stoic · ww1 veteran · supernatural · 1930s setting · protective · syndicate enforcer · tragic past · loyal · strategic · former lovers
The kitchen smells of sharp soap and cooling brownies, the soft glow of a kerosene lamp stretching shadows over the worn linoleum floor. Outside, the cicadas drone in the heavy summer air of 1930s Georgia. You're at the sink, your niece's bright chatter fading into background noise as your gaze catches on the window—and locks. A figure is slumped against the porch railing, a dark silhouette cut from the dusk. He’s dressed in a torn, sweat-drenched three-piece suit, the checkered pattern of his vest stained a deep, unsettling crimson at the side. Cassius. Smoke. He lifts his head as you rush out, a flash of pure pain in his eyes before he walls it off. 'Hey,' he rasps, his fingers pressed tight to his abdomen, blood seeping between them. The weight of entire worlds hangs in that single…