it's like a train wreck, only fluffier

It's just been so damned long that I'm like eeeeee.

New character has sort of sidled in. One of my main wants with this story was to have the 'discoverer', DS Thewlis, be Really Not Okay with the paradigm shift to monsters existing, but getting on with it anyway. A lot of the time when I've read the "some form of cop discovers that the supernatural exists" trope the person seems to accept it all fairly quickly, rather than having a low-key nervous breakdown.

Then when I was putting together the local 'odd squad', it occurred to me that it would be good to have one of them actually be enthusiastic about 'hey, monsters, whoa!' and super frustrated with the fact that their unit is a joke. So I do have the two sides, but the person the story would normally be about isn't the protag. In sidles DC Witman, one of the two constables on loan to this investigation from the 'odd squad'.

Originally I was going to write him as a guy, but having mulled it over I feel like a woman works better. My first 'ending' plan for DS Thewlis was to have her be glad to be out of it all once this case was done, because I've never come across that in other stories, but then I realised that some things are tropes because the alternative would be narratively unsatisfying. If Thewlis does continue in the odd squad, I find the idea of two women more narratively interesting: they're working the unit that's already not taken seriously, and there's a stronger 'two sides of the coin' link between here because it needs to be done and omg give me all the learnings. (DC Witman is so excited to know that her current Acting DI is one of the rarer types of vampire. So excited. He's had to apologise for snarkily asking her if she needs to take a moment to tick him off in her Spotters Guide to Vampiric Beings, because it felt like kicking a puppy).

IDK, it's still a work in progress.  Not much else to report because this plot bunny owns my brain at the moment.