Fungus

Story notes/timeline

Archean

Fungus' life began in space, as a little lump of carbon floating through the cosmos. They were drawn into an early Earth's orbit, and fell to the surface as a meteorite. They landed in a field of stromatolites, and the energy generated from the impact drew the local microbes in the area to the alien visitor, growing around it and becoming its dynamic, living body. For quite some time, Fungus was rather lonely on the young Earth with no conscious creature to keep them company save for themself. They wandered the surface and oceans for many years all alone, but then got an idea. They cloned themself many times to give birth to a large number of little goopy copies of themself. For many years, they and their new friends, or daughters, whatever makes more sense, partied along the beaches of a young Earth.

Paleozoic

Fungus had another idea when observing newly developing animals along the boundary of the ediacaran and cambrian eras. These new creatures had specialized structures that allowed them to perceive the world in fantastic new ways. Fungus and their party, who were all blind, deaf and mute, paled in comparison to animals who'd developed eyes and ears and mouths. They thought it would be a great idea to parasitize these new animals, and gain access to all of their nifty sensory organs to enjoy living in the world in a new way. When they suggested this, though, they were met with ridicule. Feeling upset at their clones making a fool of them, they took to more decisive measures. There was no reason to continue living with the only mode of communication being chemical signals. It was boring. Millions of years had passed since they created their clones, and they couldn't bear to stand millions more while missing out on the developments happening among the animals. So, they collected all of their clones and brought them to a crater where they attached a limb to each one, partially absorbing them back into their body, and scrubbing out their ability to create their own sugars. Then, they severed the connections between each offspring, leaving all of them also heterotrophic. Surely, then, they'll have to go and eat or parasitize animals to access their senses, and then they'd be able to interact with the world in boundless new ways. It would be great! And so, disgraced, their offspring ran off to break into the bodies of animals in the cambrian seas to stay alive.

For a long time, Fungus didn't see any of their children. They were all too mad at them, ripping away their ability to live self-sufficiently in exchange for the ability to see, hear and speak, which most of them didn't find that cool anyways. Fungus realized that now they were alone once again. For many years they tried to reach their offspring, who now all lived inside of other creatures, feeding off their food. Fungus too tried to parasitize some animals, but they could never feel comfortable inside the shell of another organism, for their heart made of an enormous carbonado wouldn't fit in the body cavity of the animals they tried to inhabit. Instead, they decided to hunt for food instead, saving their eyes to use for themself and training their body to form vocal chords. It was around then where they started to learn to form their body into the shapes of other animals to fit in better. Life was like that for a long time.

Mesozoic

Time passed and the world was covered in new critters known as dinosaurs. Fungus observed them for a time and became interested in their social behaviors that had evolved in them, and thought that perhaps they could integrate themself into their packs or herds to gain better access to food. Prior to this, they mostly lived alone. They first took the form of a medium sized theropod and hunted alongside them, and grew so large that they left and joined up with larger and larger dinosaurs until they decided to change their form to that of an enormous sauropod. At the top of their game, they'd amassed a decently sized following of other sauropods who kept them company and also lured the occasional bachelor male which they would attack and then feed upon.

Cenozoic

Fungus' time of glory was cut short when a meteor came and killed off most of the dinosaurs. For many years, the Earth was bathed in a nuclear winter that choked out whatever wasn't killed by the initial impact. Alone once again, they wandered the Earth in search of any of their entourage who may have survived. By the time the clouds cleared, they hadn't eaten in years. Despite this, they managed to keep their enormous form out of respect for those who kept them company in the absence of their offspring, though perhaps they deserved it since none of them would be starving now if it weren't for them. The Earth recovered, as it always did, and Fungus began to hunt again. It wasn't for a few million years until they experimented with new forms, like mastodons or ground sloths. Those eventually went extinct too, at the hands of crafty little primates called humans, who Fungus became curious of. About the same time, they also became interested in cetaceans who were also growing quite smart.

Up to present day

Fungus has since met up with many of their clones, or at least the ones that have survived this long, which number about twenty. There are probably more out there who they haven't managed to reach. They've offered willing offspring a new system, a sort of apology, where they seek out hosts for them instead of making the clones do that themselves, offering something cool in return to the host, so long as both parties give Fungus some food every once in a while. Most of these hosts are either humans or dolphins, though there are some exceptions here and there. It has seemed to work, so far...

Largely unfinished image compilation

Garden's notes: Fungus was originally an amorphous blob made of big reflecting mirror shards, and they were more of a sleep paralysis demon than a fully fledged character. But I thought it would be more fun if they were more of a person than an event.