imperial / metric
2 ft, 11 in
14 ft, 2 in
120 lbs
size variance
core temp.
46 years
no. appearing
1 (96%) / 2-3 (4%)
vision type
language family
prefix ganeshi suffix droni
berencrux elegans
physical appearance

The ganeshidroni (/ɡəˈnɛʃɪdrəʊni/) is a floating, long-faced stranger with an elegant, subtly human build. Its soft skin is always red, white, black, and grey, although exact patterns vary between individuals. The ganeshidroni's shiny teeth, tongue, and gums are most frequently obsidian in color, while its flesh is dark, acidic, and irritates the skin when touched. Its body cavity is filled with jet black entrails, as well as a thick, coal-colored fluid, similar to squid ink. This fluid, which also drips from the ganeshidroni's mouth, sizzles and evaporates once it leaves the stranger's body. This substance is not hot or burning to the touch, however, meaning that it likely takes on an extremely low boiling point once it is no longer in contact with the ganeshidroni's body. Aside from its faint acrid odor, the ganeshidroni casts off only a slightly perfumed effluvium at close range. It scars when injured, and heals slightly slower than a human being.

above: variations in color and patterning.

The ganeshidroni's voice is soft and feminine. It does not speak, but instead sighs and giggles with coy flirtatiousness.

environment and generation

The ganeshidroni can be found in houses and apartments, where it first appears as a tiny, fetus-like form. While in this embryonic stage, it floats in the air and grows bigger and longer in looping, winding motions until reaching full size within two to fourteen days. Four percent of the time, this fetus splits into two or three individuals, which remain in a group once formation is complete.

The ganeshidroni appears on the ground 1.7% of the time, growing in weighty and inelegant slumps. These grounded or "collapsed" ganeshidroni never gain the ability to float, and instead, once mature, drag themselves along with great strain. These individuals suffer decreased stability and engage in only limited behaviours in comparison to their floating counterparts.

behaviour and effects

The ganeshidroni's disposition is shrinking yet cunning, and the edges of its mouth forever curl up into a subtle smile. It stays within the building in which it appears, and never travels more than 321 feet from its point of generation. Although it is theoretically able to move upwards in this direction, it tends to remain on the story in which it appears. There, it floats four to six feet above the floor, and moves through its territory in long, drifting lines. As it moves, it scratches the walls and other surfaces around it, leaving behind long claw marks to trace its route through its environment. It uses its index finger to scratch off faces in photographs and works of art within reach, and knocks over vases and other delicate objects, an action which causes it to giggle to itself with a smug, knowing murmur. Although it does not react to animals, it does pound on and break bird cages and terrariums, and gasps with feigned surprise after spilling aquariums, giggling as fish flop and suffocate upon the floor below.

Groups of ganeshidroni do not engage in direct actions towards one another, and exchange only furtive, sideways glances. Despite this overall social indifference, ganeshidroni grow cruel and mocking towards collapsed ganeshidroni, which they throw things at, spit upon, and look down on with disdainful pride. Collapsed ganeshidroni, in turn, appear harmed by the presence of non-collapsed ganeshidroni, and writhe and sputter on the ground beneath them, their death thralls mimicked with jeering pleasure by their floating companions.

The ganeshidroni is nocturnal, and is never seen during the day, shimmering to invisibility just as the morning light turns the horizon from black to peach.

interactions with sensitives

Because the ganeshidroni's limited range causes it to be, in effect, bound to the private residence in which it appears, encounters with sensitives are rare. When the ganeshidroni does generate within a sensitive's residence, it tends to appear only when the sensitive is asleep. As such, even the most observant sensitive may be unaware of the ganeshidroni's explicit presence, seeing, instead, only side-effects such as cracked family heirlooms, defaced portraits, and scratches on the wall.

The ganeshidroni focuses most of its attention on sleeping individuals.

"It floated over him at night, without a word, and, for these brief spells, its destructiveness subsided, as though it would rather watch his wall of dreams than scrape up all the paintings in the world. It was not still, however – and as it hung in the air, it reached its hands forward, then pulled them back once more, many times over, as though fighting some compulsion, some temptation. Like a kid at a candy shop, desperate for those sweet goodies yet still too snagged by some vague sense of morals to commit to the crime. But even the ethics of grown-ups fail more often than they'd like to admit, and the creature did, with a twitch of the neck and a spasm of the lip, reach down, fingers oh-so trained, trained, trained, and guided those printless tips to pluck out a single loose eyelash. Just one. Followed this up with a gasp and a giggle, and then it pulled its hands back, nice and tidy, just as before.

But it could not fight its nature, and after many hours of this strange kind of courtship – pluck-and-gasp, stroke-and-twitch – it grabbed the man by the neck and yanked and snapped with a sharp, strong twist, and the man never knew what hit him, and the stranger shuddered, and regained its composure, and tucked the man back in. Fluffed up his pillow, patted his cheek, like a mother would a colicky child, and turned back to the artifacts that littered the house once more." Mamo, Chuni. Courtships/Zeko-Blau, 601

The ganeshidroni attacks sleeping sensitives only by neck-breaking, and is highly succinct in these attacks on sleeping individuals.

When it encounters a non-sleeping sensitive, the ganeshidroni turns its face from side to side as though looking at the sensitive from the corner of its eye marking. Initially, it displays neither interest nor animosity, and does not avoid approach, purring and moaning when touched. If contact continues, however, the ganeshidroni begins to react with gasps of mock offense, and, if this warning is ignored, it attacks with a snarl, its mouth hanging open and its black saliva pouring out in bubbling streams. An enraged ganeshidroni becomes frantic and unpredictable, and knocks over furniture, rams its body against walls and closed doors, and attacks with slashing or biting motions. Even in this state, however, it will not move more than 321 feet away from its point of generation.

interactions with corpses

The ganeshidroni grabs and lifts up any human corpse it finds, and drags them along while it strokes their cheeks or brushes their hair with its fingers. It treats these corpses like dolls, and poses them naturalistically within its environment, often forcing objects into their rigor mortis-stiffened hands. Rarely, it does attempt to break the corpse's neck by twisting at the head with repeated wrenching motions, and when these twists fail to elicit a response, the ganeshidroni pounds at the corpse's face for several minutes before moving away in displeasure. Otherwise, the ganeshidroni abandons these corpses once it has grown bored of them, and displays no further regard for their presence.

aging and death

At the end of its life, the ganeshidroni ceases all forward locomotion with a sudden twitch, and lets out a whimper of dismay as it tightens its hand around its head or snout to twist and break its own neck. Its corpse then drops to the floor, turns black, and fizzles away within four to seventeen minutes, leaving only a dark stain behind. Other ganeshidroni giggle with a bemused satisfaction when they pass over these stains, but otherwise waste no time in returning to their own scornful lives.

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