The serial takes place in a fictional universe where many people get supernatural powers, courtesy of "shards" from an alien being. These powers often manifest during times of severe stress or challenges, since [SPOILER] the reason the aliens are casting the shards in the first place, is to see what sentient beings will do with these powers, so they can better adapt them to their own use.[SPOILER]
The main protagonist, Taylor Hebert, is a "somewhat" The Infested. Her power is psychic control of insects & arachnids, with extreme multitasking that lets her control entire hives and swarms, as well as "zoom in" and control individual creatures. Later in the story, she figures out that she can cover herself with a "coat" of insects and spiders, creating a much more daunting image than a skinny teenage girl... and then evolves to making full-body-sized decoys, to intimidate and confuse enemies.
So not entirely "infected", since she has complete control of the creatures & can dismiss them anytime, but still a very cool example, and in many cases visually indistinguishable from an actual "walking hive".
"Breed" is 100% on-brand with this - an evil parahuman whose power is producing armored trilobite-like creatures that swarm their victims, burrowing into any orifice they find (yes, including those), and setting up a nest of Breed-Swarms inside the unfortunate bastard. Who remains conscious throughout the whole thing, just to add to the horror, being controlled by Breed, to become walking bioweapons, completely normal visually but filled with dozens of monsters ready to burst forth & infest more people.
There are a couple more examples of The Infested in this work, but it's massive and I don't remember.
Would like to add some more examples, from literature (a web serial, but novel-sized) - "Worm" by
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/
The serial takes place in a fictional universe where many people get supernatural powers, courtesy of "shards" from an alien being. These powers often manifest during times of severe stress or challenges, since [SPOILER] the reason the aliens are casting the shards in the first place, is to see what sentient beings will do with these powers, so they can better adapt them to their own use.[SPOILER]
The main protagonist, Taylor Hebert, is a "somewhat" The Infested. Her power is psychic control of insects & arachnids, with extreme multitasking that lets her control entire hives and swarms, as well as "zoom in" and control individual creatures. Later in the story, she figures out that she can cover herself with a "coat" of insects and spiders, creating a much more daunting image than a skinny teenage girl... and then evolves to making full-body-sized decoys, to intimidate and confuse enemies.
So not entirely "infected", since she has complete control of the creatures & can dismiss them anytime, but still a very cool example, and in many cases visually indistinguishable from an actual "walking hive".
"Breed" is 100% on-brand with this - an evil parahuman whose power is producing armored trilobite-like creatures that swarm their victims, burrowing into any orifice they find (yes, including those), and setting up a nest of Breed-Swarms inside the unfortunate bastard. Who remains conscious throughout the whole thing, just to add to the horror, being controlled by Breed, to become walking bioweapons, completely normal visually but filled with dozens of monsters ready to burst forth & infest more people.
There are a couple more examples of The Infested in this work, but it's massive and I don't remember.
Is this interesting enough to wikify and add?