Bone Gift of the Joy Witch Pt 2

...I tried to be consistent but the different pictures are AI in midjourney so came up with similar but different results.

Pt 1 the beginning is here:

https://similarworlds.com/art/5490104-Bone-Gift-of-the-Joy-Witch-Pt-1-In-a-post-pandemic-world

In this fused post-pandemic cult world, the plagues are a cascade of relentless, mutating biohazards from a collapsed global lab network, blending viral, fungal, and parasitic horrors that thrive in the aftermath. They force the bone-graft rituals as humanity's desperate countermeasure.

Primary Plagues
Whisperlung: A airborne fungus that infiltrates lungs via casual speech, turning breaths into infectious spores; victims rasp secrets that spread it further, silenced only by bone filters that hum over cribs.

Veilrot: Skin-melting bacteria activated by sunlight, causing flesh to slough off in petal-like sheets; the skull headdresses cast protective shadows, their joy-stirred vines secreting a waxy sealant.

Nestfever: Parasitic larvae burrowing through ear canals during sleep, nesting in the brain to induce feverish obedience to unseen "hives"; child's lullabies vibrate the grafts to pulverize the invaders harmlessly.

Ashblood: A hemophagic virus that clots blood into brittle, bone-like shards, shattering from within; the parasites recycle these into defensive thorns, blooming roses fed by the reclaimed essence.

Echo blight: A sonic plague echoing from ruined cities, shattering eardrums and bones with infrasound; maternal calm and baby giggles phase-cancel the waves, keeping bone clans untouched in their serenity.

Cultural Impact

These plagues linger as "the Five Hungers," worshipped in cult chants—each graft bloom marks a plague repelled, turning mothers into living tallies of survival. The forest witch claims she brewed the first parasites from plague-riddled corpses, binding their curses into shields.

Origin Event: The Marrow Breach

A covert facility in the American Midwest (near forgotten Iowa farmlands) shattered during a power grid failure, releasing engineered pathogens designed to "rewrite" human biology for eternal youth. Instead, they bonded with mutagenic spores from thawing permafrost, birthing hybrid plagues that treat human bodies as incubators. Panic hoarding of antivirals accelerated the spread, turning cities into ghost hives.

Timeline Layers

Year 0 (2032): Breach occurs; initial waves kill billions, survivors flee to woods or bunkers.

Decade 1: Plagues mutate seasonally, forcing nomadic life; early cults experiment with folk remedies.

Decade 2 (2040s): Forest witch discovers natural bone parasites in plague-ravaged groves, begins selective grafting on mothers.

Present (2065+): Bone clans thrive in serene enclaves, plagues reduced to endemic whispers, but eternal vigilance via joy-songs keeps grafts active.

Lasting Echoes

No full recovery—society is patchwork clans trading bone relics, with the witch's ossuaries as holy sites. Rumors persist of a "Sixth Hunger" brewing in urban ruins, dormant until joy fades worldwide.