EAT



EAT is the first portrayal of the Fear of Depersonalization. It is a hive mind of water that represents depersonalization through multiple different venues, with the most common ones being obsession, singularity, and deliberate complexity. It comes from Jordan Eats Normally Now and the Topography Genera canon. EAT's motives are never made clear; as Topography Genera continues, Camper Ian Manning claims EAT feels an insatiable hunger that it desperately wants to find some way to suppress.

The letters of EAT's name are treated as an acronym whose true meaning is left a mystery. In Jordan Eats, they're said to stand for "Epping AquaTarkus," while in Topography Genera they stand for the "Evolutionary Adverse Trigger," but in general whether these are true or not is unknown. Another interesting thing to note is that, when using pronouns for EAT, character always refer to EAT as "it" and "her," but never "she."

The Camper Process
EAT works by 'eating' a body of water (e.g. a lake, a human) and replacing the water with itself. A human filled with EAT will become a victim of it, ambiguously referred to as The Camper (plural: Camper). An unsuspecting victim typically initiates transformation by coming in contact with a body of water contaminated by EAT's "ink". While the "ink" will filter itself out of the victim's body within ten days, they will continue to experience an urge to approach the aforementioned body of water, which presents an opportunity to permanently transform them into a Camper. The process, for earlier victims at the very least, is afterwards divided into several stages:
 * 1) Comatose and Open: The infected individual sits down and emptily stares into the space to their front until further contact with another member of its species.
 * 2) Copying: The individual, upon contact with another, observes their actions and attempt to imitate them.
 * 3) Breaking it Down: The individual begins to analyse the structure and reasoning behind others' actions and further attempts to imitate them.
 * 4) Getting Familiar: The individual begins to form a connection with the collective Camper consciousness, sharing their knowledge and continuously experimenting with various words and actions. Note that being quite detached from humanity, it will tend to act with a relative lack of tact and subtlety.
 * 5) Familiar: EAT taps back into the individual's former mind, allowing them to maintain their former identity and lure their surrounding into a false sense of security.
 * 6) The Camper: EAT, deeming the individual worthy, welcomes them into its consciousness.

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