Changelings: A Summary

by HypernovaBolts11

Hybrids

Hybrids exist in two distinct forms, halflings and quarterlings, and are best classified by the process through which they are conceived.

What my associate calls halflings are the products of sexual encounters between undisguised mature soldiers, usually infiltrators, and almost anything that isn't a changeling.

Due to the nearly clonal nature of the undisguised soldiers' reproductive system, the biological gender of the halfling will always be determined by the non changeling parent. Every time a female creature is impregnated by a soldier using its male sex organs, the child will be female, and all halflings born from the female sex cells of the soldier and the male ones of another creature will have a one in two chance of being male or female.

Halflings tend to have at least a few features of the changeling parent, which can be disguised or transformed like any part of a full changeling. They are almost always born inside the hive, from prisoners captured before they were conceived, and almost never submit to becoming full members of the hive.

The non changeling parent is allowed to choose between letting the hive raise the halfling, or parenting the child, either with their partner or alone. They grow and develop faster than full members of their non changeling species.

They are usually capable of reproducing with members of both their race of origin, and any mature soldiers. They can usually feed on both love energy and edible matter, and are permitted to opt out of joining the hive, with the caveat that they are still prisoners, and spend most of their time feeding the changelings.

Quarterlings are conceived when a disguised soldier or worker of any age or maturity mates with a member of the species they are disguised as. Such creatures mothered by workers are very rare, as it requires the mother to remain disguised for the entire gestation period, which they don't often do. Incognito workers can still sire children, as it only requires them to maintain the disguise for the entirety of the conception.

More common are the quarterlings parented by infiltrators during missions, who are often brought to the hive at the end of the mission, and may not even be aware of their changeling heritage until such a time. They will often lack external features of changelings, but possess an innate ability to detect the fields of love energy around them, and even better parse the feelings of others without any other information.

If they are brought to the hive during infancy, they may find themselves communicating in changeling tongue fluently, or at least understanding changelings that do. This is due to the infiltrators' hive mind recognizing them as a changeling, and subconsciously teaching them what basic information all infiltrators must know.

They are not considered to be changelings by the hive at large, and do not serve as soldiers or workers, but primarily as sources of love energy. They are considered fine delicacies at changeling feasts, as they produce as much love energy as the non changeling race from which they were born, and can even sometimes have halfling children with mature soldiers.