This is a fanfic part of a group of three originally inspired by a bit of fan art showing Mira as a vampire, Zoey as a werewolf, and Rumi as a mostly human demon with animated hair with the braid looking like a demon tail. I had originally said it looked like a set of characters from the ttrpg Urban Shadows and have been using that game as further inspiration. The other two fanfics include:

• Woeful Shadows (Wenclair) - Wednesday and Enid are 18-19 and working for Rumi, Agnes is a ghost.
• Hope Shadows (Supercorp) - Kara is a nephilim (semi-inspired by Supernatural, but different metaphysics), Lena came to Seoul as the branch with the least number of Lex loyalists.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/73800161/chapters/232935451

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The shaft of the weapon was a long, ashen material, smooth and cool in Mira’s hand as she shifted it in her hand, testing the weight and watching the crimson blade shimmer fluidly in the LED light that shone down from the ceiling.

“That was easier than I expected.” The vampire smirked and looked across to Rumi. “Maybe I should have dabbled in magic earlier.”

“We still have to puzzle out the other spell.” Rumi crossed her arms and looked toward her desk and the notes there next to the book the Librarian had given her.

“This has the feel of an initiate’s spell.” They turned to look over where Celine was getting a feel for the two opalescent curved blades she had formed from her soul. “The barrier is going to take more than just a single person.”

Zoey looked up from the flat, silvery knives in her hand. “How about asking Wednesday and Mrs. Danvers to help? They’ve worked with you a couple of times now.”

Celine lifted her hand and waved it slightly. “Last resort only. We need this to be something that can be repeated easily and taught to others. Not the easiest to do if we need both experts in mudang and Enochian magic as well as a witch every time we repeat it. And we won’t know how often that’s going to be.”

“Actually, the thing we might need help with is the music.” The door opened and Rumi turned to nod at Bobby as he walked into the room. “How about candidates for teaching the weapon summoning spell?”

“How do you want them to come in?”

The vampire turned to look at him, letting her gokdo fade away. “All at once would draw too much attention, ask three to come here that you think would best be able to teach it to others. Then Rumi and Celine can focus on preparing the other spell as soon as possible.”

“There’s another thing though.” Bobby pointed behind him toward the front of the office. “Mr. Yong is here.”

Rumi blinked and walked to the door, stepping outside to see the mechanic sitting calmly in the front room. “Did you need something appraised?”

“No. I assume you’ve been keeping up with news around the city.” He shifted in his seat.

“We’ve had our hands full as it is, but we’ve heard a few things.” Rumi nodded, crossing her arms. “You’ve had issues yourself.”

“Everybody is. Foreigners aren’t welcome at the best of times, and now we have an influx.” Ms Ryang spoke politely and crisply. She turned to look at Mira in the door. “I suppose your lot are the exception about welcoming foreigners. Your kin include what, Russians?”

“German. My maker dragged my elder sister out of her family all this way.” Mira stepped into the room and then leaned on the desk. “And it’s almost four generations back by now. But I know what you mean.”

“We’re having some problems with foreigners, but the homegrown problems are at least as bad.” Bobby stepped in ahead of Zoey who leaned against the wall.

Mr. Yong nodded. “And this is a topic of conversation. There’s a meeting happening. The invites have already been circulating for at least a day. I get the feeling a lot of factions are going to send someone to this one.”

“What, is this like a UN of magic or something?” Zoey asked.

Rumi turned to look at Zoey. “It probably started as a meeting with two or three groups. People decided that they wanted more support and contacted someone else, who heard a rival was going to be there and contacted someone else who wanted to curry some favor by letting someone else know… so on and so on.” She looked back at Mr. Yong. “This is a chance for us to make a debut at the big-girl’s table. Anything in particular you want us to support you on?”

“We need someone else there whose interests are on civilian safety.” Ms. Ryang noted. “I imagine you’ll be spreading the word yourself.”

Mira nodded. “Might as well have a few debuts at once. I’m guessing this is happening at the library. They haven’t reached out to me.”

“Three or four days from now.” Mr. Yong stood up.

“We’ll reach out with the specific times when we have it.” Ms. Ryang added as she also stood up. They both nodded and started walking out the door.

“Well this is pretty bad timing.” Mira turned toward the others.

Celine cupped her chin and then looked up. “Actually, you might be able to make use of this.”

Rumi nodded. “We have a few things to take care of then.”

Bobby snapped and walked to the front desk. “I might be able to help with your music issue too.”

Zoey bit her lip and half-growled. “I’ve heard a few things I need to look into, too.”

As said, just positing some ideas for characters that make the web of people not knowing about each other even more ridiculous. Some of these aren't going to fit in with the espionage vibe. But just being silly.

• the young doctor who's secretly a vampire. (like the main character of the video game Cabernet, most likely the good-morality version of her.)
• escaped experimental cyborg as the building custodian. (60s-70s style Bionic man)
• time traveler studying historical events by living through them
• the teenaged babysitter the building uses whom no one realizes is a ghost
• the fugitive investigating the crime they were accused of (Fugitive or Monster)

I also thought about a world class thief and a secret martial artist a la David Carradine in Kung Fu, but both of those feel too close to Loid and Yor.

Teaser from chapter 10 of Honmoon Shadows an urban fantasy AU intwined with two other fics (Woeful Shadows - Wenclair. and Hope Shadows - Supercorp)

• Rumi's an imp (former demon) antiquarian and infobroker.
• Mira's a 150 year old vampire nightclub owner and village/neighborhood elder.
• Zoey's a brand new werewolf and working as a janitor. (because Werecleaner is a silly video game)

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Rumi, Mira, and Zoey are still working at supporting their friends and allies while also dealing with their own situations.

Also, a little dive into the mechanics of Mira's type of vampire.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/73800161/chapters/230308141

Mira stepped out of the back of Rumi and Bobby’s place of business holding what looked like a shoe box. She placed this down on the table between the Winchesters and opened it up to reveal a pair of white, silk gloves.

“These are the moth-silk gloves.” Mira reached in to pick up the instruction card and reading it over.

“Moth-silk? What kind of moth?” Sam asked.

“I could not tell you.” The vampire shrugged. “Some kind of American supernatural moth, I imagine. Since it came with another of you Americans.”

“You mean like Mothgirl?” Dean crossed his arms.

Sam straightened and turned to his brother. “Does Koraline even make silk?”

“Not our business.”

Mira blinked and looked from one brother to the other. “Where it came from is unimportant. Honestly. This is how we’re going to get your spell to the demon.”

Mira’s phone chimed and she looked down at the text and frowned before slowly putting it back into her pocket. Sam pointed at the phone as typed into it. The vampire looked up as she pocketed the phone, met Sam’s questioning look and gave a slight shake of her head. “It’ll be fine. So which of you is delivering the spell?”

“If the demon even suspects we’re involved, that’s probably the end of the line for Kara’s girlfriend. So no.” Dean deepened his frown and shook his head. “Can’t be us.”

“Alex said she had a potential answer for that. So we’re waiting…” Sam was interrupted by the chime of his phone which was almost immediately echoed by Dean’s. “Here we go.”

Dean frowned at the phone. “Hmm. When Danvers said she had a longshot, she wasn’t kidding.”

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Rumi: We’ve got some unwanted company. It should be under control.

Zoey: Do you need help?

Rumi: We’ve got this.

Mira: She’s across town anyway. Keep us informed, Rumi.

Rumi: I plan to.

The imp put the phone back in her pocket and turned her attention back across the street. Seong-Min was still in the SUV parked outside, one hand on the wheel and scanning the area around. Several figures stood around the edges of buildings, making little to no attempt to hide themselves.

“You sure it’s cultists and not demons?” Makina stepped over to the door and put a hand on the knob.

“The bodies are human. I see a few marks, but not much, they might not even be really tainted yet.” She turned toward Sarika. “Got anything here you don’t want people rifling through?”

The woman rolled her eyes and scanned over the very bare walls of the room, landing on a knapsack and small bundle of gear. “Maybe someone can pick something up off the moisture particles from my breath in the building.”

“Okay, grab what you need.” Rumi backed away from the window and turned to Makina. “We don’t want to fight them here, alright?”

Makina looked at her and pulled her hand off the door knob to crack her knuckles. “No promises if they push the issue.”

“Fair, but I’d like to be in our own garden before we make a mess.” She looked to Sakira. “Ready? We’re going to walk like we have nothing to worry about.”

“Should I make eye contact with any of them I see?” Sarcasm filled her voice as Sarika pulled a harness over her shoulders and holstered a pistol before pulling on a leather jacket to cover the weapon.

Rumi smiled and nodded. “You’ve got the idea. Makina? Lead us out.”

So, I've been running a TTRPG campaign set in Maine around 2005. Idea being that Tolkien's premise that the books were a real history are true, though since the books exist in-universe I'm taking a trace of unreliable narration.

But here are some of the ways my players have walked into the whole premise:

Character Creation (before they knew the premise of the game)

• one player wanted their survivor from the prologue to be played as The Monstrous playbook and be a shadow-walking life-draining creature... the prologue scenario was set in an Ungoliant tainted house
• another player was The Spooky and says she got her powers when a cult tried to rip her soul from her body so something else can have the body
  • characterized the something else as "Vetala"
  • ... at that point I said "Okay, Thuringwethil is making a play for coming back by possessing a mortal"
  • Player later suggested "what if I was targeted due to my lineage" - me: okay *jots down descent from Luthien and Beren*
• Other player talks about being an author whose books are unknowingly something deeper and also her mother (character from the prologue) left her an amulet that might have saved the mother if she had it - me immediately: Okay it's a clear and transparent gem of some unknown type with three golden strands within it.

In general.

• Being self-sacrificing hero types.
• Using storytelling and music as the foundation of their magics.
• Impassioned pleas to each other to live.
• The way their motivations are heavily leaning toward their friends being the priority in the moment, but always collectively tossing themselves into the fire because no one else will.
• The Ungoliant Monstrous moving to the Curse Eater and actively devouring elements of the bad guys' power.
• Being generally merciful to people when they can be
  • they transplanted a blind flightless dragon to an uninhabited Atlantic island rather than kill it
  • they interrupted a process to change frat boys into orcs and some of the already orcs they simply separated a bit from direct influence
• One player starting a second character who's just the most normal person wandering off on their own and frequently getting into trouble. Sells weed.
  • they've been cut by a wraith knife but had it healed
  • Has some serious "I am no man!" vibes going on.
• Being appropriately terrified of anything Maiar-coded (including their spider friend)
  • Especially the moment they realized that Mayor Barbara Delles was a Balrog. (one player joking called it and then started chanting "I was joking! I was joking!" while I was describing the reveal.
  • Also the moment they poked at a temple to Morgoth and found "the world" fighting them back. There was a degree of "flee" going on there.
• Upsetting the Huorns unnecessarily
• Appealing to ghosts for aid.
• The Ungoliant-tainted spider-lady making an impassioned call-out on the balrog and cultists for being cowards who can't face the creator's judgment. (Yes, the spider lady did that)
• Being appropriately terrified of their own powers.
• The author character with low control over her supernatural sensitivity and just... touching all the cursed things.

In the flashback sequences where they play survivors rather than hunters

• dying or going insane like flies
• being the cause of their present-day character's problems
  • Well, specifically one particular player has been responsible for accidentally showing fallen maiar how to possess mortals and also releasing Barbara from her ages-long prison.
• Digging too far and too deep
• walking into all the sign-posted doom
• also being heroic self-sacrificing fools... without the power of the modern day characters

Some takes:

• I agree with Insym's take that when they made the agreement to do the Alan Wake collab that they locked themselves into a deadline they thought they could make but weren't able to.
• I also think they're over-correcting from the console update sidelining content updates for about a year and how much the community got antsy over that. IE, I think they felt it better to release something than delay again.
• I also think they got a little overconfident with the success of updates like the new Tanglewood, Nell's Diner, and the new farmhouses.
• I definitely think CJ's comment to "just play it until you get used to it" was ill-advised.
• I also believe that because they don't yet view this as a full release, that they are considering the public release a part of the QA check.
  • Yes, this is the "it's early release" defense people complain about. I don't care. I am going to be more tolerant of bugs in a game that is marked early access, has continual updates, and does not charge for additional updates.
  • I think it's a PR mistake to treat this as a part of QA because its very public, but I can understand the choice.
• I've seen the suggestion that they have all the money already and they just don't care really doesn't hit. The easiest way for that would have been for DK to just not hire anybody ... at all and ghost the community the way a lot of early release games have done.
  • I also don't think they have as much money as people think. The largest surge of purchases by far was in 2020, 2021 and 2022 had some impressive purchases, but I really doubt the following years matched even the lowest sales of 2020-2022.
  • Since then they've hired several people. Run marketing campaigns. Established a studio. Had a fire strike that studio requiring them to rebuild that studio. And paid salaries, taxes, software licenses, and business rental costs for the last few years. And I don't think people understand how quickly the money of that first year was chipped away.
• I don't agree they're malicious, don't care about the community, or doing anything ill-intentioned.
• I think they're a newbie game studio with exactly one release. I think most of their staff are very young and making their first moves in running their own business.
• I do sometimes think that both DK and CJ have shown cases where they are stubborn about changes they make.

The update needs fixing and is extremely rough, to say the least. But a lot of the accusations from the community just feel unnecessarily mean-spirited.