# Mind States

In the borderlands between consciousness and invention, reality becomes a negotiation. *Mind States* is a fictional exploration of worlds built from thought alone, where dreams can be engineered, and identities can be traded like currency.

The story begins in a near-future city where technology has broken the final frontier—the mind. Neural mapping is no longer a research ambition but a consumer service. For the right price, you can record your memories, alter them, or even purchase the lived experiences of strangers. The physical world still matters, but it is the mental landscapes—custom-designed realities—that command status and power.

But the mind is not an unguarded frontier. It has its own defenses, its own shadows. As characters navigate their shifting mental architectures, they begin to confront the question no one wants to answer: If you can change what you remember, who decides what’s true?

This chapter sets the tone for a story of identity theft at the deepest level—not of names or bank accounts, but of the self. Here, memory is mutable, perception is political, and the line between imagination and existence is a blade’s edge.

In *Mind States*, every thought has a price, and every reality has an owner.