Brood in Review: 'Creep'

Known as Pavor Incognitus or the Fear Anon, this brood act as a subspecies of the greater Anon species. Hailing from the asteroid cluster Endstone in Gutterspace.
On earth a member of this brood is colloquially referred to as a 'Creep', and the classification for the group as a whole as 'Creeps'. It is believed this name is derived both from the earth verb creep which elicits imagery of crawling, writhing and slithering as well as the earth noun creep which means an unpleasant person, rogue or reprobate, due to their slimy exterior and the negative connotations associated with their feeding habits.

Creeps share all features and abilities held as common among the greater anon race including their empathic sense, emotional energy ingestion, hyper-adaptivity and self-sustaining forms requiring only emotional energy to maintain themselves.

Each brood of Anon have distinguishing features inherent to their physical form. For the Creep brood these traits are their slime, which they constantly produce and which has several notable features in and of itself, and their eyes.

Creep slime is a natural balm and anti-contaminant, capable of quickly sealing minor injuries in the skin of a creep. The viscosity of the slime is adaptable through an expenditure of will, with some Creeps having rather smooth and watery slime whilst the slime of others is quite tacky and thick. Creep skin tends towards grays, blacks and deep purples, but can appear different colors depending on the makeup of their slime. While largely inconsequential the introduction of Anons to human culture has shown that Creep slime can be difficult to clean up, but tends to break down when treated with lemon juice.

The Creep brood have eyes which look like fields of darkness flecked with little white stars and two semi-transparent lids which close by meeting at the center vertically. Those outside of the brood have been said to be unable to tell whether the white flecks or the dark are actually responsible for receiving and translating light into images. Regardless of which is the case it is readily apparent that these eyes allow a greater field of vision than many human or human-like species.

All anon have a body composed of external matter, but the common Creep's solidity with this matter is far lesser than that of other broods. Because of this they are more capable of altering their physicality than other broods, and those who put focus into the effort can become capable shapeshifters in their own right. This can be a powerful tool for integrating into society, or hiding in plain sight and those who truly invest in their ability to alter their form can even temporarily solidify or recolor their slime to allow them to blend in more easily.

As an unfortunate side-effect of their less structurally sound nature, while Creeps are more resilient to impact by the nature of their quasi-gelatinous bodies they become less dense and easier to cut the more they grow or stretch their form. Conversely they can become extremely dense if they shrink themselves down, but run the risk of their emotional core breaching their body and drifting, effectively killing them.

Their body is also host to a relatively cool base temperature and limbs suited to rapid acceleration and deceleration. This prevents them from being spotted by creatures whose vision is based on thermal patterns and allows them to rapidly spring from or into hiding to accommodate their attempts to scare their prey.

Scaring their prey is a very practical evolutionary adaptation considering each individual brood of Anon is associated with and feeds on a particular emotion. For the Creep brood this emotion is Fear. They feast upon and inspire fear in other races. To this end they are more capable of patience than some others of their kin, but also more prone to obsession, as properly propagating fear can take far greater time and effort than other emotions.

Beyond their physical adaptations the Creep brood has a higher than average affinity for several traits of anonkind. They are better than average when it comes to hyperadaptiveness to mimic sounds, with some being capable of acting as living soundboards and having a broad library of sounds while other will hyper-fixate to the point of being capable of perfectly replicating the haunting war cries of entire armies of people being mowed down by a roaring trench-beast at once. Along with this the Creep brood can project or reduce their presence, with those focusing on such skills being capable of going so still, so quiet, so void of thought or emotion or energy that they can scarcely be focused on whilst others still can intensify their 'heartbeat', the natural rythym of their beating emotional core, to the point that the sound pervades into the minds of those nearby and sets their teeth on edge.

With all these skills and more the Creep brood are a true parasite and can be considered a pestilence upon the many worlds they've inhabited, and their recent acclimation to earth is no exception.