Jamie is mine. The world is Joss's.

If wishes were horses, i would stampede them onto people who make that joke.

I am fueled by liquor, stimulants, and feedback. Please be liberal with all three. Or failing that, the last one

BROTHERS AND SISTERS

My name is Jamie Andrews.

And I want to die.

Every day on this squalid world, there are millions just like me. A million young people with no place meaningful to go in this existence. A million drunks, addicts, thieves and murderers run amok in the city sprawl. On backwater moons. Countless unwanted, unheeded.

Millions of us.

Unfortunately, random chance insists that a certain percentage of those born are given an above-average or an exceedingly high level of intelligence. Those so blessed with genius but so cursed by economics are denied even the chance to achieve anything that they otherwise could with their superior intellect. There is nothing that brains can prove in the slums that strength and a gun can prove quicker and better. At this level, the schools are a joke. One’s education is on the street they grow up on and no further. Survive. That, we can do well.

But still, a higher mind craves higher meaning. Why are we here? I don’t want to just survive.

Unfortunately, that seems to be our lot in life.

Then, the most beautiful day of our lives came. Not to any one of us all in the same day, of course. But one by one, They came for us. Told us that we were special. We were important.

We are important.

They said they could make us better.

I said that was nice.

They said they could give us purpose.

I said that was splendid!

They said that the experiments were dangerous, and we might be killed.

I signed up immediately.

Anything to get away from my life on the surface-level.

After all, we can’t all be River Tam.

Mm? Surprised? Yes, we’ve heard of her. The privileged brat, growing up in the core. But then, the rest of us would love her if we didn’t hate her. Hate. Her.