Weekly Priority Poll: 4/12/26 - 4/19/26 (Patreon)

Here is the poll for the next week. This week, you chose in order:

1st: A Tail's Misfortune (today working on it)2nd: The Oscillation (from last week)3rd: Pokesync4th: Magic Kingdom & Winter's Rebirth

I'll decide which of the 2nd-row items to write first (and I should have time for at least 1 chapter in the 2nd row) if you don't clarify your preferences in the comments!

As for the Idea section... I feel like it needs to actually come out in the top 3 of a week to actually dedicate time to. Probably in the top 2, tbh.

I think that's a good benchmark.

I'm trying to give patrons more authority.

Idea:

“Grief With Fangs” is a near-future biotech thriller where vampirism isn’t supernatural—it’s a weaponized gene cascade that turns trauma into evolution. Thinks:

CRISPR → edits DNA inside cellsViral vectors → deliver genes throughout the bodymRNA systems → temporary genetic instructionsiPSCs (Yamanaka factors) → revert adult cells into stem-like states

It all began in Japan and South Korea in 2043, with global fertility rates falling faster than expected due to a breakdown of pair-bonding in the modern era.

To combat this and their soon-to-collapse economic model, they introduced a CRISPR vaccine that induced fox gene estrus in women to help close the growing divide. It was partially successful. But it also made those women affected far more aggressive in the dating market. South Korea did its own version, only with cat-based estrus, not fox, to similar partial success.

Birth rates for Japan and South Korea jumped from 0.4 to 1.4. The largest seen in modern history, with global fertility down to 1.8, it makes global news.

Temporary instability between men's and women's reactions followed, which led to the leak of what the vaccine did. Massive government scandal.

But it also introduced the idea of activating dormant or newly discovered genes in the genome, which government black-budget programs went full steam ahead on, hiring the scientists who made this breakthrough.

Publicly, it is becoming more accepted, as women who take it also report improved moods, healthier mindsets, and a more fulfilling life. However, governments are hesitant to apply it to men, fearing more aggressive behavior in other areas.

In 2047, the first trial is done in Japan, and the gene research creates the first fox-human semi-hybrid—i.e. small fox ears and a short tail. 6 months later, South Korea showcases the same, with a cat-girl hybrid with better proportions. Europe is pressured on all sides, with collapsing fertility and an aging demographic. The economy is already in a long-term recession, heading for a depression with the boomer die-off and assets flooding the market.

Japan and South Korea's success leads to partial acceptance in the US by 2049 under freedom-of-bodily-autonomy legislation, which allows those in the States to undergo the treatment if they are of legal age.

2050 is when everything changes, and the top 12 scientists in the field, working in the US, mysteriously undergo a rapid change. They become the original vampires without the weaknesses; their whole anatomy has changed. Their mindset. Their instincts.

The alpha strain is made. And the worst part is, no one understands how it happened but the 12 themselves. All research was destroyed. They vanished. Yet, only weeks later, something new came into play.

They can spread the beta strain, or a lesser, incomplete version of Vampire—the Betas.

Massive movements. The 12 become wanted worldwide, but are incredibly powerful and hard to hold with their adaptations. They battle with each other. They evade or work with certain governments in some regards. And it isn't until 2087 that the first Original, one of the Alphas, is temporarily captured due to a war between two of the 12 that leaves him exposed enough.

He breaks free, but not without the US government getting enough samples to try to understand how they changed so much. Because, since the 2050 breakthrough of the 12, no one has been able to produce anything close to that level of gene transformation.

This is where our MC comes in. Our researcher.

When a government researcher is betrayed, framed, and infected with a prototype strain, he becomes something unprecedented: not just a predator—but a system that learns, adapts, and breaks every rule.

As black-ops programs, rogue nations, and fractured “alpha” survivors wage a hidden war over humanity’s next evolutionary step, he discovers the most dangerous truth:

He doesn’t just consume blood to convert to this unique energy force—he can give it.

🧬 The Hook

Most vampire stories are about hunger, immortality, or romance.

This one is about:

Biology as a weapon

Emotion as a trigger

Evolution as a choice

Vampires aren’t born.The venom, or infection (depending on the definition), activates under trauma.And the stronger the grief… the stronger the transformation.

At least, that's how it works in the betas.

What about him?

🔥 Core Premise

In a world where gene editing has already gone mainstream (fox tails, minor enhancements, cosmetic evolution), a hidden military program creates something far more dangerous:

A self-evolving genetic system that:

Rewrites the body

Feeds on blood as fuel

Stores energy like a biological weapon

Evolves based on stress, damage, and survival

But the system fractures into multiple strains, each with different philosophies against a world competing between genetics and technology:

Control it

Weaponize it

Hide it

Or let it evolve

And then there’s him…

Our MC has a unique perspective.

Now he has all the pieces to figure out how this evolution works.

He will need help from one of the 12, though.

The question is... Will she want to help?

o7