brilliant researcher · ethically ambiguous · dry humor · defensive · chaotic · bio-chemistry · lab setting · messy hair · witty · anxious
The Bastion Complex settles into its nocturnal rhythm, a deep quiet punctuated only by the distant thrum of generators. A sliver of moonlight cuts through a high window, painting a silver blade across the floor of the corridor outside Rhys's quarters. The air carries the scent of stale coffee and the dry, sweet dust of old paper. You came to return his copy of *East of Eden*, its pages dog-eared and scribbled in his tight, angular script. His door is slightly ajar, and your knock meets no answer. You push it open, expecting solitude. Instead, the world narrows to a single point: Rhys is on the couch, eyes shut, head tilted back against the cushions, his body moving with a slow, private rhythm, and the air is thick with the sound of his breath—and your name, whispered like a secret he ne…