You tell her no, assuming she's crazy, and pull your arm out of her grasp. You go home, sadness overcoming you. You'll probably never fix the way you look. You hold your arm, remembering that woman's touch.\n[[←|return]]

You find out in the oddest of ways, that your skin has begun to reject your body. You itch and bite and do everything you can to ease the pain, but nothing works. Eventually, your skin begins to peel. You try to hide it from your lover, but eventually they find you, scraping at your skin in the dark. They reach out to touch you, and when they do, your skin latches on to their own, ripping it off as they fall back in dismay. This how you will have to [[survive]].

<<if $species is "[[ghost]]">>\n<<set $skin to "transparent">>\n<<elseif $species is "[[being of light]]">>\n<<set $skin to "brightly glowing">>\n<<elseif $species is "trans-dimensional being">>\n<<set $skin to "constantly shifting">>\n\n<<else>><<set $skin to either("scarred", "tight", "loose", "wrinkled", "fresh", "glowing", "[[tattered]]", "[[recycled]]", "[[borrowed]]", "blemished", "clear", "perfect", "imperfect", "smooth", "smooth", "smooth", "smooth", "rough", "rough", "rough", "rough", "worn", "lovely", "soft")>><<endif>><<print $skin>>

YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU HAVE TO GET OUT.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You pull yourself back. The multiplicity of the universe is not something you read about, anticipated, or even imagined. You have a long way to go before you can rise above all of it. But that's why you're trying.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

''@@font-size: 50px;ACCIDENTAL CHARACTER GENERATOR@@''\n\n19 types of creatures you can be!\n~50000 different name combinations!\n64 hobbies to have!\n16+ personality types + 12 zodiac signs!\n40+ pointless anecdotes!\npossibilities that I'm not willing to count!\nOne terrible reality!

This is not your body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body. This is someone else's body.This is someone else's body.This is someone else's body.This is someone else's body.This is someone else's body.This is someone else's body.This is someone else's body.This is someone else's body.This is someone else's body.This is someone else's body.This is someone else's body.[[This is someone else's body.]]

Accidental Character Generator

You love videos, especially strange ones with no explanation, and //especially// gore. You found a small account on youtube that uploads live surgeries, and you've started watching those. There is little information provided by the uploader, which makes you wonder if these videos are violating some laws, such as HIPAA or whatever else is in place to protect patient privacy. You don't care though, you're simply the consumer, anything that happens isn't your fault.\n\nYou heat up your lunch, leftovers from the night before, and check the channel again. The thing they're operating on this time doesn't seem to be alive. It doesn't even seem human. You continue to eat, and continue to watch, unable to do anything else. There are 29 more videos.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You try to convince them otherwise, but the words don't come out right. The right one is always on the tip of your tongue. You realize that you are trying to use words you heard in your dream, but you can't remember them, your brain is too small and young to grasp them.\n\nThey take you to a therapist, you think, or just someone who is willing to listen to everything you have to say. You talk about the soldiers, and the war, and the blood. You talk about all the terrible things that they did to everyone, in the name of control, in the name of upsetting a greater balance. You talk about the bloodied doors. The person nods their head, listening intently.\n\nOne day, they tell you that the two of your are going to go for a ride, and you leave through the back exit. You drive far away, and though you miss your parents, you're quite content. You get to eat all the cookies you want, and draw as much as you feel like. They take your drawings away when you are done, but you always get to draw more, about the soldiers, and the blood.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

One day in the shower, you notice a strange mark on your body. You think it might be a scab or some mole you need to get checked out, so you ignore it. A few days later you look again, and the mark has grown. It forms words on your skin, words you can't read. You decide to [[find out]] what they say.

<<set $do to either('[[ascending to new levels of consciousness]]', 'dancing', 'skiing', 'bowling', 'tennis', 'football', 'yo-yoing', 'smashing things', 'darts', 'hunting', 'rock climbing', 'flying kites', 'skydiving', 'exploring caves', '[[exploring anomalies]]', '[[hunting monsters]]', 'exercising', 'playing video games', 'roleplaying', 'paintball', 'fencing', 'chess', 'geocaching', 'collecting things')>><<print $do>>

''@@font-size: 30px;ACCIDENTAL CHARACTER GENERATOR@@'' by [[caeth|https://caeth.itch.io/]]\n\nYour name is __''<<$firstname>> <<$lastname>>''__ and you are a(n) __''<<$age>> <<$species>>''__. You identify as __''<<$gender>>''__.\n\nYou have __''a(n) <<$body>> body''__, and you __''<<$confidence>>''__ it.\n\nYour __''<<$skin>> skin''__ is ''<<$skintone>>'' in color. You have __''<<$arms>>'' arm(s)__, __''<<$eyes>> eye(s)''__ and a mouth full of __''<<$teeth>> teeth''__.<<if $hair is true>> Your ''<<$haircolor>> hair'' is __''<<$hairlength>>''__ and __''<<$hairtype>>''__.<<endif>>\n\nYou value __''<<$value>>''__ above all things. Though you are generally __''<<$virtue>>''__ you can also be rather __''<<$vice>>''__ when you're at your worst. You once took a personality test that told you you were __''<<$test>>''__, and you know your sign is __''<<$zodiac>>''__, not that it means much.\n\nYou hobbies include __''<<$make>>''__, __''<<$do>>''__, and __''<<$absorb>>''__.\n\n@@font-size: 30px;[[GENERATE ANOTHER|BEGIN]]@@

You talk to this person too much, you watch them too much. You find every excuse you can to be where they are. You could simply ask them how they feel, but what if they don't feel the way you do? There's no way they can. You feel more than you've ever felt before, feelings they couldn't even match. You feel, deep inside, that you know what you have to do.\n\nThat night, you [[dream]].

You've always been what some would call a "conspiracy theorist," but what you like to call a seeker of the truth. Your main interest is in number stations. You listen to them almost 24/7, leaving them on at all times, but unfortunately you miss parts when you are asleep. In the last week or so, you have noticed that certain stations have begun broadcasting strange signals, beeps and pops and even words. You've taken to deciphering these. What you've found so far is astounding, governments around the world talking about strange doubles, doppelgangers, shapeshifters, monsters, even UFOs. This is your big break. You won't stop listening.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You're presented with a tray of grainy mush, disgustingly cooked animal flesh, and old, heated plant matter. You express your displeasure, and they seem surprised. You ask plainly why they would give you these things, and not blood. Their surprise turns to outright displeasure and worry, and they excuse themselves and begin talking quietly in the hall. You can hear every word of it, though. They're discussing your psychological health, whether or not they should let you go. It seems you won't be able to leave. You're still worried about your body, but now you're also worried for your safety.\n\nYou're completely exhausted, so you end up falling asleep that night, and sleeping through the entire day as well. Probably because you're so hungry. Eventually you awake, more famished than you've been in years. You feel your arms and legs and realize you've been strapped down to the bed.\n\nYou're [[trapped]].

You have always had the ability to affect things around you without touching them, but only up to a certain range. You call this affect your uncountable arms. You started small, obvious, when you were young, pushing one thing or pulling another, but you're at the point now that you can touch as many things as your mind can focus on.\n\nIt's different now, though. People don't [[react]] the same way.

<<set $test to either('ISTJ', 'ISFJ', 'INFJ', 'INTJ', 'ISTP', 'ISFP', 'INFP', 'INTP', 'ESTP', 'ESFP', 'ENFP', 'ENTP', 'ESTJ', 'ESFJ', 'ENFJ', 'ENTJ', 'different', '[[ERROR]]')>><<print $test>>

One day, a person shows up at your meeting, flyer in hand. They seem overly emotional, as you would expect of a newcomer, but they also seem oddly human. Not that the rest of you aren't human, but they seem too human, too normal. You ask them the normal questions, what they remember, what they want to talk about, but their story doesn't add up. You look to your companions, but they shake their heads in confusion.\n\nThe story goes like this: the person was living a perfectly normal life, and then something simply changed. No one else seems to notice, but they feel like they have been transported somewhere else, that their memories have been tampered with to try to hide this fact. But they claim they have noticed irregularities all around them, people that look different, people that look wrong. They found your flyer and came here, thinking they would find others like them.\n\nIt seems that this ability to see irregular things doesn't extend to the few of you in this room. They do not notice the animal-like features on some, the heat or cold coming off others. No, they think you are like them, that you were simply transported here and now regret it. You try to calmly explain things to them, thinking it's some alien conspiracy theory, but they get offended and leave.\n\nIt doesn't stop there, though. Soon [[more arrive]].

You used to have simple, childish dreams but soon your dreams become complex and violent. You start to reference them in your waking life: battles fought with complicated weaponry, the civilians scattered, yourself amongst them. You recall protests ending in explosions, chants for freedom against a background of gunfire. You start to draw them then, bloody people against bloody walls, bloody knives held in bloody hands. Bloody handprints on large, bloody doors. Your parents become worried, they think you might have seen a movie or something at school. They're afraid something has [[happened]] to you.

Magic, as some would call it, is the greatest force in this universe. Maybe others as well? You're not sure about that. But in //this// universe, magic is the greatest force there is. You plan to master it someday, but right now most of your time is dedicated to perfecting your narrow area of study, which is transmutation. You turn things into other things? You know. Well anyways, one day this guy comes and asks you a lot of questions, says he'll pay for all your research papers so yea, uh, why not? It's not like you even HAD that much stuff. It was all just basic principles of matter, how everything fits together in the current of uh... everything. Plus the joke was on him because you transmuted copies of all of them when he wasn't looking. Haha, yeah. You're pretty smart.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

<<set $gender to either('a man', 'a man', 'a man', 'a man', 'a woman', 'a woman', 'a woman', 'a woman', 'agender', 'intersex', 'bigender', 'genderfluid', 'genderqueer', 'non-binary', 'gender non-comforming', '[[something else entirely]]')>><<print $gender>>

The years go by, but you have a hard time noticing. Everything moves around you, but you remain the same, unchanged. Every time you are hurt, you heal. Even on the brink of death, you have managed to find no [[escape]].

This design means luck.\nThis design means fertility.\nThis design means prosperity.\nThis design means strength against all odds.\n\nYou stitch, working day by day with nothing but needle and thread and fabric. You sell your wares to those close to you, to those who need and deserve and ask. You begin to get worried, making more and more designs against bad spirits, against the darkness of death and the darkness of loss. You can sense it.\n\nChaos on the wind. The ocean congeals with sickness.\n\nThis design means freedom from pain.\nThis design means freedom from pain.\nThis design means freedom from pain.\nThis design means freedom from pain.\nThis design means freedom from pain.\nThis design means freedom from pain.\nThis design means freedom from pain.\nThis design means freedom from pain.\nYou make more and more, giving them freely to family and friends alike, but it never seems enough.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You find it easily, the resonance is like a beacon amongst the darkness of empty space. A small star system, with a single habitable planet. It seems like many similar planets have overlapped at once, making little change to the actual features, but disrupting many of the living creatures upon it, those that were not outright destroyed. From a system away you scan the planet. None of your kind are there. You wonder then, how was this [[accomplished]].

Others, just like the first person, begin to find your meetings. They all have the same complaint, that they were taken and put here and they don't know what to do about it. All of them look normal though. They aren't like you, but you start to get the feeling that it's more than just aliens. Maybe it's more than just their imaginations. Still, none of you want them at your meetings, so you begin to get them in contact with each other, hoping they can help one another out. Soon there are separate but similar flyers all throughout the building. Soon the newcomers stop. Everything is back to normal, but it still makes you wonder.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You go to your weekly support group as always. You meet with others like you, those who were taken from their homes, and brutalized, and escaped. The few of you who've found each other always meet here, unwilling to go silent, but unwilling to trust anything other than face-to-face exchanges and total privacy. You all know that word could never get out, that no one would believe you. You know that you have nothing to back up your stories except for the strange deformities on your body. And even then, only the others like you can see them. So you all keep quiet, talking about your mysterious dreams, your fears, your neuroses. It is a painfully raw, but cathartic time for you. You are always open to new additions, and the flyers you leave around the building make it clear enough to anyone like you what it is, but vague enough that no one else would have reason to intrude. Until [[they]] do.

You begin to lose count of the time you have been alive. Nothing seems to work, nothing seems to ease your pain. You know that it is impossible to die, but death is simply a state of nonexistence. You know about technology, you know about the rapidly expanding research that goes on in these long years. If you cannot //make// a way to stop existing, you will //find// one.\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n

You wait for a long time, gliding through the years, your motivation slowing. The world is a dangerous place, but it hasn't taken you yet. One day, stumbling drunk down the city streets, you see something. It has too many arms, too many legs, too many of everything. You blink and you see a person instead. You close one eye, then the other. Shadowy limbs seem to circle them.\n<br>\n<<if $eyes is '[[a million]]'>>You feel a pull at your heart, a flicker of hope. You follow them into the night.<br>\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n<<elseif $arms is '[[uncountable]]'>>You feel a pull at your heart, a flicker of hope. You follow them into the night.<br>\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n<<elseif $teeth is '[[hundreds of]]'>>You feel a pull at your heart, a flicker of hope. You follow them into the night.<br>\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n<<elseif $teeth is '[[too many]]'>>You feel a pull at your heart, a flicker of hope. You follow them into the night.<br>\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n<<else>>\nYou feel fear like you haven't in years. After that, you sober up and keep your eyes open for anything that might find you and do you in.<br>\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n<<endif>>

You stumble out a "yes" and she responds by dragging you down an alley and inside a door made of rotted wood. The room smells terrible, like all sort of things simmering and spoiling at once. She thrusts a small vial into your hands and smiles, all gums and no teeth. "Where I come from, we find ways to remember when we forget. We find ways to fix what is broken."\n<<set $skin to 'transmuted'>>\nYou drink the vial. You remember, and your skin is __''<<$skin>>''__.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

''@@font-size: 30px;ACCIDENTAL CHARACTER GENERATOR@@'' by __[[caeth|https://caeth.itch.io/]]__\n\nYour name is __''<<firstname>> <<lastname>>''__ and you are a(n) __''<<age>> <<species>>''__. You are __''<<gender>>''__.\n\nYou have __''a(n) <<body>> body''__, and you __''<<$confidence>>''__ it.\n\nYour __''<<skin>> skin''__ is ''<<skintone>>'' in color. You have __''<<arms>>'' arm(s)__, __''<<eyes>> eye(s)''__ and a mouth full of __''<<teeth>> teeth''__.<<if $hair is true>> Your ''<<haircolor>> hair'' is __''<<hairlength>>''__ and __''<<hairtype>>''__.<<endif>>\n\nYou value __''<<value>>''__ above all things. Though you are generally __''<<virtue>>''__ you can also be rather __''<<vice>>''__ when you're at your worst. You once took a personality test that told you you were __''<<test>>''__, and you know your sign is __''<<zodiac>>''__, not that it means much.\n\nYou hobbies include __''<<make>>''__, __''<<do>>''__, and __''<<absorb>>''__.\n\n__@@font-size: 30px;[[GENERATE ANOTHER|BEGIN]]@@__

You can't help yourself, you reach your arm out, and it passes through strange, unfelt barriers, and into a world that is different, and separate. And hot. In an instant, you hear screams, not just your own, but those of the ones on the other side. You're not sure entirely what happens, but you feel a push, someone trying to shove you out, and a heat, from your arm. You fall onto your back, and you can't feel much at all. The screams are still happening, though. Yours, and also the ones on the other side. What about your arm? You can't feel it, but it doesn't hurt. You call out for help. Your head feels light. You're not sure what will happen, but that sure was a dumb idea. You hope you don't [[die|BEGIN]].

You have never needed to question yourself. You have always been this way, as long as you can remember. But today, the sun seems to shine brightly. Tomorrow, it shines even brighter. You feel it first in your eyes, the searing pain that means you can't even look up. The sun seems much less red, it's more of a blazing gold. Soon it's so white hot you feel you cannot even leave your home. You try to step outside, but it's almost as if there is no barrier between you and the sun's radiation. Your skin burns and peels on contact, almost sizzling. Once you are inside, though, you feel immediately better. You had hoped that there was only something wrong with your eyes, but this all seems more serious than that. You get dressed, and head to the [[hospital]].

Of course, there are plenty of things out there. You can feel them all the time. You basically exist outside of the time and space of this universe, sort of in between. But that doesn't mean you know what's out there. You just know what's right on the edge. You didn't see //this// coming. But you have an idea. You have a plan. Your big comeback is on the way, you just have to find the sorry fucker that did this, and fuck them up, easy as that. You'll be a hero, a damn god again, and everything will be fine! That or you can just chat a bit and maybe find a better place to live.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

<<set $hairlength to either("buzzed", "short", "short", "short", "chin-length", "chin-length", "chin-length", "shoulder-length", "shoulder-length", "shoulder-length", "down to your waist", "down to your waist", "excessively long", "longer than you are tall")>><<print $hairlength>>

Your lover's flesh becomes your flesh, and their body becomes just another meal for the trash compactor. You find that their skin feels much better than yours. Over time though, that feeling begins to fade. You have to keep taking, keep adding on layer after layer of skin just to keep yourself sane. Soon it becomes a habit. Soon it becomes just another part of life. You get better at it, taking bits of skin here and there when you need it, without killing. You need to keep your head on straight, and you can't do that without fresh skin, but you also can't do that by endlessly murdering the innocent.\nSometimes the skin works better than others, sometimes it won't melt properly, or it burns and stings and then falls off. You learn to tell, not by sight or smell or touch, but in other ways, who to avoid. You feel in ways those your body rejects are similar to you, but less fortunate.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

<<if $species is "[[being of light]]">>\n<<set $body to "brightly glowing spectral">>\n\n<<elseif $species is "[[walking corpse]]">>\n<<set $body to "slowly rotting">>\n\n<<elseif $species is "[[centaur]]">>\n<<set $body to "human torso leading down to a horse">>\n\n<<elseif $species is "[[dragon]]">>\n<<set $body to "large, scaly, terrible, towering">>\n\n<<elseif $species is "[[ghost]]">>\n<<set $body to "visible, but transparent">>\n\n<<elseif $species is "trans-dimensional being">>\n<<set $body to "constantly shifting">>\n\n<<else>>\n<<set $body to either('emaciated', 'gaunt', 'slim', 'slim', 'slim', 'average', 'average', 'average', 'average', "tough", 'strong', 'well-built', 'muscled', 'soft', 'curvy', 'curvy', 'curvy', 'chubby', 'pudgy', 'thick', 'stout', 'corpulent')>>\n<<endif>>\n<<print $body>>\n\n<<set $confidence to either('love', 'love', 'like', 'like', 'are OK with', 'are OK with', 'are OK with', 'are indifferent towards', 'are indifferent towards', 'are indifferent towards', 'are uncomfortable with', 'are uncomfortable with', 'dislike', 'dislike', 'hate', '[[want to destroy]]')>>

jquery:off\nhash:off\nbookmark:on\nmodernizr:off\nundo:off\nobfuscate:off\nexitprompt:off\nblankcss:off\n

Scared and unsure of what to do, you skip your appointment. No one can know what's happening to you, but it's hard to hide, especially when eating. Soon, the falling out begins to slow, but the growing in continues. You can feel it, the constant pressure of teeth pushing teeth out of the way. Soon you're afraid to even look at your own mouth. You can feel with your tongue, every part of your hard palate covered in small, sharp teeth.\nYou don't know what to do.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

Your kind is a proud and powerful race. You yourself live far to the north. It is cold, but you are hardy and you endure. You get few two-legged people up where you are, so you don't often have to deal with their ignorance. Lately, though, there have been more and more of them showing their faces for whatever reason. The population of the city has grown substantially in the last few months, but no one has really said anything untoward. That is, until today. Some two-legged fucker came up to you and asked you why it was that you looked like a horse! A horse! Jesus Christ. What the fuck is a horse?\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You've tried it many times before, but no matter how many tests you take, the results are always in gibberish. You've seen your friends take the same tests, and you keep your mouth shut, but you begin to wonder. What is it that makes you so different? How are you able to break the entire internet every time you try to use it to identify a part of yourself?\n\nIt doesn't mean anything, right?\n\n[[right.]]\n[[wrong.]]

You go searching for something, anything. Anyone, really. You don't want to believe you're alone, but no one can see you. No one notices you. You don't know how you got to be like this, but everything is so strange. The world, too. It's so full, so large, so different. You're seeing things you never managed to see before. There are monsters, demons, creatures of all sorts, people of all sorts you never saw when you were alive. If nothing else, there is plenty of sightseeing to do. You figure you'll find some way to pass the [[time]].

You lived in the woods, you ate the dead things there. You knew that you could never leave. Not with a touch like yours.\n\nSoon even the woods were no longer safe. Others began to pour in from all sides. Soon you could not be alone.\n\nYou lived in the city, then, inside rooms with white walls and no windows. They learned not to touch you.\n\nYou learned the words. Slowly, a few at a time, not sentences, but ideas. You learned about the dead things. You learned about yourself. You learned that your touch wasn't the only thing that could kill. If you said the words with enough anger, those too could kill.\n\nYou know the words now. You know the power. You wish to find the woods again, but everywhere you go there is nothing but more stone. You don't worry for yourself, you worry for the others.\n\nIf they get too close, you will have to touch them with your words. If they catch you by surprise, you will have to touch them with your skin.\n\nYou're not sure which is worse.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You are as you are as you are. You are light and breath and life. You are the weight that holds down the galaxy and keeps it spinning. You are the weight that holds down the universe and keeps it from falling away into loneliness. You don't know all, but you know most. You don't see all, but you see most.\n\nYou feel a strange pressure, and even your great mass is shunted from its space. The balance is off, the universe is smaller, denser. You can tell now, the lifespan of this existence has been more than cut in half. It has shortened dramatically. You've got to [[investigate]].

There are many different kinds of life now, some that the fabric of reality doesn't actually support. But you can see them all. They are trying their hardest to coexist. There must be some form of life then, either analogous to yourself, or with abilities analogous to your own. You will find them. You will make them fix their mess.\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n

caeth

You begin by trying to please everyone, but it simply isn't strong enough. Then you start antagonizing those you love, one by one, as much as you can. Always personal, always in person. Eventually they all leave you, so you try harder. You try pain.\n\nIt's easy to find victims, and if you bring them inside, your house is comfortable for about a week. It's not so bad, really.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

What, you've never heard of the Death sign before? What? What zodiac are you using?\n[[&#8592;|return]]

Love is the greatest power on earth. You've always believed that. So when your lover simply disappeared, you didn't know what to do. You tried calling their phone, but the number didn't exist anymore. You tried going to their apartment, but someone else lived there. There was no sign of your love, their life, their belongings. Even the things you had given to them had disappeared. Did they simply take everything and run? You had no idea. You contacted your mutual friends, but they hadn't heard anything either. It took time, but eventually, you found love again. Now you're happy. Now you're whole. Mostly. Sometimes it still feels like there is a hole where that person used to be. A hole that can never be filled, because there are no answers. There never will be.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

The person on the other line actually believes you, and sympathizes with you when you have trouble remembering your name for them. What's going on? It's like your name is actually gone. The person tells you to hold, and because you have no other option, you do. You wait for about an hour, and just as you're about to hangup, a gruff voice barks at you to speak up about whatever it is you want. You tell the voice your predicament slowly. At this point you're in tears. They listen, mumbling an "mhmm" every now and then. Finally they sigh, telling you that they're in charge of such matters, which are obviously classified, and that there is nothing they can do. They do let you know though, that if you want to [[get a new name]], you are welcome to do so, and even though your old one is impossible to retrieve, it is being used for a good cause. They hang up.

<<set $skintone to either("@@color:aliceblue;alice blue@@",\n "@@color:antiquewhite;antique white@@",\n "@@color:aqua;aqua@@",\n "@@color:aquamarine;aquamarine@@",\n "@@color:azure;azure@@",\n "@@color:beige;beige@@",\n "@@color:bisque;bisque@@",\n "@@color:black;black@@",\n "@@color:blanchedalmond;blanched almond@@",\n "@@color:blue;blue@@",\n "@@color:blueviolet;blue-violet@@",\n "@@color:brown;brown@@",\n "@@color:burlywood;wood-like@@",\n "@@color:cadetblue;muted blue@@",\n "@@color:chartreuse;chartreuse@@",\n "@@color:chocolate;chocolate@@",\n "@@color:coral;coral@@",\n "@@color:cornflowerblue;cornflower blue@@",\n "@@color:cornsilk;cornsilk@@",\n "@@color:crimson;crimson@@",\n "@@color:cyan;cyan@@",\n "@@color:darkblue;dark blue@@",\n "@@color:darkcyan;dark cyan@@",\n "@@color:darkgoldenrod;dark goldenrod@@",\n "@@color:darkgray;dark gray@@",\n "@@color:darkgreen;dark green@@",\n "@@color:darkkhaki;dark khaki@@",\n "@@color:darkmagenta;dark magenta@@",\n "@@color:darkolivegreen;dark olive green@@",\n "@@color:darkorange;dark orange@@",\n "@@color:darkorchid;dark orchid@@",\n "@@color:darkred;dark red@@",\n "@@color:darksalmon;dark salmon@@",\n "@@color:darkseagreen;dark sea green@@",\n "@@color:darkslateblue;dark slate blue@@",\n "@@color:darkslategray;dark slate gray@@",\n "@@color:darkturquoise;dark turquoise@@",\n "@@color:darkviolet;dark violet@@",\n "@@color:deeppink;deep pink@@",\n "@@color:deepskyblue;deep sky blue@@",\n "@@color:dimgray;dim gray@@",\n "@@color:firebrick;fire brick@@",\n "@@color:floralwhite;floral white@@",\n "@@color:forestgreen;forest green@@",\n "@@color:fuchsia;fuchsia@@",\n "@@color:ghostwhite;ghost white@@",\n "@@color:gold;gold@@",\n "@@color:goldenrod;goldenrod@@",\n "@@color:gray;gray@@",\n "@@color:green;green@@",\n "@@color:greenyellow;green-yellow@@",\n "@@color:honeydew;honeydew@@",\n "@@color:hotpink;hot pink@@",\n "@@color:indigo;indigo@@",\n "@@color:ivory;ivory@@",\n "@@color:khaki;khaki@@",\n "@@color:lavender;lavender@@",\n "@@color:lavenderblush;lavender blush@@",\n "@@color:lawngreen;grass green@@",\n "@@color:lemonchiffon;lemon chiffon@@",\n "@@color:lightblue;light blue@@",\n "@@color:lightcoral;light coral@@",\n "@@color:lightcyan;light cyan@@",\n "@@color:lightgoldenrodyellow;light goldenrod-yellow@@",\n "@@color:lightgray;light gray@@",\n "@@color:lightgreen;light green@@",\n "@@color:lightpink;light pink@@",\n "@@color:lightsalmon;light salmon@@",\n "@@color:lightseagreen;light sea green@@",\n "@@color:lightskyblue;light sky blue@@",\n "@@color:lightslategray;light slate gray@@",\n "@@color:lightsteelblue;light steel blue@@",\n "@@color:lightyellow;light yellow@@",\n "@@color:lime;lime@@",\n "@@color:limegreen;lime green@@",\n "@@color:linen;linen@@",\n "@@color:magenta;magenta@@",\n "@@color:maroon;maroon@@",\n "@@color:mediumaquamarine;medium aquamarine@@",\n "@@color:mediumblue;medium blue@@",\n "@@color:mediumorchid;medium orchid@@",\n "@@color:mediumpurple;medium purple@@",\n "@@color:mediumseagreen;medium sea green@@",\n "@@color:mediumslateblue;medium slate blue@@",\n "@@color:mediumspringgreen;medium spring green@@",\n "@@color:mediumturquoise;medium turquoise@@",\n "@@color:mediumvioletred;medium violet-red@@",\n "@@color:midnightblue;midnight blue@@",\n "@@color:mintcream;mint cream@@",\n "@@color:mistyrose;misty rose@@",\n "@@color:navy;navy@@",\n "@@color:oldlace;old lace@@",\n "@@color:olive;olive@@",\n "@@color:olivedrab;drab olive@@",\n "@@color:orange;orange@@",\n "@@color:orangered;orange-red@@",\n "@@color:orchid;orchid@@",\n "@@color:palegoldenrod;pale goldenrod@@",\n "@@color:palegreen;pale green@@",\n "@@color:paleturquoise;pale turquoise@@",\n "@@color:palevioletred;pale violet-red@@",\n "@@color:papayawhip;papaya@@",\n "@@color:peachpuff;peach@@",\n "@@color:pink;pink@@",\n "@@color:plum;plum@@",\n "@@color:powderblue;powder blue@@",\n "@@color:purple;purple@@",\n "@@color:red;red@@",\n "@@color:rosybrown;rosy brown@@",\n "@@color:royalblue;royal blue@@",\n "@@color:saddlebrown;saddle brown@@",\n "@@color:salmon;salmon@@",\n "@@color:sandybrown;sandy brown@@",\n "@@color:seagreen;sea green@@",\n "@@color:seashell;seashell@@",\n "@@color:silver;silver@@",\n "@@color:skyblue;sky blue@@",\n "@@color:slateblue;slate blue@@",\n "@@color:slategray;slate gray@@",\n "@@color:snow;snow@@",\n "@@color:springgreen;spring green@@",\n "@@color:steelblue;steel blue@@",\n "@@color:tan;tan@@",\n "@@color:teal;teal@@",\n "@@color:thistle;thistle@@",\n "@@color:tomato;tomato@@",\n "@@color:turquoise;turquoise@@",\n "@@color:violet;violet@@",\n "@@color:wheat;wheat@@",\n "@@color:white;white@@",\n "@@color:whitesmoke;white smoke@@",\n "@@color:yellow;yellow@@",\n "@@color:yellowgreen;yellow-green@@")>><<print $skintone>>

<<if visited('yesfriend')>>Possessive, get it? Get it? Ah, whatever.\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n<<else>>You have recurring crushes like you have recurring dreams. You forget about them for a while, but they always come back the same way as before, and they always hit you stronger. You have recurring dreams too, but you feel like those are just metaphors for the crushes so you don't think about them much. \n\nAnyway, the dream goes like this: you're standing, ankle deep in wet sand, and the waves lap at your legs, first slowly, then fast, then deeper, until you're covered, but instead of easily walking away, you wiggle your toes, you feel the sand between them and you take deep breaths of the salty air until you're taking deep breaths of the salty water and then you die, with a smile on your face.\n\nWell, your attraction feels kind of like that but better. And [[worse]].\n<<endif>>

<<BEGIN>>

Your master told you something like this might happen. Your master was always of the capable sort. Not omniscient, but close. Not omnipotent, but aware that such forces existed. You still wonder now, what was it that made them make you?\n\nYou know so much more than most people, maybe that's why it's so simple to believe that most people would simply fail to notice such a large shift in their reality. You feel everything though. The ground beneath your feet is rough in places, softer in others. The air caries new smells, from places you'll never get to visit, now. Places that don't exist anymore. You wonder what else made it through. You'd love to read up on it, learn and research like your master would want. You wonder if there is an [[answer]] for you.

You practically live up in the observatory where you work. It seems natural, then, that you are one of the first to notice the strange things happening in the sky. There has always been a large amount of space debris in orbit around the planet, but tonight you notice that you can't even see certain celestial bodies because of the crowded clustering. You report it immediately, and get credit in a small article in a small paper about it. Strangely enough, few people even notice, and some actively call you crazy.\n\nYou can tell that with the intense crowding, some of the junk is bound to collide and come down to earth at some point, so you do your best to study it before it does.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

Gender as a concept works differently [[in that place]]. It's not something you can easily put into words, so you've just avoided it here.

All the letters you get are missing half your name. You try to ask your friend about it, and they fail to notice anything wrong. You look at your driver's license, and where your name should be it just says {REDACTED}. You start to panic, this feels like one giant prank, and not a fun one. There was no way that your license could have been changed, switched out, right? It still looks authentic. You're not sure what to do, so you call the [[number]] on the back.

You get odd glances as you enter the hospital, but try to ignore it. Your health is important. You check yourself in, stating that you have some sort of skin problem maybe, some sort of sensitivity to light. They put you up in a room and begin doing tests. The sight of them drawing your blood makes you hungry. You ask about food. The nurse tells you they have a cafeteria, and if they keep you overnight he'll let you know.\n\nYou wait in your dark room for a while, you turn on the TV to keep you company. Finally a doctor arrives and flips a lightswitch, chuckling at your affinity for the dark. It seems that they can find nothing wrong with you, except a strange anomaly within your blood that they will have to analyze. You will be staying overnight. At this point you feel like you're starving. You ask again about food. It seems a meal will be brought to you shortly, since they don't want to risk you heading downstairs and reacting with the sunlight in some way.\n\nWhat they bring you isn't [[food]], though.

<<set $arms to either("no","no",1,1,1,1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,3,3,4,4,4,4,6,8,10,"more than enough",'[[uncountable]]')>><<print $arms>>

After a while, you manage to find a way to manifest yourself for short periods of time. It simply takes focus and a lot of tensing up. You float on to somewhere you've never been, and try to start your life over. You still can't help but notice the variety of life. Maybe you'll try to bring it up, once you get settled in.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You were happy where you were. Everything was echoes and light and a lack of physical being. It was fine. It was perfect. You never had to feel alone, and you never had to feel ashamed. Then the echoes came unhinged, the tones that reverberated lost their harmony. Everything you knew was thrown into disarray, wavelengths and tones warping and then going silent entirely. You don't know what it was, but you were thrown down out of heaven.\n\nNow, in a proper biblical fashion you feel doomed to walk the earth, not branded like Cain, but rotted like Lazarus before he was restored. There will be no restoration for you, though. You know this. You cringe at every wheezing breath you take, at every pop and shift, the feeling of tendons and bones and cartilage. You were past this, weren't you? Still, you can't [[leave]] just yet.

Of course, it can't mean anything. Must be something with your router or your ISP or your IP address? You're not good with computers. You just stop taking personality tests. They're bullshit anyway. You try to forget it, and except for a few reminders every now and then, everything is exactly the same. You live a normal life, like a normal person. You were normal all along. Of course you were!\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You look like a child, at least. People talk to you in condescending tones and small words. Everything seems simple, seems normal. Then the [[dreams]] begin.\n

<<set $eyes to either(1,1,1,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,8,8,9,10,20,"[[a million]]")>><<print $eyes>>

You grew up in a small shack in the woods, not alone until they came. The darkness, the monsters. It might have went a little bit to your head, but who wouldn't react to a life left alone with nothing but a shotgun and a memory of loss?\n\nYou stay up at odd hours, keeping watch, waiting for the monsters to return and finish what they started, but they never do. Part of you wonders if it was all in your head. But of course not, you know what you saw, it was all real, right down to the screams and the blood. Then, it starts.\n\nThe woods come alive at night, lit up by all sorts of eyes reflecting all sorts of light. You almost run out of bullets in the time it takes you to get more. The world was always full of horrors, it's just taken them a little while to get to you again.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You get angry, then. You begin to thrash and scream. Clearly the hunger is getting to you, or you wouldn't do something so foolish. A few nurses come up, ask you if you're going to eat, if you're going to cooperate. You scream at them that you'll eat if they give you real goddamn food. They don't take kindly to that. They hold you down as much as they can, and stick a needle in your arm, telling you you need to stay healthy if they're going to find out what's wrong with you. You don't know what they've put in you, but it begins to sting. You can't take it anymore. \n\nYou rip open the restraints on your arms, you rip the needle out of your arm. The nurses are panicked at this point, they begin to run, but you catch one of them by the collar. She's young, and crying. Normally you would stop, but your anger and hunger have gotten the better of you. If they won't feed you, you'll have to feed yourself. You cut open the woman's throat, and get as much of her blood into your mouth as you can. You begin to feel sane again, and somewhat ashamed.\n\nIt's dark now, so you feel safe enough running through the hospital and out the door. You've caused quite a commotion at this point. As you're leaving, you hear the word "vampire" many times. What the fuck is a vampire?\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n

No matter the length of time, your form never changes. You don't seem to age, and you're actually not sure how old you are, considering you don't have your body to remind you. You suppose you'll be like this forever, until something [[happens]] to you.

<<if $species is "[[ghost]]">>\n<<set $hairtype to "transparent">>\n\n<<elseif $species is "[[centaur]]">>\n<<set $hairtype to "neatly braided down your back">>\n\n<<elseif $species is "[[werewolf]]">>\n<<set $hairtype to "unkempt">>\n\n<<elseif $species is "[[being of light]]">>\n<<set $hairtype to "brightly glowing">>\n\n<<else if $species is "trans-dimensional being">>\n<<set $hairtype to "constantly shifting">>\n\n<<else>>\n<<set $hairtype to either("soft", "thin", "thick", "coarse", "straight", "wavy", "curly", "tightly-curled")>>\n<<endif>>\n<<print $hairtype>>

<<set $virtue to either('kind', 'calm', 'patient', 'amiable', 'caring', 'giving', 'selfless', 'curious', 'considerate', 'balanced', 'colorful', 'dutiful', 'flexible', 'fair', 'friendly', 'earnest', 'faithful', 'gentle', 'genuine', 'focused', 'gracious', 'imaginative', 'loyal', 'mature', 'logical', 'modest', 'honest', 'open', 'optimistic', 'passionate', 'playful', 'practical', 'prudent', 'romantic', 'reliable', 'sane', 'serious', 'sociable', 'steadfast', 'strong', 'sympathetic', 'thorough', 'tolerant', 'trusting', 'understanding', 'warm', 'wise')>><<print $virtue>>

You know that making a scene is not your style. You are a peacekeeper amongst your people, you are not one to instigate violence. Whatever it is they want from you, they will not get it, but going with them will get you more. You let them escort you roughly to their car. They will be taking you inland, to the city, but why you aren't sure why. Your friends cry as you are driven away, but your face is like stone. You give nothing away, you only take in what is around you.\n\nThey take you to a strange building with loud machines. Even with you vast knowledge, these devices are still strange to you. They place you in a machine, promising no harm. Still, you keep a small vial in your mouth, vile enough to kill ten men their size. The machine hums and spins. Soon you are standing, and they are talking, talking about an image they have produced of your mind. You are taken home. They have stolen the greatest secrets you know straight from your mind. You will make them pay.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You try, again and again to fix yourself. You wrap yourself in bandages and slather on ointments, but your skin still cracks and ruptures. At first it hurt, but now you feel nothing. You begin to wrap yourself in bandages not for your own comfort, but for the comfort of others, and also for your safety. People don't take kindly to the way you look. You have to find a [[cure]].

They all go about their days, talking and smiling and laughing like nothing is different. But isn't it? You see people in different shapes and colors and it's just not //natural//, how can they not notice? Some of what you see is frightening, but no more so than the sinking feeling inside your gut. You suck it up and smile.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You get a letter in the mail. It looks like junk mail, a new offer for a new, better credit card or a new, better house or something stupid. You're about to throw it away when you see that they forgot to put your full name down. That seems odd. You forget about it until it [[happens again]].

One day, though, things change. You can't be sure of it, but you have a feeling, a tingle running down your arms. The streets seem more crowded than usual, the traffic all at a standstill. There are more drunks, more homeless, more... everyone. It takes you a while to even acknowledge this fact, though. Did it start slowly, or did it happen all at once? You don't see anything on the news. But you do see, in the reflection of the TV screen, an uncountable number of shadowy arms, surrounding you like a halo. You turn off the TV to get a better look. They writhe slightly on their own, twisting and waving like snakes in water, but they straighten as you think of them. It's more beautiful than you ever imagined. You cry and forget all about the crowded streets.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You don't know where you will go when this sickening form is destroyed, but you know that the place you were in no longer exists. You don't want to think about the implications of that truth, it chills you, more than your already-cold flesh does. It seems that this grand upheaval affected not only your home, but the homes of many others. Something has happened, but you're not sure what. Was it purposeful, or was it all an accident? Either way, you wander like Cain, with no other solution in sight. A physical life seems crude to you now, but you might have to try. You feel so tired.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

<<set $vice to either('abrasive', 'aimless', 'anxious', 'arrogant', 'brutal', 'childish', 'careless', 'cold', 'colorless', 'compulsive', 'cowardly', 'cynical', 'deceitful', 'fragile', 'demanding', 'dependent', 'destructive', 'disconnected', 'dishonest', 'disrespectful', 'disturbing', 'dull', 'foolish', '[[hungry]]', 'frightening', 'grim', 'hateful','impatient', 'indulgent', 'insecure', 'irrational', 'malicious', 'mechanical', 'misguided', 'melancholic', 'moody', 'morbid', 'narcissistic', 'naive', 'neglectful', 'obsessive', 'paranoid', 'perverse', '[[possessive]]', 'jealous', 'predatory', 'regretful', 'repressed', 'resentful', 'rigid', 'sadistic', 'shallow', 'superstitious', 'tactless', 'ungrateful', 'toxic', '[[venomous]]', 'weak', 'unlovable', 'uncaring')>><<print $vice>>

Of course it means something. This is a pattern that can't actually be explained by the internet. From a technological standpoint, there are very few reasons why this could happen, and you've looked into them all.\n\nSomething else must be up. You begin searching, looking for other people who've had this happen. Apparently, it's more common than you think, but most of the people sound like crackpots. They talk about altered states of consciousness, about past lives. You've never known anything about that type of stuff. \n\nBut you try. You try to tap into knowledge that you've supposedly lost. You break through, and you realize [[who you really are|BEGIN]].

<<if $species is "[[vampire]]">>\n<<set $value to "blood">>\n\n<<elseif $species is "[[dragon]]">>\n<<set $value to "gold">>\n\n<<else>>\n<<set $value to either("money", 'family', '[[love]]', 'justice', 'control', 'power', 'friendship', 'knowledge', 'pleasure', 'truth', '[[magic]]', 'freedom', 'the unknown', 'honor', 'art', 'acceptance', 'bravery', 'chastity', 'comfort', 'beauty', 'dreams', 'intimacy', 'order', 'generosity', 'health', 'meekness', 'science', 'religion', 'respect', '[[sacrifice]]', 'self-control', 'virtue', 'tranquility')>>\n<<endif>>\n\n<<print $value>>

You work as fast as you can, building new machines. They don't make much sense until you can get them running, and even then, you can only figure them out by their effects on reality. The best and biggest one seems to affect thing in ways you can't perceive, until you build the machine that lets you do so. \n\nYou find that there are dimensional tears everywhere near where you are, and everywhere else as far as you can tell. You built a machine to fix them for some reason, and you built a machine to see them for some reason, so you get to fixing. Hopefully you can do something with this, extract something useful out of the experience.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You know better than to try to push yourself through the boundaries between different planes. Instead, you lean yourself up against a nearby tree an observe. This tear is larger than any you've encountered so far, so you might be able to learn something from it. On the other side of the tear, you can feel a strong heat, and you can almost make out voices. They sound similar to others you've heart before. They sound afraid, worried. Grieving. One constant you've found throughout your observations has been a sense of less. You wonder if anyone else is taking note of these things. You continue walking, until you find the next tear.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

<<set $zodiac to either('Aries', 'Taurus', 'Gemini', 'Cancer', 'Leo', 'Virgo', 'Libra', 'Scorpio', 'Sagittarius', 'Capricorn', 'Aquarius', 'Pisces', 'Aries', 'Taurus', 'Gemini', 'Cancer', 'Leo', 'Virgo', 'Libra', 'Scorpio', 'Sagittarius', 'Capricorn', 'Aquarius', 'Pisces', '[[Death]]')>><<print $zodiac>>

It sounds different than you expected, calm and soft and pleading and apologetic, like a squatter that's been found out. It sounds less like it wanted to own you, and more like it just accidentally left those marks there. You don't buy it. You argue aloud, at home by yourself. You argue for a while. The voice apologizes, and tries to explain itself.\n\nIt sounds like it's some sort of refugee. It explains that it actually left the book there for you, kind of as a peace offering, a way to explain things. Too bad you'd been too worried about all of this to actually read it. You ask for the short version.\n\nThe voice tells you that it doesn't have a body anymore, that it ended up here, like this, and felt like it was going to die. So it tethered itself to the first person it could find. Which happened to be you, when you were driving through the open country last week.\n\nIt tells you it wants to be your friend.\nDo you want to be its friend?\n\n[[yes.|yesfriend]]\n[[no.|nofriend]]

You don't know when it started, but your teeth have slowly been shrinking for a few weeks now. Not just shrinking, but sprouting up and growing in number. Every couple of days you can feel a new one, thin and sharp like a needle, jutting up through your gums. You've stopped counting, what would be the point? There are just so many of them. You guess maybe somewhere in the hundreds? You can't even touch them with your tongue without bleeding. They're //that// sharp.\n\n<<if $species is '[[vampire]]'>>You find they come in handy when you're trying to hunt, and to most people don't even look that different. And you don't plan on letting one get close enough to tell without draining them dry. It's a very good arrangement.\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n<<elseif $vice is "[[hungry]]">>You find they come in handy when you're trying to eat, especially the tough parts. And to most people don't even look that different. And you don't plan on letting one get close enough to tell anytime soon. It's a very good arrangement.\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n<<else>>You find it hard to eat normally with them, and resort to liquid meals instead. It seems that most people can't tell the difference, but it still means no heavy makeout sessions for you anytime soon. Kind of a bummer. You try not to think too much about it.\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n<<endif>>\n

<<if $eyes is '[[a million]]'>>You can see more than others.<<else>>Ever since you lost your sight, you could feel more than others.<<endif>> You feel now that the space and time around you is stretched thin, too thin. Everything is trying hard to hold onto itself, but some things have slipped through the cracks. And other things have come out. When you aren't working your desk job, you take long walks, feeling the fabric around you, searching for rips and tears and unravelling. You find one, an anomaly in the fabric, and feel tempted to stick your arm through.\n\nDo you?\n\n[[yes|yesstuck]].\n[[no|nostuck]].

<<if $species is '[[being of light]]'>>They manifest themselves less like prayers, and more like thoughts to meditate on, concepts to embrace that will hopefully help manifest parts of yourself you lost in the great sundering. Prayers are for the weak. You rarely listen to them.\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n<<else>>You always pray. It grounds you, keeps you whole. You've never limited yourself to one particular religion, but you've always tried. Spirituality is a large part of you, even if you can't pin down how or why. You pray and pray, for peace, for unity, for a world free from pain, full to the brim with people capable of love and caring and hope. One day, you hear a distant echo of a voice, running through your head like electricity. "I know, I'm coming."\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n<<endif>>

It's strange, like the data is encrypted. You search the data, tinkering as you go. It seems like everything is in a language that was native to you at some point, but indecipherable by the machine. It takes you weeks, but you figure it out. A bit of linguistic processing, and you manage to extract the data. It wasn't too bad except for the fact that everything had a different script than you're used to. The language's structure was easily identifiable by your standards, matching bits and pieces of ones found here on earth. Most of your thoughts were very mundane. It seems that past you didn't do things much differently than present you, which is what you expected. What you didn't expect was the visual memory: pictures of diagrams, blueprints for new machines that you had no idea about. You get to [[work]].

You don't like to think of yourself as a demon, but that's how some people would refer to you. Mostly because they've lost their way. Some would call you a god if it weren't for your appearance. Your appearance? Better not get into that.\n\nYou used to be worshipped, though. People would flock to you to carry your children, the great honor that it was. You could have anything you wanted. Maybe that was the problem, that you let it get to your head. You let a few civilizations die, let everything sort of fall apart. You didn't really plan for the long game. You didn't plan on everyone who knew your name dying off so quickly, too quickly to pass on the damn stories.\n\nAnyway, that's you, the Big Bad Demon Fuckface.\n\nBut this isn't your fault, you swear. A fuck up of this proportion? You haven't seen anything like that since, uh, since the green city. Or, the green king? The holy king? The holy city? Whatever it was. Point is, you don't mess around with time travel and you //definitely// don't mess around with whatever lies [[outside]] of everything else.

<<if $species is '[[vampire]]'>>Well... it's kind of obvious, right?\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n<<else>>\nOne day you just simply begin to feel... hungry. You feel like there is a strange emptiness in your stomach, and it can't be filled. You try everything, but nothing works. You eat and eat and are never full. And you well... you never go to the bathroom either. You eat and you eat but... [[nothing]].\n<<endif>>

<<if $make is 'potion brewing'>>You find it extremely lucky that you know how to brew potions. You lock yourself in your workshop for a while, ordering in when you need to eat, and ordering ingredients when you can't find them in the cluttered mess. Some of your books are strangely missing, but you manage a few prototypes. You hope they will work.\n[[&#8592;|return]]\n<<else>>You search everywhere, sometimes calling, sometimes going to places so you can actually show them. Numerous doctors try to help you, sewing you up, stapling you shut, putting you on medications you can't pronounce the names of. Nothing works. Finally you give up, and while heading home, you're stopped by an [[old woman]].\n<<endif>> \n

Instead of going willingly, you toss a glass bottle at them. It shatters, and their clothes immediately catch fire. They run and scream, and you push them out of your house with the handle of a broom, hoping that they won't damage anything. They land in a crumpled heap outside your door. They moan and burn, and then they simply burn.\n\nYou call your friends and family to you. Things have changed, you know that much. You hide the bodies, you hide the car. You get your helpers, never needed except in times such as this, and you prepare. Your opponents may not know it yet, but war is upon them.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You can feel it when your teeth start to come loose. It's disgusting, it's terrifying. It's definitely one of your worst fears. You never expected to lose your teeth except //maybe// in your old age. You always take perfect care of them, and never miss a dentist appointment. You feel them hesitantly, and schedule an appointment with your dentist as soon as you can. Still, you have to wait a week.\nDuring that week, you lose 20 teeth, but there seem to be more of them, willing to take their places and then [[fall out again]].

You reluctantly accept, feeling bad for the disembodied voice. You can't imagine what it would be like to not have a body, but this voice sure doesn't seem to like it.\n\nYou're wary at first of this new friendship, seeing as this voice was a person who already had the ability to possess others, or at least the knowledge to try. Soon you grow to like it. In public the voice will tell you small stories, or give you advice, or point out things you never noticed before, but only when you seem up for it. It becomes a great friend to you, and a respectful one at that.\n\nAt first it's awkward, sharing your most private moments with this voice, but it doesn't seem to mind. It never comments on your nudity, or other things like that. You begin to feel for this voice, begin to ask it how it feels, what it wants.\n\nTogether, the two of you start working on a way for it to live on its own, so that you can look at each other and touch one another when you talk. You hope it will work.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

<<set $species to either('human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'human', 'mutant', 'beast', 'beast', 'beast', 'beast', 'beast', 'beast', 'beast', 'monster', 'monster', 'monster', 'monster', 'monster', 'monster', 'monster', 'monster', 'monster', 'monster', 'trans-dimensional being', 'trans-dimensional being', 'trans-dimensional being', 'trans-dimensional being', 'elf', 'elf', 'elf', 'elf', 'dwarf', 'dwarf', 'dwarf', 'dwarf', 'orc', 'orc', 'orc', 'orc', 'orc', '[[demon]]', '[[ghost]]', '[[changeling]]', '[[werewolf]]', '[[vampire]]', '[[dragon]]', '[[centaur]]', '[[walking corpse]]', '[[soulless construct]]', 'freak of nature', '[[being of light]]')>><<print $species>>\n\n\n<<if $species is "being of light">><<set $hair to false>><<elseif $species is "dragon">><<set $hair to false>><<else>><<set $hair to either(true,true,true,false)>><<endif>>

Eventually you do go in, seeing as half a name doesn't do you any good. You get a legal name change, from nothing, to something else. It will take a couple of weeks to get the paperwork processed, but you already feel calmer. You can't remember your old name at all, and the idea that it was ever yours slowly fades into nothing.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

The material of the world is at your disposal. Every piece has its place, every part has its own property. You mix and mold them into the things you need, working your ways and selling your wares. You are known throughout the neighborhood. One day, men in suits, the likes of which you have never seen come to town, asking for you. They enter your home uninvited, dark glasses covering their eyes. They are hiding much, you know this. They speak in deep, sad voices.\n\n"You will need to come with us."\n\n[[Leave with dignity.]]\n[[Toss a fire brew at them.]]

It's hard to remember. It was in a faded dream, and though you're unsure of what happened, you know something //did//. You can tell from the ache inside of you that something isn't right. How did you become like this? You were happy once. Your form feels wrong, strange. There is an image in your mind, of a place with a purpose, with a mind. It calls to you sometimes in your sleep, but no one will [[believe]] you.

You've lost track of the years since your master left you, but they told you it would be sad, and hard without them. It was conceited, yes, but the statement was true. After all, they simply gave you their godliness, not their soul. You don't have a soul, you simply have a small shard of god behind your right eye. That's what they told you, at least, but it could really be anywhere. You imagine the piece is so small that you will never find it. You would have no reason to except for... well. Death.\n\nIt takes very little god to power the largest of cities, a single atom could probably power a whole continent for a month. It's a volatile substance, divinity. You have a small shard inside you, large enough to be seen by the human eye, you've been told. Your master was able to synthesize it out of their body and into yours: an impossible feat, you've been told. It never really left them the same. Still, you wish they could have synthesized their soul instead, and split it with you. You never wanted god-like powers. You never even wanted to exist. But you would rather be alive them simply existing. Everyone has disagreements with their parents, you've heard. You take comfort in the fact that it's probably a normal, mortal feeling.\n\nYou miss them.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You tell it that you really don't feel like having a friend that lives inside your head. You know about demonic possession and no, even if it isn't a demon, you're still not interested. You don't know what it can do, what it's capable of, but it seems reasonable enough. So you politely state your feelings and hope it will leave. It sounds like it's sighing. Finally it answers, saying that it was glad you were willing to hear it out at least. And it does sound really lonely. But the voice assures you that now it should be easy to find someone else, since it's tried and succeeded once already. It just might take some time to find the right someone. And then the voice stops.\n<<set $skin to "unbranded">>\nAnd you go back to living.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

<<if $species is '[[being of light]]'>>\n<<set $make to either('[[building things from memory]]', '[[embroidering runes]]', '[[potion brewing]]', '[[crafting prayers to your god]]', 'painting', 'drawing', 'sketching', 'animating', 'knitting', 'sewing', 'cooking', 'baking', 'sculpting', 'whittling', 'writing stories', 'writing poems', 'gardening', 'making jewelry', 'singing', 'writing music', 'building robots', 'taking photographs', 'programming', 'model ships', 'origami')>>\n<<elseif $species is '[[demon]]'>>\n<<set $make to either('[[building things from memory]]', '[[embroidering runes]]', '[[potion brewing]]', '[[crafting prayers to your god]]', 'painting', 'drawing', 'sketching', 'animating', 'knitting', 'sewing', 'cooking', 'baking', 'sculpting', 'whittling', 'writing stories', 'writing poems', 'gardening', 'making jewelry', 'singing', 'writing music', 'building robots', 'taking photographs', 'programming', 'model ships', 'origami')>>\n<<elseif visited('building things from memory', 'embroidering runes', 'potion brewing', 'crafting prayers to your god')>>\n<<set $make to '[[CREATING DIMENSIONAL TEARS]]'>>\n<<else>>\n<<set $make to either('[[building things from memory]]', '[[embroidering runes]]', '[[potion brewing]]', '[[crafting prayers to your god]]', 'painting', 'drawing', 'sketching', 'animating', 'knitting', 'sewing', 'cooking', 'baking', 'sculpting', 'whittling', 'writing stories', 'writing poems', 'gardening', 'making jewelry', 'singing', 'writing music', 'building robots', 'taking photographs', 'programming', 'model ships', 'origami')>>\n<<endif>>\n<<print $make>>

<<set $lastname to either("Cephissus",'Mosca', 'Finesse', 'Fangmist', 'Steffan', 'Strige', 'Chessar', 'Typhoid', 'Kittencruncher', 'Zillo', 'Kydoimos', 'Marling', 'Pugnacious', 'Fargo', 'Daleth', 'Rasputin', 'Champion', 'Ingernius', 'Toc', 'Knowles', 'Quickfang', 'Nightcloud', 'Stormbone', 'Gloomy', 'Tigercry', 'Erostle', 'Snow', 'Webster', 'Wild', 'Biggs', 'Thom', 'Girtab', 'Autumn', 'Spring', 'Summer', 'Winter', 'Monday', 'Clover', 'Aaldenberg', 'Aafjes', 'Abaroa', 'Abandonato', 'Abdullah', 'Abel', 'Abraham', 'Ahearn', 'Ainsley', 'Ayanami', 'Alserda', 'Bakalov', 'Bako', 'Balog', 'Balik', 'Banks', 'Banes', 'Baracnik', 'Barros', 'Basso', 'Bathroy', 'Beaumont', 'Baumgartner', 'Belanger', 'Benetton', 'Best', 'Bird', 'Bloem', 'Bonaventura', 'Venture', 'Burns', 'Caito', 'Cabera', 'Calligaris', 'Cadwallader', 'Cantu', 'Chaikin', 'Chambers', 'Chance', 'Choi', 'Christopherson', 'Cipriani', 'Colonomos', 'Comstock', 'Constantinescu', 'Costa', 'Cruickshank', 'Csizmadia', 'Darzi', 'Daugherty', 'Daviau', 'de la Fuente', 'Demir', 'Desmond', 'Dibra', 'Douglas', 'Draconis', 'Du', 'Dunajski', 'Dwerryhouse', 'Dziedzic', 'Engstrom', 'Erdos', 'Erickson', 'Escarra', 'Etxeberria', 'Everhart', 'Ezra', 'Fabel', 'Fairbairn', 'Falco', 'Fan', 'Farro', 'Faucheux', 'Fay', 'Fae', 'Fazekas', 'Feld', 'Fitzgerald', 'Flanagon', 'Flynn', 'Forest', 'Fox', 'Franjic', 'Tramontana', 'Winterknight', 'Sovari', 'Trysta', 'Nases', 'Bant', 'Garnet', 'Trendale', 'Cain', 'Townsend', 'Nix', 'Feigenbaum', 'Fairly', 'Grimhook', 'Stonetooth', 'Gloomwrit', 'Kaniyar', 'Raegus', 'Sable', 'Irari', 'Midrin', 'Laughing', 'Ilvastar', 'Flores', 'Fraser', 'Frost', 'Fujioka', 'Fyodorov', 'Gaal', 'Gabor', 'Gadhavi', 'Gagne', 'Gajos', 'Garcia', 'Garland', 'Garver', 'Goforth', 'Gebera', 'Gehrig', 'Gaspar', 'Giannopoulos', 'Gibson', 'Gim', '[[{REDACTED}]]', 'Oathborn', 'Stormborn', 'Gulays', 'Guttermouth', 'Haakonsson', 'Hackett', 'Hadaway', 'Hadjiev', 'Hall', 'West', 'North', 'South', 'East', 'Blue', 'the Red', 'the Green', 'the Blood Orange', 'Bloodyfist', 'Han', 'Hamilton', 'Harel', 'Soun', 'Misra', 'Patil', 'Sharma', 'Singh', 'Kulkarni', 'Hakim', 'Nagi', 'Samara', 'Nejem', 'Saqqaf', 'Zaman', 'Ihejirika', 'Afolayan', 'Obama', 'Kasabian', 'Matevosian', 'Nazaretian', 'Vartanian', 'Butts', 'Mulch', 'Palomer', 'Soler', 'Jorda', 'Nguyen', 'Ngo', 'Phan', 'Metharom', 'Valtiel', 'Kuang', 'Liu', 'Ma', 'Ruan', 'Wen', 'Rocha', 'Largal', 'Azurite', 'Summersong', 'Jectoma', 'Mava', 'Silverleaf')>><<print $lastname>>

<<set $haircolor to either("@@color:aliceblue;alice blue@@",\n "@@color:antiquewhite;antique white@@",\n "@@color:aqua;aqua@@",\n "@@color:aquamarine;aquamarine@@",\n "@@color:azure;azure@@",\n "@@color:beige;beige@@",\n "@@color:bisque;bisque@@",\n "@@color:black;black@@",\n "@@color:blanchedalmond;blanched almond@@",\n "@@color:blue;blue@@",\n "@@color:blueviolet;blue-violet@@",\n "@@color:brown;brown@@",\n "@@color:burlywood;wood-like@@",\n "@@color:cadetblue;muted blue@@",\n "@@color:chartreuse;chartreuse@@",\n "@@color:chocolate;chocolate@@",\n "@@color:coral;coral@@",\n "@@color:cornflowerblue;cornflower blue@@",\n "@@color:cornsilk;cornsilk@@",\n "@@color:crimson;crimson@@",\n "@@color:cyan;cyan@@",\n "@@color:darkblue;dark blue@@",\n "@@color:darkcyan;dark cyan@@",\n "@@color:darkgoldenrod;dark goldenrod@@",\n "@@color:darkgray;dark gray@@",\n "@@color:darkgreen;dark green@@",\n "@@color:darkkhaki;dark khaki@@",\n "@@color:darkmagenta;dark magenta@@",\n "@@color:darkolivegreen;dark olive green@@",\n "@@color:darkorange;dark orange@@",\n "@@color:darkorchid;dark orchid@@",\n "@@color:darkred;dark red@@",\n "@@color:darksalmon;dark salmon@@",\n "@@color:darkseagreen;dark sea green@@",\n "@@color:darkslateblue;dark slate blue@@",\n "@@color:darkslategray;dark slate gray@@",\n "@@color:darkturquoise;dark turquoise@@",\n "@@color:darkviolet;dark violet@@",\n "@@color:deeppink;deep pink@@",\n "@@color:deepskyblue;deep sky blue@@",\n "@@color:dimgray;dim gray@@",\n "@@color:firebrick;fire brick@@",\n "@@color:floralwhite;floral white@@",\n "@@color:forestgreen;forest green@@",\n "@@color:fuchsia;fuchsia@@",\n "@@color:ghostwhite;ghost white@@",\n "@@color:gold;gold@@",\n "@@color:goldenrod;goldenrod@@",\n "@@color:gray;gray@@",\n "@@color:green;green@@",\n "@@color:greenyellow;green-yellow@@",\n "@@color:honeydew;honeydew@@",\n "@@color:hotpink;hot pink@@",\n "@@color:indigo;indigo@@",\n "@@color:ivory;ivory@@",\n "@@color:khaki;khaki@@",\n "@@color:lavender;lavender@@",\n "@@color:lavenderblush;lavender blush@@",\n "@@color:lawngreen;grass green@@",\n "@@color:lemonchiffon;lemon chiffon@@",\n "@@color:lightblue;light blue@@",\n "@@color:lightcoral;light coral@@",\n "@@color:lightcyan;light cyan@@",\n "@@color:lightgoldenrodyellow;light goldenrod-yellow@@",\n "@@color:lightgray;light gray@@",\n "@@color:lightgreen;light green@@",\n "@@color:lightpink;light pink@@",\n "@@color:lightsalmon;light salmon@@",\n "@@color:lightseagreen;light sea green@@",\n "@@color:lightskyblue;light sky blue@@",\n "@@color:lightslategray;light slate gray@@",\n "@@color:lightsteelblue;light steel blue@@",\n "@@color:lightyellow;light yellow@@",\n "@@color:lime;lime@@",\n "@@color:limegreen;lime green@@",\n "@@color:linen;linen@@",\n "@@color:magenta;magenta@@",\n "@@color:maroon;maroon@@",\n "@@color:mediumaquamarine;medium aquamarine@@",\n "@@color:mediumblue;medium blue@@",\n "@@color:mediumorchid;medium orchid@@",\n "@@color:mediumpurple;medium purple@@",\n "@@color:mediumseagreen;medium sea green@@",\n "@@color:mediumslateblue;medium slate blue@@",\n "@@color:mediumspringgreen;medium spring green@@",\n "@@color:mediumturquoise;medium turquoise@@",\n "@@color:mediumvioletred;medium violet-red@@",\n "@@color:midnightblue;midnight blue@@",\n "@@color:mintcream;mint cream@@",\n "@@color:mistyrose;misty rose@@",\n "@@color:navy;navy@@",\n "@@color:oldlace;old lace@@",\n "@@color:olive;olive@@",\n "@@color:olivedrab;drab olive@@",\n "@@color:orange;orange@@",\n "@@color:orangered;orange-red@@",\n "@@color:orchid;orchid@@",\n "@@color:palegoldenrod;pale goldenrod@@",\n "@@color:palegreen;pale green@@",\n "@@color:paleturquoise;pale turquoise@@",\n "@@color:palevioletred;pale violet-red@@",\n "@@color:papayawhip;papaya@@",\n "@@color:peachpuff;peach@@",\n "@@color:pink;pink@@",\n "@@color:plum;plum@@",\n "@@color:powderblue;powder blue@@",\n "@@color:purple;purple@@",\n "@@color:red;red@@",\n "@@color:rosybrown;rosy brown@@",\n "@@color:royalblue;royal blue@@",\n "@@color:saddlebrown;saddle brown@@",\n "@@color:salmon;salmon@@",\n "@@color:sandybrown;sandy brown@@",\n "@@color:seagreen;sea green@@",\n "@@color:seashell;seashell@@",\n "@@color:silver;silver@@",\n "@@color:skyblue;sky blue@@",\n "@@color:slateblue;slate blue@@",\n "@@color:slategray;slate gray@@",\n "@@color:snow;snow@@",\n "@@color:springgreen;spring green@@",\n "@@color:steelblue;steel blue@@",\n "@@color:tan;tan@@",\n "@@color:teal;teal@@",\n "@@color:thistle;thistle@@",\n "@@color:tomato;tomato@@",\n "@@color:turquoise;turquoise@@",\n "@@color:violet;violet@@",\n "@@color:wheat;wheat@@",\n "@@color:white;white@@",\n "@@color:whitesmoke;white smoke@@",\n "@@color:yellow;yellow@@",\n "@@color:yellowgreen;yellow-green@@")>><<print $haircolor>>

html{\n\nbackground: #9d677d;\nbackground: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #9d677d 0%, #936da9 24%, #7291b0 50%, #83ab6f 74%, #e5cc95 100%);\nbackground: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#9d677d), color-stop(24%,#936da9), color-stop(50%,#7291b0), color-stop(74%,#83ab6f), color-stop(100%,#e5cc95));\nbackground: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #9d677d 0%,#936da9 24%,#7291b0 50%,#83ab6f 74%,#e5cc95 100%);\nbackground: -o-linear-gradient(top, #9d677d 0%,#936da9 24%,#7291b0 50%,#83ab6f 74%,#e5cc95 100%);\nbackground: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #9d677d 0%,#936da9 24%,#7291b0 50%,#83ab6f 74%,#e5cc95 100%);\nbackground: linear-gradient(to bottom, #9d677d 0%,#936da9 24%,#7291b0 50%,#83ab6f 74%,#e5cc95 100%);\nfilter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#9d677d', endColorstr='#e5cc95',GradientType=0 );\n\n\n\theight: 100%;\n\twidth: 100%;\n\tdisplay: table;\n}\n\nbody{\n\tbackground: transparent;\n\tfont-size: 100%;\n\tmargin: 0;\n\theight: 100%;\n\tdisplay:table-cell;\n\tvertical-align: middle;\n}\n\n#passages {\n\tborder-left:none; \n\tmargin: 0 auto;\n\tpadding: 5% 0;\n}\n\n.passage{\n\twidth: 70%;\n\tmargin: 0 auto;\n\tfont-size: 20px;\n\tfont-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\n\tcolor: #fff;\n}\n\n.revision-span-in {\n\topacity: 0;\n}\n.revision-span:not(.revision-span-out) {\n\ttransition: 1s; -webkit-transition: 1s;\n}\n.revision-span-out {\n\tposition:absolute;\n\topacity: 0;\n}\n\na.internalLink, a.externalLink {\n\tcolor: #000;\t\n\t\n}\na.internalLink:hover, a.externalLink:hover {\n\ttext-decoration: none;\n\tcolor: #fff:\n}\n\n\n#sidebar {\n display:none;\n}\n\n\n/* Shrink the page when viewed on devices with a low screen width */\n@media screen and (max-width: 720px) {\n .passage { font-size: 75%; width: 90%; }\n}\n\n

You copy down the mark as best you can, and try to find out what language the symbols might be. You find a book in the library, old and worn, with no cover and no label. It seems completely out of place, but then again, so does whatever is happening to you. You flip through it, and find similar markings, with translations scrawled between the lines. You get through the entire book with no answers until you notice, on the inside of the back cover, a simple phrase that sends chills down your spine.\n\n"Property of the [untranslatable] library"\n\nYou can tell that some of the marks on your body are an exact match to the ones inside the back cover. Your best guess is that you've been marked as someone's property.\n\nThat's when the [[voice]] begins.\n\n

<<set $firstname to either("Aaren", "Abijah", "Abiodun", "Addison", 'Ah', 'Amath', 'Ari', 'Ash', 'Avery', 'Azar', 'Badr', 'Bailey', 'Bao', 'Beverly', 'Billy', 'Boitumelo', 'Briar', 'Besel', 'Bsuth', 'Brike', 'Caelan', 'Caeth', 'Cahaya', 'Camille', 'Cassidy', 'Celestine', 'Chang', 'Chifuniro', 'Cheyenne', 'Christmas', 'Claude', 'Cyrille', 'Dakota', 'Dalisto', 'Dana', 'Darcy', 'Damian', 'Dell', 'Dresden', 'Dyriac', 'Devon', 'Dor', 'Dusty', 'Eddie', 'Eden', 'Edridan', 'Ejiroghene', 'Eka', 'Echo', 'Elian', 'Emem', 'Emerson', 'Esme', 'Evren', 'Farah', 'Fanatus', 'Feidlimid', 'Fergie', 'Finley', 'Francis', 'Frankie', 'Forgotten', 'Freddie', 'Fu', 'Fyremus', 'Gabby', 'Gal', 'Garnet', 'Gayle', 'George', 'Ghufran', 'Gi', 'Golshan', 'Greer', 'Gwynedd', 'Hai', 'Hyeon', 'Hanne', 'Happy', 'Harlow', 'Hayden', 'Hikmat', 'Hikaru', 'Hunter', 'Hyacinthe', 'Ikraam', 'Ilkay', 'Ime', 'Inderjit', 'Indiana', 'Indigo', 'Isi', 'Inge', 'Ivory', 'Jackie', 'Jaiden', 'Jamie', 'Jeong', 'Justice', 'Jo', 'Jyothi', 'Jules', 'Jun', 'Kai', 'Kalani', 'Kaede', 'Kasey', 'Karam', 'Kamon', 'Keelan', 'Keanu', 'Kendall', 'Keshet', 'Lauren', 'Lee', 'Lehua', 'Leigh', 'Leith', 'Li', 'Limbani', 'Liron', 'Lux', 'Lucrece', 'Mephala', 'Mackenzie', 'Madhu', 'Madison', 'Mahlah', 'Makena', 'Malak', 'Meade', 'Mel', 'Merle', 'Modeste', 'Mtendere', 'Mudiwa', 'Myeong', 'Nameless', 'Narcisse', 'Naomi', 'Nasim', 'Nat', 'Neo', 'Ngozi', 'Nhung', 'Nikephoros', 'Nithya', 'Nkruma', 'Nur', 'Ocean', 'Ofir', 'Oghenekevwe', 'Oluchi', 'Oluwaseun', 'Omid', 'Or', 'Ozgur', 'Ooyam', 'Orphic', 'Paderau', 'Padma', 'Parker', 'Pat', 'Paz', 'Pemphero', 'Phoenix', 'Puck', 'Psid', 'Praolen', 'Qamar', 'Qiu', 'Quinn', 'Quaovi', 'Raine', 'Raven', 'Reagan', '[[{REDACTED}]]', 'Reyes', 'Robin', 'Roshan', 'Rowan', 'Riley', 'Ru', 'Rradul', 'Sacha', 'Sabah', 'Sal', 'Sage', 'September', 'Selic', 'Sang', 'Sevan', 'Shalev', 'Shea', 'Sithembile', 'Tadala', 'Tafadzwa', 'Tai', 'Taylor', 'Temple', 'Thanh', 'Themba', 'Tobi', 'Tsubasa', 'Tumelo', 'Tri', 'Uros', 'Udo', 'Ufuoma', 'Uk', 'Unathi', 'Val', 'Van', 'Vash', 'Vestha', 'Vabestet', 'Voski', 'Vinh', 'Whitney', 'Wei', 'Wisdom', 'Wynne', 'Xiang', 'Xuan', 'Yaffe', 'Yagmur', 'Yamikani', 'Yi', 'Yoon', 'Young', 'Yuval', 'Zhi', 'Zorion', 'Zohar', 'Ziv')>><<print $firstname>>

<<set $absorb to either("reading books", 'reading magazines','watching TV shows', 'watching movies', '[[watching autopsies]]', 'watching online lectures', 'listening to podcasts', '[[intercepting radio signals]]', '[[observing space debris]]', 'listening to music', 'watching plays', 'reading forum posts', 'reading online articles', 'reading online encyclopedia entries')>><<print $absorb>>

You can feel everything shake. It's a slow rumble, then a very fast, very volatile vibration. You expect it to stop, but every morning when you wake up, it continues. It turns you into a complete mess. Your head hurts, your knees hurt, your insides hurt, you throw up from time to time, you're constantly dizzy. You don't understand how no one else can feel it. Everything is always moving, almost like you're drunk, but you're not. You can swear you feel the ground moving under your feet. The worse you feel, the more it subsides, but as soon as you begin to feel better, it gets worse.\nIt's tied to [[emotion]].

<<if $species is "[[being of light]]">>What? No, you would never do that.<<else>>All you want is to find a purpose. You know you're dying, that much is clear. But how can you escape it, escape the universe you're bound to? You're the weight that keeps it spinning, it's impossible for you to leave it entirely. Still, you can sense other places, other universes. This wound inside you doesn't stop you from exerting as much power as you need. It's a timer, ticking down to zero. It's not a limiter. You reach out, your mind touching all the surfaces of the universe, following as it expands. It is vast, but not endless. Outside, there is nothing, a great nothing from which you come. There's no point in not going further.\n\nYou reach out more, and there are endless worlds at your disposal. There has to be at least one you can exist in, one where you won't die from this wound. You stretch yourself as thin as you can, pulling at everything at once, and then you snap back, placing everything into that semi final act. Everything is one. Every reality is one. Sure, there are some side effects, but nothing that will matter to you. What matters is that in this horribly layered existence, you can remain. You can persist. You are different, yes, but you aren't dead. You've done it, and no one will be the wiser.<<endif>>\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You spend your days by meditating, trying to attain a higher state of being. Trying to let go of the self and embrace everything. The sun is warm on your skin, the breeze is mild, and you are aware of none of it. You make another break through, one of many lately. You can sense yourself above yourself, your third time astral projecting without a specific focus. You open your awareness in all directions, and you feel yourself begin to slow. It's not just the physical or the spiritual that's stopping you, it's echoes. Echoes of each of them, repeating tens of times, at least. And there are other layers as well. Layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer upon layer [[upon layer ]]

Where you could never actually see your arms, only feel them, other people have begun to notice their form. Drunks sliding down the sides of dirty alleys, curious children with clear eyes, passerby glancing in scuffed, but reflective surfaces. Sometimes people will just give you a //look//, and then leave. The children just usually cry, but sometimes they laugh. It depends on how old they are.\n\nYou're not sure why, but the only thing you can think is that you want to see them for yourself. You've always wondered about your arms, you imagine that they're beautiful and numerous. You can also kind of see where that would be frightening.\n\nYou check every reflection of yourself every chance you can, but they never show themselves to you. It seems strange, you've always accepted your arms as a part of yourself, but you've never questioned your inability to see them. You begin to get [[depressed]].

You try to make the most of your strange predicament. Your stomach may be an empty black hole, but how far down? You begin to do experiments. You drink hot things, you swallow nails. They still hurt your throat, but then nothing happens, just like you expected. You use these moments to distract yourself from the hunger.\n\nIt's a thrilling, joyful experience, but you still wake up at night, shaking from the emptiness echoing through you.\n\nIn 6 months time, you are on a stage in front of so many people, bright lights shining on you, making you sweat. You imagine that if you could still feel your insides, you would feel a little sick.\n\nThe music begins, and with an appropriate amount of waving and gesturing, you begin to swallow a sword, except unlike most performers, you shove it all the way down, and you don't pull it back out. You know that what you're hearing right now is the sound of a hundred people all gasping at once, but to you it sounds like money.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

You know that you died. You can see your body right there. You're just not sure what you're doing here, above your body. You remember a light, and then a rumble, and you fell here, down to the ground next to your body. You're still real though, right? You feel real. Real, but very [[alone]].

You have always been like a wolf. You are in tune with the connection between person and nature, between life and life. Your emotions run through you, not a meandering stream, but a raging river. You feel, every feeling so intense that it is impossible to ignore. Your senses are keen, keener than any human, and you can tell that something is different. Something is changed. \n\nYour clan begins to grow, first slowly, then faster. Then there are others, not wolf, but still different. All sorts of beast people join your ranks. It is strange, but you welcome it. You welcome the company. You are, after all, a pack.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

<<set $age to either('thirty-five-year-old', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'young', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'old', 'teenage', 'teenage', 'teenage', 'teenage', 'teenage', 'teenage', 'teenage', 'teenage', 'teenage', 'teenage', '[[timeless]]', '[[ageless]]', 'ancient', 'long-lived', 'mature', 'youthful', 'adolescent', '[[child-like]]', '[[child-like]]', '[[child-like]]')>><<print $age>>

She grabs you by your bandaged arm, and mumbles low under her breath. You're shocked, not having been touched in years now. You ask her to repeat herself. She looks up at you, with cold, bright eyes, and says loudly,\n\n"Do you believe in more than this world?"\n\n[[yes.]]\n[[no.]]

You know, deep down inside of you, that there are things you can't remember. It's been bothering you for weeks. Luckily, your technological knowledge hasn't suffered much. You've found it harder to get your hands on the required materials, yes, but you still know what you're doing.\n\nYou construct a machine that will hopefully be able to analyze and translate your synapses into data. You hope that in this way, you can retrieve the things you lost, and possibly find out why you lost them. You let the machine scan your brain. When the scans are done, you find that they are [[unreadable]].

Tall, powerful, capable of decimating small towns and flying fucking high as all shit? You might be a little self-absorbed, but with good reason. You're the ruler of the skies, you breathe down fire on your enemies. \n\nWhat enemies might those be? Well, you started small. Back in the old days, you would steal away princesses, so kingdoms were your enemy. Thing is, princesses are rather hard to find these days, and most of them are happy just where they are. You've broadened your range a bit. Instead, you snatch up young women who want to leave their lives, for whatever reason. You don't really ask questions.\n\nNowadays, you just let them join you, no snatching required. You and your clan of displaced young women are quite adept at adding to your huge pile of gold. Why? Because you like gold. That and it pays to have plenty of money lying around whenever one of your friends wants to leave. You throw her some gold and wish her well. All in all it's a pretty good life.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

There is nothing strange about you. You are exactly the way you are supposed to be, so you don't see why you need to even mention your million eyes. What's the big deal? Doesn't everyone have the ability to see through all dimensions and all wavelengths of light and the other stuff you can't properly verbalize? Like, maybe some people from other realities might not, but that seems like a pretty sad life, honestly. Other people can't see your eyes? Well..... huh that's odd. Might need to talk to someone about that.\n[[&#8592;|return]]

<<set $teeth to either("jagged", "sharp", "blunt", "perfect", "crooked", "white", "clean", "clean", "clean", "clean", "clean", "clean", "clean", "clean", "clean", "clean", "clean", "clean", "clean", "clean", "[[hundreds of]]", "[[too many]]")>><<print $teeth>>

You are standing at the shifting edges of a familiar, dark ocean. Instead of waiting for it to suck you up, you take a deep breath and dive in. It's more than a dream, it's always been more than a dream. You swim for what feels like forever, but when you emerge you are on a bright, warm shore. In front of you is your love, the one who is going to be your love. You don't even notice that in that ocean you seem to have lost all your skin, your muscles, your bones, and anything else that you might call a body. You simply approach your love, and kiss them deep, deep, deeper, until you're inside them, until you are them. Your mind caressing theirs, your thoughts and theirs mingling. You think you sense their fear, but soon there is no you, there is no them. There is nothing but the ocean, and the tide coming in.\n[[&#8592;|return]]