Post by Heron on May 2, 2021 23:30:36 GMT
Some of you have gotten sneak peaks. Some of you haven't. Those of you who have gotten peaks haven't all peaked at the same things. But all y'all know Heron has been working on a new species for Sunder, and here it is, the grand unveiling!
May I introduce to you... MIMICS!
Singular: Mimic
Plural: Mimics
Group: Clutter of Mimics
General Information
Almost every world has some kind of mythos, if not explicit bestiary, detailing the dangers of temptation: what looks like a treasure chest full of sparkling riches may just sprout teeth and maul you for your greed. Teragaia is not exempt from this, although not every temptation is a treasure chest and not everything that sprouts teeth is necessarily in the mood to maul. Teragaian Mimics are as varied in personality as any other creature capable of Impression and bonding, mostly. They do share a common theme of incessant hunger, however, all Mimics constantly looking for more material to eat. They can be vicious, they can be plaintive, they can simply be sneaky and munchy, but every Mimic is a veritable bottomless pit into which can fall just about anything. Strangely, most objects eaten may be retrieved by anyone brave enough to stick body parts into the Mimic’s mouth and reach inside. Being constructs of magic and material, the inside of a Mimic is more or less an extra-dimensional space into which fits an improbable amount of stuff.
Regardless of shape or size, a Teragaian Mimic uses its tongue to move, as it has no hands or feet. The tongue of a Mimic is very long and extremely muscular, allowing the Mimic to pick up and drag itself over incredible distances with surprising speed. A Mimic’s tongue is also prehensile and capable of grabbing hold of whatever treasures the Mimic is interested in consuming, pulling the objects into the Mimic’s open maw with precision and alacrity. Although a Mimic has no actual eyes, it “sees” by a sort of psychic awareness of its immediate surroundings, which enables it to navigate no matter where it is.
Teragaian Mimics are speech-capable...ish. They have no innate understanding of language or the words coming out of their proverbial mouths, much less grammar, rendering their mind-speech moot most of the time as they are given to babbling nonsense, although they are capable of repeating accurately things they hear. Any Mimic heard speaking correctly is echoing, or ‘mimicking’, something someone else has said within earshot of it.
It should be noted that Mimics have zero concept of gender or sexual dimorphism, and any pronouns used about them are dealer’s choice -- they also lack the ability to care if their bond perceives them as masculine, feminine, or other.
Mating Information
As magical constructs, Mimics do not necessarily breed like organic things, but they do reproduce together. When a Mimic is has eaten enough material and has gathered up enough energy, it emits a signal to alert other Mimics within range to come and find it, and what ensues is something of a confusing series of tests made up on the spot to decide which candidates are worthy of sharing materials and energy with. When winners are chosen, they retreat together to pool magical energy and regurgitate material to create new Mimics, the size of which vary depending upon the rank of the parent Mimics -- some are vastly more limited than others in the ranks they can spit out.
Bonding Information
One might surmise by listening to Mimics attempt to speak that they are not the most intellectually gifted creatures in all of Teragaia, and one would be correct. Mimics have the intelligence and guile of a human toddler aged roughly two, two and a half years, except Mimics never quite grow up. What endears a bonding candidate to them can be as simple as having food or being the coolest-looking attendee to show up. Mimics are not complicated creatures. Just hungry, gullible, and operating on a system of logic that in no way includes any actual logic. The best advice for a hopeful candidate is simply to interact and see what happens.
Ranks
Bag of Holding
*****
The “queens” of Mimic-kind, Bags of Holding are not externally the largest, but hold the rank they do because they are the sole type of Mimic whose insides are truly infinite. No matter how much matter or mass is introduced into them, they never fill, and their contents never decay, making them also ideal partners for adventurers. Bags of Holding are also the most temperate of Mimic-kind, able to leash their hunger for long periods of time, particularly if resources are scarce and other, less disciplined Mimics need the sustenance. A bonded Bag of Holding will relinquish devoured items to its bond or designated friends thereof only, as Bags of Holding are very loyal creatures...although aforementioned bond may want to retrieve those items before the Bag of Holding attempts to reproduce, or some things may be lost by accident.
Safe
****
Arguably a “junior queen” by traditional hierarchical rankings, Safes range in size from half-foot by half-foot bedside safes to gun safes the size of small closets, and are also the most stubborn of their species when it comes to retaining possession of items consumed. Anyone except the lawful owner of the items in the Safe’s extra-dimensional stomach attempting to access aforementioned items -- with or without the permission of the lawful owner -- is extremely likely to suffer the traditional Mimic experience in the lore of old, that is to say, the Safe’s opening suddenly becomes a terrifying open maw of teeth and a powerful, coiling tongue...and the would-be thief soon becomes one of the items in the Safe’s extra-dimensional stomach. And this is particularly dangerous with Safes; a Safe’s extra-dimensional stomach will preserve important papers and valuable items indefinitely without causing decay or damage, but living creatures get broken down. Scientists debate whether this is for nutritional value or if a Safe simply was never meant to protect living creatures; likewise, any previously-living matter (or random miscellany) will be sacrificed ahead of lawfully-owned items when a Safe makes the effort to reproduce.
Treasure Chest
***
Perhaps no Mimic is more iconic than the regal Treasure Chest, the Adventurer’s Bane. Perhaps no Mimic is more temperamental either, nor as prepared for combat. Unique among Teragaian Mimics, the Treasure Chest is prepared to put up a fight. Not that they aren’t all dangerous, to a point, capable of leaving nasty bite wounds, but a Treasure Chest has the capacity to secrete a fog of paralytic gas (only about once an hour, so it has to be tactical about this ability) and spit a corrosive toxin from glands up under its lid. This toxin has a necrotizing effect on flesh and a tendency to make metal brittle and frail, rendering nothing safe to hide behind. Thankfully for those who have drawn a Treasure Chest’s ire, they are not immune to sedation, distraction, or even reason -- assuming someone is patient enough to argue down a creature with very little understanding of language. Perhaps even less understanding of language than most of its already unlearned species -- a side effect, most likely, of the Treasure Chest’s tendency toward isolation, since their kind is usually found down in the darkness of ancient ruins and old dungeons. How they get there is anyone’s guess. They would be rather poor treasure chests if real treasure degraded in their extra-dimensional stomachs, so gems, coins, and jewelry, among other fine things, remain in pristine condition at all times and are customarily held back from regurgitation when the Treasure Chest reproduces.
Steamer Trunk
***
By far one of the largest of Mimic-kind, Steamer Trunks are also surprisingly gentle giants. Of course, seeing a perfectly normal-looking steamer trunk suddenly explode into teeth usually unnerves people to the point of running away, but truthfully Steamer Trunks generally reveal themselves mostly to introduce themselves as living creatures that would like attention, rather like the unfortunate spider that scared Little Miss Muffet right off of her tuffet. No malice aforethought, just the desire to socialize in the least socially acceptable manner it could have chosen. Steamer trunks of the mundane variety are typically used to house clothing for travel, and so it is that Steamer Trunks of the Mimic variety best store clothing items in their extra-dimensional stomachs. Clothing is perfectly safe, as are the occasional personal item, such as pictures or travelling essentials, though jewelry has been known to age and tarnish badly in the Steamer Trunk’s stomach and organic tissue...rarely does well in any Mimic, to be perfectly honest. The Steamer Trunk tends to hold clothing back and purge everything else when it attempts to reproduce.
Puzzle Box
**
Usually one of the smallest of Mimic-kind, the Puzzle Box is also probably the most irritating. Who wants to devote an extent of time to solving a challenging puzzle just to have the solution grow teeth? Worse, Puzzle Boxes are passing clever, for Mimics. Not that they’re particularly better at language unless any given individual has more exposure to language than most, but Puzzle Boxes know how to manipulate their environments, and they delight in turning their environments into large, interactive puzzles. For bonds of Puzzle Boxes, this often results in having to pass tests in order to sleep at night, use the necessaries, brush teeth, change clothes, and leave home. Not to mention the tests involved in getting back into one’s home. Everything will have become a mental and physical obstacle course. As small boxes, typically only small items fare well in Puzzle Boxes’ stomachs, although anything of any size will actually fit and larger items will be sacrificed when a Puzzle Box reproduces. These tricky little Mimics don’t have the same sense of loyalty that most do and will give up their contents to anybody who solves them.
Jewelry Box
*
Jewelry Boxes are among the most ubiquitous of Mimics, actually inhabiting roughly 45% of Teragaian households, and at least 54% of that 45% are households that have absolutely no idea they’re storing their jewelry inside a living creature and not just an ordinary box. While a suspicious statistic, it certainly speaks to the inherent docility of the Jewelry Box Mimic. Where others of their kind get into mischief or pick fights, Jewelry Boxes are quite content to simply sit where they’re put and be fed jewelry by whoever happens to own them at the moment. Naturally, this means non-jewelry items tend to get sacrificed in the rare occasions when Jewelry Boxes participate in mating rituals, and broken jewelry will definitely get purged, but intact jewelry will be perfectly preserved for as long as it remains in the Mimic’s extra-dimensional stomach. Jewelry Boxes have uniquely slow reflexes for Mimics and are the most prone to injury when knocked off of shelves -- they tend to land hard when faster ranks would catch themselves with their tongues. Being creatures that don’t like conflict, Jewelry Boxes tend not to challenge anyone who opens them, making them poor guards over valuables.
Decorative Box
*
Decorative Box Mimics can range in size from as tiny as Puzzle Boxes to as large as Treasure Chests. They vary in material composition, aesthetic, theme, temperament. One thing they all have in common is they’d look very nice in your living room. Maybe a trophy room. They also know they’re attractive, inasmuch as a Mimic can know anything, and have a tendency toward as much arrogance as their limited intelligence allows. They’re pretty, and pretty means desirable, yes? They must then be the superior Mimics. Oh, if there’s a complete clutter of Mimics and a Bag of Holding or a Safe nearby to put them in their place, the Decorative Boxes will fall in line, but they will feel cheated about it. Decorative Boxes best hold art and artifacts, bits and bobs of interest. Things like jewelry, clothing, money, weapons...literally anything except esoteric miscellany will gradually degrade and will be the first items sacrificed in the reproductive effort. Decorative Boxes have a unique proverbial leg-up on most of their kind when it comes to understanding language in that they are usually kept in public places where their exposure to talking people is at its highest concentration, and while words still have little meaning, they grasp slightly more than most. Loyalty to the owner of its contents varies by individual Decorative Box.
Attic-Dwelling Cardboard Box
*
Where would the common attic be without cardboard boxes of junk stacked everywhere? This means, of course, that there is plentiful territory for the common Attic-Dwelling Cardboard Box Mimic to hide, biding its time, assured that someone will need to cram useless junk down its maw sooner or later. Ranging in size from shoe boxes to two and a half foot cubes, the Attic-Dwelling Cardboard Box is possibly the most innocuous of all Mimics, and the least likely to feed themselves to boot, relying on humanoid laziness for sustenance, having faith that people putting random items away in their attics will reach for the box closest to the entry instead of having a carefully implemented organizational system in place. They are perhaps the dimmest and most trusting of Mimics, and thus can’t necessarily be counted on to keep personal items safe from the wandering hands of thieves. They don’t understand the concept of thieves any more than they understand the concept of a sentence. Attic-Dwelling Cardboard Boxes are second only to Bags of Holding when it comes to preserving all of their contents, letting only living matter decay in their extradimensional stomachs, and any of that will be the first to go if an attic-dweller tries to reproduce. It holds back precious things of sentimental value best, however, and tends to regurgitate everything else when it comes time to make new Mimics.
May I introduce to you... MIMICS!
Singular: Mimic
Plural: Mimics
Group: Clutter of Mimics
General Information
Almost every world has some kind of mythos, if not explicit bestiary, detailing the dangers of temptation: what looks like a treasure chest full of sparkling riches may just sprout teeth and maul you for your greed. Teragaia is not exempt from this, although not every temptation is a treasure chest and not everything that sprouts teeth is necessarily in the mood to maul. Teragaian Mimics are as varied in personality as any other creature capable of Impression and bonding, mostly. They do share a common theme of incessant hunger, however, all Mimics constantly looking for more material to eat. They can be vicious, they can be plaintive, they can simply be sneaky and munchy, but every Mimic is a veritable bottomless pit into which can fall just about anything. Strangely, most objects eaten may be retrieved by anyone brave enough to stick body parts into the Mimic’s mouth and reach inside. Being constructs of magic and material, the inside of a Mimic is more or less an extra-dimensional space into which fits an improbable amount of stuff.
Regardless of shape or size, a Teragaian Mimic uses its tongue to move, as it has no hands or feet. The tongue of a Mimic is very long and extremely muscular, allowing the Mimic to pick up and drag itself over incredible distances with surprising speed. A Mimic’s tongue is also prehensile and capable of grabbing hold of whatever treasures the Mimic is interested in consuming, pulling the objects into the Mimic’s open maw with precision and alacrity. Although a Mimic has no actual eyes, it “sees” by a sort of psychic awareness of its immediate surroundings, which enables it to navigate no matter where it is.
Teragaian Mimics are speech-capable...ish. They have no innate understanding of language or the words coming out of their proverbial mouths, much less grammar, rendering their mind-speech moot most of the time as they are given to babbling nonsense, although they are capable of repeating accurately things they hear. Any Mimic heard speaking correctly is echoing, or ‘mimicking’, something someone else has said within earshot of it.
It should be noted that Mimics have zero concept of gender or sexual dimorphism, and any pronouns used about them are dealer’s choice -- they also lack the ability to care if their bond perceives them as masculine, feminine, or other.
Mating Information
As magical constructs, Mimics do not necessarily breed like organic things, but they do reproduce together. When a Mimic is has eaten enough material and has gathered up enough energy, it emits a signal to alert other Mimics within range to come and find it, and what ensues is something of a confusing series of tests made up on the spot to decide which candidates are worthy of sharing materials and energy with. When winners are chosen, they retreat together to pool magical energy and regurgitate material to create new Mimics, the size of which vary depending upon the rank of the parent Mimics -- some are vastly more limited than others in the ranks they can spit out.
Bonding Information
One might surmise by listening to Mimics attempt to speak that they are not the most intellectually gifted creatures in all of Teragaia, and one would be correct. Mimics have the intelligence and guile of a human toddler aged roughly two, two and a half years, except Mimics never quite grow up. What endears a bonding candidate to them can be as simple as having food or being the coolest-looking attendee to show up. Mimics are not complicated creatures. Just hungry, gullible, and operating on a system of logic that in no way includes any actual logic. The best advice for a hopeful candidate is simply to interact and see what happens.
Ranks
Bag of Holding
*****
The “queens” of Mimic-kind, Bags of Holding are not externally the largest, but hold the rank they do because they are the sole type of Mimic whose insides are truly infinite. No matter how much matter or mass is introduced into them, they never fill, and their contents never decay, making them also ideal partners for adventurers. Bags of Holding are also the most temperate of Mimic-kind, able to leash their hunger for long periods of time, particularly if resources are scarce and other, less disciplined Mimics need the sustenance. A bonded Bag of Holding will relinquish devoured items to its bond or designated friends thereof only, as Bags of Holding are very loyal creatures...although aforementioned bond may want to retrieve those items before the Bag of Holding attempts to reproduce, or some things may be lost by accident.
Safe
****
Arguably a “junior queen” by traditional hierarchical rankings, Safes range in size from half-foot by half-foot bedside safes to gun safes the size of small closets, and are also the most stubborn of their species when it comes to retaining possession of items consumed. Anyone except the lawful owner of the items in the Safe’s extra-dimensional stomach attempting to access aforementioned items -- with or without the permission of the lawful owner -- is extremely likely to suffer the traditional Mimic experience in the lore of old, that is to say, the Safe’s opening suddenly becomes a terrifying open maw of teeth and a powerful, coiling tongue...and the would-be thief soon becomes one of the items in the Safe’s extra-dimensional stomach. And this is particularly dangerous with Safes; a Safe’s extra-dimensional stomach will preserve important papers and valuable items indefinitely without causing decay or damage, but living creatures get broken down. Scientists debate whether this is for nutritional value or if a Safe simply was never meant to protect living creatures; likewise, any previously-living matter (or random miscellany) will be sacrificed ahead of lawfully-owned items when a Safe makes the effort to reproduce.
Treasure Chest
***
Perhaps no Mimic is more iconic than the regal Treasure Chest, the Adventurer’s Bane. Perhaps no Mimic is more temperamental either, nor as prepared for combat. Unique among Teragaian Mimics, the Treasure Chest is prepared to put up a fight. Not that they aren’t all dangerous, to a point, capable of leaving nasty bite wounds, but a Treasure Chest has the capacity to secrete a fog of paralytic gas (only about once an hour, so it has to be tactical about this ability) and spit a corrosive toxin from glands up under its lid. This toxin has a necrotizing effect on flesh and a tendency to make metal brittle and frail, rendering nothing safe to hide behind. Thankfully for those who have drawn a Treasure Chest’s ire, they are not immune to sedation, distraction, or even reason -- assuming someone is patient enough to argue down a creature with very little understanding of language. Perhaps even less understanding of language than most of its already unlearned species -- a side effect, most likely, of the Treasure Chest’s tendency toward isolation, since their kind is usually found down in the darkness of ancient ruins and old dungeons. How they get there is anyone’s guess. They would be rather poor treasure chests if real treasure degraded in their extra-dimensional stomachs, so gems, coins, and jewelry, among other fine things, remain in pristine condition at all times and are customarily held back from regurgitation when the Treasure Chest reproduces.
Steamer Trunk
***
By far one of the largest of Mimic-kind, Steamer Trunks are also surprisingly gentle giants. Of course, seeing a perfectly normal-looking steamer trunk suddenly explode into teeth usually unnerves people to the point of running away, but truthfully Steamer Trunks generally reveal themselves mostly to introduce themselves as living creatures that would like attention, rather like the unfortunate spider that scared Little Miss Muffet right off of her tuffet. No malice aforethought, just the desire to socialize in the least socially acceptable manner it could have chosen. Steamer trunks of the mundane variety are typically used to house clothing for travel, and so it is that Steamer Trunks of the Mimic variety best store clothing items in their extra-dimensional stomachs. Clothing is perfectly safe, as are the occasional personal item, such as pictures or travelling essentials, though jewelry has been known to age and tarnish badly in the Steamer Trunk’s stomach and organic tissue...rarely does well in any Mimic, to be perfectly honest. The Steamer Trunk tends to hold clothing back and purge everything else when it attempts to reproduce.
Puzzle Box
**
Usually one of the smallest of Mimic-kind, the Puzzle Box is also probably the most irritating. Who wants to devote an extent of time to solving a challenging puzzle just to have the solution grow teeth? Worse, Puzzle Boxes are passing clever, for Mimics. Not that they’re particularly better at language unless any given individual has more exposure to language than most, but Puzzle Boxes know how to manipulate their environments, and they delight in turning their environments into large, interactive puzzles. For bonds of Puzzle Boxes, this often results in having to pass tests in order to sleep at night, use the necessaries, brush teeth, change clothes, and leave home. Not to mention the tests involved in getting back into one’s home. Everything will have become a mental and physical obstacle course. As small boxes, typically only small items fare well in Puzzle Boxes’ stomachs, although anything of any size will actually fit and larger items will be sacrificed when a Puzzle Box reproduces. These tricky little Mimics don’t have the same sense of loyalty that most do and will give up their contents to anybody who solves them.
Jewelry Box
*
Jewelry Boxes are among the most ubiquitous of Mimics, actually inhabiting roughly 45% of Teragaian households, and at least 54% of that 45% are households that have absolutely no idea they’re storing their jewelry inside a living creature and not just an ordinary box. While a suspicious statistic, it certainly speaks to the inherent docility of the Jewelry Box Mimic. Where others of their kind get into mischief or pick fights, Jewelry Boxes are quite content to simply sit where they’re put and be fed jewelry by whoever happens to own them at the moment. Naturally, this means non-jewelry items tend to get sacrificed in the rare occasions when Jewelry Boxes participate in mating rituals, and broken jewelry will definitely get purged, but intact jewelry will be perfectly preserved for as long as it remains in the Mimic’s extra-dimensional stomach. Jewelry Boxes have uniquely slow reflexes for Mimics and are the most prone to injury when knocked off of shelves -- they tend to land hard when faster ranks would catch themselves with their tongues. Being creatures that don’t like conflict, Jewelry Boxes tend not to challenge anyone who opens them, making them poor guards over valuables.
Decorative Box
*
Decorative Box Mimics can range in size from as tiny as Puzzle Boxes to as large as Treasure Chests. They vary in material composition, aesthetic, theme, temperament. One thing they all have in common is they’d look very nice in your living room. Maybe a trophy room. They also know they’re attractive, inasmuch as a Mimic can know anything, and have a tendency toward as much arrogance as their limited intelligence allows. They’re pretty, and pretty means desirable, yes? They must then be the superior Mimics. Oh, if there’s a complete clutter of Mimics and a Bag of Holding or a Safe nearby to put them in their place, the Decorative Boxes will fall in line, but they will feel cheated about it. Decorative Boxes best hold art and artifacts, bits and bobs of interest. Things like jewelry, clothing, money, weapons...literally anything except esoteric miscellany will gradually degrade and will be the first items sacrificed in the reproductive effort. Decorative Boxes have a unique proverbial leg-up on most of their kind when it comes to understanding language in that they are usually kept in public places where their exposure to talking people is at its highest concentration, and while words still have little meaning, they grasp slightly more than most. Loyalty to the owner of its contents varies by individual Decorative Box.
Attic-Dwelling Cardboard Box
*
Where would the common attic be without cardboard boxes of junk stacked everywhere? This means, of course, that there is plentiful territory for the common Attic-Dwelling Cardboard Box Mimic to hide, biding its time, assured that someone will need to cram useless junk down its maw sooner or later. Ranging in size from shoe boxes to two and a half foot cubes, the Attic-Dwelling Cardboard Box is possibly the most innocuous of all Mimics, and the least likely to feed themselves to boot, relying on humanoid laziness for sustenance, having faith that people putting random items away in their attics will reach for the box closest to the entry instead of having a carefully implemented organizational system in place. They are perhaps the dimmest and most trusting of Mimics, and thus can’t necessarily be counted on to keep personal items safe from the wandering hands of thieves. They don’t understand the concept of thieves any more than they understand the concept of a sentence. Attic-Dwelling Cardboard Boxes are second only to Bags of Holding when it comes to preserving all of their contents, letting only living matter decay in their extradimensional stomachs, and any of that will be the first to go if an attic-dweller tries to reproduce. It holds back precious things of sentimental value best, however, and tends to regurgitate everything else when it comes time to make new Mimics.
