And over the years the packages just became better and better, the next year the girls received mascara and eyeliner, along with a clear and pink lipgloss. As well as beautiful plastic necklaces with little heart charms.
The boys received toy trucks and cars, same plastic necklaces and an extra bracelet. A wider variety of colours on their pens and pencils, and Uno cards as well as poker, and even instructions on how to play.
It became obvious that it didn't really matter anymore of who has what, and that at the end of the day the children would share with their friends and siblings anyway. So no one really cared about all the 'can I have that?' or 'wanna switch', it was always 'can I borrow that?' or 'wanna use my new pencil? It's your favourite colour'.
But that didn't stop the genderized gifts, as the captain didn't know how else he would do it, he couldn't just give everyone multiple of the same thing that would just cause chaos. And for now this worked, he thought that these kids suffer enough as it is, and these gifts weren't any trouble or inconvenience to anybody. Infact the lunch lady quite enjoyed packing everything neatly, as it's the only quiet time she gets off of work.
And the next year? Yep, you guessed it, even better.
The girls now got three lipglosses, clear, pink and nude, along with pretty pink small mirrors that converted into a hairbrush when you press the back and open it. They received beautiful hair accessories in a cute pink jewellery box.
As for the boys, they received another toy truck and car this time bigger then last year and different models, along with a toy dinosaur, each one being different then the next. They got the same amount of accessories this time in the shape of bracelets and a blue jewellery box with dinosaurs and cars instead ballerinas and tiaras.
However this time it wasn't so easy as to share, especially with the jewellery boxes, almost half were switched between the two genders, most of the girls preferred the blue. And same goes for the boys, however reaching the age, the boys mostly just wanted to please their special ladies.
The next year not that much had changed this time, both genders were relatively equal accept for one thing, underwear. The girls were physically growing a lot, and it had gotten obvious. So each of the girls were taken into the bathrooms and had their breasts measured and given seven white sports bras, along with panties and nail polish.
The boys got their own underwear as well however after so many years of not having any none of them really used them and they were thrown to the back of the closet.
Because you see everyone had seven pairs of everything, and on Sunday everything gets washed and ready for Monday. But only 14 of the boys ended up wearing the underwear.
They never really understood why they weren't allowed underwear, given the fact that PaperCut Corp. was willing to spend so much on the toys and makeup, why not underwear? Well, simple answer, it got in the way.
You see, everything I've told you might seem like a dream and that they are treated happily and amazingly, but that's only one part of the story.
After those children leave the cafeteria they are strapped into chairs and tied up for hours without end, the scientists tortured them everyday and never answered why. The only answer they ever got, "We're trying to save humanity."
From what? From who? In what way?
All these questions were burning in each and every one of these childrens heads but were never answered.
And giving them underwear got in the way of all the scans and experiments, so they never bothered until it became necessary, like the girl's breasts or how they were meant to wear pads.
On the year they turned fourteen, the experiments began to seem unbearable, though, they received headphones and a small device able to access all musics of the world, but only music, or audios of some sorts.
But the experiments...
They tested their endurance and broke them into bits and peaces, each night four children were randomly chosen and taken into the labs where the doctors and scientists would pinpoint specific areas of their bodies that wouldn't necessarily injure them long term, but cause immediate ungodly pain.
*****And absolutely nothing was off the table******
They would halfway tear apart Adams spine, while they would heat up metal rods and burn Isabella's 'princess parts' as she called it, not having real sex ed on how their bodies work.
******Absolutely fucking nothing was off the table*******
As long as it didn't kill them, or break bones.
And not long after they started injecting the kids with strange glowing liquids that burned their whole bodies. These scientists were trying to create monsters, or in their words, "superhumans."
Can you now see why they were given those toys? Can you understand why PaperCut Corp. is till this day one of the most feared and haunted tales to tell?
If you still can't get yourself to turn away then let's start with a real story.
Now it might seem difficult to keep up, 61 one names and 61 different characters. It's hard to tell who the main character is. Or who the villain it.
Well let me answer in short.
There is no main character.
And PaperCut Corp. is the villain.
Because you see, if I tell you the story of one child, it would be important to note what happened to this one, to be causing this. And what made this child do that to this one making that one do that. Action and reaction, cause and result.
"Mia!" Saint laughed with his two brothers, running up to the short, curly haired kind of chubby 14 year old in the cafeteria, "I found my dinosaur!" Saint explained sitting down at the table and showing Mia his dinosaur toy that he had lost only a few days prior, "It was under his bed." Adrian snickered, sitting next to Saint and wrapping an arm around his shoulder, "What up sis?~" Adrian asked, lifting his eyebrow and smirking while leaning back onto the table behind him.
Mia giggled as she watched her brother's playing with the toy, Chicago coming to sit next to her, "It's Sages birthday today~ you got any special surprises planned?" Chicago asked teasingly, followed by Saint and Adrian saying, 'ohhhh' in unison. Mia ignored them mostly, looking down at her hands with a soft smile.
"Remember what happened last year?" She murmured, reminiscing about the previous year that she asked the lunch lady to move up pizza day for her, but it ended up in a massive food fight that they had to spend fours to clean. Till this day Sage still believes it was the best birthday he'd ever had.
"Mia and Sage, sitting in a tree~" Saint started, soon having Adrian join in, "K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" They laughed together, Chicago simply chuckling as Mia tried to shut them up, "I can say the same about you and Soren, huh Ray?" She teased Adrian, he dramatically gasped and pretended to be offended, "Howwww DARE youuuu~"
"Nah be real though, I think Sore in the ass over there would rather eat ass then kiss this weirdo." Hiroshi joined in and mocked Adrian, "Ey- this ass is perfectly eatable I'll have you know- wait. NO!" Everyone at their table burst into laughter, as Adrian tried desperately to take back what he had said.
"I'm sure, I'm sure." Chicago laughed at his brother, Adrian dramatically flopped his head onto the table, covering his hair with his arms as everyone started teasing him.
"Nooooo! That's not what I meanttttt." Adrian looked back up, with a blush, meeting eyes with the very Soren across the cafeteria, on that side of things, the situation was rather different.
"So... What's going on with you and Iris.." Dante asked, poking at his food, their was a very specific line between these two groups.
One, always has a smile on their faces, wonderful personalities and a genuine attempt to look passed everything that's happening to them. The optimists.
And the other? The ones who have it worse.
The ones who are hated by their fellow victims and the ones who have nothing left to live for. The ones who plainly stick together because nobody else wants to.
And given that fact, what's the point of coming out? There is none, so Soren just leaves his friends to assume he's still straight, he didn't really like Iris. He didn't like anyone, he didn't like anything, he felt he had no emotion, a robot. He only knew he was gay because it's always been like that, he always liked girly toys and had never once looked at a girl the way he looked at a boy. That is, before the injections.
He wasn't always like this, was it the experiments? Yes, his love was tortured out him, many think he's always been like this. He is a trouble maker, always have been. But those who know him well enough to know the scar on his left inner thigh is from falling off his bike the first time he ever attempted to ride without training wheels, not the doctors, knew that this wasn't Sorens fault.
And one of those people was Adrian, an openly gay 14 year old that's been crushing on his 'enemy' for years, at first it was simply childish and mostly a joke, but over time the more they grew and matured it became into genuine care and longing for him. He felt like he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Soren, and it was no secret. Even Soren himself knew, but he couldn't care less. And Adrian certainly was not shy, nor salty about it. He was open about his crush and often teased Soren about it himself, he knew Soren didn't like him back and he didn't care, "I like him, why should i care if he doesn't like me back? It's not like any of us are going to have a future with each other anyway, it's just a way to feel... Human."
That's what he tells his friends and siblings, and himself, but is it really true? Do you believe that if you cared for someone deeply it would not hurt when you know they don't care about you back? Do you believe that the smile you paste onto your face everyday would be real? I suppose not, well, they are still children. There's no way of telling who you are going to spend the rest of your life with. If there was then maybe the heartbreak along the way would've been avoided, but i suppose you could look at it as 'building character' as many would.