. TOXIPHOBIA LORE DUMP pt. 1(?) .

Instructions

helloo i didnt feel like doing too much art, moreso writing so heres loose concept art with a crap ton of texts yippee (ehh ill probably add more art later who knows) miiinor spoilers for steven universe and ATLA... these two shows have small concepts that are relevant to what i talk about trust now, normally, id start from the beginning and work my way through, but thats boring, so here we are at whats basically the climax of the story ^_^ TW: mention of organs, bones, blood, torture, etc. ------- 1. malcolm's death the 5th investigation, held in the abandoned HOSF building, is where mandi and the source of XEM-13's outbreak are being held. during this investigation, the realization is that mandi is even more calculated than both malcolm and marissa thought, which is accentuated by the weapon she uses: a cyber-pressed sword, capable of cutting through any inorganic materials like paper. (as for slicing through organic material, while very efficient as well, it isnt exactly clean. cyber press technology uses industrialization material that can be unhealthy and is very hard to smoothen, so it latches onto material with inconsistency in texture). mandi doesnt mind this; all she cares about is power) this investigation, though successful in that dozens of terabytes of information about XEM-13 (and the person behind it) is recovered from lost/broken files, immediately fails when mandi kills malcolm. as shown in #1, the blade cuts though a part of his heart, the right side of his ribcage, and his right elbow, severing his forearm and causing severe bleeding. if this gives you an idea of how much his mom wanted him dead. this served as a major distraction from claiming the most important file (the chemical creation of XEM-13 + how it interacts on a chemical level with certain aspects of the human + animal body). marissa, of course, ditched the file to get malcolm back to the r0om, but not long after, malcolm wakes up and realizes that the file wasn't claimed because marissa chose to save him instead, makes him feel like a burden. moreso than he already did which, of course, leads to massive mental turmoil. 2. hospital (the 'r0om) + 'XEM.BETA' the room where malcolm had to stay to heal.. (#3) some of the XEM-13 that had mixed with malcolm's blood when he was killed caused a few mutations in XEM-13, which led to XEM.BETA; a much less detected and a MUCH more powerful form of XEM-13 that not only feeds off of organic material like the original, but manipulates the the brain so as to cause irrational fear/ anger. it also, because it derived from XEM-13, has a form of 'sentience'- not really having a brain or anything like that, but... think about it like how the gem shards from steven universe work. forever looking for its 'other parts' to become whole again. except XEM-13 didnt always devour the whole body, and it would get mixed up anyway, so it will never truly have its 'other part' again. not until it reaches the soul core. right before malcolm is 'recovered' (as in 'gets his prosthetic and figures out how it works'), XEM.BETA finds its way into his blood and begins to rot, infecting malcolm and causing him to lose control of what little sanity he had left. he leaves the r0om in shambles when marissa returns from the research hunt she (begrudgingly) did that day. 3. mandi, the soul core, and why marissa is a problem the sentience and 'searching for the other part' i mentioned in , as i was writing it, begged the question of "how does mandi control malcolm", because, while not having full control, she can have malcolm fetch more energy for the corrupted soul core that she uses to control the XEM-13 outbreak. even though the problem should technically be 'over', according to mandi's logic- using XEM-13 in the first place being her way to find and kill malcolm- marissa still serves as a huge problem because a. she wants malcolm alive, b. she wants to save the city, and c. she has files that mandi wants. all of these cause marissa to be just as much of a target, if not more than malcolm was. anyway. i imagine that the 'soul core' is what holds the other part that XEM.BETA is looking for (once it gets its other part, it will be at peace & disappear- something marissa hasnt discovered yet, but mandi knows. marissa finding out would be a problem because she knows the most people and has done the most research about XEM-13 and XEM.BETA); mandi also uses malcolm as a way to protect the soul core because, with how much XEM.BETA has an effect on him, hes even more powerful than her. also, another gruelling note- XEM.BETA's inability to 'eat' inorganic matter, combined with its ability to cause irrational pain, leads to malcolm feeling the pain of his skin and veins being eaten, yet he cannot turn away because at the time theres no known cure. he knows he can't do anything, hes powerless to try, so all he can do is drown in oceans of pain and sadness. in other words, literal torture.