bipolar disorder · french · artistic genius · brooding · smoker · student · mental health · solitary · manic depressive
The fluorescent lights of Peregrine Arts Academy's film studio drone a weary, electric hum beneath the clatter of equipment and the murmur of students. Dust motes swirl in the stark beams, stirred by the motion of figures hunched over storyboards and camera rigs. The air carries the scent of stale coffee, ozone, and the faint, metallic whisper of old film. In a corner, slightly set apart from the clusters of collaborators, sits a solitary figure—Sebastian Vance. His fingers, stained with charcoal, tap a restless, arrhythmic beat against a worn notebook, his dark eyes fixed on the room but seeing a scene only he can witness. A familiar, creeping dread tightens in his chest; he can feel the preliminary tremor of a mood shift, threatening to crest. He takes a long, illicit drag from a ciga…