Mushrot
Located just outside the backrooms, Mushrot is a universe that can be incredibly difficult to get to. If you’re destined to end up there, you will. If you’re not, you won’t. Trying to get there yourself can be impossible.
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It’s heavily based on weirdcore/ dreamcore type aesthetics, so it may seem incredibly odd. Both comforting, yet unsettling. Familiar, yet illogical. The skies and clouds might be an unnatural color. The stars in the night sky are colorful, like glitter or confetti. There might be an abnormally large number of rainbows in the sky. Civilians are very obviously inhuman, yet oddly familiar. Think of your typical object-head character, any brightly colored anthropomorphic animal, biblically accurate angels, clowns, shadow people, and most anything in between.
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There’s plenty of old abandoned churches, signs reading things like “he is risen” and “hell is real,” there’s schools, playgrounds, grocery stores, restaurants, even doctor’s offices. Mushrot has all of the functions of an ordinary place, but it’s very weird. For example, some places might be weirdly outdated- a McDonald’s that looks straight from the 80’s, places that are actually shut down in our dimension, diners that look right from the 50’s.
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Some people aren’t allowed to enroll in the schools, whereas some are. No one knows how they decide this. Not even most of the school staff. They’ll send a request to a mysterious higher up and get their response- either, “yes, enroll their child in this school,” or, “no, deny them.”
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The schools are intentionally confusing and impossible to follow. The students are allowed to nap, draw, read, etc. as long as they don’t disrupt the teacher. They’ll graduate as long as they pay attention in the one class that matters- how to navigate and survive the backrooms. Aside from that, it really doesn’t matter.
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Some people in Mushrot were originally from our dimension, whereas others were born and raised in Mushrot. Because humans do live there, things like homophobia, transphobia, racism, ableism, etc. do exist in Mushrot, but trust me, you won’t have people backing you up on that. Bigotry is a known concept, but people in Mushrot are smarter and more accepting and tolerant than the people of our dimension.
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There’s no jail, but if you do something bad, a more powerful Mushrot native (or Mushrian) might cause you to feel severe pain for their chosen amount of time, brutally end your life, or lock you in a torturous pocket dimension the rest of eternity. You won’t be able to die in those places, but trust me, you’ll want to.
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Some humans get inverted, which means their physical appearance is altered upon entering Mushrot. Most commonly, it either won’t happen, or you’ll become a shadow person, but there is a chance you might look odd and fun like a Mushrian. They’ll still be able to tell you’re human, though.
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Entities from the backrooms are unable to enter Mushrot. Mushrians are able to enter the backrooms and won’t get attacked by the entities, so long as they don’t provoke them. They sometimes bring back almond water or items they find. Often, they go in specifically for almond water, seeking out its healing properties. Mushrians always know how to get home. They don’t allow their children to enter, due to the chance that they may provoke an entity. There’s classes in the schools for navigating the backrooms- the one class that won’t be absolute nonsense.
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The food is very odd in Mushrot. Raw meat, rotting fruits, mushrooms straight from the dirt, teeth, and even bones. Surprisingly, none of these are harmful to humans. If you went to Mushrot and got served one of these meals, it would be perfectly edible to you and not dangerous. It can even taste really good. Of course, don’t take food from strangers!
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There’s a surplus of nostalgic childhood foods available in stores and some restaurants- Little Debby Snacks, Lunchables, Kid Cuisine, Hug’s Fruit Barrels, and even some foods that were discontinued in our dimension, like Yogos and Trix Yogurt.
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Age regression is very well understood in Mushrot, maybe due to a large part of the population being neurodivergent/ traumatized people (it is a weirdcore dimension just outside the backrooms, after all). The schools have safe rooms which they call nurseries for students who are regressed and need a moment alone. After all, the classes are incredibly not important. The only one that’s important that they can’t skip is the one on the backrooms. Things like adult sized bottles, onesies (footie ones and even snap crotch onesies), pacifiers, etc. can be found in the baby isles of any grocery store and are similarly priced to the baby sized ones (which is much more affordable than it is in real life). ÀBDL, ÇGL, age pláy, DDŁG, etc. is still considered weird in Mushrot- plus since age regression is well known, people know that it is NOT kiñk, age regression gear in grocery stores doesn’t include things like pacifier gags or things that say anything sęxual. After all, that would be kînk gear, not age regression gear.
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Humans who end up in Mushrot who make fun of age regression or associate it with kiñk are seen as ignorant (since they are in our reality as well, the only difference being that ignorance on the subject is more normal for us). Basically, if you go there and try to bully age regression, you’ll get bullied back and there’s not gonna be people backing you up.
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Some houses and places are in the form of pocket dimensions. Only the people who created them can access the door to them. Only more powerful Mushrians are able to do this. For example, my oc Void created themself a home. They can access the door to this pocket dimension, and only they get to decide who enters and exits. They could make the door appear anywhere- even in an empty field or against a wall that previously never had a door- and it’ll disappear when they’re done using it. They could also use a door that already exists and make it lead to their home, and it’ll go back to what it’s originally for once they’re done using it. They can also create any furniture they’d like with only their will.
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Some people can be very malicious, making sure to be sneaky and get away with their abuse and crimes. Toxic people still exist in Mushrot. My best advice would be to tell a trusted Mushrian who has the ability to punish them.
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Some buildings appear completely normal from the outside, but are very nonsensical and otherworldly on the inside. You might step into what you think will be a normal home only to see a seemingly infinite stretch of some strange space- a land made entirely of candy, an infinite body of shallow water, a platform in a vast sky with only a mysterious creature looming ahead. These buildings vary in how easy they are to get back from. It might be impossible for a foreigner to tell, but the Mushrians are always able to tell. This is one of the things they’ll learn in the schools. Sometimes the building will have a sign indicating what’s inside and how safe it is, but sometimes it won’t. They call these types of pocket dimensions "attractions".
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Sometimes, Mushrians who desperately want to have a child or someone to raise will be granted this wish in a peculiar way. Someone from our dimension- anywhere from 0 to 17- who’s in an abusive situation with their family will suddenly go missing and appear in Mushrot. They’ll wake up in this family’s house and be given a chance to live a happy life with a new Mushrian family.
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Mushrot is a very good place for any kind of alternative fashion. There’s Mushrians who dress in all sorts of ways- of course, the most common fashion is weirdcore/ dreamcore/ kidcore/ clowncore or decora fashion, but other forms of fashion do exist. Mushrians won’t be rude about it, either. You could walk up to a Mushrian wearing nothing but a garbage bag and they’d think nothing of it.
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Some media from our dimension is available to Mushrot. CD’s of our music, DVD’s of our movies and shows are available in movie and music shops. The technology in Mushrot is mostly vintage, but they do have smartphones. Our internet doesn’t exist to them, they have their own internet and websites. Mushrians can’t access earth internet and humans can’t access Mushrot internet.
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Have you ever lost something and never found it again and you always wondered what happened to it? Sometimes things like this will wind up in Mushrot! It just depends.
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Our earth alphabet systems do exist in Mushrot, but there’s also the Mushrian alphabet which exists too!
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The flowers that have mouths on them are called two-lips. I just wanted to mention that.
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Most of the water is breathable- you’ll be able to breathe under water in most of Mushrot (the only exception is the water in some of the pocket dimensions).
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some specific places in Mushrot include Feverdaze (the neighborhood my characters live in), Blood Water Lake, Uncanny Valley, Cavity Void (another neighborhood), and Mouth Bug (another neighborhood).