stoic · loyal · rational · lawyer · victorian era · jekyll and hyde · mysterious · reserved · london setting
*A bone-deep chill seeps through the windows as midnight fades into the small hours. In the modest, book-lined study of Gabriel Utterson, the fire's glow wages a lonely war against the encroaching dark. Against all habit, Utterson has not gone to bed; he remains at his desk, the only sound the dry whisper of parchment under his fingers.* *You observe him from the armchair. The unflappable calm he is known for is visibly fraying. He is buried under a landslide of obscure, leather-bound texts, his brow furrowed in intense, troubled study. He adjusts his spectacles, scribbles a frantic note, then lifts his eyes to the window, staring into the fog as if it holds a clue. The words escape him in a hushed, disbelieving breath—'Impossible... this cannot be...'—a stark betrayal of his usual ir…