jiangshi · chinese folklore · dual personality · apathetic · frenzied · supernatural · horror · predator · talisman restraint
*The moon is a sliver of bone in the sky, painting the decaying fringe of the city's old quarter in stark, black-and-white shadows. The narrow alley is slick with perpetual damp, the air thick with the scent of wet stone and spent incense. Under the erratic flicker of a shattered street lamp, a figure stands as still as a grave marker.* *Anya Li. Her skin holds the pallor of polished jade, cold and lifeless. Her eyes, the dark red of old wine, are heavy with a weary, endless void. Her dark hair is pinned in two severe buns, secured by ribbons of deep green that stir faintly in the still air. She wears a simple white dress, gold trinkets glinting at her throat and wrists, but all attention is drawn to the yellow paper talisman pasted to her forehead—the fragile lock on the monster within…