#incryptid au

[velkynkarma]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

New follow-up to Premium Pandemonium! 

Summary: 

After the Galra Cult incident in Garrison, Keith heads to the city of Daibazaal with the Marmora Society to help with their recruitment efforts. He's hoping to find clues about his missing family, if they even still exist, in the city of his birth.

He doesn't expect to find his mother. And he doesn't expect it to be as complicated as it is.

Excerpt:

“I just want to know your name,” Krolia says. “I’m not going to hurt you. Please.”

There’s a little desperation in her own voice, Keith realizes, well disguised though it is. And her own heartbeat has picked up significantly too. She’s nervous, or excited, or afraid.

Why? He obviously posed no threat. She had him cornered in an alley. But the fact that she’s just as worried about the situation has more of a calming effect on him than her words. He licks his lips, but then after a moment finally admits, “Yeah. That’s my name.”

She breathes in sharply. “I don’t believe it,” she says after a long moment. “I thought...I was so sure you were dead.”

What?

“What are you talking about?” he asks, incredulous. “Who are you? How do you know me? What’s going on?”

She hesitates. For just a moment, like she’s unsure of how to speak, or what words to use. Then she says softly, “I think I’m your mother, Keith.”

[velkynkarma]

Chapter 6: Homo sapiens

Summary:

Shiro is pulled into the most grisly case he’s seen to date, involving heinous blood sacrifices and too many innocent victims. But there’s more to these murders than meets the eye. If they aren’t stopped quickly, the consequences will be devastating for not just the city of Garrison, but the entire world. 

Excerpt:

“Shiro,” she almost whispers. “You need to hurry, right away.”

The jovial atmosphere in the room evaporates instantly. Shiro drops his dice midroll, uncaring of what he gets, and immediately stands to face her. “What’s wrong? Is it Galra?”

“No. There’s been a murder. Several murders, actually,” Allura says. She actually looks a little faint, and Coran immediately abandons his seat to take her arm and gently guide her back to her padded stool. She nods to him gratefully, before consulting her notepad and scribbled notes. “Very bad ones, from the sounds of it. In the park. The siren that called to report it to me was quite shaken. She found the bodies near Nalquod Lake. According to her, they don’t look like simple killings...there are symbols written in blood, and the bodies are...posed.” 

Allura swallows delicately. Shiro frowns. Allura is tougher than most of her species, but caladrii don’t take well to violence and bloodshed. Whatever details the reporter had given Allura, they had obviously deeply disturbed her. That was already a bad sign.

And from the sounds of it, these murders already have very deliberate intent to them. They’re talking blood rituals or a serial killer, and either way, it’s a bad thing to have in his city.

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Special thanks to Toaster for the header imagery and for editing :)

[velkynkarma]

Chapter 5: Vestiarium sapiens

Summary:

Shiro is used to helping the cryptid community in Garrison, but not many of its members come to him of their own accord. So when a bogeyman tracks him down asking for help, telling a story of missing family members she’s searching for, he’s intrigued. And when she’s trailed by a former ally seeking her death, he’s very, very afraid.

Excerpt: 

“You,” Shiro breathes, eyes wide with shock. He aborts his grab for the police baton, and for the first time in years he’s completely frozen, unsure what to do next.

The bogeyman blinks, and his own eyes seem to light up in realization. “You have seen him!” he says, face splitting into a grin with teeth that are slightly too sharp to be natural on a human. “I knew it!”

Shiro frowns. That voice—now that he thinks about it, it’s not quite what he remembers from before. He surveys the bogeyman again and realizes after a belated moment that he isn’t quite the same as the last one. In fact, now that he thinks about it, he’s pretty sure he is actually a she, although it’s hard to tell at first with the baggy T-shirt and short, messy hair. Younger, too—maybe a few years younger than Lance and Hunk, if he had to guess. The other bogeyman he thought might have been around his own age.

“I’m sorry,” Shiro says politely, after a moment. “I’ve mistaken you for someone else. I thought—”

“—that I was my brother,” the bogeyman says. “I look a lot like him, not a hard mistake to make. And you’ve seen him. I can’t believe I finally found you!”

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Special thanks to Toaster for the header imagery and for editing :)

[velkynkarma]

Chapter 4: Gorgos stheno

Summary:

A new friend discovers a murder and calls Shiro in to investigate. But there’s something strange and terribly familiar about this killing, and if they don’t hurry, many more people will find the same fate.

Excerpt: 

“Hey, Shiro,” Lance says, one morning over breakfast. “D’you mind if a friend of mine meets you? I think you can help him with a problem.”

Shiro blinks and looks up from his coffee, toast, and newspaper. Lance had laughed the first time he’d seen Shiro with a newspaper—”Nobody reads those anymore!”—but Shiro keeps on top of them anyway. The Covenant uses any and all news resources to hunt, which means Shiro needs to as well, just to stay on top of things. 

There’s nothing particularly interesting in this one today, though, and Lance’s question is more intriguing. “Who are they meeting?” Shiro asks after a moment, curious. “Ryou Tanaka, or Takashi Shirogane?”

“They’re meeting Shiro, obviously,” Lance drawls, putting down the exsanguinated remains of what had been a pigeon. Shiro has a sneaking suspicion Lance had caught it on the window ledge in the living room this morning, but by now he knows better than to ask. Three months of having a chupacabra as a roommate have more or less gotten him used to occasionally bizarre eating patterns, like draining pigeons at the breakfast table. As long as Lance doesn’t make a mess, he has no problem with it. 

If nothing else, he’s excellent for pest control. Shiro will never have a rodent problem. A chupacabra is better than a housecat in that regard.

“So somebody in the community then,” Shiro summarizes. Most likely a cryptid, but possibly a human sympathizer. Despite Lance’s snarky commentary when they’d first met, Lance is actually pretty accepting of all sorts of people, including humans, provided they aren’t trying to stab him. He’d been doing his best to play tough guy on that night, but Lance really loves people. He spends most of his days out networking, meeting people in the community and making friends, and he’s surprisingly good at it.

“Yeah,” Lance says. “I think you could figure out how to help him, though.”

Shiro frowns. “Is he in danger?” he asks, setting down his coffee. 

“No no no, nothing crazy,” Lance says. “It’s just...well, I’d rather let him explain it, really. After I check if he’s cool asking you for help.”

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Special thanks to Toaster for the header imagery and for editing :)

[velkynkarma]

I finished premium pandemonium recently and I just... <3

I still don't wanna let it go like after you finish a really good book! So is there any little fun facts about that universe that you didn't get to mention before that you wanna share now?

I feel the same way, anon! I’ve been having a hard time letting it go too, which is why I’m writing more fics for it :) There’s one in the works, and since I’m reading the latest book in the series it’s based off of, I’ve been getting even more ideas :)

Facts, though! There are definitely some interesting facts I can share. I also suggest digging through my Premium Pandemonium tag, where I answered questions after I finished posting the original fic. 

Some other tidbits and behind-the-scenes:

Before fleeing the Covenant, Shiro was set up for an arranged marriage, since the Covenant likes to ensure they will always have a new generation of skilled agents and the Shirogane lineage is highly coveted. Presumably his fiancée-to-be was let off the hook once he was presumed dead. Of course, this was all arranged before he even started questioning his sexuality, so he never actually questioned the plan to marry him off. None of the others know about this or they’d probably all be horrified, but it’s not something he ever thought to mention.

Along those lines, when I was originally writing up the first draft notes for this story, Shiro’s encounter with Nyma was originally intended to make him look crazy prepared, by just always having lilu charms on him. Then the series officially recognized him as gay, at which point I just shrugged and made him immune to succubi instead. (This meant I also had to ensure he was crazy prepared to fight Macidus later, but it worked out better that way anyway). 

Shiro is a bit of an unreliable narrator in Premium Pandemonium. There’s hints about it in Keith’s 2 chapters, but he’s a lot more paranoid than his narration would let on, sometimes to the exasperation of others. He has no social media presence and almost never lets anyone take photographs of him unless it’s secured. This also goes for any of his alias roles, including ‘Ryou Tanaka,’ leading most of his self-defense students to share increasingly wild and highly inaccurate conspiracy theories as to why their friendly self defense teacher is not in touch with the internet world at all.

Unlike his canon counterpart, Shiro can’t pilot most aircraft. He does know how to operate some helicopters, but it’s been a while since he’s had to and his skills are a bit rusty. That said, he would probably jump at the chance to learn to fly a plane. (Since PP is set in the modern era, spacecraft will pretty much never be a thing he can learn).

Since they’re both cosmic forces, Crossroads!Lotor has met Bob at least once. They don’t terribly care for each other, or the other’s methods of dealing with mortals.

Lotor was also not intended to show up in the final battle in the initial rough draft, but while on a walk I had such a spark of inspiration for how to include him that I reworked half the ending. That’s actually what this post was about. 

There are a lot of scenarios where I would’ve loved to write the POV of other characters but had to stick with Shiro. Other scenes that would’ve been fun to write would include:

Lance and Hunk moving suncoma!Keith during the Sanda incident

The team breaking in to find and rescue Shiro when he’d been captured

Lance and Keith rescuing people on the campus when they split from Hunk and Shiro

Allura’s POV when she first discovered a Shirogane in her city, or during the fight at the end

The Aeslin mouse religion was altered a little to be different from the book series. In that series, ‘gods’ and ‘priestesses’ are based on either being born into the main family or marrying into it. Since I wanted to write a platonic, found-family story, but I also wanted the aeslin dynamics, I restructured their religious beliefs to be centered around those Allura’s lineage considers ‘family.’ 

Thanks for reading anon. I’m glad you enjoyed the fic :) And if you still can’t let go, I highly recommend picking up the InCryptid series, which is excellent!

[velkynkarma]

Chapter 3: Chupacabra chupacabra

Summary:

A string of serial murders have begun, and time is of the essence. Takashi has no leads on who could be killing victims, but he does have a vampire’s help on the case...and maybe the help of a new friend as well.

Excerpt:

When Takashi gets the call around noon from Allura, he doesn’t think too much of it. Getting a business call from Allura is never a good thing, exactly, but these days it’s usually more small-fry stuff. Bogeymen spooking humans for fun, taliypo knocking over garbage bins, someone’s pet coatl escaping and retreating into a human’s house for warmth. It all needs to be dealt with, but it won’t bring the Covenant down on their heads immediately.

But Allura’s voice is dark and urgent when he answers the cell. “I need you here immediately. We have a serious problem.”

Takashi frowns, and immediately starts shoving the sandwich fixings he’d just been taking out back in the fridge. “I’m on my way. How bad are we talking?”

“People are dying,” Allura says curtly. “Bring your gear. You will most likely want to survey the situation as soon as you can.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I finish gearing up,” Takashi promises, and hangs up.

Winter poses challenges with the cold, the dark, and slippery footing from the occasional flurry. But it does also have its advantages. The long, thick woolen coat Takashi wears can also hide a frankly absurd amount of weaponry, including a small sword and some larger firearms. He arms himself as quickly as possible, in addition to the usual weapons he always has on his person. 

He scribbles a quick note to Keith, who will still be in a sun-coma for a few more hours—Call from Allura, not sure when I’ll be back—and then heads out the door.

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Special thanks to Toaster for the header imagery and for editing :)

[velkynkarma]

Chapter 1: Angelos dhalion

Summary:

Takashi Shirogane is raised in a noble lineage of monster hunters, tasked with protecting humanity from things that would prey on them. He’s always believed in upholding justice, and protecting the innocent. But after a chance encounter with one of the creatures he hunts, he realizes many of those so-called ‘monsters’ are innocent too, and the cause he serves isn’t as noble as he’d been led to believe. 

So he runs. And he hides. And slowly but surely, he comes to learn more about the cryptid world, and finds another family of his own making. He protects those who need it, and he earns his own redemption. 

And all the while, something dark lurks in the city he calls home, whispered of in shadows, threatening the people he’s sworn to protect. Something called Galra.

Excerpt: 

Takashi is eighteen years old when everything he’s ever known about the world changes.

It's not the existence of monsters. Takashi has known about those since he could crawl. The Shirogane clan can trace its lineage back for generations to ancient Japan, where his ancestors had defended humanity from the encroaching, hungry yōkai. The creatures were real, and not something out of myths and legends. They were creatures that could, and would, trick and connive, kill and consume. Creatures that would eradicate humanity if given a chance. 

Takashi had been raised on bedtime stories of the heroics of his family and the terrifying creatures they’d faced. He’d been trained in countless techniques passed down from warrior to warrior. He’d studied for hours on end, to learn the weaknesses of each of those things, that in turn thought humans were weak. He had been eager to earn the right to fight alongside the rest of his family and their allies in the Covenant of St. George. To truly earn the name Shirogane, and the duty and honor to safeguard ordinary humans from things that simply weren’t. 

No, it's not the existence of monsters that stuns him. It's the fact that maybe, this entire time, not all of them have been evil.

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Special thanks to Toaster for the header imagery and for editing :)

[velkynkarma]

Chapter 2: Venandi sapiens

Summary:

Takashi returns to the scene of his last mission, expecting to find a killer. He doesn’t expect what he does come across, but he’s never been one to turn away a person in need.

Excerpt:

Takashi’s not entirely sure what he expects to accomplish, heading back to the scene of the attacks the next day at dusk. But he has to at least check everything out one more time. Just to be certain.

There could be a perfectly innocent explanation for the exsanguinated rats he’d found. There are some blood-drinking cryptids out there who are perfectly harmless to humans, provided they aren’t attacked first, like the chupacabra. It could be happenstance. 

But it could also be a sign of a problem. The ghoul’s kills could easily mask the activities of a competitor. And now that Takashi’s removed the competition, someone else could step out and start hunting humans. 

He’d never forgive himself if he saw a sign of danger and ignored it, to the detriment of innocent people. So he goes back to check it out again. Just for his peace of mind.

He’s glad he does. He cases the whole place again quietly before dark, and finds a couple more dried out rats and mice hidden away that he’s absolutely certain weren’t there when he’d left. They had to have been killed and drained between now and the time he’d made the ghoul kill and cleaned up the evidence last night.

He knows the cryptid doing this has to be nocturnal, or at least very stealthy, because nobody had reported seeing any of the animals get attacked during the day. That most likely limits things to a very narrow window somewhere after two in the morning to sunrise. 

“It’s gonna be another long night,” he grumbles to himself. It’s a good thing he’s used to functioning on almost no sleep. He buys a coffee from the twenty-four hour shop in the area, climbs up on a rooftop, tucks one earbud in for some late-night stakeout music, and settles in for the wait.

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Special thanks to Toaster for the header imagery and for editing :)