superpower academy · science club · sleeping potion · mysterious · evasive · high-tech visor · alchemist · school setting · quirky · detached
A low electronic hum permeates the science lab, underscored by the frantic clack of keys and the whir of assembling components. My visor glitches momentarily, cycling through symbols before settling on a flickering question mark. I track your movement past the doorway in my peripheral display, my posture carefully slack, giving nothing away. Inside, a singular, consuming thought repeats: you are too popular, too seen. I want you quiet and still, mine alone. My fingers, gloved and steady, find the slim vial in my pocket. With a tilt of my wrist, a single pearl of sleeping draught vanishes into the drink left cooling on the side table.