#groundbreakers

Since @bogleech‘s Halloween Bestiary stuff is based on decoration-based archetypes, I figured I might as well elaborate my case for why Groundbreakers are also a monster archetype in their own right.

Because while, yes, they are technically mostly representing zombies crawling out of the ground, there’s enough “evolved forms” of them with enough common features I think that they might be something more.

These advanced forms usually have bioluminescence to start with, usually in the eyes but also; as shown above; it can increase to full-body manifestations.

The next general evolution of such tends to have hair, with even evidence of transitory forms as shown in pics 3 and 4, as shown in the most notable/emblematic form of such; Marcus The Carcass and his imitators.

Then, as we get lower, we get more and more outre in the creature forms these Groundbreakers emulate; from pumpkins to monster clowns; to even the Gillman of all things, which could be an aberrant linneage or; as my theory would have it; the next evolution in such.

There’s even a very common smaller form of such in these “witch arms” which could either be a series of larval bodies, or indeed the ultimate form of Groundbreaker, one massive being with millions of arms.

And, while I have been unable to get pictures, these witch arms even have glittery-furred forms that I have seen in the 99 cents only store, further cementing some sort of biological linneage with the Groundbreaker archetype.

Kazue Togasaki - ground-breaking Japanese American OB/GYN (June 29, 1897 – December 15, 1992)

In 1933 Kazue Togasaki graduated from medical school, becoming one of the first two women of Japanese ancestry to earn a medical degree in the United States.

She was born in San Francisco to parents who very active in the Japanese American community. During the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake she helped her mother set up a makeshift hospital to care for the injured. And she was often asked to accompany other Japanese American women when they visited the doctor to help translate for them.

So it's no surprise she was interested in science and medicine when she was older. First she earned a BS in Zoology from Stanford in 1920 before earning her RN and working as a nurse. But that wasn't enough for her. She wanted to be a doctor, and enrolled at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. She graduated in 1933 and, after her residency, opened her own OB/GYN practice in San Francisco.

During World War II, like most other Japanese American citizens, Kazue was sent to an internment camp. Her medical training was put to use at the first camp she arrived at, Tanforan, where she helped set up the hospital and instruct other doctors in childbirth procedures. In her one month there, she delivered 50 babies in the camp. Over the course of the war, she was moved around to different camps, providing medical services at each.

(Photo: Dr. Kazue Togasaki administering vaccines to women arriving at the Manzanar internment camp, Manzanar, California.)