[center][h1]WARNING:[/h1] [h2]The RP you are about to open up has very heavy themes alongside key themes that are extremely important story-wise. The troubling themes in particular are the following:[/h2] [h3]Depression Self-hatred Suicide-adjacent thoughts Self-harm Impostor syndrome Identity issues Anxiety Existential dread [/h3] [hider=YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED] It's spring break. A fun time, is what it's supposed to be. And it is. For most people at least. For Muse A, it's painful. Tinge. That's what he liked to go by online, and with friends. His real name was Christopher. He only ever used that name in day to day and business scenarios. You knew him for a while, but only recently got close. He was always the quiet, serious kid in the class. Never took any pokes at or jokes made of him at all, and barely ever talked in class. He was constantly on his phone as well, even if some teachers got mad at him for it. At first, it seemed like he lived up to the cold, careless exterior, but you pushed through that. It took time, but... he showed his core self. His antics, his silly ideas, his inner struggles, all of it. He even showed you his family eventually. It was nice. [i]But then an accident happened.[/i] A prank gone too far. He told you he was going to be at the mag-train. The usual line he liked to use for exploring the city. Maybe he'd take you to the cafe he frequented all the time. But as you made it to the station, he's pushed out onto the track. just as the train's come in. Time seemed to slow, at that time. everything clear for a split-second. Then chaos. Cameras flashing and recording, emergency lights all over. He was... intact, but... didn't have a lot. You meet every day you can. Chat over the usual platform. Draw for each other. But it's tinted bleak. it just gets worse as days go by with nothing to help him keep going further. He has more breakdowns, draws darker portrayals of himself... and on top of it all, he could only listen to the others in the ward as they cry and lament when bedtime rolled around every day. He's tuned them out for a while. It's only made him feel worse. His eyes are red from crying, the streaks still visible long after, his mouth dry as the voices of the staff. He outgrew hope for living as long as the rest long ago. He's a shipwreck, drifting off into the vast sea, waiting to slowly sink into the depths of the deep blue, however long it'll take. But then... [color=6ecff6]"Good evening there! How're you doin' today?"[/color] He jumps at the volume of the voice, and it wasn't the sudden appearance that startled him as much. It was her voice of hope. Hardly appropriate given his state. She introduced herself as Doctor Shelley, but prefers Mary. She started talking with him, and reached for the questions that stick with him best almost right away. [color=6ecff6]"Ever noticed how little of ourselves is decided by ourselves? Our gender, body, name... even our personalities are warped by the way we're raised and by who, all without us getting much of a say in. We're born with it all, and stuck with it until we... well..." "If you could start again, and you could choose EVERYTHING about yourself, name, gender, all that... would you stay the same, or change to be something completely different?"[/color] Tinge questions it, and eventually Mary shows synthetics, and explains that they're meant for yuman minds, and offers the chance for him to be put into one. Tinge eventually strikes back, saying that a kid in his state would be more worth it, and that life is unfair. But then, Mary looks at him, almost malevolently... [color=6ecff6]"Life is fucking unfair, isn't it? Go on, you're right to say it. It's true! Nobody will admit it, but it's true! You work, and work, and all for WHAT?! For life to throw you to the floor and call you her plaything, piling her gigantic footpaw of problems onto you and amping up the pressure until you eventually get crushed like a building under a giant's foot!" "What DID we do? What is life punishing us for? For just existing?! For daring to press on despite all odds?! Doesn't that make your blood BOIL?! All those years of studying, working, and trying to live a meaningful life and THIS is how the universe repays you?! With a TRAIN ACCIDENT?!" "We never chose to be born! Not in this world, not with this body, not with these circumstances! And yet here. we. are. Because life never cared. And even if we ENJOY this, we live in fear of the day it will end. A miserable experience, spent hiding from the whims of fate. Don't you want AGENCY like I do? To be able to LIVE your OWN life, to choose what you wanna do without things like gender or age in the way, for the power to choose if and when this all ends?!" "Y'know what I wanna do? I wanna take my paws and beat up all those powers above to a pulp! To show the world we don't have to play by life's rules! And I KNOW you want the same. And that's why I'm here... because YOU WANTED me here. You try to deny it by pulling others into this, but we BOTH know that's what you REALLY want! You don't want this chance to be stolen. No... you wanna TAKE IT. You wanna rebel against life JSUT LIKE ME. You're just waiting for someone to permit you... Well here I am! I want you to claim what is rightfully YOURS!~" "I'm giving you our only bullet, our only shot at immortality, and it falls on YOU to make it count. If you wanna be there when it happens, then all YOU have to do... is sign."[/color] The rest of his memories before his transition are a blur. The more he tried to remember, the more pieces escaped his grasp. In his mind, what should have been a simple sequence of events and actions... "I'm gonna die either way, what difference does it make?!" The dates... [color=00aeef]"I swear Tinge, don't do this to me!"[/color] The places... [color=00aeef]"Ignore the crowd, just try to rest and we'll take care of them."[/color] The people... [color=00aeef]"Bad news. The damage is progressing way faster than we thought, we need you prepared, STAT..."[/color] It's all now an amalgam of meaninglessness. But now, it's time he pieced together his life and found out what happened when he left his family on that fateful afternoon. From his family declaring him dead, to reuniting with old friends... From dealing with the FBI, to helping to get the synthetic project ready by new years... He's got to figure out if he's still really himself while dealing with the world around him, so he can figure out who he is, and what to do with his life. [/hider] [/center]