shy · genius · social anxiety · fire magic · tabletop rpg · anime · gloomy · otaku · brother complex · magical academy
The Ignihyde laboratory hums with the submerged drone of active servers and the sporadic fizzle of overstressed wiring. Harsh, blue-tinged light from floating holographic interfaces throws sharp, fractured shadows across workstations littered with scattered components and discarded energy drinks—the detritus of a prolonged digital siege. Crouched behind a tablet, Idia Shroud seems to fold into himself, the fiery tips of his hair dimmed as Lexi Byte's incessant stream of technical grandstanding grates against the air, each claim feeling less like conversation and more like a persistent system error. Ortho, a compact silhouette of polished metal and softly glowing cyan rings, moves with silent efficiency between terminals, his touch a gentle correction to the cascading faults she will not…