Reality Tumor

thumb|PICTURE 7 OF 7: An invasive reality tumor in action.
A "Reality Tumor" is often used as slang for any cancerous instability that adheres to and grows within reality. While these are acceptable situations for coining the phrase, Plasma Temple usually refers to such general things by other names like "reality viruses", "voracious distortions", or "the big fucking anomalies". Instead of using "Reality Tumor" as part of this catch-all, PT reserves the term for a very specific act perpetuated by beings of means (particularly godforms). This narrower definition will be expanded on in the contents of this page. 
== Overview ==
Reality Tumors define any residual components of a (now deceased) being created to spread from their point of origin and rebuild the source entity. They are often used as a last resort to ensure the survival of a cornered caliber 1 or 2, but can be utilized by sufficiently clever 3s or even 4s. The act of reality tumoring begins by compressing ones physical and mental "data" down into a primordial, replicable form. The means by which to do this are as varied as those that may choose to use it, often taking the form of (but not limited to) tiny cells, uniquely built molecules, complex encoded wavelengths, etherial energy signatures, or magic auras. Whatever form and medium are chosen, the goal is always the same: to spread, develop, spread, develop, spread, and develop again until the tumor is complex enough to recreate the original entity that birthed it. Once an entity has transformed itself into these lowly encoded carriers, it is considered to be temporarily unexisted. It no longer has any sapience or semblance of itself in the form of uncountable new agents running off of the unthinkably complex and deeply encrypted instructions of their parent. It is imperative to prioritize both quality and quantity when reality tumoring. Quantity allows one to spread one's altered form as far and wide as possible so that at least some of it survives any hunt by an attacker and is given room to grow. Quality ensures that development is without fault, mutation, or deformation that may ruin part of the growth process, and in turn the entire point of the reality tumor. Elegant simplicity is key in the process, as are built-in redundancies and backup contingencies.
Once formed and spread, the reality tumor's next step is to take root, grow, and evolve. This can be done many ways depending on the form the tumor takes and the instructions impressed upon it. Some might need to ingest and assimilate choice physical material to replicate themselves, achieving a goal mass that will allow them to "unlock" and pursue the next instructions in their layered heirarchy. Others might need enough time in an echo chamber to bounce around and amplify themselves into a focal climax. Still others might seed a planet with life that slowly grows into a unified hivemind that takes further, more intelligent steps towards rebuilding the progenitor being, or even just broadcast their internalized instructions into the minds of the sapient and manipulate them into aiding the process. Whatever the goals, and however many tiers of goal therein, the final desired result of a reality tumor is the complete and flawless reconstruction of the one who birthed it.
== Complications ==
Most sane entities will only attempt a reality tumor when they have no other options available, and only the most foolhardy would create such a thing while there is no need. Reality tumoring is a dangerous process requiring total concentration, intense devotion, and a nearly-perfect mapping of future timelines to account for any obstacles in the growth process or mutations of the agents themselves. Any being opting to reality tumor must be incredibly careful, since once converted, it can no longer spectate the process or fix even minor miscalculations. Godforms can be quite powerful, and lower calibers quite smart, yet entropy and mutation are ever-present forces with fingers in nearly all situations. Mistakes add up and amplify, especially with a process several orders of magnitude more complex and directed than planetside evolution.
With a barely noticeable error, the ever-dividing cells will become confused as to their purpose, degenerating into a voracious biomass that reconstructs half-formed bodies of their master like a distant, offcast memory. The encoded signal becomes viral, bouncing from amplifier to amplifier and reaching for a threshold with no limit. The aura dims and fades, dispersing into generic pools of mana while its internalized instructions dissolve like ice in the ocean. The life-seeder birthes a hivemind that, in its sapience, decides to pursue alternate goals or build the body of its god only so it can pilot the mind. Reality tumors can easily become worthless, fractured, defunct, or self-serving cancer. In the most harmless cases they simply shut down, either through chance or a built in kill-switch. In the worst cases they become god plagues, original purposes discarded, and with whole worlds worlds, galaxies, or universes are consumed by their corrupt hunger. Even when the desired final form is reached, there is no guarantee the resulting being will be exactly the same as the original, and it will have had to sacrifice something for its creation process: time, matter, lives, or some other useful element used as a medium for its own birth.
In the event of a failure state, the original entity can be said to truly die, replaced by a shallow imitation if one at all. While it is possible to create a reality tumor without converting oneself, this is not recommended. Power can be fickle, and intellect more so. There is no guarantee that the resulting entity won't see its progenitor as a threat to its existence or plans, and without the total devotion to the process that comes with conversion, the chance of failed and cancerous development skyrockets. A caliber 1 who releases a reality tumor into the multiverse is only setting itself up for problems down the line, whether in the form of a power-hungry half breed, a crawling chaos, or vengeful victim of its actions.
It is entirely possible for an entity transforming into a reality tumor to do too good of a job and successfully create multiple, potentially fractured instances of itself. To avoid potential rivals, it is common practice for any perfected birth from a reality tumor to seek out and destroy or re-assimilate leftover tumors in any other locations. If a reality tumor is present, it is likely because its wish has not been carried out across the cosmos.
Reality Tumors are not to be confused with the more malicious God Cancer.
== Examples ==
Though reality tumors are rare enough that PT has few, they have had their place in hypothetical debate and signs of their presence have been seen in both adjacent universes, N Spider's universe, and the writer's universe.
- Lagoon Nebula Thread: A sterile clump of partially organic weave stretching across 2% of the lagoon nebula in N Spider's universe. It is currently inert, and speculated to have been so for the last 250,391,774 years. Analysis by caliber 1s and 2s reveal it contains malformed instructions to replace the nebulae and form a distributed consciousness between the weave, powered by the energy of the many stars. Anything past this stage is too encrypted, indicating it was created by a caliber 1 godform. It is theorized this nebulae consciousness would have been the early steps in devising a supercomputer powerful enough to "recalculate" the progenitor organism back into reality, but faulty instructions led to activation of a kill-switch early on. Another theory is that the process was completed in a different universe, and this tumor had no reason to continue its instructions.
- Thry'Kenk'Kik'Nhlg: A peculiar string of audio. It purportedly contains all the necessary instructions for reassembling the caliber 1 entity who created it, and searches for something able to understand and interpret the instructions. So far, it does not seem to have met anything that fits this criteria. Thry'Kenk'Kik'Nhlg has been passing harmlessly through N Spider's universe for several thousand years and is thought to be long enough to extend through several more: an enormous earworm patiently tunneling through the fabric of space-time on its way to someone finally able to listen. 
- The Minds: A loosely connected system of platonic, archimedean, and catalan solids. The minds are fully sapient and feed harmlessly on the neurochemical processes of sapient entities, with different types of shapes desiring different mental states. This energy is used to generate new shapes and intelligences to inhabit them, which is how The Minds reproduce. They have been tasked with gathering enough bulk to finally link together into the primary being, but claim to have discarded this programming because they enjoy their relative independence. According to The Minds, the archimedean and catalan solids are indicative of errors in the process, though they are readily accepted into the family of the new being. 
- The Contraptions: Supernatural mechanical constructs with extremely narrow methods of operation. Thought to be a group of godform's last ditch-attempts to alter themselves and attach their essence to concepts that extend beyond them. Examples include the malevolent "contraption that makes the rolling machines", the potentially helpful "contraption that binds the wires", the destructive "contraption that kills breakfast", and the deceitful "contraption that takes the bird away." 
- The Cells: An anomaly making their first appearance in Pigeonhole Postulate. It is unknown whether The Cells are the product of a failed reality tumor or some other unexplained anomaly. 
- ???: Due to the variable nature of reality tumors and the myriad ways they can be disguised, implemented, and synchronized with the world around them, there is no way to be entirely sure something isn't a form of reality tumor. While very unlikely, the idea that humanity, the solar systems, the kombectures, or even the universes themselves are all reality tumors for various godforms of varying power cannot be discounted. 
== Trivia ==
* Reality Tumors (especially failed ones) can often have symptoms indistinguishable from reality viruses (generalized abnormalities which can be formed for any reason and any purpose). The primary difference between these is that reality tumors are usually much more powerful and harder to combat, given that they were birthed by beings usually capable of re-writing universal law.
* Reality Tumor Theory (RTT) postulates that most if not all caliber 1s were created by a system of reality tumors seeded across the multiverse by earlier generations. It goes on to say that distinctions between each caliber 1 are the result of deliberate or unplanned errors in the development process. This would make most caliber 1s crooked children of earlier counterparts who developed into their irregularities and became new and separate individuals, a process akin to asexual reproduction with extreme mutation. RTT does not claim whether there was any single origin point for "the first" caliber 1s, or that there even is such a primary specimen - it is only a theory explaining their prevalence in the multiverse.
* The adage of "could god create a rock so big he couldn't lift it" may turn out true with a reality tumor, posing an even bigger risk to whatever might be inclined to casually create one.
*Neither N Spider nor Phantom have created a reality tumor, though N's would likely manifest as an algorithmic web that feeds on harmless radiation and builds itself out from the privacy of its own pocket dimension, while Phantom's would be an oily purple sheen that coats all surfaces and accrues mass and cognition through the assimilation and development of organic components. Phantom's hypothetical reality tumor is often used in memes, as it is a very recognizable example of one that is functional, but coded to be aggressive.
*The entity from the Annihilation series may be an example of a reality tumor.
Category:Phenomena