I did choose it. I had a way out but I didn't take it.
Like I said, I have this... this condition. Shinra, this company that used to be in charge... they were doing experiments. They wanted to make weapons, and the scientists heading up the project wanted to make gods. They didn't really get either one, because we all wound up defective one way or another.
Around a year back — I don't know what set it off. I think it might've been stress. I started deteriorating, physically and mentally. Got harder and harder to maintain my own will, and I started, um...
Point is, I stopped looking human after about a day. They figured out it was some runaway mitosit or whatever it's called. Eventually there was too much of my own biomass, and they cut some off. They started getting me treatment for it, and eventually I got most of my brain function back, but physically I kept getting worse. And it... then both halves grew back.
...
-Turns around and pushes aside some of the feathers on the back of his neck-
-There appears to be a birthmark built into his skin shaped exactly like numbers, what a coincidence-
-T5S 247 893 C4 -
Someone figured it was worth exploiting. They started speeding up the process, and they kept cutting. Nobody would let me talk to Reeve. I think he might be dead too. I don't know, I know he'd — I know he'd never do something like this to me.
Then they stopped giving me my medicine, and they told me that I'd get it back when I helped them with their coup.
I should have said no, but I was afraid. So I didn't. I kept killing for them, and they kept cutting off bits to make more of me. Started numbering the series. There were about a quarter of a million or something by the time I realised there were more of me than there were of them, and I didn't have to listen to anyone anymore.
I killed most of the staff, had them keep making me medicine so I could stay stable, and left. Nobody wanted me around. Nobody knew who I was before, so they just figured I was another mass-produced bioweapon. My family didn't want me around because there's... -Frowns, searching for the word- ...predispositions towards being kind of unstable for things like me, and they figured I'd finally lost it. And I can't go back to the facility because they're all dead.
I spent a few weeks mass-burning myself in a pit in the woods. Went into hiding as a dog. My last family found out I wasn't a real dog, and they kicked me out too. Got other treatment that keeps me from melting into another meat puddle and lets me keep my mind. Now I'm here.
edited 22nd Apr '17 11:05:57 PM by WonderSquid
I could have said no. If it's a choice between saving one life and saving three thousand, you're supposed to pick the three thousand.
I wouldn't have even died. I was just afraid, and that's all there is to it.
You'd think I'd have kept the first one, but that got ripped apart to make two and three, and then two and three got cut in half... we're all interchangeable anyway.
Nobody would be dead if I'd just lost my mind in that cell.
I mean, nobody would be dead if I'd had the decency to kill myself after the Advent either. But there's nothing I can do about that anymore.
That life's gone now. That's okay. I'll be the best accomplice you could ever ask for.
-Congrats Artemis you're an emotional crutch to someone that's been on suicide watch completely untreated for two years-
...I've gotten way better, too. I used to — I used to have this other condition, where if something bad happened, I'd pretend it happened to someone else, and that I was better than I actually was. And I believed it hard enough that I forgot it was all fake.
I'm better now, though. I can deal with problems on my own.
...I can fight, too. Better than anyone. And I can teach you more magic.

"I mean, nice once ya get to know her, but..."