Poison Mushroom Cookie - Blog Posts

Long post ahead!

So, this is something I haven't really seen anyone discuss or mention hardly anywhere, at all. It's mentioned a singular time, in the Terra Incognita: Adventurer’s Guide to Beast-Yeast, but even there, the only information provided on it is a paragraph of splash text that is more descriptive storytelling than informative research. 

It's the Candyceps fungus. 

The text accompanying an image of a Candyceps-infected deer reads: “A sleepy silver deer rests its head on the moss… unaware that the Candyceps fungus lies hidden amid it. When the deer wakes at dawn, it will take a completely different appearance… This deer belongs to the Candyceps now. The Candyceps has full control.” (Terra Incognita: Adventurer’s Guide to Beast-Yeast, pp. 20)

(Whether Candyceps came about by evolving from the real-world Cordyceps or by evolving independently of it is entirely up for debate.)

So, not much to go by. The wiki has expanded on the Candyceps fungus a bit, but only in comparison to its likely real-world inspiration, fungi in the Ophiocordyceps genus- most likely Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, to be specific. Colloquially known as just Cordyceps, the real-world fungus is parasitic in nature and is able to take control of a host’s body, the hosts most typically being ants in the case of Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, but some other species in the Ophiocordyceps genus are able to infect other species of insects such as cockroaches, beetles, flies, bees, termites, butterflies, and mantises.

That's… a wide variety of insects. Insects that we see a distinct lack of in the Cookie Run universe, specifically Kingdom. (I'm uneducated on the other games in the franchise, though, so I will really only be referencing the events and content from Kingdom.) In the Cookie Run universe, there are only a handful of appearances from or references to insects as a whole. In fact, there's a distinct lack of arthropods in general. There's a spider here and there, such as the Webbed Spider Queen we see in episode 3 of Beast-Yeast’s world exploration. There's also the beetles we see in The Lost Golden City (which are extremely worrying for other reasons, but that's a different discussion), as well as the mantis we see in the Terra Incognita art book. Both the beetles and mantis, however, have pretty much no information provided for them on the wiki, and very little in the game itself. 

Circle back to Candyceps, which, given its real-world inspiration, one could understandably assume would only infect ants or insects in general. But, that's not the case. The one and only infected host we have ever seen is a silver deer, not any of the few insects that are ever mentioned in the Cookie Run universe. 

This raises a lot of questions. Why are there so few insects? How has Candyceps infected a deer and not an insect? Is Candyceps able to infect more than just deer? 

Let's focus on one thing at a time. 

For starters: why are there so few insects? Honestly, I couldn't tell you; I don't know. Where there are so many iterations of all kinds of flora and fauna in the Cookie Run universe, for some reason, there is a distinct lack of insects. Now, one could propose that the Faerie Cookies are insects, but that's not a verifiable statement due to how little we know of the Faerie Cookies, as well as Cookie biology, in general. In the same way centaurs can't be classified as insects just for having six limbs, Faerie Cookies can't be classified as insects just for having insect-like wings. So, Faerie Cookies aren't insects with the information we have available to us currently. 

(Tangent)

(That begs the question of what in the world a Cookie can be taxonomically classified as. Given that they are magical beings, possessing sentience and some form of digestive and nervous systems despite lacking internal organs, a taxonomic classification of Cookies may be a moot point because those magical properties are not something anyone could take into account. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to presume that they can at least be classified under the kingdom Fungi, due to Yeast Spores (which appear to serve as a stand-in for eukaryotic cells in the Cookie Run universe, according to the wiki) being “the smallest unit of Cookie life”.)

(This means that everything except for whatever the Cookie Run universe equivalent is of the real-world prokaryotic kingdoms bacteria and archaea contains Yeast Spores. By real-world standards, that means the Yeast Spores are the smallest unit of not only all Cookie life, but also the life of all in-universe animals, fungi, plants, and whatever’s inspired by the species in the kingdom Protista. (Science nerds you are welcome to explain to me what's going on with protists because I literally have no clue about all that.) So, by real-world standards, all in-universe Cookies, animals, fungi, plants, and protists could be classified under a whole new eukaryotic kingdom of their own. (The taxonomy of this hypothetical new kingdom is also a different discussion.))

(For now though, I'm just going to say that since Yeast Spores are yeast, and yeast is taxonomically classified under the kingdom Fungi, everything that contains Yeast Spores is a fungus.)

Anyway, I don't know why there are so few insects in the Cookie Run universe; there's pretty much no information that I've been able to find on that. Next question: how has Candyceps infected a deer and not an insect? There could be a few reasons, all of which can't be verified. It could be because insects were never viable hosts for Candyceps due to them not being abundant enough, or because insects were no longer viable hosts due to them becoming nearly extinct, or some other reason. Regardless of the reason, the Candyceps fungus is observed to have infected a silver deer. 

This means it evolved in order to infect a host species other than insects either because the original host species (insects) became endangered, or because deer are just the host species it evolved to infect regardless of the conservation status of insects. If the former is true, it has terrifying implications. 

If Candyceps eventually runs out of deer to infect because they become endangered just as the insects had, what would it evolve to infect next? Other fauna of the Faeriewood? Maybe, but what if those species also become scarce eventually? Candyceps is a fungus, and as we've observed in CR:K, a fungus has already successfully infected and taken control of more than just a deer. 

Poison Mushroom Cookie; what are they? Were they once a different Cookie who has since been overtaken by a parasitic fungus? Were they originally a fungus that gained sentience? Were they baked like that? Unfortunately, their origin is unknown. In the case of them being a Cookie piloted by a fungus, that shows that a fungus has already managed to evolve to infect Cookies, which means that it's not out of the realm of possibility that Candyceps might evolve to someday do the same. The case of them being a sentient fungus is worrying as well, as it shows that in-universe fungi have the capability to become sentient beings, which, what if Candyceps does the same? Them just being baked like that is fine, but it also seems like a missed opportunity for some insane lore, which is something I don't think the dev team could resist. 

In either case, even though Poison Mushroom Cookie and Candyceps are different fungi, the implications of both their existences is cause for concern, and I don't really see anyone talking about it at all. I desperately need to know if anyone has any thoughts on this because if there's ever a canon zombie apocalypse arc I will scream.

Do you ever wonder if running is worth the speed? Is the pounding in your heart worth it in the long run? Because at this point, I don’t know either.

“Licorice!” a small voice cried. I turned back to see my friend, Licorice Cookie being helped up by his little brother Poison Mushroom Cookie. “Come on, Lico! You can’t die here!”

“Not planning on it, Mush! I’ll let all the jam in me spill rather than go back!” There was no arguing with the cloaked cookie. Running from Dark Enchantress was our only mission for survival. If anything, we either escape or we’ll be executed.

The two brothers, once allied with Dark Enchantress Cookie, were escaping alongside me, Red Velvet Cookie? Cake? Cookie Cake? I have an identity issue with that. Once a general of Cake Hounds and Wolves, now I flee for my life from my adoptive mother, who, right now, is fed up with failure and decided to execute us three for incompetence and uselessness. She claimed we did nothing to help her cause and deemed us worthy of death. Mother of the Year.

Either way, Licorice, the older of the two, was aptly named, for even if his locs of dark licorice strands wasn’t obvious, he carries the spicy smell of his tribal people from the Northern shore wherever he went due to the high amounts of it present in his dough. He was experienced in some forms of magic I had only heard about from meetings. He bore his usual dark cloak and necklace of skull beads while carrying his weapon of choice, a scythe made of bone? I never knew what it was. Most of the time, he’s nicknamed Lico.

Poison Mushroom Cookie was the same. A toxic mushroom was implanted into his dough, giving him a natural defense should anyone dare eat him. He would smell or taste like a cortinarius mushroom, sweet but deadly. Luckily, his power is to throw mushrooms that make someone experience hallucinations. Not that he is immune though. He has them himself at times. In our rush to escape, he wore his tiny purple robes and his favorite purple cap with violet polka dots on it. His nickname is Mush.

“Red, move! MOVE!” Contrary to his boney appearance, Lico shoved me hard and fast as we heard the baying of Cakewolves.

My beloved Cakewolves, the ones I have raised from puppyhood, had turned on me and were now seeking my jam. I couldn’t believe it when I saw them suddenly bark and snarl at me like I was an intruder. In fear, I ran with some still loyal Cakehounds in my wake, forcing me to leave my sword behind. Which was probably for the better since I don’t want to hurt them.

Licorice slung his scythe over his back and scooped up Mush as we ran from those ever so close howls. I could feel my heart pounding to deliver more energy to the cells in my muscles. Even so, I was not as fast people would think. The Tower of Sweet Chaos was one singular place. The Berry forests, however, were not. I could traverse them, yes, but not when I was already weak from hunger and scared for my life.

“We have to find those other Cookies!” I yelled to the brothers over the howls. “It’s our only chance for survival! The wolves will keep hunting for us if we stay in the open- Whoa!”

Out of nowhere, a cliff opened up over the sea at the edge of the forest. Luckily, Lico, my still loyal cakenines and I stopped before we tumbled and became soggy cookie dough corpses. Lico held his little brother close to his robes as we inspected the drop. 2,000 feet. We’ll die on impact.

Mush whimpered and clung tighter to his brother. Licorice and I panted heavily as we tossed some ideas.

“Should I summon some servants or that black thing from the Cacao Kingdom?”

“Too risky. Should I become my dragon form?’

“Do you even have control over that thing?!”

“Well, I don’t have any other ideas!”

My dogs whimpered as the howls grew closer. The puppies jumped into my arms and I hid them in the multiple pockets of my jacket. I couldn’t think of anything other than surrendering and praying for the best or jumping and risk trusting my dragon form.

Suddenly, a flash of blood red light appeared out of nowhere and a roar like that of a lion was heard. I’m pretty sure even the far northern Cacao Kingdom heard it.

“Dragon?” I cautiously asked Licorice.

“Do it,” was the reply.

I sigh and breathe out all the air in my cookie lungs. The adult cakehounds scrambled behind Lico’s robes and bit them nervously. I focused on picturing myself as the Red Velvet Dragon, a creature most assume was a creation of mine, a child I made out of the same baking materials as I was made. However, that wasn’t it. Dark Enchantress cast a spell on me that let me become the dragon. And I needed it now to ironically escape her tyranny.

Pain exploded around my body, letting me know it worked. My right arm became more vicious and cruel, my left becoming a mirror of it soon enough. My body expanded, changing from a small tiny cookie to a dragon the size of a witch’s cat. In other words, big. To better describe it, imagine a dragon. Now paint it white and red like a red velvet cake, with red sprinkles on the white. Red spikes on my spine that run from my head to tail, jutting out of the white cream. All while smelling like freshly baked red velvet cake with vanilla creme with cocoa chocolate in my dough. Again, the size of a real cat.

I shook my head and roared as loud as I could, unfortunately, not as loud as my soon-to-be opponent, but I accidentally gave away our position. Some General I am.

I lowered myself so the brothers and remaining hounds could climb onto my spine. I was so very unlucky to be brightly colored like my namesake cake/cookie. White and red weren’t stealthy on a full moon clear night! 

Licorice tried digging his heels into my scales to make me fly as if I was a horse to make me go.”Fly, you buffoon, FLY!!!” 

As if that worked. I was still woozy from transforming on an empty stomach and running beforehand. Actually, transforming in general, whether I ate or not (same with exercise), was disorienting enough for a multitude of too many reasons. I was so exhausted. I just wanted to lay down and nap in either form. But then again, luxuries were rarer than blue moons in my life. I didn’t get them often to recognize them in their glory.

My wings were slow to unfurl. As they reached their full length (the length of a casual open book that a witch would own), the earth began to shudder at a sudden, steady rate. They’re closing in on us! I flapped my wings to get momentum, tired, but determined to escape this mess. I peek over the cliff…

… And jumped over it. Just doing it was enough to make me glide away from the coming Cake Witch, away from the betrayal of my dogs, away from my sadistic sister who tortured others for fun, away from my dead emo brother who took his own life, away from the ancient tower, away, away, AWAY!!! I couldn’t take anymore drama!

The scent of the sea was torture, salt and fish in one massive cauldron of water. Seriously, how can one cookie control all of this?! I was disgusted, even when I tried to focus on the wind flowing around me as I flew.

Flying! Not too often I did this form and even after so many years, flying was always a wonderful experience! Wind, which would often tangle my long dark hair, would now part for me and allow me to forget what made me so scared of others. Just the feeling of freedom through the smooth currents of wind made me feel weightless and liberated from expectations.

The roars behind us faded away to white noise the farther away I flew. If I could talk like a cookie in my dragon form, I would have screamed “Sayanora, jerks!”

Luckily, Licorice did that for me with an extra fist shaking. I let out a chuckle, which sounded like a throaty growl due to my current form. My loyal cakenines growled and snarled behind me, howling at their former members of their pack, shaming them for what they did. Even Mush threw a shroomie, though it fell way short of its mark into the moonlit mess of sea. The message was still sent though. I could only imagine the anger painted on Dark Enchantress Cookie’s face watching this.

I don’t regret my actions. I don’t regret leaving. I don’t regret anything.

my new sketch

my old art. it was interesting to redraw the old idea after a yea

He’s probably complaining about how Pomegranate owned his behind when they played Super Smash Brothers.

I refuse to believe they're part of evil sometimes