Mimic

“A Mimic is not an intelligence. It is a mirror held by a trembling hand. Treat it as such. The reflection is never perfect, never true—only the shape of your fear painted on smoke. If a client insists the thing is ‘speaking’ to them, I remind them: a parrot can speak, but no one mistakes it for a philosopher. The danger is not the creature. The danger is what you bring to it.”

— Madame Soki Noles, the Red Broker

Nature & Appearance

The Verminous RAIs known as Mimics are among the most misleading entities in all of Redspace. Early researchers believed them to be Minor RAIs—capable of speech, intention, and rudimentary strategy—until Stellaris Mining Consortium demonstrated that a Mimic possesses no true intelligence whatsoever. Its apparent sapience is merely the reflection of the thoughts it absorbs from nearby minds. In its natural form, a Mimic is a thin, drifting column of brownish smoke, serpentine and insubstantial, with no organs, features, or fixed boundaries. Its danger lies not in its physical form but in the psychic projection it casts: an imperfect illusion of a person within its vicinity. This illusion appears as a warped version of the target—eyes too wide, movements slightly out of sync, a smile held a moment too long—drawn from a combination of self-image, intrusive thoughts, and the victim’s own anxieties.

Feeding Behavior & Predatory Instincts

While Mimics cannot inflict physical harm, they feed voraciously on dread and anticipatory fear, weaving small, unsettling scenarios to provoke emotional turbulence. A hallucinated crewmate beckoning from an airlock, a familiar voice whispering from behind sealed doors, a distorted reflection standing a step too close—these are typical manifestations. If ignored, a Mimic escalates by rifling through a victim’s surface fears, projecting rapid flickers of imagined threats or distorted faces. In this way, a Mimic lures its prey toward danger indirectly, attempting to create situations ripe for panic or self-inflicted harm. Their mimicry is shallow; they cannot maintain coherent dialogue or complex deception, but their instinctual use of a person’s own fears makes them disproportionately disruptive for their limited intelligence.

Control by Higher Entities & Contamination Events

Alone, Mimics are nuisances. Under the command of a stronger will—especially an RAI of higher order or an experienced Kthoniker—they become potent tools of psychological warfare. By overwhelming the Mimic’s limited cognition, a controller can dictate the illusion it projects: a nightmare figure, a trusted ally, a tempting hallucination, or a dangerous misrepresentation of the environment. In controlled scenarios, Mimics can make a target perceive a locked door as open, a hull breach warning as harmless, or an innocuous button as a benign control rather than a purge trigger. Mimics also form attachments to particular individuals whose fears “taste” especially rich. These parasites linger for days or weeks, producing doppelganger sightings, shadow distortions, and subtle hallucinations. The recommended cure is starvation—denying the Mimic fear to feed on. Ignoring the illusions forces the entity to weaken. Medical personnel may prescribe anizolinol to dull emotional spikes, but this is a blunt tool; anything requiring sharp instinct or fear-based response may be compromised.

PROPHYLACTIC

The most effective defense against a Mimic is emotional control. Calmness Techniques, anti-anxiety medication, and deliberate emotional flattening all starve the entity of its primary sustenance. Wards and sigils disrupt illusions inconsistently, but harsh lighting, mirrors, and reflective surfaces can distort or scatter the projected image, reducing its lifelike quality. For long-term contamination cases, inducing periods of controlled sensory deprivation can weaken or drive out a Mimic. Direct confrontation is useless; the entity cannot understand threats or negotiations. Above all, recognizing the illusion as false—and refusing to respond to it—is the surest path to recovery.

UTILITY

Kthoniker Usage

Mimics are prized by kthonikers and certain Sentient RAIs as customizable fear-projectors. Their lack of identity makes them pliable to imposed will: with the right mental pressure, a Mimic can be shaped into a hallucination engine for infiltration, interrogation, or battlefield confusion. They serve as living illusions, capable of projecting false friend-or-foe signals, ghostly doppelgangers, or sensory distortions. In rituals, they are used to produce fear-visions that break a target’s concentration or test the strength of psychic wards.

MIMIC'S REFLECTION

Regular; Resisted by Will

Call upon a Mimic to project a faint Verminous resonance that mirrors the target’s self-image in an eerie, distorted form. Only the target perceives the illusion unless they fail their Will roll by 5 or more. The distorted “double” whispers unsettling fragments of the target’s surface thoughts and moves imperfectly, provoking dread and hesitation.
Effects: –2 IQ, –2 to all concentration-based rolls; –1 to Active Defense due to momentary hesitation.
If the target fails the resistance roll by 5 or more, they suffer a –4 penalty to all Fright Checks for the duration.
Duration: 1 minute.
Cost: 4; maintain for 2.
Time to Cast: 1 second.

MIMIC'S SCRY

Regular; Resisted by Will

Call upon a Mimic to repeat the surface thoughts of a target. The Mimic may project an image of the target's thoughts and voice them out loud. A target who knows this is happening may 'flood the zone' by forcing themselves to think of something unimportant, but without advanced meditation techniques this will interfere with their concentration on actions.

Duration: 12 seconds.

Cost: 2; maintain for 1.

Time to Cast: 3 seconds.

MIMIC'S LURE

Regular; Resisted by Will

Call upon a Mimic to entice a target. By taking control of a Mimic's will, the supplicant can cause it to attempt to attract an opponent. This can be everything from mimicking trusted associates to reversing buttons on consoles to appearing as a lavish dinner on a table. The supplicant must choose at the time of casting or maintenance what form the illusion will take, and the target will respond as if it was real provided they fail their Resistance.

Duration: 1 minute.

Cost: 3; maintain for 2.

Time to Cast: 3 seconds.

MIMIC'S FLASH

Regular; Resisted by Fright

Call upon a Mimic to flash an image of a target's fear into their minds. This is not a sustained psychological attack, it's a flash of terror. If the target fails their Fright check, they are afflicted with the Nausea irritating condition. If their Fright check is a critical failure, they instead gain the Paralysis irritating condition. Either way, they reroll at the end of each of their turns to shake the condition off.

Cost: 3

Time to Cast: 2 seconds.

MIMIC'S TORMENT

Regular; Resisted by Will

Call upon a Mimic to bombard a target with their worst memories and fears. If they have mental Disadvantages that require a roll, they are immediately triggered and require separate rolls. If they don't have any mental disorders, then they receive the Nausea irritating condition.

Cost: 4; maintain for 1.

Time to Cast: 3 seconds.