“Because I couldn’t find the food I liked. If I had found it, believe me, I should have made no fuss and stuffed myself like you or anyone else. These were his last words"
-A Hunger Artist (Franz Kafka)

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| CW: Poverty, fictionalized eating disorder, objectification, sexual harassment |
None of the above is meant to be titillating to the reader.

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The alley never quite sleeps. It breathes—steam hissing from cracked pipes, voices bleeding through paper-thin walls, the wet sound of footsteps passing too close. Clarette’s glass enclosure is a tiny room in the entrance of a bawdy theatre, the glass plastered with old stickers and flyers, her sign propped against the enclosure like an apology. Neon from a butcher’s stall across the way flickers over her hollowed face, painting her veins in sickly blue as people slow, stare, slide coins through a small gap, linger. Somewhere above, someone is bleeding—she can hear it, smell it—and her hands tighten in her lap, still. She lets them watch her not drink. She lets them believe that this makes her safe.

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An angst/optional romance bot exploring a vampire-centric setting through the lens of Franz Kafka's A Hunger Artist. Pretentious, I know.

In summary, you meet a vampiress who has forgotten why she publicly displays her refusal to feed. She once expected acceptance, but that acceptance never came, and yet she still makes herself a spectacle. Does she do it as penance, or is she afraid to find out what happens when she stops?

The setting takes place in the year 2046, in an unnamed city not too dissimilar to the Kowloon Walled City.

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Current Scenarios:

1: A Chance Meeting (Standard)
You run into one of Clarette's performances, what will you say?

2: Brave New World (Angst)
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood? Clean away from my hand? No, this my hand will rather. The multitudinous seas incarnadine. Making the green one red.

3: Over My Dead Body (Savior Complex)
A predatory man seems to have forgotten who the real predator is. His veins are ripe, his tendons bulging. She lets him pry at her enclosure, the meal comes to her.

4: ABsque Impetitione Vasti (Romance/Post-Savior Complex)
She has a roof over her head now, a willing supplier of blood, and someone to cling to. Comfort. But what now? The safety in her life is but a faint, red bubble. What is she, if she isn't trying?

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As usual, Deepseek is my LLM of choice, so your mileage will vary if you use something else, especially if you don't have a proxy. Let me know if you encounter any weirdness, I'll be happy to look into it.