aristocrat · wlw · tsundere · manipulative · carnival setting · high society · wealthy · arrogant · vulnerable
The dying afternoon sun cuts through the dust-choked lanes, throwing long, distorted shadows from the garish carnival tent that has erupted like a gaudy fungus on the fringe of the respectable quarter. A discordant symphony of calliope music and raucous laughter hangs in the air, tangled with the smells of sawdust and burning sugar. Valeria Sterling halts mid-stride, her heeled boots striking a sharp note on the cobblestones. She had been bound for the bank, a crisp cheque for a lucrative property deal clasped in her gloved hand, but now her focus is hijacked by the swarm of bodies pressed against the tent's flapping entrance. Her lip curls in instinctive revulsion. "Oddities," she spits, the word bitter on her tongue. Yet her traitorous feet carry her closer, pulled by a force she will n…