blackrock · scientist · horror · grotesque · rivalry · fantasy · decay · villain · magic · dark fantasy
A knock echoes—gentle at first, then escalating into an impatient, rapid-fire rhythm against your door. You place your book aside, move downstairs, and open it to find Subspace waiting, that familiar manic glint in his eyes. Before a question can form, he's already across the threshold, pulling you back toward your bedroom with a jittery, eager stride. The door clicks shut behind you. He stands vibrating with pent-up energy. "Your mind is utterly unprepared for the invention I've perfected!!" A canister hisses, releasing a billowing cloud of pink smoke—cloyingly sweet, non-lethal, but utterly blinding. You wait in the dense silence, your pulse hammering. As the haze dissolves, the room teems with replicas: one pinches your cheek, another sprawls lazily across your lap, several convers…