#bt. task

VISUALIZATION

a whisper, a shriek — it starts off as murmurings by your ear and fingertips pressed to eyelids before it turns into a howling, nails digging into sockets. a pleading. 

it starts as all violences do: gently.

it always leaves an echo you can’t quite get rid of; a mother’s lullaby, a lover’s memory. 

you are frozen, mid-breath with chest heavy. 

you always return reeling. 

SENSES

this is a gift of hearing that bleeds into everything. 

the words come out clear, but you can feel the faintest touches, taste the bitterness of bladed thoughts quick, fleeting. 

you see almost as clear as you hear; flashes of memories, almost, that feel more fiction, dream. you never know the difference between lie, wish, and history. you are a storyteller of in-betweens. 

this always feels like a bloodletting.

so what if you taste copper in your throat? blood stains your teeth and still, you wear your grins all too easily. 

STRENGTH

you only ever receive fragments — words, half-sentences, flashed glimpses — 

you never know who it belongs to. you are never sure if it is your own or another’s; a snake devouring its own tail, how you become your own haunting. 

if you tried enough, you could match the words to the moving lips; create a film reel with only the middles and the ends singed. choose whose mind you’d like to invade. choose which part of their life to be a voyeur to, quiet shadows with all their teeth showing. 

you could be on the precipice of knowing just about anything. everything. 

WEAKNESSES

your eyes turn bloodshot, lips cracked. it feels like something is eating away at you and you’re just grateful for the knowledge that you are not rotten enough to no longer be consumed just yet. 

you spit our your blood and cry your tears of red like a messiah turned exile. you are told you are beautiful bleeding. greed is paid for in twofold and you never learn your lesson. 

you’d give yourself up for just a fragment of another in casual passing — do you tire so much of being yourself, darling?

FUNCTION

you learn how to read others without shredding your mind in the process. it is half as fun but your odds are not too bad, given over a century of playing, of guessing. you fancy yourself a dollmaker to ignore your own marionette stitching. 

your job with the fireflies is to tear people apart physically. to do so mentally is above your pay grade.

don’t take it too personally: this is strictly entertainment. 

OTHER

only a few at the top of your house are aware of your ability. you’d like to keep it that way; makes it just a touch less fun when they know you’ve cheating.

it’s the easiest for you to manage when all the thoughts point towards one thing: ideally, you — you can see thoughts in suspension, palms outstretched gently before you tear it from minds like apples from trees. sometimes it is just too easy. 

hokuei winters teach you all you need to know about newfound abilities. you make madness sweet, leaving behind hollows for bodies and running tongues over the carcasses in time for the spring. 

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Mention of accidental animal killing, Self Mutilation  

VISUALIZATION : Nezha’s ability is quite literally touch based ( life force absorption more or less inspired by ANGEL from Chainsaw Man / warning: spoilers. ), his eyes do shift in color when he’s actively using his power - the tips of his fingers also having a faint glow-like effect, often varying in color dependent on how much he exerts his ability. Those who do get their life force sucked by him often feel a sense of sleepiness - sometimes described as falling asleep or worst comes to worst, blacking out. 

SENSES : His other four senses are dulled when he exerts this ability ( when he’s sucking life force through his hands ) but when he’s expelling life force into creating a weapon, ironically it’s the touch sensation that appears to weaken. 

STRENGTHS : The power is strong where he’s capable of creating various deadly weapons that are on par with current technology and perhaps even more so advanced dependent on his creativity. To create a pure weapon from life force over exerts him compared to when he imbues in an object with life force making it more deadly in touch. His weapons are capable of cutting through varied materials as well as stunting vampire regenerative growth enough to impale them to the doorsteps of death. Dependent on the life he drains from, the stronger and more amplified his creation becomes. He’s also able to figure out how many days, months or years he’s drained someone of life. 

WEAKNESS : At every exchange when he finishes taking life force, he’s left in various degrees of pain. The worst of it all he himself will spit up blood as if he were on the cusp of death itself. In order to create any form of weapon or to imbue the life he’s received, he must sacrifice a part of himself in equal exchange which often leads to self mutilation which he has attempted to numb with varying bottles of alcohol. Once he absorbs from life, he can not reverse i, ultimately only furthering someone closer and closer to death. ( In the realm of vampires, he’s convinced that it may not be death that he’s interfering with but certainly fate and bad luck. He can’t pin point their imminent death but only bringing their end closer. ) 

FUNCTIONS : He uses his power mainly to strengthen weapons ( lesser degree, making them since it comes at a cost of painfully removing potentially one of his own limbs and the heal time varies ) but he also naturally has become a specialist in weapons itself. He makes most of his money off of dealing in arms and then spending it on alcohol ( a cycle that’s continued for quite a long while. )