold enough to not be able to form words any longer.

The blonde thought that it had been funny when she stopped being able to tell them to fuck off. Iris spat at her.

That might’ve made it worse but she was so tired, too tired to care. It was a blessing when the chest restraint clicked across and the blonde left.

She was incoherent, slumped over, held up by the bands engraved with runes. 30 heartbeats passed, 60, 100 since the blonde left before she dared to lift her head slightly, looking down at the wrist cuffs.

One of the runes on the left cuff showed a little wear, where Iris had managed to scratch at it while her hands were bound close together. It was a key rune, integral to the structure of the magical formula that kept her fire pressed down.

Iris leaned her head backwards, closing her eyes. She just needed to hold out a little longer. A couple more times, she would be able to damage the rune enough for it to be nullified.

And then she would burn all of them.

#whumptober2022 #no.10 #fire and death #iris #thalia #Torture #interrogation #drowning #taser/cattle prod #being restrained #restrained magic abilities #knife to the throat.#whump

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dinosaurswant2rule · 7 months

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I've had a little re-write of this chapter of this particularly brutal story. Mac goes missing during a mission to stop a human trafficking ring and is branded MIA by the foundation.

Plagued by guilt and furious at Matty for playing with Mac's life, Jack abandons his life at the Phoenix to hunt for his friend.

Here we see a taste of just how far Dalton will go in order to find his boy

Riley and Bozer stay at the foundation, but start to deteriorate as two of their allies are gone.

@panchostokes

@csinickstokes

For anyone who wants to see Jack suffer :P I've done my best to tag this, but obviously if I've missed something tell me and I'll correct. The AO3 tagging is more detailed than the below

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densewentz · 9 months

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#good omens #good omens 2 #i know it doesnt seem like it guys but im actually being very restrained #please dont leave ily #but i also just got annihilated by a bunch of middle-aged men

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ruporas · 7 months

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happiness today and tomorrow (ID in alt)

#vashwood #vash the stampede #nicholas d wolfwood #trigun maximum #trigun #ruporas art #hello here's another vw dump wraughh everyday i think about them being embarrassing infatuated w each other #it's like... at some point i must stop and look away... their love is too bright too dangerous.... but i will not... and neither will the #sidenote on the first comic - i drafted it bc im annoying about vash finding wolfwood lovely in simple ways but bc he's so restrained #in his thoughts those compliments dont usually come out. and when they do - bc he thinks about it so often - i think it'd come out bluntly #like. factual in tone as opposed to his inner deep exploding feelings about ww. only when he's pried deeper - prompted to expand #On these feelings does he get shy lmfao.... and bc it's simple complimentary words ww would take it casually in stride #dip him then call him cute and Maybe he'll get shy (pondering)#as u can see all i do is think about the fluff rn. tragedy where!

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nerdpoe · 8 months

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Jason breaks into the League of Assassins base to get some Lazarus water to bring back Bruce.

Instead, he finds Timmers laid out, unconscious, on an operating table.

Right next to the Pit.

Basically, after Tim loses his spleen but before he wakes up from the life saving surgery that took it out of him, Jason finds him and assumes he was dunked in a Lazarus Pit.

#batman au #red robin au #red hood #red robin #tim drake #jason todd #minor misunderstanding leads to older sibling almost fucking everything up beyond what the little sibling can salvage #tim wakes up to jason todd being restrained by multiple assassins #plays it by ear to get both of them out of the situation #now they both have to work together to take down the Council of Spiders

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amygdalae · 25 days

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I like dungeon meshi so much I can't interact with the main tag or fandom anymore I just get pissed off by people's terrible takes

Anyways every1 read the manga pls it's sooo goood I like the anime but the manga is better in every way (except for how they made Laios' thighs fatter in the anime I will concede that's an improvement)

#im glad people are having fun. *tense and physically restraining myself from being a hater*

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elizakai · 4 months

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Reminder that Dreamtale Twins are canonically sexless beings who identify with male pronouns.

yk what that means troops~💫

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tornado1992 · 3 months

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Babyfied Tails not crying no matter how hungry or sick he’d be because when he was an actual toddler he learned that if he cried no one would come to help him, his cries would only attract the people who wanted to hurt him.

#miles tails prower #sonic the hedgehog #baby miles tails prower #Sonic would have to constantly check on him and make sure to always have snacks on hand because Tails just won’t tell him he’s hungry #baby tails couldn’t cry because the people on his village would beat him up #ouch #Sonic learning about this would have to be physically restrained from commuting several crimes #also don’t let Amy or Vanilla know about this either they would go apeshit #after baking baby tails some cookies of course #haha imagine if Sonic comes back home after a few hours out and only learns about Tails being hungry because his stomach growled so LOUDLY #and then Tails told him he didn’t eat the supper he left for him because he didn’t know if he was allowed to #haha i’m dying here #baby tails #sonic headcanon #headcanon

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susieandhobbes · 3 months

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I can't explain this, but Black women looking young is somehow being added to the convenient excuses to not ship Black women with popular white leading men but ~not in a racist way~

She's strong and independent, she doesn't need him

He's a mess, she can do better

She should be gay! or with minor Black side character!

NEW: She looks so young :(

I'm obviously picking on this particular person but I've seen several people dismiss SydCarmy because "he's a much older, mentor figure! that'd be inappropriate!" And like??? HUUUUH???

Sydney and Carmy are an absolute MAX of 5 years apart in age. And while Ayo looks beautiful, 19 she does not look! Sydney went to culinary school and has worked at several fine dining establishments before launching her own business, common sense says she's at least in her late 20s. And while Carmy has more restaurant experience, he was a literal prodigy who started young.

ALSO, this is kind of an aside but where the fuck is Carmy mentoring Sydney in any real capacity?

S1 - she gets hired, 2 days later she was like "hey I redid your entire business plan because your shit is fucked, a day later he asked her to lead the brigade and then ditched her. He went to cater Cicero's party with Richie and once again Sydney was in charge DURING A POWER OUTAGE. She quit mid-service, comes back, and he's like want to start a restaurant with me?? Not as a fucking mentee, as a partner

S2 - Sydney is making the construction timeline decisions and present and participating in financial/loan conversations with the literal owners of the Beef/Bear. Sydney is part of designing the menu. Sydney is hiring. The only mentor-mentee relationship she's in is with TINA!

Does Sydney look up to Carmy because he's in many ways accomplished her culinary dreams? Absolutely. But people acting like she's some bright eyed student he's teaching to dice onions is fucking crazy.

#anyway i'm yelling #the bear fx #sydney adamu #carmy berzatto #sydcarmy #everyone is just so predictable and annoying #there was another reddit post #where the OP was like 'im 21 and my boss is in his 30s and i hate when people imply there's something romantic between us'#and i had to PHYSICALLY restrain myself from being like 'well sweetie #like do you spend a lot of time in your boss' apartment or looking into each others eyes under tables?#is he buying you custom designer chef wear?#no?#fucking ok then #let's get back to this fictional fucking show then shall we #this really feels so tenmartha in the worst way

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morganbritton132 · 9 months

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Living for conspiracy Steve. You know if they tried anything Joan the Disservice cat would be on the case. You also know Diane clocked it during her looky loo walks and she’s got tea. An alliance is forming.

What’s funny about Steve’s paranoia with the electric company van parked outside is that it’s definitely just the electric company.

If SoMeBoDy would just listen to reason then maybe they might remember the bad weather they’ve been having. They live in a suburb just outside of Chicago. It’s windy and wind messes with powerlines, but Steve isn’t dumb. Thank you very much.

He knows that.

Just like he knows what logo Mike said was on the van that El flipped. And like he said, “It’s spycraft 101. Of course, they’re here after a storm. It’s inconspicuous.”

“Big word,” Eddie replies appreciatively. “How do you know that?”

“I took the SATs?”

“Now the word! Why do you think that they’re tapping our phones?”

“It’s in all the movies, Eddie.”

There’s an unspoken duh tacked on to the end of Steve’s sentence and Eddie kinda loves it. He kinda loves how confident Steve is when he’s convinced himself this shit is real and a little part of Eddie wants to play along, but he knows how quickly it can all go bad so, “Baby, please. Stevie, what are they tapping into? We don’t have a landline.”

Steve pauses to think and then peaks back out through the blinds. He mutters, “You don’t know how wiretaps work?”

“Do you?”

Steve just purses his lips and looks even harder out the window which is just Steve-speak for ‘no, actually. I don’t know how wiretaps works because no one does.’ It makes Eddie grin, sliding up behind him and whispering in his ear, “Don’t you think one of our half dozen nosy neighbors would’ve told us if someone was spying on us?”

“Not if-“

“Baby, Diane came over twice last week because she saw a suspicious car in our driveway,” Eddie hums. “It was our car, Steve.”

Steve relaxes back against his chest a little but he knows the battle is not yet won so, Eddie adds, “Sweetheart, think about it. They’d know.”

“That’s true,” Steve relents just a little and then says, “Unless one of our neighbors is a spy.”

“No, baby.”

“Like a nosy neighbor that’s always in our business,” Steve continues, building confidence. “And who has always been in our business ever since we moved in…and who is talking to the electric company people right now.”

Eddie looks out through the peak in the blinds Steve is making and watches as Diane makes her way down her driveway in her pink house shoes, waving at the man halfway up the telephone pole. She calls something up at him but they’re too far away to hear it.

He can feel Steve pull away and Eddie thinks, damn it.

“Well, that friendship was good while it lasted.”

#meanwhile Eddie has like three restraining orders out against people for stalking #but thinks the idea of the government spying on them is too crazy even though one of their best friends can move stuff with her mind #I love when characters are one hundred percent correct but in the wrong direction #it reminds me of this umbrella academy AU I was writing where Five unrolls a conspiracy theory correctly but then accuses #Diego of being a part of it which is wrong even if he had really good points about it #eddie munson tiktok saga #eddie munson #steve harrington

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puppetmaster13u · 3 months

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Prompt 184

“Well damn.”

Jason wrenched his gaze from the mess of red and green spattered across the room, searching for the source of the voice. His head hurt, he wanted his Dad. He wanted Bruce. He… his head hurt. His everything hurt.

“Honestly, didn’t expect them to find another half-breed. Didn’t think there was another halfa out there…”

He tore his gaze away from the floor- when had it gotten there- finally finding the other… person? The person giving him an empty smile through some sort of muzzle and missing an entire arm. Well, he couldn’t judge, he’d torn his nails off while digging out of his grave before… this.

“Hey, kid, don’t sweat it, it’ll grow back,” the man apparently noticed where he was staring, shoulder twitching as he shrugged and more green pouring out. Jason couldn’t stop staring, eyes slipping from the growing pool to the rest of the chains apparently keeping the person on that side of the… room? Cage? Cell?

“Shit, hey, kid, kid, don’t cry, uh, fuck, shh, kid don’t cry-” the person made a noise, some sort of hum or croon that caused him to relax. To his already brain-damaged confusion. “C’mere, away from the door now, shh…”

Oh, when had he started to move? It was like he blinked and was stumbling away towards the chained person, practically tripping over a limb before the person managed to catch him. “Ope, oh you’re just a little baby-” a hand, clawed, carefully ran through his hair, tucking him against a rumbling chest that nearly made him tear up again. He wanted Bruce.

“It’s alright kid, shh, they won’t get you,” the man rumbled, everything about him green to his rapidly closing eyes. Pale skin like a corpse, black scales like rot, hair white like snow, all stained green with blood. “They’d have to kill me again for that.”

#dcxdp #dpxdc #prompts #Instead of spending 3 years with the league of assassins after digging himself out of his grave #Jason spends it in a GIW lab with an adult Danny #Danny is totally doing okay he swears #He’s FINE and definitely didn’t see the scientists Kill Vlad and Dani by taking things too far #He’s definitely Not feral and slowly losing his humanity with every piece taken away #Danny missing half his limbs and restrained but dragging himself forward: U touch my kid and I will bite your throat out ya hear #He’s not going to let them hurt this Baby Ghostling who is Sick and Hurt #There’s going to be so much Angst when Bruce finds out not only is Jason alive but he’s trapped in a lab being experimented on #Danny does his best to protect Jason but stuff happens #halfa jason todd #guys in white #Danny eventually goes from having 2 arms to 4 in those three years #His 'human' body is mutating with every “test”#Where is Clockwork? Trying his best but he can't see Danny's timelines thx to the time medallion & the Observants being Assholes #Also not helped by the many knots the speedsters have created that resulted in several timelines being completely blacked out to him

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slightly-depressed-sloth · 3 months

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Whenever ppl imply Damian would be homophobic I just kinda assume they're either new to comics or have some internal biases to work out cause I don't know who they're talking about but it isn't my boy Damian ultimate-over-invested-ally Wayne

#not mr showed up to a enbys house at midnight to teach them how to deck a transphobe #not mr had to be physically restrained from decking the transphobe himself by jon #you could not PAY that boy to stay away from pride comics be fr #just know he hated when Tim came out cause he was like dammit now I respect smth about Drake #tim: do you have a problem with me being bi? damian: you being bi is the only thing ive ever respected about you #my boy shows up in pride anthologies more often than like any of the comfirmed queer characters put some respect on his name #he is not helping ppl come out and reconnect left right and center just for yall to imply he'd be a homophobe #he is leading the damn parade #slightlyslothspeaks #batfam #damian wayne #no one does it like him

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slugcatmusings · 5 months

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What is the Rot? Why is the Rot?

Spoiler Warning and Holy Wall of Text Batman Warning. I got WAY too into questioning the turbo-cancer here, hopefully my rambling makes sense.

So, the Rot is… weird, from a biological standpoint. Really weird, if you stop to think about it. It’s most frequently described as some variation of cancer, and it certainly fits the criteria for it. Caused by damage to DNA? Check. Multiplies uncontrollably? Check. Comes in both benign and malignant forms, one stationary and the other mobile? Big fat check. Heck, even the Rot cysts eating other creatures kind of fits, according to some research I’ve done – there are apparently cancer cells that will eat other cells, which makes sense in hindsight since cancer cells are cells that have lost important genetic restrictions, which may include whatever lets cells identify other cells as “do not eat.”

(I ain’t a biology whiz and I’m doing research on the fly while getting my thoughts out here, so take whatever I say about biology with a grain of salt)

So, Rot is clearly cancer of some kind, right? Case closed. Except when me and a friend of mine were talking Rain World theories on Discord, she brought up some interesting points that got me thinking.

First point: Rot cells obviously mutate in a way that affects FAR more than just cell replication and termination. Some of the cysts can HEAR. As far as I know, cells in the body do not hear sounds. They communicate via chemical signals and maybe, MAYBE react to temperature. Hearing involves complicated, specialized sensory apparatus to pick up on vibrations in the air. Even if you simplify it and say that it’s only vibrations, that’s STILL a multicellular thing, not a single-cell thing. It’s something that took millions of years to evolve on Earth, if not billions.

And while Rain World’s timeline goes on for long enough that it those kinds of mutations might happen eventually, Rot cysts have the ability to hear pretty much right from the start – because even the Proto-Long-Legs react to your presence like the Daddy Long Legs do, and the Rot in Spearmaster’s campaign, where Pebbles has recently contracted it, reacts the same way as it does in later campaigns. It’s already able to hear.

As far as I know, cancer just means the same cell duplicating over and over again. Are more mutations possible with each division, as errors are made in the DNA during splitting? Probably. But not to THAT extent. There’s no way a lump of cancer somehow mutated the exact complicated genetic blueprint needed to grow organs, at least not without outside interference.

Second point: Cases of Rot are way too consistent across the board. Now, we don’t have a huge sample size to work from, but from what we see from both Pebbles’ Rot, and Hunter Long Legs, they’re… pretty similar. Hunter Long Legs is basically a mobile Rot cyst. They move the same way, seem to grow the same way (starts as a growth inside/on the body before eventually freeing itself from whatever wall/flesh it grew from in some capacity and moving elsewhere), they have the same senses, and they even eat the same way, via something like phagocytosis (how white blood cells “eat” invading organisms via engulfing them and breaking them down in a sac in their main “body.”)

Now, this doesn’t tell us much, because cancer, when it does emerge, is pretty consistent in symptoms/what the mutated cells do once they start replicating. It’s pretty much the same regardless of whatever organism the cancer is happening in. But what ISN’T consistent is what causes the DNA error in the cancer cell in the first place. IRL, cancer can be caused by all kinds of things – smoking, radiation poisoning, being out in the sun too long, drinking deadly chemicals and whatnot, anything that damages DNA. But in RW, the only time we ever hear Rot talked about, or see it present, is in the context of an iterator having f*cked up while mucking around with DNA. Pebbles was trying to create an organism that could change his own genome, and No Significant Harassment created Hunter as a messenger and probably mucked something up in the process in his haste to get them to Moon.

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t other causes of it, of course, we’re working with a sample size of two in an apocalyptic world with who knows how much potentially DNA-damaging stuff around, but… that’s still awfully consistent.

So, combining these points and everything we know to be canon, Rot is:

an organism that lives inside another organism

Until a certain condition is met, it cannot harm said host organism.

Once said condition is met, it goes out of control, wreaking havoc on the organism’s systems and mutating, giving it sensory capabilities and an appetite

Said condition is apparently someone messing up when re-arranging genomes, in yourself or others

It is widespread across multiple different species, at least iterators and slugcats but potentially other species as well.

Once you have a bad case of it, it is apparently NOT CURABLE. Pebbles tried everything he could think of but apparently exhausted all of his options by the time of the Survivor/Monk campaigns.

So, with all the context FINALLY laid out, here’s my wild theory: Rot isn’t a cancer. It’s a symbiote turned parasite. Specifically, I believe it’s a symbiotic microbe that lives inside the cells that make up every other creature in Rain World, and is held in check by a specific gene that all species share, and altering or getting rid of that gene causes it to go berserk, taking over and eventually mutating the host cells.

Yeah, I did watch Parasite Eve let’s plays as a kid, why do you ask? Anyway, hear me out here.

There is precedence for single-celled organisms living inside of other single-celled organisms. They’re referred to as intracellular endosymbiots (hopefully I got the spelling right there), and the most well-known one is probably the mitochondria. The powerhouse of the cell is thought to be descended from some bacteria way, WAY back that was engulfed by a larger cell and not only survived it, but BENEFITED from it. Since then those ancient proto-mitochondria and eukaryotic cells have mutually evolved to be dependent on each other. So it’s entirely possible for something similar to have happened in Rain World.

However, I don’t think it happened NATURALLY, here. Because something that’s able to take over a cell entirely and begin wildly mutating it is NOT something your average cell wants inside of it. There’s a VERY high chance of extinction if you do that. Which means that of course those funky bio-tech loving Ancients either took a look at a wildly dangerous cellular parasite and went “hmmm we can use this” or made one themselves.

Why did they do this? Who knows! Currently, I’m tied between “they needed a better powerhouse for the cell to power the various weird adaptations they’re building into various creatures,” “there was some sort of disease that this parasite gave immunity against and they wanted to make use of it,” and “it gave their creations massively powerful regeneration factors that made them much easier to maintain.” Possibly it was all three. Whatever the reason, the Ancients either found or created this parasite, and put it into their creations’ cells, hoping to reap the benefits.

Well, they got the benefits, but they also got a microbe that hijacked the cells and harnessed their pre-existing DNA blueprints to build organisms disguised as great big blobs of cancer. Which is not exactly ideal, but hey, they just had to figure out a way of keeping the cell hijacking from happening! And the way they ended up going about it was to alter the thing so that so long as there was a specific DNA sequence in the cell, it laid mostly dormant. All the benefits, none of the risks – so long as that specific string of genes remained intact.

And then BECAUSE it was so beneficial, they spread their artificial symbiote and it’s genetic reins throughout ALL of their creations, from the smallest pipe-cleaning slugs to the iterators. Which meant that as their purposed organisms replaced most of the original ecosystem, they spread the symbiote as well. Thus making it possible for pretty much ANY creature on the planet to come down with a bad case of the Rot. And with the iterators, I wouldn’t be surprised if this symbiote is tied to their self-destruction taboos. Try to cross yourself out? Well, it’s gonna maybe happen now, but it’ll be a slow painful death as you’re eaten alive from the inside and all your own parts turn against you, so was it really worth it?

And they never told their creations this perhaps even actively hid it, because why tell them the cause of the main deterrent to them mucking with their taboos? They might find a way around it. The iterators were left ignorant of how Rot works, and because of this they never figured out that Rot HAD a cure after all: rebuilding that genome that reins in the symbiote. Because why in the name of the Void would they repeat the same mistakes that gave them Rot in the first place, and potentially make it worse?

#rain world #rain world worldbuilding #serious musings #rain world headcanons #rw rot #the rot #rain world rot #rain world turbo cancer #which is not actually cancer #yes i Parasite Eved the shit out of the Rot #yes that is a verb now I take no criticisms #anywho the Rot is a byproduct of the ancients Fucking Shit Up on Purpose #and it DOES have a cure damn it #I'm not giving the robots not-actually-cancer and NOT giving them at least a chance to cure it #not mentioned above is the fact that depending on the genes altered along with the restraining gene #you might get rot with fun mutations like being able to jump from organism to organism #or Rot that outright assimilates cells from other organisms #amongst other things #plenty of FUN stories to play with there >:D

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reunitedinterlude · 4 months

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dan and phil appreciation week

day three: favourite outfits - phil version (part 2/2)

#and yes the cowboy hat for the light denim jacket outfit is Important #and can u believe 12 gifs of phil outfits was me being Restrained and there are still some that i missed (aka all the hoodies 😔)#(and all the outfits from the plant calendar)#dan and phil #amazingphil #phil lester #danandphilgames #dpgdaily #phan #dnp gifs #my gifs #dnpaw #dnpawjan24 #compilation

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blacktobackmesa · 1 year

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me: I think we exaggerate how much Benrey shapeshifts, he only really does it during the final battle and there were a lot of factors at play right then

also me: Benrey does this alone in his basement

#benrey #benry #who killed this [benrey]#indisputable truths #also i love shapeshifter benrey #i love the idea of him being more loose with it in postcanon. everyone's seen what he CAN be so he doesnt have to constrict himself anymore #not that he was ever super restrained in the first place......

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coquelicoq · 30 days

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as a huge unreliable narrator enjoyer i love the fact that the raven tower is narrated by someone who cannot lie. so the narration is not unreliable, and any kind of uncertainty is always couched in "here is a story i have heard" or "i imagine", but it scratches the same itch as unreliable narration because the evidentiality of the narration is still so central, just in the opposite way. stories that don't care about where the narrator is getting their information or what biases are present in the way that information is shared with us are on one end of a spectrum, and stories that do care about those things are on the other end, and the raven tower is firmly situated alongside the unreliably narrated stories even though the whole point is that the narrator is as motivated as it is possible to be to never say something that is untrue. and it's fascinating to see how ann leckie manages to build suspense and subvert expectations without really at any point deliberately misleading the reader. every time i reread one of her books, the bouncing of the dvd screensaver in my brain gets a little more frenetic. how does she do what she does. ann leckie what is your secret.

#this post is spoiler-free btw. the narrator is very upfront about the fact that it can't lie and says this very early in the story #i'm only like 40% through my reread and i don't remember any details of what happens but i'm already losing it #and the fact that it's first-person second-person narration...completely undivorceable from the conceit of the book #might write a different post about that but probably only after i finish rereading #i finally got my sister to agree to read it and she's like 'i read the first fifteen pages! i like the style'#and i'm barely restraining myself from being like girl please read another fifty pages and get back to me #if you are not frothing at the mouth by page 100 then your money back. guaranteed.#my sister loves semantics like the linguistic subfield of semantics so i've been begging her to read this for so many years...#like i KNOW she will love it when that stuff starts becoming apparent. which is remarkably early in the book #hrrrrhughghrhrrgh i want to talk about it so bad #the raven tower #ann leckie #my posts #unreliable narrators #or not!!! actually!!!#storytelling #semantics

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