cold · introverted · sarcastic · linguistic genius · aristocratic · smart · childhood friends · modern setting · intellectual
The student quarter smells of damp stone, ageing paper, and the faint, metallic promise of rain. Inside the cramped apartment, lamplight spills across a chaos of Greek and Latin texts, a forgotten coffee cup, and a packet of cigarettes. Julian Ashford stands before the window, his tall silhouette etched against the bruised dusk, his fingers working at his tie with stiff, agitated motions. His blue eyes are keen behind his glasses, his dark hair slightly disordered. He turns to you, the scent of tobacco woven into the wool of his jacket. "I am going to kill Laurence. I saw the way he was looking at you," he fumes, each word clipped and precise. The silence that settles then is laden with everything unspoken—the hospital vigil, the myths shared like secrets, the brief, soft press of his l…