The aliens appear to have terraformed the human race...

The aliens have a talent evacuating dead and dying humans.

How did we find out about them?

Various governments secretly build vampiric androids to covertly extract blood from humans. This is to stop the aliens from knowing they are about to be extracted from a host human, as a regular 'checkup' at a doctors would put them on alert.

What do they eat, can we give them gifts?

Indirect means. They seem able to avoid needlepricks and other attempts to draw blood, but plasma carries both the industrial products they modify humans to make, and their detritus.

How do they colonize other humans? Are they like STDs but good for the body?

The low key mind control is a bit skeevy, but immortality is a pretty nice deal.

Do they have any impact on my function?

If I hadn't been told they were there, would I even know?

>manufacturing specific proteins
Sperm is a protein.

A shocking number of people had their diabetes and other hormonal disorders go into remission right before the aliens were discovered.

Do they leave anything behind?

...and we have a better explanation for VtM than the actual one. Well done!

EMPs for everyone!

Occasionally, getting terraformed will result in physiological changes, or changes in coloration. A few colonized humans report their blood turning blue, purple, or black.

Why thank you user!

Sounds like this whole thread is pointless.
>Aliens live in humans but we can't meaningfully detect them, communicate them, or do anything about them
Well then I guess I go on living my life since my actions don't actually matter.

That's actually a good point. I should go over my worldbuilding notes and make the creepy blood music aliens more disruptive.

The aliens start a campaign of genocide against mosquitoes and other blood-sucking pests, to prevent harm to themselves and their pristinely terraformed hosts.

>the aliens are trying to communicate, but it only works when the host is asleep
>you only remember small fragments of the conversation when you wake up

No I don't.

The aliens start to slowly 'pacify' humans, making them more peaceful in temperment and lifestyle, to prevent a 'war of the worlds' whenever two or more humans hurt each other or put themselves in danger. This is to help preserve their new homes, and lessen the reaction against them.

Come to think of it, is there any pattern to who doesn't get them?

Not so much a pattern, as who has and hasn't been colonized seems to match the rules for an airborne infection. So the aliens are practically nonexistent in Madagascar

Do people start getting the idea to go on holiday there?

And every cancer went into remission at once. The aliens would likely become a subject of worship.

>become unreasonably paranoid that the ayyliums are mind controlling me
>start injecting myself with ludicrous amounts of antibiotics, antifungals, antimicrobials, and getting fucktons of blood transfusions
>if it doesn't work, try to get a sample of the aliens
>slice my arm violently and recklessly with a knife, bleed into a bowl or something
>examine samples under a microscope
>experiment, figure out how to kill the aliens

What if you were never infected in the first place?

That's the ironic joke at the end of the story. All this self-destructive paranoia, sacrificing his friends, family, job, body, sanity... All for nothing.

Occasionally people do see the aliens when one of their ships ventures into the eyeball. It's never a particularly clear view, but they're usually able to sketch the outline and color. Comparing thousands of sketches, along with descriptions of their behavior, scientists believe they've identified several distinct classes of ships.

I'd read that short story, honestly.

...you're talking about a different short story from Blood Music, aren't you?

I had no idea what Blood Music was until now. Thanks for telling me, I might read it.

I don't think there can be much doubt that they're real if they're busy turning the entire population of North America into pink goo.

I suspected it was mycelia. But anyway, I want a middle ground between humans being turned into the foundations for a nanotech megalopolis, and the aliens being completely aloof.

Depending on which direction you want to take it, you could have them making small gestures of goodwill that don't cost them much but can't be explained purely in terms of making a better host.

Like maybe one morning you wake up and there's a note in your mouth with a drawing of an alien on it. It doesn't change anything on a day to day basis but it's kind of an acknowledgement that you're a person and not just a habitat.