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I have my own headcanon that offspring parasites with their own special abilities can use their host’s abilities if they’re 1. Older like Fresh , and 2. Have studied that ability in action

Like Fresh or the ‘runts’ you mention would have some innate sense of how to use their host’s ability, but if a different parasite wanted to use it they’d have to take a more analytical approach to it.  

Liiiike for example my OC Grunge (inspired a lil by Unfresh, I wanted to make a similar concept without the aspects I disliked, then he ended up developing into his own character) has smoke abilities, but he learned how to use his host’s bone magic too :D

The funny thing is, he probably understands his host’s magic better than his own.  He doesn’t even realize his smoke can be used for illusions or suffocation because he keeps using it just to elongate his stupid tentacles and make a smoke cloud similar to Fresh’s poof

He’s also got a different style from Fresh! He’s got a 90s grunge style rather than that neon look Fresh is known for. B)

(i forgot to add the back tendrils on the drawing above RIP)

idk if people really care about parasite OCs, so lemme know below this post if you want me to infodump about this edgy guy.  I’ve got a lot more than him but he’s one of my main ones

how does fresh reproduce?

he reproduces asexually!! More parasites are grown inside the hosts body while he’s in there and he coughs them out (and then crushes them into powder, he HATES the other parasites + they’re competition + they could get him caught in whatever world he’s in if they got loose, they’re flat out a genuine danger to him) though a few do occasionally escape, it’s a LOT of them and they’re small, and that’s how you get fresh parasite ocs!

it’s an involuntary thing that he has to do every so often, but he CAN do it on purpose, like at the ‘freshmageddon’ event in the loveball (which had a gateway to tons of other au’s, which is how people got there!!) where he spent three days straight creating them to infect thousands of universes at once!

the parasites also HAVE to obey him, even if they don’t want to, unless it goes against their deep deep deep core values, and even then, it’s REALLY difficult to! they also can’t create more, unless they live long enough, and the vast majority are also ace, like fresh, same species! (more fresh parasite info under the cut!!)

ALSO! the fresh parasites each have their own specialized power that starts out weak and gets stronger as they age, heavily based on their first host bc that’s what forms their identity the strongest! like instinctively knowin languages, healing, emotional manipulation (my kid, toffee!), telepathy, basically anything under the sun, from overpowered to basically useless - like a power roulette!

fresh doesn’t have this, and neither do ‘runts’ which are born without any powers, which means they can borrow and use the power of their hosts (like fresh using sans’s bone attacks) instead of the host’s magic being ‘overridden’! this means that most regular parasites can’t use their hosts abilities iirc, or can only use it like… REALLY weakly! unlike fresh or the runts, who can harness all of it!

the parasites can also have any color/pattern and don’t have to be strictly 90s-themed like fresh, in fact, they probably wouldn’t be unless their FIRST host was a huge 90s fan! they can have ANY aesthetic imaginable, tho the majority are naturally drawn to bright or clashing colors it’s absolutely possible for one to favor more muted or matching clothes, the one thing they all have in common is the host’s soul in one eye - and they don’t even necessarily need shades to hide it!

in lucidia there are plenty of skeletons without eyelights like salt, so they could theoretically just wear an eyepatch over the soul eye and not have the risk of shades falling off! (i have my own hc that the empty socket is unnerving to other skeletons, even if it looks normal to us it looks off to them but this is JUST a headcanon and not at all backed up!!) get creative bro!!!!

fresh parasites can also feel emotions or not have any, or just feel one or a few emotions really strongly (like how fresh can just feel anger and fear in specific circumstances, a parasite could theoretically feel ONLY happiness, ONLY sadness, i don’t know what other emotions there are, disgust maybe??) there aren’t any concrete rules abt it from what i remember!!!

fun fact! yknow how fresh has many rainbow tongues? those arent tongues! those are parasites! those are sentient dudes. *sticks out my sons i hate to intimate you*