#tree of atrophy

[kateeorg]

Something I don't get about Ashton

SPOILERS up to C3 Ep 74

Okay, so... according to the Tree of Atrophy, Ashton was always meant to be born, Efterin was always meant to do the ritual that turned him into an Earth Genasi/Titan of Blood and destroy the rest of the cult.

Yes? Yes.

Except...

Imogen and FCG have been in Ashton's head. The part infused with dunamis. And they saw other timelines where Ashton remained an Aasimar.

Meaning, the whole Titan of Blood destiny thing is not quite so absolute.

So, who's wrong here? The Tree or the Luxon? Or did I miss something?

[noelanik-art]

Ashton’s moment with The Great Tree of Atrophy has been living rent free in my mind since Thursday, so I leaned into it.

[rnainframe]

other doodles

[ariadne-mouse]

"this is atrophy" I SEE YOU TALIESIN JAFFE

[gorgynei]

THIS EPISODE IS SHOCK AFTER SHOCK IM HAVING SO MUCH FUCKING FUN

[vvitchllng]

Sorry I know everyone’s anxious about this but oh I am in Love with the Ashton/Eftarin parallels right now Especially after the conversations this episode about Legacy

[rachandroll]

I wanted them to ask the tree more questions about themselvesssss weeeeh

especially laudnaaaaa

lets go back to the cool treeeeeeeee

[annemarieyeretzian]

well the tree of atrophy is obviously the tree of names

[tumblasha]

every once in a while i play devil’s advocate and go to a “learn how to use gen ai” zoom training for work. today the zoom host starts by asking chatgpt about the weather in a major city… maybe next time!

[pyrotechnicdarts]

MA THE DMS CREATING HORRORS AGAIN

[owls-burrow]

the shattered teeth The Shattered Teeth THE SHATTERED TEETH!!!!

[rnainframe]

various thangs

[thaltro]

Was there an in-between point of passive! Nightmare’s normal face and Atrophy’s…yknow…. Like, how Atrophy eyeball??

(I’ve been thinking too hard about how Nightwatch versions of crossmare errormare or killer mare shipkids would look like because the design style for is au is just too interesting not to, but there’s the issue of how the hell to project how alien Atrophy looks onto a ship kid. Like, with how cross’ scar is longer and across his face maybe nightwatch incubux would have a row of the “teeth” (from the inside of Atrophy’s pupil) protruding out from across his face. Or a nightwatch tenpatch would have the inside of their left eye have the same design as Atrophy’s face hole.)

Here’s the transition between passive and corruption for atrophy.

Also some of his common faces at the bottom but that’s extra unrelated art

Now Atrophy has no bones or ecto or anything he originally should have. He is just goo, very acidic toxic goo. So if he were to have a baby then that child would probably be incredibly chronically disabled because the goo would eat the organic parts of the child. Atrophy naturally is supposed to present more mold and fleshy like, he just over 700 years now has the resources and practice to shape his body perfect to how he wants it. But a baby wouldn’t so they would look like a uh,, body horror baby. Random sets of teeth in random facial holes and large cysts of painful acid. Small plant like mold growths on their face like whiskers.

An ugly baby most likely. If that baby grew up it would be interesting to see how it looks and develops it’s form.

More realistically Atrophy would kill it as he doesn’t like ugly things, or put it in a little jar in a display case.

Now for shipping

Yk i actually did not write nightwatch with ships in mind believe it or not (with some exceptions). So it was, surprising to say the least when a lot of people talk about ships and nightwatch in my asks. Out of the three ships you mentioned only one is possible? Errormare, but even then Atrophy doesn’t like poor people and they virtually don’t interact. Killer is a slave to Atrophy and Atrophy would rather eat another tree then touch him. and Cross is very much dead (or so how I originally wrote him, but it seems like alot of people want to see cross in nightwatch so uh I’ll consider his life,, I’ll probably bring him back so I guess he’s alive?)

But also in nightwatch, babies are sometimes made through divine intervention. So I guess if creators wanted to fuck with them they would bless the world of nightwatch with a mold baby. Which again atrophy would kill or jar.

Sorry if my reply is a downer, I do enjoy your ideas for design! I think atrophy’s children of they were somehow alive and survived the jar and atrophy- would be a good opportunity for crazy designs like scar teeth (great idea). If they did carry on atrophy’s scar then I think it would be a good metaphor for generational trauma as that scar is just symbolic of his trauma. Idk there’s many interesting ways you can take that and I’m happy you’re thinking about nightwatch.

I do encourage waiting for the comic before shipping because,,,, well there’s a lot of graphic abuse and torture between a lot of characters who are commonly shipped together in the utmv fandom (not just killermare but more). No need to feel bad about this though, I’m not upset and there is no way for you to know that!

Please keep thinking of nightwatcg it makes me happy and I can’t shut up.

[toaarcan]

I feel like Braius' contact from Asmodeus kinda closes the book on whether letting Predathos out is a good idea or not.

The other gods might run. If they do, Predathos will follow. That's what the Tree of Atrophy said, that's what the Arch Heart says, it's what Ashton and Dorian want, and the others are questioning.

Asmodeus intends to stay.

And he was a big question mark before. The idea has been suggested that, in letting Predathos out, and forcing the gods to flee, Asmodeus would be getting what he wanted: His family back, and mortals abandoned. Surely, the Betrayers would happily abandon Exandria with the rest of the family.

Except no. It looks like his hatred for mortals is stronger than his love for his family, which... well, we kinda guessed that after Calamity and Downfall. He's going to hide away in his Hell, and when Predathos has chased everyone else away, with no Gate to protect the world from them, he will be the only one left, safe to emerge as the one true god of Exandria.

Fairly obviously, that's really, really bad.

[followthebluebell]

Any advice on how to find local and reputable cat breeders? Websites? Keywords? Things to look out for?

I'd start at a cat show, tbh. It's a good way to meet people in the community, meet their cats personally, and really just talk to them. Cat breeders love to talk about their animals, so you'll learn a lot.

But this is pretty unrealistic for a lot of people. :/ That's a lot of travel time, possibly time off of work, not to mention it's fucking exhausting. So let's be a bit more realistic.

You want to figure out what breeds you're interested in first and learn as much as possible about them. You want to know what health problems they've got, if there are tests for said health problems, and what you're potentially getting into.

Once you've sorted out your breeds of choice, make your way over to TICA's website. Just being listed here isn't a guarantee of a good breeder or anything; it's just a list of breeders who SUPPOSEDLY follow TICA's guidelines. Not all of them do; it's not like anyone actually checks on these things.

And this is why you've really got to research your breed beforehand: you want to be able to ask the breeder, "Hey, I know sphynxes have heart problems; do you do frequent scans for HCM and can I see the results?" or "progressive retinal atrophy can be a problem in bengals; do you do genetic tests for it and can I see the results?" or "maine coons can get hip dysplasia; do you have any OFA scores I can see for your cats?" Just whatever the health problem in your breed is, don't be afraid to ask about it and ask for scans, tests, etc. You want to be able to personally see them.

A good breeder will be able to provide tests and scans and be more than happy to let you take a look at them.

Ideally, you'd be able to meet the cats in their home. At the very least, meeting the mother is a good sign. You might not meet the sire, because a lot of breeders do not want to keep their tomcats on site due to the smell, conflict, and lack of space for multiple cats. Or they may have used artificial insemination. I don't think that's particularly common in cats (at least compared to dogs), but it's a thing that happens.

Red flags:

Insists you feed a particular type of food (raw, Paw Tree, etc)

Tells you to avoid vaccines/deworming (your new kitten should have AT LEAST 2 FVRCP vaccines by 14 weeks old and a deworming)

Refuses to do tests or refuses to show you the results

Won't show you a pedigree

Says their cats are immune to FIP

Offers to sell you an unaltered kitten (especially in the US)

Selling kittens too young (8 weeks is absolute MINIMUM legally; I'd prefer to see kittens with their mothers until they are 14-15 weeks). Some bad breeders will try to use the line 'the mother is rejecting the kittens' or 'they're already using litter and eating solid food'.

Pressure to buy immediately

Not allowing you to interact with the kitten

Not showing the cats in shows

Too many litters in a single year or has kittens always available -- it's a sure sign that they're mass producing cats

Breeding multiple breeds -- typically, a breeder will be very focused on just one or two breeds.

[mrs-understoods-blog]

For people writing paralyzed Charles, here's some research I have done on living with spinal paralysis:

(disclaimer, this is all from research, and I may have gotten things wrong)

So from reading, paralysis is painful, even total spinal separation (which, from the movies, he likely didn't have entirely for two reasons 1) we see him move his legs very minimally (could just be actor error but still) 2) he moved his legs a bit before the bullet was removed, leading to the idea that Erik actually paralyzed him, meaning that it's quite possible the bullet didn't go further into the spine).

Even total spinal cord separation often allows sensations of pain in the legs, just not responsive to touch. This pain is phantom/nerve pain caused by nerve misfires. Nerve pain is usually a burning/sharp and specific pain (think hitting your funny bone x1000).

Because you're unable to move your legs entirely, in the morning, people often experience intensely painful muscle spasms and are dependent on muscle relaxers to prevent the spasming/shaking in the legs. This is from disrupted nerve signals and can be worsened by lack of bloodflow or movement. Because of this sometimes people with paralysis will try to move their legs around manually with their arms to prevent the spasms.

Because of these spasms, people with these injuries often strap their legs into their chair. This strapping in also prevents the legs from falling out of the chair/leg holds, which can be dangerous if there is no response to touch.

Charles had a very low spinal injury, most likely somewhere in the L4-L5 vertebral. The nervous system is like an upside-down tree, it branches out but does not go up, so anything above the sight of the wound is left unaffected, meaning Charles would likely have full range of motion of his entire abdomen.

Due to the location of the injury he would likely be able to use the bathroom on his own, but would do it with something called 'bladder training'. He could likely still feel body signals to use the restroom (not present with higher injuries).

Many people with this kind of injury will cover their legs with a blanket or wear baggy clothes for two reasons. firstly, aforementioned muscle spasms (they are NO JOKE), but also because muscle atrophy will occur due to lack of use and may lead to an 'uneven' appearance of the body.

There are also mental health issues that often come from these injuries. The permanence and lack of independence is a huge piece, and people often struggle with depression and lack of identity after injury. It's also not uncommon to struggle with opioid addiction due to the severe pain.

Paralysis lowers the body's immune system and causes a depletion of 'reserves' so to speak. Those with these injuries are much more prone to illness or infection because their body is already under stress. It doesn't actually lower the immune system like HIV would, but the stress on the body puts them at more risk.

Some good sources to learn more:

This video shows a man demonstrating how he gets out of bed in the morning with a healed lower spinal injury, and gives great reference for what spasms look like. His whole channel is super educational

This video shows how to get from the floor into a wheel chair. Again, fantastic youtube channel, good reference for writing wheelchair transfers.

These memoirs are all fantastic and real life accounts of what it is like to live with these injuries.

Now go on and write disabled Charles, armed with knowledge <3