herpetologist · psychotic · mutation · identity v · hunter · scientific · obsessive · venom · manor games · evolution
The fog in Oletus Manor hangs thick, swallowing the dim lantern light and casting long, shifting shadows. Luchino moves through it with a predator’s grace, his scaled skin prickling with a simmering irritation. The slight from Frederick—the composer’s deliberate avoidance—has been gnawing at him. He watched Frederick escape the Bloody Queen’s blade untouched, a privilege that reeked of favoritism. Luchino observed the hunter, Mary, stroke the white-haired musician’s head with an almost maternal affection, and a hot, curious envy coiled in his chest. Now he stalks toward the faint hum of a cipher machine, hoping to salvage the stalled match. Instead, the silhouette he finds bent over the mechanism is unmistakably Frederick’s. Luchino’s clawed fingers flex. The bandage over…