In late 2025, we began to brainstorm a race of parasites, combining a number of concepts that interested us — vampirism, hiveminds, and above all a sensibility for weird and detailed biology.
These thoughts remained on our mind for months, and we gave a few attempts at outlining stories that would make use of these monsters, but we achieved little writing in those anguished final months of that year.
For the first month of 2026, we tasked ourselves with writing about them every day, and this effort produced a slew of write-ups and a teasers worth presenting to the world.
For want of a cleaner introduction, we recommend starting with these three posts: Consort In Recapitulation, The Larval Entiote, and A Living Transmutation. This should suffice to pique interest and elucidate some core concepts.
However, the piece we’re proudest of so far is: One to the Light, Swarm to the Shadows.
Beyond that, open and proceed to whichever catches your eye.
Do note that our writing style relies heavily on reader inference — however, there exists a that endeavors to define the many terms coined for this rich world.
Thank you for your time. I would love to hear your thoughts on any of these writings. Please contact us!
| serpentsquiggle@proton.me | |
| Discord | snuggle_squiggle@https://discord.gg/tqHjHK7 |
| tumblr | @snugglesquiggle |
| Bluesky | @serpentsquiggles.neocities.org |
| Fediverse | @frozendominion@mastodon.cloud |
Finally, it bears mention this project has drunk from many sources to sustain its inspiration, cannibalizing both our own past works and lifting concepts from other media — hopefully with meaningful innovation!
Some popular culture osmosis goes without saying: the xenomorphs from Alien and the changelings from My Little Pony are very distinct touchstones. Taylor’s swarm abilities in Worm, or Hollow Knight: Silksong’s focus on silk and weavers also undeniably left a mark on this creation.
More acutely, there were two niche stories we read last year and deeply enjoyed, and only in retrospect is it apparant how directly resonant they are with this setting’s concepts. Both are incomplete, and I eagerly await every update.
- Aberrant (42k+ words) is a science fiction story where humanity’s expansion to other star systems is plagued by a race of parasites. After her wife is transformed into one of them, the protagonist researches their genes to find a way to safely transform herself as part of her plan to rescue her from the carnivorous hivemind. There is some lovely depictions of feral violence in this one, and the text is unafraid to give its aliens a sexual allure. All of which is to say — it’s hot. A parasitic hive that transforms and brainwashes its victims into murderous monster women? It’s hard to think of any other story quite so kindred with Vermin Cathexis, for that I remain curious to see where it goes.
- Seeping through (49k+ words) is a grounded fantasy story involing a a flesh-eating mimic and a gun-toting infantrywoman. The deuterogonist is torn (pun intended) between two different blends of toxic yuri — but what impresses me the most about this one is how viscerally, anatomically vivid it is. The prose is very well-honed. Especially the opening chapters is one of the most satisfying portrayals of how it would feel to be a shape-shifting nightmare. Later chapters dive into the creature’s anatomy in a way that pleases the bug-lover in me, and there’s a unique pleasure to reading an it/its protagonist.
Magic the Gathering’s New Phyrexia was a recent and invigorating well to sample from. I’m ignorant of much broader lore, though the short story “A Hollow Body” very much impressed me — and it furnished a fascination with the character of Ixhel only satisfied by delving into fanfiction. “More than the Suns Might Rise” was a standout work, brought to my attention by another author, littjara_mirrorlake, who has a several other oneshots (and an in-progress adaptation of New Phyrexia to Dungeons and Dragons). For something longer than short stories, I quite enjoyed All Will Know Redemption (38k words).
Writing this late at night, so further media might be slipping from memory. We’ll make an effort to update this in the future with other connections — or perhaps this will split off into its own page?