FAMILIAR

FAMILIAR is a character played by Startacker.

Appearance
FAMILIAR is a mysterious figure who almost resembles a corpse, with pale skin and mismatched eyes (one light gray with dark gray sclera, one red with black sclera). Their left arm and right leg resemble an elk's limbs. They emit both a fiery void and an icy material. Their overall look is extremely messy, looking like a corrupted mish-mash of many of Star's previous skins. They wear a multi-colored amulet and a mismatched scarf.

They are always seen alongside ETERNITY and sometimes SAPRONOSIS, holding a netherite sword in their left hand.

Bio
A mysterious entity that appears alongside ETERNITY to speak ominous observations/riddles/prophecies. They are a wild mismatch of various versions of the Scrungecraft Star. How they ended up this way is unknown, but the result is that every variant that was mashed into FAMILIAR acts as both independent and a combined body. They seem to be able to replicate other's speech, with two instances of them repeating lines said by Nebula.

Despite the combined state, each variant carries its own consciousness. FAMILIAR has on occasion acted as a single voice, with just one iteration of it in control. One of the iterations, FAMILIAR_THETA, utilized this to have Aster split it from FAMILIAR by becoming a Lily of the Valley.

Personality
Scary. Perfectly in sync with ETERNITY. Often comes off as aggressive, ominous, and threatening.

Tends to speak in dualities: for example, "Can't you see/observe? Couldn't you always/never? Upsetting/Rewarding." Their messages are often negating each other, making it difficult to gleam the actual meaning behind it. Some of their messages are entire insults, while others reference meta aspects both in and out of game. Some of these meta messages include referencing the Team Fortress Wiki's MvM pages and noting player deaths it did not directly witness.

In reality, FAMILIAR does not have a personality or consciousness of their own, but is in fact a collective of many individual consciousnesses controlling the same body all at once. Their voice is a chorus of every individual speaking at once, with the dual speech being a result of different people saying different things over each other.

Component individuals
Each of the individuals in FAMILIAR retains their own consciousness and personality, and occasionally one will take control to speak on their own. While it's all but impossible to tell who's saying what outside of those brief moments, Theta's comments have provided insight into some individuals' personalities.

All currently known components go by letters of the Greek alphabet rather than their original names, though Theta has estimated the total headcount to be around 50. The names were apparently a group decision.

According to Theta, many of them began to lose themselves to the overwhelm of being stuck in FAMILIAR, either gaining inflated egos thanks to being immortal or succumbing to despair. Many also had a tendency to yell at Theta for her quieter demeanor and dissatisfaction with their situation, to the point that whether or not a given individual was mean to her is often a staple of her recollections.

Theta
Theta is by far the most well-known and developed component of FAMILIAR, being the only one known to have ever broken off from them and become her own character. Her collapsed form was a Lily of the Valley, which she gave to Aster during a brief moment of control, successfully escaping.

Most information about the others, and FAMILIAR'S existence as a whole, has been learned from Theta recounting her experiences within them.

Alpha
The closest thing to a "leader" among the components before things started devolving, having the most knowledge of the situation. They accidentally caused everyone to be collapsed into FAMILIAR with something they made, and expressed grief and regret about it.

Gamma
One of the main culprits behind FAMILIAR's more frightening and mysterious behaviors. They revel in causing chaos and confusion, intentionally obfuscating their speech to make FAMILIAR harder to understand. They seem to just be a trickster rather than malevolent, though, as Theta remembers they never yelled at her and wishes them well.

Zeta
Took control while haunting Cyd, speaking with a pessimistic tone. According to Theta, Zeta dislikes being part of FAMILIAR, but has resigned herself to it instead of trying to get out; she at least wasn't mean to Theta, though.

Eta
Mentioned by Theta during an argument with FAMILIAR. Sucks at coming up with one-liners.

Xi
A former member of the collective, now deceased. Rho killed them sometime before Theta escaped.

Rho
An member with a complicated relationship with Theta. She and Theta made a deal to escape together, but Theta lost any trust in her after Rho killed Xi, and pushed her away at the last second, denying her escape.

Rho is confrontational and cutthroat, turning on others the moment they stop being useful to her. However, her bark seems to be worse than her bite— in her confrontation with Theta, Rho ended up the one to back down and retreat, despite being armed with a sword while Theta only had her words.

Upsilon
Took control while haunting Blair and Cosmo to warn them of the danger posed by the Hourglass. He's usually annoyed, speaking in a rather brash, chastising tone.

Trivia

 * FAMILIAR's speaking style was inspired by The Board from CONTROL, which also speaks often in dualities that give different meanings or tones within its speech.
 * FAMILIAR, ETERNITY, and SAPRONOSIS all wield the same sword, Memory Amnesiacs. FAMILIAR holds theirs in their left hand, mirroring ETERNITY, who holds it in their right.
 * FAMILIAR is one of two characters created by Startacker that have appeared in Scrungecraft, the Scrunge Community Server, and SocksCraft 2, the other being Comet.