[hider=Crimson]

[b][color=9e0b0f]Crimson[/color][/b] is an amnesiac [b]shapeshifter[/b] in hiding, [i]searching for the truth[/i].

[u][b][color=9e0b0f]Name[/color][/b][/u]: If Crimson has a true name, they don't know it.
[u][b][color=9e0b0f]Aliases[/color][/b][/u]: "Crimson" is the latest in a variety of [i]colorful[/i] nicknames, such as It, Sticky, Hunger, Parasite, and many more.
[u][b][color=9e0b0f]Species:[/color][/b][/u] Unknown biomorphic organism.

[u][b][color=9e0b0f]Homeworld:[/color][/b][/u] Unknown

[u][b][color=9e0b0f]Age[/color][/b][/u]: Unknown

[u][b][color=9e0b0f]Gender[/color][/b][/u]: Gender is a difficult concept that Crimson has yet to fully grasp. They consider themselves an autonomous collective, and so consider possessing a singular gender to be irrelevant. Their current host was originally male.

[u][b][color=9e0b0f]Appearance[/color][/b][/u]: Crimson's appearance is naturally highly variable, depending on how they choose to arrange their organic macrostructures. For the purpose of anonymity, they usually choose to maintain the outward appearance of their latest host, avoiding any drastic shapeshifting while in public. Crimson's current host is a tallish, humanoid male drifter they took control of some months ago, with a ragged environmental suit and a rough, ginger-colored beard.

[u][b][color=9e0b0f]Personality[/color][/b][/u]: Crimson's highly alien biological structure and means of survival has lent them an equally alien worldview. They have difficulty understanding the concept of singular organisms, and approaches concepts such as individuality and relationships with almost childlike curiosity. They have a similar attitude toward such concepts as death, memories, the mind, and the soul, but their lack of familiarity and unique perspective often come across as amoral and callous. An amnesiac orphan, Crimson is steadfastly determined to find out who and what they are, and divine their own place in the universe. They are surprisingly spiritual, holding a strong belief in a higher order to existence, and a meaning to life and its true purpose in reality.

[u][b][color=9e0b0f]Background[/color][/b][/u]: Crimson does not know what they are, who they are, how old they are, or where they are from. Their first memory is awakening in a laboratory on a remote world. Driven only by raw survival instinct, Crimson escaped the facility, consuming and assimilating their captors as they emerged. From their memories, they learned what they knew; Crimson had been recovered frozen and mostly dead from a crashed ship at their world's northern magnetic pole. They had spent thousands, possibly millions of years entombed in the ice until rapid climate change had thawed the ice enough to make the ship detectable to the world's inhabitants. Where the ship was from and who had made it were both mysteries lost to the eons.

Determined to learn who and what they are, Crimson infiltrated their society. They learned to hide among the organisms whose individual natures gave Crimson pause. They could not understand how these walking skins did not change as they did, adapt to survive, and share the experience of evolution as part of a greater whole. Attempts at revealing themselves to the organisms were met with horror and violence, and Crimson has learned to keep their true nature a secret. For years they have wandered the edges and gutters of the galaxy, seeking out those that might have a clue to their origins or their true nature.

[u][b][color=9e0b0f]Talents[/color][/b][/u]
[list]
[*] [color=9e0b0f]Bioadaptation[/color] - Crimson is a shapeshifting biomorphic organism, capable of altering their own biology to better suit their circumstances at a moment's notice. Their cells maintain a plasticity reminiscent of undifferentiated embryonic cells throughout their lifespan, and can quickly transform and replicate themselves when given access to sufficient energy and appropriate chemicals. The only true limitations to Crimson's ability to transform and replicate organic structures is the availability of biomass to them- both to form the structures and and to fuel the transformation- and knowledge of the genetic information needed to develop such a structure- blueprints, essentially.
[*] [color=9e0b0f]Invade, Replicate, Replace, Imitate[/color] - Crimson's unique biomorphic cells can not only replicate themselves, but they can assimilate living cells of other organisms and transform them into biomorphic cells while still retaining their original structure and function. In essence, this allows Crimson to infect other organisms and slowly take over their bodies from the inside. By assimilating organisms in this manner, Crimson perfectly replicates their biology and copy their neurological functions to imitate their behavior. In essence, they are replaced by a copy of themselves one cell at a time. The process is subtle and time-consuming, and while the infected organism cannot detect the changes until it is too late, advanced bio-scanners can detect the presence of the infection, especially if Crimson begins to alter internal structures, and a recent infection can be cured with rapid and aggressive treatment.
[*] [color=9e0b0f]Wisdom of a Thousand Worlds[/color] - When Crimson replicates and infiltrates neurological systems of other organisms, they gain access to the information those networks contain. In the process of taking over a host body, they gain the knowledge and memories that the host originally possessed. As each of Crimson's biomorphic cells can act as a neurotransmitter, essentially their entire body is a living brain, enabling them to store and access a vast amount of information. However, this capacity is strictly limited to Crimson's available biomass, and so they must be judicious about what information is retained and what is discarded. This ability is not without its drawbacks for Crimson either, as having multiple souls within them can become disorienting, especially as they relive the memories of having their body invaded and their assimilated. Crimson has been prioritizing galactic history and stellar cartography as of late; knowledge gleaned from xeno-archeologists and explorers.
[/list]
[u][b][color=9e0b0f]Cyphers[/color][/b][/u]: TBA[/hider]