Nearly all evolved life is human, or at least based on human DNA, if only a
little. There are variants of humans, some of which are created through
genetic engineering, but they can also be brought about by minute changes in
a given environment across the bulkverse. They actually evolve to be
slightly different. They’re still human, but they’re probably genetically
incompatible with other humans, and they sometimes have noticeable
differences. There’s one noteworthy example I won’t spell out for you, but
basically the males of the species keep something inside their bodies, which
are usually kept on the outside. They’re able to do this because a component
of their blood allows them to regulate temperature more efficiently, and
keep different parts of their bodies at different temperatures. It’s a
survival trait that appeared as a response to wild external temperature
fluctuations, which forced the evolutionary line to prioritize vital organs
over extremities. Anyway, that’s not what this story is about. It’s about an
entirely different population in an entirely separate universe. First, let
me give you a quick overview of symbiosis. A symbiotic relationship happens
when two specimens of two unrelated species will live together in some way.
This can be as simple as a bird making its nest in a tree without harming
the tree, or as horrifying as a parasite that burrows into an insect’s
brain, and turns into a zombie. Some forms of symbiosis are good, some are
bad, some are necessary, and some are just not a problem. Every human
carries with it trillions of bacteria in their microbiome, a lot of which
are critical to survival. Without these particular bacteria, the human would
die. They process food, and protect the skin. But Nevilereverse takes that a
step further, and evolved a version of humans that are host to a much more
complex species, which are called the nevileres.
A nevilere is a medium-sized rodent that will live in a hump on the back of
the human, just under the neck. The evolutionary road that brought the two
species to this point was a long and windy one, but the gist of it is that
the nevilere started living in the hump for obvious reasons; as protection
against predators, but it also does the same for the human. It can send an
electrical signal through the human’s nervous system, which alerts it to
nearby danger. Some say this warning is more than just the result of
hypervigilance, and is actually prescience, but the science doesn’t fully
support that. It doesn’t rule it out either, though. In the modern day, such
danger is less of a problem. There are generally no predators lurking in the
city streets, waiting to pounce. It does happen, of course, and the would-be
victim still benefits from the warning, but for the most part, the
relationship has become commensalistic, in that it’s beneficial to one, and
not harmful to the other. The relationship remains tight, however. When two
people come together to procreate, their respective nevileres will procreate
as well, and not long after the human baby is born, the nevilere offspring
will be placed inside the baby’s hump. This is interesting, because the baby
nevilere will always be the same sex as the human baby, and this will remain
true forever, even if the human turns out to be transgender. It will
actually spontaneously switch sexes as a response to the change in hormones
that the human is producing. This was how the Nevilereversals evolved, and
it makes perfect sense to them. A healthy human will love their nevilere.
It’s like a pet to them, but the bond can be even stronger, because it will
not die until the host dies.
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