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001 | Welcome to the Surgery Altar
Feb. 19th, 2026 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whomthebelltolls[CW: Dissection, parasitism, just generally really goopy medical grossness.]
[Unfortunately, Maria doesn't really know about nor believe in content warnings, so those who are browsing the Murmur near the end of Week 3 or beginning of Week 4 of February are going to run smack-dab, face-first into Maria dissecting a Lesser Guardian.
The image is mostly from her perspective, but she has dressed down into just her undershirt, with the sleeves rolled up. She's wearing her leather gloves over her hands, and her hunter's trousers, all of which are splattered in thick, black sludge. She stands in what appears to be the lobby of some kind of old office building, with the Guardian laying dead on a table. Nearby, a few reappropriated bottles and mason jars contain the same thick, black sludge, as well as some strange slug-like creatures.
The Lesser Guardian's torso is cut wide open, with its void-black musculature under its weird, smooth skin exposed. A knife - not a scalpel, but a flip-blade knife from some collector's case or another - lays nearby. The whole thing has the vibe of a very ad-hoc surgery theater. Or mortuary.
Without much warning, she reaches into the torso cavity as movement catches her eye, and comes out with a thick, black slug that wiggles weakly in her fingers a few times, then falls limp. Disappointment prickles through the Murmur.]
... The creatures haunting about this month are more interesting than I had hoped.
I would like assistance with a few things: Firstly, more of them to study. I've hunted a few, but it's been difficult to obtain a pristine specimen. I am willing to go with a hunting party. Secondly, a place to store and perhaps better investigate them, if anyone knows of a safe place. [And that's all she really needs from the Murmur, but she does step back to the Guardian's side to continue, for those that didn't immediately try to turn it off or change the channel:]
For those interested: Their blood is some sort of thick sludge, and they are full of these... phantasms, as I have never seen them before. [She motions at the slug. She does not explain what a "phantasm" is, nor why she called the slug that, before she continues] But the phantasms die quickly after being removed from their hosts; I'd like to find out how to preserve them.
Their flesh and bones seem to be structured like some sort of sapient... wasp's nest, as well. [Guess who's going back in to peel the open skin flaps of the Guardian, and showing off the honeycomb structure of its flesh and muscles on that small sample.] I damaged this one's head when I slayed it, so I would especially like one with an intact head that I can study. I want to see what its brain looks like.
Those squeamish need not apply.
[Unfortunately, Maria doesn't really know about nor believe in content warnings, so those who are browsing the Murmur near the end of Week 3 or beginning of Week 4 of February are going to run smack-dab, face-first into Maria dissecting a Lesser Guardian.
The image is mostly from her perspective, but she has dressed down into just her undershirt, with the sleeves rolled up. She's wearing her leather gloves over her hands, and her hunter's trousers, all of which are splattered in thick, black sludge. She stands in what appears to be the lobby of some kind of old office building, with the Guardian laying dead on a table. Nearby, a few reappropriated bottles and mason jars contain the same thick, black sludge, as well as some strange slug-like creatures.
The Lesser Guardian's torso is cut wide open, with its void-black musculature under its weird, smooth skin exposed. A knife - not a scalpel, but a flip-blade knife from some collector's case or another - lays nearby. The whole thing has the vibe of a very ad-hoc surgery theater. Or mortuary.
Without much warning, she reaches into the torso cavity as movement catches her eye, and comes out with a thick, black slug that wiggles weakly in her fingers a few times, then falls limp. Disappointment prickles through the Murmur.]
... The creatures haunting about this month are more interesting than I had hoped.
I would like assistance with a few things: Firstly, more of them to study. I've hunted a few, but it's been difficult to obtain a pristine specimen. I am willing to go with a hunting party. Secondly, a place to store and perhaps better investigate them, if anyone knows of a safe place. [And that's all she really needs from the Murmur, but she does step back to the Guardian's side to continue, for those that didn't immediately try to turn it off or change the channel:]
For those interested: Their blood is some sort of thick sludge, and they are full of these... phantasms, as I have never seen them before. [She motions at the slug. She does not explain what a "phantasm" is, nor why she called the slug that, before she continues] But the phantasms die quickly after being removed from their hosts; I'd like to find out how to preserve them.
Their flesh and bones seem to be structured like some sort of sapient... wasp's nest, as well. [Guess who's going back in to peel the open skin flaps of the Guardian, and showing off the honeycomb structure of its flesh and muscles on that small sample.] I damaged this one's head when I slayed it, so I would especially like one with an intact head that I can study. I want to see what its brain looks like.
Those squeamish need not apply.
