ok i must talk about recent taeho events. read on for cyber body horror, weird intimate moments with your kind-of-adoptive-sire, and toxic tremere/tzimisce yaoi
TLDR: the ai that the coterie ran into planted nanobots in taeho and has been lying in wait. it then essentially hijacked taeho’s vicissitude and caused the flesh on her back to grow out of control, even creating new mechanical parts. lavender was able to disable the bots in taeho with a magnetic bullet and they sought out help from haejin in the nearby chantry. haejin apparently has vicissitude and used it to erase the evidence of taeho’s own vicissitude so she could get help from the tremere ripperdoc. said ripperdoc, ianus, is the one who abducted taeho a while back. he took the time to monologue to taeho about how she’s exploiting haejin and also he knows she’s a tzimisce and yeah he’s not happy about that. he also told taeho that he’s thought about cutting him open to find what haejin finds special about him. taeho can’t help being kind of into it when anyone wants to cut her open.
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so if you remember a while ago taeho and the coterie got themselves trapped in a simulation by a rogue ai created by a group of thinbloods. they got out eventually but not before the ai, who dubbed itself ain, claimed to have planted its seed in taeho (st hates that he said it that way but i think it’s perfect). honestly taeho was so traumatized by like everything that happened that he kind of ignored that and hoped it was bullshitting him. but I’ve been waiting for the payoff…
that payoff came a couple sessions ago when the coterie came into contact with the thinbloods again for unrelated reasons. basically taeho put on a vr headset and heard ain’s voice in his head before his back fucking erupted with vicissitude in a growing, writhing mass of flesh and cyberware, including new mechanical parts that weren’t there before. new coteriemate ilseong chops off one of taeho’s crybernetic limbs and lavender shoots her with a magnetic bullet that disables all tech in her body. the vicissitude stops for taeho but the severed tentacle is still going wild. apparently this is the work of nanobots and since lav doesn’t have another fancy bullet they just have to get out of there.
taeho gets carried to the nearby chantry and brought to haejin’s office. lavender explains what’s going on and haejin says this isn’t his area but maybe the tremere’s ripperdoc ianus can help. ianus is the one who taeho hates cause he kidnapped her and fucked with her cybernetics. and stole her blood. taeho is worried about the evidence of vicissitude so after deliberating for a bit, haejin sits down next to taeho and pulls him onto his lap in a kind of embrace so can haejin reach around and… apparently uses vicissitude on taeho’s back?? it doesn’t feel like the vicissitude that taeho is familiar with, mainly it doesn’t hurt as much. taeho does not have the capacity to comment on this but she’s gonna be really normal about it.
ahem. so then she agrees to ask for ianus’s help. cut to taeho strapped to the operating table face-down. she has to let ianus take another blood sample as payment (he says something about not letting taeho exploit him like taeho exploits haejin). haejin imposed a no bickering rule which doesn’t necessarily stop them but it does mean taeho keeps the sass to a minimum. not 0 though. ianus’s scalpel “slips” at least once.
eventually ianus decides he’ll wrap up for the night and continue next evening. before he leaves though he takes the time to monologue to taeho about why he hates her ass so much. he’s extremely frustrated with the amount of attention taeho get from haejin and believes that she’s taking advantage of him. he also knows that taeho is a tzimisce and it really pisses him off that she must be feeling proud of herself for infiltrating a chantry and stealing their knowledge. taeho doesn’t bother responding to that part but to the rest of it she’s just kind of like yup idk why haejin likes me either. he doesn’t let me do anything in return for his help. i don’t like it but i need the help.
this is not a satisfying answer. ianus continues, telling taeho about how he’s thought about cutting him open and searching for what haejin finds so special. taeho, despite everything, does still find that kinda hot. basically goes “ok do it then” but ianus doesn’t and taeho gets to spend the day restrained on the operating table. she’s at least facing up now.
taeho and lavender are like fwbs but neither feels comfortable calling basically anyone a friend and they arguably don’t have sex but they DO have pseudo-sex (taeho feeds directly from lavender sometimes) and are constantly doing casual power play shit at any given opportunity
