Simulant

Simulants are machines that were designed and built to emulate a living organism as closely as possible, without any organic parts. Their purpose was to improve technologies in the field of prosthetics and transplants. As it turns out, the emulation was a better success than could have been hoped for. Extended time spent activated has caused solidification to take place. This in turn lead to the Simulants banding together and creating their own culture and small civilization.

Apearance
Great hulking bodies of surprisingly soft armor that bends and stretches just as well as any living being. They posses relatively small heads and necks that are attached at a slight angle. Two small slits make up their eyes, and they have small ear holes on the sides of their heads not unlike a lizard. They have wide powerful arms that end in three, thick fingers. Some have smooth metal blue colored skin, while other have a grey or metallic pinstripe coat.

They do wear clothes, however due to their size their clothes usually consist of many pairs of human clothes stitched together. Their armor is often made up of found scrap metal. Their habit of collecting all sorts of refuse and litter has lead to their nick-name, 'Trashmen'.

Behaviour and Society
When the human race was facing possible extinction, projects that didn't involve finding a cure were quickly forgotten. A few Simulants were running when they were abandoned by their human creators. These Simulants continued their standard routines for a period of several years before solidification set in. At that point, the Simulants, decided that they should activate the remaining of their kind and set out to find their place in the world.

Most Simulants live in a half completed aircraft carrier that has been dragged about several miles inland. The many floors and rooms in the ship make it ideal housing for the scavengers. Parts of the ship that were once exposed and vulnerable are now covered up with scrap from gutted trucks and cars.

There is no difference between a male and female Simulant. When a young Simulant's solidification is completed, they choose a gender that they wish to portray. This choice continues throughout their life and does not change. After solidification, a young Simulant's name is chosen by the tribe as a whole based on physical aspects, personality, or a deed or action they performed to better the colony. For example, if a young Simulant protected a fellow Simulant from a wolf attack. He might return to the ship and by granted the name "Wolfguard".

There is no leader in Simulant society. Everyone in the colony operates as an efficient member of a single organism. They not only share a home and food, but also stories, ideas, and just about everything else.

To other species, the Simulants are aliens who are often shunned from small settlements for their strange appearance and unknown origin, but ironically Simulants are both friendly and accepting to outsiders. They are always up for a conversation, trade, or especially, a gamble. Due to their scavenging nature, Simulants are renowned for their ability to find needed pieces of machinery. However, the most important purpose the Simulants serve in the eyes of other species is the production and trading of clean water. The unfinished aircraft carrier has a powerful desalination and filtration device in the lower hull. Clean water is regularly produced in vast quantities and traded to those in need, mainly in exchange for food as Simulants, although strong, are not adept at hunting.

Biology
Being the first artificial life forms they were considered a scientific marvel. Although, prior to solidification they had no free will or personality and were essentially just machines, Simulants made headlines world wide when they were announced.

The reason behind their large, rotund torsos, is that they were designed to simulate the human body and a variety of stresses artificial organs would be put under when used as a transplant. Each Simulant contains a varied amount of several vital organs. Each one contains a cybernetic brain, heart, lungs, and intestines. Usually they contain more than just that though such as: livers, kidneys, colons, and pancreases. Simulants often have multiple sets of organs having as many as three pairs of lungs, six hearts, and two livers.

Simulants do not have blood per say, instead, they have a blood substitute that serves the same purpose. Its unusually high sugar content is due to Simulants not producing fat. As a result, they store all obtained sugar in their blood substitute.

The muscles of a Simulants are large and powerful and they make up a great deal of their weight. They do not undergo atrophy like that of other animals, however, they can be reduced in size voluntarily. The muscles are high in protein, close to that of crustaceans like shrimp. This high protein content combined with their sugary tasting blood, makes them targets for larger predators like wolves, tigers, crocodiles, and sometimes Harvestmen.

Simulants do not get viruses, as their "cells" are hardened and can not be broken into by pathogens, however, they can be poisoned though through air and water.