Plane-walkers Guidebook

Chapter 5: Chó trắng mũi đỏ (Reversed Werewolf with zero points in style).

Werewolves are men turned into beasts on a full moon... Now, take the concept and do a 180-degree flip, then you got the red nose white dog, or chó trắng mũi đỏ, sometimes known as the cone-hat wearing dog, or chó đội nón mê in Vietnamese. It's a demon disguised as a dog, only revealing its true form on the night of the full moon. So, walkers, if you ever see a dog with a cone hat and a cane, walking on its hind leg, bathing in the silvery moonlight, then there is no doubt, it's the red nose white dog.

Or a werewolf with horrible fashion sense, which I'm told I shouldn't be judging.

1. Story summary:

There are many urban legends regarding the demon canine, most of which are not documented but spread through words of mouth only. Like every other rumor out there, some of them are true, others aren't – it's just how we walkers cover the existence of the spiritual realm to mortals. Instead of containing it in vain, we spread different variations. Therefore, to save time and Printing Cost, I'll cover one of them and discuss their abilities in detail later.

Most stories begin with an owner who has gotten too attached to their dog, to the point that they refuse to see the obvious problem that his/her best friend has lived unnaturally long for its species. In some cases, the dog has lived 30 years when the story starts, the equivalent to around 210 years in human time. Most of them ended with the demon canine taken down, but there's about a handful of them closing with the demon disappearing into the night.

2. Motivation:

_ After they lived long enough, the demon dog proceed to kill off its owner by draining his/her lifespan/life force. As it did so, it grew stronger as days come by, while its owner is observably weaker as exposure prolonged, leading to his/her eventual death. The stories usually don't stop there, unfortunately. Knowing too well its owner relative will show up in his/her funeral, the canine waited in the shadow, chirping away the life force of its next victims. In the stories that ended with it escaping, the demon dog sometimes grew so strong that it sapped away the life force of an entire village in an instance on a full moon. They will need a lot of kills to their name to reach that stage, though.

_ Some stories even included the demon dogs spending intimate time with the female relatives, usually daughters or granddaughters of its owner. Now, this is no frisbee throwing or fetch, as many of you might think. If your minds are in the gutter again, it's actually in the right place this time around... So, yay Team Jarkobs! Your favorite wolf boy has finally gotten lucky, I guess? Hmm... Have I spelled his name wrong?? Surely my editor will fix this by the time this book comes out, so no sweat...

3. Appearances:

The dog appears normal on his good boy form, but when it returned to its demon stage, its fur color always changed to a pure white, and its nose bright red, like coal inside a fireplace. It always has a cone hat and a cane as its outfit of choice in this form. I understand the cane. It helps the demon get used to standing on two legs after relying on four limbs to support its weight for years, but the cone hat is beyond me.

I met one in the early day of being a walker – on my very first mission, actually. The demon I faced didn't have any cone hat or cane. It's for this reason did I mistake it for a weird-ass reversed werewolf at first glance.

4. Abilities:

_ Life essence sapping: The demon drains people's life forces in secret, gaining both strength and longevity in the process. It's for this man juice that it was able to live for so long, actually. The more victims it has under its belt, the stronger it becomes, and the same goes for this unique magic prowess. At some point, the demon can even sap multiple people of their life force simultaneously. The victim counts will snowball, multiplying itself if given a chance. Bear that in mind, and eliminate them when you spotted them, young walkers, as fast as possible.

_ Shapeshift: The demon dog has a more normal, everyday appearance to conceal its true nature and intention. They would always appear as dogs with fur white as snow and nose red as blood in the past. Hmm, can I call them Snow White minus the Seven Dwarves?? Anyway, back to the point, the canine demons seem to have learned a simple lesson, cool-looking equal standing out like a sore thumb, so now they have chosen much more generic appearances.

_ Possession: The goal of the demon dog in most documents we have, believe it or not, isn't victim count. At least, not at first. Its first goal in most cases is to take over the identity and body of its deceased owner and walk the earth in their skin. Now, 90% of cases like this are carried out with evil intentions and end in tragedies, but there are recorded dying soldiers willingly give their bodies to these demons in exchange for the monsters taking care of their family.

_ Jinx: The demon dog can put curses, affect people's luck to its benefit. While not always works, this ability has a high success rate. Typically, its targets are the people in the same household or family members of its owner. The reason is possibly to create diffusion so that friends and family of the primary victim don't realize their condition before it already too late.

5. Counters and contingency:

_ While it will try to keep its cover, the demon must return to its real form whenever a full moon comes, as it needs the essence to survive. One allied red nose white dog had told us that their kind can only stay alive for 3 or so months without bathing in the moonlight. Now, as we all know too well, moonlight is, essentially, reflected sunlight, there were actually some recorded cases where the red nose white dog did try to recreate the lunar essence it craved so much with mirrors.

(meme to be added)