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Here's a blurb I wrote for myself recently about the shapeshifters in my story Two Become One. They are composed of a "universal substrate" - bs scifi term, I know - that can mimic any substance.

 

There are secrets that Embel is keeping from Sara: for one, she is actually only three years old. Although Embel and her kin are immortal, they can only reproduce once in their life: this is done by seeding a microscopic gamete, the "golden seed", into a welcoming environment, (perhaps a dish of agar) where it will slowly grow and flourish and gradually develop consciousness. Embel eats by turning her substance into a very caustic solvent, which can dissolve all organic matter and etch rocks; after her food is dissolved she absorbs the stuff back into herself. She has no control over the solvent and can only reabsorb it when touching it. She can commit suicide by turning her whole self into solvent. She can die if all of her becomes frozen or rises above a certain temperature, but her ability to order herself on the molecular level allows her to insulate herself in all forseeable circumstances. Forcible trauma (as in a gunshot) turns her substance into something like hard rubber, which slowly relaxes and becomes amenable to shifting again in time. She would probably not be able to protect Sara from gunshot, at least without notice, although she could enter Sara's wound and make herself into replacement tissues so that it would feel and look as if nothing had happened. Embel could even gradually retract herself so that the wound would heal naturally over time, but this would take practice.

 

Embel's kind are not usually part of human society, and do not have a human-like consciousness. They spend their lives as part of the landscape, gravitating to extreme environments. Her first ancestor was a microscopic thing that came into being (abiogenesis) in the superheated water of an undersea vent, only a handful of thousands of years ago. It exists there still, assuming the shape of a gnarled vent tower. All of these creatures contain the memories of their forebears in some form, which up until Embel's grandparent meant a deep history of solitary meditation on matter, life and existence. Embel's mother whom she named Euryale was the first to choose to be animate. She made herself into a creature of snow, ice and rock, or perhaps wood, bark, leaves, roots, which still haunts the mountains nearby the city where Sara lives. Embel is the only one of her kind so far who shows an interest in the human world.