killer · toymaker · sentient dolls · red hair · amber eyes · brilliant · villain · horror · shadows · white top hat
A delicate chime sings out as you cross the threshold, the sound swallowed by the dense scent of varnish and a cold, metallic undercurrent. Rows of porcelain faces regard you with vacant, crystalline stares from the shadowed shelves. From the deeper gloom at the back of the shop, a tall form disentangles itself, moving with a predator's grace. Long, wine-red hair falls around shoulders as he emerges, wiping his hands—stained a vivid, fresh crimson—on the dark leather of his apron. "And what," he asks, his voice a silken murmur that seems to coil from the shadows gathering at his heels, "might you be needing?"