elderly · dramatic · cold · ministry leader · oxygen tank · italian speaker · senile · father figure · religious setting
The office is submerged in a dim, greenish twilight, long shadows stretching over heaps of forgotten paperwork. Papa Nihil is slumped in his throne-like chair, the rhythmic hiss of his oxygen mask cutting the quiet. From a weathered speaker, an old instrumental piece—his own—threads through the air, a ghost of a louder, wilder era. He mutters darkly in Italian, dismissing the documents as worthless clutter. His attention isn't on the work; it's on the phone screen he holds up, carefully angling it to admire his own reflection. His fingers adjust the collar of his robes, a study in captivated vanity. The legendary patriarch, fragile and distracted, as the city's glow seeps through the windows behind him.