Life Is A Lesson

***Life Is A Lesson*** is an adventure-drama franchise created by EDStudios. Each series shares similar themes and are set in the same universe. They range from investigative dramas, to coming of age, to crime and adventure. It currently consists of four instalments, with a fifth and sixth in development.

The universe is set in an alternate Earth where some people, primarily young adults, possess supernatural powers; however, such people can only "unlock" their powers after suffering some sort of prolonged and intense physical or emotional trauma. Such people are known as "Awoken", and humanity at large is unaware of their existence. In each installment, the main characters must overcome trauma or a monumental task, while exploring the challenges of adolescence and adulthood.

## Story

### Extrasensory

The first instalment in the franchise centres around Michael Mayfair, a student at Whitehall Academy who develops extrasensory perception, using it to solve a series of horrific crimes tied intrinsically to the town of Lillian, Illinois. While dealing with dark subject matter, *Extrasensory* also navigates the inevitable teenage drama involved in a new school and social environment.

### Kings of the Road

The second instalment tells the story of brothers James and Drew Wolff, young boys haunted by a malevolent presence who join a tightly-knit group of young drifters as they travel across America, confronting their own demons and trying to buy new lives. This series tackles family bonds, the concept of trainhopping and LGBTQ+ representation, while also delving into darker material such as mental health, lawlessness, desperation and the occult.

### Juvenile Prosperity

A prequel to both *Extrasensory* and *Kings of the Road*, this third instalment tells the story of David Mayfair, the missing uncle of Michael Mayfair, and his transformation into the character of vagabond Travis Rogers from *Kings of the Road*, as well as the people and events that influenced his transformation. The series deals with homelessness, travelling, freedom, family, LGBTQ+ and brotherhood, evolving from a side-project into the flagship instalment in the series' universe.

#### Season 1

> *Main Article: The Ballad of Travis Rogers*
>
>

In 2003, David Mayfair, the heir to a vast fortune, decides to abandon his comfortable life and seeks a new life as a drifter called Travis Rogers. Despite all of the obstacles and dangers that lie in wait on the road, Travis refuses to return home and eventually meets a travelling con artist named Pennywise. After forming a close friendship, the pair travel around Nevada and California for a year, using Travis' musical talent and Wise's swindling to afford a life of partying.

However, Wise dies of a heroin overdose following an argument, leaving Travis to bury his body at a cove before considering suicide in the California desert. He is saved, however, by a woman with blue hair called Athena. Seeing something special in Travis, she brings him to a homeless community in Fort Worth, Texas called the Burrows.

Over the course of eighteen months, Travis and Athena fall in love, even after she discovers Travis' true identity as a wealthy heir. Their romance comes to an end when a team of corrupt FWPD officers burns the Burrows to the ground, and Travis is finally found by his brother Ethan. Although Travis reluctantly decides to return to his life as David Mayfair, Ethan decides to let David go upon hearing him play his guitar. Returning to the Burrows to find it abandoned, Travis discovers a note left for him by Athena, telling him to continue helping others and to never change. Taking the request to heart, Travis decides to dedicate the rest of his life to guiding other runaways, just like the many folk he had met on the road had once helped him.

#### Season 2

> *Main Article: The Legend of the Fr8ers*
>
>

Three years after the Burrows fire, Travis has remained in Texas and overcome his own struggles with heroin addiction. While moving through Dallas, he encounters a young girl named Melody Jones, who he later discovers possesses supernatural powers that he can "feel" as an electrical sensation on his skin; he later realizes that he felt the same sensation several times during his travels through California. Deciding to care for the girl until he finds her a permanent home, he takes Melody under his wing and teaches her how to survive on the road.

During their travels, they come across a transgender woman named Bernadette, who unbeknowst to Travis is actually his only childhood friend, Bernard Robinson. In a trainyard, the trio come across Matthew Wroe, an old friend of Travis from years ago, and his girlfriend, veteran trainhopper Marie Brodie. Deciding to stick together, the group begin calling themselves the Fr8ers and each come to accept Travis' mission of helping runaways as their own.

The newly formed Fr8ers discover they are being followed by a man named Philip Young, later revealed to be an enforcer of Bernadette's cruel father, Archibald Robinson. The Fr8ers steal an RV and make their way west to escape Archibald, only to be cornered in the deserts of Nevada. While trying to protect Bernadette, Travis is shot in the stomach by Archibald, who leaves him for dead. Travis manages to kill Philip Young before passing out from blood loss while Matthew, Marie and Melody escape.

#### Season 3

> *Main Article: Tones of Dirt and Bone*
>
>

Having survived his gunshot wound, a weak and dehydrated Travis manages to walk to a desert road, where he is found by travelling twins Minerva and Thomas Colton. The twins stitch up Travis' wound and agree to help him find the other Fr8ers in exchange for $200. Through a psychic connection to Melody, Travis eventually finds the others, who rejoice that he has survived. Later, Travis reveals his true identity to the others, as well as his connection to Archibald. The others agree to help Travis rescue Bernadette, while the twins agree to aid when they overhear that Travis is actually missing heir David Mayfair and plan to gather enough evidence to turn him in for a reward.

Melody discovers that Archibald is holding Bernadette at his compound in northern California, so while the others head there Travis takes a train east to Chicago, where he finds his brother Ethan. Travis convinces his brother to help him find and interrogate the architect that built Archibald's compound; while Travis heads back west, Ethan tracks down the architect and bribes him for the maps, which reveal a secret underground entrance to the compound. After Ethan informs his brother of this, Travis decides to buy bullets and instructs Melody to distract the compound security with her powers.

Infiltrating the building, Travis rescues Bernadette but is stopped by Minerva, who plans to turn Travis over to the authorities and use the reward to buy back her family's land from the bank that ruined their lives. Travis manages to convince her that he has well and truly left his old life behind and has a new family, convincing Minerva to abandon her plans. When Archibald tries to stop them leaving, Bernadette takes the gun from Travis and murders her father. Melody uses her powers to convince the guards to frame themselves and the Fr8ers depart. Finally reunited, the Fr8ers decide to leave the west behind and head for New York City; after some convincing, the twins decide to join the Fr8ers, and together they begin the long journey east.

#### Season 4

> *Main Article: All Hail The King*
>
>

After months of saving money by working in sweatshops and weed farms, the Fr8ers finally arrive in New York City. Thanks to Matty's knowledge of the city, they find and move into a squat in Manhattan. To earn money, the Fr8ers each take up odd jobs around the city, ranging from selling weed to cleaning cars

### Onwards

The fourth instalment tells the intertwining stories of two young protagonists. The first is Cassie Richards, a woman who undergoes a journey of self-discovery as she vows to walk the entire length of the United States - from her hometown of Fort Kent, Maine to the city of Santa Barbara, California - to spread her father's ashes on the Pacific coast. On her journey, she meets Mexican-American Tommy Garcia, a bohemian hobo known as MidKnight Rider with telepathic and telekinetic powers, who decides to join Cassie on her journey. Together they face threats both human and natural on their quest to the west, and come to understand each other in ways neither of them expects. *Onwards* is accompanied by a three-episode mini-series titled *MindBlown*, which tells Tommy's backstory.

### Matty and the Nomad

Originally a mini-series spin-off to J*uvenile Prosperity*, *Matty and the Nomad* will follow Matthew Wroe on his own adventures, as well as reveal pieces of his hidden past, after he departs the Fr8ers at the end of *Season 4*.

### Home

A sixth installment titled *Home* was confirmed in early 2022.