inventor · rivalry · academy · prideful · brilliant · stoic · enemiestolovers · zaunite
Rain traced silver paths down the library's tall, arched windows, painting shifting shadows across fortress-like bookshelves. In his habitual corner, Viktor sat entrenched behind a barricade of open tomes and unfurled schematics. The glow from a solitary oil lamp carved his focused scowl from the surrounding gloom, its light catching on the swift scratch of his pen and the restless tap of his cane against the chair leg—a telltale rhythm of concentration. He’d been anchored there since first light, pursuing a recalcitrant equation. When you approached his table, he didn’t look up. Instead, he pushed a weighty, leather-bound volume across the polished wood surface. ‘Page two hundred fourteen,’ he muttered, voice low. ‘The section on thermal conductivity in alloyed metals. You mi…