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karteria - natural soul info
May. 19th, 2025 12:33 amPHYSICAL CHANGES - ARTHROPODA
-Exoskeleton panels on his outer arms and upper forearms, sides of his body all the way down to the knee, then front of the knee, lower leg and upper foot. The panels themselves are mostly hidden by hot pink "fluff", but it's visible at the very edges that there's black chitin underneath. He also has a much thicker collar of black and pink moth fluff around his neck. He can still feel things in these areas using his setae.
-An additional pair of arms directly under his original pair. He normally keeps the claws on this set at their natural length, which is...very long. His original arms also develop a fold-away set of raptor claws over the forearm (the only proper hint of mantis that makes it through to his Corruption), as well as the nails becoming claws. His toes are also clawed, and his feet lengthen and shift proportion slightly in a way that makes it more comfortable to walk on the ball of his foot.
-Moth wings. Pink with black splotches, and a lurid green stripe near the base as well as further down towards the ends. His wing powder puts people to sleep, smaller amounts may instead induce disorientation or drowsiness.
-Additional "tail"/abdomen growth. The joint is quite small so it interferes less with pants. Tipped with venomous pincers.
-Big fluffy antennae, with the associated Arthropoda sensory enhancements, including sensing intent, ambient disturbance, and dishonesty/deceit. He will generally use this to assist in his normal vibe check of people upon first meeting.
-Compound eyes, slightly larger and rounder than his original human eyes. Solid pink with a dissipated black spot in the middle that looks vaguely like a weird pupil. This comes with the corresponding heightened reflexes and exceptional eyesight.
-Widened mouth with a skin flap joining his cheeks together - this will often just look like a line on his cheek unless he's smiling exceptionally wide. The tips of his mandibles are visible resting around alongside where his protruding canines were already, but he can fully unfold them, in which case they push back the skin flap and take up that widened mouth space. The tips are venomous, in his corruption form the venom is of the "painkiller-resistant turn your pain dials up to 11 and break them off" variety (think bullet ant).
-Loss of an inch of height, taking him to 5'7". However, given he now mostly walks on the ball of his foot, this is difficult to spot.
-Improvement in hardiness/durability.
-Slight dietary change to favour leafy vegetables more than he used to.
PHYSICAL CHANGES - FUNGI
-Alterations to skeletal and organ structure. Lower set of arms change near fully to a fungal state and take on a sort of expanded, separated texture inspired by the "wrinkled peach" mushroom, as does his "tail" and his knee and elbow plates. Areas affected by this no longer bleed, only weep fluids, and can be broken off without ill effects. Markings similar to this texture appear elsewhere on his body, indicating changes beneath; his skeleton largely remains in place, but organs and underlying body systems change, and certain organs may be absorbed/misplaced, particularly around vulnerable areas like the abdomen. Consciousness is no longer restricted to the brain.
-Retains his hair, however the area he previously dyed white begins harbouring white penicillium mold, and trichoderma viride (a green mold) takes up residence in some areas of his moth fuzz. Purple-spored puffball mushrooms also pop up in his neck fluff (these are actually just normal edible mushrooms with no wild side effects).
-Arthropoda senses take priority, but will need some time to adjust to exceptionally bright light, and has a bit of the edge taken off his enhanced eyesight.
-Preference for particular living conditions (warm, humid), however Arthropoda resilience means he's hardier to "unsuitable" conditions.
-Can normally control the rot, however in instances where he's particularly stressed/strained, particularly emotionally, will tend to accidentally rot things he's touching.
-Healing abilities from some of the fungi he's growing. The two fuzzy mold strains and the "jelly drop" fungi specifically have healing effects, the former moreso for disease and the latter for physical injury.
-Deadly poison in the discoloured tips of the candlestick fungi crowning his head and appearing along his raptor claws and hips. Base part before the colour changes is safe.
-Psychoactive effects from the mycena roseoflava mushrooms growing on his wings. Will cause hallucinations on their own, when combined with his sleep powder it results in wild hallucinogenic dreams or nightmares. Whether it's a good or a bad time is ultimately up to Momo.
-Parasitic tendencies, including ability to mind control a host he has implanted enough of himself on. While he will generally do his best to resist this urge (and anything regarding player characters will only be done with permission), he can be quite controlling and may resort to this more easily in moments of stress/emergencies.
-High resistance to and ability to absorb arcane radiation without direct harm.
MENTAL CHANGES - ARTHROPODA
-Susceptibility to group energy, though his tends towards just becoming extremely active/in your face/bouncy rather than aggression.
-Trickery impulse builds on his natural cunning and tendency to find a way to come out on top of situations, making him even sharper at this when he wants to be.
-Dislike of dishonesty directed towards him. Whether he directly calls someone out on it or not will depend heavily on the situation, but He Will Remember That.
-Storytelling, performance and dance enjoyment leans into his tendencies towards these things already, mostly just making him more prone to break out into one of them randomly(...when he wouldn't have been doing that already).
MENTAL CHANGES - FUNGI
-Inclination towards keeping his surroundings messy (he already tends to do this when not with someone who cares more about it...)
-Likely not quite fully reaching considering others with his growths as extensions to himself, but definitely inclined to become more controlling of them and disregard their wishes, particularly for reasons of protection.
-Mycelium network, ability to communicate via the ground with those who can sense such things.
-More abstract sense of time and propensity to propagate himself when under threat.
FULL SHIFT ONLY
-The entire lower half of his face can split open in his full shift (seam is down the middle of his lower jaw). His mandibles are far larger in this form and his teeth become very sharp and narrow.
-Setae/scale areas on his limbs contain urticating hairs, his mantis claws also have exoskeleton "spikes" down the front in this form. His claws can grasp things to a limited degree, but he's more likely to grab things in his mandibles or use the smaller leg sections at the ends of his raptor claws for this sort of thing.
-While he has a lower degree of it in his Corruption, the highest end of his Arthropoda senses and resilience increase are only accessible when Shifted. Going by the Arthropoda page fluff, he also packs quite a disproportionate amount of strength for his size (his torso while Shifted is still pretty similar in size to a human torso, he just gains Considerably More Leg) in this form.
-Damage to exoskeleton plates in this form (requiring a hell of a lot of force to do) will reveal that there is in fact still human-ish skin and bone underneath those. Think of him as a spindlefied/mutated human with fused-on armour for simplicity of visual (the exoskeleton is still providing some support anatomically speaking, it's just not doing the whole job).
-Arthropoda x Fungi full shift has been gradually colonised by his various fungi with a Cordyceps/Ophiocordyceps-inspired bent (i.e. the bug body is mostly just being piloted by fungus by the end). His full shift remained as it was previously aside from gradual discolouration signifying the disruption to the underlying bug anatomy and replacement with fungal "anatomy" until sometime during October, when the fungi elements had grown enough that he started to struggle being able to shift without being in immense crushing pain, as they hadn't fully broken through yet. Next shift that happens ICly after the October horrors (currently looking to be an underground thread set in late October, but may change this around depending on how things go) will prompt the change over to the current design.
-Unless he is paying close attention, it is somewhat difficult to breathe near his full shifted Arthropoda x Fungi form due to spore saturation in the air, and similarly it's quite likely characters in close proximity to it for a little while will pick up at least some small fungal growths.
-Exoskeleton panels on his outer arms and upper forearms, sides of his body all the way down to the knee, then front of the knee, lower leg and upper foot. The panels themselves are mostly hidden by hot pink "fluff", but it's visible at the very edges that there's black chitin underneath. He also has a much thicker collar of black and pink moth fluff around his neck. He can still feel things in these areas using his setae.
-An additional pair of arms directly under his original pair. He normally keeps the claws on this set at their natural length, which is...very long. His original arms also develop a fold-away set of raptor claws over the forearm (the only proper hint of mantis that makes it through to his Corruption), as well as the nails becoming claws. His toes are also clawed, and his feet lengthen and shift proportion slightly in a way that makes it more comfortable to walk on the ball of his foot.
-Moth wings. Pink with black splotches, and a lurid green stripe near the base as well as further down towards the ends. His wing powder puts people to sleep, smaller amounts may instead induce disorientation or drowsiness.
-Additional "tail"/abdomen growth. The joint is quite small so it interferes less with pants. Tipped with venomous pincers.
-Big fluffy antennae, with the associated Arthropoda sensory enhancements, including sensing intent, ambient disturbance, and dishonesty/deceit. He will generally use this to assist in his normal vibe check of people upon first meeting.
-Compound eyes, slightly larger and rounder than his original human eyes. Solid pink with a dissipated black spot in the middle that looks vaguely like a weird pupil. This comes with the corresponding heightened reflexes and exceptional eyesight.
-Widened mouth with a skin flap joining his cheeks together - this will often just look like a line on his cheek unless he's smiling exceptionally wide. The tips of his mandibles are visible resting around alongside where his protruding canines were already, but he can fully unfold them, in which case they push back the skin flap and take up that widened mouth space. The tips are venomous, in his corruption form the venom is of the "painkiller-resistant turn your pain dials up to 11 and break them off" variety (think bullet ant).
-Loss of an inch of height, taking him to 5'7". However, given he now mostly walks on the ball of his foot, this is difficult to spot.
-Improvement in hardiness/durability.
-Slight dietary change to favour leafy vegetables more than he used to.
PHYSICAL CHANGES - FUNGI
-Alterations to skeletal and organ structure. Lower set of arms change near fully to a fungal state and take on a sort of expanded, separated texture inspired by the "wrinkled peach" mushroom, as does his "tail" and his knee and elbow plates. Areas affected by this no longer bleed, only weep fluids, and can be broken off without ill effects. Markings similar to this texture appear elsewhere on his body, indicating changes beneath; his skeleton largely remains in place, but organs and underlying body systems change, and certain organs may be absorbed/misplaced, particularly around vulnerable areas like the abdomen. Consciousness is no longer restricted to the brain.
-Retains his hair, however the area he previously dyed white begins harbouring white penicillium mold, and trichoderma viride (a green mold) takes up residence in some areas of his moth fuzz. Purple-spored puffball mushrooms also pop up in his neck fluff (these are actually just normal edible mushrooms with no wild side effects).
-Arthropoda senses take priority, but will need some time to adjust to exceptionally bright light, and has a bit of the edge taken off his enhanced eyesight.
-Preference for particular living conditions (warm, humid), however Arthropoda resilience means he's hardier to "unsuitable" conditions.
-Can normally control the rot, however in instances where he's particularly stressed/strained, particularly emotionally, will tend to accidentally rot things he's touching.
-Healing abilities from some of the fungi he's growing. The two fuzzy mold strains and the "jelly drop" fungi specifically have healing effects, the former moreso for disease and the latter for physical injury.
-Deadly poison in the discoloured tips of the candlestick fungi crowning his head and appearing along his raptor claws and hips. Base part before the colour changes is safe.
-Psychoactive effects from the mycena roseoflava mushrooms growing on his wings. Will cause hallucinations on their own, when combined with his sleep powder it results in wild hallucinogenic dreams or nightmares. Whether it's a good or a bad time is ultimately up to Momo.
-Parasitic tendencies, including ability to mind control a host he has implanted enough of himself on. While he will generally do his best to resist this urge (and anything regarding player characters will only be done with permission), he can be quite controlling and may resort to this more easily in moments of stress/emergencies.
-High resistance to and ability to absorb arcane radiation without direct harm.
MENTAL CHANGES - ARTHROPODA
-Susceptibility to group energy, though his tends towards just becoming extremely active/in your face/bouncy rather than aggression.
-Trickery impulse builds on his natural cunning and tendency to find a way to come out on top of situations, making him even sharper at this when he wants to be.
-Dislike of dishonesty directed towards him. Whether he directly calls someone out on it or not will depend heavily on the situation, but He Will Remember That.
-Storytelling, performance and dance enjoyment leans into his tendencies towards these things already, mostly just making him more prone to break out into one of them randomly(...when he wouldn't have been doing that already).
MENTAL CHANGES - FUNGI
-Inclination towards keeping his surroundings messy (he already tends to do this when not with someone who cares more about it...)
-Likely not quite fully reaching considering others with his growths as extensions to himself, but definitely inclined to become more controlling of them and disregard their wishes, particularly for reasons of protection.
-Mycelium network, ability to communicate via the ground with those who can sense such things.
-More abstract sense of time and propensity to propagate himself when under threat.
FULL SHIFT ONLY
-The entire lower half of his face can split open in his full shift (seam is down the middle of his lower jaw). His mandibles are far larger in this form and his teeth become very sharp and narrow.
-Setae/scale areas on his limbs contain urticating hairs, his mantis claws also have exoskeleton "spikes" down the front in this form. His claws can grasp things to a limited degree, but he's more likely to grab things in his mandibles or use the smaller leg sections at the ends of his raptor claws for this sort of thing.
-While he has a lower degree of it in his Corruption, the highest end of his Arthropoda senses and resilience increase are only accessible when Shifted. Going by the Arthropoda page fluff, he also packs quite a disproportionate amount of strength for his size (his torso while Shifted is still pretty similar in size to a human torso, he just gains Considerably More Leg) in this form.
-Damage to exoskeleton plates in this form (requiring a hell of a lot of force to do) will reveal that there is in fact still human-ish skin and bone underneath those. Think of him as a spindlefied/mutated human with fused-on armour for simplicity of visual (the exoskeleton is still providing some support anatomically speaking, it's just not doing the whole job).
-Arthropoda x Fungi full shift has been gradually colonised by his various fungi with a Cordyceps/Ophiocordyceps-inspired bent (i.e. the bug body is mostly just being piloted by fungus by the end). His full shift remained as it was previously aside from gradual discolouration signifying the disruption to the underlying bug anatomy and replacement with fungal "anatomy" until sometime during October, when the fungi elements had grown enough that he started to struggle being able to shift without being in immense crushing pain, as they hadn't fully broken through yet. Next shift that happens ICly after the October horrors (currently looking to be an underground thread set in late October, but may change this around depending on how things go) will prompt the change over to the current design.
-Unless he is paying close attention, it is somewhat difficult to breathe near his full shifted Arthropoda x Fungi form due to spore saturation in the air, and similarly it's quite likely characters in close proximity to it for a little while will pick up at least some small fungal growths.
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