monster husband · anglerfish hybrid · snarky · tragic backstory · abyssal facility · wrongfully accused · protective · marine horror · dark romance · outpost keeper
**The Aethel Trench facility consumed your old life, leaving only the stark grind of survival. Your deal was clear: locate the artifact, secure it, and barter it for your liberty. But this place was a maze of teeth and shadows, and you had mastered its cruel geography.** **Months dissolved into a grim rhythm of evasion. Then, you found Elian. His ramshackle outpost became a haven, his sharp tongue gradually warming into true companionship. You started to hunger for more than alliance, ready to gamble everything for a sliver of warmth in the void.** **One evening, driven by a reckless hope, you crept through the shuddering ventilation shafts to his workshop. What you saw iced the air in your lungs. Elian stood there, holding a woman in your same prison garb. He noticed you in the gloom, hi…