The omiridrine /oʊˈmɪrɪdriːn/ is a golden-bodied, black-headed stranger with mirror-like eye markings. Its black head, hands, and back toes are composed of a gritty, rubbery substance, which oozes like semi-molten tar, and leaves opaque droplets behind at its points. The glimmering marigold skin is smooth and somewhat metallic, and the dark internal flesh drips outward from cuts in thin streams.

The omiridrine's embedded eye markings are flat and cold to the touch. Despite their reflective properties, they do not emulate the human face with complete accuracy, and mirrored images often display slight deformities, such as enlarged or shrunken facial features. These glassy surfaces can be smashed with no ill effect to the stranger, and break apart when removed from the omiridrine's head. They can never return to normal once broken.

Beyond the occasional hiss of vague resentment, the omiridrine does not vocalize.

The omiridrine generates in areas with large quantities of books, such as libraries and schools, although even a well-stocked home study can produce the conditions necessary for the strain's appearance. It prefers dim light, tall ceilings (especially those with some kind of interior overlook or balcony between floors), and wood surfaces (particularly when stained). Some level of mold tends to further incite an infestation.

When the omiridrine first appears, it resembles a cloudy black stain on the ground, which bubbles and morphs upwards to form the stranger's body. This body is at first solid black and statue-like; it is only when the omiridrine stands up and begins to move around that this black coating melts down to reveal the shimmering, golden stripes.

The omiridrine possesses a laconic, stoic disposition. It keeps its heavy head balanced as it walks with slow, deliberate steps; viligant, but not reactive. The stranger forms a large territory of up to three city blocks around its point of generation, and roams through it in long, meandering paths. It uses its dextrous hands to open doors, and its path is not halted by physical barriers. Although not violent by nature, the omiridrine displays destructive force when unable to open a door or window, and can smash open locks, tear doors from their hinges, or pull down plywood barricades.

Though it is not uncommon for multiple individuals to share a loosely overlapping territory, the strain is social only when two individuals meet for the first time. During these encounters, each omiridrine presses its right hand against each the other's face for several minutes, before both continue on their way. Following this, neither omiridrine appears able to recognize the other's presence.

The stranger seems motivated solely to seek out text around it. The omiridrine recognizes both handwritten^ƪ and printed text, and makes no distinction between different writing styles, formatting, or language. It is further able to differentiate between legible and asemic text, with the latter eliciting no reaction. A higher density and quantity of words is preferred – books, journals, periodicals, or newspapers are preferred over business cards, leaflets, or clothing labels, though any amount of legible writing could draw the omiridrine's attention.

Once the omiridrine has found a suitable item, it drags its tarry fingertips across each line and sentence of text, leaving the surface marked black. It tends to be highly methodical; upon finding a bookshelf, for example, it begins at the first book in a shelf, and (if uninterrupted) works its way to the end without stopping. Once its censorship of an area is complete, it returns objects to its original position, with its black marks often being the only visible evidence of its presence.

The strains's gritty fluid leaves permanent marks only on words; residue left on all other surfaces eventually fades away.

The omiridrine displays no interest in sensitives one way or another, and does not approach them. It does, however, exhibit enormous fear and disgust when a sensitive looks into their own eyes as reflected from the omiridrine's mirrored eye markings, and always attempts to turns its head and interrupt the reflection. When it is unable to do so (such as when restrained inside a specially-constructed harness), it digs its fingers into the area where its neck and body meet, and carves into the flesh until it is decapitated,^Ш a fatal act which takes several hours to achieve.^Ԋ

When attacked, the omiridrine calmly turns to face its aggressor, then pulls its head back before thrusting it forward with a force powerful enough to stab or impale the sensitive. The omiridrine holds its snout there for several minutes, shaking as the blood drips down its face and neck, before it pulls its head back and ignores the sensitive from that point on.

In contrast to the poor imitations of human faces, the omiridrine's eyes reflect corpses with perfect clarity.

As it ages, the omiridrine's movements grow shakier and less coordinated. It crosses out text in jagged or uneven lines, scribbles over images or across blank pages, or rips up pages instead of concealing the words themselves.

At the end of its life, the omiridrine's body hardens to the same substance that composes its head, feet, and back toes, which solidify in their entirely, entombing the stranger within its own dead body. Its solid black corpse grows brittle and charcoal-like, and, after less than an hour, crumbles into a pile of soot, with its censorship being its only lasting marker.