A result of mankind siphoning magic from the Earth itself. Callaghan was once human, recruited in the name of science to assist in the research of magical creatures - particularly, where their magic came from.

Farther and farther they cut into the heart of the wood, with their great ships, their technological wonders. And they bit, and they spat, clawing at the Earth while begging it for a fraction of its power.

Little by little, they forged war against nature itself. Ley lines took them deeper into the forest, until they finally found its heart. There, they settled. There, they celebrated.

There, they gouged their metal into the heart of the earth itself. In an attempt to take magic into themselves, they woke the guardians of the forest. Tree roots slashed out of the ground, creeping their way towards the ship. As they gouged on the meat of their sins, roots crept around their necks, coccooning them before they could even scream.

Callaghan woke up within a hollow wooden shell, no longer human. All the others had been changed too, though with the amount of flesh they consumed, had promptly been driven insane. From inside, he watched as they tore into each other, a mad moonlight feast of bountiful blood. A terror kept him rooted where he was, watching the people he had once trusted with his life tear into each other like the animals they were.

They lost everyone, that night. He's not sure why he survived. Perhaps because he held back more than the others, because he wandered off. The forest spoke to him, crept its hold further over his skin, pulling him deeper into becoming one with it again.

Skin became metal, skin became bone of trees and roots. No longer human, he was left to wander the forest and Earth, to bear the burden of guilt. More plant than skin, more metal than blood, he finds his place with the ancients, and slumbers in enernal etherization.

• Gale Epithos Horez (Ex, Best Friend) – Deceased. He was sent to handle a part of the forest on his own. Callaghan didn't find out until the next morning that he had even left - not until he saw his body. He still doesn't know what happened. They refused to tell him.
• Souta Yoshida (Lover) - He doesn't get it, that determination you carry yourself with. Is there really a change you can make that'll change the world past a few days? A few seconds. We're all so small, in this vast universe. Come, let us lie instead, let us tangle our arms and legs and forget.
• Douglas Agullar (Friend) - Optimistic, bright, so, so normal. Your normalcy irritates him like a rash he can't get rid of. But you're warm, so warm, and you calm them as if it's your job. Hold your optimism close. It's not his job to ruin it. Let him drown in it, every now and then, just so he can pretend to be alive.
• Mikoto Tsuchiya (???) - It's your job to examine cadavers, and you've taken it on yourself to dissect him. He welcomes you. Paint his eulogy along stained bathroom floors, in the cracked hotel mirrors he frequents when alone. Find his body between the cracks. Rejoice, ghost of the living. He finds you beautiful too.
• Ronan Keller (???) - His stories will never do you justice, but they aim to soothe the edges. You brush up against him in steady waves, and he crumbles like sand, like stone, like sculptures left to erode in never-ending dusk. Come, talk to him for a moment more. Your being allows him to fall away into those he could never be outside of words.
• Kojima Yamazaki (???) - Little lion, trapped in your cage. He'll coax you out with claws of his own, drinking in the snake's venom until gorged full. You deserve better, you deserve better, don't you see you deserve better? Don't fall for what he did, don't come meet him at the end. You remind him of a friend. You remind him of a ghost. Little lion, please hold him gently with your bloodied fangs. He loves you endlessly in eternity.
• Keaton Allens (FWB??) - Let us smile and bare ourselves down to the bone. He'll walk the slope with you, ever-aware of the drop to his right. Ahh, it's the adrenaline that keeps him alive; Even if you see him, it won't change a thing. Do you mind, do you even mind? No, no, perhaps never. As it always is.