"Alright, time to see if any of you are Skin-Stealers."
A man, around 6 feet tall and visibly malnourished, aimed a gun at the other twenty people in the cramped warehouse room. Pacing throughout the chamber, his hand shook with anxiety even with the powerful firearm he wielded. For many here, the tension was suffocating.
For Micheal, the man holding the gun, it was the weekly check.
Walking slowly towards a young boy, he brandished a makeshift knife made of rusty metal. Throwing him on the floor, Micheal put his boot on the kid's arm to restrain him, inching closer towards his hand with the knife. Raising his hand to make a swing, he slashed at the boy's hand, causing it to bleed out.
Red blood. The child would live today.
Micheal repeated the process with the others. Ten people in, and all were still human so far. The next one up was an woman, around 50 years old. She had arrived at the colony a couple weeks back. Apparently, she'd been part of some big group out there in the Backrooms, until one day she returned to her colony after a resource gathering mission and everyone had disappeared.
Repeating the process once more with the others, Micheal noticed a beige shape moving towards him in a flash, along with a sharp pain in his back. In an instant, he turned around and shot at the attacker-
Three bodies lay on the floor, along with the corpse of his attacker: another frail man not much unlike him, armed with yet another makeshift knife. The others must've caught a stray bullet. Micheal checked the bullet wound on the person who had assaulted him. Red blood; he was still a human.
"Looks like Skin-Stealers aren't the only traitors around here", Micheal said with a smirk on his face, turning around to the young boy from before. "You were his kid, right? Now all of you remember, these rules are all to keep us safe and happy. You like being safe and happy, right?"
Raising his pistol towards the child, Micheal continued.
"Now let this be an example of what happens when someone gets the idea that they're above my rules."
One last shot rang through the room.
Red blood.
≪ Survival Guide ≫
- Examine the blood of your companions at least once per day. If it appears translucent, take the appropriate measures.
- Check regularly for any differences in the appearances or behavior of your companions.
- If you come across a colony which seems to be overly generous, do not trust them. Whether they are still human or not, good intentions are unlikely.
- Show no mercy. They are not your friends or your family anymore. Do not hesitate to kill them.
- If you are cornered, do not be taken alive.
≪ Overview ≫
Skin Stealers, bearing the scientific name Homo capgras and classified as Entity 10, are a species of predatory beings with polymorphic capabilities. Common in levels with significant human and/or other sapient presence, they have posed a notable threat to human civilization within the Backrooms.
Skin Stealers are solo hunters, often employing regular use of suggestion and shapeshifting to lure out prey or groups of prey for consumption/assimilation. The population of Skin-Stealers remains unknown, though efforts from the AEA have consistently thinned down the population.
≪ Biology ≫
Each Skin-Stealer possesses two forms in question: their disguise and their true form. Due to the preservation of much of the host's skin during the reproduction process, their disguise takes the appearance of their deceased host, albeit with some minor differences. Proportions are often changed slightly due to the consumption of all former internal organs, and although they inherit the memories of their victim, behavioral patterns can often seem visibly "off".
In contrast, their "true" form[1] appears as a dark beige-colored, vaguely humanoid being with varying appearance. Often, instances of the entity form sharp appendages or claws to inflict maximum damage on any victim: however this comes with a disadvantage: any newly shifted body mass is unstable and fragile for a period of time, allowing any attacker to cause extreme injury while aiming at these body parts.
While externally Skin-Stealers look alike to wanderers, autopsy reports have shown that the internals of the entities are vastly different. Skin-Stealers do not posses a standard digestive or respiratory system; the slight movements associated with breathing, swallowing, and chewing, are all controlled by a secondary musculature system that acts more as a collective organ to simulate the behavior[2]
The heart of the entity remains in the same place as most humans; the left side of the sternum. These hearts also behave no differently to a human heart, and have shown to be effective against incapacitating a Skin-Stealer if the need arises. The blood vessels among the rest of the vascular system does not change either. To protect their organs and muscles, Skin-Stealers have developed a denser and tougher type of skin through large quantities of retinol. The entire body of a Skin-Stealer can change the amount of retinol depending on environmental factors and fitting into its host, such as adding more skin to replace arm muscles or adding extra around the legs to protect against hostile aquatic life.
≪ Reproduction & Virology ≫
In order to successfully hunt and possess others, Skin-Stealers produce cells to pass on to others. These cells atomically provide information on how to convert wanderers into Skin-Stealers, and if enough are pushed into the wanderer, the turning process happens within hours. Otherwise, wanderers enter a mixed-skin state, based on the amount of attack cells present result in certain outcomes.
| 0 - 50k cells | Attack cells are killed off with minimal harm to the wanderer's body. |
|---|---|
| 50k - 150k cells | Wanderer left is semi-serious condition, though emergency medical care is not required. |
| 150k - 250k cells | Emergency care necessary, and disfigurement is possible. |
| 250k - 400k cells | Permanent disfigurement highly likely, mercy kill may be the best option. |
| 400k - 500k cells | Wanderer left mostly turned, and will often be consumed by Skin-Stealers instead of being left to die. |
| 500k + cells | Full turn is extremely likely. |
Spread of Skin-Stealers cells typically only happens through contact with internal systems; obtaining these cells is commonly done through the sharing of saliva from either kissing, spit, vomit, or ███████████████████. A Skin-Stealer, when engaging in one of these ways, will produce saliva and attack cells through glands in their oral cavity and pharynx and push them into the others mouth, blood, or other exposed orifice. During the turning process, the newly produced cells will essentially eat the wanderer alive from the inside in a quite painful manner, preserving only two organs: the skin (to fuse with the newly created body as a disguise) and the brain (to siphon memories and knowledge from).
≪ Behavior ≫
Skin-Stealers are stealthy and cunning predators. Although humans (and Facelings) are notable prey to them, they most commonly turn to other entities as a form of sustenance, due to their much greater frequency.
When hunting an entity, Skin-Stealers will wander around a level disguised as a human, seeking to lure in entities attempting to predate on a human. When an entity gives chase, the Skin-Stealer will morph into its true form, seeking to take the entity by surprise and kill it swiftly. After their prey has expired, the Skin-Stealer will consume it, afterwards shifting back into its human disguise.
Conversely, a Skin-Stealer's interactions with sapients tend to be much more varied; some prefer to kill a wanderer quickly while their guard is lowered, while some prefer to follow them to a settlement and look for more suitable prey there. Skin-Stealers have been reported to linger inside colonies for years on end, often picking off each member one by one and using their victims to assuage suspicion by other members of the colony.
However, there is one saving grace when it comes to their behavior: since Skin-Stealers are largely solitary entities, the chance of them collaborating with each other to form larger groups is thankfully rare.
≪ Discovery & History ≫
While first recorded in the 1600s, many have claimed to see individuals possessed by demons across the backrooms, with oral reports first surfacing hundreds of years prior. The earliest document was discovered in Level 906 and was dated to be written in 1609, and has been translated to fit within modern language:
““Charles came back to me after several weeks of silence. I reasonably assumed him to be dead or otherwise disgraced by our populous. His return was met initially with concern, as he had left with two friends and returned alone. Many suspected him to have cannibalized them, though as I was able to find him traveling through the complex, I initiated conversation.
What started as surprise seemed to brush away quickly as he realized it was me talking to him. Though the moments still were odd, as he stared at me very intently. Then his attention went to my features, trying to find anything strange. Yet he relaxed, satisfied without confirmation, and finally spoke to me. We talked for mixed moments about by business, and then his plans to move to one of the other camps. We did get to the topic of his friends, more or less by my own force. I don't recall what I asked him, but he did give a response.
Charles told me that one of his friends was cursed by some sort of spirit. Passed to Charles' friend by another host, none of them knew who passed it to... Ivan. I think that's Charles' friend. Anyway he didn't know how Ivan got possessed, but the next time he and Patrick[3] found Ivan, he looked like he got into a fight. Ivan brushed it off, so they kept going. Charles went into a lot about how he was able to tell it wasn't Ivan, but I can't remember any of it.
But his friend, Patrick, didn't see the issues, and brushed Charles off. So when Ivan and Patrick suddenly separated with Charles, he figured out Patrick was attacked by this demon too, and ran. Charles told me that both chased after him, though when I asked him later, it was only Ivan with blood on his lips. He started breaking down after that, reciting some old Latin prayers. I stopped asking him after that. ”— Suez, David. "The Story of Charles." Alters of the Sapiens, 1609, p. 114.
- ↑ Due to their polymorphic nature, Skin-Stealers do not possess any one "true" appearance. This is instead used to refer to any form the Skin-Stealer takes aside from its disguise.
- ↑ Because of the possession-based hunting practices of Skin-Stealers, it is unknown how the fake organs are created.
- ↑ Charles' 3rd friend, considered dead or infected