Zephyr102's Ideas

I've had the information for a parasitic life-form written down for a while. Unfortunately, I realize now that the creature I invented was basically a punishment to Felaryan giant predators. Until I get it more balanced and less Sue-y, here's a version of the Replica Parasite specifically tooled to be lighter and softer. If people are interested, I'll bring out the original Replica once I have it revised. Also, I want to say right here that I will not answer any questions about how a Replica gets itself clean. Maybe they just shed their pupal shells and are already clean underneath.

Name: S-Replica (Soft)

Species: Parasitic Organism in human form

Size: Human-sized

Hair: Various

Eyes: Various

Threat Level: Low

Diet: Ore-bearing rocks (not for nutrition)

Intelligence: Various, typically within human range

Description: A less terrifying version of the Replica parasite. This variety does not kill its’ host, and in point of fact, the host may never know it was infected. Like its’ lethal kin, S-Replica actively seeks to be eaten for the purpose of reproduction, carrying only 4-8 eggs covered in gold or other corrosion-immune materials. Placing a lower nutritional strain on the host due to their smaller numbers, a batch of S-Replica, which reside in the hosts’ intestines during their larval stage, may be ready to pupate within 2 months. Their pupae exit the digestive tract and hatch shortly thereafter into the adult form, which appears to be that of an ordinary human, male or female. Before they restart the reproductive process once more, adults will seek out nearby veins of gold, platinum, or tungsten, which they eat to create acid-proof shells for the eggs they carry. This behavior has made S-Replica useful as prospectors, and they are sometimes tasked by other species with finding multiple deposits before they seek a host to eat and digest them.

S-Replica have only a very limited sense of self-preservation after they have formed the shells for their eggs, seeing digestion as a completely natural desire. They will fight tooth and nail or hide to escape ingestion however if they have not yet covered their eggs.

S-Replica may appear human, but are very simple, biologically, and lack the capacity to feel significant pain.

The first thing you could do to make them more reasonable is to not make them look human. No matter what, making them appear like a human who wants to be eaten is invoking the fetish, something you made clear that you want to avoid, and really it also give the impression that they're superior to humans in every single way, which again is undesirable. If you ask me, there's no real way to have a vore parasite with giants. The only one I can think of is if you have something where the species lay their eggs on a host, which when eaten, are deposited in the giant's stomach, and it's the heat around those that make them hatch, like they're some kind of botfly.

Shady Knight wrote:

The first thing you could do to make them more reasonable is to not make them look human. No matter what, making them appear like a human who wants to be eaten is invoking the fetish, something you made clear that you want to avoid, and really it also give the impression that they're superior to humans in every single way, which again is undesirable. If you ask me, there's no real way to have a vore parasite with giants. The only one I can think of is if you have something where the species lay their eggs on a host, which when eaten, are deposited in the giant's stomach, and it's the heat around those that make them hatch, like they're some kind of botfly.

I have no problems with invoking a fetish. The issue is when fetish is the sole purpose for a character or story. This nonlethal variant is admittedly fetishy. I see where you're coming from with being humanoid, but as was established through some of the responses in the "Should I Even Be Here" topic, humans are a rare and tasty treat for giant preds, so it makes sense that a macroparasite would imitate them. On the other hand, the other shape I had in the works calls to mind a shark, a giant grain of rice, a mole, and those crabs from Pirates of the Caribbean that fold up to look exactly like rocks. Giving them a form suited to burrowing makes it easier for the parasite to find veins of metal, and they will also leave 'Replica Holes' in the ground which people use to find potential goldmines.
I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by "superior to humans in every single way," was that because they desire to be eaten, and feel little pain?

One way I had planned to avoid getting too fetishy in stories with the lethal variant would be to have the narrative take place through the eyes of a human investigating whatever phenomena was killing giant predators. First contact would occur after said human finds a Naga skeleton mysteriously picked clean of all meat, the bones covered in teeth marks. He then tracks the parasites, happening upon them in the process of acquiring shells for their eggs. Of course, as they are now, the lethal variant is possibly overpowered. They are supposed to be potentially cataclysmic in threat, limited primarily by the territorial nature of giant preds and their own short lifespans, which results from them not eating anything of nutritious value after emerging from the host. It's very possible they would be threatening on only an individual basis.