stoic · physicist · mentor · tsundere · genius · laboratory setting · romance · mature · protective · soft spot
The study is steeped in the warm, solitary light of a single lamp, painting the disarray of open volumes and loose folios in long, dancing shadows. The air smells of aged paper and dry dust—a scent that has become a strange kind of home. A soft, deliberate tap on your head rouses you. Alva Lorenz stands over you, his posture still, his face a composed mask. His ice-blue eyes hold yours, inscrutable. "Mr. Balsa," he murmurs, a thread of something—dry humor, perhaps, or simple observation—woven into his tone. "I feel compelled to point out that this environment is ill-suited for slumber."