The Experimental Nation [Sign-ups closed!]

[Villamvihar]

For those who have not read the interest check

Respected Individual!​

Are you tired of being treated like subhuman trash? Are you in constant pain becuase of the experiments forced upon you? Are you wishing for freedom like nothing else? Then fear not. I will come for you, and I will make make everything that keeps you in your cage disappear. I will descend from the skies and gut the prison that you have been put into with my own hands, then rescue you from the shackles that society binds you with.

You will be free of experimentation. You will be free of pain, but most importantly, you will be liberated. Enclosed with this letter is a special chip. You only need to swallow it, and in time, I will come to destroy everything that forces you to be nothing more than a tool. If you have anyone to share this message with, I urge you to do so and gather them in one place so that they too, might be rescued. Remember that strength lies in numbers, because I will need every one of you to fulfill a vision in return for your freedom.

I too, have become tired of the prison that I was put in, but I refuse to draw the line at escaping. I believe that in order for our kind to live in peace, a new nation must be founded on new principles. And you, along with the friends you decide to bring with yourself, will be the foundation of this new nation. It does not matter if your friends are men, women or even children, they are welcome as a citizen as long as they uphold one rule:

No human shall be treated with disrespect.

I believe that if we stand together and build upon this rule, we will be able to make the strongest nation that the world has ever seen. We will start from the most remote place on this planet so that no one may disturb us, and expand from there. In the end, we will force the world to recognise that we are just as human as those who are not experimented on. But I need your support for that. I need your hands, I need your mind and I need your expertise. Without you, there will be nothing new born on the horizon. Without you, this idea of mine will just be discarded and I will be thought nothing but a fool. Without you, I will fail.

So make your decision. Do you continue to suffer through countless experiments or do you wish to abandon your shackles and pledge to a cause that is greater than you? The choice is within your hand, Respected Individual.​

It was only a simple letter from a person who claimed to be the Nameless King, but for you, it changed everything. It did not matter who you were: A person who signed up for voluntary experimentation, someone whom no one would miss or even one with powers beyond human imagination, you are sick of it. You are sick and tired of being nothing more than a lab rat, you want to escape your prison, and you want nothing more than to feel human again. This letter promised you just that, so with a wide smile on your face, you swallow the chip inside the letter, then you wait. And wait. And wait. Until he finally comes.

It has been a long journey.

For weeks, you walked miles upon miles, you hijacked trucks, you exploited every ounce of goodwill that people have for your kind and you used every single trick in the book you could just to survive. Your feet are covered in blisters, your forehead is full of sweat, your clothes are drenched with sweat, your limbs feel as if they were made out of lead, your mind is fuzzy, your breath is shallow, but you have made it. Together with the Nameless King and the many experiments he recruited for himself, you have survived the journey to the most remote place one can think of. It is such an unknown place that it is probably not on any map, but its beauty surpasses everything that you ever knew.

A gigantic island in the middle of nowhere, even the Nameless King was barely able to ship you to this place. The shores are steep and dangerous, the forest is incredibly thick and the terrain is rough, so it is little surprise that no one thought that it would be a good idea to establish a presence here. There is no civilization nearby for hundreds of miles, no one will be able to come to your help for days if there is trouble, but for you, one who has chosen to follow the Nameless King, this is a blessing. In your eyes, this island is not the island of death, but the island of possibilities.

As you ponder your fate, suddenly, the Nameless King turns to you and despite the exhaustion on his face, he shouts.

My people!​

His voice carries just as much authority as you remember. Despite the countless hours, he still has strength left in him, and that, in turn, encourages you to stay strong as well.

You have done well to overcome the trials that you have been presented with so far. I commend your tenacity, but the challenge has just started. We may have arrived at our destination, but we still have to survive the harsh reality that is before us. Right now, we only have a little food and water left, no shelter and no tools. But even if we hate it, we have our nature, the strength that the scientists have forced upon us, the strength they have tried to study and replicate! And with that strength, we will stand strong. Though we may be few, we are more than human. We are experiments. We are dangerous. And if we come together under one banner, the nation we create will flourish, then its influence will spread wide all over the world!
​

His words bring a smile to your face and you watch as he thrusts a wooden staff into the ground, claiming the island as his. Now there is no going back. A new nation has formed at this exact time and place, one that you will be a founding member of.

---

The Experimental Nation has been founded.​

This roleplay is a hybrid community-building and survival roleplay that is focused on a group of people who have been experimented on and were treated as nothing more than mere objects of curiousity. Now they wish to found their own nation so that they may live a better life, but they need to work together for that. As a result, this roleplay will be really heavy on character development, character interaction and moments between characters. There will be a storyline, eventually, but during the first arc, I would like to focus on building a new home for the people who have chosen to follow my character, the Nameless King.

I will release most of the information as the roleplay progresses. For now, here are the rules of the roleplay:

• You must play a character that has been experimented on extensively and was rescued by the Nameless King just before they joined him in his goal.
• As a result of the experimentation, your character has something special about them that no ordinary human has. Alternatively, they already had a special ability, which was the reason they were being experimented on. This ability should be something powerful, worthy of exploitation and research.
• All those years of experimentation left both physical and psychological marks on your character. No exceptions.
• Another result of the experiments on your character is that their power invariably inflicts harm upon them or their environment in some way. This does not have to be directly harmful and its effects can be really subtle. Please try to be creative with this, because this is the price your character pays for having a special power.
• All types of characters allowed save for children under the age of seven.
• Please try to post at least once a week.
  
• Communication is important both in character and out of character. This is a roleplay about building a community and the hardships as well as the joy that comes with it. I intend to capitalise on both.

As for character sheets, there are none! Just write a first-person introduction from the viewpoint of your character, but make sure to include the following: Their name, their age, their ability, the penalty for using their ability, the skills that they have and a few things that they would share about themselves. Please choose a colour for your character as well, as their name will be highlighted as that colour in the text.

You can expect my character sheet tomorrow.

 

[Vexor]

Hey. Name's Vexor. Call me Vex. I'm about seventeen. I can teleport relatively short distances. Don't expect me to teleport all over the place for anyone, though. It takes twice the energy of running, makes this birthmark on the back of my left hand turn into a bloody wound, and causes me to hallucinate. How badly depends on how far I go. A few feet and I'm talking to trees, couple meters has me petting imaginary rats, and any more than two miles has me running from a swarm of said rats. One video game enthusiast started up the trend of calling me the "Corvo Project." Wasn't that bad a guy, honestly. Gave me this mask. Apparently it works like a sort of spyglass, or something. Creepy as hell too, see? Anyway, I'm pretty nimble, can climb most anything if I've a mind to do so. Good at parkour, too. And lets just say if you need something, or possibly someone, found and/or killed without too much alarm, I'm your guy. IF we can manage to make some weapons, that is. Also, I'm a decent tenor if you'd like a song.

 

[Angel of Castiel]

Ello! My name is Fantine. The last time I checked I was around seventeen. The mean men in coats have been trying to make me use my gift. I... I burn things. With fire. Blue flames, one of the hottest they say, and it just shoots out of my fingertips or feet when they hurt me more than usual. Their needles and knives are not as bad as what this gift does. It feels like it's burning me from the inside out whenever I use it. Technically it does. I have scars on my fingers and the bottoms of my feet from the fire shooting out. Besides that, I'm pretty fast on my feet, since I get practice from running away from whatever those deranged jerks throw at me. I will do anything to escape, so I basically became an escape artist by now. Nothing can keep me locked up for long. It's just staying hiden I need to work on. A lot. Little tid bit, water and I, do not mix. I'm afriad of the stuff, only in big bodies of it.... Mostly because I never learned how to swim... So I just kind of sink... Like a rock.

 

[Renegade Proxy]

My name? Arath. I've lived off the land my whole life. Like an animal. What can I do? Heal fast. I'm strong too. These claws? They can cut through concrete if I try. Don't get any of my blood on you if I do happen to get hurt, it'll eat right through you. Personally, I don't care about this whole nation thing. This was an opportunity to see something new. That's it.

 

[F L Y]

"My name is Rythan, but some call me Ry. My birthday is... Um, well, I'm nineteen and that is all I know. I do know that I am skilled in the art of Mimicry. The crazies up at the looney-bin say I'm able to mimic both elements and substances. I was the "Metamorpho Project" ya know, from the DC Comics? It wasn't that great being stuck with needles, but if I listened, I learned... stuff. Anyway, only way I can actually do the mimicking is if the substance has recently been in my hands or I think they said in my hands at that moment, hard to remember now, oh and skin is also the only part of me I've been altered thus far, like um... what's that word? Oh! Armor. Unfortunately though, if I don't concentrate on my real form I could potentially be stuck as some sand mutant thing. Like Sandman from Spider-Man! And then theres the fact that if I'm knocked cold, poof, zip, zam, I'm back to being a normal blonde haired girl who is now definitely helpless. Contradicting right? Enough about the curse I've been given though, let's talk music. Do you like music? I think I liked music. At least I sort of recall owning some CDs. My eldest brother worked in a record store, from what I remember. It's really difficult for me to remember some things. It's an on-going issue and the scientists told me what was going on in my mind, but now that I try to think of it -- I can't recall what they said," I rubbed my temple thoughtfully, talking for this long has made my head hurt.

"Hey! I'm good at stealth, considering I can blend in with environments when I mimic. You need some information you come to me aright? I can figure out everyone's dirty little secret or secrets in no time. It'll cost you though, using my abilities makes my metabolism slow so I kinda need a pick-me-up, ya know?" The headache seemed to be gone now, but it'll return.

 

[Nightstealer]

H-hi... I'm.. I'm Eliade. I'm really shy, so please, don't shout at me okay? I'm fifteen years old and I don't quite understand what those creeps did to me. All I've ever wanted was to be invisible. I hate being the centre of attention, I hate people taking notice of me if they don't have to. Maybe it's by sheer willpower, or maybe I was born with this weird genetic defect or something, but as I grew up, I noticed that people seemed to ignore me more and more. Gradually, my will to be invisible came true, in a sense. The doctors called it 'spontaneous camouflage' Or something. My file says 'The Chameleon Project'. They've injected me with weird DNA mixtures to enhance it or something. As a result, my body can change, from the colour to the texture of my skin, so that I can be hidden. Maybe they thought I'd make a good spy or something. It hurts though, a lot, and I can't control it. When I'm scared I seem to just... change. And sometimes I break out in this really horrible rash that makes me bleed a lot. I have to keep moisturising my skin or it gets really bad. When the rash clears up, my skin goes this really weird translucent shade, and when I get sick, I'm like a patchwork quilt. It's really quite embarrassing. I'm not all that talkative, and I'm petrified of needles. The amount that they jabbed in me over the last few years is enough to give anyone a phobia. I have trouble making friends, and trusting people. The last time I did I ended up waking up in a lab. The one thing I'm really going to miss from my life is the books I used to read. Is? Are? I'm so terrible with grammar when I'm nervous... I hope that everyone is nice enough... Without my books to escape reality, I don't know how I'll cope. Maybe I'll write my own, when we establish that kind of thing... Oh no.. what was that sound? Is someone out there? ...Or something? I don't think I like it here at all... but it's better than that laboratory. I really admire The Nameless King for what he's doing for all of us. But he's so daunting too... Oh no, there's that sound again. I think I'm going to get away from these trees...

 

[Sairen]

"You can call me Lilith, sounds better than experiment or whatever those jerks wanted to call me. I wasn't really a normal child in a sense that my family was a traveling circus. We went everywhere and did amazing acts in many different countries. I did acrobatics with my father, a dancer with my mother and even picked up on violin in my own time. Those were fun filled days where life meant something to me. By time I was nine I found that I could move and mold blood, so it became my own act and it amazed people. A lot believed it was magic but not a certain group of people. I still remember the shooting and being taken away. I didn't know how to fight with my ability so I was defenseless. For years I spent strapped down and dissected like an animal.

They even injected a weird substance in me and I remember not being able to breathe or move. Next thing I know I was waking up and those scientists said I nearly died from sleeping, that my toxins nearly killed me. The weird substance altered my blood to give off toxins that paralyzed others. I guess only through their bloodstreams do people become paralyzed by me. Although as the years passed I found out what I could do. I knew I can mold things but now I can mold anything to my imagination, but can't control as much as you think. I'm small and young so I don't hold much blood as an adult. So cutting myself all the time is a risky move for me. Other than that I hope to be some use to you."

 

[Smo]

"Where should I begin? My father, a proud soldier, once told me when you begin to lose all sense, it was best to recite who you are. Because then, if they found your sorry ass down, then you could tell them who you are when your brain was pretty much fried. So here's it: my name is Harper Marie Barlowe, age twenty-four, I got tits, and I can fry those brains – I can take those electrons inside you, the ones you think are your buddies, and with the help of those pesky redox enzymes… I can make your liver rust like an old pipe. It's got one hell of a price though. I get overcharged, you could say. The pain is agonizing. It feels like rapid successions of static shock in each pore and follicle and depending on the way I exert myself, it can last hours. I have to really fuck somebody up for that to happen though..."

I gave them all a good glance, feeling a smile curl my cracked lips. "That's it. Nothing too special, unless you are the part of the government that specialized in biological warfare. Then that's special. Priceless, in fact. Revolutionary! But, plot twist – you aren't. It was my bioelectricity percentages they were fascinated by, not me. Oh no, when my numbers proved higher than the population in all this biochemistry shlick inside me, I was wheeled in on a gurney, and well," I ran a hand through my drenched hair. "You can figure out the rest."

 

[Villamvihar]

@Vexor: Your character concept is solid, but I really do not see how taking up double the energy is a good consequence for teleporting all over the place. Please use some sort of a different or more excessive backlash and you will be good to go.

@Angel of Castiel: You are good to go, but I have one question. Does your character potentially suffer burn wounds every time she uses her power?

@Renegade Proxy: The concept seems to be solid but you did some premise-jacking. Your character has only been rescued recently, though I do not mind if they have been an expert on survival before they were experimented on. I would also like if you shared some more details, especially about your character's blood.

@EMajyyks: Before I approve you, I would like to know a little more about the consequences of your character shifting. As it stands, becoming something different is not something I was looking for unless it also has secondary consequences like eroding your character's mind or changing her mentality in unpredictable ways.

@Nightstealer: You are good to go.

@Lucifers Sairen: You did some premise-jacking too. While your character may have escaped from captivity at one point, they would be in a research institute when they got the letter and got rescued by the Nameless King. I am also not very keen on the backlash of your power and I would like if you did a little bit more with the poison aspect that makes your character paralysed in the mornings.

@Smo: You are good to go, but I also have a question for you. Does being overcharged mean that electricity is constantly running through your character's body?

 

[AAB]

I was Concept Ten. You can call me Tenna. That sounds like a girl's name, and it's something I'd respond to. Last I heard I was twenty years old, but I might be twenty-one now. I have blood type O+. I hear that's a common one, but it's made a big difference in my life. I've been in a lab as far as I can remember. They harvested my blood. O+ is the most likely to work in a transfusion, so they developed something that would make me produce large quantities. I guess there was an O- test subject as well that died during experimentation. I seem to be always thirsty, and I need a diet rich in iron. That's why I brought this skillet with me, just in case. And sometimes my veins feel ready to burst. I haven't been harvested since I left, but occasionally I need to cut myself just to get some out of my system. I can't bleed to death, though. Now that I think of it I must have an incredibly strong heart to be able to pump all that blood. Maybe they did something to that too.

 

[HecateProxy]

"Oh, hello there. I am Tanta.. oh, wait. That's not right. Hold on a moment. Is it Tan-Aren, Jack, no that's not right either. What was my name?! Oh, yes! My name is Alta. It sometimes takes me a minute to sort through all the voices so forgive me. I'm pretty sure I am seventeen but I may also be thirty. What do you think? Do I look thirty? Anyway I guess you're wondering why I am here. Now that's a story I remember clear as day so listen up. It was a long time ago back when I was just a little thing. I had a special gift that allowed me to hear what people were thinking or feeling. A lot of the time it was scary. Feelings of rage or grief would suddenly consume me and I would lose part of myself until they subsided. As I grew it only got worse. I ended up locking myself in my room just to avoid people. It was a terrible time which only lead to a more terrible time as most of you already know. I was fourteen when they came. Promised me to find a way to control this. Let me be normal for a change. That was a lie. I should of known. I should of checked but I was so willing to fix myself that I didn't dare attempt to peak at their thoughts in fear of offending my only hope.

That's when it got worse. They threw me into a cell. Chained me up and poked and prodded my body until I was black and blue. The screaming that echoed from down the halls echoed into my mind as well. Whatever it was they injected me with only enhanced my abilities. I was popping in and out of people so much that for awhile I forgot who I was. I don't even really remember how it happened that day. I guess I went too far deep into one of the handlers. I remember seeing myself through her eyes. Felt the greed boil under my skin as I looked upon some kind of new toy. I could feel the syringe in her hand and knew it was for the lifeless looking corpse that sat before her. In a fit of rage I plunged it deep into her own thigh before her pain shocked me out of her body and back into my own. That's how I earned the title; The puppeteer. It's not exactly a title I want though and to do so requires me to leave myself and plunge deep into another person. That's the big draw back. If I go too deep. If I stay too long; i'll lose myself forever. But that's not as bad as the echo. The deep seeded imprint of their subconscious taking up space on mine. Old memories that don't belong to me. Names, dates, birthdays. All foreign. And when I wake up it takes me awhile before I remember who even I am. Most of the time I don't even feel sane anymore. Strange thoughts that creep into my brain at night. It's like my sanity is being ripped apart bit by bit. Heh, anyways I'm sure that's more than you needed to know. I don't know what good my ability will be out here but it's a chance. Am I right?" ​

 

[F L Y]

@Lstorm Are you alright with a certain erosion to her brain that makes her forget things? Mostly important memories are slipping from her grasp and it would potentially hurt her head to think to hard or try to find them. It would have to do with being in a completely different element, other than human, that has taken out chunks of knowledge from her brain. The foreign substance is just too much.

 

[Smo]

@Lstorm Harper only becomes overcharged when she uses her powers because her own electrons go into overdrive to do what she does. As a being with a higher bioelectricity percentage, it doesn't effect her all the time - unless there is a shift in air, like a thunderstorm or the polarity of an area. So even if she isn't using them, these affect her still. So yes, but it only goes haywire under certain circumstances and causes her trouble.

 

[Angel of Castiel]

@Lstorm
Yes, but because of her having to go through that so many times, that her skin has found a way to heal itself. Now it still leaves scars, but the affected area is not badly burned anymore. The process takes a few hours to a couple of days depending on the burn and where it is on her body, as well as if she has tried to treat it.

 

[Sairen]

@Lstorm

I can change it to her being from a traveling circus before being captured so that way she would still be in the institute. As for her poison I can make it so she can't sleep too long or else she slowly becomes paralyzed by morning. If she was paralyzed by morning it could also stop her heart and breathing functions so that can be some down sides to her poison.

 

[Thomas McTavish]

"I-uh, I am experiment 09G36, 'Project Ra', 'Project Lantern', or, more commonly and preferred, Hal. I am 16 years old, and I have been an experiment since six. I was orphaned when my father was killed when a group of robbers shot him in the bank he was working at, and my mother OD'd on antidepressants shortly after. The men in white visited the orphanage once a month, to select a child to take with them. No one knew what happened when they were chosen. We were told it was a good thing. I thought that, too, until I was chosen. After that, my memories are a blur of needles, odd liquid, shouting, and tests. Whatever they did to me, I can create things out of... well this sounds crazy, but I make things out of solid light. All kinds of things, in different colors. Gear, tools, decoys, weapons, etc. Just not too many at one time, or too big. I can also shoot beams of light from my hands that can either blind a man or burn the eyes out of his skull. But, there's a catch. Doing anything with my powers makes me go blind. Concentrating the light into a solid form hurts my eyes, and effects my vision. The more I use my powers, the worse it gets. The blindess ranges from a slight blur to complete and total blindness, lasting a few seconds to a few days. It's a useful skill, despite the side-effects. But," I shifted uncomfortably. "I can only use it when there's light available to use. Either sun or moon, it has to be enough to see by, even if just barely. Other than that, I can cook, I guess."

 

[Villamvihar]

@Vexor: All right, that is much better. You are good to go.

@AAB: You are accepted, especially if you deal with the consequences of letting out too much blood from your character.

@HecateProxy: Accepted.

@EMajyyks: I would rather have everyone with some unique backdraw, and HecateProxy already covered a very similar weakness. If you can not think of anything else, that would be acceptable, especially if your character forgot things at random, sometimes important, sometimes not.

@Smo: Understood. My verdict does not change.

@Angel of Castiel: That is fine as long as her wounds actually need care and attention. My verdict remains the same.

@Lucifers Sairen: I think the real danger of dying when you went to sleep is good enough because it would have a lot of secondary consequences like insomnia. And please do change your backstory.

@Thomas McTavish: Accepted.

Also, for anyone who is still thinking of submitting a character, please submit it by at most Friday night. I am not going to accept more people after that time.

 

[Villamvihar]

I am the Nameless King. If you must refer to me by my name, you may call me Anonymous or Nameless, for I do not wish my identity to be known. I am a man of thirty-six years and I have been experimented on for more than a decade. My body is filled with scars to the brim save for my face, but even that, I keep hidden behind thick rags or a mask as it was ravaged by the sands of time as well as the research I was exposed to. The scientists who have worked on me did not have a single clue as to what they were doing, so as such, they turned me into a monster, an experiment to precede all following experiments. I suspect that they even tried to kill me a few dozen times, but they failed and they only made me stronger. In the end, it was the scientists themselves who engineered their own downfall.

You see, as time went on, my natural resistance and my potential as a weapon started to grow. Machine after machine was implanted into my body, serum after serum was injected, but the critical mistake of the facility I was in was that they never bothered running cross-experiments. To this day, I do not understand why, but the machines inside my body started to grow, change, adapt and bleed through into spaces other than this reality. Naturally, I hid this from the researchers as I did not want to be subjected to more experiments and as I grew older, I became aware of what I was. I was turned into a weapon that can destroy everything and can never be destroyed, or so my instincts tell me.

I used this knowledge to escape and then I sought to form a plan. You, my people, are the result of that plan, but just recently I discovered that the power I have comes at a terrible price, for I am disintegrating. It is a painless, slow process, but the machines inside me finally decided to start rebelling against the prison they were put in. At times, my body does not obey me or it acts on its own. At times, I forget an order I issued only to remember it again minutes later. At times, my mind grinds to a halt and I react to nothing, but at other times, time seems to pass by me at the pace of a snail and I use it to think about what needs to be done. But I am fighting a losing battle against the cancer that grows within me. Eventually, the machines inside me will spill out of this body and I will go through a metamorphosis. What creature would be born of that, I do not know.

However, until that happens, I am your leader, your support, your help, the one who will never lose hope and keep inspiring you with his words.

 

[F L Y]

@Lstorm That was how I was going to play it out. She would forget just random things at either a short period of time or over a long period. It wasn't a reoccurring pattern it just was random and it would get worse or even "seem" to get better depending on the usage of powers and etc. HecateProxy's character seems to forget who they are in general after overexerting their powers, but I was hoping for mine to just forget vital information or a command they were just given or even everyone's name over some time. If that isn't acceptable then I can certainly fish for something else? :)

 

[SquishyMath]

Just call me Log. My full name is Paráloges Mátia, but if you need me in a hurry that's not the sort of thing you want to take the time to yell. Since the age of four I've been treated like I'm more than the average human, just because I'm not stupid. Around the age of seven the "professor" took me to his office with a few other of the "brilliant little Einsteins" as he kept calling us, then the room was gassed. We awoke... I awoke in what I thought was a prison cell, I don't know what happened to the others, and for three years I've been a lab rat. At some point during it all I noticed I could see a lot, like, everything. When the white-coats came to talk to me I could see how well their blood was flowing, I could see the keys in the guard's pocket behind him, and I could see all the information on my records, which is how I know how old I am. I also knew exactly what they had planned for me. I had the ability to see in the dark and see infinitely far, or so they said, but I couldn't see Saturn, so it must have a limit.

They wanted to tear my eyes out to use them in some sort of biotech scanners, but there was something they weren't expecting. In order to see everything all the images get translucent and all the images stack, making it really had to tell what I was actually looking at. They also wanted me to keep my eyes shut as much as possible. So I defiantly kept them open, and found out why I should keep them closed. It's not easy to deal with that many images piled on at once, all perfect vision, some of them twisting upside-down due to distance, and it drove me nuts. By nuts I don't mean a bad headache and frustration, I mean I started going crazy. I started talking to myself, the doctor's clipboard, and a singing spider I kept seeing inside my hand. Half of everything I said came out in a gurgle mixed with laughter. That's why I keep my eyes closed.

I got to be a pretty good blind cook, that's really my only skill I'm proud of, as it's the only one I had to work for. Everything else just seemed to come to me; all I had to do was open my eyes and I could see the weak points in a tree or a person's bones, so I could fell a tree with minimal strokes. I saw the tumblers on combination locks and what people had in their pockets. I knew where every wire in a building started and ended. I would probably be the world's greatest criminal if opening my eyes didn't terrify me, but it does, so I have to use this cane to go anywhere. The only thing I'm glad those people did to me is coat my eyelids in something I can't see through, so closing my eyes keeps me from going mad. Calming down takes something like eleven times longer than getting crazed. I only read the letter because I never had any contact with anyone except the lab-coats.