#ithas

[revvnant]

for the meta meme... michael's zombieisms/the Decay from physically dying from the scooper, how he looks and functions and lives with it, etc

send me a topic to write a meta about my muse on.

so this ended up being a. huge fucking post. and i haven't even covered everything. thank you to @rubensmuse for helping me break this down into digestible chunks, this wouldn't have gotten done without her. i hesitate to call this the zombie bible so let's call it. the zombie. pentateuch. with more to come, someday. beware of extreme gore below, but such is zombiefication.

part one: physical appearance.

initial wounds.

michael received two wounds from the scooper -- one in his skull ( the one we see in the cutscene, where the arm snaps at the camera and the screen goes read; this split the front of his head open ), and one in his torso ( to more efficiently empty him out ). his tongue survived, but his eyes were initially forced out of their sockets and then popped back in ( in terms of layering, you have michael's actual eyes, and then a layer of remnant behind them, and then ennard's eyes ). once space had been cleared in his torso and head, which involved shoving a lot of his brain out, they removed whatever muscles in his arms and legs prevented them from stretching out and puppeting his body. if a bone shattered, they tossed it; if it just broke in one or two places, they held it together and used it as an anchoring point to pilot him, filling in any leftover places with cables. you can imagine he kind of walks like a mess. their exit did a tone of damage to his throat, too, which is part of why his speech is so fucked ( he's just also permanently dry, since he doesn't produce saliva anymore ).

additional wounds.

as his skin began to dry and shrivel, he got a lot of tears, which he either sews or staples back together as needed. his cartilage is gone, so he's molded on a nose to help fill out his face ( more on that below ). his teeth can be very loose in his gums, especially after ennard launched out of his throat; he gorilla glues them back into place. getting the hard glue out of his gum holes when his teeth inevitably get knocked out again is sort of a nightmare. his hair and nails no longer grow, so he's very careful with them, because he doesn't want to replace them. he could and may wear a wig eventually, i haven't decided.

public appearance.

michael takes steps to conceal that he is a zombie. he wears rather heavy makeup, and will often layer on a medical mask, hat, scarf, bulky headphones, or any combination of the above. anything he can do to conceal his discoloration. applying this makeup can be difficult due to the quality of his skin; he actually purchases some mortuary-grade supplies to augment his kit, and did some research into how after life care was performed in funeral homes. i'd imagine that, once he got into the 2010s, youtube and tiktok were boons for him. not only did it teach him to do 'natural' makeup, a skill that he did not have from his punk phase as a teenager, but it helped him learn how to treat his skin in such a way that it wouldn't tear further, or accrue water damage from layers of wet product. guy who learned the term 'desairology' and started glowing. a couple of things he's picked up from mortuary vloggers are a semi-permanent false nose and a foundation/concealer airbrush. the first decade or so was rough for him, though, because he couldn't really walk into a funeral home and ask for help. back then, it was a lot of slathering on dollar store concealer and the most basic of contouring and using lipstick as single-tone blush and praying. ( extremely rare tiktok w? )

part two: physiological and mental impact.

social degradation.

we see in the sister location end cutscene that people are rightfully wary of michael when he's zero-makeup. when he starts doing his face, though, reactions can range between 'that man has a really bad skin condition, we shouldn't stare' and 'he's serving uncanny valley and i'm getting extremely uncomfortable'. i think, again, as we move towards some of the wackier looks of the modern day, he gets fewer stares. he occasionally will tell people who ask that he's had facial reconstruction surgery due to an accident, which usually smooths over the suspicion with sympathy ( though it does nothing for the discomfort, but that's part of life ). he tries to avoid spinning stories if at all possible, but he'll sometimes get frustrated with someone's reaction -- especially if it's over-the-top -- and start churning out a sob story about how he stepped on a landmine to serve his country, which will normally shut the average hurricane citizen up.

nevertheless, he is afraid to go outside. his whole 'living in the shadows' thing is in part due to extreme paranoia about being attacked for his appearance. it's a sharp contrast with how he was as a teenager, when he very much embraced an alternative aesthetic and welcomed the judgment of his community ( there are layers to that but now isn't the time ). once it's out of his control, and moreover tied to the end of his life, he stops embracing 'being different' and starts desperately trying to blend in. to that end, he doesn't go out often, especially in the summer when the smell starts to kick in and it's harder to bundle up. catch him out and about in winter!

confidence and sexuality.

being dead has really fucked with michael's self-confidence. setting aside his feelings about how he was murdered to focus solely on his post-mortem experience, his predominant feelings are shame and frustration. he's ashamed of his smell, he's ashamed of his discoloration, he's ashamed of how uncanny and misshapen he looks once his body starts to really break down and he loses that muscle he was so proud of. he's frustrated, because when he had literally nothing else, he had his body -- and this ties into his sex drive.

michael was and is hypersexual; for someone with very little autonomy, due to his family situation, his inability to hold a job, and his poor reputation in town, his sexuality was a means of expressing himself, and, more importantly, of feeling both desirable and in control. it was the one way in which he could use people's negative opinions of him to his advantage, by being 'forbidden' and therefore tempting. this is why it's important to me that mike be conventionally attractive before his death, because his body rotting is a loss in just about every way for him. his good looks, his bargaining chip in a shallow community that only otherwise wanted him for his mechanical skills, meant everything to him. in a household that offered very little by way of affection, sex was affirming for him. it fulfilled a basic human need to be touched and to be admired.

now, luckily, there are some freaks -- especially in the rp sphere -- who would fuck a zombie, and good for them! michael doesn't really have that before the pizzeria burns, but he has it now! everybody clap.

physiological degradation.

michael's physical processing has sharply declined. i try to have him teeter between supernatural and firmly scientific, and sort of judge based on the scene and the emotional stakes. i think, as a revenant, michael's emotions override everything else -- hence why he can snap and attack someone with force and speed that should be impossible. him having a frightening aspect to his zombiehood is important to me. in a lot of ways, he's serving as a vessel for justice on behalf of dead children; that, in my opinion, grants him certain rights in the cool superpowers department. however, to keep him grounded, if he doesn't hit that point of blinding rage, then he's fighting against a body that isn't really… designed to move anymore. he can have delayed reactions, he can fumble things, and it takes him time to do complex engineering that it wouldn't have in the past, because his fine motor skills are a crapshoot. he shambles. he loses his balance. he can still run pretty fast, but it's a downgrade from just how beast he was when he was human.

mental degradation.

his mind is being hit on two fronts: nerve damage, and mental/emotional damage. with so many dead or damaged nerves, his thoughts can be slow and disjointed. couple this with pre-existing psychotic episodes and you have someone who's not all there the majority of the time. in fact, the only time when he's really sharp anymore is when he's on shift as the night guard. everything clicks, then. that doesn't stop him from having intrusive hallucinations or delusions, but it helps. it gets him close to a 'flow state' where he can function without too much trouble.

emotionally, being one mind out of six total ( maybe more! ) did a number on him. he was smothered into silence in his own head for so long that sometimes he forgets that he can think. it almost feels like he has too much space, now. everything echoes, ideas feel far away, and the background noise that he became accustomed to is gone. compare this with him eating electronics to feel 'full' again. he was put under enormous physical and mental pressure, and then that pressure released suddenly, and he's not coping well.

that's it for this post. there's stuff here that i've gone into more detail with elsewhere, such as the mental impact of living with ennard. mike also has a totally different physiology in my post-sb au that's far more indulgent when it comes to my favorite zombie archetypes / themes; but in terms of game canon, this is basically what we're dealing with.

#ithas #w3. headcanons #gore cw #body horror cw #hypersexuality cw

[americanedpsycho]

❛  i  want  to  experiment  with  something,  and  i  acquire  your  help.  ❜

@ithas liked for one starter liner.

#ithas #╰ bateman is out of office / queue.

[talentforlying]

what do you want from me?

' oh, not much. pleasure of your company an' such like. ' gratingly insincere, teetering on the knife's edge of SMUG — his curiosity measures almost as vast as his ego, and even in his efforts to exercise the former, he can't quite resist the urge to flex the latter. his head cants quizzically to one side as he watches each small shift in expression, every faint or formidable motion; balancing his chances of SUCCESS in this line of questioning against his chances of being run off with a shovel.

' you were in the graveyard the other night. i saw you. ' he lets that sit, careful not to make accusations; not like he's got anything concrete to go off of, or anything that he'd PROFIT from sharing around. ' what were you digging for? '

@ithas / ANGELS IN AMERICA STARTERS ( always accepting )

#ithas #the way i just got to chapter 17 of frankenstein this morning sdhjk #anyway hope this is alright!! #i figured this can either be modern or novel-based bc i would Not put it past 1818 constantine to just. be in a graveyard #( answered. ) THIS IS JOHN CONSTANTINE. FUCK OFF.

[odett3]

@ithas

she has been watching them. perhaps they have been able to feel it ; odette herself is well-acquainted with the prickling feeling at the base of the skull when one is being watched. or maybe there was a strange flash at the corner of their eye at some point, a quick movement of white skirt or pale arm before it vanished just as quickly as it had been spotted. it is always curious to see a living soul out here. odette is so used to her own kind, some strange thing forced to be almost between life and death - - - or that is how it feels, most days - - - rather than flesh and blood untouched by power.

"are you lost?" her voice drifts through the cool night air towards them. the lake is far from the road, and travellers do not often stumble through enough wood to wind up here when they are lost. "the road is back that way." one graceful arm arcs to point with extended finger to the west. "i can help you find it again. if you need."

#ithas #* v ; swan queen #making victor deal with this ghostly swan woman

[1end]

"You may never know your fortune."

“ are you talking about my guns? ” gideon says, because she cannot imagine anyone would see her as rich in anything except various sculpted arm muscles. those are a result of a bored young girl with little else that brought her relief except crashing against her body’s limits and shouldering them further back a little bit every day.   

“ you could be fortunate too if you picked up a couple of weights. we all start somewhere! ”  

#YELLS #ithas

[auditoryeden]

#ffxiv #young azem mysteries #prometheus #ithas #silonavria #ao3 #fanart of fanart #i'm not good at art but i'm v proud of the robe ngl

[leatherforhell]

violent and reliable are Maybes bc it depends

I love that both of them find it extremely important that ugly nature is appreciated

#every time someone complains about the pigeons or bats or raccoons or whatever in Gotham clara adopts another one out of spite #ooc. #answered. #meme response. #ithas

[magicveiled]

"I wish you could see the world through my eyes, Victor. There is magic all around us, even now at this very moment, right under your nose where you'd least expect it. I'm not saying scientific fact isn't valid, merely questioning to what extent can we consider some of life's strangest abnormalities to be a result of your precious science, or something else entirely otherworldly."

@ithas liked for a starter from morgan !

#morgan macveigh. | roleplay * #ithas #morgan macveigh. | main verse * #if you need me to change or rewrite anything lmk lol

[devouraes]

* ⚓️ ... “ wait. did you hear that ? ” / sparky :) —@ithas.

“ mhm. ” a raspy shhh followed as she took one step back, her body following suit in an exaggerated lean to peer around a corner, down one of the many halls the students called a second home ( or, if you're six, just home. )

was sneaking around with an armful of supplies she'd helped smuggle from the mad science lab how six expected to spend the day ? no, but she wasn't complaining ; mischief seemed to always find its way back to her, and sparky had said they needed it for something complicated and kinda gross that she didn't fully understand, so if they needed it then it's simple ! go and get it, and besides, who said being thick as thieves had to be metaphorical anyway ?

“ s'all clear. ” she says once she's confident there's not a soul in sight to catch them leaving the scene of the crime. adjusting their grip on the books held tightly in both hands —— all kinds of equipment they didn't know the purpose of balanced precariously on top —— six then settled into rocking comfortably on their heels. “ hey, what do i - i get out of this ? ”

question prompts, accepting.

#HEHE #ithas #* ⸺ ic : an escaped child threatens everything. ) #* verse / mh.

[mirrormania]

@ithas || The doctor will see you now!

" The-the-the-- the trouble is... It's just so obvious! I still see all the lines of surgery remnants where I cut away and left the flaws behind in the ether... "

#👁️‍🗨️ *look at me! 👄 || i.c. #ithas

[prometheyus]

                                              IT'S TIMES LIKE THIS where they curse the fractured components that made up their brain. for on one hand, an endless supply of knowledge &. to basically exist as a six foot walking corpse library of a person, was a treat ! on the other, splinters &. pieces do not make a whole. their language barriers went from non existent to near impossible, only having a glob of each part of the world residing in their cerebral cortex.

                                              " — répétez, s’il vous plait ! " they declare proudly to their tutoring grandparent, quite smug that the phrase had been retained. truth be told, they had picked up on everything @ithas was saying. ; they just enjoyed spending time with them &. were not above extending that by any means necessary.

#GRANDPARENT E GRANDBABY FIRST RETURN POST ? IT'S MORE LIKELY THAN YOU THINK ! #🗲 . ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ɢʜᴏᴜʟ ᴋɪᴅs ʀᴜʟᴇ . ( alt. v. ) #🗲 . interactions. + ithas. #ithas

[spookyagentfmulder]

Sentence Starter for V. Frankenstein @ithas

"Special Agent Fox Mulder, FBI. Are you Dr. Frankenstein?"

#ithas #wasn't sure which direction to go with this so left it pretty ambiguous! #he is probably working on an X-File or something but feel free to steer it however you're comfortable #;on a case -IC

[swede]

⚠️ always chasing after creatures of myth and folklore!

𝐢𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬 𝐝𝐚𝐚𝐞́! | prompt. ( accepting! )

❝ and what is so bad about that? ❞ she lilts, her smile teasing. never you mind the fact she gets lost very, very easily! ❝ what is life without adventure? i would rather that than die of boredom! ❞

#ithas #. * 𝄞⠀iv.⠀⠀answered⠀—⠀what answer can I give? #christine vc: yes i got lost looking for a faerie ring. yes i got mud on my dress because i was digging in the underbrush for gnomes #no i do not care

[sheldoney]

@ithas

"Is there something you would like to tell me? Secrets don't exactly make friends."

#ithas #(verse tba au.) #Hi <3

[pygmalionpining]

hey have you seen my risperdal

what are you moaning about now, victor, you pathetic slab of wet cardboard? your 'risperdal'? i don't even know what that is. [toilet flushing in the bg.]

#ithas #❧ i have once again decided to spare the basses ( crack. )

[desiredprince]

— @ithas

❝ 𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 get bored of things around you? I feel as if I am going to go MAD if I have to read another article. ❞ Perhaps a book would suffice then, Lestat. Though he hadn't even thought a bout picking up one; he didn't know where to start. Anything other than reading continuous articles about the time where he & his band were flourishing. Thinking about the good ol' days when concerts were a weekly thing. The punk genre was booming, as if he hasn't seen someone wear all leather in centuries. ( — truth was he needn't know where to look. It wasn't the punk was dead, it was that he didn't get out much to see the various of people walking along the sidewalks, coded in the cliché black attire. The urge to come up with more songs, to particpate in the world of ENTERTAINMENT again was strong but he didn't know where to start. Just as he hadn't known where to start with becoming unstuck from boredom. ) ❝ What do you do then ?— ❞ The other seemed distant, not only with the way he stared secludedly , but MENTALLY as well. Was he even listening ?

#ithas