Biology

MindJumpers (MJ) is a kind of mental beings who came from the mental world to the real one a long time ago and adapted to it. They are generally friendly and peaceful. Have several abilities - shapeshifting, telepathy, hypnosis (they can temporary put others in sleep\trance, but they rarely use it, only in critical situations) and "mind jumping" itself. They settle in flocks, from three to several dozens individuals in one flock.

Anatomy

Their most important part is the brain. It projects around itself the astral part (a loose, semi-liquid substance consisting of mental energy), which is covered by a shell (dense material that supports the shape and protects the brain). They create the shell themselves, generating dense threads from their astral part, from which they weave material. This is a rather long and laborious process. If the shell is damaged, MJ can patch it themself, but if the wound is large (1/3 of the whole body and more), they will already need the help of relatives. As a shell they can only use the material created by their species, since only it they can completely control (like the skin) and use the color change.
The default appearance can vary, most often they are anthro creatures with a round head with a "mask" and a tail-fan. Some parts of the shell are open and expose the astral part (usually the inner part of the tail, the inner part of the ears and neck, never the head). There's some parts that they cannot change with shapeshifting - fan tail (they can change shape and length, but can't remove it) and mask (it also can change shape and can be very inconspicuous, but it's always there)

They need the open astral parts, since the astral part is responsible for all the senses (therefore, they can create additional functional parts of the body, such as eyes and mouths). Although the shell also has a sense of touch, the astral part is still more sensitive (which is why their hands are open). Vision is mainly concentrated in the eyes, but the rest of the astral part can perceive light and shadow, although MJ can increase sensitivity and distinguish a full picture. MJ cannot eat food, but they still taste (the inside of the mouth and tongue are also the astral part). The open astral parts are also needed to absorb oxygen from the air for the brain
They have no stomach and the energy absorption limit is very high. They have a "minimum" for life, and if they absorb more than they need, it is stored and used gradually as needed.

Energy

In the universe of the Three Worlds, there are different types of energy that can transform into one another. Most living physical beings use biological energy, while Mind Jumpers have mental energy as the main energy type. The liquefied mental energy forms the astral part, the solidified astral part forms the shell, and even the brain can turn into mental energy. MJs feed on the biological energy of living beings, transforming it into mental energy in their brain.
Energy is a patern, and each MJs has their own, like the genetic code or fingerprints of people. Thanks to this, Mind Jumpers can always distinguish their energy from someone else's, and when two MJs touch with astral parts, they do not merge.

The brain also produces a specialized mental energy, it is less than ordinary energy of astral part, and it is usually localized around the brain. It is also called "fertile" energy, since it is by merging their specialized mental energy together that the MJs can conceive a child. There are two general types of fertile energy, and it is the relation to the first or second type that is considered to be the primary gender characteristic of MJs.

Birth

Their birth is also not the most standard. A male and a female are needed for a new MindJumper to appear. They combine a part of their astral energy (males and females have different types of "fertile energy", therefore, the presence of both is needed) and as a result, a new mind appears, which for 4-6 years grows and lives in the mind of their parents (but because time in minds flows differently, during this time new MJ grow to the state of 12 years old). At this time, another brain (which is the brain of the new MJ) is separated from the brain of one of the parents (usually female) by budding, and as soon as the brain and mind reach a certain development, the MJ flocks weave together a new shell for the baby.
The created shell looks very simple - a "shawl" with a fan-tail, "teeth" along the edge and a dense spot on the chest. When MJ puts it on, they adjusts it to fit their body - shapes their arms and legs, the head with the mask is detached and moved up, some of the teeth turn into teeth in the mouth, the other part creates a zipper on the body

Society

All MindJumpers in one flock are bound by a collective consciousness. For example, if someone wants to do something, then everyone will "discuss" it first, decide whether it is safe and whether it should be done at all. Their emotions and thoughts are constantly transmitted to each other, so that the whole flock feels like one creature. Because of this way of life, they have developed an "external passive telepathy" - their thoughts will appear as text on their bodies and are transmitted to the nearest minds. MJ know that this is unusual and unpleasant for other creatures that do not belong to their species, so they settle far from cities and towns, most often in forests. From time to time they wander from place to place.
All MindJumpers, not only within the same flock, are also bound by the collective mind, but with representatives not from their flock they can connect at will, and not constantly.

Each flock has a "leader". They are jointly chosen by all members of the flock, and is usually the wisest and most mature of all. Its decisions and choices are of particular value.

MindJumper can be detached from the flock, but they rarely choose to do so. The separated MJ will try to find a new flock for itself, it doesn't even have to be MJ. If such a loner joins a group of other creatures, it will use "external telepathy" to connect itself with them (if they don't mind, of course). Sometimes a small flock of MindJumpers can live with other creatures. Although in general, MJs very rarely live with other species, especially anywhere in densely populated cities, since their "external telepathy" here opposes them and repels others.
MJs are very social creatures and need company to be with. Finding themselves in the society of creatures of other species, they begin to copy the habits (and often the appearance) of others, trying to merge with society (down to the smallest details, for example, they begin to sigh and snort to express emotions, even though they do not have lungs and do not breathe in a standard way). They learn languages quickly. When MJ is not accepted by society (which, in fact, often happens), it often affects their well-being and mood.

Partners

They have "Mating season" - periods to search for a pair, when flocks of creatures unite into one large group. At the same time, their general appearance changes slightly - an additional fringe appears on the tail, and the cervical astral part fluffs up. And although from the outside it may seem that MindJumpers are using "bird habits" - they paint themselves in bright colors, flaunt and unfolds their tails, this is not the main part. At that moment, through collective telepathy and through the aura, MJs show their "profiles" - character, interests, preferences and more, in order to find the most suitable match. Although they can pair up at any time if they find a suitable mate. Couples form for life, it rarely happens that a couple breaks up not because of external factors, but because of problems in the couple itself.

Training

It may seem that because of their abilities they will be in demand in different services, and in part this is so. It's just that few people want to spend time training them, it can take years and a lot of efforts before they can be sent on assignments.
MJs are really difficult to learn (although possible). It's better to start training while they're young, since it's bives bigger chance to learn at all. External telepathy is the hardest thing to control, although with proper training it can be completely controlled. Also, MJ, through training, can improve their innate skills

Abilities

As their name suggests, they can travel through other people's minds and dreams. Previously, they constantly lived in other's minds, and their well-expressed ability to change color helped them to merge with the style of mind in which they were at the moment. When they began to live more in the real world, this ability, as well as some other features, remained. When they move into someone's mind, their body is completely converted into mental energy and they enter the mind of another. A well-trained MJ can create astral projections of real objects or separate the astral projections of other characters and bring them to mind too

They are very good at shapeshifting. The ability that helped them not to stand out against the background of someone else's mindscape (and thus bypass the protective systems of the mind) remained when the MJs completely transitioned into the real world. Nowadays, they often use it to disguise and communicate with others(to show their current mood - it is important for them what patterns and colors they use). Changing body parts is also very practical - from creating extra limbs to wings!
The four components of the MJ's body have different expandability. The astral part can most strongly change its mass. It forms "muscles" and shapes under the shell. The shell has average expandability. It expands well in breadth, but not very good in density. The part of the mask, the denser part of the shell, may form small outer parts such as spikes or scales. The hardest part of the shell, which usually forms teeth and zipper, has the lowest rates of expandability and can only increase its part by one third.

Since they constantly change color and features, it is difficult to identify them by their appearance, to put it mildly. Therefore, MJ usually use the ability to sense auras to distinguish one from the other. Auras are an important indicator for MJs - by "reading" someone else's aura, they learn personality, health, age, gender and other information about another MindJumper. They can also sense auras of other species (this ability is associated with their telepathy, but it is not the same, they do not hear other people's thoughts during the "reading" of the aura)

Hypnosis is the most difficult ability to use. They usually cannot put others to sleep for more than twenty minutes. For the ability to work, the victim must be unprepared, since if they know about it, their focus will raise their mental defenses. And if the victim as a whole has above average mental defense, the ability will not work. Usually, each MJ uses their own method for casting hypnosis (for Cosmic, these are neon colors on a black background, empty glowing eyes and an open tail)

In case of extreme danger and when there is no other way out, several MindJumpers can combine their astral parts and shells and thus create one large MJ (MegaMindJumper, MMJ). These forms are controlled by all brains at the same time (which do not fuse, but are in a united astral part in a cluster) and thanks to the collective consciousness they work synchronously. MMJ can use shapeshifting and change colors (often their color is divided into small areas with different colors and markings). This form is quite tedious and more highly specialized, so it is rarely used.

Evolution

There is a fairy tale that parents tell their children. It's about the first Mind Jumper, a deceiver who was so good at lying that, once cornered, he deceived not only his enemies, but also himself, so much so that he became what he lied about, gaining the ability to shape shift.

It was not possible to determine exactly where the first representatives of the species came from, but there is an assumption that these were fragments of the mind of a powerful being, or weak disembodied spirits that fed on someone else's energy. Like many creatures from the Immaterial World, they use mental energy, while most creatures from the First World use biological (organic) energy, so the mind jumpers had to convert biological energy into mental energy, losing some of it in the process. Anyway, they had the ability to penetrate other's minds, but this had its own risk - the mind they penetrated, naturally, did not like it, and this activated the "immune response" - special components of the mind, Censors, attacked MJs and tried to destroy them. Because of this, they often had to "jump through minds", changing their location, which was not convenient - they barely had enough time to grab at least some of the energy they were feeding on.
At some point, however, they gained the ability to copy someone else's energy, changing their own so that it was not very different from the mind around them, and it also changed their appearance. This made it possible to deceive the Censors and spend more time in the mind, which led to MJs complication - they could accumulate more mental energy, developing their own minds and abilities. Mind jumpers have never been known for aggression, so they chose a more peaceful lifestyle, eating unimportant parts of minds, and therefore not doing much harm.
So several more cycles passed, the mind jumpers became a fairly developed species with their own community and orders. They have learned to accumulate energy, as well as to complicate their energy form so much as to make it dense enough to exist in the real world. This required some changes - they learned how to create a sufficiently dense matter, a shell to protect their astral part, as well as the brain - the real world has its own rules, different from the mental world, and it requires a sufficiently "physical" core to exist. Mind jumpers have always been dependent on the brain, which is usually someone else's, but they have learned to create a manifestation of theor own brain from their energy, tying their lives to it instead. This connected them to the physical world and allowed them to develop their society independently, acquiring traditions and culture. Having no digestive system to convert physical matter into energy, they still use the energy of other creatures for nutrition, but no longer in such quantities as before - using oxygen from the air, the coefficient of mental energy received from biological has increased significantly compared to the anaerobic type of metabolism.

Perhaps after a few more evolutionary cycles, the mind jumpers will be able to become completely independent of other's energy.

Trivia

• MindJumpers' latin name is Mentinauta ornatapavo (Mentis - mental, nauta - sailor, ornata - decorated, pavo - peacock). There's only two species in Mentinauta genus - Mentinauta ornatapavo themself and Mentinauta fallax (MindJumpers that still only lives in other's minds, also called as Mental birds; their species diverged a few thousands years ago but can still interbreed (although they very rarely choose to))
• It should be noted that for MindJumper mental energy = total energy. Long concentration will tire them out, so even a well-trained MJ cannot keep its abilities under full control 100% of the time. Usually, in order not to overwork, they allow themselves to show external telepathy and all that in their free time, but when the situation calls for, they take full control of themselves.
  And yes, they should also not get too carried away with higher mathematics, otherwise they may faint from exhaustion in the middle of a particularly difficult task!
• They are physically weak (they can slightly improve their physical performance with the help of shapeshifting, but quite a bit), so they prefer to avoid physical fights; they are often weaker than even a human, let alone monsters. However, their minds, on the contrary, are more developed than those of most other species. For example, they are much more multi-tasking - they can simultaneously do different actions with two pairs of hands, adjust their color to the environment and communicate telepathically with someone without inconvenience.
• After death, their bodies begin to quickly "decompose" - the astral part turns into a moist mist, and the brain and shell crumble into light dust. At the same time, there is a smell in the air that will seem pleasant to many - similar to the smell of wet asphalt after rain. MJs, however, always feel the difference between these two smells and the smell of the disintegrating astral part gives them migraines (analogous to nausea)
  The very next day there will be no trace of the body
• They need oxygen to live, but they can extract it from any gaseous or liquid environment, so they can breathe in air, underwater, or in any other environment that contains oxygen. But they can also do longer without it - if there is little oxygen, they can go into "hibernation", greatly reducing their mental and physical processes and thus limiting oxygen consumption. They come out of this state as soon as oxygen begins to flow.
• The astral part has a number of interesting useful properties. Firstly, it absorbs shocks well, and can absorb even strong blows and avoid damage to the brain (however, if the shell is missing and the blow is strong enough, the object will simply pass through and damage the brain. Therefore, they never remove the shell from the head unnecessarily). Secondly, the astral part is an excellent heat insulator, which allows it to maintain a comfortable temperature for the brain of 20C° (68F°) in the depths of the body, even when the outside temperature reaches plus or minus 45C° (from -40F° to 104F°).