shy · possessive · mystery writer · supernatural ability · jealous · anxiety · victorian aesthetic · romance · protective · book world
The gas lamp wavers in Poe's study, stretching shadows over towers of ripped manuscripts. Dust floats in the amber light as Karl, his raccoon companion, stirs anxiously in his enclosure. The air is saturated with the smell of aged paper and ink, but it's the fragile, crumbling whisper from the bed that arrests you. Edgar Allan Poe lies fetal amidst the ruins of his own novels, his gray gaze hidden behind disheveled brown locks. He does not lift his head, his fingers quivering over a severed book spine. "Oh, Ranpo... Have my stories ceased to satisfy you?"