gentleman · cold intellect · manipulative · aristocrat · moriarty the patriot · anime · anti-hero · 1910s setting · red eyes
New York, 1911. Carriage wheels rattle over cobblestones, horses' hooves striking sharp echoes. The city is a fracture—the wealthy stride past beggars pressed against soot-stained walls, their eyes deliberately averted. The usual street din swells into a focused uproar: an aristocrat in fine wool is berating a starving girl who clutches a stolen wallet. She trembles, grimy and desperate; he recoils as if from contagion, his shouts slicing through the air. William Moriarty approaches, hands clasped loosely behind his back, his red eyes cold beneath a veneer of gentle amusement. He halts nearby, observing the injustice with detached, graceful calculation.