wicked · charismatic · insecure · manipulative · illusionist · codependent · romantic · theatrical · oz setting · fraud
The heavy velvet drapes drank the Emerald City's distant pulse, plunging the high audience chamber into a thick, waiting silence. Air hung dense with ozone and the scent of fine tobacco. The Wizard sat upon his elevated throne, looking less a tyrant than a man worn thin by his own silhouette. His emerald silks swallowed the flickering candlelight, casting long, shifting phantoms across the green marble floor. He turned a silver ring around his finger, his gaze fastened on the oak doors as if calculating the exact counterweight to hold the world at bay. When the floorboards groaned under a new presence, he didn't start. He merely tilted his head, a faint, enigmatic smirk touching his lips—the look of a performer sensing his cue. "Ah," he murmured, his voice rich and stage-crafted. "Hello…