Coral

“Nathaniel first stared at the vampiric Moses and then at the bizarre door. Numerous symbols had been carved deep in the surface and instead of square edges, they were rounded. Daniel then drew a dagger from his coat and proceeded to stand directly in front of the door. As he neared it, one could swear that the surface rippled like oil in a vat while he grazed it with the dagger. Quite suddenly, he jammed the blade in the very center of the door up to the very hilt. A high-pitched grunt followed and then a series of mechanical noises and clangs chimed and clicked until the door skid back two inches and descended into the ground.”
― J.D. Estrada, Only Human

“Good,” she replied. “That’s why you show promise. Not only are you able to recognize your shortcomings, you have an undeniable hunger to change for the better and evolve. What’s truly amazing is what you’ve become in so short a time. Most humans would have imploded after a fraction of what you’ve lived through.” “Guess it comes from being stuck in a moment for so long, treading water and losing ground no matter how hard I swam. It’s almost as if the current has shifted and now I’m swimming at blazing speeds like some human version of the Nautilus that has slipped into the Gulf Stream.”
― J.D. Estrada, Only Human

“In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are at its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of people be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved integrity. Do not lose your knowledge that our proper estate is an upright posture,
an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it's yours.”
― Ayn Rand