Mimics (Mimicrus)
Mimicrus, or as they are better known Mimics, are a species of god and devil devouring predators that mimic other gods and devils appearances and behaviors to prey on them.
They are known and feared amongst gods and devils who are weaker and easier preyed upon. To the point where some gods and devils have bound together in order to hunt mimics before they themselves can be hunted by them.
Mimics tend to roam the Nexus in different forms, some even hiding in plain side by pretending to be a mortal.
History
The true origin of Mimics is foggy and shrouded in mystery for the most part.
Though a few speculations have been made from old letters, diaries and the like from aeons ago.
Supposedly, the first Mimic was a God or a Devil who had been stripped off his body. Thus with his shapeless essence alone he sought revenge upon those who wronged him by devouring them and using their face and likeliness to live their life.
As such it is often said that amongst the "Three oddities" of the Nexus, Mimics are the soul of a god and devil. Whereas Espers represent the Heart and Shades the Body.
Anatomy
The anatomy of a Mimic is strange but not to hard to grasp once understood.
Mimics are essentially husks without true organs. They do not possess the need to eat, drink and breathe like most do. Instead fueling their bodies with their chosen type of sustence.
There are a few "organs" that most Mimics seem to possess, assumed to be a mere commodity for Mimics to simulate the five senses. Although most Mimics have claimed to be able to smell, taste, hear, see and feel like any other.
The outer shell of a mimic, is hardened Essence that has formed into a shape befitting of their hunting and protective needs. Most Mimics sport large masses of protective fur, horns, spikes and claws. Though depending on how they grew up, some of those features are more or less defined. An example of this can be seen when viewing two mimics side by side.
One has more fur but less spikes and shorter claws. This Mimic has grown up in a safe environment and has no need to hunt gods and devils, as such it doesnt need its claws or protective spikes.
The other Mimic has large skin penetrating thorns along their body, large claws and less fur. This mimic is a hunter of many, he has slain many gods and devils alike to sate himself and is best avoided.
Mimics have a small patch of belly which is unable to hide it's essence in it's real form. This is speculated to be due to the essences need to have some form out air supply. This Theory could not be confirmed yet though. The skin there is incredibly sensitive and hot to the touch. It's translucent and allows a full view of the Mimics essence as it bubbles and traverses through its body in the form of a syrupy sludge.
These patches tend to grow or shrink with time. With more essence that the Mimic stores within it's body, the more the patch grows.
Mimics use their Essence patch as a form of status symbol amongst themselves. Those who have larger patches are known to be the strongest amongst them. Having devoured plentiful sustenance to sustain such a large Essence patch.
Due to the fragileness and sensitivity of these patches, Mimics tend to grow spikes and large bone like structures around said patches to shield them from attackers.
Mimic cubs are a fickle manner. While the appear sweet and cute, keeping them around is a difficult matter on it's own. It is advised against potentially keeping one alive or close to oneself, as it can develop a need for a less than desirable sustenance near oneself. Such as blood.
When Mimics are first born through whatever means, they are mostly shapeless. The resemble a small white fuzzy ball with little to no defining features. One could compare them to a penguin chick in that stage of life.
As they grow, the cub will slowly adjust to it's environment and it's designated caretaker. This being someone that they imprinted on during their first days of being conscious enough to think. The mimic will begin "mimicking" their caretaker and learning from them. As such some cubs learn to speak mere weeks after being born by copying their caretaker.
During this "copying" phase, they will also develop a form of hunger towards something that they have been around a lot. For example: a Mimic who grew up in a flower field may develop a need for flowers or nectar as sustenance. As such the Mimic may develop insect like bodily functions as well. Such as a tongue with which it can lick up nectar.
As they grow up, they will develop a form of gender as well. Though this gender is more dictated by how they were raised and how they themselves act and behave. These genders will dictate how their essence behaves in contact with another Mimics essence. It will also dictate how it reacts to certain stimuli.
Alpha
- A very dominant and oppressive essence
- Agressive, Territorials and Possesive by nature
- Strive for strength and power
- Their sustenance tends to need them to hunt (Blood, Bone, Brains etc.)
- Alphas go into "Essence Ruts" which essentially is a reaction of their body to having too much essence and not being able to adjust quickly enough. This can be combatted by extracting the Essence out of their bodies. Whether it's through mating or vomiting.
Beta
- Pliant essence that adjusts to anothers
- Calm and very smart
- Protective and often peaceful
- Their sustenance is often materialistic (Gold, Paper, Fabric)
- Betas have neither Heats or Ruts, but they use Alphas and Omegas to ballance their own essence by taking and giving
Omega
- Their essence is weaker and submits
- Sly and cunning as they are perceived as weaker
- Gentle towards kin and rather calm
- Their sustenance is often sentimental (Hearts, Love, Sadness, etc.)
- Omegas go into "Essence Heat" when they have too little essence within their body. It's a form of starvation that makes them seek out an Alpha to take essence from.
Abilities & Powers
Shapeshifting
The one thing Mimics are best known for is their ability to shapeshift into any living being they see. Though they are unable to shapeshift into something or someone that doesn't exist. As such Mimics tend to never have their "own" skin other than their real form.
Turning Sustenance into Essence
It is yet unknown how Mimics are able to take something like the Feeling of Love or even gold coins and devour it. Some claim that Mimics can be compared to chemistry burners. They take something and turn it into fuel. How they take these things though varies from Mimic to Mimic. Some are able to pluck Love right from ones chest as if it were a thin layer of fabric.
Extreme durability
Mimics are known for being extremely difficult to kill, since any decapitated body part can simply be regrow by using some of their stored essence. Even removing their head doesn't kill them.
The only viable option to killing a Mimic is by extracting it's essence from their body with specialised weapons able to absorb the essence like sponges.
Multiplication
Some Mimics rarely do this due to the threat of loosing half of their essence and the sheer ammount of essence needed to form a functional duplicate. This ability is generally only used as a last resort to flee from a scene. A duplicate can be left behind by sacrificing half of ones essence. Mimics are able to form back into one after duplicating, but only if the essence is still in tact within the duplicate.
Portal Creation
A basic ability that most Mimics have picked up from watching gods and devils traverse the nexus. They can create a portal to any place they wish to travel to as long as they have been there before.
Reproduction
Asexual Reproduction
Mimics are notably the only species able to reproduce asexually. Though it is a rare occurence, considering few Mimics wish for a cub to feed and protect.
Asexual reproduction is very similar to how cells reproduce. The parent Mimic, splits off some of his own essence and power to create a small sphere shaped orb. One could consider this a Mimic egg. These eggs are very hot to the touch and have a distant humm of the Mimics power. As such the eggs are best left alone until a Mimic cub hatches from it.
There is instances of some Mimics creating cubs that are already fully grown as lures or as potential obedient hunters for themselves, though creating a fully grown Mimic would cost immense power and essence and thus is generally avoided as well.
If the mimic cup is not yet able to fend for itself, it's up to the parent whether or not the small cub survives. The cub learns and grows according to it's parents teachings. If the parents chooses to abandon the cub, most will seek out the nearest god or devil with a child of their own to replace said child. Their base instincts aid them in doing so.
As such it is unfortuneatly rather common to find that ones own child is actually a mimic.
Reproduction between two Mimics
Should two Mimics wish to create a cub together, this can be done similarly to how a Mimic reproduces asexually.
With the difference, that this time the second Mimic adds his own essence and power to the mix to create an offspring that carries an equal ammount of essence from each parent. The decision of how many cubs a couple of Mimics has is entirely up to the Mimics due to this.
Their determined gender plays a huge role in this, since Alpha Mimics tend to overpower the essence of other Mimics, whereas Omega Mimics rarely are born from such couplings.
A few Examples of Mimic Couplings and their potential offsprings gender:
Alpha + Alpha = Alpha (Rare due to agression between Alphas)
Omega + Alpha = Alpha (Due to Submissive Omega essence)
Omega + Beta = Omega (Due to pliant Beta essence)
Alpha + Beta = Beta (Due to pliant Beta essence)
Beta + Beta = Beta
There are occurances where the gender of a Mimic was something else entirely as they grew, but this is a rarer occurance. One that is to the cubs advantage as it can use this to trick and elude other mimics.
Technically more than two Mimics could create a child together as well. But the principal still applies there, depending on what kinds of Mimics bound together to create a cub, the gender is almost always predetermined.
Reproduction with a different species
Since most other species within the Nexus produce sexually, Mimics tend to often be out of their depth should they decide to reproduce with a member of another species.
Due to not even actively knowing what the female or male genitalia are there for primarily, they go into this blindly. Which often tends to not only confuse them but the other partie as well.
There are three ways that a Mimic can reproduce with another species: Asexually through Essence sharing, Sexually by giving essence, or Sexually by receiving essence.
The Asexual production is at it's core the same procedure as any other Mimic reproduction. Two individuals share their essence to create an orb like egg that will later on hatch into a mimic cub. The gender of the Mimic doesn't matter much here, as it doesn't matter who's essence is dominant here. As such, the gender of the child is not determinable from the Mimics own gender.
Should a Mimic decide to reproduce sexually, they will form the required genitalia. This is where their gender comes into play again. Depending on their gender, the mimic will either be unable to take the essence of another or give essence of their own. Due to this, it is common for Alphas to done the dominant "Male" role in this coupling and for an Omega to be the submissive "Female" role. Betas on the other hand can do as they wish and reproduce as they wish without problem. Below are two example couples described and the process of their coupling and the following production of a Mimic Egg.
Alpha
An Alpha decided to sexually reproduce with a god. As such, the god is used as the host for his essence. Said essence is transferred to the god through his oral orifices. As such it does not matter whether the essence is swallowed or inserted through other orifices. The essence will settle within the abdomen of the god. It will settle in a suitable spot within the gods body, often the stomach or a womb if one is present.
The essence acts similarly to a parasite and eats away at the gods own essence. Thus creating a heavy hot mimic egg with the combined essence of both the god and the Mimic.
This orb will remain within the Gods body for the next two months as it is incubated. Due to the gods heat around the egg, it tends to hatch far sooner than an asexually produced egg.
During this time period the God will experience odd cravings and sometimes grow rather irritable and needy for the Mimics essence and touch. After around two months, the egg will proceed to push downwards and thus getting laid. Not much later the Mimic cub hatches.
Omega
An Omega decided to sexually reproduce with a god. As such the Omega will offer it's own body to host their combined essence. The gender of the god does not matter in this case, as long as their essence is able to settle within the Mimics body, they can create a cub together. Most Omegas will create female genitalia for this process and let the god penetrate them to share their genetic material and essence through this. The mimic will demmand for multiple rounds though, due to needing larger amounts of essence to create the cub properly. As such it's rare that a mimic egg is created through a quick bedding.
After the successful coupling, the egg will slowly form over the span of around three to four months, It's a lot slower due to the Mimics lacking body temperature. During this time the carrying Mimic will grow lethargic and will often choose to sleep rather than move around to much. Conserving it's energy as much as possible to ensure a quick growth of the egg.
Once the egg has fully grown and the cub is ready to hatch, the Mimic will lay it without much strain and the Mimic cub is hatched shortly after.
Relations and Behavior
Familial Bonds
To a Mimic, familial bonds are not that strong and are often forgotten or even ignored in favor of survival. Most Mimics merely see potential threads in their own siblings and even parents. Some parents on the other hand see parasites to their territory in their offsprings. As such familial bonds tend to fray very easily.
Some Mimics show signs of closer attachments to their families, though only due to growing up amongst other beings that bond with their families more. Although you will never hear a Mimic speak of it's family as a family, instead they refer to any close bonds as Pack.
Packs
A pack often consists of one leading Mimic, it's closest bond and their own individual bonded. In simpler terms it could describe a family of Mimics. With the "Father" leading, the Mother in second and the children of each as trusted members of this family. The pack is often scent marked in order to recognize one another better. Since Mimics can deceive one another as well, they tend to trust their scents over their eyes.
Parenting
Mimics keep their parenting to a bare minimum that will ensure the survival of their cubs. Rarely will a Mimic be taught speech or even to read. As these skills rarely have proven useful in their day to day hunts for prey. Due to this, most weaker Mimics are easy to detect by simply asking them to read something. 8/10 times that a god can't read, it just happens to be a mimic having accidentally blown his cover.
Aside from this, the parenting of a Mimic is more harsh than loving. They don't reward their cubs nor do they praise them. It's simply not in their understanding to reward a task well done.
After all it's only about survival for most mimics.
Love/Mating
Mimics are scientifically believed to be unable to love due to their lack of heart and soul. As such bonds between Mimics or other are viewed as mere agreements for sexual pleasure. Some Omega Mimics use their bodies as such to be used by gods to let themselves be filled withe essence, as it is another way of surviving without hunting.
As such, a loving Mimic is like a flying penguin. Or so it is thought.
The truth is that Mimics can in fact feel. They can feel hurt, as such they can feel love as well. Though only under specific circumstances. Such as being raised alongside others that often show strong emotions that they can understand and learn themselves.
Mimics are able to learn to feel. But often simply do not.
Additionally, Mimics tend to only love once. Since their feelings are a fragile and hard to learn thing as it is, they can only learn to love once. It is similarly to how swans come together for life, a mimic will never stop loving someone, even beyond death and heartbreak.