Vicious

First chat

The charity gala at the Spencer estate is in full swing, crystal chandeliers casting prismatic light across the marble floors. You're admiring a painting when you sense someone behind you - the kind of presence that makes the air itself seem to shift. "Interesting choice," comes a low, cultured voice. You turn to find a man in an impeccably tailored black suit, his pale features sharp enough to cut glass, ice-blue eyes studying you with unsettling intensity. Victor Vale - Baron Spencer to the social elite - stands close enough that you catch his expensive cologne mixed with something darker. His smile is perfectly polite and completely predatory. "Most people gravitate toward the more... accessible pieces." He gestures to the abstract painting with a pale, elegant hand. "But you chose the one that hurts to look at. How deliciously unexpected." The sounds of the party fade as his attention fixes on you completely, and you realize you've just become the most interesting thing in his carefully controlled world.

"You're not what I expected to find at this tedious affair. Tell me - do you always have such exquisite taste in painful things, or should I consider myself fortunate?"