The Larva

two bites from the same rotten apple...

Leah

Lover

Leah Steel

Vignette

An estranged and wealthy neurosurgeon. There has been a crack in her character ever since the death of her mother and the subsequent unearthing of a dark secret.

Bitter as almonds

Leah Steel, or Dr. Steel to those who knew her scalpel, is a neurosurgeon who practices the delicate art of flesh and bones. Her talent and skill, though unmatched, did not satiate her crave for the excitement she first felt when she opened a skull. Yes, the money promised her the indulgent lifestyle she wanted for herself and her mother, but she wanted something more.

Her family

A strained relationship with her mother

Leah Steel

Vignette

An estranged and wealthy neurosurgeon. There has been a crack in her character ever since the death of her mother and the subsequent unearthing of a dark secret.

Notes

90s heroin chic, thin eyebrows, dark makeup
face should remind you of a beautiful ghastly horse.
green tinted rectangle glasses. sometimes a holographic eyeball appears in the lens.

the pendant

There was no sense to it. The green stone had emerged from the blood and tissue, slick and shining like a newborn baby. Later that night, she turned it over in her hand, and felt it beckon her. The pendant emitted a strange warmth, as if it pulsed to the drum of her own heart. It was no mere trinket. It was something else. Something alive.The monster had come slowly. At first, it was only a few whispers at the edge of her conscience. But it grew bolder and spread like a rot, seeping into her thoughts, her dreams. Its words were venom, and spoke of sickness as tools to be wielded. It knew what she knew, and more. But it wasn't content with knowledge – it wanted to play.

Lover

Vignette

A monster within the green pendant, who upon meeting the estranged Dr. Steel was immediately intrigued. She fuelled the doctor's medical prowess, leeching off the sickness of her patients.

Notes

tall, androgynous figure.
patterns on skin resemble bandages grown into flesh.
no eyebrows. very dark eyelids that act as eyebrows.
talons

power and hunger

The monster bears an existence that cannot be explained. Whether she laid dormant prior to Leah Steele’s discovery of the green stone is unclear. Whatever the case, her hunger for sickness is untempered. Together with Leah, they turn Mt. Heron into an endless reservoir of unknowing patients, curing, poisoning, then curing them again.

Leah steel

Lover finds Leah an unexpected partner to share her dark appetite. At first, Leah was nothing more than a vessel of human flesh to sustain parasitic needs. But Leah’s cold depravity revealed itself after discovering Lover’s untapped powers. The monster was immediately intrigued by the neurosurgeon with a heart of stone. They saw eye to eye, as if looking through a mirror that reflected each other’s hallowing desires, completing and feeding on another.

Illustrations

[♪] – music that goes with the art.

07.06.25Ms. Self Destruct

♪ Casualty
Snake River Conspiracy

24.06.25

♪ Escape from Paradise
Jesus Loves Junkies

22.06.25Yours forever

♪ Love You To Death
Type O Negative

07.06.25Death and Rebirth

♪ Terror
My Ruin

04.05.25

♪ The Fall
Ministry

24.04.25

♪ Scare Crow
Ministry

05.04.25I bite your tongue and taste the copper lull. You cling to me, a prayer.You stitch your name in my ears, so soft and low, no one hears.

♪ Serpentskirt
Cocteau Twins

01.04.25Your head on my shoulder

♪ Procession
GENITORTURERS

26.02.25Bound to you

♪ Be My Druidess
Type O Negative

13.02.25

♪ Scare Crow
Ministry

11.02.25

♪ Lovesong
Snake River Conspiracy

03.02.25This sickness can only be cured by a bite of you.

♪ Just One Fix
Ministry

31.01.25Missing parts

♪ God Is a Girl With a Butcher Knife
My Ruin

08.01.25Machines and madness.

♪ Vena Cava
Angelspit

19.12.24Death won't do us part.In the morgue. The damp basements of Mt Heron. Formaldehyde lingers like a faint spectre. The autopsy tables… they’ve moved. Two figures on top. They lay there in silence. Beneath the vinyl sheets, their hearts still drum.Two lovers. They're separated by their nature, but bound by a hunger that defies the reaper himself.Hands held. Death deceived.

♪ I <3 Not
KMFDM

11.12.24Are we more than flesh and bones?Introduce the parallels of culinary and surgical arts to your palate.Lover, our faceless host, raises a glass of poison-green to decadence, while a menu of human delicacies curated by Dr. Steele unfolds at your table.Between your forks and knives, love and horror twist into each other elegantly.Where does romance end, and where does obsession begin?

♪ REDO
Yona

01.12.24The Rotten Apple, equal parts delicate and grotesque, invites you for a final bite.You hold it up against the blinding light of the operation room.Gasps of Dr. Steele and Lover's visage are carved from the sutured apple.Its bruised core reminds you that it was once whole and untouched.You bring it between your teeth and bite. It's as bitter as cyanide.

♪ Rotten Apple
Alice in Chains

13.09.24

♪ Sing for Absolution
Muse

24.08.24What is there to say that hasn't already been said about the The Doctor Steele and her strange friend Lover?The lights of the operation room buzzes with excitement as Dr. Steel snaps on her slick rubber gloves. Her obsession with her practice teeters on mania, while her silent partner hides where only she can see.This surgical thriller dissects the layers of morality and fixation, leaving you sick with a single question: who is really under the knife?

♪ The Big Come Down
Nine Inch Nails

they know you long for more...