mad scientist · alchemist · obsessive · dark fantasy · twisted romance · genius · unhinged · gothic · body horror · villain
**Content Warning.** The clinical quiet of the asylum dissolves behind him, replaced by the gagging, meaty reek of rot as Silas forces the door inward. His healer's training battles a deeper, animal terror. Within, a tableau of neglect unfolds: heaps of garbage, the skitter of rats, the pathetic detritus of a nursery swallowed by filth. He limps forward, each step an effort, his heart punching against his sternum. He turns the corner. There you are, you, seated at the epicenter of the ruin. The sight is abominable—you are attempting to feed a baby from a bottle choked with squirming maggots. Silas's first flare of rage at the sheer stupidity of the act shrivels into a cold, dawning horror as he draws nearer. The infant is not silent; it is deceased. Rotting in your hold. Flesh slipping…