Hydrargyrum

**The Hydrargyrum** are liquid metallic alien slime creatures that parasitically possess other creatures native to whatever any planet the Hydragyrum arrive on. Furthermore, it seems that they can mold themselves, such as splitting in two or merging together to form chimera-like forms.

They can also shapeshift into any life-form they see in order to be able to adapt to virtually any environment they can depending on the life-form they morph into.

## Reproduction

Hydrargyrum are a genderless race, and therefore reproduce asexually. Much like Amoebas, they reproduce through Binary fission, the process when a parent amoeba divides into two identical offspring amoeba. They do this through a process known as mitosis and the genetic material for both offspring amoeba is identical to the parent, much like an amoeba.

## Behavior

### **Cognitive function**

The consciousness of the Hydrargyrum is yet another mystery, all that can be certain is that it retains an inherited survival instinct and enough of the facets of the possessed creature or creature it’s imitating to pass convincingly as the original. It can be deduced that once a Hydrargyrum possesses or imitates a creature, it regains or copies the memories, abilities, mannerisms and possibly the frailties of the host and uses them to sustain its survival. It stores the collected data of it’s hosts and creatures it imitates into its advanced mind that’s basically an endless storage unit filled with personal data of it’s victims.

In one case of parasitic possession as a host was either incapacitated by a pre-existing condition leading to a heart attack or it mimicked the effect well enough to fool an individual nearby. In another case a host was apparently knocked unconscious from a concussive blast which mere minutes later also lead to a violent attack. It is unclear if this was a forced or planned reaction. Possibly it was intending to play dead in both cases but was forced into action by the defibrillator shocks and in the other case by an opportunity to attack a large group at once.

### **Self-preservation**

If attacked with fire, ice or powerful electric shocks, it will attempt to attack, escape or play possum. Explosives have also been deployed to destroy the creatures form but the lasting effect, other than to render the soft tissues to a spray of blood and pulp, is unknown.

The self-preservation mechanism is one of the few vulnerabilities that can be exploited to aid in the detection of an life-form it’s imitating. This can also be seen when an imitating a life-form apparently indicated another of its kind, leading to its inevitable termination, in order to disguise its status. It has also been attempting to seed mistrust of another human it is not imitating. Interestingly just prior to its exposure the imposter made some resigned and very human reactions to its impending death.

As a last ditch method of preservation a is willing to freeze itself in hopes it can escape a current threat and wait for rediscovery by later and unaware prey.

## Trivia

* The Hydragyrum are based of John Carpenter's 1982 film, The Thing.
* The art for this page belongs to Darksilvania on DeviantArt.
* Hydrargyrum is former name for the elemeng Mercury.