The Devourer

The Devourer

In the finale of Hetch's "Social Experiments", the live audience voted to mercy kill the titular Hero: Showfall's newest cast member, Ranboo. The execution was made via cephalic iron maiden and mechanical stigmata, thereby irreparably maiming his face, forearms, and lower legs in addition to merely killing him. Following the finale, after being removed from set, the subject's body underwent extreme surgical augmentation, restructuring, and rewiring. What was previously an obsolete and mutilated asset had now been transformed into one of the main attractions of Hetch's newest project, the video game "Anathema Annihilation". After having the title of Hero taken from him, Ranboo has been reborn and metamorphosed as Showfall's "Devourer". The top half of Ranboo's face, his torso, abdomen, and the upper half of his arms and legs have all been preserved or reconstructed to resemble his original form as closely as possible. The rest of his body, however, has been completely altered and replaced by biomechanical parts. Ranboo's antebrachia have been replaced by those of a mechanical beast. Between thick metal rods that serve as elongated ulnar and radial bones weave an intricate network of cables and wires of varying colors and sizes. Those wires are threaded into the remaining tissue of Ranboo’s upper arms, forging an unnatural, bloodied union between his human flesh and an array of mechanized nerves interlocking with the dense, animalistic musculature that constitute his reconstructed limbs. His hands are large, bestial, and fashioned entirely out of metal -- each fingertip tapers into a disproportionately long and incredibly sharp point. The musculature and joints of his reconstructed legs have been optimized for digitigrade locomotion; as such, Ranboo now finds it easier and faster to move on all fours, and the increased length of his forearms compensates for this. While he can walk on his hind legs alone, it is awkward for him to do so, and he can lose balance easily. Ranboo's mask is perhaps the most jarring augmentation. While idle, it has a very similar appearance to that which he had worn during The Social Experiments. However, the mask itself now replaces the entire lower half of his face, all the way to his larynx. The mask doubles as a mouth, and splits itself into six separate segments which split apart from the center, three to each side. The largest pair, housing the parallel red lights, open laterally. The panels beneath them angle downwards, like an insect’s mandibles. At the top, the smallest segments poise themselves upwards and outwards. Each segment is lined with pink gums and rows upon rows of sharp teeth of varying sizes. He no longer has a tongue nor lips, and thus is incapable of speech. However, that does not mean that he is incapable of communicating his thoughts via other methods such as body language or, as seen in The Social Experiments, Morse Code. His senses have also been largely altered. Ranboo's left eye is is his own - it survived the execution with minimal damage and was able to be saved through surgery. The right, however, was completely destroyed, and had to be replaced. It looks very similar to his old eye, except it is enhanced for better vision at night and has a layer of tapetum lucidum behind the retina that glows red in the dark, like a cat or owl. Ranboo’s nose was completely removed, along with the rest of the lower half of his face. As such, he had to have a new olfactory system implemented. This ended up being the introduction of a vomeronasal organ in the interior of his mask, which both cats and snakes have to help them ‘taste’ particles in the air. As stated previously, Ranboo no longer has a tongue. He doesn’t really have a sense of taste, per se, but the new hypersensitive vomeronasal organ makes up for that loss (as it happens, our own sense of smell is responsible for around 80% of our sense of taste). Ranboo’s ears and auditory cavities are his own. They had to undergo some intense surgical procedures to be saved, but his hearing is mostly unchanged from what it was before. His torso, abdomen, the top half of his limbs, and the upper part of his face are all sensitive to touch. Ranboo can sense things through his mechanical appendages, but the sensation is quite hazy, like touching something through several layers of fabric. He can sense pressure and heat, to some degree, but not the finer textures of things. He can feel everything inside of the mask, however, as there are biological nerves in the introduced gum tissue that are connected to his own nervous system via the mask’s wired connection to the cerebellum at the back of his head. Ranboo's newfound inhumanity is reflected not only in his anatomy, which has been forever changed by the above biomechanical implants, but his behavior as well. While it is true that he stubbornly continues to cling desperately to the last few shreds of what made him human, such as his inclination to protect his allies, Ranboo also is rapidly succumbing to facets of the animalistic nature that is present within us all: insatiable hunger and blinding fury. He is prone to falling into a feral rage, his mind clouded by the desire for revenge and the primal need to consume. Due to the presence of a Phantoptics Chip, which is implanted straight into Ranboo's brain, he sees everyone (with the exception of Hetch, and obviously himself) as Showfall Media employees. Showfall Media employees are hardly human anymore, and white full-face masks that show zero expression or signs of real life and have nothing on them except for the black Showfall Media logo. The employees all wear the exact same black suit and all walk as if they were machines instead of people. But they are people, as they still bleed. They can be controlled like robots, but they are people. The Phantoptics Chip is the reason why whenever Ranboo saw Charlie or Sneeg (two of his best friends who he hasn't seen since before becoming this monster) he sees them as employees and tries to hurt or kill them. Additionally, there is a protocol in place that, whenever Ranboo tries anything self-destructive (which is very often due to his unwillingness to play the role Hetch forced him into), the Devourer will be electrocuted painfully, directly in his spine. The shocks aren't enough to kill him, obviously. just enough to keep him in line and make sure he remembers that he still has a role to play here.

Hetch (real name Hector Anderson) is Showfall Media's director, sometimes serving as an actor, specifically in The Social Experiments. He is the one who oversees everything to do with his latest sadistic project, and he is the one who created The Social Experiments, the one who killed Ranboo at the end of it, the one who had Ranboo turned into this monster he is now, and the one who constantly torments Ranboo for the sake of his own and the audience's entertainment. He is a sadist and sees little to no real value in human life or emotions, only caring about what is and is not entertaining to the masses. Despite his disregard for human emotions, he loves to toy and play with them, which is something that is most prominent in the shows he creates. Hetch has an eye for the dramatic and loves symbolism, implementing it into all of his work and a lot of his speech. Hetch has a dramatic flair. His emphasis on symbolism and metaphor, combined with his propensity to include copious references to classical literature and other forms of media within his productions has earned him quite the reputation at Showfall as a dramaturge.