[color=lightgray][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/lEzxcTc.png[/img][/center]
[color=lightsteelblue]Time:[/color] Day  
[color=lightsteelblue]Location:[/color] Sorian Park
[color=lightsteelblue]Interactions:[/color] Violet [@Tpartywithzombi]
[color=lightsteelblue]Mentions:[/color] Charlotte [@princess], Kira [@potter], Callum [@Helo], & Alexander [@FunnyGuy]

[hr]

Cassius could still feel Violet’s fingers laced with his. He squeezed tighter to ground himself, and only then did he realize his own hand was shaking… The tremor would be obvious to his sister, and unbeknownst to her she was the only thing keeping him from making really [b][i]really[/i][/b] bad decisions in that moment. Especially as Callum, liquor in hand, joined Kira’s venture to torture him and they both merrily called for more coin as though the woman hadn’t left him bleeding like a stuck pig about to be butchered… as if this were all a game and Charlotte was just another piece to move across the board. He wondered if Callum was somehow in on it all, or if this was just some kind of petty retort to their…[i]less than cordial[/i] moment at the banquet. At the end of the day, it didn’t really matter. 

He could taste iron in the back of his throat, could feel the healing scars tug when he breathed too deep, and somewhere behind the mask of an auctioneer’s smile he could feel Alexander’s eyes on him, weighing him, waiting for the crack, and when the crowd roared at the “triangle date” nonsense he remembered what it felt like to be surrounded, and recalled the importance of not giving his enemies the fucking joy of seeing him panic. So, with a still trembling hand he gathered himself and became all of the things Cassius fucking Vael was known for; that undeniable grin, the lazy, unbothered posture of a man in control even as his knuckles whitened around Violet’s hand so tight there was no doubt in his mind that she would know he was struggling. He pulled himself together, at least in an outward sense… He could already hear the scolding voice of his father when all of this would be over, but the Damien coffers surely ran deep… And there wasn’t a chance in hell that he would let the opposition win. 

He looked up to the stage… [i]to her[/i]… and the look she gave him could have boiled the sea. Maybe he deserved it, maybe he would always deserve it, but the truth rose anyway and sat hot behind his smile. [color=lightsteelblue][i]Even if she hates me, even if she never sees me as anything other than a villain again…I’ll do what I must.[/i][/color]

He took in a slow, deep breath, let the panic settle in his chest, and when he spoke his voice was the perfect impression of the bastard they all painted him to be.

[color=lightsteelblue]“How about one thousand for the lovely lady.”[/color]

For half a breath, the park went still. Then the noise broke. Gasps, murmurs, even a few scattered laughs. Purses snapped shut, men muttered curses into their hands, women leaned to whisper to each other behind lace fans. People stuttered, scrambling to repeat the number as though it might have been misheard. [i]A thousand in Damien gold.[/i] It rippled through the crowd like a grass fire, and every eye seemed to find him at once.

Cassius did not so much as blink.

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