Shadowling

"VYSHA NERADA YEKHEZET U'RUU!!"
Shadowlings are light-sensitive alien creatures from space. They are mainly defensive, but can 'enthrall' humans, which is basically a euphemism for enslavement of their minds. They start off disguised as a normal crewman (they cannot enthrall like this!) and they have to take time to 'hatch' to unlock their full potential. 
While hatched, shadowlings will resemble humans with black skin, small horns, red eyes, and claws.
Until they ascend, of course.
==Shadowling Abilities==
Shadowlings have quite a few tricks up their sleeve, from vanishing to freezing the air around them. Below is a list of abilities that shadowlings can use.
Name 	Requirements 	Cooldown 	Description
Enthrall 	Hatch required 	None, but can only enthrall one at a time 	A shadowling can grow a cute little tumor on a victim's brain, rearranging their memories and motivations and turning him into an obedient thrall. This is slow, and does not itself disable the victim, so shadowlings should use mundane means to do so, such as handcuffs and removal of headsets. Loyalty Implants interfere with this ability; however, the protection is not perfect. It is well within a shadowling's power to disable such implants, though doing so will slow the enthralling process considerably.
The benefit of thralls to changelings extends beyond the utility of an obedient crewmember. Shadowlings gain power directly from their thralls, unlocking new abilities with greater numbers, including their ultimate goal of ascension. Thralls also have their own lesser powers that they can use to help you.
Hivemind Commune 	N/A 	At will 	Shadowlings and thralls share a telepathic link through which they can communicate silently, undetectably, and at zero cost or cooldown. There may be ways to discern this behavior, but it is unlikely and for now all you can do is simply let their words flow past you.
Hatch 	N/A 	N/A 	To access their other abilities, a shadowling must first hatch. A hatching shadowling will first drop its items. After a short delay, it will grow a chrysalis around itself, forming a 3x3 grid of impenetrable but obviously abnormal walls. When the shadowling's evolution is complete, the walls will burst, and the hatched shadowling will emerge. Although headsets, belts, and backpacks must be dropped to evolve, shadowlings are capable of wearing them, and often pick up such items they had previously owned after hatching.
While a hatched shadowling is powerful, and much better equipped to hunt for thralls than an assistant, shadowlings are also obvious after hatching. For this reason, young shadowlings who are not yet sure of their abilities often delay hatching to avoid alerting the crew.
Glare 	Hatch required 	30 seconds 	Glare is the shadowling's basic single-target stun. By forcing one target's gaze into its own, the shadowling can mesmerize a target from a range to stun and mute him for quite some time. While the duration is shorter than the cooldown, and is not long enough for a complete conversion, it does leave plenty of time to restrain or strip the victim.
Veil 	Hatch required 	25 seconds 	The shadowling's basic defensive ability, Veil instantly puts out nearly all light sources, mobile or otherwise, near the shadowling. Electronic lights such as flashlights, PDA's, gunlights, and light fixtures can be repaired simply by reactivating them, where consoles can be repaired by disconnecting and reconnecting the screen. Glowshrooms resist this extinguishing effect, but will be killed in a short radius around the shadowling. Lights based in fire or bioluminescence are often resilient enough to be unaffected.
Shadow Walk 	Hatch required 	1 minute 	Shadow Walk lets the shadowling briefly enter the space between worlds to escape attackers. For four seconds, the shadowling will be invisible, move quickly, and be able to phase through all obstacles. Unlike the wizard's jaunting, holy water does not have an effect on this.
Icy Veins 	Hatch required 	2 minutes 	Icy Veins is a formidable crowd control ability. Everyone within a short range will instantly have their body temperature reduced to freezing in addition to having it continuously lowered, similar to a cryogenic sting. Targets will also be briefly stunned.
Collective Mind 	Hatch required 	30 seconds 	To access some abilities, a shadowling must draw on its thralls for power. Using this ability, shadowlings can send out mental "hooks" that latch onto the minds of their thralls, granting the shadowling a count of his thralls, and unlocking any abilities which the number of thralls now allows.
Destroy Engines 	Hatch required 	1 minute 	Destroy Engines is the way shadowlings bypass the shuttle. They are able to sacrifice a single thrall completely, which will kill them but extend the shuttle's timer by 15 minutes. This does not stack and can only be used if the shuttle is on the way to the station - it will not work if the shuttle is docked or has left.
Blindness Smoke 	Hatch required + 3 Thralls 	1 minute 	By regurgitating a cloud of black smoke, shadowlings can disorient pursuers. This smoke will induce blindness in and stun non-shadowlings, but heal shadowlings and thralls.
Drain Life 	Hatch required + 5 Thralls 	10 seconds 	The shadowling drains the life of nearby humans, healing the shadowling for a significant amount for each human in addition to weakening the humans.
Sonic Screech 	Hatch required + 7 Thralls 	30 seconds 	The shadowling can let out a piercing screech. This will confuse and deafen nearby humans, damage windows, and stun silicons.
Black Recuperation 	Hatch required + 9 Thralls 	1 minute 	With this ability, a shadowling can revive a fallen thrall, healing them of damage completely after a short time. It will also cure diseases, genetic defects, and remove handcuffs the target may be wearing.
Alternatively, a shadowling can 'empower' a living thrall. After a short time, the thrall's abilities will become stronger and they will resemble a shadowperson with three eyes. They will then have the same light sensitivity of normal shadowlings, ableit at a lesser rate. In addition, thralls cannot be dethralled while conscious if in this position.
Ascendance 	Hatch required + 15 Thralls 	N/A 	If the shadowlings should gain this ability, all hope is lost to the crew. The shadowlings have enough collective power from their thralls to assume their ultimate form, becoming impossible to destroy by conventional means, and gaining terrifying abilities.
Below is a list of abilities ascendant shadowlings are known to have used.	Below is a list of abilities ascendant shadowlings are known to have used.	Below is a list of abilities ascendant shadowlings are known to have used.	Below is a list of abilities ascendant shadowlings are known to have used.
Annihilate 	Ascendant only 	At will 	Ascendants, with extremely high telekinetic abilities, can easily cause someone's entire body to explode simply by directing a lance of mental energy at them.
Hypnosis 	Ascendant only 	At will 	Ascendants can enthrall from a range and with extremely increased speed. Basically, it's a ranged and instant version of enthrall.
Plane Shift 	Ascendant only 	Toggleable 	An upgraded version of Shadow Walk, ascendants can simply enter the space between worlds at will at no cost. They use them as passageways, able to move from place to place extremely quickly.
Lightning Storm 	Ascendant only 	10 seconds 	The spiritual successor to Icy Veins. Sends out bolts of lightning to everyone nearby, dealing a significant amount of burn damage and knocking down those affected.
==What To Do: If You're A Shadowling==
So you're a shadowling. Congratulations! Here's some pointers on how not to die from a lightbulb within thirty seconds.
===Starting Off===
You're disguised. You don't take any damage from lights and you are undetectable to any means short of godly intervention. You possess two abilities: Hatch, and Hivemind Commune. First off, send a message or two over the hivemind to see if you have any buddies - chances are high that you do. Assess your job's capabilities. Are you the captain? Feel free to change the AI's laws to help all shadowlings. An officer? You can steal some gear for later thralls. Are you an engineer? Build a stunprod or cut power to different areas so they won't be lit up. Just don't spend too long planning: the longer the paranoid among the crew get, the more prepared they are for the unknown.
There are multiple things to do from the start. If you're confident you can avoid detection, hatching immediately can work since you can easily enthrall people who rush into maintenance early with Glare. Or, you can play it differently and try to covertly sabotage the station first. It's up to you - you're the alien monster, after all.
===Post-Hatch===
So you've hatched. You have the rest of your abilities now - use them! Alert your fellow shadowlings (and thralls) that you're hatched over the hivemind, and make more thralls your first priority. You can't wear normal clothes, but you can still put on backpacks and headsets, which is an extremely good idea. If you're discovered by a group of people, use your defensive abilities to escape in addition to your thralls. If a single guy sees you, just glare at him, slap some cablecuffs on if you have them, take away his headset, and enthrall him. People whom you enthrall cannot easily be turned back to normal, although surgery is capable of doing so and their new loyalty to you overrides all else. If you enthrall a nuclear operative somehow, they will serve you over their Syndicate friends. If you enthrall the captain, he will do much the same.
Your priority is to gain fifteen thralls. You have the Collective Mind ability which will, after a short time, give you a count of how many thralls you have as well as the needed amount for ascendance. If you get fifteen thralls, use the ability and it will give you the Ascendance ability in a new tab. Simply use that ability and you've won - no need to escape on the shuttle!
===The Light and You===
While hatched, the light is your worst enemy. You take extreme damage from even being in it, and burn-based stuff like flashbangs, welders, and lasers all hit harder. However, on the other side of the coin, the darkness is extremely beneficial. All wounds will heal. You will have a stun reduction. You have night vision and thermal vision as well, so not being in the darkness at all is a huge downside to everything about you. Use the darkness as your buddy in times hard and easy. The darkness will always give you a shoulder to cry on. He's a bro like that.
===I CAN'T SEE!===
After you hatch, you may notice that you can only see the tile you're standing on. There's a way to fix this. Look in your action buttons - you should see a blank button called Shift Nerves. This will allow you to change the range of your night vision, all the way from a full screen to none at all. This allows you to be more or less careful with your vision, and to check if something is in the light or not. 
==What To Do: If You're A Thrall ==
So a shadowling mesmerized you by staring into your eyes (lewd) and now you're a thrall! What this means is that your primary goal and objective is to obey the shadowlings and help them at all costs. If you look in your tabs, you have a new one, Shadowling Abilities. In this tab is the Hivemind Commune ability, which lets you communicate on a silent channel with all other thralls and shadowlings. You're basically an Adamantine Golem in terms of where your loyalties lie -- utterly with the shadowlings. Loyalty implanted? Not anymore, the nanobots are dead. Wizard? Use your spells to help the shadowling. Traitor? Tough titty, if the shadowling wants your uplink you give it to him with zero questions asked. You have no free will.
Keep in mind that many of the shadowling's abilities rely on damaging or manipulating you. Even by helping the shadowlings accomplish their one objective, you are sentencing yourself completely and utterly to death - there is no way around it. You may find yourself drained of half your life, used as bait, used as a bodyguard, or suddenly surrounded in the middle of a maintenance tunnel by Security officers who are trying to cave your chest in. Assume you're going to die because you are and there's no way around it.
Thralls can see in the dark with night vision, so make sure you don't accidentally make a Kentucky Fried Shadowling with your PDA light. You do have one advantage, however: stealth. You look much more human, so use this to your advantage to do things for your masters. Keep in touch often.
Finally, you also have a HUD indicator above your head. A more intimidating version can be seen above any shadowlings, hatched or not. Your indicator signals that you are a thrall - only other shadowlings and thralls can see this. If you're killing someone with that HUD indicator, expect a ban.
This is the HUD indicator for shadowlings. These are your masters.
This is the HUD indicator for you and fellow thralls. You obey the shadowlings.
It is important to note that if you are enthralled by one shadowling, you obey all the shadowlings. This includes the others. If Shadowling Bumblefuck tells you that Shadowling Fumbleschmuck isn't your master, ignore him. No matter who enthralled you originally, you must obey all other shadowlings.
===Mask Up, Gang===
An important thing about being enthralled is that it physically alters you. By becoming a thrall, anybody nearby that can see your face will be able to tell you're a thrall just by examining you while close by! Thankfully, there is an easy way to alleviate this: wear a mask. Any mask will work as long as it conceals your face; gas mask, bandana, anything that hides your face. By wearing a mask, your special examine status will disappear and you will be indistinguishable from regular crew. If an officer tells you to take off your mask and then gets close, the best solution is to try and escape. Wearing a mask is conspicuous in its own right, especially if it conceals the face.
===Dethralling===
So you got captured by the Reds and they're throwing you into the surgery theater. To debrain you? Cut out your eyes? CHANGE YOUR GENDER?! Nope. It's far worse - they're going to sever your link with the hivemind by completely dethralling you! This means you will become a normal crew member again, unable to distinguish your masters and fellow thralls, having no unique abilities, and being boringly standard. Luckily, this can only be done via surgery, and if your master intervenes in time you might escape! If Sawbones gets his hands in your head, you're either going to become dethralled or instantly killed. Either way, you won't remember anything about being a thrall, so if you tell them anyone else that's a thrall expect a ban.
===Abilities===
Fortunately for you, there are a few benefits from becoming a slave for the rest of your life. Mainly, you have a few abilities, which are listed below.
Name 	Cooldown 	Description
Darksight 	At will 	As a result of being enthralled, humans will gain the ability to see in the dark. Darksight allows thralls to toggle between standard vision and complete sight in darkness. However, this ability will not work while wearing glasses of any type.
Lesser Glare	45 seconds	Lesser Glare is an ineffectual yet powerful ability. Inheriting only a fraction of the shadowling's original power, thralls are able to mesmerize people in much the same way a shadowling can - however, it only lasts for around four to five seconds, give or take. If you're fast or robust, this can be combined with cablecuffs and a quick removal of a headset to secure a new thralling target. It's also a good way to escape an arrest.
Guise 	2 minutes 	Guise is a lesser version of Shadow Walk. Unlike Shadow Walk, you do not gain incorporeal movement, and are still restricted to the physical plane. In addition, you do not turn completely invisible - rather, you are extremely difficult to see, especially in darkness. Anyone that isn't looking directly at you will only see a blurred shape. This ability lasts for around five seconds.
==What To Do: If You're Non-Shadowling Crew==
So the shouts over the radio weren't wizard, ops, or blob, but shadowlings? Your work is gonna be cut out for you, soldier. Shadowlings are terrifying foes and can do much in their power to avoid you. They can even extinguish lights, save for fire-based sources and yellow slime extracts, and even then they can extinguish those fires. Don't get caught alone or you'll live out the rest of your considerably shortened lifespan in mindless servitude.
===Things you SHOULD do===
* Travel in groups
* Get burn-based weapons and lots of light sources (flares are good, so are slime extracts if xenobio is doing their job, and if all else fails botany can make torches)
* Carry flashbangs or flash powder grenades from security or the medbay
* Be extremely wary
* Avoid areas that seem unnaturally dark
* Don't fight anything alone
* Watch for suspicious activity
* Don't fight anything alone
* Be prepared for anything
* DON'T FUCKING FIGHT ANYTHING ALONE
===Things you SHOULDN'T do===
* Hoard the entire armory and secede from the station as your own force
* Run up to the shadowling and ask to be enthralled. Seriously, it's a dick move to everyone and the admins will ban your ass for it.
* Prowl the maintenance tunnels alone armed with your trusty screwdriver and PDA flashlight
* Refuse to talk or communicate - a silent vigilante, as proven by the mime, is the best vigilante
* Attack an ascendant
* Ask to be enthralled by an ascendant. They'll seriously just make you explode.
* Be near an ascendant
* Consider approaching an ascendant
* Look at an ascendant in a suggestive way
* Think about ascendants
===Is that a horrible wail in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?===
So you're in the maintenance tunnel with your group of vigilantes and ready to fight a shadowling. Suddenly you hear a horrible wail in your head and all the lights blow up. Not good. This means a shadowling has ascended. You're basically fucked over since all the shadowlings can ascend when one can.
===In Case of an Ascendant===
If you see an ascendant, it'll probably look something like this:
That guy just exploded.
RUN.
Run far and fast. There is no way to fight a shadowling ascendant. They are completely invulnerable to normal attacks, can phase through walls at zero cost, and possess a slew of abilities designed to make you and all you hold dear explode. They can make the air explode, they can make reality explode, they can make objects explode, they can make your corpse explode, they can make you explode, too, so run. They can instantly enthrall you, so run. Not that it'll do you any good since they move faster than you. They'll probably just make you explode like they did the seven guys before you it found. The now-exploded seven guys. Oh, and they also hit harder than an esword with their melee attacks.
You're probably gonna explode, too, so just accept it and hope they're either merciful, somehow friendly, or want to enthrall you.
Again, though, you'll probably just explode.
Or maybe, somehow, you can kill it?
==Relevant Code Changes==
* #8157 Shadowling (MERGE-READY!!)
* #8927 Shadowling Update I: Bugfixes and Minor Features
* #10254 Shadowling Update 2: 121% Merge-Ready
* #10871 Shadowling Update III
* #11064 Shadowling enthralling hotfix
* #11414 Shadowling Update IV
* #11588 Fixes a gamebreaking bug with shadowling (it isn't actually gamebreaking)
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