Monster seed: Supplanters.

Been working on this most of the afternoon.

Supplanters

You think I’m going to help you? You think that I want you to cut it out of me?  Go to Hell. People like you threw me into the gutter; it’s the only thing that’s ever tried to put me back up on my feet. I’ll hurt you before I let you take it away.  And then you’ll go to jail, because monsters aren’t real. Or, maybe you’ll go to the hospital, because you’ll be the one who sounds crazy now.  Let’s see how you’ll handle it.

Supplanters are the dangerous kind of monsters: that is, they are clever, patient, and strong-willed.  Like all of their kind, they have an overpowering need to manifest in our plane of existence – but they think in longer terms than virtually any other sort of monster out there, and they know how to plot.  And Supplanters know how to enlist the help of their prey.

Detecting a Supplanter: an investigator who happens to have access to any sort of reliable supernatural detector will have no problem with finding or tracking a Supplanter.  Assuming, of course, that it simply doesn’t volunteer the information on its own.  Supplanters prefer to manifest in planes of existence where the supernatural is real, but not really believed in.

As for mundane evidence: there is none, directly.  A human body that’s been infested with a Supplanter will be in the best health possible.  The monster can cure illnesses and long-term conditions, including addictions, cancers, and neurological problems. It can also reverse tissue and bone damage, although it cannot regenerate limbs or teeth. You might be able to convince a doctor that there’s something seriously amiss with a host’s current medical results when compared to past history (assuming past medical results are even available), but it’s much easier to assume that the old paperwork is just wrong.

Supplanter Life Cycle: a Supplanter begins as, essentially, a bit of self-aware muck that can move independently, if slowly.  It is carefully placed by its second-stage Supplanter ‘parent’ in an area that has a copious supply of homeless people – the worse off, the better.  It then seeks out a potential host that ‘smells’ right – chemical addictions will trigger a favorable response, as will schizophrenia – and permeates his or her bloodstream.

At this point the host is probably doomed.  The absolutely first thing the Supplanter does is ‘eat’ the part of the brain that would make the host doubt the motivations of its new guest; and then it starts taking over the rest of the body.  So far, this is not particularly unlike other examples of malevolent sentient parasites taking over human bodies; but what makes a Supplanter so insidious is that it takes about a year or so for it to take full control of its new body.

During that time the human soul inside the body is absolutely convinced that he or she is still in ultimate control.  The Supplanter will readily communicate with its host; it will typically begin by strengthening the host’s immune systems, curing any physical addictions, purging all diseases, readjusting the host’s brain chemistry to a neurotypical state, and generally fixing the host body. Within a week, the host will be the picture of health… and ready to get out of the horrible living conditions that he’s found himself in.  He will also be invariably quite devoted to the friendly voice living in his head giving him good advice, not to mention a second chance at life.

The Supplanter will be happy to help with that, too.  While it does not share memories with its ‘parent,’ it can and does remember things like phone numbers and addresses: it will direct its host to meet the ‘parent,’ who will then happily spout off whatever story that might keep the host happy and calm until the possession process is complete.  In the intervening time, the host is encouraged to rehabilitate his public image, get his financial status back under control, reunite with loved ones, and generally become a valued member of society… while all the time the Supplanter watches, and observes.  

As noted before, this happens for about a year.  And then the Supplanter casually ejects the host and takes over his life.  And quite possibly, eats the host’s soul.  Research on this continues.

What happens after that? …Frighteningly?  Not much: they typically live out the rest of their host’s natural lifespan, and just die.  Before then they will typically produce two ‘children’ for later implantation. Second-stage Supplanters are obsessive hedonists and ruthless when it comes to attackers; but unlike many other malevolent supernatural entities they are not particularly sadistic. Or perhaps they’re simply very, very careful. At any rate, there’s no really good mundane way to detect a second-stage Supplanter; any Supplanter will recognize any other Supplanter on sight, but that may not help investigators.

Supplanters are a serious ethical problem for any anti-occult group that is aware of the monsters’ existence.  They are not harmless – the life cycle of these things involve the deliberate murder of at least one, and typically three, human beings – but they’re also not going to bring about the Apocalypse and they’re almost impossible to detect.  Worse, killing one will almost invariably result in public scrutiny: people get upset when somebody who has turned his life around ends up being randomly killed. So, do you ignore the problem, because after all it’s not that many people getting eaten?  Or do you bang your head against that particular wall? …And if you come up with an answer, tell your superiors.  They’d love to hear one.

Removing a Supplanter: Supplanters are definitely malevolent-supernatural, so it can be exorcised.  If there’s still a human being in there, he’s free of the monster… and gets to suffer from whatever put him on the streets in the first place.  If there isn’t a human being in there, your investigation team might as well just not bother with an exorcism and just shoot the Supplanter in the head.  It can heal quickly, but bullets will kill it just fine.