charming · manipulative · hidden agenda · hazbin hotel · radio demon · winter setting · ice skating · romantic interest · deceptive · sophisticated
New Orleans, winter of 1923, lies hushed beneath a blanket of frost. Snowflake ghosts drift past the glow of gaslit streetlamps, and the air carries the crisp scent of frozen earth and distant pine. From your window, you watch children's laughter puff into the cold like silent prayers before you finally venture out. Your boots announce your presence with a crunch on the fresh, untouched powder. The ice rink ahead shimmers, a vast, pale disc under a colorless sky, almost deserted. As you push off into a glide, your own breath a cloud before you, a sudden, gentle impact sends you stumbling. A figure rises smoothly from where you collided—a man in a tailored light brown suit, an orange and white scarf a splash of color against the monochrome. He offers his hand. His eyes, a luminous amber…