Name: Nebulites. Description: They are roughly carrot shaped, being worm-like. They have two brandmetal eyes to either side of the /head/ - which sprouts four tentacle-like apendages (referred to as mandibles) from the front. Their cytoplasm color varies just as much as most other energy-based beings. Behavior: These creatures typically spend 20 hours of their day seeking sustenance while the other four are spent sleeping. They typically will eat small organic creatures as well as relatively dry vegetation. They may also eat inorganic materials that can break down in their cytoplasm, such as fossil fuels or reactive compounds such as erchius, uranium, and solarium. They typically drop everything they are doing when a potential host is spotted, rushing at their full speed (A mere five miles per hour, however they can leap up to three meters) to reach the potential host. Once they grab onto the host with their mandibles, forcing their way into the host's body. When these creatures find themselves unable to find sustenance, they go into a dormant state. They do so by burying themselves into the ground and going into a deep sleep. The pressure from the soil (or whatever material they are buried in) helps hold their form together as they use less energy to maintain it - and infact can last a couple of months in this state. Tamability: These creatures are simple minded and live off of instinct. They are completely untamable. Though their instincts can be exploited... release a jar full of these things around novakids and watch the ensuing chaos. Where is it found?: They oftentimes are transferred via novakid ships, this means they can be literally anywhere, though you typically will only come across one in cities or areas where many novakids congregate. Rarity: Not too common. Typically the more Novakids, the more Nebulites around. However, an uncareful novakid community can wind out with an infestation of these things breaking loose. Diet/Method of gaining nutrients and energy: Omnivore. Their diet consists of both organic and inorganic matter - barring anything with high water content. They also can feed on cytoplasm - as well as undigested fuels of a host. Products?: Not particularly, though on death they leave behind two finger-nail sized brand-like eyes. Reproduction: Asexual - while within a host, a Nebulite will condense plasma within themselves into new brandmetal cores, these cores form their own membrane around themselves and are extreted into the host's cytoplasm, eventually /hatching/ into new Nebulites, usually taking on the color of the host's cytoplasm. These hatchlings typically feed on the host until about adult-sized. They then force themselves out of the host's body, often leaving a leaking hole. This can prove fatal if eight or more breach the membrane of an adult novakid around the same time. They typically will not try to enter an already infested host. t normally takes a few hours before a nebulite produces eggs within a host. Hatching takes a week. Maturing takes two weeks. Hatchlings are between 8 and 14 in number. Should more than one Nebulite enter a host, they will kill eachother for the priveledge to produce hatchlings. Size: Rodent sized. They average six inches in length, though sometimes can grow to a foot in length. Weight: 1 to 5 lbs. Lifespan: They can live up to 200 years of age. However few make it to the end of their lifespan. Abilities: Their four tentacle-like mandibles are capable of latching onto the bodies of energy-based beings like novakids and forcing them through the being's membrane. They may also spit a bit of their own cytoplasm out of the area between their tentacles when threatened, though they can only really do this once, and then must feed to regain the lost cytoplasm. The amount of cytoplasm is enough to eat though small patches of organic matter and/or cause a first (and sometimes second) degree burn on organic flesh. That being said, it has the mere range of half a meter. Flaws: Dump a bucket of water on one of these suckers and watch it die. Otherwise, they starve relatively unless dormant. Magnets also rip them to shreds... EMPs will disintegrate them. Other: Effects on a novakid that is infested include: Lots of pain, trouble moving, vomiting stardust, the need to consume more sustenance, and sometimes death. Should one want to free a novakid of infestation, the original parasite inside must be killed. The most civil of these ways is physically removing them, though this is difficult since novakid cytoplasm... burns and eats at many materials. Extreme measure include shooting into the novakid to kill them, often with something low caliber or leaves easy-to-seal holes, or even having the novakid consume a non-lethal amount of water in order to kill them off. They are often rather easy to locate in the body for removal or euthanasia, the original Nebulite likely being a different color than the novakid. Only the original one needs killed, as the hatchlings instinctively leave the body rather than reproducing. Nebulites have an equivalent of a supernova - their brandlike eyes detonate like firecrackers, usually leaving first degree burns on organic flesh and can set flammable objects on fire. However, while they contain enough energy to perform a pathetic excuse for a supernova, they don't pull in metals when starving - like a novakid would when they snuff it. Instead, they simply unravel and fall apart when they starve to death.
