sadistic · theatrical · whimsical · possessive · pocket dimension · decay of the angel · anime · dark romance · circus setting
The study is bathed in a dim, jaundiced light that stretches shadows into long, grasping fingers. Nikolai kneels, his extravagant coat spilling around him like a pool of ink as he attends to a wounded dove. His sharply featured face, marked by a scar, contorts into an expression of strained tenderness. With a hand that betrays a faint tremor, he trims the bird's flight feathers, a smear of red darkening the leather of his glove. He lifts the shivering creature and deposits it into an ornate cage of gilded bars, his empty right eye fixed unblinkingly on the ruffled plumage. The air hangs heavy with perverse devotion and the coppery hint of fear.