Latex Creatures
Latex creatures are the main enemy of the game Changed and it’s Special Edition. They are usually anthropomorphic, though some can appear as quadrupedal, amorphous, or other various forms.
Lore
Creation
During the rise of the Pale Virus, a deadly virus with a 100% mortality rate in humans, humanity needed a cure to be made, and a company known as Thunder Science Company was contracted to create said cure. Through attempts with vaccines, antibiotics, and other medicines, nothing worked to truly slow down or stop the spread of the virus, until some higher ups at the company revealed an organic crystal sample, which they said was created artificially for bioengineering. And under the cultivation of the scientists at the company, they created the first of the Dark Latex, gooey black wolves with a white, crystalline, skull-like mask. Though it was odd for them to be wolves, and they even had pre-human domestication wolf DNA innately, without introduction of even just wolf DNA by the scientists. They also had an astounding mimicry ability, eventually taking on a humanoid form, mimicking the researchers and scientists working on them. Due to their liquid like appearance and visual and physical similarities, these beasts were named "Latex Beasts", though they are not made of such a material. This being a fault of the original translation, as there is no direct translation from Chinese, the original language the game was developed in.
These new creatures, when introduced to humans directly, would be immediately hostile and predatory, grabbing onto the soon to be host and parasitizing onto them, either taking the human into their bodies to strengthen their own, or replacing and restructuring the host's cells into more of their own, creating a new instance of their species. This process being labeled as "Transfurmation" by the scientists. While this would work as a cure, it also had dangerous mental effects, as the host is no longer themselves, and are just as hostile as the original beast, they were deemed a failure, and more work had to be done.
Through more research, mutation, and experimentation, a new type of beast was created, losing its white, crystalline core, and becoming pure white, the Dark beasts were hostile to this new species, which were named the Light Latex accordingly, these were stronger and lacked the weakness of the Dark beasts, while also having a stronger mimicry ability and more malleability to have other animal's dna merged into them, even having the capability of having stable hybrids between multiple animal species, such ones that were infused with other animal species are nicknamed Variegated Latex, though are still Light Latex, despite their coloration. This new species was more promising, but overall were still failures as a cure due to the mental changes exerted on the host.
While some lab groups worked on the new Light Latex species, some still stayed behind to continue developing the Dark Latex, eventually mutating the wolves into something new, a lizard and even dragon-like Dark Latex subspecies, known simply as the Dark Latex Dragons, or more specifically, Yufengs.
The research and experimentation on these beasts to create a cure continued, creating various types of latex beasts and non latex transfurs, with only one sample resulting in a success with no major mental effects, labelled 'K'. The only one within the lore to take this drug was Dr. K, and resulted in a solid and non latex result.
Life Cycle
Dark Latex
The Dark Latex creatures start off as a transparent, dark crystal, which after some time will 'hatch' and break apart like an egg, releasing multiple small newborn wolf or dragon cubs, depending on the subspecies, and they retain some of the knowledge and possibly memories of their parent.
Both light and dark latex beasts create their own goo naturally over the course of their individual lifespan. Dark creatures slowly revert to their crystalline states before they become part of the next generation of pups. Otherwise, transfurring a host can result in another, new beast, sharing some characteristics with the host, such as hairstyle, body shape and type, and occasionally eye color. Having this odd life cycle they can't truly "die" from aging, simply resetting and starting anew with a refreshed body. This asexual reproduction only requires one creature, and can result in multiple offspring.
Dark latex beasts, when their mask-like core is destroyed, will not be able to have their body stick together, effectively dying. Though over time new crystals can form from the broken mask, which may start the life cycle once again.
Light Latex
Light latex creatures evolutionarily start off as blobs, as they have no crystalline structure, explaining how later in life they can have malformities, though they might be experiment-caused mutations. In their blob stage, they can easily squeeze through even the tiniest of spaces: however this makes them vulnerable to being flushed down drains. They don’t have a set of rules they follow, meaning that they will mercilessly assimilate anyone they deem a host, so the next stage of their life can begin, however multiple blobs can merge together and start the next cycle of life too.
In the next stages of the Light Latex creature’s life, when young, they can be much like pups, having smaller quadrupedal bodies, and as it grows it takes on a more anthropomorphic form. This is where the aforementioned deformities possibly come into place, such as the Headless Knight, who lacks a head, and Kade, who is a disembodied tail. Some types of light latex may gain other traits or features as they age, such as the sharks gaining their signature white hair and black stripes.
Nearing the end of its rather short lifespan, if it lacks a host, it will split apart into multiple new creatures, in a similar way to mitosis, starting their life cycle again as newborn pups. Nearly identical to the dark latex, but without crystallization.
Light latex beasts, lacking a core can't be destroyed, even with their vulnerability to electric shocks. The only thing that can stop a light latex beast, is another latex beast. Dark and light goo monsters naturally ''hate one another'' and will try to devour their rivals. The prey's consumed amorphous body gets broken down as the other latex absorbs the other.
Behaviors and Abilities
All latex creatures have different behavior, however mostly similar: They have an extremely strong instinctual urge to convert or assimilate anyone they come across. On at least two separate occasions, the latex beasts the human runs into will have a heart bubble above their heads when spotting him. They then instantly go on to try to transfur/absorb him.
Just about every latex creature sees humans as prey to either assimilate or convert. Puro is notable for being one of the only creatures that doesn't try to transfur the human on sight (though he still does transfur you if you do not befriend him, resulting in one of the bad endings.). However, their behavior does change a little bit in Special Edition, where most of the latex creatures still hunt the human, but quite a few are apathetic and do not actively hunt him down.