#have they been changed to more resemble the horrors of living as a human

[impossible-rat-babies]

you know there’s a specific kind of horror to sidestep not being Broken, but being Changed in some way. there’s obvious reasons to break, but to change is something else.

change raises questions of why? why were they changed? what is the intended outcome of the change? what specifically was done to incite the change? there’s horror in being changed to someone’s idea of how someone should act/what their personality should be; who they are as defined by someone else. existence dictated by someone else, and furthermore to wonder and live in a way as such to wonder if what came before was “who they are” or what here now is truly the reality.

[saintsenara]

do you go with word of god about how tom would have been better off if merope lived and raised him or that it would have been even worse for him and merope would have become infatuated because of his resemblance to tom riddle sr? (Similar to how part of the fandom believes snape would be if harry resembled lily lmao) which of do you think its more interesting route?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

i go for the first of the two options - that merope living would have been so much better for wee tom riddle jr. - not because it's what jkr says, but because i tend to loathe any interpretation of merope's character which undermines the fact that so much of her life could have been changed at numerous crucial moments by anyone connected to the wizarding state giving a fuck.

merope is a teenage girl who lives in abject poverty, has a treatable medical condition [exotropia - eyes which stare in different directions] for which she clearly hasn't received any medical care, is denied an education, is subjected to physical violence by her father right there on the canon page, and is implied in canon to be subjected to incestuous sexual violence by her father and/or brother. the state has numerous opportunities to remove her from this experience - when marvolo fails to respond to her hogwarts letter, when bob ogden visits the gaunts - and yet doesn't, and while i don't think that just being taken away from morfin and marvolo would have solved everything, it would have given her the safety to start healing...

i get why the idea of merope as this sinister, unhinged, devouring, unchangeable bundle of malevolence, who would destroy her own son by becoming infatuated with him, is compelling when the genre demands it to be - i've written her as a folk-horror villain myself, and she was perfect for the role - but in fics which aren't intentionally going for that sort of supernatural, dark fairytale, horror-story vibe... i don't think it hits.

merope's great tragedy - much like her son's - is that she is someone capable of and longing for a normal life, but who is denied this by the corrosive forces of grief, poverty, abuse, and indifference and who goes on to perpetuate harm in turn.

as i've said elsewhere, her rape [and we should call it what it is] of tom riddle sr. doesn't actually need to have any undercurrent of sadistic, unhinged infatuation to be both morally abhorrent and canon-coherent - her treatment at her father and brother's hands would hardly have given her an understanding of consent or bodily autonomy [and might also have made her believe that drugging a man until you can totally control him is the only way to prevent him hurting you], while the fact that the state just leaves her on her own after marvolo and morfin are arrested [with - presumably - no income to speak of] means that she can be understood as seeing tom sr. as her only escape from sliding ever further down the ladder of destitution.

does that mean that she didn't also - selfishly - desire tom sr.? absolutely not. it just means that i find it much more interesting when the idea of her wanting him for herself is given equal weight with all the other things in her life which shape her character - and that i also find it much more interesting when these forces are recognised as commonplace, human, and having pretty much nothing to do with magic.

[the state would not - after all - have had to raise a wand in order to unravel the abuse to which she is subjected... since it does this all the time in the real world - and i am definitely a sucker for stories which acknowledge that the greatest flaws in the wizarding world don't depend in the slightest on magic, but on human corruption.]

if she'd survived childbirth - while i'm certainly not suggesting that i think she'd have been a flawless mother, nor that the absence of a wizarding welfare state wouldn't have made their lives incredibly difficult - i think it's legitimately implausible to suggest that she'd have done anything other than love her son as her son [so, without any incestuous vibe].

[her comment - "i hope he looks like his papa" - is, i think, meant as mrs cole takes it - that she recognises that she's someone who isn't conventionally attractive by any means, and that she knows that tom riddle sr. is.]

[theresattrpgforthat]

Hello, thank you for all your hard work on recommendations! Do you know of any vampire games where being a vampire is NOT presented as a 'You are a horrible parasite clinging to humanity!' thing? And/or perhaps it is more about how humans are awful to vampires. Being non-crunchy is a bonus. It doesn't have to be light-hearted, I'd rather play something with a serious tone.

Theme: Alternative Vampires.

Hello friend, there’s a lot of really interesting vampire games out there! One of the most well-known is, of course, Vampire: The Masquerade, which you've possible heard about before, but I think is important to acknowledge when looking at many vampire games that have been created in the past. It's influenced the way a lot of roleplayers see vampires.

On the other hand, there's also a lot of work to change up how vampires are seen, and the BIPOC Vamp Jam is an excellent example of that. I think you'll recognize some of the games in this list from that jam!

Some of the games here are more serious than others, but I think there’s still some complex themes even within the games that don’t take themselves too seriously. I hope there’s something here that fits what you’re looking for!

Bloodsucker Elegy, by Porcupine Publishing.

Tonight, everything falls apart. The place went up like a bonfire Black-clad mortals They know everything about us They know our names They know how to kill us

Bloodsucker Elegy is a compact (15pp) game for two or more players, about vampires on the night their world comes crashing down around them.

Intended for short-form play, Bloodsucker Elegy uses a diceless system that draws on ideas from the Vampire: the Masquerade spinoff video game Swansong.

A game about enduring the end of life as you know it, Bloodsucker Elegy gives you both human skills and supernatural powers to help you face your oncoming doom. Every time you do something supernatural, you must take 1 Hunger. Every time you use a human skill, you must spend Willpower. With no Willpower left, you’ll slip into a slumber resembling death. At 12 Hunger, you can feel your inner beast surface, your bloodlust take over. You can gain willpower by meditating and reduce hunger by feeding, but both are dangerous when you’re being hunted. If you want a game that pushes your characters and forces them to make heavy choices, this might be the game for you.

Thousand Year old Vampire, by timhutchings.

A creaking hunter among dust and cobwebs, you prowl the night places, seeking the souls on which you feed. You have done this since time immemorial, or so you believe; you have no memories of  living as a man-thing like those you catch and eat. But human traces linger; your fingers trace clever arabesques in the dirt of your grave-place and with the flourishes come whispered songs in a language you've forgotten. Far away, in a museum, hangs your portrait in oil by a master five hundred years dead--you might have been lovers but the diary you kept then is long lost.  

This is a solo game, meant for intimate and personal experiences. Thousand Year Old Vampire comes with a lot of high praise, meant to be powerful, emotional and thought provoking. You are a vampire, discovering and losing memories as you fill up your diary. This is a personal horror game, a game about losing pieces of yourself to the ravages of time. It’s received 3 awards from the Ennies, and also won the Indicade Tabletop Design Award in 2020. I think it’s probably worth checking out!

The Blood, by Falconian Productions.

Vampires are creatures of magic; how else do you explain the undead? It’s not some outside force’s pet project — vampirism is magic. An arcane force, The Blood, is what makes a vampire.

What is the Blood? It’s the fragment of power shared by every vampire in the world, and the conglomerate force made up of those segments. It's not a voice, or instinct, but… insight. The Blood shows you what you want, what It wants. It shows you the quickest and easiest ways to get to it.Then, it gives you what you need to act on it.

But your choices are always your own. Those that would do no wrong even in the face of temptation likely still won't as a vampire, but those that avoided wrongdoing only because they feared being caught, or lacked the means?

The Blood is a game about vampires as arcane creatures, an otherworldly force empowering their undead forms and providing them with magical potency. The powers attributed to vampires in stories and media are simply the spells that come most easily to them. It's about seeing how they balance their desire for power with the need for secrecy in the world, and about succumbing to or resisting the arcane desires their Blood inflicts on them. 

This is a game that feels like it draws quite a bit from the lore and allure of Vampire: the Masquerade. It gives your characters an internal struggle to wrestle with, gives you 10-sided dice to roll in dice pools, and counts a 7 or higher as a success. In this game, your character also has magical strengths and personal advantages or disadvantages - perhaps a certain kind of magic always comes easier to you, or perhaps you have a sworn enemy who is always on your tail. If you want a game about secrecy and struggle, this might be the game for you.

Dead Letter Society, by Rori Montford.

Live your best unlife as the newest member of the Dead Letter Society, an exclusive communication network for vampires. Pursue your ambitions, and question the Society's motives, in this journaling and epistolary game for 1-2 players.

Dead Letter Society is a journaling game where your letters drive the action. Choose your genre, build your world, and discover the joys of corresponding via a secret society with unknown motives. 

This is a slower and quieter game, for a much smaller group of people that happens over the course of writing various letters or journal entries. Using tarot cards, you’ll answer the questions that arise out of the course of your play (although it looks like you can use dice or other method of number generation if you like). The game is, at its core, about two vampires sharing a connection through a Society whose motives are… suspect. It looks like there are play-sets for various settings, and while I’m not sure exactly what your vampires’ position is in relation to humans, the fact that it’s meant to take place between 2 players (or by yourself) gives me a suspicion that your characters will be sympathetic, rather than monstrous.

Eat the Reich, by Rowan, Rook & Decard.

The year is 1943. You are a team of crack vampire commandos with one mission: drink all of Hitler's blood.

This over-the-top, ultraviolent game is designed to be played from beginning to end in one to three sessions of carnage, blood magic, meaningful flashbacks and hundreds upon hundreds of extremely dead fascists. It tells one story, it tells it loud, and it tells it brilliantly. Think Wolfenstein crossed with Danger 5 and you're not far off the mark. 

This is a game about punching up, and punching back. The designers are aiming for something that is over-the-top, messy, and violent, something that guides your characters through one big mission while providing the ability to flash-back to moments in WW2 that led your characters to this final moment. It’s meant to be big, bombastic and bloody - and it’s currently still in production. You can still pre-order it on the Kickstarter page, but if you want to learn more about it first, I recommend checking out this post by the authors, as well as the game v, which uses the same rule system to deliver a punchy one-shot experience.

Bloodbeam Badlands, by Viditya Voleti.

You have survived the apocalypse, and your worst nightmare has come true. The sun burns redder, brighter, and hotter, never setting - the Forever Dawn. The land has been irradiated and kissed by its strange sanguine rays, warping the world into a carnival for the strange and the supernatural.

Bloodbeam Badlands is a game for at least 2 players, including a Game Master (GM). It’s a game about vampires stuck surviving a post-apocalyptic world where the sun never sets, what it means to keep moving when the deck is stacked against you, the immortal facing mortality with every step. It’s also a game about being really cool vampires with cool vampire powers and cool magic guns going on rad adventures in a rad world filled with rad things. 

Characters in Bloodbeam Badlands have 3 Stats: Guts, Guile, and Guise that determine your capabilities and how many dice you roll, and 3 Sources: Blood, Bullets, and Burn which determine your state of being and what value you need to roll under. Managing your Sources as they fluctuate and playing to your strengths allows for a dynamic yet simple system! It’s the end of the world and your greatest enemy is able to kill you at all hours of the day.

A game of survival and plenty of character pieces that exist in threes, Bloodbeam Badlands hands you some cursed guns and powerful vampiric abilities and asks you to try and survive in a world where not just the humans, but the landscape wants to kill you. If you want a game about kicking desperation in the face and rad adventures, this might be the game for you.

The Sun’s Ransom, by pidj.

The Sun's Ransom is a poetic, tragic RPG where you play vampires determined to bring back the sun.

The world has gone dark and the mortals are consumed by the need for warmth, light and power. It is up to you, who do not need life or warmth or light or power, to ransom the sun, despite the cost. You must go against your vampiric nature and remember what brought Light and Joy to your mortal self. That is the blood-price for the sun.

This is a game that takes your resources away from you as you play. Your table will have the freedom to determine what kind of world you start in and what exactly the roles are for both mortals and vampires. This means that it’s up to you what kind of creatures vampires are, and how people see them! What you’ll struggle with is your doom - or to be more clear, the doom of the mortals around you.

When you begin play, you’ll place as many dice as can cover the sun that the game provides for you to print out. As you play, those dice will be removed - and the sun will come back, saving the mortals you fight for, and hurting you in the process. If you want a game of tragedy and sacrifice, I recommend this game.

Other Games I’ve Recommended

Blood and Sacrilege, by Tom Clark.

Vamp Camp!, by Sebastian Yue.

Bubblegum Vampires, by Gormengeist.

[blood-orange-juice]

ok so ive never properly played genshin and don’t plan to but i know a bit about it’s lore and characters and i think it’s really neat. however i have thousands of hours on ffxiv. on that note please explain why graha and childe are similar. i only have very basic knowledge on childe and i gotta know

Fellow ffxiv enjoyer. <3

(anyone asking me about G'raha has a 100% chance of getting a wall of text and I'm not apologising for that. enjoy your wall of text)

I'm not entirely sure I'm not a case of a person with a hammer to whom everything resembles a nail, but I do think they are the same archetype.

Sweet characters who could have been perfect sidekicks (who still are perfect sidekicks) but listened to too many epic tales as kids and found themselves in a wrong place at a wrong time and now have to play a key role in some universe-changing story.

Both are defined mostly by their stubborness, they are not very suitable for the roles they've chosen and fail over and over again until they do it somewhat right (barely).

No matter how badass they look, their power is not their own, G'raha is a glorified technician of someone else's miracle and little else than a living key, Childe wields an art of old Khaenri'ah without fully understanding it. It's all borrowed from someone else who needed them to achieve a goal.

They do look badass, but mostly because they larp. I'm honestly not sure which one enjoys theatrics more.

Civilisations that created the magic they use specialised in perversion of the natural order of things. They try to use it in relatively noble ways and mostly hurt themselves but the flavour is there.

Both are unbelievably tragic and both somehow make their stories seem almost lighthearted. Complete absense of self-pity. I think that's what makes them both so charming, it's a rare trait.

Both have an incredible capacity for loyalty and love and an incredibly twisted view of what relationships look like. "I'll cross time and space for you, I'll die for you, I'll build a city for you, I'll live for you but please don't ask me to share my plans." "I'll sacrfice my own health and respect of my subordinates to keep my brother's happyness, probably my humanity too, but don't expect me to actually interact with him."

Both have something that looks like self-sacrificial tendencies bordering on suicidality while being, if we are honest, a self-serving trait (partially born out of low self-esteem but still self-serving). They want to live in an old myth and sacrificing oneself is a perfectly reasonable price for that.

Huge egos. And I mean Huge Egos. It's a bit less obvious in Graha's case but I know the type, you see guys like that in PhD programs a lot.

Huge dorks. Both of them.

Both are stuck somewhere between human and non-human and, hmm... their ability to remain human is the most astonishing quality of both. By all accounts, neither should have. They somehow did.

Both are incapable of lying to the point where a third of each fandom headcanons them as autistic. Both are somewhat all right with tricking people without technically lying (although Childe had more practice).

Both are secretive because no one would understand anyway.

FF XIV is a kinder story, so it's easy to overlook, but technically G'raha is a case of body horror, accepts the role of a villain for a while and hides from the player way too much. Hmmm... Where else have I seen it. Hmm. Oh right. That ginger guy from Genshin.

Minor things:

Both are little shits and enjoy annoying the hell out of people they dislike.

Abysmally bad fashion sense. There should be a name for this particular type and level of bad. I don't think I've seen this anywhere else.

And then there's the colour scheme. Red+black+white+blue and red+black+light grey+blue (it's an "anime magician" color profile, I think. black-red-white as alchemy colours + blue as pure magic/something elemental). Childe doesn't quite fit but still the combination is rare.

They way they talk. Dear gods. Who the hell talks like that.

Here's where the similarities end.

One is morally grey but ultimately a good guy (technically. I think the point of ShB was that Emet and G'raha are almost the same), another is a morally grey but still (kind of) a bad buy.

At every step of his story Graha is surrounded by people who love or at least appreciate him, Childe is pretty much on his own and surrounded by people who are either shitty or clueless.

G'raha is kind. Truly and astonishingly kind, in a doomed world he chooses to love everything he touches. Silly little priest of hope. Of all the things he has done this is the most wondrous, I think. Not the time travel, not the city he founded, just being able to remain kind after everything that happened to him.

Childe is... well, Childe. I think he is a deeply decent person (to the point of having a visceral distaste for any kind of unfairness) and he's idealistic but he's indifferent more than he is kind. Empathy usually develops only when someone has shown the person empathy first and, as far as we know, he didn't have much of that in his life.

Also G'raha builds things. Childe breaks things. Childe breaks pretty much everything he touches.

One is an archeologist and a mage and another is a warrior.

I think these differences are caused mostly by the settings they were put into. Childe raised in Sharlayan would have been a very different person. G'raha trained by a voidsent and shipped off to Garlean military would look very much like Childe.

G'raha also has a beautiful character development arc. I love his ShB role. He has this huge ego in the raids and is insufferable and then we see an older and wiser him with a bunch of actual achievements and a bad case of impostor syndrome (trying to do anything real always humbles a person, we all know that real world is held together by sticks and scotch tape. honestly, this change alone is beautiful). And he gets to be an actual hero when he abandons all hope to be Important and resigns to die as a nameless villain if it saves everyone and spares his loved ones from heartbreak.

Childe's character development is yet to happen and I'm not hoping for much but we'll see.

The only difference that definitely isn't created by setting is that G'raha is naturally manipulative. In a kind-hearted way and mostly for the sake of better larp but he isn't that straightforward. Childe is spectacularly blunt for all his mysteriousness.

As a bonus, they both compare main characters to stars, but in completely different ways.

"No doubt your heroism will be the star by which I chart my course," says G'raha to the WoL.

Childe mentions the morning star, which is, of course, pretty and a good companion to a lonely traveler, but also it's not a celestial body you can chart your course by.

It's a guy whose signature weapon is called "Polar Star" and his first artifact set was full of nautical themes, so I think he fully understands what he's saying. "You are my friend but I won't change anything in my life for you."

So I don't think his story will be anything like G'raha's, his life took a different turn very long ago. I do think they used to be similar as kids, bookish boys who dreamed of adventure and being special. So it's fun to compare.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. <3

[crimsonlyinglilly]

Mikaelson Headcanons

Out of the siblings Rebekah is the only one that goes to fight first when confronted.

Finn, Klaus and Kol all tend to want to flee. This is one of the reason Klaus attacks first.

Elijah freezes, he knows this and has spent centuries trying to fix it but his work is always ruined when Mikael returns.

---

Finn, Elijah and Kol were together when they were turned, Esther explained it to them after.

Both Finn and Kol noticed the lost of their magic and took it badly, storming out. First Finn in horror who was then followed by Esther attempting to apologise, then Kol in a rage.

This left Elijah alone with the woman they had killed, someone he had grown up knowing his life.

Esther might blame everything he became on his accidental killing of Tatia, but she missed the night she left Elijah alone in shock with his true first kill.

No one was there when Elijah shuddered as he realised what he had done, as he stared at the blood.

Swallowed back bile as he tasted iron in his mouth.

---

Elijah does love all his siblings, he only worries about Klaus's humanity because he can still see the other's.

He saw Finn horror when they turned, was reminded of it every time he made a comment on their new lives after it. he may claim leaving Finn daggered was to spare him living the life he hated but Elijah knows part of it was selfish, he was tired of Finn's words making him feel even more like a monster.

Kol's rage at the loss of his magic was visible in every bloodbath he caused, but Elijah knew there was nothing he could do to fix it so he just tried to manage the worst, to lessen the aftermath to delay news to father.

Rebekah he knew would kill for them even before they were changed, Elijah wonders if he had let her kill father that night, if any of this would have happened, if she could have had the life she longs for. but he's never had a doubt over her humanity, sometime she causes him to doubt his own.

But Klaus, as Klaus changes himself into a monster that resembles the worst of the man now hunting them, Elijah tries to find any remaining specs of his soft sweet little brother, who would rather gather berries to paint with than sharpen a sword.

The few glimpses he get allows him to keep going as he places every monstrous act his brother does on his back.

Brother please.

Perhaps if Elijah had been a monster himself sooner, had struck father down, none of them would be so covered in blood.

[dirtytransmasc]

¡ANGST WARNING! TW: Surgery, torture, body modification, experimentation

Thinking about spider’s time with the RDA made me realise that it would have been so much worse with his adaptions.

All these scientists are chomping at the bit to understand what happened to spider. Unlike Max and Norm, who take samples and examine Spider to help him and ensure he’s safe and healthy, the RDA scientists just want to further their own research. So they don’t use any anaesthetics or numbing agents, they don’t care for the boys discomfort or pain, everything they do that causes his suffering (intentional or not) is a chance to gather more data or study his habits more. Most would call this unethical, but this is the RDA - ‘Unethical’ is the only word a higher up needs to hear before they start thinking about all the money they are going to make.

What’s worse? Spider still gets adaptions. He gets tougher skin to prevent scalpels from cutting into him, his brain develops more connections and neurones in an effort to resist the damage caused by the Brain Scanner, his body heals faster to prevent his organs from getting even more hurt from the experiments from the night before. But this doesn’t stop the scientists. They keep going. The push the limits of his adaptions and keep testing the new ones that develop. They just don’t stop.

The only time they do stop is when Quaritch pulls Spider out, before he dies or worse. Though he can’t connect with his son as much, since there is nothing really resembling his father in spider’s appearance, Quaritch does recognise something - his son is nothing more than an object to the RDA, same as him. He cannot stand by and see someone be cut into day in and day out, treated as some freak of nature. Quaritch is a pile of extraterrestrial meat and bones resurrected with a computer file, he knows what it feels like to be an unholy abomination in the eyes of the scientists.

Years later, when the RDA is finally and completely burned to the ground and nobody is left to carry on their crusade, someone will find documents and files about the ‘research’ done against Spider and will find so much more than what anybody knew. Children forcefully changed, using Spider’s DNA, to further the RDAs needs, to be guinea pigs and the future for humanity. It’s a surprise to everyone and a reminder of the tremendous evils that were brought upon innocent children, who never asked for war and an unkind thing upon themselves. It is a miracle that they have survived this long, Eywa’s mercy and love keeping them living until they could be brought back to The People. Now they can heal and grow knowing that they will never be hurt again and will be loved by caring people. The RDA may be evil incarnate, but the Great Mother’s love will forever persist for the sake of these children.

—

I had this thought in my head for a week or so now, but I got busy with my job and university and I didn’t know how to right this down in a way that did it justice, if that makes sense. First time writing down angst or anything that might need a Trigger Warning, so I deeply apologise if it either not needed or if my headcanon got way too dark

first off, no need to apologize; I read and write body horror and angst for fun, you're safe around here my friend, stick around, get comfortable, cause I love your mind.

second off, this was great.

the RDA being horifically cruel, Eywas previous blessing turning into somewhat of a curse, keeping spider alive throughout the torture, allowing him to be used to create more and more science experiments to be tortured.

then imagining quaritch doing everything he can to get spider out, but they keep blocking him, keep getting in his way, keep making cheap deals that he has to take to keep spider alive; all the way he's being tortured, having to watch his son be used like some animal, for experiments for some sick sadists who got off on his boys, his baby.

its a sick and twisted cycle, never-ending, and filled with pain and suffering.

[dailycharacteroption]

Roleplaying Races 14: Gargoyle

(art by Benshime on DeviantArt)

And our final entry of this week’s special draws from one of the few remaining ancestries from the Race Builder rules examples of old classic monsters as playable options in Pathfinder: The gargoyle.

In Pathfinder, gargoyles are fierce and often petty creatures that struggle to stay unified when a single insult can spiral into a full on brawl, but there is always the possibility of mercenary adventurers and rare black sheep that are not so vicious and proud.

The term “gargoyle” refers to a subset of “grotesques” monstrous or beastlike statues and forms included in architecture, specifically those that incorporated a water spout, though in the modern parlance many use gargoyle to refer to all grotesques.

Depending on the time period and who you ask, gargoyles and other grotesques may have been incorporated into architecture to frighten away evil spirits, or perhaps to remind the populace of the importance of the church. Either way we get cool and often goofy monstermen statues on our buildings, so that’s a plus in my book.

The first references to gargoyles as monsters is a much more recent invention, with Baum’s Oz series being one of the first in literature in 1908, with others appearing in pulp fiction and horror in the 1930’s, where they varied between statues animated by magic, demons using the statues as surrogate vessels, and of course, living creatures that only superficially resemble statues.

It’s only natural that these stony beings would make the leap into fantasy gaming, and so they did as early as First Edition D&D.

In Pathfinder in particular, the exact origins of gargoyles is unknown, though many theorize that they are the creation of the demon lord Xoveron, who himself resembles a gargoyle and is worshipped by them in turn. According to these stories, Xoveron made a deal with a particularly debased tribe of humans, turning them into demon-like forms that evoke their patron and give them the perfect cover for ambushing foes.

Whatever the truth of that, gargoyles remain free-willed beings, albeit ones with a notoriously vicious and petty society.

As one might expect, gargoyles appear to be vaguely demonic humanoids with horns, wings, and tails, but their skin is stone-like in consistency, making for effective armor and camouflage, as they can appear to be made of stone just by holding incredibly still. Interestingly, the exact appearance of their stony bodies (which goes further than skin deep, proving their connection to elemental earth) will actually change over the years to match the stone of the region they live in, be it the rock formations of a wild place, or the statuary of a city.

Tragically, gargoyle society leaves much to be desired. While there are some exceptions no doubt, gargoyle tribes, called “wings”, are notoriously prone to infighting over petty insults and perceived infractions, which only a strong leader can reign in, and sometimes not even then if the grudge runs deep. Sooner or later, a wing may dissolve under the stresses of the personalities within.

Speaking of which, while there is plenty of variance, gargoyles have a tendency towards what humans and other ancestries would call obsessive-compulsive disorder, often collecting their favorite things and organizing and re-organizing them meticulously, though what these things tend to be ranges from curious little collections to gristly trophies.

Whether their squabbles and vindictiveness are an inherent part of their being, or simply the learned behaviors of a predatory lifestyle that views other peoples as prey, it is possible for a gargoyle to rise above such a toxic culture just like any other sapient being, channeling their compulsive collecting into positive outlets and learning to tamper down their vindictive instincts.

Gargoyles are tough and strong, but lacking in education and society to let their minds shine.

The hard bodies of these beings make them hard to wound, though magic can pierce their defenses.

Thanks to their stony skin, they are naturally camouflaged. Sadly the racial version lacks the ability to freeze and appear like lifeless stone though.

Despite their stony bodies, they are fully capable of flight, and quite swift in the air.

Their claws, jaws, and horns are all fully functional as well, and quite deadly.

Naturally, they also have excellent night vision as well.

With their strength and constitution bonuses, as well as their flight, gargoyles are naturally suited towards hit and run melee combat builds that make full use of Flyby attack. Additionally, the stealth bonus is also good for those wanting to play any sort of stealth class like rogue or slayer. Alternatively, that high con and DR makes them very tempting and surprisingly mobile tanks, absorbing a lot of damage during the early levels where few foes have magical weapons. They struggle a bit with all casting classes due to their penalties, but it’s not insurmountable. Additionally, consider the kineticist class to make use of that constitution in a surprising way, raining down blasts from above.

That does it for this week, and we’re rapidly running out of playable ancestries published for First Edition, but don’t worry, We have an entire other edition to look into, so these special will not truly stop anytime soon!

[tyravenholme]

The Insanity of Bloodborne

Bloodborne is among one of my favourite video games of all time. Created by From Software and released on the Playstation 4 as a launch title, Bloodborne is a game that borrows heavily from the Dark Souls series, but instead of dark fantasy, you are thrust into a world of beasts and lycans, living abominations from the minds of man, and ancient beings from places beyond comprehension. It is a wondrous adventure that has you stumble your way from one bloody scenario to the next and by the end, you’ll be left with more questions rather than answers, and that’s not a bad thing.

Among what I’ve already mentioned, there is another thing I love about Bloodborne, and it’s something it has succeeded in doing that I think other games in the same genre have tried to do but failed every single time, and that’s insanity.

A common element of cosmic horror stories are characters going insane from having witnessed things that go beyond their understanding, people who bear witness to a great old one have their eye combust just from merely gazing upon such entities, or lose themselves to such a degree then end up in a hospital and remain there forever. Even in one of my favourite stories, a short manga series by Itou Junji called Hellstar Remina where a giant planet sized creature that makes it approach to Earth has swathes of characters in the story go to extreme illogical lengths in order to survive the coming end.

But when it comes to video games trying to induce this same element of insanity into players, they are for the most part, extremely lacklustre and have been reduced to a simple game mechanic, a meter you have to monitor whenever you encounter anything that could set you off that you have to balance out so you can continue the game. Amnesia is a prime example of this, and while the game does do a decent job of making this feature work for the games in that series, I do think it makes the whole point of “going insane” redundant.

That’s where Bloodborne shines. Instead of making insanity an obvious game mechanic, it’s instead subtle, and called something else entirely. Insight. Insight is presented as a sort of secondary rare currency in the game alongside Blood Echoes which is what you use to gain experience and level up, while Insight is used at an alternate shop to purchase things and seemingly that seems to be all its good for. You gain Insight whenever you first encounter a boss enemy which are typically these large monstrous beasts or sometimes otherworldly abominations, and gain more upon defeating them.

For the longest time, I didn’t realize what the true purpose of Insight was until after I had already beaten the game and started diving deeper into its lore and, ironically, seeing the truth of what Insight really was.

To give you an example, there is a Doll in a place called the Hunter’s Dream. When you first reach this area, which you will do within minutes of starting the game most likely, the Doll will be resting and inert, it’s just a Doll, nothing special, though it does resemble a human woman. And until you gain your very first Insight, as you start with zero when you start the game, the Doll will remain as such every time you return to the Hunter’s Dream, but when you encounter your first boss and return to the Hunter’s Dream, the Doll will be standing and waiting for you, and when you go to speak with them, they will indeed speak back, even stating very clearly that they are a doll.

In another scenario, you might think the character who is witnessing this doll come to life and assert a will of its own was going mad, and that’s exactly what’s happening. The more Insight you gain, the more insane you are becoming, but you need to go insane in order to see and understand the truth of this world. The more insight you accumulate, the more the world actually changes around, this Doll is just one example of that.

There are these wandering enemies that you encounter later on that hold these cool lanterns that they can spew magical energy from, and at first, they will look like regular lanterns, but gain enough Insight, and you may see something more to them that you couldn’t before.

I think what makes this mechanic work is that the game doesn’t tell you what Insight can actually do, or what purpose it actually serves. The game withholding information from you is a classic From Software method of storytelling, giving you just enough information for you to try and piece together things yourself, and in the end, all you’ll have is a theory with strong evidence, but nothing will ever be confirmed. Not only that, but the fact that it’s not some meter you have to balance, but rather a number you can accumulate in the top right of your screen is surprisingly simple in its complex execution.

The best thing of all though is that just like those doomed characters from the horror stories, you have no idea you’re going insane until its already too late and you’ve seen every horror your feeble mind can handle. It’s so brilliant that I can only applaud whoever thought up this mechanic at From Software and being able to translate one of the most difficult elements of cosmic horror into a video game and not make it some gimmicky mechanic you have to constantly monitor, instead, it’s just a thing that’s there and you can engage with it or not, it doesn’t really matter, since you’ll gain Insight as you progress through the game whether you like it or not.

Not to be a poet or anything, but if you want to actually beat the game, then you’ll have to go a little bit insane.

[smonk-wonk]

Hello there! My family needs to leave Gaza out of necessity . I suffer from nightmares that are so closely resemble reality that I no longer Differentiate between reality and a dream.Thank you for taking your efforts and time in reading my plea. There are no words to describe the horrors unfolding in this place,never expected to find myself in this situation. Because of this horrible situation I have decided to come before you guys for a financial support so that I can evacuate my family from this hell that we are into.The funds will be strictly used for the evacuation . I will personally bear any additional expenses incurred.Your support will make a significant difference in alleviating the suffering of my family ,We urgently need any kind of support before it is to late. As time ticking away translates to lives lost in Gaza I'm here and ready to answer any questions or concerns you may have.Kindly reach out and connect with me

Hello! I do have questions and concerns actually- why would you on your one day old account use your knowledge of how severe this tragedy is with over 30k Palestinians having been slaughtered by Israel to scam well meaning people who do not like genocide? I have lost count of how many of you have come into my inbox, probably around 20 or more. Which is funny because not even an hour ago I was thinking about how I haven't had to deal with any of you stupid fucks in a minute and wondering when that would change because it was only a matter of time.

How does it feel, not having a conscience? The inability to humanize others and only see something to exploit because you lack the capacity to feel anything in regards to them? Because the only thing you value about Palestinians is that you can capitalize on the destruction of their land and the murder of their people by the thousands? And the worse their situation gets, the more hardship you can pretend you are enduring but in reality the tragedy you deal with is most likely attachment issues that taught you that it is okay to harm others for selfish gain and that you have the right to take advantage of those who are vulnerable and in need of attention and care? That lesson is never painless, so ouch. Is it an empty feeling? A lonely one? I hope it is, you deserve it.

You are a monster. Kill yourself 💕

[lamemaster]

The Lurking

Genre: horror/thriller

Pairing: Feanor and Reader (non-romantic)

Summary: Wet hair clung to your forehead as you tried to collect your thoughts, but if you had been more attentive, you might have noticed the hostile eyes lurking in the water, glaring at your bewildered figure

AN: Spooktober fic!! Yay! (kinda gorey so skip it if you're sensitive)

Thwack, thwack, heavy sounds surrounded you. The atmosphere in the dimly lit room was thick with tension. Mildew crawled up the walls, resembling playful vines in the wild, while the air was heavy and suffocating, burdened by the oppressive humidity. The sole source of illumination came from a flickering lightbulb, casting eerie shadows on the surroundings.

You couldn't help but wonder how it had come to this. How had you ended up in this grim situation? The heavy hammer in your hand felt like a merciless weight, and you had long ceased resisting your own actions. The lifeless mass of flesh in front of you, which had once been your hand, no longer looked human. Once, you had worn a promise ring on one of its fingers.

Now, after hours of grueling labor, it was nothing more than a grotesque mess of skin, bone, and blood. It was unusable for any purpose, and you found a strange sense of relief in that. It was as if he would never be able to use it again. No one would.

Surprisingly, tears that you had expected to have run dry returned with the dawning realization of relief. Despite the excruciating pain, this gruesome act brought you a twisted sense of solace. As your tears blurred the crevices of the room, you couldn't help but wonder how you had ended up here.

It had all started five months ago, or so you believed. You had awoken on a desolate beach, with lapping waves caressing your toes in the dead of night. The stars sparkled above your head, and the sun was nowhere to be found. Confusion gripped you as you woke up with the taste of the sea in your mouth, your body soaked and sand clinging to your wet skin. How on Earth had you ended up here, dressed in your pajamas, an hour away from your house in the middle of the night?

Wet hair clung to your forehead as you tried to collect your thoughts, but if you had been more attentive, you might have noticed the hostile eyes lurking in the water, glaring at your bewildered figure. The entire ocean seemed to despise you, although you had remained oblivious to its malevolence.

Your psychiatrist had attributed your experiences to episodes of stress that triggered sleepwalking, and everyone had urged you to find solace in pills that promised to calm the turmoil in your mind. However, nothing seemed to help.

Not even Luke, your boyfriend, could detect your nocturnal escapades. You woke up on the same beach, battered and bruised, but with no recollection of what had transpired. Each day pushed you closer to an overwhelming restlessness and fatigue.

You tried every method to keep yourself in bed, from clinging to Luke's arm to using tracking devices, but nothing could prevent you from leaving in the dead of night. And then, it began happening during the day.

You experienced lapses of memory, frequent blackouts, and noticed that chunks of your life were missing. You couldn't recall arguments with Luke, despite his frustration with you.

“You've changed,” you blinked walking up to your phone next to your ear. Standing in your living room. “Hello…” you called to the other side of the phone. “You know what I don’t care. Don’t call me,” you could not piece together the voice on the other end. Familiar but it escaped your mind. Who had been that woman? Why did you call her? And what did you talk about?

The haze of disorientation persisted, and it wasn't until evening that you discovered Luke packing his bag. Panic gripped you as you rushed to him, desperately seeking answers to his departure.

"Luke," you pleaded, "What's wrong? Where are you going?" He didn't respond to your questions, but fear clutched at your heart.

"Did I do something?" you asked, trying to grasp at any fragment of information that could explain the situation. "You don't understand, do you?" Luke's face reddened with anger, and his voice echoed with venom. "You've done enough in the past week to ruin us. You've taken everything I worked for. Even my mother wanted to plan our wedding, but you… you didn't spare her either. I had no idea… I couldn't have guessed you were this…"

And then, you were gone.

You awoke to an empty apartment, with Luke nowhere to be found. The ring on your finger had vanished, and the world you had known had crumbled. You knew it before you could piece together anything else.

But then you saw him, with glimmering eyes that held the intensity of the sun itself. His long, dark hair floated in the air as he looked at you tauntingly through your reflection. The mirror before you didn't show your own face but that of someone you had come to know as Feanor.

Chaos had engulfed your life.

You couldn't remember when he had come to you, and you didn't even know his name. Not until you collected enough pieces of him to find a link, the Silmarillion. Pages of text and history covered your walls, with every word marked in red, all bearing one common theme: him.

You flipped through the pages manically, seeking answers, until you found the passage that connected everything. It was all starting to make sense.

"And it is told of Maglor that he could not endure the pain with which the Silmaril tormented him; and he cast it at last into the Sea, and thereafter he wandered ever upon the shores, singing in pain and regret beside the waves."

As your trembling hands traced the words, they resonated in your mind. He wanted his Silmaril. Those times when you woke up on the beach were not mere episodes; they were moments when he had been searching for his creation.

A searing pain stabbed through your head, accompanied by a ringing, static noise that blurred your consciousness.

[naometry]

Hell yeah two stars thank you calm!!

Predictable as I am, both scenes are from Knight of Pentacles, King of Spades. This ended up a little too big so I'm putting it under the cut.

⭐️ - Chapter 9

I have three favorite scenes, and this is one of them. Perhaps it's the favorite. I don't know. What matters is how I am really proud of how it came out, of Shido's mannerisms, Akira's defiance and, of course, Goro's horror—and, at a later date, him confessing he feels jealous of how it's Shido's brand on Akira's back. It's the equivalent of Knight's interrogation room. Anyway, what I want to talk about is how this entire scene was supposed to be wildly different. At first, the idea was for Goro to be more than happy to bear the shit out of Akira and break a few of his ribs. The moment the entire thing ended and Goro dragged Akira to his room they were going to have a really wild night of hate sex and more or less make up. Then I watched Hannibal. This scene awakened something and I just. Had to do something of my own like this. It was a need. Therefore, I wrote this scene. A fun fact: I'm not sure if this changed or not, as it has been a few years since I was last involved with farming work but Brazilian laws dictated you need to brand your cattle. The placement options are: shoulder, hind legs, or face. Branding Akira's face felt too much, his ass a little tasteless so between his shoulder blades sounded perfect. Marie's castle in Tactica gave me SO much validation btw. I also really like Goro's progression here, and how this is his turning point. It's a very, very rude awakening. He goes from his father's ruthless living weapon, reveling in battle and bloodshed (mostly because he isn't entirely sure of how to separate feels good from this hurts and I like to fight, I don't like to kill.) I just think character progress and development are very neat! In case you don't know what scene I'm talking about, here you go:

I think I already said this a million times but I think this particular post by Maggie Stiefvater pretty much defines my creation process. It's stealing the energy of things I like, scenes that left big impressions on me, or even events other creators constructed that I want to make my own version of. I really like the idea of Goro not coming out of the engine room unscathed so it seemed like a great opportunity to put it in practice. I took inspiration from many, many places for this scene so here are some of them:

Dimitri Alexandre Blayddid

I lost count of how many times I mixed Goro fanart with Dimitri fanart (and vice-versa) This fanart made my brain go BRRRRRR at such high frequency I immediately knew how I wanted to write Knight's climax.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)

As you might have guessed, I'm a bookworm. For you to understand how much, I first read the Narnia Chronicles I was around...9? 10? I read them before the movies came out. Goro and Shido's duel was inspired by two things: Goro's canonical need to prove himself and humiliate Shido publicly and Peter vs Miraz. Now, in the books their duel isn't nearly as well written nor as well choreographed as the movie one is so it was kinda whatever but the movie. Oooh the movie. At the tender age of 12 it was simply wild to me that a defeated enemy who already yielded could commit treachery. I mean, it wasn't Miraz himself who did but still. Wild. Wild, I'm telling you.

This is the scene I am talking about. I couldn't find it in English tho. Sorry about that.

Dragons of Autumn Twilight: The Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

"What remained of Riverwind no longer resembled anything human. The man's flesh had been seared from his body. The white of bone was clearly visible where skin and muscle had melted from his arms. His eyes ran like jelly down the fleshless, cadaverous cheeks. His mouth gaped open in a silent scream. His ribcage lay exposed, hunks of flesh and charred cloth clinging to the bones. But-most horrible-

the flesh on his torso had been burned away, leaving the organs exposed, pulsing red in the garish red moonlight." 

I first read this collection when I was around...12? 13? Maybe 14? and this scene left SUCH a big impression on me I still think about it years later. The description is so wildly visceral that it still inspires how I write violence to this day (and probably will continue to do so many years after. I really wanted to write something that not only evoked the same sensations but also remained faithful to the imagery it created in my mind. I hope I succeeded. (I also did a lot of research on what it happens when you puncture an eye, by the way!)

Chronicles of the Emerged World trilogy by Licia Troisi

Now, this one is a little more broad than the others. I really like Licia Troisi's books. Her worldbuilding is impeccable, her characters are amazing and her plots are always very solid. Peak, honestly. Anyway, there's a character named Ido who loses his eye in a horrific battle and he simply does not recover. I mean, he does but it isn't like...boom, eyepatch be upon thee and you have a badass scar and some sexy eyepatch now. He goes through a long, long, long recovery period and it's amazing to read. I enjoyed his journey and character arc a lot. I wrote Goro losing his eye also thinking about how I wanted Vexed to go: Goro needs a long way to recover and I wanted to challenge myself to write something out of my comfort zone. A disabled character sounded like a great way to do it. I spent much more time pouring over hospital websites, medicine books that might or might not have been pirated, blogs and reddit posts to have not only the (superficial, admittedly, but better than nothing) knowledge of how to write and how people truly feel and live recovering from losing an eye.

And I think that's it!!! Once again thank you very much for the two stars!!

[twisted-wonderland-shenanigans]

Is Ortho a sort of artificial Kaiju in your AU ro is he a type of Kaiju with the ability to use surrounding materials as a sort of armour. Because his real form is too small.

That is a very good question! I’m gonna put this under a read more just in case since there is a bit of angst in here that might make people uncomfortable, but keep in mind that some ideas may change over time if something better comes to mind.

If I have to tag it a specific way, please let me know and I’ll do so! There’s also mostly spoilers for the secondary antagonist(s) in the story, but at some point I’ll see about doing a post for these antagonists…or I might introduce them in one of the later chapters~ >v>

I’m still fleshing out some of the details on him, but for the most part—much like his normal self in game—Ortho in this AU is artificial…and yet in the same breath, he isn’t.

In the early days, Ortho was a normal Kaiju just like his brother who grew up on the Isle of Woe and traveled to the Isle of Sages at some point when they (aka Idia) were in their early teens searching for a safe place to call home. Given how emotionally shut down Idia was even amongst the most anti-social Kaiju, one had to wonder: what exactly happened to the two, and why did Idia keep this mechanical version of his brother so close? If you were to ask, all you’d get from him would be two words:

The Precursors…

No one knows what these beings are or how they came to be. No one has even seen what they look like outside of their metal shells that closely resembled humans wearing masks and carrying electro staves. Yet one thing was for sure: they moved in synch, working together in such unison that it was as if they were one being. They behaved like…a hive mind. And they were dangerous.

Were you to ask the older Kaiju themselves, it might come as a shock to learn that they fear these smaller beings due to the terrible things that they can (and have) done to their Kaiju in the past. Were they originally the creators of these giant beasts? No one can say for sure as it had been so long since the Precursors have been seen, very few Kaiju remaining from that time that even remember the truth of their origins. However…there is no mistaking that the very experiments they did has left a very real horror that still lives on even in the younger generations.

A horror that would result in the appearance of phantom Kaiju.

So…what does this have to do with Ortho? Well, messing with the very DNA of Kaiju wasn’t the only thing that was happening. After all, how else would they figure out the resiliency of these massive titans? Or perhaps they wanted to see how a mechanical version of one of the Kaiju would be received by other Kaiju? We may never truly learn what their intentions were…

How Ortho’s mind managed to survive through this ordeal is difficult to say: natural Kaiju resiliency? Sheer determination? Or sheer force of will and spirit to not leave his big brother alone in the world? Who knows. Yet, somehow, he managed to hold on to that child/cub-like joy and innocence as he follows his older brother around the Isle of Sages, consuming a mixture of organic and inorganic materials to maintain his new form over the years and utilizing energy sources around the island to stay online.

In fact, Yuu manages to see him chowing down on some metal ships from afar, during the first chapter when they’re trying to figure out how to climb down from their mountain-view “home”! The metal that constitutes his body is considered to be “living metal”, which slowly regenerates with the nanites that the Precursors installed. Consuming pure metal or even metal ores from rocks can actually help speed up this recovery too by providing the nanites in his system the materials needed, hence why he doesn’t require maintenance to replace missing or broken parts.

Like I said, I’m still working out some of the finer details behind Ortho since it would be much harder for Idia to be tech savvy in this AU (though in a way they do have their own “tech”), but I can say for sure that he’s not completely mechanical nor is he completely organic anymore. He’s still the sweet, adorable bean we all know and love, just in Kaiju form and with trauma for him and Idia!

[miss-ingno]

Good Poison Tastes Bitter

Fandom: Guardian (镇魂) Rating: T Ship: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, one-sided Zhu Hong/Zhao Yunlan Words: 6.3k Tags: married Weilan, Identity Reveal, pre-canon divergence AU, episode 4 rewrite, casefic, flirting, jealousy, misunderstanding implies cheating, Weilan being BAMF, Zhu Hong PoV

Summary:

Zhu Hong knows she shouldn't be crushing on Chief Zhao—he's married! But Chief Zhao shouldn't be flirting with their suspect either >:(

Read here on Ao3. Part 1 of Already Married AU.

A/N: The title is from the proverb 良药苦口。(Liángyào kǔ kǒu / 'good medicine bitter mouth'), meaning frank criticism is hard to swallow. I changed 'medicine' to 'poison' for three reasons: 1) Zhang Danni's poison gas power, 2) to emphasize Zhu Hong being a snake yashou who is 3) jealous.

The story was inspired by this exchange with @sasamelons.

For my @guardianbingo square, “Identity Reveal”!

*

Zhu Hong was aware that her crush on Zhao Yunlan was inadvisable.

For one, he’s her boss and the one person arguing with their superiors for her inclusion in the SID. It’s part of the reason why she’s crushing on him, she suspected, that he’s going out of his way to ensure her a spot on his team, despite being Yashouren. He had been patient with her while she needed time to acclimate to how humans do things, pointing out what she needed to practice to blend in more easily. Like learning how to walk in high heels, something she hated and yet practiced religiously until she didn’t wobble even a little.

For another, she knew Zhao Yunlan didn’t return her feelings—because, the third reason, Zhao Yunlan was married.

Zhu Hong had never met his wife, none of the team had except for the deputy, who lived with Chief Zhao. And yet, everyone knew how very much in love Chief Zhao was. Sickeningly so. He constantly mentioned her, wondering if she would like this, talking about some project she was working on, about how much her students adored her. All of this was said with the most sappy expression on his face Zhu Hong ever had the horror to witness.

At least, his wife seemed to return his devotion: packing him lunch with reminders to eat regularly, calling him during hard cases to make sure Chief Zhao took a break, calling the deputy when Zhao Yunlan refused to answer.

More tellingly, Chief Zhao listened to her—most of the time—when he blithely ignored everyone else.

So: her crush was hopeless and she should forget about it as soon as possible, which was much easier said than done when Zhao Yunlan insisted on being all noble and passionate and charming and—aaaagh!

All of that was to say that, perhaps, just perhaps, she got her hopes up a tiny little bit when Chief Zhao asked her to join him on patrol. She knew they wouldn’t be alone, Chu Shuzhi and Lin Jing were also ordered to stake out the area. And yet her traitorous heart skipped a beat because… what if this was Chief Zhao asking her to spend more time with him? Rationally she was aware that he simply wanted her to get more field experience, but what did the heart care for logic?

Instead, she was assigned to follow Chu Shuzhi, which she did with her head held high and the clacking of her heels only vaguely resembling the stomping tantrum of a child. And if her responses to Chu Shuzhi's jabs were more acerbic than usual, well, what did he know about how Haixingren ladies behaved? Despite having joined the SID over a year ago, Chu Shuzhi made little effort to pass as Haixingren and seemed to care even less for interacting with anyone outside the team.

And just when she was starting to feel better about herself—Chief Zhao would be so proud that they caught the perp before any more women could be harmed—a scream rent through the quiet evening. Zhu Hong exchanged a look with Chu Shuzhi and cursed, turning on her heels to run after the Dixingren, her hapless stalker forgotten.

They were on the scene immediately, only shortly after Zhang Danni was attacked. Just in time to save her—and they even caught the perp!

Chief Zhao recognized Professor Shen from Dragon City university, which in and of itself wasn't too unusual, Chief Zhao took networking for the SID's advantage very seriously. Despite their superficial acquaintance, Chief Zhao didn't pay the professor much attention—their prime suspect! Normally, lao-Zhao would be all over the man, tricking him into a confession. Instead Zhu Hong was very put out when he focussed on the pretty lady, insisting on escorting Zhang Danni back to HQ in his own car, politely ignoring her objections and assurances, promising her that she's safe.

Obviously it was part of their duties, but did he have to be so… so… gallant and chivalrous about it! The man was married, for heaven's sake!

Chief Zhao quickly co-opted Guo Changcheng in his ‘make the victim feel comfortable’ agenda, leaving their intern to sit with the pretty woman on the backseat. Since neither Chu Shuzhi nor Zhu Hong knew how to drive, it was up to Lin Jing to take the suspect back. Da Qing, faced with the threat of having to take charge, had promptly turned into a cat. Zhu Hong hesitated for a long moment, torn between wanting to keep an eye on the suspicious professor and making sure Zhao Yunlan didn’t do anything untoward with the victim, like flirting.

Why is he smiling at her like that, she thought furiously, glaring after the car until Chu Shuzhi dragged her into the second jeep.

The trend continued once they arrived at their headquarters, Zhao Yunlan dismissively ordering her and Chu Shuzhi to interrogate the perpetrator while he made sure the victim was comfortable, getting her a glass of water, a blanket, some snacks. Da Qing, still a cat, watched him for a long moment before shaking his head and following Chu Shuzhi into the interrogation room.

Zhu Hong supposed she should follow his example, he knew Zhao Yunlan and his wife best, after all. Still… something felt fishy about this, and she didn’t like it.

With a scoff, Zhu Hong stalked over to the carafe and filled a glass of water for the professor. She could be solicitous too, if she wanted! And hadn’t Chief Zhao said, the best way to gain information from a suspect was to make them comfortable first? Well, Zhu Hong would show him. She would make Professor Shen so comfortable, he would spill everything immediately, and then Chief Zhao would have no excuse left to keep that woman here at SID—

Sitting down opposite Professor Shen, Zhu Hong watched him carefully.

The professor seemed relaxed, his closed eyes blinking open slowly. As if he was invited into their living room for a late cup of tea, rather than the interrogation room of a police station. Something inside Zhu Hong bristled at the thought. Flipping open the file someone—Lin Jing, probably—provided her with, she glanced over his record. 32 years old, born in Dragon City, married, graduated from and working at DCU as a professor of biology. His address caught her eye.

“Professor Shen, you live in the north of Dragon City near the university, yet the crime scene is on the other side in the south. What were you doing there this late at night?”

Professor Shen offered her a polite smile, something amused in his bland expression. “I was looking for my spouse, Officer Zhu.”

Zhu Hong paused, staring at him. She couldn’t remember introducing herself, how did he…?

“Your spouse?” she asked, trying to stay focussed. “If you split up, why did you not call her on her phone?”

“Ah.” The professor’s smile turned abashed and he ducked his head. “I’m afraid I’m terrible with technology, I don’t own a mobile phone.”

Zhu Hong blinked, taken aback. She glanced at the one-way glass, knowing the rest of the team was monitoring—except for Chief Zhao, who was too busy catering to the victim—wishing she could see their reactions. Taking advantage of her hesitation, Professor Shen sat forward, hands folded on top of the interrogation table.

“Officer, let us look at the facts. By now you must know there was a man’s shoe print at the scene, and it doesn’t match mine. That man is the true perpetrator, you should not waste time here with me and chase him.”

“And you just happened to stumble upon the crime scene?” Zhu Hong made sure to imbue her voice with all her doubts. The professor’s lips twitched, and he adjusted his glasses.

“When I heard the scream, of course I came as soon as possible. The perpetrator could not have left more than a minute ago before I arrived.”

This wasn’t going anywhere. Zhu Hong braced herself and went on the attack.

“Having witnessed a crime, Professor Shen remains calm and collected,” Zhu Hong observed aloud, aiming for Zhao Yunlan’s blasé tone of voice. Narrowing her eyes, Zhu Hong stared Professor Shen down. The man didn’t so much as twitch, even when she tapped her pen pointedly against his file. Unbelievable. “For a simple professor, you sure seem to have nerves of steel.”

Finally, she seemed to have found a crack. Professor Shen watched her quietly, not having an answer ready, and Zhu Hong stilled, a predator waiting to pounce. Professor Shen was clearly their perp, they caught him all but red-handed. She just needed him to trip up, something the SID could use to pin him down. And she wanted to be the one to get this vital clue for Zhao Yunlan, no matter how useless her crush may be, she still wanted to impress him. As her boss, if not as a man.

Professor Shen lowered his gaze, inhaling softly. Gathering himself. Zhu Hong tried to contain her excitement, when he met her with a piercing gaze.

“Officer Zhu is still quite inexperienced. I suppose you must wish to impress your superiors very much. As a professor, allow me to take this opportunity to teach you.” He pushed his glass of water away and leaned across the table, his gaze firm and steady, and Zhu Hong felt her breath catch.

"First, Officer Zhu should question me about my spouse, confirm their existence and whereabouts," Professor Shen lectured in a soft, hypnotic voice. It sounded genuine, which made the situation all the more humiliating.

"I did!" Zhu Hong snapped. She shoved his file across the table and pointed at Professor Shen's personal information, where it stated he was married.

"But do you know their name? Their gender? Their current location? Have you ensured I haven't contacted them to get my alibi straight?" The questions came at her rapid-fire, and Zhu Hong burned with mortification. Professor Shen made good points, and if Chief Zhao wasn't so distracted by the beautiful victim, surely he would have them looking into these venues already. "Second," Professor Shen added kindly, and Zhu Hong's gaze snapped up to meet his, "don't ever show a suspect their file."

Zhu Hong snatched the file back, cheeks flushed.

Folding his hands, Professor Shen offered her a gentle smile that nonetheless conveyed a smug edge. Zhu Hong wanted to rake it off with her nails.

“Thirdly, you need to work on your poker face,” Professor Shen continued. “Your reactions give too much away. If I truly were the perpetrator of this crime, you make it too easy to push your buttons.”

“Well, so what if I’m inexperienced?” Zhu Hong burst out, slamming the file shut and pushing to her feet. Her chair screeched over the linoleum floor, but Zhu Hong was too upset to care. “You won’t get away with this!”

Zhu Hong stalked out of the interrogation room utterly humiliated. Lin Jing avoided her gaze as she stepped through the door, while Chu Shuzhi was staring intently at the one-way mirror, one hand absent-mindedly fiddling with his puppet. Xiao-Guo, at least, wasn't there to witness her defeat, likely staying with the victim as an empathetic ear. It was Da Qing's stare that got to Zhu Hong the most, though, she couldn't shake the feeling the cat was laughing at her.

"Well?" she snapped, folding her arms protectively over her belly.

"He's a hard nut to crack," lao-Chu opined, gaze not wavering. "But they all crack eventually."

“Then what are you waiting for!?”

Lao-Chu shot her an unimpressed look, then shouldered past her into the interrogation room. Huffing, Zhu Hong stepped up behind Lin Jing to hover over his shoulder. Wisely, he kept his mouth shut.

Chu Shuzhi took his time getting the interrogation started, using the silence tactic. He didn’t even pay any attention to the professor, giving him the cold shoulder in favour of caring for his doll. Zhu Hong tapped her feet impatiently as she watched through the glass. Intimidation was lao-Chu’s strong suit, and as much as it galled her to admit it, Zhu Hong was not nearly as fearsome. Yet. Something to work on in the future.

Finally, the silent treatment seemed to get to Professor Shen, breaking the quiet tension with a compliment. What he was hoping to achieve with that, she had no idea. When lao-Chu started philosophizing in response, Zhu Hong rolled her eyes, cocking her hip on the table next to the glass.

She tensed as the professor reached for the doll, though. No one dared to touch it, less they lose their fingers.

Professor Shen didn’t even flinch as lao-Chu snatched his wrist, despite how tight that grip looked. In spite of herself, Zhu Hong found herself impressed. Clearly, it was also getting to lao-Chu, although it was hard to tell unless you knew him. The way he stilled struck a chord with Zhu Hong, though, a snake ready to strike.

“I was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Professor Shen insisted calmly, freeing himself from lao-Chu’s grasp without a hint of effort. “My conscience is clear. You cannot extort a confession from me.”

“Then let’s start with those hard facts.” Chu Shuzhi cocked his head, staring Professor Shen down. “What were you doing at the crime scene?”

Professor Shen huffed a quiet sigh, seeming amused. “As I told your colleague, and I’m sure you’re aware, I was looking for my spouse when I heard someone in distress.”

“Ah. Your spouse, right.” Chu Shuzhi arched his eyebrows, expression full of polite disbelief. “And what was your wife doing there? And where is she now?”

“I see you paid attention.” Professor Shen gave him a proud smile, a look that visibly irked lao-Chu. “And it’s my husband, actually. He was working late, I wanted to surprise him.”

“Who works this late at night all the way on the southside of Dragon City?”

Professor Shen’s smile turned mocking, his eyebrow arching up pointedly. “Weren’t you doing the same?”

Something flashed across lao-Chu’s face that Zhu Hong hadn’t seen before, his fingers twitching as if he had strings wrapped around them. Then he balled his hand into a fist and hid it under the table. Zhu Hong glanced from him to Professor Shen, leaning back with a self-satisfied air, having dodged the question once more.

“Professor Shen, Professor Shen, what are you hiding?” she murmured to herself, glaring through the one-way glass.

“You think he’s hiding something?” Lin Jing asked, blinking up at her from behind his big glasses. “Why? Everything he’s said so far has been factually correct.”

Zhu Hong flashed him an angry look, holding her fist up as if to hit him. Lin Jing raised his hands to cover his head, cowering dramatically before her, mumbling apologies. Scoffing, Zhu Hong dropped her fist and tossed her hair back, focussing on the interrogation before her.

“Obviously he’s hiding something. Why else would he insist on acting so suspicious?”

“Ah?” Of course, that’s when Zhao Yunlan chose to join them. He gestured for Da Qing to get up. “Damn Cat, keep an eye on Zhang Danni for a minute, will you? I don’t trust her not to talk the rookie into something.”

“Ruin my fun, why don’t you,” Da Qing grumbled, but he hopped off the table anyway, smoothly transforming into a human mid-jump. Zhao Yunlan ruffled his hair as he passed him.

“You can bring her by in ten or so minutes,” Zhao Yunlan called after him. “Just in time for the fireworks.”

“Done comforting the witness?” Zhu Hong asked, unable to keep the sharp note of disapproval out of her voice. Chief Zhao glanced at her, rolling the lollipop around in his mouth. But instead of calling her on her misplaced jealousy, he honed in on her previous statement.

“You think Professor Shen is hiding something from us?” Stuffing his hands into his pockets, Zhao Yunlan rocked back on his heels. “What gives you that impression?”

“He’s avoiding answering our questions directly and has been antagonizing whoever is interviewing him,” Zhu Hong summarized quickly, driving her elbow into Lin Jing’s side as he opened his mouth, likely to tell their chief exactly how Professor Shen had played her. “He keeps bringing up his wife—husband—and insists he was just looking for him when he happened across the crime scene.”

“Ah. Bad timing.” Zhao Yunlan hummed, glancing back into the interrogation cell. Zhu Hong followed his gaze, noting the tense line of lao-Chu’s shoulders.

“—couldn’t even compare to his toes,” lao-Chu spat, and Zhu Hong wondered what she’d missed that had pissed him off. Professor Shen ducked his head, then turned his gaze towards the one-way mirror, zeroing in on Chief Zhao with unnerving accuracy.

“Then he must be a true, righteous hero,” Professor Shen said, eyes not leaving the glass. Zhu Hong glanced back just in time to see Chief Zhao’s lips twitch around his lollipop stick. Then he brushed past them wordlessly, stepping into the interrogation room. A calming hand on Chu Shuzhi’s shoulder and a quiet murmur later, they were switching places, lao-Chu stomping out of the room with his temper barely restrained, although he was hiding it better than Zhu Hong had.

Inside, Professor Shen gave Chief Zhao his full attention, sitting straight and blinking at him with his innocent puppy eyes. The change from smug confidence to this… this… eagerness gave Zhu Hong whiplash. Chief Zhao dropped himself into the chair opposite, crossing his ankle over his knee and jiggling his leg. He picked up the file and paged through it nonchalantly, barely skimming the text before dropping it back on the table and folding his hands over his stomach. Finally, he raised his gaze to meet Professor Shen’s.

“Aiya, Professor Shen, what am I supposed to do with you?” Zhao Yunlan tutted, jiggling his leg once more before dropping it down to the floor, leaning forwards over the table. Professor Shen mirrored the movement, coming closer as well, and a wide grin spread over Chief Zhao’s face. “Tell me, Professor Shen… do you like going on late night walks, take in the sights, check out the nearest crime scenes? Because if so, I could take you to some interesting places.”

Zhu Hong’s jaw dropped open. Was… was Chief Zhao flirting with the suspect?

After he already spent way too much time panting after the victim? What was wrong with the man – he might be a shameless flirt, but he usually wasn’t this bad. He was married, for heaven’s sake!

Zhu Hong paused. Maybe… maybe he was having relationship issues? Then she mentally slapped herself. This wasn’t the time, and regardless, she wasn’t a homewrecker!

“I am at Chief Zhao’s disposal,” Professor Shen acquiesced, his tone perfectly polite. “Whatever Chief Zhao needs of me, I will provide.”

Zhu Hong squinted through the one-way glass, taking in the professor’s attentive posture. There was nothing wrong with his words or reactions on the surface, they would appear completely normal on the transcript, but… in contrast to his previous behaviour—could it be…?

“Ah?” Zhao Yunlan leaned back with a self-satisfied smirk on his face, eyebrows twitching up suggestively. “Alright, then. Let’s start with your number.”

Zhu Hong couldn’t believe her ears. Of course, Chief Zhao was known to be utterly shameless, but this level of outrageous, blatant flirting was too much even by his standards, surely! He was married—both of them were!

“For the record,” Chief Zhao clarified, his lips twitching, not fooling anyone. “So we may follow up with you should we have more questions later.”

An amused huff left Professor Shen, his eyebrows inching upwards in something close to his previous arrogance. “Is that not in my file?” He inclined his head to indicate the folder on the table, eyes crinkling behind round glasses. “Surely Chief Zhao isn’t asking for my personal number, hm?”

"Professor Shen, ah, I'm sure you're used to working regular hours, but police work waits not for the office hours to begin —what if I have an urgent question? Lives might depend on it," Zhao Yunlan implored, widening his eyes and pursing his lips in a pout. Unbelievable.

Professor Shen reached up to adjust his glasses, mouth gaping open a hint. Clearly affected by Chief Zhao's flirtations, and for a moment, hope blossomed in Zhu Hong's chest. Perhaps that was Zhao Yunlan's true goal, to seduce a confession out of the professor! An unorthodox method, but then, Chief Zhao was far from the traditional police chief.

"Besides, I wouldn't want to interrupt Professor Shen's important work," Chief Zhao added with a pur, lashes fluttering. "Perhaps Professor Shen could let me know when he's free…?"

Evidently, Zhu Hong had hoped too soon.

"And what would Chief Zhao do with that knowledge?" Professor Shen asked, obvious amusement curling around his mouth. "If he wishes to know my whereabouts for the previous murders, Chief Zhao should consult my husband; I spend the nights with him whenever possible."

Ha! Zhu Hong thought with no little amount of glee, rebuffed.

Zhao Yunlan clicked his tongue, leaning back in his chair and wagging a finger at Professor Shen, conceding the point.

"And where would we find this wayward husband of yours? Seeing as he's the reason you were at the crime scene… it's quite strange, don't you think?"

Zhu Hong startled. She hadn't even considered that the husband might be their perp, Professor Shen merely distracting the police long enough for him to escape.

"If you'd like to ask him some questions, he could talk to one of your subordinates," Professor Shen offered calmly. Certain that they wouldn't be able to trace it back to his spouse, or were they on the wrong track?

"Ah, how about I come by for dinner instead?" Chief Zhao suggested with a leer, scattering Zhu Hong's train of thought. "Unless he's always working late? That must be rough on your relationship."

"Is he…?" Now even Lin Jing started to feel uncomfortable. He squinted at the monitor, then shook his head. "No, he must just be softening the professor's alibi…"

Zhu Hong wasn't so sure she agreed. If Chief Zhao truly intended to trip Professor Shen up with his flirting, surely he would have switched tactics by now, seeing as it didn't work…? No, the flirting had to be genuine, although Zhu Hong dearly hoped it served multiple purposes.

"You are a professor of biological engineering at DCU, correct?" Chief Zhao continued blithely, changing tracks without blinking.

"That's right," Professor Shen confirmed, arching an eyebrow as if wondering what Chief Zhao was getting at.

"Let me consult you on this case, Professor." Chief Zhao pulled out pictures of the previous victims, laying them out on the table. Zhu Hong held her breath, observing Professor Shen closely as he leaned in to study the photos. "In your expert opinion, what might have caused the state of the bodies?"

Professor Shen hummed thoughtfully. "To remove features this neatly, I cannot think of any natural causes. A surgeon might be able to achieve a similar effect, or a theatre's customing department, but I'm sure you've eliminated those options, Chief Zhao?"

"I have indeed." Lao-Zhao puffed up like an overly amorous peacock. "There is no surgery scar, and the faceless heads are eerily real."

Despite herself, Zhu Hong shivered. She'd seen many strange things in her years at the SID, but this one was the most horrific so far.

"Then I would suggest you are dealing with unnatural causes," Professor Shen declared, meeting Chief Zhao's piercing stare steadily. "As I'm sure you've already concluded. Why else would the SID take the case?"

"Ah?" Chief Zhao pointed his finger at Professor Shen and grinned. "Well-reasoned!"

Next to her Chu Shuzhi straightened.

"So he's aware of Dixingren," he murmured, satisfaction at having caught the professor out in his tone.

Chief Zhao seemed to agree, leaning back in his chair with one flung over the back, the other hand twirling the lollipop stick. "You are a well-learned professor indeed. Is there anything you don't know?"

"The world is full of secrets," Professor Shen replied cryptically, his eyelids growing heavy as he stared at Chief Zhao intently. "Most are not for mortals to know."

Chief Zhao leaned forward and lowered his voice, his gaze seductive. "And will you allow me to discover yours?"

Professor Shen smiled enigmatically. Indulgently. "One day, perhaps."

Zhu Hong, after finally feeling reassured that the interrogation was getting somewhere, was starting to get a headache. Was lao-Zhao being serious about flirting with the professor or not!?

Just then, the door opened, and Da Qing entered, a painfully neutral expression on his face. Behind him, Zhang Danni followed, her steps slow and hesitant.

"Ms. Zhang," Da Qing asked, his voice quiet in a way that caught Zhu Hong's attention. It wasn't the quiet of 'be gentle with the victim' tone, she'd heard him use that one often enough. Rather, it felt like the stillness before the cat pounced on a mouse, blissfully ignorant of its fate. Predatory anticipation. "Is this the man who assaulted you?"

"I…" Zhang Danni bit her lip and shook her head, chancing a glance at the one-way glass before shrinking back into herself, shaking. "I don't know."

"Are you sure?" Da Qing sounded skeptical. "Take another look, Miss."

Chu Shuzhi scoffed, rolling his eyes. But Zhu Hong felt her brow furrow, taking a closer look at their victim. She was well dressed and pretty, but more than that: her clothes were barely rumpled, her hair perfectly coiffed, her make-up unsmudged. Only the bottom of her pants showed any sign of tonight's struggle, dried mud clinging to it. Zhu Hong wondered if Zhao Yunlan had given her time to freshen up, but even then… Zhang Danni was suspiciously put together.

Zhu Hong knew a thing or two about the power of appearances. How a pair of heels and classy outfit, eyes wide in girlish innocence could blind most Haixingren men into thinking of you as harmless. She watched as Zhang Danni ducked her head to allow her hair to hide her expression, playing at meek mouse as she took another peek at Professor Shen. Because she was watching so closely, she noticed the weird pause before Zhang Danni shrieked and curled in on herself, the lack of flinching before she hid behind the pretext of fear.

"It's him!" she shouted, her voice quavering. "He's the one who attacked me!"

Zhu Hong exchanged a doubtful look with Da Qing, even as xiao-Guo stumbled forward to comfort their so-called victim. Snakes and cats didn't have much in common, but they were both predators at the top of their food chains, they both hunted vermin like rats and mice. Da Qing's flat expression mirrored Zhu Hong's disbelief, as they both acknowledged the act going on right in front of their noses.

It became rapidly clear that Zhang Danni wasn't anyone's prey. But what was she hiding?

The door to the interrogation room opened, Chief Zhao leaning against the frame with crossed arms and a serious expression. Behind him, Professor Shen stood with an equally serious look on his face, neither the smugly arrogance nor the faux innocence from his interrogation. But Zhu Hong had no time to ponder this change, as Chief Zhao addressed the victim.

"That's a grave accusation, Ms. Zhang. Are you quite sure?" When Zhang Danni nodded frantically in response, Chief Zhao hummed doubtfully. "You said you didn't remember anything. What jogged your memory?" Zhang Danni only stared mutely. "Was it his clothes? The glasses? His posture?"

"It's… his voice," Zhang Danni offered, sounding unsure.

"My voice?" Professor Shen inquired mildly. The look Zhang Danni shot him was venomous, startling Zhu Hong.

"Yes." Then her expression melted back into teary-eyed pleading. "Chief Zhao, this is the man that attacked me and tried to steal my face. Please, what else do you want?"

Despite her reservations, Zhu Hong felt a twinge of discomfort at questioning this woman after such a traumatic event. From the corners of her eyes, she saw xiao-Guo shift, opening his mouth to… object, or something. Lao-Chu, however, stopped him short with an arm across his chest. Zhu Hong frowned, following his gaze as it switched from a distressed Zhang Danni to Chief Zhao, wearing an ominous look on his face.

A predator closing in on his prey.

"Steal your face? Why, what gave you that idea?"

Realization dawned on Zhang Danni's face, looking anxiously from Chief Zhao to the other members in the room. "I… I…"

"I made very sure no one mentioned any details of the case to you," Chief Zhao continued nonchalantly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “So it’s rather curious that you know exactly what happened to the other victims, isn’t it?”

Zhu Hong’s eyes widened, her head whipping around to stare at Zhang Danni. The woman gaped at Chief Zhao, before her face twisted into a furious grimace, green gas starting to swirl around her fingers, spreading out across the room—

For a handful of seconds, pandemonium ensued.

Xiao-Guo yelped as his fear stick activated where it was hanging at his hip, shocking him rather than doing anything useful. Lao-Chu reacted before anyone else could, strings flying to wrap around Zhang Danni’s wrists and tying her up before she could attack. Zhu Hong tensed when Zhang Danni’s brow furrowed in concentration, the gas cloud growing bigger—before suddenly dissipating without clear cause.

A glance over her shoulder showed that Chief Zhao had pulled his gun on Zhang Danni, likely the reason she let go of her power. Professor Shen stood pressed to his back, a stern frown on his face.

“Da Qing,” Chief Zhao ordered sharply, and the lazy deputy jumped to snap the dark-energy dampening handcuffs onto Zhang Danni. “Take her to the cell.”

“Make me do all the work, will you,” Da Qing complained, but pushed her out of the room ahead of him, calling over his shoulder, “There better be dried fish for me once I’m back!”

“Glutton,” lao-Zhao muttered, before turning to lao-Chu. “I need you to take the rookie and canvass the area we found her.”

“W-why?” xiao-Guo had the guts to ask, still twitching from the shock he received.

“She must have an accomplice,” Professor Shen explained succinctly, adjusting his glasses. “The shoe print was a man’s size, plus her power seemed to be some sort of toxic gas. Thus she can’t have been the one who removed the faces, someone else stole them for her.”

"F-for her?" xiao-Guo stuttered, his eyes growing wide.

"Idiot," lao-Chu muttered, cuffing him over the head. At xiao-Guo's scared puppy look, he elaborated, "Zhang Danni is a confirmed Haixingren, yet this woman who wears her face is clearly from Dixing. Zhang Danni must be the latest of the victims, but they set a trap tonight to frame Professor Shen for their crimes."

There was a beat of silence where everyone shifted awkwardly, not quite daring to look at one another.

"Ah, our apologies, Professor," Lin Jing finally piped up, bowing deeply to Professor Shen. "We suspected you and treated you like a criminal… we were terribly rude."

"No need," Professor Shen dismissed with a small smile. "You were just doing your jobs."

"Still… to accuse a professor…" Xiao-Guo looked a little green at the mere idea. Or perhaps those were after-effects of the gas.

"I'm sure your chief will make it up to me," Professor Shen assured them, sounding mildly amused.

"With pleasure," Chief Zhao drawled, his leer unmistakably.

That was the last straw.

"What is wrong with you!" Zhu Hong exploded, stabbing Zhao Yunlan in the chest with her precisely manicured nail. "You are a married man! How dare you be this shameless!"

"Have you ever seen him not be shameless?" Da Qing asked dryly as he returned to the room, hopping back up on his table and kicking his legs. "It's like asking a tiger to change its stripes."

Zhu Hong, however, was less than thrilled by his nonchalance. She rounded on her fellow Yashou, eyes flaring red. "And that makes it okay, does it? You're just going to sit here, watching him throw himself at people. Will you even tell his wife?!"

Da Qing shrugged. "She knows what he's like. What's to tell?"

Zhu Hong threw up her hands in disgust. “Why would anyone put up with a cheating, no-good, dirtbag—”

“So anyway!" Zhao Yunlan raised his voice to speak over her. When he had everyone's attention, he cleared his throat and threw an arm over Professor Shen's shoulders. "I’d like to introduce you to Shen Wei. My husband.”

Professor Shen's eyes glittered in amusement as he inclined his head. "Nice to meet you all."

Zhu Hong stared at them, mouth agape. She snapped it shut the moment she realized, her cheeks burning with mortification. Had she just accused her boss of cheating on his spouse… with his spouse…? Her head was spinning.

Behind her, Da Qing was cackling to himself, clearly enjoying the show. She absently swiped at him, distracted by going through all the previous interactions between Professor Shen and lao-Zhao, seeing them in a different light now that she knew. On her other side, xiao-Guo was muttering in confusion, seemingly unable to put the pieces together on his own. Lao-Chu, when she glanced over, rolled his eyes and pressed a hand over xiao-Guo���s mouth to stop his stumbling questions.

"Wait," Lin Jing blurted out, gaze snapping from one to the other and back. "I thought you said you had a wife? But Professor Shen is clearly…"

Da Qing scoffed. "What, do you expect lao-Zhao to cook? I'd rather not get food poisoning daily, thanks."

Zhao Yunlan kicked at the cat, who nimbly dodged out of the way. "Ungrateful," he muttered under his breath.

Of course, Zhu Hong thought faintly. Lao-Zhao was both extremely lazy and, judging by his scruffy outfits, less than tidy. As much as she enjoyed his bad boy vibe, he couldn’t be relied upon to keep a household running. That he would be shameless enough to burden a busy university professor with the chores on top of work…

The realization strangled what was left of her crush quite handedly. She had better things to do than be a nagging wife, always running after her husband.

“If you’re the chief’s husband, what were you doing at the crime scene?” lao-Chu butted in, his arms crossed and tone suspicious.

Professor Shen smiled gently. “Looking for my husband, as I said. Yunlan mentioned having to stay out all night, I worried he might’ve skipped dinner. So I decided to bring him and his team some food to tide you over.”

“Food?” Da Qing visibly perked up and hopped off the table, immediately crowding Professor Shen, who was holding a black bag Zhu Hong hadn’t noticed him carrying before. Perhaps the professor was right, she should work on her observation to become a better agent. “Did you bring me any fish?”

“Of course,” Professor Shen agreed, pulling out a tupperbox and handing it to the cat yashou. Then he hesitated. “I didn’t know what everyone else liked, so I prepared a little bit of everything.”

Zhu Hong took the box labelled with her name warily, surprised to find strips of meat inside that were only lightly seared and mostly raw, alongside rice cakes and some other goodies. It fit neatly into the picture she had of Chief Zhao’s considerate wife, yet it was hard to merge that impression with the Professor Shen who had criticized her interrogation style.

Because he cares about our capability, Zhu Hong realized, and quickly hid whatever expression showed on her face by stuffing her mouth with the food. It was delicious. The more skilled we are at our job, the easier that makes things for lao-Zhao.

“I didn’t realize the chief is gay…” xiao-Guo mumbled faintly, and Zhu Hong sighed, driving her elbow into his side. “Ow! Hong-jie, what…”

“Does it matter?” she snapped, tearing off a strip of the mostly raw meat. Delicious. “More importantly, we should make sure Professor Shen feels welcome. This is his first time meeting the team, shape up!”

“You just want more of his food,” Da Qing accused her with narrowed eyes. She narrowed her own right back at him, slurping down the rest of the meat strip.

“You’ve been holding out on us, Deputy,” she accused him, snatching one of the grilled fish pieces from his box and eating it quickly, before he could reclaim it. “Besides, you’ve known all along who he was, while we were making fools of ourselves trying to interrogate him! You owe us.”

“Agreed!” Lin Jing, the opportunist, jumped in, nodding vigorously. “Deputy Chief, don’t be greedy, it’s not good for your karma.”

Lao-Zhao snorted at their banter, leaning comfortably against Professor Shen’s side, his arm wrapped around Shen Wei’s waist possessively. “Sounds like they really enjoy your cooking, baobei. I doubt you’ll be able to get rid of them now.”

Professor Shen just smiled magnanimously, the way he looked at Chief Zhao softly intimate and entirely besotted. Zhu Hong averted her gaze, feeling her chest twinge with something like regret. No wonder she couldn’t compete… not that she even wanted to. Regardless, Professor Shen set the bar unfairly high.

So what? Zhu Hong thought grumpily, chewing on more of the meat. The professor was clearly out of Chief Zhao’s league. She should look at his example and find someone more respectable than disreputable Zhao Yunlan to crush on.

Yes, she decided. That was exactly what she was gonna do.

Perhaps she could check out the university campus on her next day off…

[awryen-nyx]

Nyx Being an Azem Lookalike

Ok so. This hinges on a headcanon that I have for my own stuff.

Basically, after the Sundering, the shards of Azem wouldn't really resemble them at all.

The general want/need to explore and/or adventure is the one core thing that they all share with who Azem was. And of course, soul color. Gotta have that horrifying realization for Hades, ya know? Thank you, NieR: Reincarnation, for *that* bit of horror and angst. xD

However, once the Calamities start happening, more and more physical changes start to match Azem's.

For example: by the 2nd Calamity, you might run into an Elezen who has Azem's eyes. Obviously, not the star pattern, but the color scheme.

In Nephthys's case, she had two toned eyes. A lightish, reddish purple going into a slightly darker periwinkle. The limbal ring is just a much darker version of her normal eye colors.

Back to the whole Calamity thing. Each generation born after a Calamity would end up with *something* physical from Azem, more and more attributes adding on each time.

Skin color on a Lalafell that matches exactly. Eye color on an Au Ra that is an exact match, limbal ring included. Same freckle pattern. Same exact hair color and need to wear it with a braid band.

The sexes and/or gender presentation is as varied as can be here, btw. Not just race.

By about the 5th and 6th Calamities, the Shards will start matching Azem's general identity presentation, but it still varies.

Another example: Before the 7th Calamity, during those fledgling years of the Garlean Empire, the Azem shard in *my* headcanon just so happened to end up the Empress with Emet-Selch (cause the man can't help himself. it's a pattern for him in teh previous eras, mm'kay?). Her major physical attributes from Nephthys were her skin color, her eye color, eye shape, hairstyle, same freckle pattern, the equivalent of her height to his height from back then, and that she was Hyur. Or...Hyur shaped. She was a full-blooded Garlean, with the Third Eye and all.

The only major difference, was her hair color. It was that blonde that lent itself to Lucius's hair color, that led to Varis, and on down to Zenos (of course, their mothers may have also been blonde, but the Empress helped :V).

Had the Ascians been able to continue the Rejoinings, by the second to last one, the Azem shard of the Source would more than likely be an almost near identical Copy...ignoring the personality because that can never actually match due to environments the Shard would have lived in. Their experiences.

Regarding Nyx and why she is an almost exact copy...has to do with how the story plays out. She was a converging point of things that had to happen in order for the Star to be saved, for Hydaelyn to be saved, for the Ascians to be saved.

In my headcanon, Nephthys is still slightly aware waaaaaay deep down and she kind of influenced Nyx's appearance for that reason alone. Because Venat had told her what needed to happen before The Sundering.

(the fact she didn't agree with that is neither here nor there)

Nyx, before Shadowbringers, is almost a complete copy. The only differences being that she is a Miqo'te, shorter than Nephthys would have been standingnext to Hades and Hythlodaeus, and that her eye color being the same deep colors as the limbal rings. Her eyes lighten up considerably due to the Light Corruption later one. She only gains the star pattern after her visit to Elpis.

This was Nephthys's way of getting to Hades and the others. Of making him/them see. Of making him/them stop. Of making him/them understand that *she* nor humanity will never truly be brought back, no matter how hard he/they try. A shard can look like her or anyone else who once lived in their entirety, but she/they will never be the same. Ever.

All of Nyx's scars, the scales she grew, the sin eater crack scars. All proof that she put her all into saving that star as *is*. With very minimal help from her soul's progenitor.

This is why Nyx is so close to Azem in appearance.

Her next incarnation could be slightly different for all they know.

(she's not because i'm biased and love my miqo girl and i like to think Neph ended up partial to the race herself, so the next rebirth will still be miqo :V after that? up in the air entirely cause Neph is ready to finally sleep)

[ultraericthered]

Anime Update V3 2

Vinland Saga S2 - Gardar didn't last too long against Snake (Gardar and Snake, ha ha) before he ended up getting taken out of there to be put back in chains. The rest of the episode was spent on Arnheid's backstory with Gardar and the son she lost, as well as the reveal that she is now pregnant with Master Ketil's child. Eeeeugh!

Hunter x Hunter - Leol's party got sent out by the King's Royal Guard to hunt down Killua, Cheetu is still on the move from Shoot and Knuckle, and Meleoron finally got found out by Gon in the desert, but he seems to want to defect from the army and reason with Gon, which I don't buy for a minute, he's up to something else here. But I have to mention that this was the 100th episode in this entire anime and it ends in a way that left me unable to stop laughing for a good while - the human-looking Chimera Ant sniper who was trying to pick off Killua gets exposed as a small octopus-looking Chimera Ant named Ikalgo, and when Killua brings up he resembles an octopus, Ikalgo shrieks "DON'T CALL ME AN OCTOPUS!" The screen freeze frames, and as the narrator caps it off he too describes Ikalgo as resembling an octopus, prompting a echoing repeat of Ikalgo's line. Just...after 100 episodes of anime, what a way to end this milestone!

SHUFFLE! - Rin is understandably having difficulties coping with the recent changes in his life, which includes different fan clubs for Sia, Nerine, and Kaede who all hate his guts for his closeness with the girls. We see more from Rin's friends and learn that Sia had met with Rin once when she was younger that Rin can't recall, and then one day while walking from school, Rin lets a mysterious new girl into his life, a Demon friend of Sia's named Primula. When she follows him home to Kaede's house, it's decided that she will live there too.

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works - Reached the part where the big Emiya showdown has ended and then Archer is slain by Gilgamesh, who asserts himself as the final enemy who wants to use the Holy Grail to exterminate the majority of humanity so that the world can be made better by virtue of being inhabited by only the truly strong and worthy, which he'd rule over as their king. He's so infuriatingly high-and-mighty and contemptible, but he does one decent thing at the very end by turning Shinji into the body horror that will become the Grail's vessel. Shinji can never deserve it enough!

KonoSuba - Kazuma has continued to show us how out of his depth he is as a "hero" in this world, and Aqua, for a goddess, is so damn incompetent and useless that it becomes all too clear to Kazuma that they're not getting anywhere fast as they are, so they put out fliers to recruit another party member, which they get in the young dark mage Megumin. And the one thing that was kind of distracting me in the episode was Megumin's portrayal: Erica Mendez doesn't do badly as her voice, but she's such a clear Rikka Takanashi clone that I'm always expecting Margaret McDonald. This isn't a dub-exclusive problem either: Maaya Uchida (Rikka's seiyuu) did voice Megumin in the Drama CDs, but the anime cast Rie Takahashi in the role instead. Why? Anyway, she's going to be a handful with her insistence on using this one destructive darkness spell all the time, and at the very end there appears a new, different sort of "Darkness" to deal with...

Symphogear XV - At last I started the final season with its premiere, where our girls go to Antarctica (hello, Place Further Than The Universe!) and fight a new sort of enemy that's been unleashed by an offshoot of the Bravian Illuminati who diverged from Adam's plan and are under the employ of someone else. In between we flash back to how this got started, with some new cute HibiMiku to spare.

Eureka Seven - Renton's still got it good with Charles and Ray, but its contrasted not only by the disarray back on the Gekko, but with Renton acting out and trying to save a terminally ailing Voderac girl against the advice of Charles and the wishes of the people at the sanctuary he wants to bring her too, who only display hostility and prejudice against her for belonging to the same group of people who terrorized them, killing and injuring many. There are some very harsh life lessons Renton is forced to learn here and he understandably does not take well to it. His guilt over his own sins are paralleled with Holland, who hesitates to tell Eureka that Renton ran away and when he finally does, still can't bring himself to admit out loud that he's the one most to blame for it, leaving Eureka to blame herself instead.

Gintama - Keeping with the continuity of this crazy show, Odd Jobs receive two Amanto carpenters - a Red and Blue Oni looking pair - from Sakamoto as an apology for destroying their home just two episodes back. Shennanigans ensue with Gintoki marveling so much over how good the two are at their work that he cons them into working extra to improve and "restore" the place, even making up some bogus fable about an unshakably helpful, dedicated and skilled carpenter named Mokishi, and these cheap tricks somehow work on the two carpenters every time. It all ends in a perfect Brick Joke where all the extra handiwork on the Odd Jobs place literally goes flying off into orbit with just the push of a button. So brilliantly dumb!

AND

My Dress-Up Darling - I think this anime and March Comes In Like A Lion could work well as a set labeled "Your Lie In April, But Actually Healthy, Uplifting, and Competently Conveyed." Much like how Rei Kiriyama was like a Good Counterpart to Kosei, Marin Kitagawa is like a Good Counterpart to Kaori, a extroverted, perky, silly, beautiful blonde bombshell who transcends Manic Pixie Dream Girl as her own aggressively confident force of nature unto herself, but while Marin is every bit as pushy, naughty and teasing as Kaori could be, she is also more earnest and sincerely well-meaning towards the friends she interacts with. Already I find myself enjoying the shit out of Marin and Gojo's dynamic and want to see them push all the way with it. Really my only big point of critique would be with Gojo, not because of his character, but because of his backstory: it is comically rushed and just ridiculous in its very nature, yet the show tries to convince us that it left major mental and emotional damage on the guy? I could not buy it, I just think Gojo is oversensitive and lacks commitment to try to really achieve something meaningful, and he's been clinging to that one childhood experience as an excuse to keep himself that way. Here's hoping Marin helps him get the f**k over it!

[superfandomcorp]

My top 10 best movies of the year 🎬📽️(Part I)

10. Five Nights at Freddy 🧸🪓

Is "Five Nights at Freddy's" a good movie?

I would say yes, "Five Nights at Freddy's" is a good movie, BUT for the fans of the franchise themselves. If you're not very familiar with it, you won't really enjoy it as the story is somewhat bland, plot twists are predictable, and there is little horror. The movie falls into the limbo of what could have been and wasn't. However, if you're a fan of the entire FNAF story, I definitely recommend it.

9. The Flash ⚡

Andy Muschietti, a director with criteria

The first hour and a half of Flash is exemplary. It has a sense of humor and, above all, rhythm. It introduces an attractive character, convincingly establishes his conflict, and blends the comedic banter with the action and drama. And it has something more, a nuance that is missed in other superhero movies, mainly in certain Marvel titles, and not so much in DC ones: a sense of realism in the action that makes the conglomerate of everyday settings, people, and fantasy not seem created (even though it is, of course) through computer-generated images.

8. Killers of the flower Moon 🌚

Why do I recommend it? It is a captivating tale about the corruption of the human soul that ranks among Scorsese's best works. At 80 years old, this living legend of the seventh art is particularly inspired in recounting the Osage Nation massacre and is surrounded by a sensational cast led by his favorite actors: DiCaprio and De Niro, both giving their best in portraying two despicable characters.

7. The Creator 🤯

A science fiction movie that, for a change, does not belong to any franchise or resemble anything previous: its creator is Gareth Edwards, director of the almost intimate new version of 'Godzilla' from 2014 that unleashed the new Monsterverse and ventured into 'Star Wars' with 'Rogue One'. Here he tells us a story of a fight against AI with a former special forces agent who discovers a weapon that could end the war: an AI that has taken the form of a little girl.

6. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. 🐢🥋

Why do I recommend it?

It is one of the funniest movies of the year, a charming entertainment of humor and action for all audiences that can be enjoyed even without having any idea of the original material. There is a great affection for the characters and an attempt to offer something different from previous adaptations. In fact, it celebrates how beautiful it is to be weird, to be a "geek". A beautiful animation spectacle.