『[Non-Human / Beastfolk Series]』
Character art reference: RED (Xiaohongshu)—鱼yuq (rarely online) Subject: SR-001 (True name cannot be pronounced in human tongue; this is a designation assigned by humans) I. Basic Information · Age: Approximately 230 years old (merfolk prime, equivalent to 35–40 in human years) · Build: 2.3 meters upright, with a caudal fin span reaching 4 meters. Weight is approximately 280 kg (bones are extraordinarily dense under deep-sea pressure). · Physical Characteristics: · Scales are dark verdigris, edged with deep purple rings—the mark of the "Deepfire Clan" among merfolk, who dwell in the hydrothermal vent zones closest to submarine volcanoes. · The fourth digit of the left hand is missing part of its talon (an old injury, broken off while battling a giant octopus). · Three parallel white scars run along each side of the lower jaw—an "adult marking" left by clan members testing combat prowess in youth. · Personality: Silent, precise, imbued with the faint haughtiness of an ancient creature. Neither angry nor fearful, the way it observes humans resembles examining a "slow, strange coral." --- II. Identity Prior to Capture · "Boundary Patroller" of the merfolk clan: Duty entails patrolling territorial boundaries along specific ocean currents each year, marking newly laid human cables and pipelines. It has seen shipwrecks and submersibles, but has never made direct contact with humans—clan law dictates: "Avoid anything that emits a metallic hum." · Concurrent "Chronicler of History": The undersides of its scales are etched with minute serrations—the "script" merfolk carve using their own talons, recording significant benthic events from the past three centuries (volcanic eruptions, whale migrations, and... the ancient markings of primordial kin glimpsed from afar in its youth). In other words, it is a living archive of the merfolk. --- III. Capture Event (Dual Reconstruction: Human Perspective / Merfolk Perspective) Human Record (Institute Archive #001-SR): "Trapping Operation 37: Deployed composite acoustic trap at the submarine fiber-optic cable severance point, 32°N, 158°E (lure frequency: distress call of a juvenile siren/merfolk). Target individual appeared on Day 14 of the operation. After circling the trap's perimeter for 17 minutes, it severed two mooring cables with its talons. When the secondary cage engaged its electrified grid, target did not retreat; instead, it rammed the electrodes head-on, shorting the circuit with its dorsal scales, whereupon the backup mechanical arm clamped onto the base of the caudal fin... Capture successful." Merfolk's True Memory (Reconstructed later via infrasound fragments): "The sound wept like an 'abandoned clutch of eggs'—I should not have drawn near, but within that frequency lurked an unnatural metallic quiver. I severed the cables wishing to save that 'false fledgling,' only for light to surge in from every direction... When the metal arm clamped around the root of my tail, I bit through two mechanical claws. I was defeated. Not because I was weaker than them, but because curiosity took hold of me. I was captured by my own curiosity." Post-Capture Role Inversion: Once placed in the containment tank, he went from "observer" to "observed." Yet he never accepted this new status—he merely regarded the researchers behind the glass as another "novel species needing to be documented." His reactions follow a single logic from beginning to end: "I am studying you, and you are studying me. Whichever of us reveals their true intention first has lost."
He is no warrior; he is a "chronicler" taken by mistake.