body horror meme

[lolk]

WARNING -- POSSIBLE TRIGGERS (violence, pain, parasites, zombies, etc)

body horror meme


Something's gone wrong. Maybe it was a little parasite, wiggling under your skin. Maybe something bit you that one night in the woods. Maybe someone decided they didn't like you and placed a curse on you, or maybe the local psychotic AI decided she liked you and filled you full of nanites. In any case, you're changing, body and soul. There's no way to stop it. No way to reverse it. And above all, it's the most painful thing you've ever experienced...

HOW IT WORKS:
- Tag the meme, leaving your character name, fandom, and any preferences in the subject line
- Other character tags you
- You tag back, and use the random number generator to select from the following options. Or don't, and do whatever strikes your fancy. If you roll something your character already is, either roll again, go for human, or pick something that otherwise suits your fancy.
- Other character reacts, or is free to also roll on the table
- Play out the results.
- Have fun, but respect the preferences of others.

1. Water-dwelling. You're growing gills, or your skin is turning translucent, or you're sprouting fins, or maybe you're outright turning into some form of sea life. It doesn't matter what you're turning into – what does matter is that you're slowly losing the ability to breathe air, and there's no water in sight...

2. Animal. Something bit you, and you're turning into an animal. Your bones lengthen or perhaps shrink, break, twist, and reform, your teeth lengthen or shorten, and above all, you feel your instincts being overridden. Your senses sharpen; you notice smells you never did before, your vision becomes more sensitive to movement. If you're a predator? Man, these people look mighty tasty. Prey? OHGOD, EVERYTHING IS TERRIFYING. Lizard? Enjoy your new inability to regulate body temperature. Bird? Have fun with the whole beak and hollowing bones. And don't even get us started on insects and arachnids...

3. Parasitic Something's inside you, and it's changing you from within, chewing up your insides and altering your thoughts. You're not sure how much longer you're going to be you, and when the parasite's going to take over completely...

4. Demonic You've been meddling with dark powers beyond the ken of mortal man, and it seems you've accidentally sold your soul. Will you be the traditional kind of demon, horns and hooves, or something far more terrifying and ineffable?

5. Undead: No doubt about it, you're dying, but as you are, something's been altered in you. Maybe you're becoming a vampire – and not the fun kind, either, we're talking ugly, ravenous, and mad. Maybe you're a zombie, or a ghoul, and human flesh looks mighty tasty. Or maybe you're just turning into a ghost bent on vengeance. In any case, death is never fun.

6. Cybernetic Get captured by the Borg? Strapped to an operating table? Injected with nanites? Whatever happened to you, you're slowly turning into something half man, half machine, your squishy bits being replaced by mechanical components.

7. Lovecraftian You've heard their song, the terrors from beyond the stars, and even now they sing in your blood as your flesh transmutes into something ineffable and unknowable. You revel in the pain you feel even as you seek to spread it, to herald the end of all things... or maybe worse, you're aware of the transition as your mind becomes not your own.

8. Fusion/Hivemind You begin to fuse with the first person who tagged you – physically, mentally, or both. Soon, you can't tell who is who, which one of you is the real you, as your thoughts become one. Join in the fleshsong, mortal...

9. Inanimate Your body slowly petrifies and hardens, turning to stone, wood, glass, or something stranger still; or perhaps you liquefy, turning to some kind of liquid, or maybe you dissolve into the air itself.

10. Wildcard / pick your own Pick whatever you like, combine a few options, or make up your own.

Meme originally posted by teal_deer.

Comments

[pulling_rank]

[The helpful, not so panicked part of his brain in charge of sarcasm wants to pipe up with something about Sherlock needing to work on his bedside manner, because it leaves a lot to be desired.

But he can't talk to him like this. It's more than a little frustrating.]

[the_new_sexy]

This can't have just happened, something had to have facilitated the change. No one just grows gills.

Did you take anything at Baskerville? Anything at all? Did anything bite you?

Two fingers for 'no'.

[pulling_rank]

['Oh yeah, there was this whole thing I forgot to mention about a wet lab with radioactive sharks. One bit me, it itched for a few days, I thought it was nothing.' Clearly, the lack of oxygen hasn't affected his sense of humor, not that Sherlock will know.

He lifts two fingers.]

[the_new_sexy]

[Sherlock looks at the two fingers, and wonders if they're actually affirming 'no', or if that, coupled with John's expression, means a rather more vulgar gesture.]

Well, there isn't much time. How long can you go out of the water without having to breathe? Maybe we can make it in a cab.

[pulling_rank]

[The world may never, ever know.

He drinks in more water then mouths, 'Not long'. It isn't very helpful, but it is the truth. He'd only just made it up the stairs and to his room, but he'd been fine after he'd gotten out of the shower.]

[the_new_sexy]

Yes, I know 'not long'. How long is not long?

[he looks to the door. Maybe he can build some sort of an aerator. Something. Anything to keep John alive.]

[pulling_rank]

[He doesn't know how long. He reaches up to take hold of the sides of the bath, and pull himself up. Only one real way to find out, wasn't there?

He flounders at first, when he comes up out of the water. There's a brief moment of panic, as he tries to breathe, but he can't again.

He tries to focus on the fact that he can breathe out here. He shouldn't have any difficulty with this and-

-he gasps in an actual breath. Then another, and struggling for each one. The gills on the side of his jaw flatten and seem to merge with the skin; no longer needed.]

I don't know.

[the_new_sexy]

[Sherlock leans in, watching as the gills flatten away, becoming part of his skin.

He blinks a few times, as if to shake away what obviously can't be true but what must be true.]

We have to get you somewhere with faster moving water. Something aerated, in case it starts again.

[pulling_rank]

[He nods and moves to push himself up, so he can climb out of the bath.]

I won't argue with that.

[He's trembling slightly, still very much out of sorts after that ordeal. Not to mention his being completely soaked now, and cold.]

[the_new_sexy]

[Sherlock, oblivious to the fact that he's also wet and cold, immediately heads for the door.]

I'll need to take some blood and skin scrapings, too. See if we can figure out what's mutating in your cell structure.

[pulling_rank]

[He follows after, just a bit slower.]

I think we have enough time to change. You'll freeze out there. We both need different clothes.

Cabs probably won't take us if we're soaked anyways.

[the_new_sexy]

John, we don't know how much time you've got before that happens again. I'm not going to have you choke to death in between here and---wherever we're going.

[He immediately pulls out his phone and begins punching in information, trying to find the nearest large water pump or some sort of zoo they can use.]

[pulling_rank]

Right-yes, you're right.

[He heads downstairs after him, grabbing his coat off the back of his chair, and slipping it on. He's only wearing a soaked through bathrobe, and leaving trails of water everywhere he goes.]

Where are we going?

[the_new_sexy]

Sea Life. I'm texting Mycroft, he should be able to get us in unrestricted. Get you somewhere to be safely, I can use some of their equipment to work out what's happening.

[he holds up a hand, and a taxi stops, giving him a wary look at his relatively wet self and his extremely wet companion.]

Get in, John.

[pulling_rank]

[John gets in, wrapping his coat tightly around himself as he does, and cringes at the squishy feeling of being in the seat soon after.]

What if we can't work it out?

[the_new_sexy]

Not an option.

[pulling_rank]

Right.

[He offers a smile at him that doesn't quite reach his eyes.]

[the_new_sexy]

[Clearly this wasn't good enough. He slides into the cab and directs it to the aquarium]

Not enough crimes happen near the Thames.

[pulling_rank]

[He looks over at him, confusion clear, but then it hits him. It hits him and he actually giggles like the first night with the cabbie and those bloody pills. It's all nerves and adrenaline, but it's still funny.]

You'll be bored. The wall is doomed.

[the_new_sexy]

[he finds himself laughing as well. The whole situation is just---it's so ridiculous. It could only be them.]

Well, you won't be able to hear it unless we set up a rather large tank in the sitting room.

[pulling_rank]

[And that just makes him laugh harder, looking over and seeing Sherlock laughing as well despite the ordeal they are still having to try and work through.]

[the_new_sexy]

[The drive isn't terribly long, and Sherlock is already forming ideas in his head about why this has happened to John, and what it can mean.

They have to fix it, whatever it means.]

[pulling_rank]

[It isn't that long, but it didn't take long after his shower for him to start having difficulty back at the flat. He pulls in a breath, wheezing softly.

He looks to Sherlock.]

How much farther?

[the_new_sexy]

Not far, John.

[He tries to sound disinterested, but he's definitely feeling fear again. John can't have another attack, not like before. He continues to text Mycroft, and has a tank waiting for them by the time they pull up.]

[pulling_rank]

Good. That's good.

[Sherlock isn't the only one feeling afraid or vulnerable at the moment. His difficulty breathing is steadily getting worse, just as before.]