Always Human synopsis (Patreon)

I sent this to LINE webtoon a while back and thought you might be interested in seeing it now that the comic is complete (I think I might have shared part of this before? I don't remember.)

I haven't read through this in months so I'm quite surprised by how some things changed XD

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Here's a synopsis of Always Human (continuing on from where the story is right now):

After Sunati and Austen get through their first fight, Austen remains unaware that it was Sunati's birthday. As university summer holidays begin, Austen gets her exam results and while she didn't do as well as she hoped, she's determined to spend as much time as possible studying in preparation for her second year of university, so that she can complete a major in genetics. She's really passionate about studying genetics, because her dream is to find a way to prevent or cure Egan's Syndrome.

Meanwhile, Sunati finds herself fashion mod shopping with Austen's younger sibling. During this time she lets slip that she's 22, and so Austen discovers that Sunati's birthday has passed. Sunati nervously explains what happened, and Austen acknowledges that Sunati probably did the right thing by not bringing this all up in the middle of their fight, but is upset because there were plenty of other times she could have been told. Sunati promises not to keep any more secrets from Austen, and they discuss Sunati's use of fashion mods for the first time. They decide that when Sunati's current fashion mods wear off, they'll choose her new look together.

As New Year approaches, Sunati is busy at work finishing up projects before the office closes for the holidays. Sunati's boss discusses her future plans with her, and when she confirms that she wants to stay with the company, he gives her a new project: the Mars Colony has hired the company to update their virtual reality tutorials for new colonists and he's putting Sunati in charge of the environment design. Sunati is very excited about this, because she loves space.

But when she goes to share the good news with Rae, she finds out that Rae has different plans. Rae received an offer of a new job - her dream job - and will be moving overseas next month to take it up. Sunati is absolutely devastated. She's been friends with Rae for years. They went to high school together, they picked out the same university course together, they chose the same internship project together and they continued working at the same office together. Sunati pretends to be happy because she knows how important this is to Rae, but she secretly wants to beg Rae not to leave (and also feels guilty about having such selfish thoughts).

Things aren't going well for Austen either. She's been meeting with her course supervisor in order to prepare for her second year at university. But her course supervisor doesn't think she should major in genetics. Austen is told that without mods she'll never be fast enough or skilled enough to get an actual job, no lab will want to hire her. 

But she's got a knack for coding - she's been coding most of her life, trying to find ways to get computers to help her study and learn - and it's possible that even without mods she'll be able to have a successful career in software or AI development. Austen's course supervisor thinks that she should give up on her dream career of genetics, in order to pursue a career path that will give her an actual chance at success.

After discussing this with friends, family and Sunati, Austen decides that it's important to try to be happy, and she'll never be happy if she's chasing an unreachable goal, so she decides to switch her major to computer science and see how things go.

As the characters celebrate New Year's Eve together, Sunati is feeling lost. Her best friend decided to leave her family and friends behind to achieve her dreams. Her girlfriend decided to give up on her dreams in order to find a way to be successful. But Sunati feels like she doesn't have any dreams at all. She's just been coasting along, directionless. And while she has a job she likes, she doesn't have anything she's really passionate about, and she hopes that she'll find a dream to pursue in the new year.

In January, Sunati's fashion mods wear off and Sunati and Austen together decide on her new look. Sunati suggests that Austen also could try a different look - she could diet less and gain some weight. Austen's horrified by this suggestion (she can't use health mods and so it's important that she keeps her body healthy) but Sunati points out that Austen exercises a lot and she doesn't need to diet as well. Austen could gain quite a bit of weight and still be perfectly healthy.

Austen's initially resistant to this idea (after all she's surrounded by people who use mods to stay very skinny and she wants to fit in as much as possible). But she eventually decides that she's never going to look like everyone around her anyway, so she might as well relax a bit and eat foods that make her happy and not worry about her diet.

Meanwhile, things have been going really well for Sunati at the office. She's really enjoying the work she's doing for the Mars Colony and they're happy with it too. They've been considering hiring a virtual reality artist to temporarily work with them on Mars, to complete some advertising and educational projects (communication between Earth and Mars can be patchy and take up to half an hour, which makes telecommuting inconvenient). They offer the job to Sunati, and say that they could ship her out on the next supply spaceship, if she wants.

Sunati is both delighted and horrified. She'd love to go to Mars - she's wanted this for years - but she can't even begin to comprehend leaving behind her home, her friends, her family and Austen. She knows that communication between Earth and Mars can be difficult and if she took up this job she'd be gone for almost a year. That's longer than she's been dating Austen. It seems like an impossible choice.

She talks (online) to Rae about this, and remembers how devastating it was for her when Rae left. She decides she can't leave Austen and resolves to turn down the offer and not tell Austen about it (because she knows that Austen would feel guilty if she knew that Sunati was turning down the offer because of her). She swears Rae to secrecy, but Rae believes that Sunati is making the wrong choice and tells Austen anyway.

Austen confronts Sunati and is furious - after all Sunati promised that there would be no more secrets. They have a big fight. Austen points out that Sunati never, ever, does things for herself - she's always putting other people first. She challenges Sunati to be honest about what she really wants, and to be selfish for once in her life. Sunati admits that there's nothing she wants more than to go to Mars, but she's scared that if she leaves her life behind on Earth, there won't be anything left when she comes back. Austen tells Sunati to go, and promises that she'll wait for her. It is implied that they have sex for the first time before Sunati leaves (all PG-rated, of course).

The story ends with a time-skip. Sunati's having an incredible experience on Mars. Austen is happy and motivated and enjoying being able to eat whatever foods she wants. The side characters are all happy too. The final scene is Sunati returning to Earth and reuniting with Austen at a station (in a scene that parallels their first meeting at the train station).