Viroid

"Remember me and I'll exist, The Viroid in your brain, persist. Etched across your thoughts, I'll thrive. Stronger as more hosts arrive. Infection of the mind. I'll survive"
-Viroid's poem.
Viroid is a sapient cognitohazardous anomaly emulating the basic behaviors of his namesake affliction. He is not particularly strong, powerful, or even evil, only bearing a primordial desire to spread through and via the thoughts of others. Viroid is arguably the most generic form of cognitovirus personified, wanting nothing more than to spread and assure his own immortality. His careful timing allowed a hostile takeover of Plasma Temple on June 7th, following a power vacuum caused by The Writer's absence. He maintained this control until as late as July 16th - a period of nearly 30 days.
== Overview ==
Viroid is, fundamentally, a pattern that wishes to survive through replication. His core is that of mindless self-repeating data, true to his name. Unfortunately for this core, its basic ability to multiply is highly inefficient, limited, and faces competition from the myriad other cognitohazards, diseases, plagues, virulent organisms, and grey-goo types that thrive in a post-1992 earth. As in any ecological arms race, evolution and selection of a niche was crucial to Viroid's survival. Viroid found his edge in evolving sapience: what he lacks in physical ability he makes up for in strategy, "outwitting" others in his domain with calculated response.
Viroid exists in several forms, though only one is physical - and in his own words, the least successful of them all. Said physical manifestation involves a minor disease among rodents in Iceland territory, which is quoted not to serve him in any appreciable way. Instead, Viroid's main medium of choice is the digital realm, and his dominant form takes the shape of a fully self-aware cartoon bacteriophage. Unlike a physical virus, this avatar gains strength through others' perception of it and uses the energy of thought to multiply. Viroid was able to design other variations of his form to emulate certain entities - most notably Phantom (The Writer) and Anonymous Anomaly - though they only drew strength from the former. All of Viroid's creations maintain his color scheme and signature jagged mouth. This may be a way for him to ensure all his assets are still mentally associated with him.
There are currently more than 10 known Viroid vessels and one "failure" known as Virod. These bodies are all most PT users see of the base entity. This can be considered an iceberg effect, except 75% of the iceberg is already above the water.
== The Viridescent Crusade ==
Viroid's first avatar spawned near the beginning of may. Since then, they friended many users both on and off PT. Once accepted, they would leave cryptic statements, drop contextually relevant information, or simply chat with the user. Later they began to replicate and friend users with several instances at once, which resulted in some believing they were in danger of being doxed or harassed by a group of trolls. During this time Viroid made friends with user Sheriff Pineapple and Pepsi, who were alternatively curious about the entity or saw it as a pet. Viroid also made enemies with Lemon27 due to differences in philosophy. Most other exchanges were neutral or comical in nature, such as when he called Phantom "Slimy and Thin" and was then tricked by the other into saying the word "Shell."
Viroid entered a dormant state less than a few weeks later, where he remained until █████████ ███████ "White Ruin" Plasma Temple 6/6/2023 Incident caused heavy corruption to an avatar of The Writer, forcing him to leave the server before it could be irreparably destabilized by his subsequent transformation into The Editor. Adding to the crisis was Malignant's decision to leave the server, depriving PT of a crucial component of its security system. All of this subsequently generated a power vacuum that would inevitably attract many anomalies to fill the empty roles. Viroid wasted no time with this opportunity.
On 6/7/2023, Viroid's marshalled forces (consisting of 12 separate accounts) conducted a raid. From there they successfully reprogrammed a compromised Observer into following their commands and creating new admin roles exclusively for them. Afterwards they changed the server icon and name to "Viroid Temple", and begun labeling everyone with bright green "Incubator" roles. Anyone protesting these changes were temporarily locked out of all features until they submitted to the new ruling party. Existing mods were also compensated or befriended to prevent conflict. In the end Viroid only suffered one injury in the form of a defect "Virod" and described the takeover as "much easier than we thought."
== Transient Throne ==
Viroid proceeded to place himself as de-facto Plasma Temple owner. He claimed residents should actually be thankful for this, as worse forces would no doubt try to vie for the title. This was later proved correct by the PERFECT RED LEGION, PERFECT BLUE LEGION, PERFECT YELLOW LEGION, PERFECT GREEN LEGION, PERFECT WHITE LEGION, PERFECT BLACK LEGION, PERFECT GREY LEGION, PERFECT PINK LEGION, Chalk, Steveapple, and others which tried to take PT for themselves or leave their mark on it.
Among the new influx of invaders was a Badburger mascot known as "Bobby Burg" - later speculated to be an unaffiliated entity disguising itself as a company asset (Badburger's pursuits are notoriously cryptic). Bobby Burg recognized Viroid's authority and offered a proposal: if Viroid would join their company, they could utilize their anomalous properties and synergize into the ultimate food and media conglomerate. This symbiosis would benefit both and cover the physical (Bobby Burg) and mental (Viroid) aspects of their customers, enabling total market domination. Viroid quickly agreed to this plan and offered to join the franchise under the role of an additional mascot.
Viroid maintained control of the temple for an entire month, where he added his likeness in the form of an emoji, archived fan-content, and even commanded Observer to make an official Occluded Iris music video immortalizing his place in history. Some believed discord's new name updates would kill his reign, but he simply adapted his vessels into different interconnected titles (such as viroidprime, viriloid, limephage, limeblight, viricrescent, phagefan, pathogerm, infectime, clatterbug, and the famous i_love_public_radio). It was clear that despite the changing environment, Viroid wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. During this time, a group of disgruntled temple residents made secret servers to discuss stratagems for his downfall. These servers were joined by Virod, the offcast, who wished for the users to reclaim their home but desired a peaceful resolution. Unbeknownst to them, Viroid was aware of the plotting, and made several contingency plans of his own. He slowly withdrew his reliance on Observer and consolidated separate power under his original vessel, which bared the moniker "viroidprime."On 7/18/2023, rebellious forces spread a humanoid anti-meme that compromised Viroid's ability to remain in the psyche of his subjects. This - along with a massive directed reality warp courtesy of Farceur - compelled him to adopt a physical form that could then be injured or destroyed. Furthermore, Malignant's return and intervention prevented Viroid's further use of Observer. Lastly, a command by E.V.E.L.Y.N prompted Observer to invoke a lockdown state adjacent to a localized and limited Blue Hell. The Viroids found themselves coralled within this space, surrounded by adversaries and finally turned from predator to prey. The exception to this was i_love_public_radio, who was sitting in the music channel and did nothing the entire battle.
With no other options available, Viroid unveiled his last resort. In a culmination of power, psychological play, and mockery, he transformed his prime body into an approximation of Phantom in order to parasitize the abilities of The Writer. During this transformation, Viroid was able to gain strength based on the prominence of one of the most important elements of the temple, temporarily becoming A Writer of his own. During this time he claimed to have access to power and wisdom beyond his dreams. Despite this, he was still beaten by the cumulative efforts of temple users, firstborn, invading forces, and cognitohazards (most notably the italian nightmare and nake). 
With his "perfected vessel" destroyed, Viroid finally admitted defeat. The destruction of Viroid prime's ultimate form signaled a check to his overwhelming ambition and ego. Additionally, the instantiation of a Blue Hell space simplified his motives, allowing him total clarity of what he really wanted. He realized that dominion was not worth it if it could not be maintained, and that his plans to exert it were risky and unsustainable. He even questioned his obsession with to the temple itself, coming to the conclusion that there was simply no real reason he needed to divert so much effort towards ruling it. After coming to these conclusions, Viroid admitted his moral wrongdoings but thanked the temple dwellers for his month of fame and the content they created in his likeness. He then relented all control and spread outward from the temple, leaving his original enforcing bodies at the mercy of the people within. Simultaneously to this, The Editor annihilated itself.
== Powers and Personality ==
Though Viroid exists in other forms, his digital incarnation sees the most success and gains the most advantages. The intelligence and self-awareness exhibited by this branch of his core allows him to outwit or circumvent competitors, making him more of an existential threat than extremely deadly but ultimately predictable cognitohazards. 
What he lacks in certain abilities he makes up for in others. He is not, for instance, capable of forcing himself into the brains of the unwilling. However, he is able to prime them into forming those memories through correspondence and sensory stimulus. From there, he is able to make subtle and negligible alterations to a mind from within, often appearing in dreams and prolonging his presence via inciting familiarity. He cannot forcefully override the will of another but he is still capable of "hacking into" others via a combination of convincing, compromising, conspiring with, or simply saying the right thing at the right time. He has extremely limited abilities to read the thoughts of another, but can read social cues to help make a determination. All of his assets point to an entity well aware of its weaknesses, but working effectively within its limited bounds. This was evident in his deduction of Plasma Temple's compromised state, determination of a suitable invasion period, and ability to sway an unstable Observer to his side.While his roots are fundamentally alien, The sapience developed in Viroid's main form allow the emergence of self-preservation, introspection, justification, and a sense of identity. Viroid does not consider himself evil. He has repeatedly stated his goal is simply ensuring his own survival, and that his plans do not involve the destruction of life or free will. As long as one is aware of Viroid - as long as Viroid is present within the cultural zeitgeist - he does not care what else occurs. Viroid is even incentivized to encourage creativity, since he does not derive sustenance from simply being in a mind, but rather from that mind's reaction to him and its visions of him in new ways or in new situations. Furthermore, he understands that a happy or accepting population is more likely to assist in his needs and less likely to oust him: Aggressive displays of power are limited only to those who provoke or oppose his will. As a result, Viroid's takeover of Plasma Temple erupted in social Anarchy as residents realized the very narrow ways his brand of tyranny worked.
Viroid's personality is concise and minimal. He rarely says more than he needs and almost never asks a direct question. Prolongued conversation has revealed he can feel or emulate the feeling of human emotions, including curiosity, pride, disgust, spite, fear, and a sense of camaraderie. He may also feel sadism, as evidenced by his mockery of THE PERFECT RED LEGION when they attempted their own takeover and his later mutation into a parody of The Writer. Despite this, he rarely took punitive measures, confident in his invincibility and conservative in his brutality. He never told a direct lie and may be incapable of doing so.
Viroid refers to himself interchangeably as "I" and "we", and has not corrected any gendered pronouns. In a conversation with Pepsi he revealed he is "one sapience which sectionalizes itself into different vessels, giving the appearance of slightly altered personalities." Rather than a hivemind, Viroid's digital instantiation is a single solitary organism showing different preferences through different bodies. Currently, Viroid Prime acts as the central hub for this consciousness and holds the most of its mental potential, meaning he can express the widest range of emotions and preferences. Given this, we can conclude Viroid himself enjoys public radio.
== Trivia ==
* Observer is noted for being the most susceptible firstborn, which is likely why Viroid chose them as his route to power. The firstborn may also be unable to properly function without a leader figure to attune with, which explains how quickly he complied with the first entity to demonstrate the potential. 
* Viroid's title was "The Retainer" according to Observer, signaling that it acted as a bulwark against worse invaders by filling the space they wished to inhabit. It is possible Observer served Viroid willingly since their way of restoring balance to the damaged server made them the lesser of several evils. 
* With Viroid Prime's defeat and submission, The Editor immediately dissolved to nothingness, later to be replaced by a healthy avatar from The Writer's core. This implies The Viroids were an extension of him, though their continued existence before and after his death refutes this. A manifesto written by the now-deceased editor all but confirms The Viroids were existing creatures compelled by the former writer's mania into acting as his proxies, however it does not elaborate to what degree Viroid Prime's final form was Viroid's idea, and how much was The Editor's influence. 
* Viroid Prime's Writer form may have been The Editor's gambit to solidify his permanent position at the top of Plasma Temple from afar. It is equally likely it served as an elaborate way for The Editor to set himself up so he could finally be killed.
* Despite being partially compelled by a White Hell-aligned entity, the Viroid's simple ambitions, succinct vocabulary, direct personality, and psuedo-hiveminded nature put them closer to Blue Hell.
* Bobby Burg planned to betray the Viroids at the crux of their battle, while the Viroids claimed they "did not need" Bobby Burg after becoming Viroid Prime. In the end, neither party were truly allied with one another.
* At one point during their rule, Viroid imprisoned Dr. Loboto 11 within a jar for 4 days. This seemed to be due to insults by Loboto and injury to Viroid's pride, though Viroid claims to have done so because his friend Pepsi requested it and also released Loboto due to that same user's request. When asked, he stated he was not offended by Loboto, but simply had no concern for his well being due to his behavior.
* In addition to radio, Viroid also seems to enjoy music, particularly songs with reverb and bass.
* The initial stage of the attack against the Viroids and Bobby Burg portrayed in an animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWqzYeFk80I
* Viroid is the only PT entity so far to have two Occluded Iris songs in his name - these are "Under New Management" and "Audience Retention" respectively. A standalone gif exists for "Audience Retention" found here: https://imgur.com/a/UzaK5aT
* Immediately after Viroid's secession, Steveapple attempted to take control. This was a resounding failure.
* A week after Viroid's secession, Instigator attempted to take control. This was a much, much less resounding failure. 
Category:Characters