Cirsea Crusthoulians
Warning:
Black Ichor Scenarios include "soft" horror text and graphics.
It may not be suitable for children or the skittery to read.
Opinion of the writer: PG-13 material.
It turns out that a rare parasitic adversary caused a paranormal mystery. While it is easy to imagine that a contagion could bring harm to one individual or even a single species over time, it is disturbing to learn a single clinging infection could sustain three villains in 2 million year time span that led to wars, death and suffering.
Basic Information
Genetics and Reproduction
During the summer of 1093 BCE, the first pirate ships land on the islands inhabited only by Crusthoulians. The Cirsea brachyura are contagious with a zocephalan parasite that clings to their abdomen. It renders the creature infertile, but the pouch does not kill it. Since the shell fish was easy to snare, the starving pirates eat them raw while the creatures scream.
The weak brachura does not fight back, but their freeloaders do. The spindly parasites castrate their male crustacean hosts and multiply in the human bodies that ate them along with their abducted mother. When the human’s fever rises, the contagion squeezes their neck and suffocates them. Pirate outcomes are mixed. Most die within days. Others develop into a complex blend of crustacean and cadaver sludge. Immune female crusthoulians nurture the dominating pouched eggs.
It is yet unknown how zocephalans turn into zombies. But male inability to reproduce leaves the task to female Cirsea Crusthoulians. She spits a deceptively acquired saliva used to soothe the parasite’s hunger into her predator’s eyes while pinching his/her nose and torso.
Outcomes
Since male and female humans are no longer able to procreate after coming into contact with metamorphosed Crusthoulians, their only chance to spawn offspring is to await natural selection to occur. Over time, the nearly dead are now the undead, but not every human leaves behind a tasty corpse to feed on. When the undead aren’t useful, they are sold to gravediggers or carnivores.
Growth Rate & Stages
The creatures affected with the best egg bearing pouches grow large and live longer. The Cirsea crab who once lives to eat learns it is an advantage to live longer, and without the fear of being swallowed or boiled. Their previous mating habits did not provide them with eternal security.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Cirsea Crusthoulians are creative. They not only eat refuse that otherwise litter the islands, they build their houses with snail shells. Snails are their preferred delicacy, albeit human corpses are readily eaten when snails aren’t in season. The crusty creatures only require a larger home when they outgrow the first. Thes often occurs during a transmutation occurs. And transmutations only happen every few years. Usually, when a group of explorers are not aware of the danger they are going to face on the Cirsea Isles.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
The crusthoulians that live on Cirsea Island when the first pirates and explorers arrive are a species that lives for one meal at a time. They do not relish the idea of parenthood or nurturing. Females leave their eggs after they lay them. If either males or females ear a snail, they share no regrets. It is the course of nature. When they earn a house along with a snail meal, they appreciate the cover, but pay no attention to where it came from or why. It is their instinct to forge ahead like they do.
Only now plagued with parasitic contagion do females nurture and males lament over the loss of their ability to procreate. The blame for the pirates who boiled their brethren, but their blame and retribution is misdirected. It is the parasites that taught them loss. And while the brains and skeletal crusts expand, they reveal their hostility toward what they can see and hear or remember.
The driven by intention parasite spirits successfully pass on a mutation that leads the crusthoulians into thinking, perception and using their power to see from island to island. Before the parasites restricted their head rotations, they could see only 30 meters, and their bristled hair is sensitive to water currents and pressure. They can prepare for battle when intruders arrive.
Crusthoulian Evolutions
Crusthoulian Evolution by ROD w/Midjourney
Non-fiction Trivia: Some species are not always toxic, so it is likely that the toxins are obtained through the crab’s diet or possibly by symbiotic bacteria. Crabs (crustaceans & crusthoulians) have no mechanism for delivering these toxins, such as through a bite or poisonous spines, so poisoning only occurs when people consume the creatures.
Crusthoulian Creature by ROD w/Midjourney
Scientific Name
crusthoulians crustacean
Origin/Ancestry
They progenerate on sandy beaches where birds, palm trees and spring water is plentiful.
Related Organizations
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