VN Ren'Py ToxiCity [v0.12.0] [ILSProductions]

[Sinisterpastry]

It's hard to say if it's a gender thing or not, the regular burned ones are too mutated to really tell if they were men or women before the change. While the witches we've seen (and unless they are changing clothes offscreen, we've seen at least two different ones) are obviously female, if it were just a sex thing, you'd expect there to be way more of them. I'd guess it has something to do with natural compatibility with whatever is in the fog, where those who are incompatible become a regular old burned one, and those who are more compatible become more advanced types, one of which it the witch.

As for people turning without a burned one, and where the first ones came from, I'd assume that enough exposure to the fog will eventually turn someone more slowly, and different people have different levels of natural resistance to it, or at least to the part of it that transforms you. The acid component probably affects everyone about the same. Does it also get a grip on you mentally with enough exposure? It's starting to seem that way.

As for the witches, it seems they're like infiltration units who are there to hunt down people hiding out inside buildings and get them to let them in, at which point they drive them mad and eventually either get them to leave, or maybe build up enough of the fog in them that they transform. Given what the crazy guy was saying about MC smelling like "her pussy", he's been fucking a witch, and I'm going to guess that's what sent him over the deep end and had him kill his friends.

At this point, I guess I'm leaning toward a supernatural origin for all this, but I guess we'll see how that shakes out. The timing and location for this still seems very convenient for a deliberate test, and if it weren't done on purpose, I'd expect to have seen military/national guard in hazmat suits sweeping through. But maybe it's both.

 

[Anteron]

Not to mention testing something like that within a populated area at all, let alone a city, would be VERY frowned upon - not to mention it would be considered a chemical weapon (banned by international treaties.)
Maybe the witches are like vampires - ie they can't enter a dwelling unless invited inside?

 

[danb35]

I guess I'm leaning toward a supernatural origin for all this

I'm thinking it has to be. Granting that I'm not by profession a scientist or medical professional of any sort (though I work with a lot of the latter), I still can't think of a substance, or even a category of substance, that would behave as we've seen. Something corrosive would be the natural place to start, and that would cover the skin burns, the respiratory distress, and the engine damage for the SUV they took (and any other vehicle whose engine was running with this stuff). I don't think it would account for disabling parked cars, and it seems it would harm the exterior of any vehicles (or just about anything else--probably not glass, but just about any other substance) too, which we haven't seen. It also doesn't really explain the BOs that well--yes, it covers what's happened to their skin, but not what's happened to their minds. Nor, really, the fact that they're still (kind of) alive (maybe they're rapidly dying off, but people keep turning? Seems that would run out pretty quickly if so). It also doesn't explain the effects on communications--why is cell service out? Wired Internet? Phone? TV?

Nuclear? Sure, that'll kill the hell out of you. Wouldn't have a lot of affect on a car's engine, though (certainly not in a matter of minutes). Nor would staying inside help you. And I doubt you'd experience the kind of symptoms our cast have seen immediately on exposure. EMP would definitely affect communications, but it'd also disable your own devices--your cell phone just wouldn't work any more (nor your computer, etc.).

Biological? Kind of the same thoughts as nuclear, except that staying inside would be much more beneficial, and of course EMP isn't a concern there.

So yeah, I'm leaning toward something supernatural, as I don't think there's a good scientific explanation for it--though we might just need to chalk that up "it's just a game, I should really just relax." And secret government weapons test (or even "accidental government weapons leak") is fair if we hand-wave the science. Either would of course be highly illegal, but could otherwise be possible.

Further favoring a supernatural explanation is how long it's stuck around--it's been over three weeks now. An accidental spill could easily contaminate an area for much longer than that, but the fog/mist persisting? If it's a deliberate, but secret, test, pretty ballsy to keep it going on for that long.

What we do know--or at least can reasonably infer based on the fragments we've seen of TV broadcasts--is that the effects are, as yet, limited to a relatively confined area (how big that area is, we have no idea, but it's small enough that we can receive broadcast TV from outside it, when the conditions are just right). The people on the outside know about it, and they're being told something about it (though what they're being told may or may not be true).

 

[Anteron]

Alien weapon and/or experiment?

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

It's hard to say if it's a gender thing or not, the regular burned ones are too mutated to really tell if they were men or women before the change. While the witches we've seen (and unless they are changing clothes offscreen, we've seen at least two different ones) are obviously female, if it were just a sex thing, you'd expect there to be way more of them. I'd guess it has something to do with natural compatibility with whatever is in the fog, where those who are incompatible become a regular old burned one, and those who are more compatible become more advanced types, one of which it the witch.

As for people turning without a burned one, and where the first ones came from, I'd assume that enough exposure to the fog will eventually turn someone more slowly, and different people have different levels of natural resistance to it, or at least to the part of it that transforms you. The acid component probably affects everyone about the same. Does it also get a grip on you mentally with enough exposure? It's starting to seem that way.

As for the witches, it seems they're like infiltration units who are there to hunt down people hiding out inside buildings and get them to let them in, at which point they drive them mad and eventually either get them to leave, or maybe build up enough of the fog in them that they transform. Given what the crazy guy was saying about MC smelling like "her pussy", he's been fucking a witch, and I'm going to guess that's what sent him over the deep end and had him kill his friends.

At this point, I guess I'm leaning toward a supernatural origin for all this, but I guess we'll see how that shakes out. The timing and location for this still seems very convenient for a deliberate test, and if it weren't done on purpose, I'd expect to have seen military/national guard in hazmat suits sweeping through. But maybe it's both.

On the gender idea, I'd say a couple of things. First, I don't know that we would see a lot more witches at this point. I'm not saying there wouldn't be any, but the group hasn't been all that many places. They've been, more or less, in the same parking lot / business area (their office, the furniture store, the clothing store, the insurance place, and the Burger Joint); and then they've been on campus. So far, the behavior of the witches that we've seen has been to come at night (and possibly also only with thicker fog; still unsure on that idea). If Witches are indeed nocturnal, it would explain why nearly everything seen so far has been Burned Ones: the group has avoided doing anything at night for the most part. The only time they've been outside intentionally at night was at the office when the MC went to try to find the "person in trouble" who turned out to be a Burned One, and then Laura warning the MC and getting him back inside. Macy's scrawling on the chalkboard doesn't reveal anything in this regard, only that she'd seen one... at whatever time of day that was.

Witches luring people reminds me of the series From, but it's pretty much a similar thing to what IRL predators do (like the snake with a tail that looks like a spider, luring birds too close to get bitten and consumed). I think it's fair to assume they only mean bad things and will lure whomever they can to their own demises. Most likely, there's nothing positive for the characters about the Witches.

I think saying the guy was banging a Witch is a little bit of a stretch. It's possible, but I don't know that the evidence is strong enough to fairly make that connection. If you chose to see what's in the room where the blood led, you can see what looks like once was a girl, now torn apart. Personally, I'd be more inclined to think this dude was one of the guys who left without Shelley, who later forced himself on Bree and eventually broke mentally and did even worse things to her. After that, I think he may have kept banging Bree's corpse, headless or not. Saying he smelled like "her pussy" could easily have been him comparing a now-decaying vagina (and everything else) of the girl with the fog that lingers, which I think they already have said smells foul, from strong mustard to similar to sulfur (which ofc smells rotten).

 

[danb35]

Alien weapon and/or experiment?

I'd consider that "close enough" to supernatural, for all practical purposes.

sulfur

Sulfuric acid is of course fairly common and highly corrosive, so if we discount the supernatural, it would explain at least some of what we're seeing.

I'd be very skeptical of anything the guy said, if for no other reason than that he was obviously batshit insane. Presuming what we saw in the room was his handiwork (and I need some eye bleach after that), he was cracked enough that I wouldn't trust him to tell up from down. Moreover, with as quickly as everything happened, I wouldn't expect he could tell that MC smelled like any pussy, much less any particular pussy.

 

[Anteron]

It's possible the MC DID smell like pussy given he's banging 3 different women. The guy wasn't sane enough to tell whose it was, which would normally be difficult for a normal person...

 

[PaxHadrian17]

I'm thinking it has to be. Granting that I'm not by profession a scientist or medical professional of any sort (though I work with a lot of the latter), I still can't think of a substance, or even a category of substance, that would behave as we've seen. Something corrosive would be the natural place to start, and that would cover the skin burns, the respiratory distress, and the engine damage for the SUV they took (and any other vehicle whose engine was running with this stuff). I don't think it would account for disabling parked cars, and it seems it would harm the exterior of any vehicles (or just about anything else--probably not glass, but just about any other substance) too, which we haven't seen. It also doesn't really explain the BOs that well--yes, it covers what's happened to their skin, but not what's happened to their minds. Nor, really, the fact that they're still (kind of) alive (maybe they're rapidly dying off, but people keep turning? Seems that would run out pretty quickly if so). It also doesn't explain the effects on communications--why is cell service out? Wired Internet? Phone? TV?

Nuclear? Sure, that'll kill the hell out of you. Wouldn't have a lot of affect on a car's engine, though (certainly not in a matter of minutes). Nor would staying inside help you. And I doubt you'd experience the kind of symptoms our cast have seen immediately on exposure. EMP would definitely affect communications, but it'd also disable your own devices--your cell phone just wouldn't work any more (nor your computer, etc.).

Biological? Kind of the same thoughts as nuclear, except that staying inside would be much more beneficial, and of course EMP isn't a concern there.

So yeah, I'm leaning toward something supernatural, as I don't think there's a good scientific explanation for it--though we might just need to chalk that up "it's just a game, I should really just relax." And secret government weapons test (or even "accidental government weapons leak") is fair if we hand-wave the science. Either would of course be highly illegal, but could otherwise be possible.

Further favoring a supernatural explanation is how long it's stuck around--it's been over three weeks now. An accidental spill could easily contaminate an area for much longer than that, but the fog/mist persisting? If it's a deliberate, but secret, test, pretty ballsy to keep it going on for that long.

What we do know--or at least can reasonably infer based on the fragments we've seen of TV broadcasts--is that the effects are, as yet, limited to a relatively confined area (how big that area is, we have no idea, but it's small enough that we can receive broadcast TV from outside it, when the conditions are just right). The people on the outside know about it, and they're being told something about it (though what they're being told may or may not be true).

I think we got an early easter egg - this from day 1:



Take a look at the story on the TV...

An archaeological find (and potential site) disturbed by urban development.

Could the fog and the appearance of burned ones/witches be the result of some kind of supernatural response to disturbing this site?

Why not add in a potential trap, like deadly mold spores/fungus that lay dormant until they find a warm, moist place to reproduce - like human lungs.

A toxic fungus was one of the causes of mysterious deaths when some Egyptian tombs were opened.

So perhaps we have a mix of the supernatural and a natural trap/toxin.

We may never know the full story of what happened to cause this disaster, but I don't think the story on the TV was just random.

Cheers!!

 

[Maviarab]

We may never know the full story of what happened to cause this disaster

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[-CookieMonster666-]

I think we got an early easter egg - this from day 1:

View attachment 5302747

Take a look at the story on the TV...

An archaeological find (and potential site) disturbed by urban development.

Could the fog and the appearance of burned ones/witches be the result of some kind of supernatural response to disturbing this site?

Why not add in a potential trap, like deadly mold spores/fungus that lay dormant until they find a warm, moist place to reproduce - like human lungs.

A toxic fungus was one of the causes of mysterious deaths when some Egyptian tombs were opened.

So perhaps we have a mix of the supernatural and a natural trap/toxin.

We may never know the full story of what happened to cause this disaster, but I don't think the story on the TV was just random.

Cheers!!

"Archaeological Find Raises Questions Amid Development". That could always just be a developing news story, but it also could be someone trying to create housing, like you suggest. It could be spores or something like you've said, for sure. It could also be something more along the lines of The Relic, where they found something like an old artifact that is cursed. The housing in the camera shot would definitely seem to suggest your idea of urban development. So I guess if it's supposed to be more "scientific" in nature (i.e., science fiction), the mold would make more sense. If it's supposed to be mythological in nature, I'd lean toward the idea of a cursed object. But since we don't know which this is supposed to be, I think each is equally viable as a theory.

 

[ImSenjou]

When I saw the Witch, I remembered the alien from the movie "The Thing", in this movie, the alien takes on a human appearance, but at first it is imperfect (just like the witch), later in the movie it becomes practically impossible to visually identify who the alien is, and they use the method of burning blood (Burned Ones?) to make the alien reveal its true form.

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

When I saw the Witch, I remembered the alien from the movie "The Thing", in this movie, the alien takes on a human appearance, but at first it is imperfect (just like the witch), later in the movie it becomes practically impossible to visually identify who the alien is, and they use the method of burning blood (Burned Ones?) to make the alien reveal its true form.
View attachment 5303116

That's not exactly an accurate summation of the film. Just because the thing didn't have enough time to complete the transformation doesn't mean it was "imperfect". To humans it was already, for example, a perfect imitation of a dog. As soon as it has the chance to complete its imitation, it is a perfect doppelganger. It would be more accurate to say "incomplete" instead of "imperfect"; what was completed in the process was even said by Blair to be an exact replica (of organs, for example), meaning they were perfect.

I feel like your comparison (burning blood vs. Burned Ones) is tenuous, to be honest. If we're saying they are rough equivalences, then the scientists at the outpost ran the hot-needle-on-blood test within maybe the first 30–40 minutes of the film, which would've left a substantial amount of time of uncertainty before they tried to do much of anything about it. But it was the reverse: they had a large time of uncertainty in the first ⅔ of the film, after which things like the needle test happened.

You're also comparing the Thing (that tries to hide itself and tracks its victims to kill them in secret) with creatures that shamble about seemingly aimlessly, and which attack even if other unchanged humans are around as well. Very different killing patterns. You could compare imitation with the ambush technique, yes, but the Burned Ones seem to ignore people far too often for them really to be compared with the Thing anything more than superficially. Plus, the Thing always completely transformed into a human when given the chance, whereas we have little-to-no evidence that the Burned Ones become anything else if given enough time. There is nothing in the story so far to support that theory, other than that Witches do exist. That's not nearly enough to establish that line of reasoning.

 

[Meabe37]

It's Spooky Season again! Usually for October, we like to dress our characters up in costumes, but this time around, we present some more horrifying images. We'd be remiss not to give you a full view of the haunting Witch from TOXICity. The second wallpaper, featuring John's vision of a dead Shelley is a bit of an homage to all those horror movie posters where the main female character is covered in blood (Carrie, Suspiria, The Descent).

 

[-CookieMonster666-]

View attachment 5311967
View attachment 5311968

Wait for it. At least someone will start asking if sex with the Witch is possible.

 

[Meabe37]

Wait for it. At least someone will start asking if sex with the Witch is possible.

Is it?

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[Meiri]

View attachment 5311967
View attachment 5311968

I would.

 

[Klab040855]

View attachment 5311967
View attachment 5311968

would

 

[Raziel_8]

Wait for it. At least someone will start asking if sex with the Witch is possible.

Isn't it nice that the dev already said no

 

[SmittyJones]

I think we got an early easter egg - this from day 1:

That's a real good spot. I don't always play these games full screen, I missed that completely.

 

[Antherak]

An archaeological find (and potential site) disturbed by urban development.

Something ive learned after reading tons of Stepehn King novels over the years is that you dont build on top of a native burial ground.