So, in my urban fantasy set in 1998 America, some humans, under very rare conditions, can spontaneously mutate into the first member of a new, magically active species. These species are collectively called immortals, and this is the process that brought vampires, werewolves, elves, dwarves, etc. into existence. The shapes they take, the traits they develop and the powers they obtain are often heavily influenced by their environment and circumstances at the time, perhaps developing strong resistances to whatever's hurting them in a life-or-death situation, or transforming to fit in more with their environment. One antagonist in my story is the progenitor of a species of cannibalistic shapeshifting engines of body horror known as fleshmaws. While they can easily take on normal human forms (especially the forms of the humans they have eaten), in order to make the most of their powers they generally become a humanoid mass of red meat and jet black bones, constantly shifting in shape and mass. I tried to picture what sort of situation would prompt this to happen, and the scenario I came up with was that this guy, a 13-year-old boy at the time, fell into a pile of butchered, bloody animal carcasses and understandably had a panic attack that unluckily triggered, and defined, his transformation. Which sounds cool and scary and all... but how many opportunities does a kid have to accidentally have that happen to them? If I have to, I suppose I can make this part of an outrageously vile "prank" pulled on him by a psychopathic school bully, but I wanna take a step back and weigh my options before I go that far. Is there a more realistic reason why such a pile of animal carcasses would be somewhere that a 13-year-old kid could wind up falling into?
stockyard: a large yard containing pens and sheds, typically adjacent to a slaughterhouse, in which livestock is kept and sorted. I'm not sure why there'd be a pile of carcasses, unless that's the way they do things. But at least it's something to think about. But there definiteluy cold be animal parts on the floor, big floor drains they hose mass quantities of blood into, and that unbelieveable stench of stockyards and animlas being butchered. If he would just slip in the blood and slide through a bunch of butchered parts that would be pretty horrific.
Oh, if the age of the antagonist I mentioned made you think this was for kids, no. This was something that happened in the past, the antagonist in question is in his 20s now. I'm just fleshing out his backstory.
Hmm, actually, no, not in the US. Stockyards hold the animals for sale, and they are shipped out to meat processing plants or slaughterhouses. Any animals that die in the stockyard are treated like medical waste - incineration. I don't know about the processing plants.
He can work for a butcher. They have freezers full of meat and tubs of viscera because they do separate those parts out. They don't let kids kill the animals. At least I never saw that. (I can't imagine it happening.) You do get to haul around tubs though. They're that really thick plastic that's semi-translucent, the color of cartilage. Picture industrial stainless steel carts whose castors are gummy with fat, perpetually greasy like they're smeared with Crisco. The kid throws big storage bins of hearts/livers/etc on it, but it's slippery and the tub spills all over him. He's more concerned about about his boss killing him, because he just ruined those selections. They can't be washed off after falling on the floor. They're just offal now. He's trying to get up, but falling back into mess, because he's already started to change . . . Or how about this. He's a stagehand helping a local metal band make a video. Maybe they're supposed to be musical werewolves or some juvenile nonsense. They can even be a high school band. They've got the aforementioned tubs of viscera. And once again, splat! Then he'd have more of an excuse to freak out because he's not accustomed to the sight of it. Gives me a chance to post Carcass again because it relates to both of the above. Favorite solo of the year. Listen to that! I just love the way that guitar tone switches in and sweeps up the scales. That's not blood though. I've seen that science experiment. It's toner, or some kind of ink, I think. It has iron suspended in it or something and reacts oddly to magnetic fields. There's another detail for you if you decide to go that route. (Dr. Grandin, mentioned in the video, has done talks around here. I know people who visited with her and even shook her hand. Which was probably uncomfortable for her because of her nervous condition. Severely autistic . . . She really tried, and I appreciate her bravery. She has a natural understanding for how cattle think. Very unusual lady. Is that enough distracted asides?)
Search for 'rendering truck crashes'. It's not uncommon. You should find a scenario where your teenager could end up in the middle of the mess. Truck spills rotting carcasses onto I-5, slowing traffic 18-wheeler spills animal guts on Eastex Freeway frontage road
Thanks for the replies! I've ultimately decided this wasn't the best way to go on my part though. Oh wow, this seems really, really promising. Thank you!
Neither. The character in question is no longer going to be the progenitor of the species, but the bastard child of said progenitor, who is now dead, making him the lone survivor of a thought-extinct species. Progenitor events are very unlikely in my setting and I already had one of this guy's friends turn out to be one, so I mixed things up for the sake of suspension of disbelief. But if I ever tell the original progenitor's story I will definitely consider the rendering truck idea.
During World War I, soldiers would often slaughter large hoards of animals in order to prevent the enemy soldiers from taking them. During the Western expansion it was common practice of literally everyone to run large herds of buffalo off a cliff. Consider looking up how slaughter houses were run in ye olden days as well.
I think something more traumatic than falling into butchered remains is needed to elicit the kind of transformation you are describing. A prolonged period of trauma capped off with a defining event. It might be in wartime, or in a severely dysfunctional family, in PTSD conditions, that leaves the child craving human flesh, even looking at it as a form of love.
