working on my wc oc universe. lowkey zombifying ts oh noooo... gracestar........ awww.... skill issue... Essentially, evil fungus blocks any sort of signal that allows for a cat's soul to be registered as dead, thus keeping StarClan from taking them in (because they are still "alive") which means that their soul is either lost completely, becomes a ghost, or in gracestar's case, (and any other leader that dies while infected, other demographics have not yet been infected and thus information is limited) is unable to be completely healed but also not able to be damaged enough to die fully. For a little bit of elaboration on that, Gracestar has nine lives because he's ThunderClan's leader. When he loses a life, StarClan doesn't receive the message that he isn't alive, which means they can't heal him all the way but they can't take him in either. They can heal him /somewhat/ because the fungus is controlled by a sentient being that has plans for its hosts that require them to stay alive, so the fungus allows for a small signal to StarClan that indicates a need for maintaining life. Without full healing, though, infected cats are weakened and become vulnerable to the fungus' other effects, which include skin lesions, bruises, and thinning of the skin and flesh, effectively shedding the host of their physical protective barriers that keep their insides in. They begin to essentially rot. In order to counter their rotting, medicine cats are developing ways to keep organs and flesh intact, which are so far limited to sewing patches of animals' pelts onto the cats'. It's working so far, as non-cat matter is almost completely unaffected by the fungus. Hopestar, ironically, believes that infected cats cannot be saved. Growthstar intends to go with whatever Hopestar says. Scarcestar has locked himself in his den and won't eat; he thinks it'll kill him. He's not wrong, but starvation won't do him well, either. Rushstar wants to find a cure urgently and keep infected cats alive until then. Gracestar is a zombie so he doesn't have an opinion. still a wip,,
