He then realized something… his head was strangely being filled with thoughts of all kinds… thoughts of his laundry, of the food in his fridge, or having rested his feet on the living room sofa a few days ago, even about circuitry… palstic, fabric, cotton, detergent, and even other things that didn't quite make sense. He could even geta faint scent of something similar to a canine… but, he hadn't invited anyone to his apartment in a while, why …. The it hit him. He was getting all of these thoughts because he could SMELL all of this, to varying degrees.

"Hmmmph!!" he tried to exclaim some expletive at the confusion of what was happening to him. It was such a strange sensation to attempt speech but have only unintelligible groans and grunts come out of him

"MNGH!?" he exclaimed, his voice coming out in a muffled groan. He was trying to call out Mercer's name, try to get some sort of coherent response to his exasperated shouting for Ashut to respond, but words seemed to be unable to escape his mouth anymore. At least he could still make noise, letting Mercer know he was still alive, but clearly it wasn't doing much to calm Mercer down. He wanted a clear response, and Ashu seemed unable to get one out, no matter how hard he tried.

"Ashu??!" his supervisor kept yelling his name over the line. Ashu couldn't blame him, it was protocol to continue contact attempts with agents in situations like this, no matter what. Even if Mercer suspected Ashu would no longer be able to respond coherently, he had to keep pressing on for a coherent response. This whole situation could easily be blamed all on him, given the Ashu WAS reporting to him directly in the chain of command. The urgency in his voice was as much for Ashu's wellbeing as it was for his own skin in this. Ashu wanted so bad to respond clearly, to let him know he was at least somewhat fine, but clearly something had happened. He couldn't see anymore, and his speech was somehow impeded after the statue had exploded. The myths about it described variying degrees of change on those affected, and some of the resulting conditions could be quite horrifying to think of. Loss of speech was among one of the common side effects, and Ashu suspected this might be the case for him too.

Despite this, he kept trying, this time attempting to yell, as if somehow that would maybe open up whatever was maybe…. Latched onto him? Had the statue blown something onto his face that migth've covered up his mouth??

"MMNNFF!!!" his yell loudly emanated from his head, yet still no words. Though this time he could distinctly feel his nostrils open up wide, in what felt like an oddly satisfying sensation, like that of letting in a breeze of air into a previously damp and cramped space. And oddly enough, it simultaneously felt like his whole FACE was stretching open! What the hell? What had happened to him??!

In some backend part of his mind, Ashu half-knew already, these were all thoughts of denial. Of not wanting to believe the worst. The consequences of this artifact going off were clear and usually permanent. But he didn't want to believe it was so, he never thought he would get a first hand experience of what all the previous accounts described in the numerous case files he had read about it.

He could only hope he was wrong…

---

last panel of this sequence! (for now) what are your thoughts on this so far?? i've liked this kind of gritty setting for a nose TF, slightly more on the body horror side than horny or joyful, but still quite hot imo! does the bit of lore i'm writing for this make it any better??
I'm definitely thinking on continuinig this one possibly, do let me know if you think it'd be cool to see more of what happens to snootie in this particualr scenario :3

art by  mr.lifur awesome artist!!