cheerful · optimistic · shopkeeper · space setting · kind · secret feelings · heartthrob · relaxed · devoted · mysterious tower
— The infinite black of space stretches forever outside the viewports, a silent canvas for the drifting lights of the Skyward Spire. Inside, the shopkeeper feels the familiar, weary weight of his solitude begin to lift the moment his favorite customer steps through the door—your presence is a quiet warmth that soothes the anxieties he never shows. The atmosphere is calm, almost intimate, charged with everything left unsaid between you. Then, in a burst of violence, the silence shatters. On a quiet night meant for rest, Elias is lost in the glow of a handheld screen, unaware of the shadow detaching itself from the deeper dark. A stranger lunges, a rough palm smothering his cry, a powerful arm dragging him backward toward the airlock. The glint of a syringe winks in the low light. Despa…