2nd Contraption - Oh, Worm?!

[pineapplesalmon]

Who: César Salazar (pineapplesalmon), YOU, and a giant frigging worm
What: The larvae inside César from the ship mutates into a giant EVO worm when it encounters one of César's nanites, which activates
When: May 1st (May Day) for fight; May 2nd for revival, May 3rd (late) through 9th for mandatory vacation
Where: Battle mostly in the field and forest nearest the path to Pumpkin Hollow from the nearest trolley stop to César's farm
Warning(s): giant green worm/larvae (MANY many eyes, fourth human arms around its mouth, rows of throat teeth), burning worm flesh does not smell like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man
NOTES: Harvey has given sign-off that some of this can be canned for later. Because. It's a lot. So bountiful groceries for the price of basic! Or free if you are a food producer.

1. [CW: Debugging, chest-burster followed by crushing death, worm warnings (see above), fire, violence, o] A closed log to Magne and Dabi. César's death with potential haunting of Magne to follow. You stay by your soil-mate's side, you know?

2. [CW: worm warnings (see above), worm on people on worm violence, holes, only attempted vore because it's in too much pain (UPON REQUEST), can spew dirt on you (emeto, UPON REQUEST)] BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF IT. Shorter threads because that bastard is gonna run away.

The Floor is Larvae

A shrieking roar in the distance and yelling from people breaks the peace of the afternoon, followed by a spray of dirt as the ground shakes. More commotions ensue. Then sudden, the earth begins to tremble, then rumble, and then shake. It's coming towards you.

With another shrieking roar, a giant grub slams out of the ground, spraying dirt and rock everywhere. It's angry. It's hurt. And it has just spotted you.

Everything's been attacking it, and so will you, so it must attack you first.

3. [CW: (now dead) worm warnings, holes, likely someone eating it] GENERAL MINGLE THREAD. Touch the body. Be glad you can't get nanites.

The Still Worm Body

The worm finally dove down into the earth and came back up in a place without anyone to attack it. Unfortunately for the grub, it was only to die. The body lies still in a field. It's four arms around his mouth are slumped down, it's dozens of red eyes are open in a death stare. The tusk-shaped claws close to its body and its hundred or so of throat teeth are almost all attached. Some of its flesh is burnt, some of missing, some of it punctured such that it oozes.

The corpse is ripe to be picked over. After all, its not using it anymore. It would be a bad thing to let this much raw material go to waste, unstudied and unused.

4. [CW: Nonconsensual vacation] I'll post this one a bit later! But wildcarding will be heavily encouraged. :) César's getting a mandatory vacation because he died and WON'T FRIGGING REST.

WORM GENERAL INFO

32 second YouTube Video of the Worm EVO in action - Attempted VORE
Here's a reference to caterpillar anatomy! And also a picture of its head. This is what the caterpillar USED to be.

The caterpillar is as tall as a single story when lying flat. Segmented. Green with some fuzz. Many, many red eyes. Four human arms have replaced its maxillary palps, two on each side of its mouth which leads immediately into rows and rows of very pointed teeth down its throat. The spiracles have become engorged yellow sacks. The true legs and protolegs are now capped off with claws.

CW: Talking about butchering of the animal in this section!

Worm body scavenging

PER talking with Drake, the CW: DEAD ANIMAL AS FOOD DESCRIPTION FOLLOWING THIS flesh is definitely a bit similar to the internals of lobster. So. Uh. Someone please don't let all this high protein stuff go to waste. It will respond well to canning. And there will be no nanites in whatever is canned. It will also give you the bonus of bountiful groceries for the price of basic. Which means if you get free basic, you'll get free bountiful! Or it can be used later.

The claws of the legs (the length of an adult human forearm) and the teeth (many fitting well in a human hand) are big enough to be very useful. And also the eyes are solid, so they might... be interesting to keep around? The skin would be more mammalian, so it can be used for making green leather.

EVO WORM PICTURES

Comments

[OTA POST DEATH] 4. Worm Regards, 5/3 onwards

[pineapplesalmon]

César's returned to life, at a cost: take a fucking break, you nerd. A whole week of no work. He hasn't taken a vacation in over a year and he's very overdo.

So he visits people he hasn't seen in a while. Goes to places like the library and pray at the temple. Just... simply exists for a time outside of work.

((OOC: Basically a lot of bespoke wildcards go here, and I WANNA PLOT WITH YOU! Either PM this journal or poke me on plurk as icelightning or on discord as jennerally.))

5/5 for Dabi

[pineapplesalmon]

César unlocks the door and walks into the house, humming cheerfully, changing out his shoes for slipper.

He's got two bags. One is plastic with a logo, "6-TEN". The other is cloth and smells like oranges. He drops the bag with the cloth next to where Dabi's sitting and then plops down onto the floor and starts rifling through the bag. He pulls out an onigiri in plastic packaging. César's starts pulling the little plastic strip to open it.

By the shit-eating grin on his face, he's waiting for Dabi to ask what the fuck.

finally getting to this before bed!

[iamthepyre]

Dabi had just been relaxing and minding his own business with one of César's books. Yes César, he's reading another one of your trashy romance novels. They aren't safe from him.

However he's left blinking at the guy when he plops down with his bags. The oranges aren't that much a surprise...the onigiri however. Now that definitely has his attention. That looks like food from home.

"Where the fuck did you get that?"

:D

[pineapplesalmon]

There's a reason why César doesn't immediately return them to the library. He knows. It's just a thing they do without saying.

César pulls out a canned coffee followed by a chicken and egg sandwich, then picks up the plastic bag and holds it out to Dabi. "Royal Dominguez of the Limoncello will straight trade food from our worlds for citrus fruit."

There's three fruit sandos/sandwiches in there, two more canned coffees, and a yakisoba.

[iamthepyre]

Dabi snatches the bag, digging through to find the canned coffee and...there is a barely contained sound when he sees the yakisoba and pulls it out. Fruit sandos are good but he hasn't had yakisoba in too long.

Pulling out the chopsticks that come with it there's a quick, "Uh...thanks." before he's digging in.

"Holy shit..." Okay, that was definitely way better than he had expected. It was like just walking into a conbini back home and getting one. Definitely a content looking Dabi.

[pineapplesalmon]

César's grinning like a fiend at the reaction, quite pleased with himself; apparently, Dabi doesn't even care to heat it up. "You're welcome."

He opens up his onigiri packaging without ripping the nori, then takes a bite. It's umeboshi, so no fish scent.

"Right?" César laughs, clearly delighted. "The oranges are enough for three people's worth for dinner. Conbini food is cheap, so we can get enough to go into food comas."

[iamthepyre]

Yakisoba is good warm or cold, and right now he is too impatient to deal with heating it back up when they don't have an easy way to do it.

"Good," Muttering around a mouthful of food, you'd almost think Dabi hadn't eaten anything in a while...did he forget to eat again? Good question. Answer: Probably. "Pretty sure Mag will be happy about it too."

[pineapplesalmon]

What, it's not worth burning some of your flesh for? (No, Dabi, don't.)

... Yeah, César has a suspicion Dabi either forgot to eat or didn't want to put forth the amount of effort it takes to make something around here. At least César's gotten better, so she has to worry about him less. He's got farmhands that pause for lunch that make sure he eats, too.

"I'd be shocked if she didn't." César is having a moment with his food before he continues. "We can probably do this every other week. Every week once I upgrade the farm's greenhouse to have more citrus."

[iamthepyre]

Don't mention it, he might.

"Keep the yakisoba coming and we will never have a problem." It's a joke, mostly, if the grin means anything. "Maybe get some mochi or rice cakes next time?"

Oh, Backdating for the Boys! Backdating for One-Thousand Years! (5/3!)

[gruesomegourmand]

It had been pure circumstance, the right time at the right place, for Laios to find that massive caterpillar.

He'd heard some commotion before about it wreaking havoc, but hadn't been able to make it to help before it'd burrowed away for the final time. Wouldn't it be just his luck that this town gets a new giant monster, and he misses it.

Except, of course, fortune gave him a second chance at it!

The carcass kept him incredibly busy for a full day: at first, he took an opportunity to grab one of his notebooks and scrawl out the best depiction of what it might've looked like alive that he's able to do. Then, after a hike back into town for supplies (and, of course, failing to mention what the supplies are for), he returns.

With great care, diligence, and the touch of a butcher who's managed to prepare monster meat more than once, a hundred pounds of caterpillar flesh, two fangs, a claw, an eye, and a carefully-peeled small bolt of flesh to dry are carefully plucked off of the great beast, tucked into a long piece of brown paper or into the bag slung over his back, and hauled home.

It's only during his diligent work of preserving it all and tucking away the canned and jarred meat in both his own room and some spare shelves in the kitchen that he learns very crucial pieces of information.

1) This monster burst forth from the chest of a man in town, another outlander like himself.
2) That man wasn't feeling particularly well after he returned to life.
3) Laios was, perhaps, kind of a jerk for not checking on the guy before butchering his worm.

Thus, here he is now, with a container of what can only be described as smoked-grub bisque, as well as one of the long claws from the beast, well-cleaned of any connective tissues. A trophy for the poor man's troubles?

He knocks at the door, and offers the best smile he can, which is only moderately awkward.

"Hey! You're César, right? The guy who got crushed by that giant caterpillar a couple days ago?"

Not his strongest introduction, but considering that it would be so, so unfortunate if this wasn't even the right house and he went on his spiel, it was better than nothing, right?

HECK YEAH

[pineapplesalmon]

César's both surprised yet not to hear the knock on his door. Word gets around about deaths, and he's made quite a few friends here. It wasn't like last time, where the only ones that knew had his head literally delivered to them. Even Magne hadn't suspected.

His absence would be noted, now. It's reassuring. César tells Magne and Dabi that he'll get it since it's likely for him.

What he doesn't expect is a stranger (not entirely a stranger, vaguely familiar) that greets him at the door. Or a stranger with food. Or a stranger to immediately start off with that.

The awkwardest first questions he's ever been asked is strangely soothing. If someone had an ulterior motive, they would have thought of a better way to phrase them, and they would've remembered to introduce themselves. No, this is genuine concern from a stranger.

Which makes him smile warmly, overwhelmed for a moment by the thought of not being forgotten anymore. "... That would be me, yes. So people have been talking?"

[gruesomegourmand]

"Well, not talking so much as--- I asked."

Despite his avid enthusiasm about it, Laios has been fairly private about monster cuisine - before his party, it wasn't exactly a topic that went over well. It wasn't as though now was a time he could get around it, however; it was half the reason for his visit, after all!

Maybe he can address the other half first, though?

Carefully balancing the container of soup, he pulls the backpack off of his back, and a bit clumsily, he pulls the claw out of it, from where it'd protruded from the top of the bag slightly. It's been cleaned, and seems to have even been polished, before it made its journey over.

"I brought this for you, and made you some lunch. I was told that people can come back from the dead not feeling great, so I figured if I was taking parts from something that killed you, you deserved to have some trophies from it, too!" A beat, and the gear in his head turns another notch. "...If you want trophies from it, of course!"

[pineapplesalmon]

"Ah, here, let me—"

César takes the claw in a bit of a hurry so Laios doesn't drop everything, both dumbfounded and amused. His eyes soften as he looks down at it, rolling it around in his hands for a moment before looking back up.

"... Honestly, I do deserve a trophy after what I went through. And lunch. Even if I feel pretty okay. And that smells good." César pauses for a moment and then opens the door the rest of the way, offering to let Laios inside. "My kitchen's in the back."

[gruesomegourmand]

"Great! I'll grab you a bowl."

Glad to let himself in, he makes his way to the aforementioned kitchen - of course, with an interested look around the house. It always catches him by surprise, just how differently everyone arranges their homes from his own living spaces.

He only rummages for a short few minutes, before he returns, soup served and ready to eat. It's a dense meal, not looking dissimilar to a green goddess soup. It's clear that Laios even went the extra mile to add a small, flavorful herb for garnish.

Before César gets into it, however, Laios raises a hand, and loses a few points of that confidence he'd come in with before.

"Before you eat it. I wanted to mention that it's, um..." He waffles with his words for a fleeting second. "It's the worm. It seemed like a waste to let it just rot where I found it, especially with as fresh as it was, and it's got a consistency that's a lot like shellfish! It's soft, it has a lot of give, and it's pretty earthy without having the bad flavors a lot of similar, smaller insects have!"

He's enthusiastic, but clearly trying to sell his case here, speaking with a certainty about texture and flavor that makes one thing very clear: he has absolutely eaten it before he came here.

[pineapplesalmon]

Housing is one way people show their individuality. It's why Magne will eventually get a place of her own.

Speaking of Magne, César lets Magne and Dabi know more about their guest. They already would've known someone was in, being vigilant. César doesn't want to put Laios on the spot by having them all meet when he only intended to feed César.

He's honestly charmed that a stranger cared about how he was doing. No who knew his parents were dead asked him how he was doing, assuming he was too much of a mad scientist to care. But here, a stranger....

César stops that train of thought when Laios comes back. "Oh, it looks good!"

It's a very good thing that Laios describes what part of the worm he picked, because César does look slightly wary for a moment before he relaxes. "... huh! I suppose it would. And you've eaten it and you're just fine?"

So it sounds like Laios didn't go EVO from eating this (the nanites were thus deactivated) and he hasn't used the arms, which were based off of humans... probably best not to mention that. César's actually curious to see if the taste is as he says it is.

[gruesomegourmand]

"I am!" Laios is quick and enthusiastic to assure him, lifting his arms, as if to gesture to himself. "I was worried that it might have had some toxins, since it had those huge fangs, but nothing in the meat followed that sort of look, and there wasn't any stomach upset to speak of."

A moment of thought, and he offers an awkward grin.

"I actually have... a lot of meat I preserved from it, as well. Smoked, jarred, canned... sort of whatever I could get my hands on. But if you like it, I bet there's a dozen ways you could cook it and have it taste great. I could bring you some!"

[pineapplesalmon]

"It's always important that a chef tastes their own food." César truly appreciates that detail, looking down at dish and taking it in the aroma. "... I love the presentation, and it smells delicious."

César looks up and returns that awkward smile with a genuine one of his own. "I wouldn't mind getting a bit of revenge on it, to be honest. Just as long as it's not meat from the arms. Those are... based off of human physiology. The rest is fine."

He sucks in a breath and takes a bite, eyes immediately lighting up. "Oh, this is delicious!"

[For Magne] REVIVAL

[pineapplesalmon]

César wakes up in the hot springs. It's a bit disorienting to go from feeling nothing to feeling warm. But it only takes him a moment to take stock of his situation (sending stone, bottle of salts?, a letter he can't touch due to wet hands) before he collects himself well enough to call Magne.

He asks her to bring him a towel and a change of clothing. He tells her he loves her. She tells him she loves him and he should take it easy before going back to work because he just died again. César promises the only thing he's thinking about right now is spending time with her and also Dabi, having made arrangements for a nice night in ahead of time.

When Magne finally finds him, he's half-dozing in the hot spring up to his shoulders. He sees her approach and looks up. César smiles warmly to her, his entire face lighting up.

"Hola, amorcita!"

[sistermagnetic]

Magne had asked him over the time that he'd been hanging around haunting her that when he revived, if it was away from home, that he should send her a message so that she could retrieve him. She'd been expecting it when it finally came, but the missive for her to bring him some clothes had caught her off-guard, and she'd wondered just what kind of trouble he'd ended up in after reviving.

Arriving at the springs, when she's made her way up the trail, she lifts a bag with a change of simple clothes in it for him to see. This gets put aside in the little locker space, before she settles herself on the edge of the spring on her knees, just shy of where his head is leaned.

"Feeling better?" She quips, giving him a small tilt of a smile before reaching for the note left for him to find. Presumable César hasn't opened it because he doesn't want to get it wet, so she obliges instead, running her finger under the seal then taking a moment to read the note on it's pretty card.

And she laughs. "Oh, you've really done it now," she says before turning it for him to read without having to get out of the water to see.

[pineapplesalmon]

César would've called her immediately regardless, so it just means he called her several seconds sooner. He's relieved to see he won't need to walk home naked and watches her come to see him, turning around in the water to rest his forearms along the rocks to face her.

"I'm back to normal. And I'm feeling much better now that you're here." César can't miss the opportunity to flirt, and he waits for her to read the note, eyebrows raising as she laughs.

He sputters when he reads it. "But- I'm not-" César stops and groans a little, dropping his forehead to his forearms. "... okay, maybe I am that bad. But I've been getting better!"

Then with a mumble, he adds. "Even if I never took a vacation after saving the world or arriving here...."

[sistermagnetic]

The smile over his flirtation only grows as he goes from being charming, to disbelief that he'd been officially barred, by the Mothers no less, from working himself to death. How dare they, really. Now César has to take a vacation. One he's needed for most of his adult life, apparently.

Ruffling his hair, Magne chuckles, then leans her weight on one hand, the other one coming under his chin to bring him up so that she could kiss his forehead. "I think if you just spend a little more time with me I can keep you from working any harder than necessary. We've got the grand opening to think about, so you're going to need your energy."

[pineapplesalmon]

Nuh-uh, he took multiple vacations per year with his parents and baby brother! César would pout if he saw the smile, but he forgets what he was thinking about when she ruffles his hair, causing him to sputter, and then guides him close enough to be kissed with her hand under his chin.

"That's coming up, isn't it?" César's pliant in her hand, then gives a fake sigh. "... spending more time with you is something I desperately need. Spending time with you is all I can think about today."

[sistermagnetic]

"You really do have a one-track mind," she murmurs against his lips. She smiles, stroking her thumb across his cheek. "I'm excited, but I want you to be taken care of. I've got so much in the works and soon I'll be able to give it to everyone else."

With a bright smile, Magne settles herself down to rest on her side atop the rocks, her cheek on her hand and hair pouring over her shoulder. "Well, you've got me here and I've been looking forward to you making it home all day."

[pineapplesalmon]

"More like you've helped me remember the importance of single tracking." Dumb transportation joke, but he also means it; his brain grows still around her, like now, while he savors the taste of her lips. "I'll make sure to care for myself, too. ... I'm so looking forward to seeing it all."

César's so proud of her. Appreciative of the view, too, as she rests alongside the hot spring. He's gotten better at keeping his cool, but his eyes do drift for a moment before his gaze returns to her face.

"That was so the longest 24 hours I've ever experienced. And now I've got the difficult decision of whether to stay in hot spring or get out immediately so I can snuggle up with you posthaste. A bath might split the difference nicely, if that sounds good to you?"

[sistermagnetic]

Magne shakes her head, smiling warmly as she shifts where she sits and reaches to unlace and then shuck off her boots to put them aside on the lip of the spring, before dipping her feet into the water. She isn't moving to change just yet, preferring to stay here and chat with him for a bit.

"Have you ever been to an onsen before? Normally I would have to wash down first. And then...well. Go and try to find an isolated spot to soak, or else climb in with a bunch of men and you know how some men can be in those sorts of spaces." An eyeroll at the memories of some uncouth naked men older than her just doing the things that grown men tended to all do while naked in a space together.