Developer's Notes (Patreon)

01/29/2022

Fire & Water, Wind & Stone By these elements combined...we summon!! Nothing.

Fire. Fire is the first creation, it's the thing we used to warm ourselves, cook our food, and light our paths. We used it for guidance, we used it for destruction. Sometimes it even destroyed us with but a simple spark.

Fire in the Growing Pandemic is an Environmental Hazard. Both Infected and Uninfected react to it differently. Uninfected, obviously use it for whatever purpose they might need it for... and are also quite vulnerable to it.

But lets be honest here, you're all here for the infected, and need a weapon against them...

...and boy, is fire quite a useful one. 

Despite the highly regenerative nature of infected, they are in fact very vulnerable to fire, a consequence of a decentralized nervous system. When they get burned, they feel it, boy do they feel it. So their primal gut reaction is always to flee. There is no exception to this. 

In the past, I've commented that fire is possibly the only way to kill an infected, which wasn't entirely true. Infected can recover from exposure to fire, all living things can. But full immolation can kill anything too. An infected cannot survive the heat of a thousand suns brought to the surface of the planet (a nuclear weapon), let alone incinerator. They take longer to recover from burns than any other type of wound.

However, beware. Some infected become elementally activated after continued exposure to something like fire. We'll call it Acclimation, and we all known when an infected starts breathing fire, we're fucked.

Water. Did you know more than 70% of this planet has this stuff on it? Most creatures on this planet also contain at least 50% of the stuff.   Worst of all...we need it to live.

Hydration is a necessity for the uninfected, and dehydration is a their worst enemy. Dirty water can make them ill, contaminated water can infect them, and that's not to include the weather. Rain, flooding, snow, blizzards, streams, rivers, swamps, lakes, and seas. These are all Environmental Hazards.

But how does it help or hinder the Infected? Is water... a weapon?

The simple answer is... Yes, actually. But not in the way you think.

Infected are probably made up of more water than most Uninfected, but they are way better at retaining it, mostly because they need a lot of fluid for maintaining their enormous forms and producing the volume of cum they produce. They are also highly efficient at absorbing moisture in their environment, as most infected don't really need to stop for a drink (unless they want to). They are also so willing to share amongst each other with the exchange of fluids, that they almost never run dry.

This obviously presents an opportunity for uninfected. Infected obviously don't particular like dry environments like deserts (they love dessert though) and cold tundra-like locations. But... neither do uninfected. So other than acting as a safe zone against the majority of the infected horde, what does that mean in terms of weaponizing water.

Well, Infected freeze quite easily, it doesn't kill them, but certainly makes them very immobile. Some infected are very ineffective in certain conditions. Musk Infected for example need a lot of moisture in the air to disperse their musk, but if it's raining, or they're drenched, it's pretty much a wash. Certain flood infected can easily get washed away and dispersed with enough running water.  

It is also an effective barrier, because most infected aren't going to swim across the sea, yet.

But here we come again to water Acclimation. Some infected are innately acclimated towards water, ie. see Raider. Some species of uninfected retain their affinity towards water as well. (Otters, Orcas, Beavers, etc.) But what does it mean to be acclimated to water? 

Well... it means that instead of retaining what you have, you also find it, you store it, you horde it. So, places like the arid desert suddenly aren't so off-limits. It means you store elements inside of you to make it so the water doesn't freeze, often salts or solubles. It's mutating and adapting so a creature normally not home in the water, is suddenly quite well suited. Beware next time you're out on a boat thinking your safe. Something may grab you from below.

Wind. Wind only exists because our planet has an atmosphere to allow it. It drives our weather patterns. It's the air that we breath the wind which fills our lungs. Until it comes back out as a scream, and the adrenaline induced panting of uninfected running as they try to scurry away from the infected.  

Wind, or air, is a strange sort of Environmental Hazard, and most often it truly is a wild card.  

But what is so special about air when it comes to Infected?  

Out of force of habit most infected will appear to be breathing, but after a certain point of becoming infected, most don't actually use their lungs for anything other than glorified "air sacs".   

As with water, they can absorb the gases they need through other, more efficient means.  

Some of you may be calling foul, or unfair, at this point.  

"I need lungs to breath! I get tired and out of breath!, and these fuckers get to go on endlessly?!"  

...and sadly the answer is yes, infected are built to wear down uninfected. In fact the infected have many different ways of taking advantage of our atmosphere to spread the contagion, ie see Musk & Ent with their musk and pollen.  

So how is air a tool that can be used against the infected? Well the answer should be obvious.   

Wind is wild.   

While most of the time it is predictable you get high speed wind events that can culminate into things like Tornados, and Hurricanes. These things can act as much as a barrier to infected as they are to uninfected.  

Environments without air, or vacuums, are extremely detrimental to Infected, they almost immediately stop functioning, enter stasis, and go comatose. They are also not well suited to absorbing the gasses dissolved in water, they can but it's very inefficient and uses more energy.  

So what of Acclimation? Wind acclimated infected are blustery fellows. All I should have to say is those air sacs become more useful. Some infected even learn to float and fly. Beware the sky friends, there is danger on the wind.

Stone. Stone has always been the hardest thing to crack on this planet. But everything we've talked about prior transforms it, erodes it.   

We fleshy creatures have stone in the form of bones, and when we rot in death we erode to dust.  

The land itself bars us from the wonders (and riches) that are beneath us, the movement of tectonic plates that cause mountains to form and create natural barriers that have to be traversed, increasing distance between places.  

This Environmental Hazard, also has some of the most treacherous events associated with it. When the land moves earthquakes strike, tsunami's rise, lava flows, volcanoes erupt, land slides, and even dust is gathered into storms.   

This is all of the natural world, but what of what we created? Roads and Highways create paths to traverse those distances, cities are concrete jungles in which we build our homes from glass (crystallized sand), stone, and treated wood.   

Any structure's collapse can create just as many localized hazards, and detriment to life, as any of the natural events listed above.  

So all things considered how is a rock a weapon against the infected?   

Stone itself isn't necessarily a weapon, it's a shield. It's what's necessary to slow the infected down.   

Considering that most infected have the strength to just lift a boulder out of the way, crash through concrete walls unscathed, and survive falls that would maim or kill an normal individual, gravity be damned, what good is a barrier?   

There is something else, and it's not always the stone itself, but oftentimes what's in it.  

Metals.  

Metal is harder to "crush" and far heavier too. But in the broader scheme of things metal is just creating more time. So what else is there?

Stone also contain things in it that are harmful to life. Crystallized compounds that form Poisons & Toxins, including Radioactive and Heavy metals. These things are just as harmful to infected they are to uninfected.   

These chemical compounds are often times reactive in the presence of an abundance of water, which infected have a lot of.  So these powdered chemicals can completely discourage an infected from further pursuit of an uninfected.  

So, should we worry about stone Acclimation? Yes, very much yes.  I want you to imagine for a moment... an infected that can use radiation to infect. Or how about producing venom that can render you unable to move? Incorporating metals into their bodies to become entirely immune to ANY barrier, a literal wrecking ball. Stone Acclimation is dangerous, and we can only hope one doesn't find a means to manipulate a force of earth we take for granted. Gravity.