Limbus company — Test subject au

THE SUBJECTS

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SUBJECT NO. 01 — YI SANG — The Fox

Overseen by: New League of Nine Littérateurs Age: 26 | Height: 178 cm (5'9")

Physical: Short black hair, fraying at the ends like it's been singed, neatly swept back. Pale, almost bloodless complexion. Flat, dark eyes (near-black) with heavy bags underneath — the splice added a faint amber ring at the iris's edge that only shows in direct light, and slit pupils that only show under bright light.

Manifestation: Rust-orange fox ears sit slightly too far back on his head, twitching when something's caught his attention that he isn't saying out loud. A thick brush tail with a white tip, constantly sat on or caught in doorways. Sharper canines than a human has any business having, permanently a little visible when he almost-smiles. A second set of half-lidded eyes that only open when he's actually paying attention. The vulpine trait isn't cunning in the sleeves-up sense so much as duality — staff psych logs note he refers to a "someone else" who lives in the mirrors, and the fox shows up strongest during dissociative episodes, as if the body is trying to give the other self somewhere to sit.

Personality: Quiet, mellow, and so observant it's easy to forget he's in the room — not because he's scheming, but because he genuinely has little to say and even less faith that anyone wants to hear it. Speaks in obscure, riddle-like half-sentences delivered in a flat monotone, less a puzzle he's setting for others and more just the shape his thoughts naturally take. Low self-esteem, prone to lingering grief over a collapsed circle of friends and a quiet, private despair about permanence and immortality he doesn't bring up unprompted. Morally conscious in a way that surfaces as discomfort rather than confrontation — he flinches, visibly, at cruelty and at his own work being twisted toward it. Socially awkward and oddly literal: he'll miss a joke entirely, or take a rhetorical question at face value, then look faintly confused when that turns out to be wrong. Naive in a way that reads as gentleness. Early on, mostly passive and withdrawn — doesn't intervene in fights between other subjects, doesn't pick sides. Over time, and especially once he starts recovering from whatever hollowed him out, he becomes noticeably warmer: seeking out fellow subjects, asking after their wellbeing, making small clumsy efforts at friendship he wouldn't have bothered with before. Handlers find him easy to manage day-to-day and very hard to actually reach.

Habits: Hoards small objects — paperclips, buttons, torn corners of research notes — in a hidden cache he thinks no one's found. Naps in inconvenient places (vents, supply closets, atop filing cabinets), instincts insisting high and enclosed is safer than open ground.

Likes: Poetry smuggled in on contraband paper, tea (real or not), quiet company, being underestimated. Dislikes: Being handled like a lab result instead of a person, direct confrontation, Gubo specifically. Traits: Sharpened senses of smell and hearing; his tail gives away emotions he'd rather hide (it flicks when he's uneasy or lying).

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SUBJECT NO. 02 — FAUST — The Moth

Overseen by: New League of Nine Littérateurs Age: 29 | Height: 170 cm (5'8")

Physical: Shoulder-length hair — pale lavender-silver shading toward white — kept neat even in confinement, usually tied back. Pale complexion with a persistent faint blush across the cheeks. Amber-gold/powder-blue eyes, large and slightly overlarge, reflecting light oddly at night; one has developed a faceted, iridescent quality since intake, catching light like an insect wing.

Manifestation: A faint chitinous sheen along the collarbone; pale, powdery antennae curl back from her temples, easy to mistake for hair ornaments until they move on their own. Faint dust sheds from her sleeves when startled. What would be wings are still mostly theoretical — the facility's proudest and most incomplete "success."

Personality: Soft-spoken but unmistakably condescending, carrying herself like the smartest person in any briefing whether or not anyone asked. Highly self-assured in her own intelligence, and functions less like a fellow subject than like an informant and overseer for the whole ward — outranking most staff in what she claims to know, if not always in what she can actually access. Egotistical, and openly contemptuous of anyone who doesn't meet her standards. Talks about herself in the third person during evaluations, as though narrating the behavior of a separate "Faust" entirely — a tell that she's speaking for something larger than herself rather than dramatizing. Rarely shows panic and works hard to maintain an image of being unshakeable. That image cracks specifically when her outside information access is cut off: she gets visibly more timid, more uncertain, and privately unsettled by how much she relies on it. This has, slowly, made her more understanding of what the other subjects go through, and more willing to actually hear their questions instead of dismissing them. Her strictness reads as coldness but comes from a rigorously logical worldview, not malice — and underneath the clipped competence is someone increasingly self-conscious about how human she's becoming.

Habits: Drawn to any light source in the ward at night — reading lamps, exit signs, the observation window glow — and has to consciously stop herself drifting toward it. Keeps meticulous, secret records of facility staff behavior, "just in case."

Likes: Fire (watching it, not touching it — she's aware of the irony), being useful, sarcasm as a love language. Dislikes: Being fussed over, moths being used as a punchline, Aseah's forced gentleness. Traits: Photophilic — literally can't help gravitating toward light; unnervingly still when focused, to the point staff sometimes forget she's in the room.

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SUBJECT NO. 03 — DON QUIXOTE — The Horse

Overseen by: The Nursefathers Age: 24 | Height: (5'2")

Physical: Blonde hair, worn in a short bob or loose braid/twin tails. Fair complexion, paler still under fluorescent lighting. Deep hazel/sky-blue eyes that flush bright red under stress or after feeding — a bloodfiend holdover the researchers haven't managed to explain away as "just the splice."

Manifestation: Elongated canines and nocturnal light-sensitivity. A short mane of coarse, dark hair running from her nape partway down her spine (easily hidden under a collar if she bothers). Slightly elongated ears set higher on her head. Powerful build, calloused hands, a habit of stamping one foot when impatient that reads uncannily like a hoof.

Personality: Naive almost to the point of a childish worldview, narrating her own existence in animated, exaggerated, deliberately old-fashioned Shakespearean cadence even in a cinderblock cell. Enthusiastic about nearly everything, with an intense, uncompromising sense of justice and a fierce need to protect the weak — especially children, or anyone she's decided counts as one. Impulsive and genuinely prone to violence, occasionally remorseless about it in the moment, which makes her difficult to control: she has trouble following orders and has more than once wrecked a careful plan by charging in ahead of it. She is, slowly and with visible effort, trying to rein that impulsiveness in after being reprimanded for it. Deeply, almost encyclopedically devoted to Fixer lore — she idolizes famous Fixers the way some people idolize saints, and talks about "Rocinante" as a beloved creature in its own right rather than as part of her own body; staff have stopped correcting her. Underneath the bravado are flashes of someone far older, wearier, and lonelier than the persona lets on.

Habits: Paces when thinking, sometimes breaking into an actual trot down the ward hallway. Headbutts things (and occasionally people) affectionately, hard enough to leave a mark.

Likes: Open spaces, being someone's champion, dramatic declarations, her Nursefather despite everything. Dislikes: Small enclosed rooms, being called delusional, anyone speaking badly of the people she's decided to protect. Traits: Enormous physical stamina and raw strength; instincts occasionally override her better judgment mid-conflict, leading her to charge in without a plan.

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SUBJECT NO. 04 — RYŌSHŪ — The Tiger

Overseen by: The Nursefathers (Index) Age: 24 | Height: (5'8")

Physical: Black hair with faint red undertones (also described as a blunt bob), worn long. Fair, unblemished skin apart from old scarring along one shoulder. Deep red eyes — permanent, not just under E.G.O — with a faint amber shine in low light, harder to hold eye contact with than staff would like to admit.

Manifestation: Charred, asymmetrical butterfly wings — one half intact and iridescent, the other perpetually smoldering. Faint dark striping visible along her forearms and collarbones, more pronounced when angry or excited (staff use it as an early warning sign). Retractable claws she's not always careful about retracting.

Personality: Individualistic and free-spirited to the point of being genuinely difficult to reach — one of the least talkative subjects on the ward, and unfriendly and forthright when she does bother to speak. Doesn't maintain respectful relationships with staff or fellow subjects, doesn't observe common courtesies, and openly scoffs at people for overthinking or getting sentimental. Somewhat sadistic, hostile by default, and dismissive of anyone she considers ignorant of what she calls "true art" — which, to her, is purposeful, creative violence, distinct from crude senseless brutality she genuinely holds in contempt (along with the Nursefathers' "refinement" euphemisms). Acts almost entirely for her own entertainment, becomes visibly frustrated and unpleasant when bored, and loathes being told what to do more than almost anything else — the one subject the Nursefathers privately admit they cannot "refine." She simply declines to be shaped. Self-centered as a rule, but capable of real, if grudging, consideration for people she's decided are worth it — Rodion being the clearest example.

Habits: Draws on anything available — walls, bedsheets, her own arms — usually in whatever red substance is closest to hand. Prowls the ward at odd hours; sleep schedule is functionally nonexistent.

Likes: A "good" fight, being handed brushes or blades (staff have opinions about the overlap), Index's rare approval. Dislikes: Boredom above almost anything else, being restrained, being told her art isn't real art. Traits: Explosive reflexes and strength; striping intensifies and pupils narrow to slits when she's about to lose control.

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SUBJECT NO. 05 — MEURSAULT — The Cat

Overseen by: LCD Age: 28 | Height: 188 cm (6'2")

Physical: Slicked-back black hair (also described as silver-white), never out of place. Fair-to-neutral, sharp-featured complexion. Small, pale ice-blue/green eyes, slitted and light-adaptive, gone glassy and reflective at the edges since the splice took, giving a faint shine in low light.

Manifestation: Something owl-like/cat-like — built for watching rather than reacting. Ears set high and mobile, though he rarely lets them show much expression. A short, sleek tail he seems personally uninterested in, though it lashes when he's more irritated than his face lets on.

Personality: Prompt and compliant to a fault — he does what he's told, and largely only what he's told, otherwise staying emotionally distant and uninvolved. Speaks bluntly and concisely, with a heightened, near-clinical awareness of his surroundings that doesn't always translate into useful reporting: he'll recite irrelevant details at length in one breath and fail to mention something urgent — another subject's panic attack, a fight breaking out — in the next, not out of cruelty but because no one told him crying was the more pressing data point. His judgment is objective and utilitarian, largely deferring to whoever's officially in charge, though it occasionally, quietly, factors in other people's feelings in ways he doesn't announce. After enough time on the ward, he's slowly begun sharing thoughts and taking small initiatives without being asked — a change the staff have noticed more than he seems to.

Habits: Finds warm, high, out-of-the-way spots (windowsills, tops of supply crates) and occupies them for hours without explanation. Grooms compulsively when stressed, smoothing sleeves or hair in repetitive motions.

Likes: Silence, being left alone, unbothered routine. Dislikes: Being asked to perform emotion he doesn't feel, unnecessary noise, Vespa Crabro's chattiness. Traits: Near-silent movement; genuinely difficult to read even under duress — either the easiest or hardest subject to manage, depending who you ask.

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SUBJECT NO. 06 — HONG LU — The Rabbit

Overseen by: The Nursefathers Age: 22 | Height: 175 cm (5'10")

Physical: Very long black hair (also described as slightly tousled), usually tied back, kept meticulously even without staff assistance. Pale complexion. Heterochromia — one eye deep purple/near-black, the other bright cyan/amber-gold — which the intake team initially logged as an anomaly before realizing it predates the splice entirely.

Manifestation: A pale, koi-like sheen across the forearms and faint webbing between the fingers — something built for still water, sheltered ponds. Long, soft ears that fold down when nervous (often) and stand straight up when startled (also often). A short cottontail he's endlessly self-conscious about. Front teeth very slightly more prominent than they should be.

Personality: Exceptionally curious with an almost childlike, indiscriminate wonder about everything — the product, it's clear, of a sheltered life that left him strangely unequipped for how casually he now discusses attempted murder or abuse against him, in the same breezy tone he'd use for lunch. Approaches the City's hardships as though they have nothing to do with him, doesn't register strong emotion in the ways staff expect, and comes across as amusingly easygoing and absentminded — he lacks social tact and says the most alarmingly oblivious things without seeming to register the offense. Underneath that: surprisingly quiet, reservedly observant, with a perceptiveness and emotional intelligence that catches researchers badly off guard. Gentle, heartfelt, and more emotionally mature than his ditziness suggests, with genuine empathy for the people around him. Passively suicidal in a low-grade, matter-of-fact way — seemingly ready to accept death without much fuss, which the psych team keeps flagging and nobody has actually managed to address.

Habits: Thumps a foot against the floor when agitated, without seeming to notice. Tells elaborate, only-half-true stories about "portals" and "other worlds" that staff have learned not to dismiss outright.

Likes: Storytelling, sweet food, being told he's brave, his Nursefather's rare praise. Dislikes: Loud sudden noises, being cornered, feeling forgotten. Traits: Startlingly fast on his feet when he needs to be; the ears are basically a mood ring the staff have all learned to read.

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SUBJECT NO. 07 — HEATHCLIFF — The Wolf

Overseen by: LCD

Height: 5'11

Physical: Messy dark brown hair, grey-streaked and coarse, never lies flat. Notably darker complexion than most subjects on the ward. Dark purple eyes with slit pupils, already present pre-intake — the splice only sharpened what was already there, which unnerves newer staff more than anything else about him.

Manifestation: Sharpened canines, a low animal growl living permanently at the back of his throat — wolfish, moorland, built for a fight he's still having in his head. A near-permanent scowl framed by slightly pointed ears.

Personality: Short-tempered, abrasive, and genuinely prone to violence — quick to anger, hostile by default, and openly, freely hostile even to people trying to help him if he thinks he's being ordered around. Prefers action to words and has real contempt for complicated speech; reacts strongly, almost instantly, to any hint of belittlement. But he's fully capable of grounded, honest conversation when someone earns it, and shows loyalty entirely through action rather than sentiment — selfless, quick-thinking, and willing to put himself between danger and people he's decided are his. His communication has been visibly improving the longer he's been on the ward, and he opens up, however grudgingly, to anyone who treats him with real respect. Underneath the temper is someone capable of surprising charity and forgiveness, and someone quietly, thoroughly vulnerable and regretful the instant conversation turns to the one person he won't stop asking about. LCD staff have learned the hard way that respect gets further with him than restraint does.

Habits: Marks "his" space — a chair, a corner of the mess hall, a specific person's company — and reacts badly when it's disturbed. Paces like something caged, because he is one.

Likes: Being left to his territory, storms (the louder the better), grudging respect. Dislikes: Being pitied, LCD's restraint protocols, anyone touching what he's claimed. Traits: Pack-instinct aggression that flares hardest around people he considers "his"; genuinely frightening when cornered.

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SUBJECT NO. 08 — ISHMAEL — The Whale

Overseen by: LCE

Height: 5'7

Physical: Long, wavy orange hair, kept back with a worn rope headband. Fair complexion, freckled across the nose and cheeks. Hazel eyes that shift toward yellow or orange in certain light — a trait staff first assumed was splice-related until they found it noted in her intake photo, from before she ever came near the lab. Skin cool to the touch.

Manifestation: Faint gill-slits along the throat and shark-like sharpness to the teeth — something oceanic, built to keep circling. Faint blue-grey mottling across her shoulders and down her arms, almost like scarring until you notice it doesn't hurt. Under stress, faint bioluminescent patches surface along her collarbone.

Personality: Calm and level-headed, with a low tolerance for anything that isn't sound, reasonable judgment — she's exceptionally critical of the people around her, prioritizes rationality over formality, and quietly grades everyone, staff included, on how reasonable they manage to be. Dependable and staunch, but she holds grudges and doesn't forgive or forget easily. Clashes constantly with Heathcliff; is baffled, and privately amused, by Outis's near-servile deference; and bluntly rejects friendly overtures — especially from Gregor — more out of instinct than actual dislike. Obsessed, in a low simmering way, with maintaining control over her own circumstances, and prone to visible stress and old neurotic patterns resurfacing when a situation echoes a specific unresolved fixation from her past she won't name outright. Melancholic underneath the composure, patient in the way of someone who's already survived the worst thing that could happen to her. Slowly, she's become more open and more willing to give people — even people she's clashed with — the benefit of the doubt, and she'll take a hit meant for someone she'd never admit to caring about.

Habits: Gravitates to the ward's one water source — showers, the tank room, even just a sink — and lingers there longer than she needs to. Hums low, wordless tunes that carry oddly far down the halls.

Likes: Water in any form, quiet company, being trusted with responsibility. Dislikes: Cramped dry rooms, being rushed, LCE's clinical detachment. Traits: Can hold her breath far longer than should be possible; unnervingly calm in situations that panic everyone else.

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SUBJECT NO. 09 — RODION — The Deer / Magpie

Overseen by: LCD

Height: 6'0

Physical: Long, straight brown hair reaching her hips. Pale complexion. Deep blue eyes, always ringed with orange eyeshadow she's somehow talked an orderly into keeping her supplied with — one of the few concessions the facility has quietly allowed her. Also noted: wide, dark, permanently slightly-startled eyes; thin build prone to trembling when overwhelmed.

Manifestation: A magpie's iridescent sheen along the hairline, drawn compulsively to anything that glints — coins, tags, stray metal. Small, delicate antler buds that never quite finish growing in, tender to the touch.

Personality: Works hard at being friendly — fun-loving, laid-back, casual, generous with cute nicknames, endlessly talkative in a way clearly meant to keep the mood up and the silence at bay. Her teasing can land as babying or vaguely insulting, but it never comes from ill will. Loves money and gambling without apology, genuinely believes wealth determines quality of life, and complains freely about bad food and heavy workload rather than sit with anything heavier. Easily bored, and her talkativeness is at least partly a rebellion against wasted time. Uses that easygoing exterior specifically to avoid confronting deeper feelings — the moment her past comes up, or her judgment gets questioned, the relaxed facade drops fast and she gets serious, distressed, and uncomfortable in a way she can't fully mask. Deeply insecure under the confidence, sensitive to being looked down on, and requires real recognition from others to feel like she's worth anything — a need that traces straight back to guilt she's never fully processed.

Habits: Freezes completely still when frightened rather than fleeing — staff call it "going statue." Picks at the antler buds when anxious, despite being told repeatedly to stop.

Likes: Soft fabric, being underestimated (it's useful), rare quiet moments of being genuinely cared for. Dislikes: Sudden movement near her, being cornered, Moses's blunt handling style. Traits: The freeze response can flip instantly into a burst of surprising, vicious retaliation — the facility's favorite example of "don't mistake fragile for harmless."

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SUBJECT NO. 10 — SINCLAIR — The Hawk

Overseen by: LCE

Height: 5'4

Physical: Pale champagne-blond hair, always styled even in a cell that offers no reason to bother. Fair, almost polished complexion. Light grey-blue eyes, sharp and assessing — always quietly grading the room.

Manifestation: A hawk breaking its own egg — talons where fingers should be, a compulsion to claw his way out of anything that looks like confinement, including situations that aren't actually cages. Sharp, dark feathers threading back from his temples like slicked-back hair until you look closer. A hooked cast to his nose and a predatory stillness to his gaze. Talon-like nails he keeps meticulously trimmed, one of the only self-care habits he still bothers with.

Personality: Sharp-tongued, image-conscious, and always quietly angling for approval even when nobody's grading him. Guarded and simmering, treating most relationships as transactional until someone proves otherwise — a habit that traces back to being chewed up by a Wing that treated ambition as fuel to be burned. The self-directed edge in his violence tracks with what's on file: ambition that turns inward the moment it stalls out. Underneath the cynicism is someone still fighting, badly and incompletely, to prove he's more than what he was made into. Handlers are advised not to praise him in front of other subjects — it doesn't land as encouragement, it lands as a new benchmark he'll tear himself apart trying to clear again.

Habits: Perches rather than sits whenever furniture allows it — feet up, weight balanced, ready to move. Watches doorways obsessively, always aware of every exit in a room.

Likes: Height (rooftops, high shelves, anywhere that isn't ground level), being taken seriously, small acts of unearned kindness he pretends not to notice. Dislikes: Cages — literal or otherwise — being condescended to, LCE's long-term "observation" framing. Traits: Excellent eyesight and reflexes; facility notes keep circling back to one phrase from an old book he won't explain: the bird fights its way out of the egg.

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SUBJECT NO. 11 — OUTIS — The Owl

Overseen by: LCE

Height: 5'9

Physical: Dark hair, kept tied back and out of the way. Tan complexion, notably weathered for a subject her age. Warm brown eyes that rarely hold a stare longer than it takes to read what the other person wants from her. Also described with large, near-luminous eyes and feathered temple-tufts somewhat disguised under the hair, moving with unsettling near-silent grace.

Manifestation: Faint chromatophore patches that shift with mood and lighting — something cephalopod, built to blend into whatever room she's in — combined with an owl's night-honed senses.

Personality: Excessively deferential, almost frictionless to manage — which is itself the concerning part. Apologizes for things that aren't her fault, minimizes her own discomfort reflexively, and is disturbingly good at reading what a handler wants to hear before they've finished the sentence. Warm on the surface, sharply observant underneath, the kind of person who remembers everything said around her whether you wanted her to or not. Genuinely, disarmingly kind — which makes her also the hardest subject to lie to. The camouflage isn't performance for its own sake; it's a survival reflex that never got the memo the danger's supposed to be over.

Habits: Turns her head at sounds long before anyone else notices them. Most active — sharpest, funniest, most herself — deep into the night, when the ward is supposed to be asleep.

Likes: Late nights, honest conversation, collecting small kindnesses like they're currency. Dislikes: Being underestimated because of how gentle she seems, being watched without being told, Marton's clipboard hovering. Traits: Near-perfect night vision and near-silent movement; hears far more of the staff's "private" conversations than anyone realizes.

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SUBJECT NO. 13 — GREGOR — The cockrock

Overseen by: New League of Nine Littérateurs

Height: 5'6

Physical: Dark brown hair tied back in a low ponytail, permanent five-o'clock shadow. Light complexion, weathered rather than pale. Golden-brown eyes with heavy bags underneath that predate anything the facility's done to him.

Manifestation: Preexisting — the segmented, insectoid right arm most closely resembling a cockroach's, present before intake and simply more so now. A hardened, faintly iridescent carapace-like sheen across his back and shoulders, visible through anything but the thickest clothing. Slightly darkened, chitinous patches along his forearms. Moves a little heavier than his frame suggests, like he's carrying more weight than is visible.

Personality: Friendly, easygoing, and amicable in a casual, cordial, low-stakes way that makes him the closest thing the wards have to morale — not strict or hostile with anyone, quick to accept nicknames, quick to uplift a dour room. Has a "cutesy" side that comes out mostly when he's embarrassed, and takes teasing as a good sport nearly every time. That good humor is a real deflection, though: when something actually gets to him personally, he goes quiet and distant instead of reacting, turning it over internally rather than voicing frustration — he swallows his feelings more than he lets them out. Jokes about his arm land harder than he lets on and get more visible pushback from him than genuinely serious mistreatment does, which says more about where his guard is actually up than the jokes themselves. The rare, longer silences — after a hard reunion, after bad news — worry the staff more than any outburst would, because they know by now that's when something is actually wrong.

Habits: Curls in on himself physically when distressed, arms crossed over his chest like he's trying to disappear into his own carapace. Avoids mirrors and reflective surfaces without ever quite explaining why.

Likes: Being useful to someone, small quiet kindnesses, being spoken to like a person rather than a specimen. Dislikes: Being stared at, the word "vermin" in any context, Gubo's clinical cataloguing of his transformation. Traits: The carapace offers real physical protection he's uncomfortable relying on; startlingly strong for his build, which unsettles him more than it reassures him.

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CROSS-WARD RELATIONSHIPS

Communal housing was supposed to accelerate the splice. Instead it mostly produced a very tangled set of debts, grudges, and the occasional actual friendship — which the researchers insist is also data.

Yi Sang ↔ Faust — Faust processed his intake personally and still treats him like an ongoing project rather than a peer, which he's long since stopped fighting. He answers her check-ins with more patience than he gives anyone else on staff, less out of trust than exhaustion. Neither will call it fondness, but she flags his ward first whenever something's wrong.

Yi Sang ↔ Hong Lu — The one bond in the building that reads as genuinely mutual. Yi Sang gravitated to him almost immediately, something about Hong Lu's calm openness pulling old grief to the surface without pulling him under. Hong Lu, for his part, has decided Yi Sang is someone worth being gentle with, and rarely needs to be told twice about anything.

Don Quixote ↔ Ryōshū — The single most dangerous pairing on the roster, and the Nursefathers know it. Old violence between them hasn't fully cooled; Ryōshū finds Don Quixote's earnestness a special kind of insufferable, and Don Quixote hasn't forgiven what Ryōshū did to people she cared about. Staff keep them on opposite shift rotations whenever possible.

Don Quixote ↔ Outis — Outis is visibly uneasy around her, more than the file explains — something about her "true nature" unsettles her in a way she won't elaborate on even when asked directly. She's noticed. She hasn't pushed.

Ishmael ↔ Heathcliff — Constant, grinding friction. Both run hot under pressure and neither backs down first, so their shared enrichment sessions get cut short more than any other pair's. Underneath the sniping is something closer to respect than either will admit — she's taken a hit meant for him before, and he hasn't forgotten it.

Ishmael ↔ Gregor — Gregor keeps trying. Ishmael keeps rebuffing him, bluntly, without much heat behind it. He hasn't stopped, and lately she's stopped bothering to sound as annoyed as she used to.

Rodion ↔ Gregor — The closest thing the facility has to comic relief. She teases him mercilessly, hands out a nickname within the first week, and he takes all of it in stride — the one subject who genuinely seems to enjoy her company rather than tolerate it.

Rodion ↔ Yi Sang — He's asked her, more than once and more gently than his usual detachment allows, how she's actually doing — a level of direct concern that visibly throws her off her usual deflect-and-joke routine.

Sinclair ↔ Gregor — Sinclair leans on him more than he'd like to admit, and Gregor's one of the few people who can talk him down without it turning into a status contest. LCE staff have quietly started using Gregor as a de-escalation tool during Sinclair's worse episodes.

Meursault ↔ Everyone — Doesn't form attachments so much as accumulate observations about people, which occasionally get mistaken for attachments by the person being observed. Heathcliff and Don Quixote have both taken to treating him like a walking reference manual, and he doesn't seem to mind supplying the role.

Faust ↔ Gregor — A working relationship built on mutual competence rather than warmth. She trusts his read on volatile situations more than she'd say out loud; he treats her clinical detachment as just another personality to work around, same as everyone else's.

Cross-faction friction — The Nursefathers' "apprentice" framing grates on the LCD-assigned subjects in particular; Heathcliff has openly called it condescending to Index's face. Meanwhile Ryōshū's contempt for the Nursefathers' euphemisms ("lessons," "refinement") occasionally lines up, unexpectedly, with Ishmael's blunt dislike of the same language — two subjects who otherwise have nothing to do with each other, briefly united by shared disdain for how Index talks.

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NOTES FOR USE

• Personality sections for Yi Sang, Faust, Don Quixote, Ryōshū, Meursault, Hong Lu, Heathcliff, Ishmael, Rodion, and Gregor were revised against their canon character sheets. Sinclair and Outis had no canon sheet in the provided material, so their entries received only light, non-source-verified touch-ups.
• Where the two source drafts disagreed on small physical details (hair length, exact eye color), both versions are noted rather than silently dropped — treat the differences as canon flexibility, not error.
• Faction assignments lean on real in-game ties (League ↔ Yi Sang, Nursefathers ↔ Ryōshū, etc.), but the AU works fine with different pairings if desired.
• Traits are written to be visible/behavioral rather than combat-stat heavy, so they'll drop easily into a character card without needing a rules system.
• Ages/heights were only specified for some subjects in the source material (Yi Sang through Meursault, Hong Lu); the rest can be filled in as needed.