MyccoHaccers: Prep for NaNoWriMo 2022

Initial Worldbuilding (outdated)

Protagonist: Aneurin T-043* (Aneurin - Welsh name meaning 'honor')

- T refers to the section of the mall; 043 refers to the store in which their family rents sleeping space.

- * refers to their status as a minor

Antagonist: Lu Victor

- Lu designed the biodome that became The Mall. Lu intended it to be a safe haven for what remained of humanity when it was clear the climate wouldn't right itself. They intended for everyone to be welcome and equally cared for. However, the powers that be who were working with them turned out to be just as treacherous as ever; they were ousted from power, and the whole thing was taken in this hideous capitalistic direction.

- Lu comes from dreams I had a kid; Victor comes from Victor Gruen, the man who invented the shopping mall and was horrified by what venture capitalists turned it into.

- Lu's body is literally trapped deep in the mall infrastructure; they were pushed out to die, but just happened to come in contact with the mycelium. They merged before Lu died, and Lu is now a very powerful being; They are still essentially a corpse, however, and most likely there's no viable way to save them. so while they can use their powers to travel all around the mall and do all sorts of amazing things, in reality, they are stuck in a living death; whenever they are too distracted and their consciousness returns to fully inhabit their body - the experience is agonizing; it takes time for Celilia to calm them and draw them out again.

Celilia : the collective consciousness of the fungal entities that were there when the apocalypse happened; they were aware that humans were responsible for what was going on, though they did not have a way to truly understand what these beings were doing. When the dying body of Lu came into contact with some of the slime mold sent to explore this evil place, Mycelium acted quickly and merged Lu into the fungal network; it took time to break through the trauma of living death, and eventually Mycelium and Lu were able to work out plans together to take this place down. Mycelium has found Lu invaluable for understanding the human world, and does their best to be supportive in all aspects.

The Mycelial Network: A collection of various fungi and the living/non-living entities forged when various humans scraped from the edges of society agreed to merge with the network. These are very colorful people, flitting around in hyper neon streaks of color, and taking on an intense variety of forms at will. While this network has been forged by Celilia and Lu, the two are so old now that many of the younger ones barely know who those two are. Instead, they all spend time visiting the forgotten places to scoop up those near death, and they keep watch over the marginalized - always on the lookout for someone who needs to be brought in to their mutual aid group.

Because they are able to shapeshift and their colors blend in with the neon signs, some of the Mall residents do notice them - but Mall Management heavily propagandizes against anything that seems out of place. There are no cracks in the walls, there are no strange moving shadows, and there are no ethereal beings scaling the walls at Lights Out.

Mall Management - Leaders of the biome in which the story takes place

Assistant Managers - The Mall's version of the police; a group of people who exchange meting out brutality at a moment's notice for privileges and being treated with honor

Food Court Judge - Mr. Authority (real name - e), one of the mythical few Custodial Corps servicemembers who served the full 30 years. He is everything one could want in an old soldier. And he has an unwavering commitment to fairness. - no perks for him that no one else gets; but the things he is willing to do are very harsh, and he has no empathy for people for whom this is too much; further, because food shortages are such a problem, he has plenty of justice to dispense as those on the margins do what they need to survive.