#amongstthethem

So yall, I’ve finally created my alien Crewmate species. ( @stickminamongus here have some alien crewmate) Anyway, Information time, prob will b long:

Their species has a few... well, unsettling natural defences, which in the current time, are more or less stopped because of their suits, and for fairly good reasons.

Said defences mostly included either ‘shooting’ blood out of their eyes, or as a last-ditch effort to survive,

literally projectile vomiting out a good portion of their internal organs at the threat

. Because of that last main defence, they have very effecient immune systems in general, and very good regeneration when it comes to their organs.

Speaking of internal organs, the population has from 3-5 hearts, (the amount depends on the individuals genetics) with one being inside of their ribcage, and the remaining ones being in natural body cavities alongside their ribs/torso, which can be opened to the outside world, and said hearts can also be pulled out of said cavities to be used as a form of light source, (since as long as said heart is functional, it is bioluminescent.) So, these guys have built-in nightlights, and spare hearts in case the one in their ribcage gets damaged. neat. they are still suceptible to the tried and true strategy of ‘destroy the brain or nural collum’ though. 

So, here’s the xenomorph-inspired imp species concept that my brain wouldn’t shut tf up about until i did it- 

The species takes genes from the things that it consumes, and eventually expresses said genes as a form of rapid evolution. Though this is entirely dependent on what they consume. Oddly enough, they also appear to change small amounts of their genetics as well, at least with the more spacefaring variant of their species, creating simular biological structure to a crewmate’s tank of o2, which also somehow includes the same color range as a crewmate suit. 

The current theory is that these structures supply extra oxygen to the individual and store excess nutrients in case of sparse resorces, as well as possibly being a form of identification for individuals. 

‘Drones’ retain the most of their crewmate features as they grow and age, while ‘queens’ change the most, and almost completely loose their crewmate features, though they retain the bipeadal posture and hands. Though no matter a drone or queen, they both are incredibly hard to spot when one makes your way onto a ship. The species as a whole have learned to hide their tails, which is the best way to identify them since the start of them using crewmate suits to blend in, and appear to be steadily gaining more knowledge on how to blend in with their surroundings as time goes on. 

Here’s a more high resolution pic of the ‘mutualisim’ imp for yall reference-

I’ve sorta started referring to these guys as ‘Trident Imps’ bc of their tails, and for a lack of any better idea, I guess i’ll call their species that. 

Another new imp species- theese fellahs are lowkey based off of antlions and mantisflies. they mainly feed off of bodily fluids, but if needed, can inject digestive fluids into a food item, to get more nutirents from their chosen food item. 

actual imposters of their species are esentially larvae, who had manipulated their form in order to blend in. once they have consumed enough material and are in a safe environment, they’d pupate into eihter a male of a female. However, don’t underestimate them, they are quite vicious and hostile if they belive that they are in danger.

the females retain the most traits from their larval forms, darken in color, and retain their larval form’s viciousness and more predatory nature. 

Meanwhile, the males loose almost all of their larval traits in favor for flight, and loose their aggressive nature as they pupate. Males also do courtship through dances and small, pretty, gifts. 

This is the second redesigned imposter- based off ye olde body horror worm-

the species itself is actually more mutalistic than paracidic, but because of crewmates not being from their environment, the vast majority that get infected end up dying, especially since the individual’s mutalisim involves body horror esque changes to the host. There has only been one case of mutualisim documented, although said documentation is sparse at best. 

It is unknown how they reproduce, since all confirmed specimens appear to be unable to reproduce, and their genetic code has been scrambled. A form of budding is pretty likely, but nobody knows for sure. 

in the instances of non-mutalistic hosts, the now parasite end up fuseing with the host’s body and suit, changing it quite a bit internally, forming new organs and even internal storage pouches, which are perfectly safe to be in. often times, they end up becoming aggressive and lashing out at anything they veiws as a threat to their survival. 

This is because withought the host entity, the ‘parasite’ gets corraled into having to control every part of the body, and cannot leave, causing them to fuse with it. They cannot leave the host once they have fused with it, leaving them stuck there, and if their new body dies, they die with it. 

the species avoids infecting the young of any species, and if there are any offspring of their host’s species in their area, they can and will become quite protective of them, whether or not a mutualisim event has occured. 

So, i’ve redesigned my first imp species as well, and here they are, in all of the available colors-

Their colors prob aren’t static, but they can only really shift them from one color to the next in a form of basic camoflauge, and even then, it takes a good long while for them to change from one color to another. However, no matter waht color or form they take, their eye will be the same. their tounges are a simular color to their eye, and they have several teeth that grow in rows, simular to a shark’s. They will often shed these teeth during fighting or feeding, and if one survives a bite from one of these, there will be teeth that will get stuck in their flesh, and sometimes a operation is needed to remove them to avoid health complications down the line.