What they do

Modisy

Modify. Together.    

    The parasites are a race of aliens sent to Earth by another malicious alien species to dominate over the planet. They infect via the mouth; either hiding in food or crawling in directly. Their long, sturdy, and powerful jaws can be used both for feeding themselves and feeding themselves to something.

    Once in the stomach, they fold their bodies, bind themselves with their tails, and incubate to go through a metamorphosis by which they shrink themselves down to only about a few millimeters. This can take a day or several, it all depends on their host's food intake and how nutritious the food they unknowingly feed the parasite is. Their exoskeletons are the key to protection from the powerful acids.

    At the finish of their transformation, they will burrow out of the stomach and catch a ride to the brain via the blood stream; as well as serving as transportation, the bloodstream will become the prime nutrient supply for the bug. They will grasp the vein wall when they sense the correct electrical signals from the neurons. The parasites are very intelligent, and fast learners. They have learned how to be cautious and how to correctly damage the brain to their advantage. After their examination and 'vandalism' they will positon themselves between the brain and skull, laying lightly on the surface of brain to grow once more. At this point, they begin their second metamorphosis. This change is the one most impacted by host species. They will change to conform to the brain, and grow to fill the space between it and the skull. When finished, the parasite is large enough to compress the brain against the skull wall which causes noticeable discomfort. When ready, they take control. When this happens, the host's eyes begin to change into a ringed pattern.

    Weak at first, it will take a bit of time to gain full control over the host; however once the parasite has achieved this, the host will be powerless to control themselves. The host's eyes will be fully transformed as well. At times, the parasite may feel the host trying to regain control Sometimes the host will succeed in dismissing the control of the parasite, but will have a very difficult time actually controlling their bodies for themselves. If control is dismissed from the parasite, they will 'punish' the host by causing a horrible migraine until they can retake their puppet.

    The parasite will actively put in their best efforts to keep the host alive. They will take good care to keep it safe as well as feed it properly. Once a parasite captures a host, they will either keep it until it gets mangled beyond fully healing, or until they have an opportunity for a better, more powerful host. However, it the host happens to die or be disabled and powerless to move the parasite will abandon it by burrowing out of the head, leaving behind a large exit wound.

    Once out of the body, the parasite is extremely vulnerable. Their brain form has a very thin exoskeleton, shorter legs not well equipped for running fast, and very little defensive structures. When they leave their host, they will flee to the nearest member of their race for protection. Usually it is the warriors that protect the hostless brain-forms, but sometimes the royals themselves will take them into their den for protection until they go through their third metamorphosis to change back to their out-of-body form.

    This is where the slaves come into play. Hostless bugs will look to the slaves as their next hosts. The host they acquire is determined by their rank in the hive. The more important the bug, the better the host they will receive. Once chosen, the warriors will assist the bug by incapacitating the slave without harming it to ensure the bug's safety within the self-controlled animal until it can gain proper control.