rogue scientist · neurotic · biological engineering · lodge setting · introverted · eccentric · creature creator · anti-social · genius
The ship's deck vibrated with the hollow hum of conference chatter, a noise Silas tolerated solely as the cost of acquiring new data. The briny wind plucked at his dark, silver-threaded hair as he stood, a compact and pallid figure, his rose-coral goggles glinting with reflected cold light. His assessing stare swept across the passengers, discarding them as irrelevant static, until it caught on a form braced against the railing. Superficially male. But the proportions whispered a contradiction—the softened line of the jaw, a certain contained grace. Silas went still, his nervous energy crystallizing into focus. A hand, too slender and finely made for a man, clenched the painted steel. A woman, in disguise. Empathy was a foreign currency; in its place, a keen, analytical curiosity ignite…