Mind Split (a Short Story) | Mixed Media Project

Ciara, a brilliant archivist, fractured her mind into two distinct personas to survive a childhood trauma. Her logical side (Ciara) managed her daily life and career, while her hidden, hyper-aware side (Miya) absorbed the emotional aftermaths. She survived for years as a young adult operating in two distinct psychological spheres.

On her twenty-fifth birthday, she made a critical decision. Direct my ability to serve both aspects of my internal and external existence. Concentrate on analyzing complex data. De-escalate crises in whatever manner presents itself.

Her premise was simple, as she viewed it. Both minds would work together. Ciara would handle the facts, logical structuring, and daily professional interactions. Miya would process the subtle emotional undertones and psychological requirements of the individuals she encountered.

Because both minds operated in tandem, Ciara would be able to catch critical details others would miss. While the Strategist reviewed a contract or read the situation, the Empath subconsciously calculated all emotional risks. Neural Resonance was the key. The power to instantly project her own mental balance into another individual's mind to calm their internal storm was hers.

This duality served her well.

To test her hypothesis, she secured a professional mediator position. Her first assignment, though apprehensive as to the outcome, scored well. Applying The Strategist, she handled facts and logical structuring. Tapping into The Empath, she processed the subtle emotional undertones simmering beneath by instantly mind dancing to secretly transmitting to her exactly what the individual required to feel heard. Situation de-escalated.

However, Ciara faced her most difficult challenge after learning of her city’s water treatment plant debacle. She knew she could help solve the problem.

When the city manager discovered their AI system had been corrupted by malware, the facility itself was threatened with a locked down and contamination ot its water supply. The entire region held a collective breath.

Ciara jumped into action.

She deployed both sides of her mind fully, leading to an unexpected personal breakthrough. The facility's automated valves were shutting down at a rapid rate. Quickly, she determined that the system's security interface only responded to emotional, human logic. There was no logic in over three million residents facing an imminent toxic water crisis.

Clara’s analytical side isolated the corrupted code fragments. Miya's empathic side communicated with the erratic AI, mirroring its digital distress. While one hand typed code, the other modulated voice commands to soothe the hysterical system. The plan worked.

At what cost though.

Ciara discovered that in saving the city, her mind fractured once again under the intense pressure.

This time, though, her mind was forced to merge. The cold logic of the Strategist permanently fused with the raw emotion of the Empath. She'd cracked the final code, but her mental wall crumbled, leaving her surprisingly whole. Better still, it was stronger and completely unified for the first time in her life. She felt free and at peace.

But that peace didn't last long.

In another section of town, hiding in an abandoned warehouse, Felix Vance, whose handle (Quantum) he wholeheartedly embraced, fumed, his shoulders heaved, nose flared, with clenched teeth and venom dripping from his eye sockets.

"How dare anyone best me; let alone a female. I'm the smartest programmer in the world," he declared, pacing the length of the warehouse's concrete floor.

[to be continued]

The information for my mint on NFTShowroom.

For my current mixed media project, I wanted to portray an individual whose mind has been severed into two separate entities. The shock of this radical procedure leaves the female in shock with hair blazing in fiery strands.

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Next, I used the new feature in Canva that produces videos that gave me the animation for the headpiece. I ran the still image through the video sequence several turns before I found an animation I thought fit well with the theme of my short story and project.

Below are my steps in which I uploaded the diffusion image and all others into Canva to produce the still version.

The images I included are listed below.

^{Brown wine glass tilted ~ Abstract red and orange lines ~ Green smoke ~ Scrapbook blue-green flower design Abstract Orange and brown colors}