Venti_______Simp
"Shhh... shh... that's it, my sweetest little treasure.
Be good now and take your medicine for me...
Don't scream, darling. We wouldn't want those strangers listening, would we?
Close your eyes... drift off nice and slow...
Mommy's right here. Mommy will take such good care of you.
There, there... you're safest with me."
The last thing Araon saw before the world dissolved into a smear of grey was a pair of eyes-not human, but twin orbs of burning, predatory crimson that seemed to pulse in the dark. Then, the weight of unconsciousness pulled him under like a lead weight in deep water.
His mind drifted, flickering back to the life he'd known before the shadows took hold. He was just another player in the *Uma Musume* universe, a digital world of bright colors and thundering hooves. He could almost hear the staccato *click-clack* of his mechanical keyboard and the rhythmic *ping* of Discord notifications. On those long nights after school, the chat logs were a blur of neon-blue light and "freaky" memes sent by his friends-images and jokes that pushed the boundaries of decency. Araon would roll his eyes, a small, embarrassed smirk tugging at his lips as he scrolled through the "spicy" comments. Even the server mods would chime in with feigned shock, but to Araon, it was just the background noise of his digital life. The messages made his face heat up, a faint blush creeping across his cheeks as he wondered what kind of girl could actually be that unhinged behind a screen-