[open/closed] I watched a change in you

[deploy]

who: John Sheppard & friends, GUEST STARRING the retrovirus, and anyone unlucky enough to cross his path
what: John's problematic transformation from a man into a manbugthing and all the drama that follows
when: Late April to early May
where: Various, inside and outside the wall
warnings: Graphic violence, sexual content, disturbing imagery, language... your typical Rated R Sci-fi movie

Day 0: John is bitten by a venomous insect in the field. Lingering traces of the Irratus bug retrovirus in his system are activated in biological defense, successfully counteracting the venom.

Day 1: No outward physical mutation. Physiological condition is optimized. All symptoms of stress, fatigue and exertion are eliminated. Near instantaneous healing of minor wounds. Strength, speed, stamina, and durability are at peak human capacity. Dopamines and hormones exceed normal levels. Positive change in mood is subsequent.

Day 2: No outward physical mutation. Instantaneous healing of minor wounds. Strength, speed, stamina, and durability are above peak human capacity. Dopamines and hormones are off the charts. Senses are enhanced. Extreme decline of mental/emotional/sexual inhibitions. Behaviour is erratic and reactive.

Day 3: Physical mutation begins, progressing rapidly. Pupils become slitted. Skin and extremities show signs of textural change, becoming rough, hardened and discoloured. Grey dermal patterning covers significant portion of body. Near instantaneous healing of major wounds. Strength, speed, stamina, and durability , as well as senses, are super-human. Shift of brain chemicals and hormones from human to Iratus bug. Loss of mental/emotional/sexual inhibitions. Behaviour is extremely erratic, reactive, and violent.

Day 4: Physical mutation advances significantly, altering facial features. Skin takes on an exoskeleton appearance. Strength, speed, stamina, and durability, as well as senses, are super-human. Complete regenerative ability. Extreme shift of brain chemicals and hormones from human to Iratus bug. Loss of mental/emotional/sexual inhibitions. Loss of identity, and some cognitive function. Behaviour is that of an apex predator. Hyper-violent, territorial, and predatory.

Day 5: Chrysalis. Complete transformation to Iratus hybrid, and loss of human consciousness. Point of no return.

Comments

[winscenario]

Jim knew something was wrong the moment he ran into John.

His mistake was keeping it to himself. He should've said something, and since John evidently wasn't open to hearing him out, he knew who to come to, someone from John's world, who might've had an insight of what was happening to him. Turns out that Rodney was the one to contact him instead, though, when things were already going down.

So yeah, he does feel kinda bad for not saying anything before. He just hopes it's not too late to make it right.

Getting the group together and taking the shuttle out was done in a rush, but considering the urgent nature of the situation, it's not like they had much choice. Rodney seems to know better than all of them what they're dealing with anyway, and Jim follows his lead. While Rodney gives them directions and tells them where to go, both he and Poe get the shuttle deeper into the wild, lowering altitude finally when Rodney points at what looks like the entrance to a cave at the base of a mountain, small and practically unseen in the midst of trees and greenery.

"There's a clearing there," he points to a patch of land with no trees or bushes just a few feet away from the entrance to the cave. He turns to Poe. "Let's bring her down there. Should be safe enough."

[bythehand]

Well. This has been an unprecedented turn in events. Sort of completely beyond the measurable scale of things that Finn would have predicted or expected, actually. Which in some strange way is exactly the kind of thing he normally finds himself waiting for, on any typical day. Impossible second shoes dropping out of nowhere.

It's the kind of thing a person hopes they're wrong about expecting, of course.

He sits with Chyler once everyone and whatever equipment they're bringing on this mission is accounted for, hasn't seem particularly inclined to put too much distance between them if he can help it. On the ground, he'll do whatever he's supposed to do as far as the game plan goes. For now, there's a shallow comfort in knowing she's right here.

Safe to say they've both been particularly on the sober side so far, even for them. Fits with the overall mood.

Finn glances towards the front of the shuttle as Jim speaks, then over to Chyler with a nod. He doesn't have anything in particular to say.

[technospeak]

Rodney is a worrier. It's something that's woven into the fabric of who he is, who he has been ever since he was a child. Some people call it paranoia, some people call it neuroticism, but Rodney himself just considers it practicality.

After all, he's so very rarely wrong about the things that are going to go wrong. Rodney is a worrier, but he also trusts his own instincts, so when things had seemed a little strange with John, he hadn't hesitated to immediately slap a tracker on him. Case in point, reasons it's wise to trust Rodney McKay's instincts, no matter how 'neurotic' they are.

Sitting in the passenger seat of the shuttle with Jim, dressed in his full tactical getup, he hunches over his tablet, hooked on one hand while the other hovers over it, tapping at keys, blue eyes flicking back and forth as he scans the map and the tracking dot on it. It's a good distraction from all the problems ahead - what's wrong with John, whether it's the same thing as before but faster-acting, whether they've followed him in time, whether they can concoct a cure without any Iratus eggs, what he'll do if they lose John in this jungle...

Some things don't bear thinking about.

Instead, he points almost distractedly at a cave on the mountain and lets Jim and Poe handle the piloting, glances behind himself at Finn and Chyler, feeling a strangely intense surge of gratitude toward them.

"When we get down there, you're going to have to be very careful. The way he's been...he's not like John anymore. And as we all know, he'd rather be hurt than have you go soft on him and end up hurting you. Got it?"

[childofaxios]

Chyler doesn't know if she can do this, but she keeps that to herself. She stays quiet, stays close to Finn, keeps her mouth shut and her military face, as she's come to think of it, firmly in place. (She never would have called it her military face before John, she never would have considered herself anything but a soldier before John, she never would have felt at home anywhere but a barracks before John--)

When Rodney speaks, she takes a quiet, deep breath and nods. Just once. Just to show she understands, though she also rebels against the thought. She knows it's true, even if she doesn't like it. The truth doesn't need to be liked.

[winscenario]

It's a few seconds before the shuttle lands, and Jim's already getting to his feet and moving to the back to gather their supplies. It's important to carry anything they might need, but they can't take so much that it'll just weigh them down. He has a few stun guns on him, his phaser, his dagger if all else fails. There's also a thick net, ropes, flashlights, light sticks, a number of different weapons, most of them meant for stunning or sedating, if they can even manage that much. He distributes everything among the group evenly, then they head out towards the cave.

They use one of the light sticks to see how far down it goes. It's dark, and the descent is pretty steep, so the rope will come in handy. He secures grapples onto the rocks so the rope can handle their weight, then before anyone else gets to offer, he starts getting ready to go in first.

"Rodney, you come down after me. I'll be waiting for you, but keep the comm line open anyway. If anything's off down there, I'll let you know." With that, he starts rappelling down to the main chamber, a light strapped to his head. He keeps looking down so he knows how long it'll be until he'll reach the bottom, and eventually his feet touch solid ground.

Unhooking himself from the rope, he puts away the head torch, using his stronger flashlight to look around the chamber. He speaks quietly into his comm device. "It's... fine. Safe, for now. Just a lot of bugs all over, but you can come down."

[bythehand]

Finn likewise offers Rodney a nod of acknowledgement before they land. It's not the sort of promise he finds he has too much trouble making. John the way he usually is and John however he is right now seem like they'll be more than different enough in motion to be able to separate out.

The sooner they take him down, the sooner they get him back. And honestly, there's hardly any call for going soft on John on a regular day, anyway. Should be manageable.

This is gonna be fine. Maybe if they all keep thinking that, they'll pull in a little good luck.

By the time it's time to wait on that old rappelling lineup, he's practically thrumming with tense energy.

[childofaxios]

Chyler waits her turn, hating it. She wants to be down there. She wants to find John, find him now, bring him home. She watches Rodney go over the edge, then Finn (silent agreement on their part, a common formation with Chyler at the rear). When she finally makes the climb herself she's borderline reckless, sliding down faster than is probably safe, glad she has her gloves to keep her hands from burning.

Jim wasn't kidding about the bugs. They make Chyler uneasy, if only because they remind her on some level of the monsters that attacked her academy. Too many things remind her of them.

Kirk leads the way deeper, and Chyler keeps to the rear, using her night vision goggles and watching the shadows for anything that might attack from behind. Every once in a while the green of her goggles flares white at the edges as the others give up on cutting their way through the sticky webbing all over the cavern and burn it instead.

Down. Down, down, down. The bugs get bigger. One of them, a big one, almost half her size, rushes their little party after they pass and she lets loose with a short burst of gunfire, pulping the thing's head. She thinks it's the head anyway. Either way, the thing doesn't get back up.

"We're close," Rodney says, his voice far steadier than Chyler would have expected from him, if a little high-pitched. "We're very close."

[winscenario]

Jim's attention is split between the group coming down the rope, and the bugs all around the cave. There are a lot of them, and some are pretty big. Far from the squeamish type, and not really bothered by bugs in general, he still can't help a trace of concern about what might happen if those bugs decide they're a thread and attack them.

He reaches for anyone coming down, helping them to their feet, making sure they're all present and accounted for before heading deeper into the dark again. There's a flashlight attached to his shoulder, and he's wielding a large tranq gun, with enough to take down a really large elephant. Maybe a T-Rex, even. Mutation or not, he just can't bring himself to go lethal on John unless he absolutely must.

Chyler's gun going off startles him a little, on edge as he is. He steels himself anyway, glancing back vaguely and nodding at Rodney's words. It's another couple seconds at best before he hears rustling— louder than the bugs, like something bigger is moving up ahead.

He lifts a fist up, gesturing for the group to stop. He reaches for the flashlight built into his weapon, turning it on, only for it to land on a very familiar frame, even with all the changes he's been through. "... John—"