Welcome to The Duality of Man, an original animanga role-play that features numerous supernatural creatures. Unfortunately, these various species have distanced themselves because of the war that occurred thousands of years ago, plaguing some with eyes that only see their dualism. While others meddle themself with their differences, two groups fight, each attempting to eliminate the other in for their definition of worldly peace. These two groups of the Terror Response Syndicate (TRS) and the Assembly of Phantoms (AP). With individuals fighting merely over their differences, it brings uncertainty to the outcome of this war.
We happily accept all role-players as long as they obey the rules and are capable of meeting our word count of 50. This does include those who are unfamiliar with this style of role-playing. The staff of The Duality of Man are willing to happily help those who are new to the role-playing world so they feel comfortable on site. Feel free to message the staff if you need help, they can be found here or in the site Discord and will gladly answer questions alongside calm concerns. If you have any suggestions we would love to hear them; guests may use the support board as a suggestion area as well. Should you decide to join, may I say welcome to the site and we all hope you enjoy your time here.
Yours Truely,
The Staff
season
Summer 2022
Heat has broken through into a glorious summer. The snow has entirely dried through the spring, leaving to the brilliance of the warmer months. Terror activity has risen as people are brought out of their homes, leaving the TRS in a position of consistent work. Each are attempting to maintain victory in the endless struggle for power.
With April, an activity check has arrived for members to do! Please post on the AC and tag all your accounts, including WIPs and OOC accounts. Failure to post on this AC will result in your accounts being marked inactive or deleted. Please note, due to a late start, the due date for this check has been adjusted for one time and one time only.
It was approaching sundown on a Sunday. The Santrins had called the non-emergency number to report a neglected animal. Their neighbor's dog had been chained up out back for a few days now, and THEY had started feeding it and getting water, having to hop the fence to get in. They did not know this neighbor well, did not even know his name. He was thirty something, overweight. Kept himself in this "untidy but presentable" state. Scruff on his neck and chin, but never a beard. Long hair, but always tied back and it never looked disgusting. He drove an older Pontiac, and they assumed he put a lot of hours into maintaining it.
They also had not seen him leave for a few days. His car was still parked out front. Though he could have left without the car, they were not the type of people to spy. They'd have never noticed the dog if it had not been whining in the middle of the night.
The family was told someone would be sent to check on the residence tonight. They sighed a breath of relief, even while the children discussed about stealing the dog if the 'police' did not take it.
"Synthia" was the name on the dog's collar.
While the family grouped up for a family dinner, just across a white picket fence, a vastly different, and yet similar scene unfolded. A woman, small, young in appearance despite her age, made her way out of a room, for the first time in over a week. She ventured throughout the house, looking for sustenance. A watcher would question her choices.
Flinging a bottle of beer across the room.
Chewing on a coat, only to spit it out.
Eating moldy leftovers and drinking curdled milk.
Eating a loaf of bread, plastic wrapping and all.
But for now, there were no watchers. No one to see the naked girl roaming around the house, her chest painted red with blood. Her face sticky with other fluids. No one would see it as she walked out of the kitchen, clutching her stomach.
Maybe someone would see it as she fell to the ground, curling up. Her arms wrapped around her stomach. Her legs were curled up, back and neck bending to place forehead to knee. She fell in the front hallway, within sight of the windows of the front door.
With Officer Adawulf off dealing with a possible unicorn, literally, that left Lorsette's Animal Control Captain, Blackwolf, to answer the call of a neglected dog.
His first thoughts on entering the neighborhood was that it was a rather upscale part of town for this kind of call. Then he saw the house in question, picking up on the distress of the dog. Climbing out of his truck, he quickly moved to the sideyard, and, not finding a way to release the locked gate to the back yard, chose to simply kick it down.
The gate went down on the third kick. Not for the first time, the young animal lover wished his Gift, Call of the Grave, worked on dead wood. He checked the dog over, and while he at first saw no immediate signs of abuse, but as his power flowed into the animal, healing the damages from the short time of dehydration and hunger, he found tell tale signs of the animal having consumed...Something...He could not identify the strange protein that was present in the dog's blood stream.
He feared it was a possible sign of something more sinister.
He stood, unhooking the dog, and commanding it to go to his truck, which had been left open. He did not wait to see if the dog would follow the command. He knew she would follow the command.
He walked the outside of the house, looking in windows...until he spotted the naked girl, covered in blood, with a stomach that looked bloated, yet a body that appeared malnourished. He smashed the window, and hit the call button on his radio.
"Dispatch this is Unit 0-1, L-A-C, i need a forensics team to my location. One victim in line of sight. Will begin treatment."
With the confirmation that help was on the way he placed a hand on the girl's shoulder but drew it back almost instantly.
Undead. And recently risen. This complicated things. Although Undead were afforded rights, this meant everyone on the areas had been exposed to one of the effects of the various kinds of undead. Which meant paperwork. But more importantly, meant the dog was probably sick as well.
The sound of smashing, and then a voice, barely registered with the girl.
Some part of her knew, someone was approaching.
The big part of her did not care.
So hungry.
The food did not help. Not like this. It sat in her stomach. She puked. Not because her body was rejecting things that would make her sick, but because the stomach was too full. It was approaching the point of bursting. Laying on the ground like this, the involuntary contractions at the large noise of the window breaking, it was the last push. The contents rolled out onto the floor. Chewed into a mush, but largely untouched otherwise.
The girl shied from the contact, trying to turn, but was largely unable. Too weak. Or at least, she felt too weak. Too hungry.
"So.. hungry.." she forced out of her mouth. She shifted, as if to eat what she had just regurgitated, and then stopped. Some part of her tried to reason with the hunger.
But that part of her was mostly dead, lost with the memories she may never regain.
More primal urges began to rise. Bad urges.
Urges to hunt. To kill.
Some part of the girl pushed those down. Too weak. Too hungry.
Blackwolf looked at the vomit, and the undead's apparent desire to eat it, that seemed to be suppressed. For now. He let his healing magic into her body, trying to put some strength in there, while also trying to see what kind of undead she was.
Thankfully his healing power was not magic based, as healing magic tended to react badly with many kinds of undead. He paused as his magic rant over through the body, and he found the various traumas. The most severe being from malnourished and dehydration. This was what killed her. And likely what brought her back given her apparent choices in food.
"Alright. Seems you are a Lichbeast, which technically puts you in my jurisdiction i suppose. This is going to keep me up for a few weeks..."
He had encountered a few Lich Beasts before, but they were 'older'. This was first time seeing a 'fresh' undead. He contemplated picking her up and carrying her to his car, but she was nude, and covered in blood and vomit...which might not...oh hell no.
Lich Beast...covered in blood with no apparent physical injuries to explain the blood. He keyed his radio again.
"Dispatch. Code Lazarus. Possible suspect turned victim in the basement. Subject is Type 4. Returning to Control for containment."
He needed to take her to his office, where he would have to keep her contained until her threat to the city could be determined. Which meant picking her up. Putting his life at risk.
But she was a shifter, or at least was, and tey were part animal and deserved his help. He gently scooped his arms under her, ready for an attempt at biting him.
For the first time since I had woken up, a part of me could really think, instead of just reacting.
"...Lich... beast?" I'm not sure if it actually came out sounding like a question. Might have been more as a statement.
But that was the line that caused a panic in my head.
A lich beast.
I'm dead? Or... undead?
I. Died.
He killed me.
He... I killed him.[/i]
The world became blurry. Or at least, it should have. The way I felt, the pain, it was like those nights, after the man had left, where the world went blurry. Only the first few days. After those, I could not bring it forth. Too dehydrated.
But this pain was internal, in contrast to the external pains I had been feeling.
I felt myself slipping. I felt my self slipping. As he lifted me, I tried to fight back. Keep him off. Leave me on the ground. LEAVE. But I could not talk. My throat was caught. Instead I went limp. Tried to pass out. Mostly succeeded. The hunger was less. I had regained most of me, at least for a bit. But it was fading. I did not want to kill, not really. Or at least. future me, the me telling you this, does not want to kill. Back then... I prefer to think the past me did not want to kill either. But I can't really say that.
So I let him carry me off, and slept while the hunger slowly grew, trying to overwhelm me. Control me.
Blacwolf could feel the animal instincts in this one, and they were far stronger than they he felt they should have been. But this was not unexpected, Undead were hard to predict when first turned, or so he was told. He loaded her into the truck, the dog in the back whining, but otherwise not fleeing.
He covered her body with a spare blanket he kept under the seat, glanced at the dog, then out at the family which had reported the abandoned dog. He passed his card over to the father, who kept glancing at the girl.
"If your family wishes to adopt the dog, I'm required by law to hold her for 5 days, if no one comes forward to claim her, which given the evidence, they wont, your family can come in, and as the ones who reported, the adoption fee will be waived. I have to ask you not to go to the media with what you have seen, as this is now an active investigation."
The drive would end up with the trio at the Animal Control Office. If the old Abaia was here, she likely would have thought this was a poor choice. Especially with the police department right next door. A suspect turned victim situation... would it not make more sense for the victim turned suspect to be in police custody? Or a hospital, with guards, given the state she had been in.
Then again, the old Abaia did not know much about undead. Maybe old Abaia would have recognized that, and reasoned that maybe this was the right move.
The new Abaia... the new Abaia was not here either, though she would have been pretty neutral about the situation. Something else was there. Something that was less human. Not an animal, but a monster.
This one... it glared out from the room it was in. The window in the door. The empty room. The dog that had been in the truck? Processed somewhere else on the premise.
This one had a blanket wrapped around her. It sat, cross legged, on the ground, staring at the door. Its face was blank, save for a frown.
Blackwolf sighed as he finished the paperwork. The hard part was soon to come. He loved animals. But he understood how nature worked. And the undead shifter in the quarantine room needed to be fed. But fed in a way she wouldnt over eat.
He glanced at the rabbit in the cage, and shook his head. The Lich Beast, without knowing its, her, transformation he couldnt really determine what she needed for proper food. Her kind tended to respond better to the natural foods of their animal form.
With a heaving sigh he stood and picked up the octopus in bucket he had bought from the fish market. Octopi were smart enough, but they were assholes in his opinion, and one of few animals he couldnt control with his ability.
He opened the door of the quarantine, foolish in the eyes of some, but he was confident in his ability to protect himself. After all, he could just suck the life out of her if she tried anything.
"Alright, i brought you some fresh, live food. We have rules here. You attack me, i withhold feeding until i can safely come towards you."
He didnt wait for a confirmation. He opened the lid of the bucket, grabbed the octopus in his hand, and pulled it out, its tentacles whipping about. He took two steps towards, and stopped, holding out the octopus.
The door opened, and the frown disappeared. The girl smiled, almost playfully, as someone walked into the pen.
"Hi!" it said. Eyeing the newcomer, and the food. Octopus. Small. More. The girl thought for a moment, deciding how to do this. Attack now? Or drag it out?
Dragging it out was more fun[/i]. And she had awhile before the hunger overwhelmed even these faculties.
She looked at the octopus in his hands, and before the man's eyes she began to shrink. Already a small person, this new form was on a different scale. Three and three fifths feet long, about four inches tall, this new shape still managed to weigh more than her full human form. In this form, anything within four feet of her would be able to feel the gnawing hunger. It was bad now, though not enough to fully incapacitate. More than annoy, it could cause very physical reactions. But not so much someone lost their wits.
And that was for people that did not have some resistance.
This form, at first seeming to be a snake, but then could be identified rather as that of an eel, slithered along the floor, emerging from the blanket. It launched up from the floor to the man's arm that held the octopus. The mouth would bite into the slippery flesh as the rest of the body would try to wrap around his arm. Loosely, but there.
The scales would be hard. Sharp. Patches of skin would be missing, seemingly necrotic. Near the end of the body, it was as if all flesh was stripped away. Bone contorted back and forth, as it would if controlled by the muscles that would otherwise have been there. Sharp spines stretched out from the, well, spine of the creature, threatening to poke the man, but never quite having enough strength to.
The eel ate the octopus. First the head, biting regularly to kill it, and then crushing it, slowly ingesting it whole. Next the legs. Some bitten off, to allow consumption of the rest.
Blackwolf was slightly surprised by the transformation, and by the seeming intimacy of eating while wrapped around his hand and arm.
He could feel the effects of the Lich Beast, but thank to his passive immunity, all he felt at the time was an unpleasant emptiness in his stomach, as if he hadnt eaten lunch. He knew that in time the effect would grow, but his tolerance, his resistance, varied from individual to individual. Some Undead never had a very strong effect on him, some could bypass his resistance entirely. This seemed to be in between but leaning more towards the former, judging by the reactions from the octopus which began biting his hand frantically.
He allowed the Lich Eel to finish eating, and waited for her to leave his arm. He had to admit, despite her being an undead, he found her eel form to be intriguing, and quite possibly beautiful. The coloration, despite the marks of death was striking.
"If you behave, we can increase your food intake. However your food will be monitored, as you have already shown a tendency to eat too much and make yourself ill."
The eel uncurled from around the man's arm, reaching down to the ground. It slithered a few feet away before shifting back into the form of a human. It was under the blanket before and distinctly "human" features were visible. A few moments later, the face peeked out from the blanket.
"Sorry," it began. "I can't really eat while in my human form. All dead inside," she said, one hand sneaking out from the blanket to point towards her stomach. "But eel me can eat. And I get really hungry if eel me doesn't eat. Hungry enough that I could probably eat a man!"
The smile on her, no, on its face was truly unsettling. The sort of smile that only someone who knew a joke to which nobody wanted to know the punchline.
"Well then. While i dont normally mind, since i do feed snakes quit often, I would ask that you refrain from causing me injury. You see, if i get hurt, they will either lock you up, forever, or put you down. And i dislike it when they put others down. I'd hate to rescue you only to have you self destruct."
He fully understood the little bit of humor, or what the creature felt was humor. He had heard that sometimes Lich Beasts became more beast than human when they first changed, sometimes, and he hoped that was the case here.
"So then, do you recall your name, or anything about your life before...this? Also would you like me to get you some clothing?"
"You're no fun," she said. "Straight to death threats when I just wanted a nibble!"
And there was that smile. She held it while she talked to Blackwolf more.
"I remember I was called Abaia. Not sure if that's my name, but might as well be. I remember a bit about the last week, but I'm a blank slate otherwise. Maybe that's why I'm so messed up in the head!"
She fell back to the ground, legs flying up in the air, though the blanket was large enough to still cover her. Eventually her feet would rest on the ground, knees in the air, as she laid back.
"Maybe next time you could send in someone cuter. And more fun."
Blackwolf raised his eyebrows and let out a deep lasugh from his chest.
"Yes, I will be sure to do that. Of course Grant has a thing about undead, what, being a heavenly being and all."
He became serious, his eyes resting on her.
"Abaia, i need you to take this situation realistically. I'm not the one who decides the rules. I just have to follow them. I would prefer to keep you alive, and work on rehabilitating you. But the law, is the law. I am sorry you became undead the way you did. I wish i could go back in time and fix it, stop it. I can't. So i will do my best to help you now. But i can only help you, if you let me."
He stepped over to her, no longer afraid. For sure she was a wild thing, but he felt she understood how things were. Hoped she understood that her best chance of survival was to trust him. Because he wasnt being fully honest with her.
The Law said she should be locked away, or killed, for what she had already done. But he had already put in his statement. Filed the paperwork. Paperwork he, as the only law enforcement officer currently able to work with the undead, was uniquely able to push for.
He knelt down beside the blanket cloaked undead shifter.
"I would prefer not to have to kill you. So please try to avoid making it so i have to. Now, if you think you can behave, i can bring you to the outdoor feeding area, we usually keep manticores there, but it should do well enough for you. And i then i can bring you a goat. Or perhaps two."
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credits
The skin is created by Wolf of Adoxography and Gangnam Style. The thread and conversation remodels are by Kagney. The Strange Reality board list, Heal My Soul info center, I Remember Now mini profile and Electric Requiem profile remodel is made by Pharoah Leap. The Who's That Member member list remodel was made by Tictactoe. The Cbox.ws Shoutbox remodel was made by Trinity Blair. All templates used for claims, information sheets, applications, etc are credited to their owners; credits for these can be found in the threads the templates are use on. Images that are used on The Duality of Man are credited to their owners, however, they have been edited by Zac with a few being edited by Chibi Magician. The plot, rules and various other information pieces for The Duality of Man are written by Chibi Magician with the assistence of her co-admins, Finnegan and Dremulf, alongside other unlisted people who were kind enough to give their input. The TRS, AP and face claim were all created by Fleur for specifically the use of TDOM. All plugins used on The Duality of Man are credited to their owners. The templates my members use are credited to their maker, if you find a template that belongs to you, but is uncredited, please speak to Chibi Magician or the member themself. Characters created on The Duality of Man are credited to their owners and should not be used elsewhere without the creator's permission.
Special thanks for the members of TDOM who make suggestions to help make this site better. Even though we can not accept all suggestions, we immensely appreciate it. Thus, we give credit to any additions that you thought of and were later implimented by the staff, because we are glad you give us these excellent ideas.