#vinekin

decor - vine that flirted with merle from the adventure zone + love themes - anon

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self care - vine who flirted with merle from the adventure zone + love themes - anon

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Vinekin are a species of parasitic, semi-sentient plants.

Appearance:       A vinekin has soft an vaguely spongy dark green core, from which sprout about seven yellow-green 'vines.' (Seven is usual, but it is not unheard of for there to be more or less.) When they first sprout from seeds, the core is roughly the size of a marble and the vines are two-thirds as long as a pencil and half as thick. The core is blotchy, with several reddish photosensitive spots. Vinekin never reach a state of maturity, and continue to grow larger until they die of starvation when they outgrow all available food sources.

Feeding:       While very young, vinekin will latch onto the ground or sometimes other plants with its vines. The vines will grow small, hairlike roots into whatever the vinekin is on, through which the plant will absorb nutrients. They grow best in locations with lots of decomposing biomatter, such as swamps or garbage dumps.       Eventually, when the core is slightly larger than a golf ball, the vinekin's nutrient intake will outpace what the earth can provide. At this point, the vinekin is starting to become vaguely self-aware. It will abandon its small root system, and wait for vibrations that indicate an animal is passing nearby. When one does, it will contract its vines (now about a foot long) to grab a hold of the creature. The vines secrete a sticky sap that helps it cling to its new host, numb the nearby nervous system, and slightly dissolve the flesh.       As soon as it is stable, the vinekin will begin to grow a new root system, this time directly into the body of the host. The sap prevents open wounds from forming, so the host does not bleed. The roots will often grow along inside of blood vessels. As the vinekin grows, it becomes more aware, and is forced to seek increasingly larger hosts. It will remain feeding on a single host past its death, usually until all nutrients available in the corpse are used up.

Controlling Hosts:       By the time it has reached the size of a baseball, a vinekin is capable of a certain level of thought. When seizing a new host, it try to choose one that is not too much larger than itself, and will attempt to wrap one of its vines around each limb. Once the root system has taken hold, and the muscles have begun to be eaten away, the vinekin will become increasingly in more control of the hosts actions. It will be able to flex its vines, in the same manner that it uses to grab prey, but now while strongly attached. This will force the hosts limbs to bend in whichever fashion the vinekin chooses.       Each time it seizes a new host, the vinekin will take time to readapt to its new skeletal structure, but the older and more intelligent it gets the more quickly it will be able to. The vinekin will never be able to have fine enough motor control to work tools or grasp things with hands, but it will be able to walk and lope along.

Hunting:       With this newfound mobility, the vinekin is able to actively hunt for its next host while it is still consuming its current one. Vinekin have a largely poor sense of sight, but they pick up movement better than anything else and their visible range is heavily skewed into the infrared, so they see heat. Additionally, they have a good sense for vibrations, although is muted while on a host body, and an excellent sense of smell. They will use these senses to find another suitable body, and proceed to follow it.       Vinekin are not particularly fast, although sometimes the can move at a decent jogging pace, but they do not really tire either and do not need to sleep. If their target is unable to outrun them, they will simply lurch after it until it collapses from exhaustion.       The other tactic attached vinekin will use is exactly the same as what unattached vinekin do, namely lie in wait for something to come near enough to grab. Their host's decomposing body provides a lure for scavengers, and allows them to quickly grab anything that comes within range.       Vinekin will work together in either method of hunting, helping each other get new hosts by heading off and surrounding fleeing animals. When they surround one, they will simply wait for their target to go to sleep, at which point whichever one of them is in most need of a new host will lurch into the center of the circle and attach itself.