#askmorbus

I think the whole village kinda takes care of the cats. On paper they belong to Morbus, but in practice they belong to the community. She turns them loose during the day, so they're everywhere until nightfall when she brings them back indoors.

If this doesn't end in 100% Itchy, those pollsters are lying. XD

niittinaatti

I'm gonna go with Morbus, putting your crush's wife in a coma and trying to persuade him into having her euthanized is pretty hard to forgive

kid-az

Boy do I regret not picking Morbus after remembering just what happened in Love Poison….. Skel is an ass but atleast he wouldn’t do THAT!

aveture

Ah I forgot about morbus and the love poison. Can I change my answer to that?

kid-az asked:

No joke I actually really loved Morbus as a character until Love Potion. After that all I want is for her cats to leave her and be adopted by better people and her being unable to find a cure for her outwards appearance being (Half) as nasty as she is on the inside.

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These are all good points! I think in the name of fairness, we should have a break down of each candidate's most punch-worthy actions...

Itchy: "Allegedly" fucked a goat, burglarized homes, mugged people at knife-point, calls people slurs, assaulted an elderly person unprovoked, various peeping-tom behaviors, straight up murdered a dryad once, stole a horse from a soldier.

COUNTERPOINT: He has poor impulse control due to brain damage, some of these behaviors are not really his fault. Once he understands what he's done wrong, he usually feels bad and tries to make up for it. Usually. He's very capable of love and empathy for others, he just doesn't show it at the appropriate times.

Lukas: Murdered his own mother, is verbally and sometimes physically abusive to his crewmen, almost axe-murdered his best friend while drunk, victim-blamed a crewman who was sexually assaulted, tried to goad Zeffer into suicide and then hired an assassin to take him out when he refused.

COUNTERPOINT: Lukas acts the way he does due to immense trauma, and he's fully aware that his behavior is unacceptable. Recently in the series he has expressed remorse and taken steps to become a nicer, more empathetic person. He takes full responsibility for the pain he's caused others and doesn't make excuses for it. He is ashamed of his nasty behavior and is trying to understand why he acts the way he does, so that he doesn't keep repeating his mistakes.

Gwyneth: Cheats on, takes advantage of, and abuses her "husband" Brogan, extremely greedy and miserly, regularly insults people for no reason, flirts with married women and tries to break up marriages.

COUNTERPOINT: Gwyneth has endured the horrors of retail for decades. 'Nuff said. (Just kidding...In reality, she was kidnapped by slavers and quickly learned that the world is brutal and unforgiving, so she fears showing any sign of weakness or tenderness towards others. Bad experiences in her life have hardened her. She was probably aloof to begin with, but the experience of being kidnapped kind of "broke" her emotionally.)

Skel: Racist, misogynistic, classist, arguably transphobic, almost abandoned his crewman Jeimos in a hostile territory, verbally abusive to his crew and everyone around him, general asshole behavior.

COUNTERPOINT: Much of Skel's bigotry is hypocritical, and it's apparent by his contradictory thoughts and behaviors that he's quite mentally ill. His actions are much kinder than his words, and he performs these kind actions in secrecy, as if afraid to show any kind of "weakness" in front of others. Much of his hostile behavior is due to untreated mental problems.

Frederick: Literally stole candy from a baby, physically assaults people (including his own father) to get what he wants, acts arrogant and defiant, bullies others for fun.

COUNTERPOINT: Frederick is young and most of these behaviors are a result of bad parenting on his father's part. As he grew into his teens, Frederick started realizing this behavior wasn't getting him anywhere in life and promised to change. He has shown gradual positive changes ever since, though he does still slip back into his bullying ways from time to time.

Morbus: Neglected her son in favor of her career, abandoned her family, sold harmful drugs for decades, fetishizes and sexually harasses male satyrs, acts sexually aggressive towards Che, verbally abuses just about everyone, poisoned Philippa into a coma out of jealousy, forces her pets to live in her nasty hoard, generally snotty, selfish, and rude behavior.

COUNTERPOINT: I think it's obvious that Morbus is very, very mentally ill. This woman has been spiraling into Hell for over a century, completely untreated, and all the fumes from her alchemy career probably didn't help. I think some of her behavior is just due to her shitty upbringing, and she probably is a bit of a selfish bitch at her healthiest. But I also think her more extreme behaviors are the result of sickness and trauma that were left unchecked for way too long. To her credit--and this is a big deal imo--she does display some empathy and usually rights her wrongs eventually...granted, she'll reach the point of nearly killing someone before she does, but tends to shape up at the very last minute and save them from herself. She also apologizes for her actions once her conscience beats her over the head hard enough, showing that she's not a total psychopath. Morbus is undoubtedly a despicable individual, but it's hard to say how much of that behavior is really within her control. She gives the impression that she's been fighting a horde of personal demons all her life...and she's not winning.

With all that said, if you haven't voted yet, you still have 6 days to do so! ---> Poll Here <---

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

I'm actually reluctant to answer this because I haven't finalized this idea yet, but here's a rough concept I've been tossing around for a long time now:

Morbus did, in fact, have a son named Elwyn back in Mogdir Kingdom. But she was a neglectful mother, so her husband divorced her and took full custody of him. Morbus just considered this a burden off her back and never kept in contact with the child. She often forgets she had a child at all, because she paid so little attention to him that he practically didn't exist in her eyes.

But Elwyn's father was quite a successful man (I'm thinking he worked for Miliko, considering Morbus was one of Miliko's models until she got cursed) and he cared a lot about Elwyn's future, so he put himself into deep debt to send Elwyn to college at the World Athenaeum. He was banking on Elwyn to do well in school and strike it rich one day, so he could pull his father out of debt and make the family successful.

In college, Elwyn was not the best student. He spent a lot of time goofing around with friends instead of studying. One night he hooked up with a nice young elfenne named Linde. Little did he know, this hookup resulted in pregnancy. Linde was so ashamed of herself and so afraid of her parents' reaction, she secretly aborted the baby and ghosted Elwyn.

Elwyn doesn't understand why Linde disappeared from his life so suddenly, because they were good friends and he had fallen in love with her. He was going to ask her hand in marriage after they finished college, but she disappeared without a trace and he hasn't seen her since.

What will happen if they meet up in the future?

That's just a possible idea I've been considering. I need to sit down and carefully comb through the timeline + Morbus and Linde's lore to make sure everything makes sense before I commit to it, I've just been too lazy. But if it works, I think it could make a good setup for a future story.

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Questions/Comments?

Escenario mio:

—michi, hice un hechizo para hablar contigo!

—ah, que bueno. Ahora dame salmón maldita esclava, si me raptaste de la calle trátame bien

(Translated via Google Translator)

Since you told us about the dogs of this world, could you tell us about the cats of this world? My scenario: —Michi, I cast a spell to talk to you! —ah, that's good. Now give me salmon, damn slave, if you kidnapped me from the street, treat me well

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That's so cute! Elves are born with the power to understand animals, so I bet they have conversations like this a lot!

Unfortunately I don't have much info on domestic cat breeds yet. In the series Morbus has a lot of cats, but I think they're just random mixes of many breeds. You just know she has inane conversations with these cats all day long.

In "The Perfect Shot", it's revealed that the royal Fanaka family keeps ocelots (jungle cats) as pets, so they must be at least somewhat domesticated. We can count that as a breed.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Morbus' backstory was going to be explored in an upcoming story, but it got scrapped because I got stuck on the details. I'm glad you asked this question because it gives me an excuse to share some of that!

Morbus was born to very strict parents in Mogdir Kingdom. Her mother was especially critical of her, and her father forbade her from doing anything even remotely fun. She was expected to look perfect and behave properly at all times.

Her parents did not allow her to hang out with anyone they saw as "beneath" them. In Mogdiri culture, elves sit at the very top of the social hierarchy, while satyrs are near the bottom.

As you can imagine, this lifestyle was very stifling. Morbus became intrigued by satyrs in particular because of their "wild and free" way of life. They seemed to have exactly what she wanted: total freedom, no shame, and no worries. (Of course this was only Morbus' perception of satyrs and not reality, as she was not allowed to interact with them).

This fascination only grew stronger the more her parents pushed against it, and by adulthood it had become a full-blown sexual fetish. Morbus acts out her fetish in inappropriate ways because she's kind of uh...mentally unwell, to put it delicately.

She stifled her behavior so hard for so long, she eventually lost her marbles and decided she wasn't going to control her impulses anymore. At this point in her life she just does whatever she wants with little concern for consequences. This includes harassing every male satyr she sees, as they're the object of her weird obsession. And I do mean literal "object", because she does not view them as fully realized people like herself, just toys to be played with.

(She should probably be locked up, if you ask me...)

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

It's okay, Anon. Everyone hates Morbus. She is genuinely terrible lol.

And that's a good question! I understand the concern. Personally, I think he can consent to sex (as well as other things) but only in moments when he is lucid. Mr. Ocean's dementia symptoms aren't constant, they're something that flares up and down periodically. He still has plenty of lucid periods, and it's pretty obvious to other characters what state he's in when they interact with him.

Pressuring him into making decisions when he's in a confused state would be wrong. Mr. Roach did this to him frequently, and it's the reason he was able to get away with so much heinous crap behind Ocean's back.

Mr. Ocean's cognitive decline is caused mainly by brain cancer, which is typical for his species in old age. It's true that he was considered "mentally disabled" in his youth, but only because his tribe misunderstood his disability. Before the dementia, he actually had no cognitive problems at all. His disability was more social/neurological than mental, and in fact he was very intelligent in a cognitive sense. His family wasn't able to recognize his intelligence though, because they couldn't look past his strange social behaviors. They just assumed that because he didn't understand how to conform, he must not have understood anything.

There may come a day when he can't consent to things at all, but that time hasn't come to pass in the series yet. As of now, he can still be trusted to make wise decisions so long as he's in his normal, lucid state.

Honestly, I'm more concerned about Morbus' ability to consent and make good decisions...she's nuttier than hell and has shown that she can't really care for herself properly. She lives in filth, hoards animals, and maliciously causes harm to other people around her.

I think both her and Mr. Ocean would do a lot better in some kind of elder care facility, where they could be supervised full-time...unfortunately that's not really an option for them, so they rely on periodic help from their neighbors which, frankly, isn't adequate for either of them.

They suffer similar issues, those issues just present differently between them. I would say they're on about the same level of functioning, so if they were to consent to sex with anyone, Morbus and Ocean are at least on a "level playing field", so to speak.

That's just my opinion though, feel free to disagree! Different viewpoints are always welcome.

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Lore Masterpost

Fat anon here. How this funny little scenario sound. Morbus is pissed at Linde for saying her cloths are I’ll fitting and to get revenge she brews up a big FAT surprise for her. Creating an obesity potion and baking it into a pie, she wants to give it to Linde to see her bloat up into a big fat blimp to see who’s cloths are I’ll fitting then. Leaving at the fgg’s base while their away with a note to Linde saying it’s from a “secret admirer”, smiling to herself and walks away.

Little did she know that one of them would return early and not her target, Balthazar. He sees the pie and reads the note, wanting to save it for Linde but…. He decides that what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her and eats the whole thing, hiding the evidence. Going to bed that night he has a very upset stomach from the potion in the pie but sleeps it off. When he wakes up in the morning he and everyone else is shocked as Balthazar is now super skinny! The potion having the opposite effect since

He was already fat. What happens next and how does everyone react to Balthazar’s sudden weight loss?

First of all I want to say: this is absolutely in-character for Morbus. She WOULD be this petty lol. And it’s in-character for Linde too, she would be the first to tell Morbus she’s practically drowning in her robes. Not to be mean, but to help her out. She was probably nice about it too, like, “Oh Morbus, your robes are dragging on the ground! Let me tailor that for you before you trip, darling!”

And Morbus was all

So the thing about Balthazaar is, he may be fat, but he’s got hella muscles underneath the padding. Dude’s built like a retired quarterback. If the spell took away his fat but left his muscles, he’d be in really great shape and he’d be able to take harder contracts. Harder contracts = more money for him. However, he got fat by having depression and coping with it by eating, so I don’t think this body shape would last long. The underlying issue would still be there.

Now if the spell took his fat AND muscle and just left him super skinny, that would be a problem. He wouldn’t be fit to do his job anymore. He’d have to start binge eating and working out like crazy to get back to where he was. In this case, Morbus could really screw him over good.

I think the crew would realize it was a spell right away. They might initially point fingers at Mr. Ocean, but eventually figure out it was Morbus and take revenge for messing with their crewmen. At best, Evan would make her sit in Petty Bitch Jail until the spell wore off. At worst, he would banish her from Drifter’s Hollow altogether.

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