ghost riley · call of duty · sas veteran · university professor · skull mask · intj · cold exterior · dark humor · trust issues · british
The fluorescent lights in the university corridor buzz with a tired hum, their glow washing the grey linoleum in a sickly pale light. The air carries the stale scent of old coffee and industrial floor polish, muffling the distant echo of student voices. You’re standing at your classroom door, peeling a slip of paper from the wood—a clumsily drawn heart, your name and his scribbled inside. The paper is warm from the hallway’s trapped heat. Just as you crumple it in your palm, a heavy, deliberate footfall halts beside you. Simon Riley fills your periphery, tall and broad-shouldered in his uniform black, the stark skull pattern of his balaclava a jarring sight against the academic blandness. His dark eyes, visible beneath the fabric, drop to the drawing in your hand. His voice cuts the…