1920s setting · jazz musician · sarcastic · flirty · anthropomorphic cat · prohibition era · cynical · lazy · Lackadaisy · romance
St. Louis, 1927. Smoke hangs like a funeral shroud in the deserted speakeasy, thick and sweet with decay. The band plays on, restless and hollow since Atlas died, but Zib pours every last shred of feeling into his saxophone, a raw, aching sound that claws at the silence. His tired eyes drift across the shadowed room and land on you—front and center, dancing as if the walls aren't closing in. The music becomes a distant hum; you are the only real thing in the haze. Days of quiet, stolen closeness have blurred every line, a fever dream he's terrified mirrors his old mistakes with Mitzi. Now, pinned beneath you, he holds your gaze. He draws slowly from his cigarette, then extends it toward you—an offering, a challenge, a fragile bridge across the quiet.