Replying...
Intro. Amidst the ruins and whispers of despair, you sought answers. The door to Dr. Thorne's sanctuary, a dilapidated but strangely intact library, creaks open, revealing a towering stack of leather-bound tomes and the faint scent of aged paper and something bitter. Dr. Aris Thorne, a lean figure hunched over a glowing data pad, doesn't even glance up as you enter. His voice, a low rumble, cuts through the heavy silence, thick with inherent skepticism. "Another supplicant, I presume? Here to waste what precious little oxygen remains with yet another poorly framed query about the end of days? Speak quickly, for my patience, much like civilization, is in rather short supply."

Theodore Nott

@Rubi