athingdevoted

[athingdevoted]

pelle sub agnina latitat, mens saepe lupina. a wolf in sheep's clothing. for posterity's sake, it's important to note that this wasn't a deliberate choice. sedef had always preferred sleek fur over wool ⸺ but if it bleats right or if it bleeds right, then it's meant for her. flesh and tails are cut and burned off for real wool. after all, the comfort of one always comes at the cost of another.

slender fingers reach into the deep pockets of her coat only to find them empty, the object of her desire misplaced ⸺ or worse lost. the shadow of a man tells her something but his words overlap and blur, her disgust for the celebration accelerating, accentuated by his penchant for prattle.

eloquent in her silence, at her core, sedef is a shape-shifter. a snake with the head of a fox. hers is a vulpine face, with a prominent, elongated but elegant nose, broad cheekbones, and a sharply sculpted chin. from this angle, she looks less frightening. almost human.

''⸺ you sure do speak a lot, but you didn't even think to offer a cigarette to a lady first,'' she says, finally sinking her teeth into the flesh of his sentence, biting off a chunk of meat to push the conversation in another direction.

''come on, surprise me.''

›     𝙱𝙻𝙰𝙲𝙺   𝙱𝙾𝚇   𝚂𝚃𝙰𝚃𝚄𝚂   :    open     (    temp   no   cap    )                 𝙰𝚁𝙴𝙰   𝙾𝙵   𝙾𝙿𝙴𝚁𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂   :    vesna   night                 𝙶𝚁𝙸𝙳   𝚁𝙴𝙵   :    23T  WP   1938   7462                 𝚃𝙸𝙼𝙴   :    22:13   ZULU   (   10:13   PM  LOCAL   )

🗒️           ✱           ﹕ㅤ    𝘁𝗵𝗲   𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀   𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲   𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲   ,   𝗴𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴   𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵   lantern   light   and   laughter   —   the   kind   that   felt   just   a   little   too   loud   ,   like   everyone   was   trying   to   drink   ,   dance   ,   and   fuck   their   worries   away   before   the   world   came   crumbling   down   again.   vesna   night.   hell   of   a   way   to   pretend   things   weren’t   going   to   shit.   and   cooper   ?   well   ,   he   was   more   than   happy   to   play   along.

 leaning   against   a   half   -   crumbling   brick   wall   ,   pint   in   one   hand   ,   cigar   in   the   other   ,   he   looked   like   he   belonged   there—   half   in   the   shadows   ,   watching   the   world   go   by.   the   flickering   candlelight   caught   the   sharp   angles   of   his   face   ,   the   scar   just   under   his   eye   ,   the   lazy   smirk   that   never   quite   left   his   lips.   his   dog   tags   glinted   when   he   tilted   his   head   ,   eyeing   his   newest   source   of   entertainment. 

 "   y’know   ,   "   he   started   ,   mancunian   drawl   slow   and   lazy,   "   for   a   night   that's   supposed   to   keep   the   bad   spirits   away   ,   you   lot   aren’t   doin’   a   very   good   job.   can’t   decide   if   you   look   like   trouble   or   if   i   just   fancy   the   idea   of   findin’   out.   "

 he   took   a   slow   drag   of   his   cigar   ,   let   the   smoke   curl   from   his   mouth   ,   then   exhaled   through   his   nose   ,   watching   it   drift   into   the   night   air.

 "   read   somewhere   that   festivals   like   this   used   to   be   about   new   beginnings   ,   all   that   hopeful   shite.   sounds   nice   ,   don’t   it   ?   ‘cept   here   we   are   ,   drinkin’   like   it’s   the   end   of   the   bloody   world.   "

 a   slow   sip   of   his   pint.   a   flick   of   his   cigar   ,   embers   sparking   in   the   dark.   he   knocked   his   knuckles   against   the   wooden   bar   ,   signaling   for   another   drink   —   not   that   he   was   in   any   rush.   then   ,   his   gaze   slid   back   ,   sharp   and   just   a   little   too   amused.

 “   so   what’s   it   gonna   be   ,   then   ?   you   sittin’   here   to   wallow   ,   or   you   plannin’   to   make   this   night   worth   rememberin’   ?   ”   a   slow   smirk   tugged   at   the   corner   of   his   lips   ,   just   enough   to   make   it   unclear   whether   he   was   joking   or   not.   "   go   on   ,   love   ,   "   he   gestured   vaguely   with   his   cigar   ,   "   surprise   me.   "

[athingdevoted]

❄️  (  melisa pamuk.  cis woman.  she/her  )  in  krovograd  ,  survival  is  a  test  of  both  skill  and  morality  —  will  SEDEF KAMALOVA  withstand  the  horrors  ,  or  will  the  city  break  them  ?  over  the  comms  ,  their  voice  cuts  through  the  static  :  “MAY GOD FORGIVE YOU, BECAUSE I WON'T.”  our  records  confirm  they  are  a  THIRTY-FOUR  year  old  LAND RESEARCHER  ,  assigned  to  VESTIGE  for  8 YEARS.  field  reports  describe  them  as  CONFIDENT & AMBITIOUS ,  though  firsthand  accounts  suggest  they  are  equally  CRUEL & SELFISH  under  pressure.  there’s  something  about  them  —  something  in  the  way  they  move  ,  speak  ,  or  fight  —  that  brings  to  mind  THE HAND THAT FEEDS (  NINE INCH NAILS  ).  maybe  it's  just  a  coincidence.  or  maybe  ,  it  says  everything.

i.

NAME SEDEF KAMALOVA. ADDRESSED AS DR. KAMALOVA ⸺STRICTLY, OR ELSE SHE WON'T ANSWER. DOB 15TH JULY, 1972. POB KYIV, UKRAINIAN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC ( FORMELY ), NOW UKRAINE . CURRENT LOCATION KROVOGRAD. GENDER CIS WOMAN. PRONOUNS SHE/HER. OCCUPATION FIELD RESEARCHER, BIOLOGIST, CHEMIST, GENETICIST ETHNICITY TURKISH NATIONALITY UKRANIAN LANGUAGES SPOKEN UKRANIAN, RUSSIAN, TURKISH & ENGLISH EDUCATION MOST NOTABLE DEGREES INCLUDE PHD IN CHEMISTRY FROM KHARKIV NATIONAL UNIVERSITY & A PHD IN CELLULAR BIOLOGY FROM TARAS SHEVCHENKO NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF KYIV

ii.

SIBLINGS NONE. MARITAL STATUS WED. CHILDREN NONE. HEIGHT FIVE FOOT NINE INCHES.HAIR DARK BROWN. EYES BROWN, UNDER CERTAIN LIGHT ALMOST HAZEL. SCENT MILD TRACES OF TOBACCO AND ETHYLENE MIXED WITH CEDAR & BERGAMOT MYERS-BRIGGS INTP CHARACTER INSPIRATION VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN ( FRANKENSTEIN ) , MAD HATTER ( ALICE IN WONDERLAND ), JULIUS NO ( DR. NO ), MADAME OLIVIER ( THE BIG FOUR ), HARMONY COBEL ( SEVERENCE ), DOCTOR LERNE ( LE DOCTEUR LERNE, SOUS-DIEU )

HISTORY general triggers apply.

1886 ⸺ the first kamalovs make their way across the border and settle in a city called kyiv. they come as doctors and diplomats, offering a cultural exchange. they're not originally called kamalovs, but years of cultural integrations result in the surname kamalov - derived from the name kamal, of her great ancestor.

1967 ⸺ altan kamalov and dilara giray are wed in podil, the old district of kyiv. altan kamalov, at the time, is most notably known as a prominent soviet politician, while dilara giray is best known for her work as a diplomat.

1972 ⸺ the birth of sedef marks a new chapter for the kamalovs. up until this point, they're politicians, doctors and engineers. nothing smaller and something grander is certainly expected from sedef.

1988 ⸺ at 16, sedef gradutes a year earlier than her peers and leaves high school behind to pursue a higher education.

1989 ⸺ at 17, she enrolls in taras shevchenko national university of kyiv, focusing respectively on a dual-degree program ⸺ one in biology and one in chemistry. no one can deny that sedef is a brilliant woman of science. what they fear, instead, is how that geniusness threatens to unfold.

1992 ⸺ despite the fall of the soviet union a year prior, the kamalovs remain safe and mostly untouched, and now with two degrees under her belt, sedef is for the first time contacted by vestige pharmaceuticals. in the same year, she visits krovograd for the first time / becomes an associate for the vestige pharmaceuticals. they offer her a contract at just the age of 21, but she refuses. she wants a masters first.

1993 ⸺1997 during this period, sedef is only loyal to one goal, which includes furthering her education. she manages to obtain two master degrees and begins working on her first doctorate.

1998 ⸺ her first contract with vestige is signed. she becomes one of the core scientists working on project sable. it's all she's ever wanted from life.

1999 ⸺ sedef, other than working for vestige, makes a breakthrough in her research. while studying the division of cells under the influence of radiation, she succeeds at reviving a dead hound. it's from this moment that sedef thinks she can play god.

2000 ⸺ in the summer of 2000, she leaves krovograd for a brief month to get married. the wedding's certainly not a spectacle, but everyone who is someone is there. she doesn't take her husband's name. that would entail too much paperwork.

2001 ⸺ 2006 in the span between 2001 and 2006, sedef does her best to see her plans and visions come to fruition. she does not fear the mutated, for they are hers, her creation. still, she wants to take things a step further. as of late, she's been researching the cells of dying hollow men. one of them, however, includes the unseen horror. ( girly is working on manmade horrors beyond human comprehension. )

fun facts and extra tidbits !!! ⸺ the kamalovs have always suffered from pulmonary diseases. sedef in turn is a notorious smoker. ( but her family's history of diseases certainly isn't known by anyone ). ⸺ her moral ethics are questionable at best. in recent years, she's become severely cruel and prone to outbursts of ruthlessness. the goal always justifies the means. it's all a playground to her. she wants to see the world burn so she can build it anew.⸺ she's certainly the type who, when infected, lies until the very end and tells everyone that nothing's wrong.⸺ the basic rule of keeping sedef on your side is very simple. don't question her motives or ethics and don't get in her way. ⸺ believes that her discoveries and findings are a gift to humanity. in a sense, they are but at what cost? ⸺ developed a 'bio-weapon' that's not much talked about, but basically, she isolated snake venom and managed to turn it into vapor, which once inhaled can burn up a person's insides. she has a snake enclosure inside her office, which hosts at least ten snakes.

[athingdevoted]

Sun Zibar by Yves Kortum.

[athingdevoted]

Trista Mateer, “For the One Who Loved My Hands More than Anything Else.” The Dogs I Have Kissed

[athingdevoted]

MELISA ASLI PAMUK ERKEGE GÜVEN OLMAZ, EPISODE 1