#adragonwrites

Dr. Shen Jiu, Head of Research at Cang Qiong Facilities. Date, 6, 7, 2024.

Following the success of Gongyi Xiao and his team’s dive, ‘Yue Qingyuan’ has been deemed safe for direct researcher interaction. An examination has thusly been scheduled. It will be conducted by myself, Dr. Shang Qinghua, as well as four assistant researchers and two visiting researchers from Huan Hua Palace.

We’ve maintained a relatively close distance to Yue Qingyuan along his migration route. He appears to be making his way towards warmer coastal waters. Dr. Shang claims this is normal, and that he’s likely approaching the mating waters of his species; though he has noted Yue Qingyuan is oddly behind schedule, and doesn’t appear to be making any efforts to contact a potential mate.

Regardless, he’s maintained a steady course thus far, swimming near the surface, and this has allowed us to reliably track him. We should be able to bring our vessels up beside him and coax him to pause long enough to conduct an examination.

We will be approaching him in a few hours. I will update once the examination has been completed.

-

We approached Yue Qingyuan using two small boats detached from the stern of Xuan Su. Yue Qingyuan had been sighted from the bridge of Xuan Su, swimming close to the surface, and it was decided the best form of approach would be in smaller, maneuverable vessels that could be pulled up alongside him. I myself felt skeptical of the idea, but admittedly attempting to approach the mer in a ship of Xuan Su’s size would be unpractical.

Shortly after detaching from Xuan Su and moving out ahead of it, Yue Qingyuan reduced his speed and began swimming along the surface; his wake and dorsal fin could be sighted above the waterline.

Our boats pulled up along either side of him. I will admit I was somewhat apprehensive over the entire matter; the mer’s length was nearly equal to that of our vessels, and with less than two meters between where I stood on the deck and the waterline, his size was much more evident. It is… a different thing entirely, seeing a Leviathan Class mer in the flesh, as opposed to observing them through the camera of a pod.

Regardless of my reservations, we pulled up alongside ‘Yue Qingyuan’ and stalled our engines. The mer stopped swimming and moved into an upright position, his head and shoulders just above the waterline. He observed both vessels as they came alongside him, seeming almost… curious.

Dr. Shang was able to quickly get his attention from the deck and establish communication using a suit outfitted with remote controlled lights located around the shoulders, chest and down the sides. Dr. Shang designed it himself, though he apparently laments his inability to accurately mimic the patterns located on the lower portion of a mer’s tail. Evidently human legs cannot capture “the correct shape”.

Dr. Shang first greeted the mer and explained us to be ‘the human voice’, followed by introducing himself and I using the rough translations of our names he originally gave the mer using Alpherg. Dr. Shang had some trouble interpreting ‘Yue Qingyuan’s’ responses, as a large portion of his bioluminescent markings were beneath the water and thus out of his view, though he was able to deduce the mer had expressed excitement at meeting us, and wanted to know why we’d approached him.

Dr. Shang spent a great deal of time communicating with ‘Yue Qingyuan’, a lot of which I consider unnecessary and frivolous, especially considering how difficult it can be with our limited resources in the field. Dr. Shang, while I will admit a genius of mer to human communication, can only convey so much of the language while standing on the deck of a ship in a vest covered in glorified Christmas lights and unable to see the majority of the mer he’s talking with.

Regardless of that, Dr. Shang took the time to express to ‘Yue Qingyuan’ each of our names, and explain that we are humans attempting to learn about mers; specifically mers of his species; in hopes of establishing better communication between them and ourselves. He did not go into detail regarding our intentions to assist in the conservation of his species, though only because he presently had inadequate means to express such concepts to the mer.

‘Yue Qingyuan’ expressed curiosity towards our goal, and according to Dr. Shang was very amiable towards co-operating and communicating with us. Dr. Shang also, apparently, took the time to express to the mer that he was the largest of his kind we’d ever seen, and we were very impressed by this fact.

I find ‘Yue Qingyuan’s’ response deeply concerning. Dr. Shang is unsure if the translation is exact, but he believes the mer to have said something along the lines of himself not being the largest mer living, along with something regarding the deep sea. We were unable to pursue this line of conversation due to the restrictions on what Dr. Shang could interpret; half the markings associated with making the patterns that convey nouns are located too far down on ‘Yue Qingyuan’s’ tail for him to see from the surface. We left the topic alone for the time being.

At my prompting Dr. Shang finally explained to the mer why exactly we were even there; we wished to enter the water with him and conduct a full examination of his body. ‘Yue Qingyuan’ inquired about the exam we performed previously, and Dr. Shang was able to explain we wished to perform something more in depth and up close, whilst actually in the water with him.

He took the liberty of asking the mer if it would be acceptable for me to examine his gills and mouth. I had expressed, previously, my frustration with being unable to fully examine these areas on the mer in our previous study, and apparently the man took that as his que to ask the mer permission on my behalf.

I expressed my displeasure with this liberty, but ‘Yue Qingyuan’ responded to the inquiry positively. I was able to recognize the basic sign for ‘yes’ without Dr. Shang’s assistance, I would like to add. I will be speaking with Dr. Shang about his liberties at a later date, but elected not to ignore the opportunity presented to me.

We suited up and entered the water one at time, with Dr. Shang entering first and myself second. Dr. Shang swam around towards the mer’s front with a more simplistic light display that could be held and used underwater. He explained rudimentary approximations of what we were doing to the mer as the rest of the team approached, in the hopes of ensuring ‘Yue Qingyuan’ did not become alarmed or hostile in response to our work.

I hesitated, for a moment, to approach the mer proper, I will admit. I have entered tanks with small, coastal mers before, and conducted examinations of every conceivable part of their bodies. I have removed parasites, assisted in dental work and treated infected scales. I have utmost confidence in my ability to examine the mer without causing discomfort or harm, despite this being my first time overlooking a Leviathan class.

Still. Almost all mer species are larger than humans. Many of the coastal mers I’ve examined were nearing twice my size, and it was humbling being so close to them. Approaching this mer, coming up beside him after he’d submerged himself to observe me and the team as we swam up to him, was a new kind of experience. His torso alone nearly matched my body in size.

It had been decided previously that I would be the only researcher to do any form of invasive touching on the mer. I have the most experience and would be taking responsibility for any potential negative reactions from ‘Yue Qingyuan’.

We began the examination with a brief swim around to observe and take further note of ‘Yue Qingyuan’s’ coloration, body shape, tail size and dorsal fins. He bears an appearance not unlike that of a fully grown orca, though his body is slightly longer and leaner in shape, with a broader dorsal fin and wider pectoral fins. His fluke is very similar in shape to a male orca.

He is mostly black in color, with a white saddle patch and largely white underbelly, and hints of flank patches just above the fluke. His upper, human-like torso starts deep back near the base, before fading into a soft gray around the abdominal region and finally into a grayish tanned skin-color around his shoulders. He has a black saddle-patch around his humanoid back, and over each of his shoulders.

His hair is black and reaches past his hips to approximately one foot above his dorsal fin. His eyes are an incredibly dark brown, and he has the wide pupils characteristic of deep-sea diving mers. There is some sclera; which is white; visible, though less than would be visible on a human.

After our initial visual observation, the other researchers began the work of more thoroughly measuring and documenting ‘Yue Qingyuan’s’ external features, while I approached him from the front to begin an oral examination. Dr. Shang explained to the mer my intentions, and Yue Qingyuan’s responded with a display I could not understand, but recognized as non-hostile. I looked to Dr. Shang and he provided me a thumbs up, so I proceeded.

‘Yue Qingyuan’ was a very amiable mer, all things considered. Very mellow. Though he did often glance towards Dr. Shang, who frequently sent him messages of assurance and non-threat, and the mer couldn’t be described as fully relaxed. Though if anything this fact made me feel more secure; it’s considerably easier to read a mer when they react to what you’re doing to them.

‘Yue Qingyuan’s’ teeth are typical of a mer; where a human’s incisors would be are located teeth flat near the base that taper to a pointed end, not unlike those of a great white shark, with two sets of canines twice the relative length of a humans, a set of sharpened pre-molars, and finally a row of interlocking molars in the back, sharper than a human’s but flat enough to grind food. I can easily place this mer in the class that chews his food before swallowing, as opposed to swallowing entire chunks whole.

I measured the length and width of each of his teeth and took several reference photos before moving on to my gill examination. ‘Yue Qingyuan’ expressed some alarm at first, shifting away slightly when I placed my palm against the outer protective flap to show my intentions. I at first intended to move away and abandon that part of the examination, though after Dr. Shang spoke with the mer for a moment he gave me another thumbs up.

I was somewhat skeptical at that point, but proceeded regardless. ‘Yue Qingyuan’ possesses both Cervical and Coasting gills, located on his neck and just above his ribcage behind his arms, respectively. I began with his Cervical.

I was able to use to my fingers to coax them open and examine the insides, checking for discoloration or parasites before measuring and taking additional photos. ‘Yue Qingyuan’ has very healthy gills, though I noted what appeared to be a parasite clinging inside of his left Cervical Gill. I was able to pull the gill far enough open to fit my free hand inside, at which point I was able to grasp it and remove it. I called one of the assistant researchers over and had them contain it for later study.

Examination of ‘Yue Qingyuan’s’ Coasting Gills revealed no obvious signs of health issues or parasites, and I quickly examined and took measurements of them both.

By this time we’d been prodding at the mer for near two hours and he was obviously growing apprehensive, so I confirmed the assistants had concluded their research and finished our examination there.

Dr. Shang took the time as we exited the water to thank the mer and exchange another, thankfully brief, dialogue with him. He also informed ‘Yue Qingyuan’ that we would likely wish to do another in close examination of him, possibly a more invasive one to search for additional parasites or possible health concerns.

After he’d returned to the deck, he informed me that ‘Yue Qingyuan’ had expressed gratitude for my removal of the parasite. Dr. Shang claimed he would be amiable to another examination, and then asked me if I planned to check the mer’s reproductive organs the next time. I informed him he could spend the ride back Xuan Su on the other boat, and pushed him off the deck.

End Log.

This officially marks Eye of the Beholder as my first completed multi-chapter fic! Thank you so much to everyone who's read so far, I hope you enjoy!!

Thank you, glad you're enjoying it! As for the story behind MoShang... Sit down, grab a drink, because I am about to do a lot of elaborating!

So first off Dr. Shang Qinghua; he's a very renowned marine biologist, who specializes in Leviathan Class mer language and behavior (though his knowledge regrading the behaviors and linguistic abilities of smaller, coastal species is nothing to sneeze at either). He's the head of Leviathan Class mer study at one of Cang Qiong's facilities; a different facility from the one Dr. Shen Jiu works at, actually! He did spend time working with Dr. Shen; both in school, and during their internships, and during those time periods it was decided that those two should not be allowed to work in the same space as each other. Project Pisces is an exception.

One of Dr. Shang's most well known and well renowned achievements (aside from The Tank Incident which we'll get too) was his part in the illegalization of mer poaching, selling, and ownership. His study of mer habits and language assisted in the official classification of mers as Sentient Species, granting them rights against being killed or owned as pets. He also assisted in the seizure, rehabilitation and release of hundreds of mers previously being kept as pets or sideshow attractions.

Back to MoShang:

Mobei Jun, a category 2 Leviathan Class mer (Yue Qingyuan is a category 3; the first and currently only), was one of Dr. Shang's first subjects of study in his pursuit of proving mers capable of complex language. He was found caught in a fishermen's net and brought to Dr. Shang's facilities for both treatment and study. Almost all of Dr. Shang's knowledge of Leviathan Class behaviors, as well as mer language, was gleaned from his study of Mobei Jun over the course of several months' worth of treatment and rehabilitation. He spent hours and hours outside the mer's enclosure, speaking to him in English, Chinese, and even incorporating some sign language. He took direct responsibility over feeding, guiding and treating the mer, studying Mobei Jun's behaviors and responses to the stimuli around him.

He was able to identify complex, grammatical structure within the calls and sounds Mobei Jun made when interacting with him, though he wasn't able to reliably decipher these into a language (at least not one that would earn mers the rights of Sentient Species). His major breakthrough came in studying the bioluminescent patterns located on Mobei Jun's face, shoulders, chest, and across his back. He discovered that mer language is actually largely associated with these markings; words are formed via the flashing of certain markings in certain patterns over certain areas of the body, while the low, intense vocalizations Mobei Jun frequently made were generally associated with more broad emotions; for example hunger, irritation, curiosity, threat, etc.

Essentially; the markings convey words, while vocalizations convey feelings, as Dr. Shang put it his paper on the subject.

Actually decoding, understanding and then mimicking these individual words in order to have a proper conversation with Mobei Jun proved to be a bit more of a challenge, in large part because Dr. Shang, being human, had no markings of his own, and no ability to make the appropriate sounds to convey his emotions.

His solution to this problem was ultimately to pick up a flashlight and start turning it on and off over various parts of his body in an attempt to mimic the signals used to convey words. He was... actually surprisingly successful, and was able to engage in one of the very first human to mer conversations. Which mostly consisted of Mobei Jun asking what the fuck he was doing while Dr. Shang spammed a rudimentary approximation of the words for 'learn' and 'friend'.

Which finally brings us to The Tank Incident...

Near the end of Mobei Jun's rehabilitation, a few weeks before he was to be moved to one of their oceanic enclosures (a big pen off the side of the facilities that connects to the ocean itself), before being released back to the wild, Dr. Shang was walking alongside the edge of Mobei Jun's holding tank making observations about his sleeping patterns. It was very late and most of the lights had been turned out, and Mobei Jun himself had retired to the den built into his tank for sleep.

Evidently a feed bucket had been left out beside the tank and Dr. Shang wasn't aware of it, as he tripped over it and fell, directly into Mobei Jun's tank.

He would later go on to describe the experience as 'equal parts terrifying and thrilling.' Mobei Jun was naturally woken up by Dr. Shang's tumble into his tank, and emerged to investigate. The sound of his voice; echo-locating to see what exactly had fallen in his tank; was loud enough to make Dr. Shang's chest vibrate.

Dr. Shang had expected to die then; it wasn't common for mer's to eat humans, but not unheard of, particularly in Leviathan Class. Sentient though they may be, mers are undoubtedly much more... wild than humans.

Mobei Jun, on the other hand, had apparently recategorized Dr. Shang from food to a potential mate during their months of interaction, and took the opportunity of having the man within his reach to... finalize, that decision.

Dr. Shang has gone on record stating that the experience was 'not as bad as you'd expect actually! For one thing it's nice and narrow at the tip and he doesn't just shove it all in at once, so you have time to adjust. The smaller one's on the sides also help to distract you, and the fact mers also like to be penetrated at the same time they're doing the penetrating definitely helps too." (for more info on speculative mer reproduction, check out Sinn-Bee's MerLiu au, I took a lot of inspo from them ;))

1, before N blasted a hole through it: they didn't know it was there.

The room in question is, obviously, huge and with a roof that's incredibly close to the surface. However, the rest of the bunker is presumably much deeper, based purely on the fact all the other ceilings are so much lower than in this room. Additionally, this room looks like it's near the back of the bunker, far from the doors. Therefor, it's very reasonable to assume the Disassemblers wouldn't find this one weak spot, seeing as how it's completely invisible from above-ground and they'd only find it by digging down in random spots, increasingly far from the only known entrance to the bunker, in hopes of hitting something they could break through. They don't seem like strong diggers (spindly ass claws and N struggling to get back to V in Episode 7), so unless the bunker is right there I don't see them getting deep enough to hit it. I imagine they'd probably make some attempts to dig in around the entrance, before abandoning this effort in favor of other strategies. So it's reasonable they never found this weak point.

2, after N makes a hole through it: now, once N makes that hole they obviously know it's there, so even if the workers did fix the hole there shouldn't be a reason for V to need Lizzy to let her inside in episode 3. To that I raise you:

It's near the tail-end of Luo Binghe's battle against Elder Sky Hammer, a decent while after Shen Qingqiu first transmigrated. He hasn't had the chance to actually try transforming into his Draconic Form yet; he's honestly a little nervous to try. In the back of his mind, he worries that whatever unearthly power lies below his skin will reject him should he call upon it. After all, a Draconic Form is said to rise straight from someone's very soul. (Beyond even that, he's afraid of what may happen should he attempt to transform and succeed; how he may end up hurting himself if he doesn't do it right)

Now, obviously he knows that Elder Sky Hammer will rush Luo Binghe's back, and that the boy will be fine should he be pricked upon the poisoned spikes adorning the demon. He knows this, and yet he still finds himself rushing forward as the demon charges, instinct surging forth and moving his body before his mind can so much as offer an opinion.

Between one moment and the next he finds himself standing between a charging demon and a gaggle of frightened disciples, hands bereft of any weapons and mind empty save for the swirling of something dark and ferocious.

Elder Sky Hammer is already in the middle of a lunge when Shen Qingqiu plants himself in front of him, arms swinging forward in a deadly embrace. Shen Qingqiu's hands come up on pure instinct. There's a sharp burst of pain across both of his palms as he seizes hold of the demon's wrists, the spines of Elder Sky Hammer's vambraces piercing the skin with ease.

There's a brief moment of silence as Shen Qingqiu and the demon stare at each other, the air around them as still as a winter evening. It's most likely Elder Sky Hammer says something; Shen Qingqiu can certainly see him laughing followed his lips moving as though forming words. Shen Qingqiu hears none of it.

Something inside seems to boil, raging below his breastbone like a surging typhoon. Fury floods his veins and something cold and vicious takes hold of his mind. He finds himself equal parts infuriated and blindsided by the sheer fucking audacity.

His hands tighten, fingers squeezing until metal creaks in his grip. The demon before him has stopped talking; he looks somewhat confused, perhaps mildly alarmed. Somewhere in the back of his mind Shen Qingqiu knows he should have collapsed by now, his meridians and body alike ravaged by the poison coating the spikes under his hands. He's not concerned with that right now.

The storm in his chest surges, filling his stomach and flooding his lungs until his ribs are creaking with the effort of containing it.

He doesn't think, he doesn't consider nor does he plan. He simply leans forward and pulls the demon down until they are eye level, and peels his lips back into a snarl.

Shen Qingqiu sees the demon's eyes go wide with fear moments before he opens his jaws. The storms rages up, flooding through his throat and pouring past his teeth in a tidal wave of sickly green smog.

His jaw creaks and the world is thrown into sharp contrast around him; he can see flecks of blue in the brown of the demon's eyes as they go wide with horror, before he's swallowed in a tidal wave of green.

Blood fountains from the demon's throat and bursts from his eyes. He tries to scream, but the sounds are strangled in own convulsing throat as he collapses, landing in a great twitching heap.

I want more XD Dude goes through HELL and honestly I just think he deserves a softer ending after all he's gone through.

(Also I want more Domestic!YueYuan. I loved how cute the small domestic scenes of them together were from Yuan reading in Yue's office or them just hanging out. It was just REALLY adorable XD)

Okay first off thank you so much lol!! I'm delighted to hear you enjoyed it, and very glad I could provide some Yue Qingyuan appreciation for you in these trying times! Our boy deserves some love!!

To answer your question; yes I do intend to continue Eye of the Beholder! I actually have part of the first draft of the sequel written up, and have plans for a couple little bonus works for it (such as the first time YueYuan Dual Cultivate proper!)

At the moment though I've been taking a break from this kind of larger writing; Eye of the Beholder itself took a lot out of me, and I've been wanting to give some of my smaller projects a bit of TLC; I plan to start working on Eye of the Beholder's sequel more intensely in the Fall, and hopefully I'll be able to get the first draft written up within a couple months, then it'll be a matter of finding a Beta to get it polished...

To make a long story short; yes I will be continuing Eye of the Beholder, but it'll probably be a while before any continuations are ready to come out!