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Gross People; From a dream to your screen
Topic Started: Mar 2 2016, 05:15 PM (1,392 Views)
Myxini
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Vermiform

Based on this post by Mr Mysterio. Whilst the writing is mine, the crux is his; he sowed the seed, I merely pissed on it and saw what grew. As such, ideas expressed here beyond Mysterio's post are my own interpretations of his concept.


Großmann's Report Draft


Großmann Support Forum


Newspaper Article, 2002



Any criticism of the writing style is appreciated. I chose mainly formal texts here because of a lack of experience writing informally. I will be happy to answer any questions people have.
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Then I guess the particular form of Grossman Syndrome giving rise to those detached bodies from mythology must have added effects... Psychosis, sanguinivory, predisposition to detach head and (in some cases) GI tracts, etc.
Currently a part of Specworld's revival and The Dark Phoenix's Dinosaur Spec... Still open for idea exchanges and commentaries

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generation. Social experiment.

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Myxini
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Forum Thread, 2007


Newspaper Interview, 2011
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Velociraptor
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Are there any "cults" (not sure if this sort of thing would be a cult exactly) based around breeding with people with Grossmann condition in order to increase its prevalence in the population? I could see how lots of people would see the condition as a good thing and a "next step in human evolution" (because many people think of evolution as some sort of goal-oriented ladder).
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Myxini
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Some members of the Akephaloi think that selective breeding should be undertaken, and they all believe they are the next step in evolution- not necessarily evolution of mankind, but the evolution of the mind and soul. It's kind of odd, really, how a condition of the flesh makes them think that their spirit is the one that's improving.

Beyond that, there aren't really any cults. The community is too small for them to really have multiple cults, and most of the modern Großmann culture is in the western world, whilst the majority of people with the condition are in Asia.
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Myxini
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For anyone interested, these are some of the terms used in the western world to describe individuals with the condition:

Gross Men/Gross People: based on the English pronounciation of Großmann
Detached: The PC terminology (on par with disabled)
Separated
Frankensteins: A bit of an odd one, but one that is used by some people regardless
Rag Dolls
Dolls: Mostly used in a sexual sense
Puppets
Marionettes
Lindworms: based on the Lambton Worm
Akephaloi
Witches
Worms
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trex841
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Myxini
Mar 5 2016, 04:47 PM
Dolls: Mostly used in a sexual sense
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trex841
Feb 27 2016, 09:11 PM
Mr Mysterio
Feb 27 2016, 09:06 PM
Yeah, that was my only thought that made me hesitant to make anything with this world - the fact that it's the kind of thing that a lot of people on the internet who'd make porn out of it.
Honey, that's going to happen no matter what you make.

:D
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A comprehensive list of all organisms, artifacts, and alternative worlds encountered by the foundation team.

At the present time, concepts within are inconsistent and ever shifting.

(And this is just the spec related stuff)
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Mr Mysterio
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There are already creepy porn sites dedicated to fetishizing people with actual disabilities and such in the real world, so it'd make sense for that kind of thing to exist in this world.
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Crossover - A mish-mash of worlds, with Earth smack in the middle of the chaos. What could go wrong?

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Myxini
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So that people know, this concept is far from dead; I've just been incredibly busy this week, and had much less time to work on this and other spec projects than I initially thought I would have.

If anyone has any questions about the gross people (either for Mysterio or myself), feel free to ask and I'll focus my next post on those questions.
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LittleLazyLass
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Proud quilt in a bag

I love how you've handled this idea. With it being a medical condition, starting off with a paper, going into believable implications and opinions, having there be a forum. This is so intriguing and uncanny because it's made so believable.

What would Trump think of detached people if they existed, I wonder?
totally not British, b-baka!
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I don't even really like this song that much but the title is pretty relatable sometimes, I guess.
Me
What, you want me to tell you what these mean?
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Mr Mysterio
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LittleIslander
Mar 12 2016, 10:32 PM
I love how you've handled this idea. With it being a medical condition, starting off with a paper, going into believable implications and opinions, having there be a forum. This is so intriguing and uncanny because it's made so believable.

What would Donald Trump think of detached people if they existed, I wonder?
Probably the same way he thinks of other minorities. More specifically, he'd look at them the way he looks at disabled people - as things for him to judge and mock and laugh at. Put simply, he'd view them as gross.
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Coming Soon/To be Rebooted:

How To Hunt Gods - Everything you need to know about Gods and the art of God-killing.

Intrazoology - The world of semi-corporeal lifeforms. A world you walk through every day, without even knowing it.

The Dungeonverse - Magical creatures forced to adapt in huge, underground caverns, while surface-dwelling humans go dungeoneering for treasure.

Crossover - A mish-mash of worlds, with Earth smack in the middle of the chaos. What could go wrong?

no worries


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Myxini
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Still not another update here because I'm a piece of shit.

I do, however, bring COMICS! And Ideas (woot... maybe... please love me).

I've been looking into comics for inspiration, and found a couple of comics that may provide a few ideas.

The first of these is Chew, which is a comic based on a world where individuals have food based abilities. They all have variations on this- the protagonist can tell the past of whatever he eats, for example. Variations include being able to communicate through food, control people through food, get smarter through eating, and getting stronger by eating spinach. It incorporates these abilities as a normal aspect of the setting, and treats them in a way that would be interesting to emulate. I also like the individual variations on one concept, and feel that would be interesting with the Gross people. With the Gross People, it would likely be more down to preferences and training than initial skill though- for example, someone may have good control of their skin, whilst someone else uses their condition to aid in hand-to-hand combat. If anyone has any other suggestions for variations, throw them my way.

The second comic is The Strange Talent of Luther Strode, which focuses on a training manual that enables Mr Strode to basically learn that the body is the plaything of the mind. This is basically how the Akephaloi view themselves and organisms in general. It also enables users to see the flesh of other individuals, which makes for a great visual experience. I can't include a lot of images here because I don't want this thread getting blatantly gory, but needless to say that plays a massive part in it as well.

Then there's Terror Inc.. The eponymous character, Terror, is a mercenary with the power of body part substitution- he can detach his own body parts and replace them with those from other people, animals, aliens etc. I was thinking that one Gross person may be able to do something like this, but significantly more limited- the limbs would need to have the same blood type, for example. I'm likely thinking this because I have a natural liking for power parasites and the like. It would make for a pretty interesting individual, to say the least.

Finally there is Animal Man. I won't spoil the arc, but there are certain motifs that involve multiple body parts working in ways they probably shouldn't, as well as someone who is basically just a living circulatory and nervous system. I feel like if something like this occured due to the condition, it would really stretch what it means to be a human being. I know that it's a cliche question to ask, but it's one that I feel would need to be asked. If a person can modify their body to the extent that they look like something more suited to Lovecraft's eldritch rejects and survive the ordeal, can they still be considered human enough to embrace into our community and be treated as our own? Even if they could be, should they be?
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trex841
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I just love messing around with superpowers! :D It may take some time jumping, but it would be cool to see what limits these powers have, and people experimenting and pushing their power further and further.
F.I.N.D.R Field Incident Logs
A comprehensive list of all organisms, artifacts, and alternative worlds encountered by the foundation team.

At the present time, concepts within are inconsistent and ever shifting.

(And this is just the spec related stuff)
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Myxini
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trex841
Mar 13 2016, 06:06 PM
I just love messing around with superpowers! :D It may take some time jumping, but it would be cool to see what limits these powers have, and people experimenting and pushing their power further and further.
I imagine that a lot of variation will have occured over time. If the forum hypothesis is correct and the condition has been around from anywhere between the 1300s to the 8th century (based on our knowledge of the formation of Bali mythology, which includes the Leyak and Rangda), so variation will be present. This variation would likely appear in our mythology, but not anywhere beyond that. Current variation would be rather limited due to a lack of people knowingly with the condition, and also due to our current mentality on how the condition would be treated. For example, you don't see people who cannot feel pain learning to be superheroes.

For the sake of a story, I imagine extreme variation would have to be caused by an event, or by an individual experimenting on themselves/individuals with the condition.

I just had a thought as to what historical figures could be interpreted as having the condition. Immediately my mind went to Rasputin for some reason, though this may not make sense given the geographic distribution of the condition.
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Mr Mysterio
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Personally, if we're talking "human" as in the deep, more meaningful way, as opposed to just the scientific definition, I believe that if your mind still works in a more-or-less human way, then you're still human, even if your physical form is totally alien-looking.
But even there, one could get some totally wacky stuff. If, say, a small percentage (very small) of Gross People have the ability to incorporate the parts of other living things in/onto their bodies, then could they do so with brains? Kill a person, take their brain (or select lobes from their brain), just attach it to themselves and wire it up to their own nervous system. Not necessarily the most sustainable use of one's abilities, and definitely not the most sane, and also around where I would stop thinking of them as human.
EDIT: You could get around the geographical location problem by implying that the condition was actually more widespread than previously believed. The fact that most of the things you've written take place in the not-too-distant past means you can easily retcon things by saying that the new information is a new discovery.
Also kind of jealous of whoever wrote Chew. That's my kind of superhero universe, and I'm mad that I wasn't the one to come up with it first.
Edited by Mr Mysterio, Mar 13 2016, 06:42 PM.
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Coming Soon/To be Rebooted:

How To Hunt Gods - Everything you need to know about Gods and the art of God-killing.

Intrazoology - The world of semi-corporeal lifeforms. A world you walk through every day, without even knowing it.

The Dungeonverse - Magical creatures forced to adapt in huge, underground caverns, while surface-dwelling humans go dungeoneering for treasure.

Crossover - A mish-mash of worlds, with Earth smack in the middle of the chaos. What could go wrong?

no worries


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Myxini
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Mr Mysterio
Mar 13 2016, 06:37 PM
Personally, if we're talking "human" as in the deep, more meaningful way, as opposed to just the scientific definition, I believe that if your mind still works in a more-or-less human way, then you're still human, even if your physical form is totally alien-looking.
But even there, one could get some totally wacky stuff. If, say, a small percentage (very small) of Gross People have the ability to incorporate the parts of other living things in/onto their bodies, then could they do so with brains? Kill a person, take their brain (or select lobes from their brain), just attach it to themselves and wire it up to their own nervous system. Not necessarily the most sustainable use of one's abilities, and definitely not the most sane, and also around where I would stop thinking of them as human.
I agree with you there, but I feel that people on a large scale wouldn't be as sympathetic: some people can't get over another person having different skin colour, yet alone where our limbs are attached or how many eyes our palms have.

In regards to the brain situation, I imagine it would theoretically work, though I'd hate to think how that would even begin to affect their psyche. Plus, I imagine that there would be a time limit on how long the organ can be not exposed to blood before it dies, and the brain would likely have a very short timeframe before it becomes dead meat. More likely uses of the ability would be for organ transplants and surgery, whilst more creative ones would include things like replacing your hands with someone else's and commiting atrocious crimes. Bonus points if the hands belonged to another Gross person and you can give them their hands back, leading to them being made primary suspect whilst you walk away with no blood on your hands.
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