Attention, please! FOR YOUR HEALTH!

[Epimetheus]

NOTICE!

• Do you see people mimicking the behaviors of those around them, sometimes without a clue as to the meaning of the behaviors?
• Do they seem to derive some kind of contentment just from doing what other people are doing?

These are the symptoms of a newly discovered virus known as Mimic Virus!

BE AWARE!

    This weekend, scientists (read: sciencomancers) in an undisclosed location in southern California, looking at their own DNA with the newest high-detail microscopic cameras, found an anomaly within the cells of a colleague. There seemed to be a virus literally living on the double helix. Upon closer study, it was found that the virus was creating and destroying the molecules that make up the helices. When a cell was isolated from others, the virus built up a huge excess of useless coding, then finally broke down the whole cell. With a larger tissue sample, the same occurred, more gradually. Finally, they observed the virus living in the host body.
    What they discovered was shocking.
    The virus inhabiting one cells DNA would receive messages and send messages from and to the other cells around it, and in these messages would be encoded information about those cells' behavior and DNA. When it differed with that of the majority of neighboring cells, it would break down the differing DNA and reorder it into a conforming structure.
    This Mimic Virus is the ultimate conformist. When it could change its host cell's DNA to conform, it would; and when it didn't have the resources to do it, it would either "turn off" all the DNA in the cell until it gathered the proper fuel, or it would give up and completely destroy the cell.
   
    This behavior was seen on a larger scale, too: Tissue inhabited by the virus would seem to heal if wounded, but it would do so because the virus would simply change the injured tissue to be like the normal tissue surrounding it. In a hypothetical situation where all or most of the cells in the body were damaged, the virus would actually increase the area of the damage, and keep damaged cells damaged indefinitely.

    Finally, the true macro-scale of the virus' effects was seen. It was realized that the virus, in manipulating the small, came to manipulate the large, and the entire host was seen to exhibit the mimic behavior. (At this point, the scientists were keeping the studies secret from the infected colleague, to preserve the nature of a blind experiment.) The host would, if out of place in a group, change under the virus' influence to fit in again. If a change was introduced to the group of which the infected was a member, the infected would not change immediately. However, as soon as the change occurred in the majority of the group, it would occur in the infected as well. (Example: One day they gradually started incorporating gibberish words into their speech. As soon as most of them were doing it, the infected one was doing it as well, without ever being informed about the meaning or origin of these nonsense words. While it was a minority behavior, but the rest of the group ignored it, the infected ignored it as well. This was the first truly bizarre example of infected behavior; a healthy person would react to and question the strange behavior.)
    Also like the cell-scale behavior, when an infected individual is presented with no behavior or information to copy, in other words, when it is presented with a situation requiring original behavior, it will do one of the same two possibilities: "turn off" until it finds a source of mimic-able behavior, or sputter excessive nonsense before finally breaking down into an emotional goop, so to speak.

    The group obtained private funding to conduct sampling of a much wider population, and found infected persons across all possible demographics, exhibiting the same symptomatic behavior.
    Now, it is time to spread the awareness.

MIMIC VIRUS IS PANDEMIC. As far as we can tell, it has infected humans since prehistoric times, but only now are we aware enough to do something about it!

But Epimetheus, what do I do?

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN.
Pay attention to your friends! Are they exhibiting a high amount of mimicked and conforming behavior? Be careful around them! The Mimic Virus is considered highly contagious!
There is a potential cure, which you may have heard about, involving education and therapeutic work, but it is only effective with a very small proportion of victims - in most, it causes extreme anger and other emotions! DO NOT ADMINISTER THIS CURE YOURSELF - SEE A TRAINED MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL.
One person's mimicry is known to encourage the same in another! THIS IS HOW THE VIRUS SPREADS!
Try to limit your interaction to being with people whose activity and ideas are original! Keep other interaction to a minimum, for your own medical and mental safety!

[Freeky]

[Cramulus]

 

[Murmur]

    

Love it!

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

But what happens when two people suffering from the Mimic Virus start mimicking each other?

[Epimetheus]

But what happens when two people suffering from the Mimic Virus start mimicking each other?

If no new behavior or people are introduced, each will continue to mimic the other, as long as physically possible. You see this happen all the time, albeit temporarily, in social settings when a group is composed totally or primarily of the infected. For the most part, however, one of the group will break the chain with a new mimicked behavior.

[Doktor Howl]

This was fucking AWESOME.