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

[iamthepyre]

Enjoy that knowing look and cheshire grin that spreads across Dabi's face.

"Oh you've got it bad."

[pineapplesalmon]

"Guilty as charged." César confidentially takes another bite of his onigiri. "She deserves to be spoiled. Her housewarming gift will be enough citrus to get Japanese pantry staples. And I found someone who can make some wooden chopsticks, including some cooking chopsticks. It's not often your girlfriend moves into her first house."

César likes to give her firsts. Including that first fancy necklace.

[iamthepyre]

There's a weird look in Dabi's eyes for a moment before he shakes his head and covers whatever it is with a low chuckle.

"She has it good here." He could too, he does even. Maybe he's not getting showered with gifts from a loved one but...well...Dabi's much more jaded with people than Magne. It's slow showing him that there are people worth it out there. "But you know, you should use some of that to spoil yourself too."

[pineapplesalmon]

César unfortunately misses it, thinking about his girlfriend. He tries not to go overboard, he really does. But he loves the way Magne lights up the room when he helps her have a little more of a normal life. Something as simple as a bath or spending time together makes her entire day. And not only that, but he's given her the last bits of normalcy she needed to start running towards her own plans for the future.

He stops his next bite partway as he absorbs Dabi telling him to spoil himself, then laughs softly. "I'm that obviously bad at that? ... right, mandatory vacation. Anything I think of requires tech from back home. And the hobbies here require money to get started, but I've been saving that for—"

César nearly drops his onigiri, suddenly winded yet again in front of Dabi because he's given too much thought to work again, and clutches his stomach with his other hand, fighting to get breath back into his lungs. "Miércoles."

[iamthepyre]

"Ha!" Dabi grinned as he watched César double over. "Serves you right, you're supposed to be taking a break. Not thinking about more work."

Shifting a bit he nudges César's shoulder with a fist. "Man, it's okay to treat yourself and relax. You're gonna work yourself into another grave and worry Magne in the process."

[pineapplesalmon]

César puts his onigiri down carefully and just focuses on trying to breathe again. Which happens fast enough.

He pulls out his pen and notebook and just... marks another tally under "winded" on the page he's been tracking it. They're already up to over a couple dozen, and he mostly wasn't thinking about work the first day and a half back. He was spending time with Magne.

"I'll... work normal hours after. The upgrade." César manages to get that much through without getting winded, staring at the tallies. "In June. 40 hours, 5 days, 2 consecutive days off."

He frowns a bit. "... relaxing threatened the world. Treating myself, too. There wasn't time, anyway. So I forgot how. And I can't just look up 'hobbies' online for new ideas, here. It seems like too much work to figure out...."

César hangs his head in a hand. "This is literally the stupidest problem."

[iamthepyre]

"EVer tried, I don't know....knitting? Crocheting? Paper craft?" What was it that Toga thought was cute again? Oh well, the point is even Dabi puts aside his food and leans forward in his seat.

"We're not in your world, or mine and Mag's." He starts, voice more serious now. "Do you see others working themselves into the ground hard enough that they get put in time out by god. Or...Goddess...whatever. You get my point, you need this rest. Can you imagine how freaked Mag would be if you collapsed because of over working yourself? Screw June, I think you need to start chilling out now."

cw: food scarcity mention

[pineapplesalmon]

"Maybe paper craft. And woodworking. Sewing and embroidery." So he's at least been thinking about ideas for hobbies? Success?

César lets out a long sigh, putting his face in both his hands now and rubbing it. "... Yeah, I know." He sounds more defeated than he'd like. "My goal for this week is to start figuring out how to have fun for myself and to relax. I'll limit my work further with time to a normal work week when I can work again. Start reducing the intensity from there. Slowly wean myself to something normal."

He drops his hands and looks to Dabi, a bit tired. "I came here in the middle of a famine. The worst was mitigated, but... I'm used to working on a global scale. Making sure people have full stomachs next winter didn't seem like much of an ask. It's taking major recalibration on my part to be realistic about what I can do, here."

As much as he means everyone, there's still one person he means more than others. Magne. The overwork ramped up before he got closer to others.

[iamthepyre]

"Yeah, definitely need to recalibrate." Dabi does understand and he wants to be sympathetic, it's just harder for him. "You won't be any use to people if you work yourself into the ground....repeatedly."

He sighs and picks up his food again, lounging back to continue eating.

"But I'm not gonna lecture you any more, last thing you need is me hounding you. Mag can do that herself."

[pineapplesalmon]

"That one time was an outlier caused by extenuating circumstances."

Literally getting squished into the ground by a giant worm. César sighs as well, taking his onigiri back up to eat. But thoughts of Magne wipe away his melancholy with a soft smile.

"She'll do worse than nag—she'll be upset. And she made me promise to keep working at taking better care of myself, interrupting me before I could collapse. So I just need to keep getting better at doing that. If I try ramping that nonsense up again, she'll just forcibly princess carry me back home."

After a moment of thought, he adds. "... I haven't been this well rested in forever." But then he quirks a grin. "Except for this morning's hangover. And that was after I drank a bunch of water before bed."

[iamthepyre]

"Not angry, just disappointed." Dabi can't help but chuckle before sighing. "I get it, this place is the first time I've ever actually got to relax. Part of me still wishes I had gone and joined you all."

Too bad Dabi is still trying to get over his more antisocial habits.

"Maybe next time."

[pineapplesalmon]

"Just disappointed. And looking at me sadly." César agrees.

He considers while taking a bite of his onigiri. "I had the impression you needed to seriously decompress. I fixed up this townhouse in case someone needed to escape the Oak & Iron and take their time."

César chuckles. "There will definitely be a next time. People were really into it."

[iamthepyre]

"We'll just have to see. Maybe Magne can drag me out...or if..." Nope...not mentioning the cute guy he met at the clinic who he definitely wouldn't mind seeing more of.

"Whatever, next time I'll have to go see what it's like."

[pineapplesalmon]

Ah yes, the same guy who ran César's STD tests and reminded him that condoms are still important.

A little smirk. "Just say it to Magne once, and she'll never forget. But you should. Find out some interesting facts about people."

Two truths and a lie counts as his debut, right?

[iamthepyre]

That sounds about right, not that Dabi is about to let anyone know that he's been hanging out more with the guy and actually liking him. Nope. Not happening.

"Yeah, definitely something to mention to her." She had been the one that was good at trying to care for him.

Which reminded him, with the weather heating up he should see about finding some barley tea...it'd be good to help cool him down.

[pineapplesalmon]

And César absolutely would be the last one to find out anyway.

"You did get to see the aftermath last night, though. And this morning." César says with self-deprecating humor.

Because Magne had to walk a drunk César home and put him to bed. And then César woke up with a hangover. For the first time in his life. He hadn't complained, but he was clearly miserable and looked it. Reminding Dabi of this is César's way to redirect Dabi's thoughts to something more amusing.

You know, you should really mention to your roommate that overheating can be an issue.

[iamthepyre]

It's fine César, really.

It's not but he'll pretend it is for now.

"Yeah, that sure was a sight." He grins thinking about seeing Magne be so sweet as to help the very drunk César only to then see him nursing his hangover the next morning. "Please tell me you at least had a good amount, I don't know if I can live with a lightweight."

He's teasing, promise.

[pineapplesalmon]

It's not fine, but now Dabi has a place where it's okay to not be fine. Dabi isn't on the run. He has healthcare which includes magic, a decent bed, and all the food he needs. There's actually a chance to deal with his scars.

César grins back. "Three beers. Which, I honestly should've realized were going to take me out. But I was too gobsmacked that I kept having to drink."