First of all welcome back FD try not to stay away to long.
Hey Talon! Sorry for being away for so long; it's just that lately I haven't had much to share. I'll try to visit more frequently, though.
I like the fluid secretion idea especially if the object isn't a extremely intricate part of the story. If it is I would go with one of the first two.
So, yeah, I figured it would probably be either the secretion thing or the first two options. I mean, it might be the secretion one, since I mostly plan for the human protagonist to pretty briefly encounter it. If I were to go for the first two options, I'm thinking that at least
some of the object's history may either be related to the protagonist by its worshippers (at least as much of its history as the object cares to share with its worshippers) or the protagonist learns this by browsing through forbidden, esoteric literature, but for the most part, the totality of the object's background is mostly ambiguous, at least in that one story.
Personally I would make it date back long before their history and they take it as a sign of protection for some reason.
Yeah, that might work. Like maybe there was something that was threatening the existence of these beings or something like that, and then this object came and saved them from it.
I personally would steer clear of the larvae idea for two reasons. First if you are using it in another story then a original idea would work better in my opinion. Second I feel that the perisite idea has reached a bit of a cliche point now.
I definitely agree with you on the first one; I think simply reusing my concepts kinda implies a lack of original imagination.
As for the second one, yeah, I guess the psychotropic parasite thing is a little cliche, but I had originally got the idea (mostly for the colonial parasite thing) from a creepypasta theory regarding the pokemon Parsect (don't know if you've heard of it). You see, after reading it, I kinda got the idea of a zombie apocalypse story regarding an infection of a previously unknown breed of cordyceps, or at least a close relative to it.
I quickly added, however, the concept that most of the fungi infecting the humans were controlled by a stationary queen. I kinda thought either that making the fungi colonial in this manner would make them seem more insect/ant-like and thus more creepy-crawley, or that administering a sort of center of command would at least add some sort of nuclear villain for the story. Although, I think the queen would be more of an antagonist than an actual villain, because she isn't doing this out of malice, she's just doing what's in her species nature. Don't assume, though, that she's just this mindless, instinct-driven fungus; I actually have imagined her being intelligent, potentially to a sapient extent.
It may be that her species simply doesn't have much regard for the well being of their workers' hosts other than keeping them in optimally functional condition, that they have a superiority complex over other forms of life outside their species, that such other forms of life (preferably if it's mobile) are—to them—simply tools, vehicles for their workers' disposal, kinda like how most of us humans may feel about our horses, cars, and computers, and such…
I do imagine them (or another species behaviorally similar to them), however, being divided into three philosophical factions in regards to how they treat their hosts (or "symbiotic partners," as some of them might call them), if you're interested in hearing about it.