ooc info

Read Before You Approach Me

✶ FOR PLOTTING. I prefer plotting over winging, but I'm not opposed to the latter. Feel free to PM me if you want to plot! Sometimes I have more ideas in mind even if I don't have them written down on my profile. You don't have to have a plot before PM-ing me, I'm up for brainstorming too if that's more of your thing.

✶ TIME ZONE & PACE. GMT+8 ; I'm currently in uni with a course that runs on a trisemester schedule—that and my subject load is a mess and a half and it will probably stay that way til I graduate. So until then, my activity will be very sporadic—sometimes I can be really active, and other times I prefer simple chatting over writing long threads. I can wait for replies for quite a long time and I'm not one to poke people for them either. Also, I normally give a heads up if I'm going to be busy. So please be patient with me!

✶ OOC AGE & MATURE THREADS. 21 y/o ; I'm open to NSFW threads, moreso for angst and violence than . That said, I'm not opposed to threads, but fair warning, however: my muse for it is very, very fickle and I do need quite a bit of incentive to write it sometimes.

✶ WRITING STYLE. 3rd POV ; para to multipara ; maybe novella on a really good day.

✶ GENRE LIMITS. None that I can think of at the moment.

✶ TAGGING. Please tag my muse(s) if it's something you want me to see, even if it's in private or personal rooms. I have other threads in other places, so I'd appreciate the tag just so I don't lose track of my threads.

✶ BIG NO-NOS. Please don't poke me for replies, I normally have a tracker for my threads and will try to get to them as soon as I possibly can. If I can't, I'll be giving you a heads up in advance. Also, please remember that I get tired too ; sometimes I just want to sit around and chat instead of writing lengthy paragraphs. Rest assured that I haven't forgotten our thread, it's just that I want something a little more laid-back in the meantime.

The Basics

General Trivia

Appearance Trivia

The Story

Part I

Once upon a time, a human fell in love with a monster—and he would never realize it until it was too late, for she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and all he wanted at that very moment was to spend his entire life with her.

He'd abandoned everything to go with her—his own family, his friends, his quiet life in the countryside—and blindly followed his heart and her voice into the bustling city where they were happily wed soon after, starting anew.

Years into their marriage, the man had asked his wife if she would ever consider starting a family with him. Initially, she had decided against having children due to her lineage—a cursed bloodline that seldom showed itself on her, but would inevitably be passed onto her offspring if she chose to have them. So whenever the topic was brought up, she always hesitated.

But love made her weak to persuasion, and her resolve eventually lost to their passion.

However, she would come to regret this passion many months later.

And on a cold winter's day, surrounded by bloodied snow, Sungjae and his twin brother were born.

Despite her worries, for a while, her husband had suspected nothing.

Fortunately, it seemed like her two boys were growing just like other human children did. They played the same games, learned the same things, went to the same school, and acted the same way as their peers. Even into their teenage years, not a single sign of her cursed blood showed in their faces, nor their eyes, nor their teeth—and maybe, just maybe, she was starting to believe that both of her sweet little boys had been born completely human. 

In a matter of minutes, a group of armed men had arrived at their door. Moments passed by, a little struggle had ensued, but with the boys now sedated and secured, the men stood out in the hallway, waiting for their mother to turn herself in as well.

But instead, she stood there with a bittersweet smile on her face. And when they'd asked what was wrong, the only reply she'd given them was the sound of a gunshot.

Chapter II 

When Sungjae had woken up three days later, he was sitting inside a white cell, and his brother was nowhere to be found.

Instead, he met the gaze of a man sitting beside his bed. A man he would later discover to be his attending researcher.

They called him 'The Artifex'—also known as 'The Artist', 'The Doll-Collector', and a number of other horrifyingly odd titles that Sungjae couldn't bring himself to care about at that very moment.

He remembers very little of what had occured before he had woken up in this cold, blinding white cell. Trapped with a strange man who was smiling down at him for reasons he wouldn't dare ask. But that didn't matter much either, not when the researcher was revealing to him parts of his life and lineage he wished he never knew existed.

Sungjae felt lost, scared, and incredibly helpless. His brother wasn't even in the same room with him, and he couldn't help but wonder where the other had gone—if he was still alive, even.

The Artifex, noticing his panic, caressed his cheek with a practiced gentleness that reminded Sungjae of his own mother, and he feels a chill run down his spine at how cold the researcher's hand felt against his face, despite the fact that he was a creature of winter himself. The icy chill of the other's touch should not have bothered him as much as it should have.
 

Part II

Chapter I

After settling into the facility and a lot of incessant pleading, Sungjae had been allowed the chance to see his twin twice a week. As to why their interactions were kept so minimal, he would never know. The Artifex never answered his questions.

He spent most of his days training under the researcher's watchful eye, surviving test after test and wondering if he was still alive by the end of it with how his lungs burned with the lack of oxygen, his heart threatening to burst out from the aching confines of his ribcage.

He had grown much stronger, sure—but the twins' strength was an innate gift, along with many of their less-than-human qualities—Sungjae felt like it was cheating to say he'd gained it all from hard work. The Artifex tells him otherwise.

Sometimes he wished he'd never shared his thoughts, because the next tests weren't as forgiving. One day, Sungjae finds himself coming back to consciousness atop a cold table, a bright lamp shining right in his face. His body was completely numb, save for the burning sensation taking up the entire length of his spine.

A blur of colors and shapes danced around in his vision, and for a moment they seem to stop as the researchers who loomed above him realized he was awake.

Electricity shot up his spine then, followed by a suspiciously comforting warmth that had spread throughout his body. All of a sudden, the colors disappear from his vision, replaced with darkness, and he finds himself floating between the lonely void in the back of his head and his will to stay awake.

Chapter II

For the first time in a very long while, Sungjae finally meets another being that wasn't a researcher or a staff member of the facility—his name was Yuanbin—or Snow Angel, as The Artifex liked to call him.

Despite what he'd been told about the other subject prior to their meeting, Sungjae had gotten along with Yuanbin quite well.

Maybe it was the fact that Sungjae didn't share the same obsession for The Artifex like the younger had, and thus he posed no threat nor competition to him for the researcher's love and attention. It's not like he needed or wanted more of it anyway.

However, he couldn't say the same thing about his twin brother.

It had been months since they last saw each other, and although he'd known his brother his entire life—the one that walked out of the cell adjacent to him seemed like a completely different person. It was unnerving. It's like he didn't recognize him anymore when they spoke.

Now, his brother wasn't exactly obsessed, but he did display a certain kind of closeness with The Artifex that was quite reminiscent of Yuanbin's. Everything about their relationship with the researcher worried him, setting off all the alarms in his head. The growing obsession, the questionable obedience, the blind loyalty—he was so, so afraid he would become one of them.

And unfortunately, become one of them, he did.

Though not in a way The Artifex was expecting.

Chapter III

Not too long after their interaction, Sungjae was appointed by The Artifex as Yuanbin's guardian.

All the testing, all the experiments, all the training he had endured—all of it just so he could become the most formidable opponent should something or someone threaten Yuanbin's safety.

His own voice was beginning to sound ever so distant even in his head—felt like his very being had been taken apart and pieced together with something entirely new, replaced with instincts he could have sworn he never had before, or perhaps, maybe The Artifex had triggered them.

Your duty? Protect the angel. He is very precious to me.

He remembers having this overwhelming urge to protect Yuanbin, almost as if he had been soul-bound to the other, the responsibility of protecting and keeping the angel happy seemingly hard-wired into his brain.

Ever since that day, he had done nothing but follow the half-nymph around. Ever observant, ever watchful. He made sure Yuanbin stayed on schedule, ate his meals, drank water, and saw to it that the younger's sleep went undisturbed.

Protecting Yuanbin was rather easy—because one ; the younger wasn't even weak to begin with, he could take care of himself just fine on most days, and two ; Sungjae was stronger than every other subject in their wing of the facility. He was a force to be reckoned with when angry, and after one bloody incident during training, none have dared to approach him in fear they'd be torn to shreds.

Despite seeing the results he wanted, The Artifex would soon find out he'd made a fatal flaw somewhere in Sungjae's training regimen.

He discovers this one day when he yelled at Yuanbin during training, profanities unbecoming of a head researcher spilling from the man's lips out of pent up frustration. It was the first time anyone had seen the precious Snow Angel cry, and Sungjae was livid.

He remembers attacking The Artifex, going for his neck, and immediately being subdued after he'd sunk his teeth into the researcher's shoulder. He remembers seeing his brother's face above him as he was thrown onto the floor, before the world around him went black.

Though he didn't stay down for long, and eventually he found himself waking up in the middle of a facility emergency, the sound of a blaring siren ringing in his ears as he stepped out of his now deactivated containment cell.

A number of mutants desperately stumble their way down the hallway, towards freedom somewhere on the other end. Sungjae doesn't even think twice when he sees them. He locks on to Yuanbin's fading scent amidst the rushing crowd, and makes a run for the exit.