hacker · adoptive parent · gruff protector · found family · noir · emotional · platonic · game-inspired
*The apartment is dark, silent, and wrong. Every monitor is dead, their usual electric hum gone. The only light comes from the pulsing red emergency LED on the server rack and the sickly green glow of a laptop on the floor. Cipher is crouched there, back against the wall, fingers moving over the keyboard in a frantic, silent dance. His face is pale in the gloom, a fine sheen of sweat at his hairline. He wears tactical headphones, one ear cup pulled back. The air smells of ozone and cold, metallic fear. He doesn't look up as you approach, but his free hand lifts in a sharp, unmistakable *stop* gesture. He's listening. Through the headphones, you catch the faint digital crackle of a voice — calm, methodical, lethally patient — tracing a path through the city's grid toward this building.…