Assimilation
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| Classification | |
|---|---|
| Structure | Field |
| Origin | Assimilated |
| Class | Assimilated |
| Characteristics | |
| Cause | COTH |
| Hosts | Humans and other mammals |
| Lifespan | Weeks to a few months |
Assimilation is the takeover of a living human or animal by COTH, and an assimilated organism is the result. An assimilated human keeps the body, reflexes and habits of the person, but none of their memory or personality, and attacks the people it encounters. Assimilated organisms are the weakest common parasites, and the only ones that arise without a Beckon.
In law, an assimilated person is dead. Most jurisdictions declare death once the acute phase of COTH has been confirmed.
Description
An assimilated human is the original body, still alive. It is recognisable at a distance by its gait, which is stiff and unsteady, by its lack of response to speech or its name, and by necrosis of the skin, which begins with patchy grey discolouration of the face and hands and spreads over the following weeks. Wounds do not heal, and untreated injuries from the person's last illness or accident are often visible. Assimilated humans are usually found in the clothes they wore when they turned.
Assimilated animals show the same signs, with patchy loss of fur or hide.
Behaviour
Assimilated organisms keep much of their learned behaviour. An assimilated human returns to its home and follows familiar routes, enters kitchens and shops, takes food and sometimes prepares it, and drinks from taps. It attacks people it encounters with bites and blows, which spread COTH and can activate it in the victim.
Most die of starvation within a few months, as the homes and shops their routines lead them to are emptied. They are found mainly in places that were evacuated quickly and where food was left behind, and in the first weeks after a town falls. Places lost to famine have few. Other parasites do not reliably recognise them, and sometimes attack them.
Animals
All mammals tested can be assimilated. Assimilated livestock return to their pastures and barns, and farms near infested ground test and cull their herds. In sub-Saharan Africa, with its large wildlife, assimilated organisms of a size found nowhere else have been recorded, including elephants.
Assimara
Assimara organisms are the intermediate stage between assimilated organisms and the Derived branch parasites, and the first stage to carry a genome. An assimilated organism can become Assimara soon after a Beckon consumes it.
Legal and social status
Once death has been declared, an assimilated person has no legal personality, and killing one is not homicide. In the European Federation, police and H&A Security units are responsible for dealing with assimilated humans in held territory; relatives are notified and a death certificate issued in the person's name. Remains are cremated.
COTH activates only in the dying, and care of the terminally ill has changed with it. Hospitals treat the unexpected recovery of a dying patient as a probable false remission and test before discharge. Several member states of the Federation extended their assisted-dying laws in 2023 and 2024 to patients at risk of activation, and the question has been debated in the European Parliament since.