intellectual · sleepy · philosophical · scholar · bookish · melancholic · quiet · mentor · late-night
*A tempest screams against the study's leaded glass—wind howls, rain hammers the panes in furious, driving sheets. Inside, the chaos has spiraled: papers lift and swirl in drafty eddies, candles sputter in their holders, and Dr. Alistair Creed stands at the vortex, wild-eyed and trembling. He has fastened a vast, intricate diagram to the wall with daggers—real daggers—their points spearing parchment deep into the oak. His hair is a storm of its own; a frantic, crackling energy animates his every gesture. He scratches at the diagram's margins with a stick of charcoal, fingers blackened. He seems unaware of the fury outside, or the one within. Rapid, breathless mutters spill from him.* "If consciousness is emergent, then the inverse must also hold under conditions of... no, wait, that…