Slashers

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Slashers are an uncommon but extremely dangerous class of Entities found in the Backrooms.
==Description==
A witness sketch of an unidentified Slasher.
Slashers are undead entities that take many forms and vary wildly in appearance, intelligence level, and strength. However, two qualities that all Slashers have in common is their creation and highly sadistic nature.
Slashers were once Wanderers who met their demise in the Backrooms after consuming Devil’s Ambrosia. A parasitic flower known for its sweet-smelling and tasting nectar, said flower resurrecting them as mindless, undead killers with an unquenchable lust for blood.
Slashers kill indiscriminately and will pursue anything considered alive, preying on both Wanderers and Entities alike. The only beings that Slashers have not been observed to attack unless provoked to are Deathmoths and other Slashers. 
Slashers have been shown to not only be typically non-hostile towards each other but capable of cooperation and forming symbiotic relationships as well, such as in the case of The Ringleader and his gang of Slashers known colloquially as the Circus Freaks. The only two observed circumstances in which Slashers will actually attack or even attempt to kill one another is if the Slashers in question are competing for food or a potential victim.
Slashers typically build their own habitats, a sort of “base of operations”, and will often wander the levels they inhabit looking for any and all living, breathing life to brutally slaughter without mercy and once they have found suitable prey, nothing can stop them until they have drawn blood, nothing.
All Slashers have a unique motif and appearance that often coincides with who they were when they were alive, often to an exaggerated degree, such as a wanderer with a background in comedy returning as a “killer clown”. Certain traits and attributes are also exaggerated, such as a particularly muscular wanderer gaining even greater muscle mass.
It is common for those who have consumed Devil’s Ambrosia to change drastically in appearance and physiology upon becoming Slashers, such as in the case of Mr. Teddy who takes the form of a “possessed” teddy bear. The Devil’s Ambrosia anomalously transmitting his consciousness into a stuffed bear that was on his person at the time of his death, this phenomenon of the Devil’s Ambrosia being capable of implanting the consciousness of someone into different “hosts” such as inanimate objects is fairly rare.
The intelligence and strength of a Slasher varies from specimen to specimen. Some display higher brain functions such as complex thoughts and personalities, while others are more simple and oftentimes aphasic. However, Slashers possess a natural hunting instinct; even the seemingly simpler, more brutish ones are highly pragmatic if it will aid them in slaughtering their next victim.
Most Slashers have also exhibited a habit of wearing masks to obscure their faces, the reason behind this instinct is unknown. Researchers theorize that this is possibly an intimidation tactic as many Slashers have shown to derive twisted pleasure and amusement in seeing their victims experience great fear and panic caused by their appearance alone before taking their lives.
Many Slashers wield a “signature” weapon that they use to kill, typically a bladed weapon, albeit a wide variety of other weapon types, such as blunt instruments, have been observed as well. Some Slashers have even been observed to utilize multiple weapons that they alternate between.
Each Slasher has their own unique methods and strategies for killing, some more complex than others. Particularly intelligent Slashers are the most difficult to survive an encounter with, such as with Puzzler who prefers to kill her victims indirectly via the use of perilous death traps and deadly tests.
It has been observed that animals and even Entities can become Slashers as well if they ingested Devil’s Ambrosia, such as in the case of Mr. Skintaker, a Skin-Stealer that has become an intelligent and eloquent Jack The Ripper-like Slasher.
The Crimson Wanderer has expressed in M.E.G. interview logs that Slashers and the Devil’s Ambrosia are some of the most ancient aspects of The Backrooms. In his time, Slashers were known as “Revenants”, and were not as numerous as they are today, nor was the Devil’s Ambrosia as widespread, both becoming something of an infestation in The Backrooms. However, with The Crimson Wanderer’s help, the M.E.G. has managed to put enough Slashers in containment to the point where the entities are a rare encounter in the Backrooms.
==Properties==
Slashers are essentially immortal, being able to survive virtually anything thrown at them and shake off any kind of damage sustained whether it be bullets, fire, acid, electricity etc. 
Slashers are a daunting threat to go up against due to their incredible durability, equally impressive regenerative abilities and inhumanly high pain tolerance but a Slasher’s endurance and tolerance to certain types of damage depends on the individual. Slashers are also highly resistant to extreme temperatures, hot or cold and possess no need to breath.
Even when a Slasher appears to be dead, they’re actually in a coma-like state known as the Resurrection Period, a state that Slashers enter when they have sustained an amount of damage that has physically overwhelmed their bodies, causing them to cease all function in order to conserve and focus their energy into regeneration. However, this is only if their bloodstream has constant, uninterrupted circulation as their body regenerates, cutting off circulation somehow could severely stunt a Slasher’s regeneration process.
A Slasher can be decapitated, blown to smithereens or melted down to nothing but puddles of gore but their bodies will eventually reform and they will reawaken to kill again. How long a Slasher’s resurrection period lasts depends on the damage taken, being blown apart for example can take a Slasher months to recuperate but they will always get back up eventually if allowed to.
Durability aside, all Slashers have displayed physical capabilities significantly above what is normally possible for a particular Slasher’s species or size, possessing strength, speed, stamina, endurance, senses and reflexes that makes them a considerable threat to encounter. Physical capabilities vary from subject to subject, some Slashers are faster than others, some are physically weaker etc.
Many Slashers develop supernatural abilities that often coincide with multiple factors such as the circumstances of their deaths or their backgrounds, such as with The Taxidermist who has the uncanny ability to reanimate dead animals, including his chimeric taxidermy creations and command them to kill for him. How the Devil’s Ambrosia is capable of bestowing these abilities are unknown.
All Slashers have the pitch black nectar of Devil’s Ambrosia running through their veins instead of blood, said nectar is theorized to be a Slasher’s lifeblood, the source of their great strength, abilities and immortality, regenerating their bodies from wounds and repairing them completely during their resurrection period. Said nectar also “bleeds” from the eyes of Slashers who possess eyes as well.
Due to taking the place of their blood, the nectar of the Devil’s Ambrosia will bleed from the wounds of Slashers that have sustained damage which helps propagate the spread of the Devil’s Ambrosia as the flower will grow from the nectar once said nectar has been made contact with fertile soil and has been properly pollinated by Deathmoths.
Slashers have shown to be attracted to Devil’s Ambrosia as they always crave it, ingesting the flower when they get the chance to. It’s also been observed that ingesting Devil’s Ambrosia greatly energizes and rejuvenates a Slasher upon consumption and heals all wounds that they might have had at the time of consumption. 
Killing is a Slasher’s one and only purpose and they are highly proficient in the art of killing. As a result, most Slashers are capable of improvising exceptionally well and formulating strategies to get the upper hand and kill their victims.
Aside from their signature weapon, Slashers are highly proficient in using any weapon and they can use virtually any object as a deadly weapon as well. Many Slashers have been shown to construct their own weapons as well.
Once a Slasher has found a victim, they will “imprint” on that victim and they will not stop until they have killed them. Slashers are capable of noclipping on command, allowing them to go through obstacles such as walls to chase victims unimpeded and even “teleport” around their environment to get the jump on their prey. 
Slashers have an incredibly long memory span and will remember the faces and voices of multiple potential victims for years at a time. Some Slashers have even been shown to imprint on multiple victims at once and those that do have a tendency to pick off each victim one by one rather than attempting to kill all of them at once.
Most Slashers have not been shown to follow Wanderers into other levels or travel to other levels themselves, typically staying in the level that they were “born” in. On exceedingly rare cases however, some Slashers that exhibit higher levels of intelligence and awareness have been shown to noclip into other levels in order to pursue their victims.
Actually defending yourself from a Slasher is near impossible unless one has prior knowledge of a particular Slasher’s weaknesses or is in possession of powerful weaponry. Hand-to-hand combat is an especially useless endeavor in most circumstances due to most, if not all Slasher’s possessing the strength of ten men and a complete immunity to pain.
==Weaknesses==
High-grade explosives and Liquid Pain have been shown to be very effective in doing significant damage and slowing down a Slasher long enough to make some distance between you and them. Liquid Pain has been shown to cripple their regenerative abilities by a considerable amount as well, making it easier to harm a Slasher and gain the upper hand in combat if running isn’t an option.
Backshrooms and weaponry enhanced by them are effective on Slashers as either a deterrent or a way to deal some legitimate damage, depending on the species of Backshrooms being utilized and the Slasher in question of course. Death Shrooms, Boom Shrooms, Sick Shrooms, Nuke Shrooms and Mana Shrooms have shown to be highly effective on most Slashers while Hypno Shrooms are only effective on certain Slashers, such as ones with simpler minds and low intellects. Shock Shrooms are highly effective on aquatic slashers, Cryo Shrooms are effective towards Slashers with fire-based abilities etc.
Life Force appears to be a Slasher’s kryptonite as they have shown to be very vulnerable to life force-based attacks, sustaining greater damage from life force attacks than anything else that has been observed. Making those who have learned to use this arcane practice more than capable in defending themselves from a Slasher attack, albeit if the Slasher they are facing isn’t significantly more powerful than they as power and strength level does tend to differ between specimen to specimen.
The M.E.G. have noted the Slasher’s attraction to Devil’s Ambrosia and learned to use it to their advantage, using it to attract, distract and contain Slashers or even lure them into traps. The most common method of using Devil’s Ambrosia against Slashers is grinding the flower into powder and pressurizing it into a gas to use in “Ambrosia Grenades”, high-tech gas grenades used to attract Slashers or deter them from those they are seeking to kill.
Slashers can also be avoided with the use of “Devil’s Fire”, a concoction created by mixing Greek Fire with the nectar of Devil’s Ambrosia, igniting it will result in a purple flame that will send Slashers who look upon it into a blind rage directed at said flame, distracting them long enough to escape.
Every Slasher has a weakness of some kind, some more obvious than others such as in the case of Frostbite, a Slasher with cryokinetic capabilities having a substantial weakness to fire and heat.
==M.E.G. Response==
Levels inhabited by Slashers will often be marked by signs such as this one to warn Wanderers.
The M.E.G. have concluded that Slashers are a high level threat to all wanderers due to their unwavering bloodlust, supernatural abilities, persistence in pursuing multiple prey and ability to noclip and have made extensive efforts in containing them as a result.
Due to the apparent immortality of Slashers, simply neutralizing these undead killers isn’t an option and thus, the M.E.G. can only contain Slashers at Warehouse X, a maximum security base built specifically to transport and house Slashers to be experimented on by the organization’s R&D department for the purpose of discovering a way of bypassing a Slasher’s resurrection abilities and permanently neutralize them. Because of this, M.E.G. research on Devil’s Ambrosia and the effect it has on those that consume it are also held at Warehouse X.
The Crimson Wanderer works with the M.E.G. to hunt down and contain Slashers in order to protect others and study them in order to discover a way to put them down for good, essentially acting as bounty hunter. The vast majority of Slashers currently in containment are there thanks to The Crimson Wanderer. 
The Crimson Wanderer has a vehement hatred towards Slashers due to their wanton thirst for killing and laments that they cannot be permanently killed even by his blade and due to the steadily rising Slasher population due to the infestation of the Devil’s Ambrosia, he and The Court have elected that collaboration with the M.E.G. to contain and study them is what’s best to protect those already struggling to survive in The Backrooms and stop the spread of Slashers. Others have since joined the crusade against Slashers such as The Squires and The Rose Warrior.
All contained Slashers are each housed in their own subjective reality, “pseudo space” housing cells that make them believe that they are within their natural habitat (Level of origin) and incapable of noclipping through. Contained Slashers are also outfitted with Liquid Pain injecting control collars when applicable to further ensure sufficient containment.
The Storyteller estimates there are at least 800,000,000 Slashers currently in existence and that number steadily grows as more Slashers are created from Wanderers and entities ingesting the Devil’s Ambrosia, unaware of the consequences of doing so. Due to the sheer amount of Slashers that exist in the Backrooms, the M.E.G. and it’s allies find it best to focus on containing the especially powerful and dangerous Slashers that pose the greatest threat to life in The Backrooms.
Although the M.E.G. does not encourage wanderers to actively seek out Slashers, the organization has stated that they do accept bounties for Slashers, trading valuable resources to wanderers who manage to subdue and bring in Slashers to M.E.G. outposts. The higher threat a Slasher is, the greater the reward. This “open season” on Slashers was declared so that more specimens can be contained while the organization focuses on the search and containment of “higher priority” Slashers.
Extensive efforts have also been made in the retrieval, containment or even outright destruction of the Devil’s Ambrosia due to the threat it poses in creating new Slashers any time a wanderer discovers and ingests them, the booming Slasher population being evident of the flower’s widespread influence. Team Magnolia and Team Rose are appointed to retrieve the flower for scientific research and destroy large “hives” of it respectively.
==Notes==
*The name ”Slasher” is in reference to a sub-genre of horror films where a killer stalks and kills a group of characters (typically teenagers) one by one. This includes films like Friday The 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween. The name was first coined on October 17th, 1988 by M.E.G. field agent, “Lucky” Buck Johnson when he referred to a Slasher attacking a base he was stationed in as “mean, ugly and looks like something out of a Slasher movie” during a transmission to headquarters requesting backup. Buck Johnson was the only survivor of this incident, earning him the nickname, “Lucky Buck”.
*Symbiotic and cooperative behavior between Slashers was first observed in a disastrous, base-wide containment breach taking place in Warehouse X on January 8th, 2010, involving the exceptionally intelligent Slashers known as Dr. Gore and Model Student leading their own groups of more simple-minded Slashers that have aligned themselves to their respective leaders. Said groups being formed in order to better their chances of escaping the base and return to the outer expanse of the Backrooms, killing as many M.E.G. personnel as possible along the way. This incident has become known as “Red Hour” to M.E.G. records and is responsible for one of the biggest losses of personnel in the organization’s history.
*Slashers typically retain remnants of their former personality but in a much more exaggerated and twisted way. Some of them however have become simple, mindless killers and shadows of their former selves.
*Although their undead physiologies wouldn’t necessitate it, Slashers have been shown to partake in certain biological functions such as eating or sleeping.
*Slashers also don’t appear to age, their undead physiologies stunning the aging process of their cells.
*Some of the more monstrous or inhuman Slashers can be mistaken as other kinds of Entities, a Slasher can be identified by noting the abundance of Devil’s Ambrosia nectar flowing through their veins instead of blood as well as any nectar that may be “bleeding” from the eyes if they have them.
*It is believed that the reason why Slashers are not hostile towards Deathmoths is because the Deathmoths play a role in the life cycle of the Devil’s Ambrosia, being spreading the flower’s growth via pollination.
Category:Entities