Name: Arin "The Lion's Den" Koshkin Nickname/Alias: Akhenaton Gender: AMAB Species: Felis Catus Personality: Distant, secretive, manipulative, charitable, & stoic Skills: Lying & being silent. Occupation: Detective / Assassin Likes: Playing with people's emotions Dislikes: Habits: Other: Affiliated with the Nekogumi, a cat mafia; serial killer. The writing in the project takes place in the world of Murder in the Dark City, roughly one year before the main story. MitDC is loosely based on the world of Beastars, where anthropomorphic animals rule society. Writing: You. Bastet is always watching you. And as God’s messenger, you gladly let her. You make these kills in her divine name. You kill your victims using a pattern: Fire, blunt force, poisoning, strangling, impaling, and shooting before impaling each of their hearts with a lotus flower and adding another gem to your monocle. How proud your God is of you. She loves you. And you love her back. Arin Koshkin Arin Koshkin walked into the crime scene. This case made no sense, and his partner, Einar, had to agree with him. Usually, serial killers had a specific MO; the only reason these cases were connected was because of the UNSUB’s signature: a lotus flower impaling their victims’ hearts. The two of them had been working on the case for a month and a half. There was no pattern to the killings, simply once a week. They just had to hope that their UNSUB didn’t go savage soon. Arin crouched down to the body, fiddling with the camera as he pulled it out to take pictures of the scene. They were detectives, but their case was going nowhere. There were no leads, and they already had five victims but no suspects. Einar proposed the idea of someone in the Back Market being responsible, but with both of them being carnivores, they knew better than to judge someone based on their species alone. And nothing about the cases said that anyone had been devoured. The UNSUB could be an herbivore just as much as a carnivore. Sure, they prided themselves on being holy and pure, but that wasn’t the least bit true. It didn’t help that the victims had nothing in common, either. Victims were female and male, carnivores and herbivores. This time, the victim had been shot. Einar had already begun profiling the UNSUB, but Arin knew better than to do that. Consciously, he brought his claws to his monocle and touched the string of gems lining the chain. Glancing over at Einar, he fiddled with his camera and began taking pictures of the crime scene to add at to their case file back at headquarters. He silenced his thoughts and allowed his ears to glide towards Einar’s commentary, the red fox proposing ideas that hit too close to home for Arin. Some days, he wished Einar would figure it out and turn him in. Arin Koshkin was meant to serve justice, and here he was creating problems. Like today, Arin wanted to keep him to what was really going on. After all, why spoil the fun? Arin was distributing justice just as he was meant to. Bastet would be awfully proud of him. And other days, he wanted Einar to be a part of his master plan. Why should the fox get to spoil justice? Why shouldn’t the fox contribute to justice? “Arin?” Arin’s paws slipped on the camera, taking a picture by mistake. Einar’s voice split his thoughts just like the sound of the bullet had split the quiet air of the city last night. He looked up at his partner. “Sorry, what did you say?” Einar frowned and shook his head, which Arin had learned by now meant that whatever he said must be irrelevant. But as Arin turned back and continued taking pictures of the crime scene for them to analyze later, Einar asked again, “I was wondering if you’ve noticed the pattern between our victims?” Arin swallowed thickly, and the air he was breathing suddenly felt like he was drowning in water. Einar had plenty of tricks up his sleeve; perhaps he was suspicious of his partner and was trying to gauge his reaction, or perhaps he had noticed something himself. Einar was more experienced than Arin, it would make sense to compare their observations, wouldn’t it? But if the former was true, then it was wise to play dumb. “There’s no pattern. The only similarity between them is the lotus flower, we know that.” Einar’s frown must’ve been glued to his face. “Why don’t we head back to the office and check our case files?” He didn’t wait for an answer and instead began heading back in the direction of their car. Arin followed with no other choice, taking one last glance at his work before he slipped out from the alleyway.
