Category:Redivivus

The Redivivus is a parasitic worm that has begun to infect humans.

The characters are at the bottom.

Biology
The Parasites actively seeks out a worthy host - someone healthy and not affected by addictive and harmful substances (i.e. drugs, alcohol, smoking,) as well as any disease or illness- this also means that a lot of the infected are young children or even teens who haven't yet been exposed to such things.

They will enter the host, and devour them from the inside out, slowly replacing the host's organs with their own, until they essentially bond and become the one being. Sometimes throughout this process, the host will die, and either the parasite will be rejected or will need to revive the potential host.

- The potential host must be living in order for the Parasite to form a bond, however the host can die throughout the time it is being possessed. - If the host does die in this process, he/she will potentially lose memories, their senses, and even their mobility if the Parasite is unable to bond quickly enough to revive it. - Occasionally a parasite will invade the entirety of the host, even taking over its mind. This will create a mindless creature who is only interested in sourcing their next meal, with little to no consideration for anything other than fellow parasites. - The parasite will do anything in order to keep their host alive, as well.

The parasites can mimic the appearances of what it is they feed off of, which causes a lot of variety in appearance and behavior- considering they also absorb the entire being they feed off of, and can also take upon those instincts, habits, behavior and even the memories of the victims.

So they might not attach those parts to the human, but they can certainly mimic their growth

It would be quite painful for the host to reverse the changes made by the parasite. That being said, the extra "heads" created by the parasite can be retracted back within the host, though it's terribly painful.

It could be anything from extra eyes, limbs, or appendages as the Parasite tends to add to the host with whatever it believes will preserve or maintain a higher state of wellbeing. And since it can mimic other animals and adapt to their lifestyle, you could have hosts with starfish-like qualities, that can grow back their parts on a whim, there can be those that have adapted to nocturnal lifestyles, those that can breathe underwater- really it depends on the environment and the affinity with the host, as well as the Parasite's ability to recall the information from said creature.

Think of it like the Parasite, that breaks off from each host and sources a new one, containing a database of DNA that it could draw from at any moment, but depending on how strong the bond with the host they have, it could be behind a locked door, or easily accessible.

The Hollow
A derogatory term for hosts that have been completely overtaken by the parasite. This can be caused by the lack of nutrients for the parasite, causing it to devour its own host, rather than the sustenance that the host can provide by feeding correctly.

Essentially, it is a being concerned only with feeding itself, and carries little to no empathy nor sympathy- as that would have been the Host’s role to play- and is hardly sociable to anything other than other redivivus hosts.

The Hollow rarely are able to form intelligible words, in fact they cannot effectively communicate in any manner- unless it is with similarly affected hosts.

History
The Redivivus organism originally existed only in isolated experiments within the Red March organisation. These such experiments were performed on rats within their laboratories and studied by a select few researchers with the intention of bettering mankind.

The Redivivus were created with the purpose of healing damaged tissue and alleviating diseases that were otherwise unavoidable. The organisms were only discovered to have this trait after years of thorough research.

They found, through this discovery, that the Redivivus carried within them a substance able to rewrite genetic material and allow for physical development and changes within the parasite and its host. The chemical is activated within the host through the bond made by the parasite- in which the Redivivus shares the unique chemical, releasing it into the Host’s body as it feeds.

This spread can be called an infection of sorts, as it attacks the host’s body with the chemical- applying a stem cell-like ability able to differentiate into any cell type. The cell formation can act aggressively, or benign, similar to a cancer as it slowly destroys the native tissue of the host and replaces them with the Redivivus’ own unstable cells.

As experimentation went on, it shifted from experiments solely performed on rats, to those performed on larger animals. Much to the researcher’s surprise, the damaged cells of the animals experimented on began to be taken over by the growth of foreign cells like tumours- and added what had been stored within the Redivivus’ “database” of cells, being the original host’s form.

This added the rat’s physical characteristics to the animal, causing a unique genetic shift within the Revivius’ newfound host.

The scientists soon discovered that entire appendages and organs could be grown with the parasite’s unique chemical, for as long as it could bond with the host and consume its share of nutrients from within.

Though it was found that not only physically could the host change, but mentally as well- as if instinct was rewritten over the course of the parasite’s possession.

The discovery was revolutionary for the team of scientists behind the experiment, as it meant that the possibility for humans who had otherwise lost limbs, to either disease or injury, could be recovered with due time. Damaged tissue could be repaired, and even improved upon, if they could learn to control the Parasite’s ability and program it to grow the tissue required.

Trivia

 * The name originates from "living again" in Latin.

Gallery
See also:
 * Category:Characters
 * Category:Main Characters
 * Category:Side Characters
 * Category:Humans