I don't plan on having kids, but in the event that I change my mind, commissioning a forest Witch to grow one from a mushroom seems a lot easier than the usual human procreative process, though possibly just as abundant in screaming. I've been playing the demo for "cute-creepy" RPG and life sim Mushroom Musume, in which you - an unnamed "Recluse" - cultivate and play as a series of mushroom daughters. My current mushroom daughter is called Alia. She's a Common Turquoise Truffle. She's got a small pig acquaintance, who so far hasn't tried to devour her, and a cute fuzzy hat, which she stole from outside a church - precise impact on character development still TBC.
I have done my best to raise Alia as a gentle but self-assertive soul, the kind of public-spirited girl who lops off pieces of her own body to distribute as candies in town, and who stands up for herself when she's followed home by rogue chefs. I must confess, though, I've blundered here and there. For example, when she was a pinhead she once saw me cut somebody's throat, and I must admit, I was once sorely tempted to gamble her away during a dice game with a fairy (the fairy took my little finger, instead). It's perhaps thanks to these missteps that Alia is moderately damp, which I understand is a sign of good health for mushrooms in general, but may indicate, here, a certain "murkiness of the soul". Hmm.
You can find Mushroom Musume on Steam and Itch (the WIP Itch version is part of Itch's latest Queer Games Bundle). I think it could be something special. Each round of the game begins with you fetching various ingredients for your filial fungus, at the behest of the aforesaid Witch. A colour, for example, which you might glean from a flower or the bottom of the river, and an heirloom, like the hairpin you gave to your previous lost child.
Then you try to do things that shape the form and persona of your budding porcini or juvenile shiitake, for better and worse. I managed to procure solid
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