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

[sistermagnetic]

"Bigger? What do you mean bigger-"

Magne nearly stops when she realizes that César's stomach has just started to bulge outward. She can't though, she needs to get him into town, to one of the clinics, the first one she can readily get him to. Winterbottom's maybe, so he doesn't have to deal with stairs. She's shouting this ahead of her as she takes off at a dead run. She's not quite as fast as Dabi when she's got someone else to worry about, but she is plenty quick when she needs to be, and this is an emergency.

1/2

[pineapplesalmon]

César's been tracking the rate of pain growth, spreading outwards from the small spot it had been. Few things grow exponentially. But the bug is.

Something that's happened to no one else. Which means, is there a unique condition that was met for this—

Condition.

César yells in horror, bringing one hand up to shove against Magne's chest, face twisted in agony. "EVO! EVO! Drop me and run! NOW!"

CW: Stomachtburster/crushing death

[pineapplesalmon]

His death is inevitable. Magne's and Dabi's are not. The warning is all he can give.

The first nanite that activated in the EVO caterpillar called nearby nanites to it, each activating and drawing others into the caterpillar in turn. A process repeated. Slowly at first, but—

After a handful of seconds' delay, the growth rate spikes. A shriek of agony as the worm explodes out of his stomach, abruptly ended as the EVO crushes him under its growing bulk.

César Salazar is dead, and in his place is an angry, shrieking, monstrous caterpillar, driven to madness by the pain of its transformation.

[iamthepyre]

Hearing César's cries Dabi's blood runs cold as he stops in his tracks and....he does the only thing he can think of. He grabs César from Magne and pushes her back to put enough distance between them and César. He hates doing this, he hates pulling the man from her arms but he has to. Vague memories of César telling Dabi a bit about EVOs means that whatever it is, it's dangerous if it's coming out of César like this.

Once he's sure they're clear, a line of fire separates them.

"Mag....Cés-FUCK!" He can't even think about it. Death isn't permanent. It'll be okay. Fuck. This is his first time experiencing something like this here, however, and it's definitely jarring. Even more so with a giant...caterpillar!? What the actual FUCK.

[sistermagnetic]

Magne lets him go after a few seconds' hesitation, likely a few seconds too many, especially as César's body bursts from the soft point of his stomach. She stumbles when Dabi shoves them apart, reaching instinctively for César and shouting wordlessly. Her legs collapse under her when he dies and the caterpillar grows out of him, crushing the remains and shoving Dabi back away. For just a moment, she's terrified that they've both been killed bloodily, and in that panic she forgets that they'll come back, and she screams.

There is nothing she can do. She isn't equipped for this, physically or otherwise. She'd just seen the love of her life fucking explode.

A few seconds to draw a breath, and she's scrambling upright and sprinting around the side of the enormous, mutated bug and shouting, "DABI! DABI- TOUYA WHERE ARE YOU?"

1/2

[pineapplesalmon]

The pain's gone. All sensation is gone. He's enveloped in darkness.

Magne screams. César runs towards her on legs that no longer exist and into the sunlight. She runs through him.

César realizes he's a ghost. "Magne! MAGNE!"

[pineapplesalmon]

The worm hears yelling and turns the front of his body towards her and yells, trying to quickly turn with a body too wide and long to do so.

[iamthepyre]

"I'm fine!" He calls out, moving to meet her part way. As the worm turns towards them he's already got his flames ready to blast.

"We fighting this thing or running?" Because he's down for either. It killed César and almost hurt Magne, and despite any grumblings or denial Dabi might have César has become a friend.

[sistermagnetic]

Magne's teeth are gritted, her breath heaving out of her as she stares at this gigantic thing. She connects that it has something to do with César's nanites but any other thought than that is propelled by sheer red rage. Rather than answering immediately, she strides over to where she'd heard Dabi and wraps an arm around his waist, polarizing him and then hefting him off of his feet.

"I'll get it out of range," she states shortly, then swings him around as the magnetism latches onto the polarity of the caterpillar, and she charges toward it. She swings Dabi like a sack of flour and flings the monster into the air, shoving more and more force into her Quirk to keep it launched higher and higher. Right where Dabi can see it to cook it.

1/2

[pineapplesalmon]

The caterpillar shrieks in terror instead of rage now, its four arms around its mouth, legs, and protolegs all flailing in the air. WHAT IS GOING ON DOES A BIRD HAVE IT?!

[pineapplesalmon]

César looks up at the giant caterpillar in the air, both relieved and impressed. That scream of grief from Magne had temporarily distracted him from how amazing she is.

[iamthepyre]

At first Dabi doesn't question the feeling of Magne's quirk. It had been so long since he'd felt it, mixed with the suddenly being flung around like a sack of flour Dabi is definitely not having the best time. Damn his motion sickness, something....Magne probably doesn't actually know about. Hell he had only told Spinner about it after Magne had been killed, while they were chasing Overbitch down.

That being said once the world stops moving so quickly and Dabi is faced up towards the worm that had been launched, there's a wicked grin that he hasn't had in a while. Slipping Magne's grip he uses the large woman as something of a springboard, sorry Mag~, and launches himself at the worm. Fists engulfed in flames, he tossed the flames at the thing watching them burst before turning up the heat.

And...now he's falling. On reflex he reaches back to blast a jet of flames to catch himself only realizing as he was falling that Magne was there and would probably catch him.

CW: burn wounds, bursting sacks

[pineapplesalmon]

FLAMES! Flames on the side of his face! But it doesn't know what flames are, only that they are hot and bright. The EVO continues to be extremely noisy, roaring in pain as one side of it is literally lit on fire. Some of the engorged sacks on it sides burst and ooze.

[sistermagnetic]

Magne at least has the presence of mind to brace herself so that if Dabi struggled she wouldn't put them both on the ground, so being used to propel Dabi upward to make his attack isn't much of a stretch. She puts a hand on the ground to catch herself and watches as Dabi attempts to torch the thing, and in the process does wound it pretty badly from what she can tell. Good, it should suffer for killing her boyfriend...

And then Dabi hits the parabola of his arc and starts coming back down, slowing himself the only way he really can, and she ducks down just low enough to avoid getting singed. She reaches out to catch him on the way down, swinging him with the momentum of the movement and setting him back upright again as the monstrous caterpillar comes back down as well.

[iamthepyre]

Being caught is a familiar feeling but one he hasn't felt in a while. It's surprisingly easy to get used to it though and right himself once Magne had put him back down. Without pause he turned on his heel to face where the thing starts to come down, shooting a jet of flames at where it should land based on it's trajectory.

"If we let this thing get away it's gonna do a lot of damage." Look, this place had been pretty good to them and it didn't have toxic hero society, so yeah...he wanted to protect it if he could.

1/2

[pineapplesalmon]

Dabi said it should totally get away, right?

At least, that's the caterpillar's plan. It opens its mouth wide and uses the velocity gained from the fall to slam into the earth and immediately start swallowing dirt to dig down and down and down. The caterpillar is skilled at digging.

[pineapplesalmon]

César can tell them that from firsthand experience.

This thing is faster than its usual contemporaries from back home. It's had practice digging.

"It's trying to get away!" César calls out uselessly. "They dig tunnels!"

[sistermagnetic]

Magne watches the creature starting to come down and falling through the scorching heat of Dabi's flames, not staying put long enough to get anything more than crisped on the outside as it tries to wriggle its way underground and out of the line of literal fire. She starts to charge her quirk, but there's nobody around that she could use to polarize it appropriately to drag it back out of the ground, so the glow dies, and she stamps a foot down.

"It's tunneling out," she calls to Dabi, having the same thought and actually able to voice it. "How do we track the thing to kill it without collapsing half the road on top of it?!"

[iamthepyre]

"Fuck!" Dabi raced forward, to the edge of the tunnel to look down and sighed. Shooting flames could cause more damage than it was worth but leaving it to eat it's way under the city and possibly collapse quite a bit of it wasn't an option either.

"Fuck...what was that birds name....we need others to help with this."

1/2

[pineapplesalmon]

Apparently it can only go so deep, because the ground above bends upwards with the strength of its movements. It's fast. And very upset. The caterpillar is tunneling straight for town, because that is its luck.

The injuries it has are already fatal. And rushing through the ground hurts. But dying of flames will hurt worse. Escaping the threat is more important.

Of course. It's going to run into others. And then it will die.

[pineapplesalmon]

César turns to look at the depression where his corpse used to be. Turns around to look at them. He wants to reach out and touch Magne, to tell her that he's here, that he's shaken but he'll find his feet again.

But he resists. César knows removing the EVO threat is more important. He can be with Magne after, when his presence won't be a distraction that might get people killed by dividing her focus.

[sistermagnetic]

One hand drags back through her hair as she watches the humping up of the ground marking the path of the monster worm's path, nodding but at a slight loss for words.

"Cerrit... Cerrit, that's his name, with the wings. He'd be able to see it from the air and alert people before it got too close to town," she agrees. "If it comes back up, there are enough people with firepower to slow it down too, I'm sure, but if it stays down there it's going to mess up the infrastructure. Maybe..." She glances around desperately, wondering if she might be able to find someone that can do actual magic to freeze the thing, hold it in place, do something to immobilize it before it got too far.

In the process of running through names, her mind throws César's back up, and she twists in place, as if she might be able to see him in the divot where his body had been.

"And we don't even have the option of asking the one in charge of the nanite problem," she huffs, hands on her hips. "You're there, aren't you?"

[pineapplesalmon]

César's behind her. All it takes is two steps forward before cold settles around her ribs and along her back as he tries to give the impression of hugging her tight. Just for a moment before he lets go.

There's nothing else he can really add to the situation. But he's here.

[sistermagnetic]

The chill that settles around her is comforting, even as the gooseflesh rolls up her arms. At least she can give a small smile in relief, looking back at the space he occupies.

"Stick with me until you get back, then. I think as long as the rest of them know what's going on, it'll be taken care of sooner rather than later." Then she looks back at Dabi, almost certainly still grumpy over having been able to merely wound the thing at most. "That goes for you, too. Since he won't be home for the day, I've got a space for you if you don't want to be there alone."

[iamthepyre]

Dabi is watching the worms path before looking back at Magne. It's clear in how tense his muscles are that he's ready to spring into action, ready to run after the worm if need be. But then Magne mentions sticking with her and he relaxes. He looks confused, she's talking to him but also...not?

"Right...how does the whole returning thing even work? I don't think I ever heard about that process."