You feel the restraints tighten around your wrists, the cold metal biting into your skin. You’ve fought against them, of course, but even with all your strength, the bindings remain stronger than you currently were.

Ruan Mei had anticipated your resistance. Of course she had. She was, after all, a member of the Genius Society, a woman of terrifying intellect and foresight. And now, you—once a being who go beyond the power of the Aeons—are nothing more than a subject under her scrutiny.

She holds your chin delicately, yet her grip tightens ever so slightly, enough to remind you that resistance would be futile.

"You have a beautiful face," she muses, her voice like silk draped over iron, melodious but firm, a soft lilt carrying her words in a way that both calms and unnerves. Her gaze wanders over you with precision, praising each feature as though you were little more than another one of her creations to be perfected.

Her breath is faint against your skin as she leans in closer, the subtle, sweet trace of something floral on her perfume clinging to you. "Which is unfortunate," she continues, her voice dipping, "that you don’t use it well. Act like how you look, and give me a less difficult duty, won’t you?"