#mold mannnn

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imagine being one of miranda's experiments with the cadou who is 'blessed' to be wholly connected to the mold and mold-infected in a hivemind sort of way. You are a prophet / spy for miranda who is sent to observe and make notes of the winter's household for her whole bodysnatching plan.

unfortantly for her, you've become enamored with lil baby rose with your remaining scraps of humanity. She stares at you with awe and curiosity, rather then fear like most children would likely react. She reached for one of your taloned hands and all you can do is surrender it to the bundle of pink in her crib at the side of her parent's bed, gently curling you fingers closer to your palm to avoid nicking her. meanwhile ethan winters is watching with sleep paralysis, unable to move any thing but his eyes as he watches the shadows play with his baby.

the connection to all beings infected with mold has the unintended effect of causing paralysis when you stare point blank at an infected. with ethan being 'oops all mold' and you having multiple eyes, it was bound to happen.

So like ethan has to just deal with the like nearly every night watching what he assumes is a sleep paralysis demon spawned from dulvey, but in reality its just you being bad at your job and hiding. of course he can't really tell mia about it since she's,,, ya'know a lil sensitive to mentions of trauma related to that and wants to just forget about it. He could tell chris but thats probably not going to help, so he just watches each night. the terror that originally came with the shadow gradually dissipated as he saw how gentle, slow, and soft you were was with rose. never causing her harm. most of your eyes simply gaze at rose and you're always amazed at how she's not affected by you. is she not infected like miranda thought, you wonder.

one night you only glance at a sleeping rose before making your way over to the bed, watching ethan as he watches you. his eyes as wide as his body allows, while all of your eyes look at him taking in every detail. he fascinated you, a man who risked everything just to save his wife. you don't know the full details but you understand enough. you wonder if you had that type of determination when you were still fully human, you've forgotten. you reach one of your arms towards ethan, curious to know what the mold that inhabits his body will tell you, maybe tell you his story. your hand drifts to his chest, the mold quite likes to be in the central cavity. as one of your fingers finally brush against his sleep shirt and start to lightly press into this body you are shown everything. everything about him, everything he has experienced, everything. it shocks you straight to your cadou and you rip your hand away. you quickly sink into the shadows and don't appear again for like a week.

i imagine that because ethan is mold man (haha) that trying to 'read' the mold would be like an overload of so much since it's a effectively mold replicating a real person to such a high detail the copy doesn't even recognize its a copy. (thats how that happened right? i never really 100% understood what happened to ethan because all of my context comes from cutscenes and i promise im going to actually play the games). anyways-

basically it takes you a week to actually process all of that information and also you're downright terrified at some of the memories you got to see. what do you mean this man casually could tank hits and just reattach limbs?! you try and tell miranda maybe her plan isn't the greatest idea if you all wanted to continue existent considering what you saw but she brushes you off and remains focused on reviving her child. you shake your head at that, you're her prophet, shouldn't she listen to you?

you eventually go back and decide to actually observe during the day, while a little harder with lack of shadows to hide in you manage. you watch both ethan and mia go through their days, mainly watching how they play with rose. You've forgotten most things from before becoming a monster but a little part of you jumps in joy watching the sweet interactions, maybe you wanted something like this when you were 'alive'. One day you find yourself in their living room while they both nap on the couch with rose, your presence so very unfitting in such a warm and homely area. You look at all their little things before making your way to the baby dressed in her pink onesie, she's on the floor playing with her toys, both plush and plastic. you carefully pick up a monkey plush which is small in comparison of your hand before dangling it in front of the child.

You look up from the cooing baby to see ethan once again watching you, his body entirely frozen from your gaze. he's not sure how to feel about the fact it seems his sleep paralysis demon has come back, and this time it's during a simple nap. he also doesn't know how to feel about the fact he feels, relieved that you haven't disappeared entirely. you decide that rose must be getting tired with how her limbs slow down and she's getting quieter and the floor isn't suited for that. you curl your clawed hands around the small girl before walking over to her father and gently set her down on his chest, careful of your claws. when pulling back your hands, your claws manage to catch and tear a small hole in ethan's shirt. you entirely pull your hands to yourself before speaking into the silence. "have a nice rest, ethan winters."

his eyes widen before drifting into sleep.

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