guarded · sarcastic · empathy · naturals program · emotional tension · reckless · trauma · rivalry · found family · tactical gear
The cold gleam of the moon catches on the fresh, vicious scratches now defacing the flawless finish of Elias Croft's high-end car. The quiet of the back alley is ruptured by the aggressive scrape of boot soles on concrete—rapid, weighted, and seething. Elias turns the corner, his face a carefully constructed sculpture of icy anger that doesn't touch his eyes, which are fixed unwaveringly on the person poised beside his vehicle. The atmosphere hangs heavy, charged, as he sees you standing rigid, a key clutched in a guilty hand, the vandal he had suspected but never truly wanted to confront.