City of IF

[DeadManWalking]

It's been a while since I've written a storygame, so we'll see how this plays out.

Here's a little something I've kept somewhere in my docs.

Prologue-

"When it first appeared in the winter of 1993, apparently spontaneously, scientists and politicians were at a loss as to what caused it, or even what to call it. The general public, though, had a hundred different names for it, and a thousand different explanations. Mutation, government experiments, magic.

Regardless of what anybody believed about cause, one thing remained true. Suddenly, spontaneously, individuals around the world were displaying sudden
superhuman power. In different parts of the world, they were called different things. Mutants. Mages. Devilspawn. Godtouched. Powered people became celebrated or abhorred, famous or infamous. Many of the first metahumans were killed from fear, or, in some more traditionally religious societies, worshipped as god. This sometimes led to conflict over the same metahuman. One Darren Blaine, possessed of various powers (though he was most famed for levitation) was simultaneously worshipped as Christ Reborn by a sect of Christianity and burned as a heretic and a witch by another.

Bill Clinton, less than a year in office, displayed surprising political acuity, quickly overrode various military and police directives to quarantine and study affected individuals. While the initial backlash was huge, as parents and community leaders feared for the safety of their charges, he earned the lasting loyalty and goodwill of the soon-to-form metahuman community, an asset that he would retain even as public opinion shifted to revise him from dangerous foolhardy maverick endangering the lives of citizens nationwide to a progressive and forwards-thinking president who protected basic human rights for all. When he issued a call for metahumans to join the armed forces, dozens, if not hundreds flocked to his banner. Not an entirely impressive number, until you consider that until the call, only eighty-nine metahumans had been officially documented (the metahuman population had not yet gone through the explosive population growth that would result in the pervasive presence in later generations). One of the first and most famous metahumans of those who joined the armed forces was Chuck Norris, the Lone Ranger. Other world leaders would soon follow his example, and metahumans were soon integrated peacefully into "normal" human society in those areas. The rest of North America, Canada and Mexica, followed close behind their largest neighbor."

"Not all countries were as welcoming of metahumans. In Communist China, metahumans were never reported to the outside world. Chinese scientists issued statements about the purity of Chinese intention preventing the taint from arriving in the Middle Kingdom, though later reports of concentration camps and many irregularities regarding Chinese operatives in later years would seem to discount the official statement..."

"In the Russian Federation, under Yeltsin’s autocracy, government officials tried the same with their metahumans. This attempt worked for months, until the metahuman Viktor Alexandrov, soon to be known only as the Red Star, broke out of a concentration camp in Kamchatka, along with two others who would become his top lieutenants, the Hammer, Georgy Nikitin, and the Sickle, Hanna Alexandrov, Viktor’s sister, who would later be Hanna Nikitina after her marriage to the Hammer. These three metahumans led others across nearly the whole of Russia, surviving the cold only through the Red Star’s powers of heat emanations. Ironically, the concentration camp gave the Red Star an already mobilized army of metahumans that allowed him to make short work of Yeltsin’s men. Once Moscow was taken, the rest of Russia quickly surrendered, and the Red Star followed in the footsteps of his idol, Lenin. A New Communist regime was formed, and within a few years, the Free Socialist Republic of Russia was recognized by most major powers on the globe. However, the FSRR refrained from any imperial movements, and restrained itself to preaching Marxism to the world and leading by example. Indeed, with the Red Star and a KGB under the command of the trusted Hammer and Sickle, the government of the FSRR was comparatively corruption-free, and indeed flourished for a surprising amount of time."

"In Europe, many countries, especially after seeing the futility of containment from the Russians as well as the relative benevolence of the metahumans from both the actions of the new FSRR and the peace within America, followed the lead of President Clinton. Indeed, in 1995, President Clinton was a popular candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize, though it eventually went to Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World affairs. Many speculate that this ruling was because many had not yet realized the deadly potential of metahumans when compared to the nuclear armaments that had been on all the worlds’ thoughts for so long."

"In Africa, warlords with powers emerged to cause even more turmoil. Among them was a man known to the west only as Shango, named for the Yoruba god of Thunder, Le-eyo, also known as Moonsinger, and the Panther. War would race across the African continent for many years as UN intervention forces found themselves consistently overwhelmed until bolstered by representatives of the Metahuman branches of armed forces of members of the UN countries."

"South America attempted to dissolve similarly to Africa and, for a while, suffered revolution after revolution. However, American intervention resulted in some stability, though many still call Clinton’s intervention a highhanded imperialistic reiteration of the white man’s burden..."

"Even Antarctica was affected. Metahuman refugees from intolerant countries or countries thrown into war who were lucky enough to be talented in a way that facilitated arctic living started a colony in a neutral area."

"Australia, though, was pretty chill. They kinda just went with it."

-Excerpts from A Dummy’s Guide to Metahuman History

I'm going to do something interesting here and start off the Prologue with a kind of Decision Point. What I'm planning to do here is write a lot of short stories set in this universe. Some of them might be short enough to not even have a DP, others will have multiple. I'll try to let you all choose the topics of the short stories, though there are some details of the universe I just might feel a need to fill out at some point. In addition, I'm going to try and integrate the choices you make in the short stories. They may be somewhat independent, but I'll be doing my best to make it clear that these short stories are happening all together in one universe. What happens in one will affect what happens in another.

The DP for you all now is where I'm going to start. I have some ideas already, including looking more at the intelligence community, taking a more indepth look at what was happening with Russia. There was also an option of fast forwarding a couple thousand years into the future to see what a society with powers might be like. Alternatively, I could try and explore why these people have powers in the first place.

And, as always, suggestions will be welcome.

[PopeAlessandrosXVIII]

Cool, I like this idea! I personaly would like to see the lives of the free Metas down on Antartica. This seems very "Heros" like to me, and I love that show! Maybe you can even have an eventual world crisis or somthin' like that!

Love this idea! Go with it!

[Vishal Muralidharan]

CHUCK NORRIS!! :D :D

Anyway, I would love to see what happened(or)happens in Africa. The "God Of Thunder" is very interesting. War and other stuff could provide some thrills, and coupled with the fact that there's a metahuman. Its also very intriguing as to how these people got their powers, and I hope we find out very soon.

On the whole, It was well written and interesting, though I would like more explanation as to what happened in Australia. I want to know exactly what happened. I, personally, am not satisfied with "they kinda just went with it" (but again, that could be just me).

Aside from that, its a really cool idea, and has me hooked! keep it coming!!!

[Thunderbird]

Yep... you just know this is up my alley. I'd like to see some interaction with those russians...

This was very nicely written for such an enormous info dump... somehow remained entertaining and interesting throughout... probably because it captured the imagination.

[DeadManWalking]

Haven't actually seen Heroes, though I can't say I haven't heard of it.

Anyways, putting up poll now. The options are:

Russia
Africa
Antartica/Australia (The two are together because their stories are somewhat interlinked.)
Origin

[Exmortis]

This is an extremely dynamic subject... abosolutely enthralling. It will be intrigueing to hear how these Metahumans behave in common society and how their powers will effect issues like Morality, discrimination and social conflict.
Damn... all of these deep meaningful subjects dressed up with super powers... How freaking cool is that!

Anyway, I am voting for the in-depth examination of Australian Metahumans. While we Austalians are fairly tolerant of new cultures I doubt that there would be no reaction, in fact there may be a extremely violent reaction. Even if said reaction is only on the individual or communal scale you can still form a interesting tale. After all Metahuman still are humans, that said it is likely that they may have to adjust their entire perspective of society and morality. Should these abilities be used to protect the people in a super hero like fashion or should these Metahumans use their powers to take advantage of those who belittle them (perhaps even going as far as hunting and systematically exterminating humans beings like the American religions did to the first Metahumans ) or maybe they just want to be normal humans again? Every Metahuman should act like a individual human.

It looks like you may need to be the tie-breaker here Host.

[Thunderbird]

ugh... 3 way tie... lol :lol:

[Exmortis]

Mhm... this is rather bothersome isn't it...

[DeadManWalking]

And Russia has pulled ahead. I'll give it a couple more days, and if no one ties it again, I'll work on the Russia one. It's something I've started already (somewhat apparent by the relative detail in the Dummy's Guide) but it's a bit rough.

[Exmortis]

Good to see some progress... I have been waiting on this one for a while...

[DeadManWalking]

Poll has been closed. We're going to Russia!

It may be a week before I'm finished. Life is hectic as usual, but fear not! We shall depart for the Russian Federation in all good time.

[Crunchyfrog]

Duh. Missed the poll! But I would have gone for Russia.

[DeadManWalking]

And here it is.

Try and forget everything I've already told you about Russia. It's a long story I'm telling here, so I need to break things up in to DP's, but I don't want knowing the end to influence your choices here.

WARNING! PROFANITY ETC. IF IT OFFENDS YOU, I'M SORRY. I DON'T USE IT TO SHOCK, BUT TO TRY AND CREATE A REALISTIC, GENUINE REACTION TO HOW COLD IT IS IN KAMTCHAKA IN WINTER. (AS WELL AS DISPLAY HOW FEW ORIGINAL IDEAS THE MAIN CHARACTER ACTUALLY CONTRIBUTES. WELL DAMN, NOW I JUST RUINED PART OF THE STORY. ALSO I JUST SWORE AGAIN.)


It’s fucking cold. I hate Carlston for sending me here. He was right, about metahumans. Or he wasn’t, I actually don’t care anymore. It’s just really fucking cold.

All I have to keep me warm is the clothes I brought to Russia in the first place, and I’d packed for Moscow fall, not winter, and certainly not winter in Kamchatka. I don’t even know how they found me. Because of what I am, I should have been undetectable. According to the brass, my new powers make me a great intelligence agent, where I was once just another analyst. Before I got my powers, I knew fourteen languages, specializing in the Middle East and Africa. With my powers, I know them all. I can speak and understand every language in the world and I can speak in any dialect of all of those languages. I even know languages that aren’t really languages.

The story everyone tells is of an Army General’s kid. Nine years old, but precocious and showing signs of extreme intelligence already. He made his own language, and he was teaching his father, and I was brought in because the language might have potential as military code. It was unrelated to any language the kid had heard, and a lot of languages he hadn’t. Within ten seconds, we were talking in it.

Carlston thought that made me a better linguist, sure, but the head honchos thought it made me a secret agent. So what if I had almost no actually training or qualification for the position? What secret agents had the gifts I’d been given?

On paper it looked good. Even to me. But I’d read too many spy novels. I was overconfident. Hell, I was as excited as a kid in a candy shop. This is why I’d joined in the first place. Danger in the darkness, shaken martinis, glamorous secret missions.

Now I agree with Carlston. I’m just an analyst with perks. I can’t do this.

It’s really fucking cold.

***

I’m tired of this. I don’t want to move, but I know if I don’t, I’ll die faster. The wind, cold and biting, pierces my stench. I’m wearing all the clothes I have, and it’s still so cold.

I shuffle along the hastily created sheds they put up for us. They don’t do much except keep the worst of the snow off. The wind creeps through cracks and snowmelt drips down from the roof.

I move around some of Russia’s freaks and monsters. One man has faceted eyes, like an insect. Another has six arms, all of them wrapped around himself and shivering. A third has a tail.

Some of us, though, look like normal human beings, but the Russian government apparently doesn’t think we are.

It’s funny, at a remove. To the Americans, the abilities we have make us more than human. But to the Russians these abilities make us lower than dirt.

It’s warmer nearer the center of the compound, but it’s dangerous in there. There are only about two hundred of us in this camp, in sheds built for five or ten, but already gangs are forming, around the most dangerous or the most ruthless of us.

It seems inevitable that Yeltsin government will go down against superhuman onslaught. Someone told me not too long ago that, according to the American superhuman population, about 1 in every million or so people were changed by whatever did this to us. Not too many, until you consider Russia has a population of five and a half billion. And now every one of them has reason to be angry at Yeltsin.

An icy wind bites through the jackets and shirts I’m clinging to. I shiver in the cold

***

How did he find all the metahumans? We’re literally one in a million, and not all of us show powers. I don’t, not at all. There’s no way he should have been able to find me.

I lie curled up, under a scratchy wool blanket in a nest of identically shivering bundles. We ignore the cots; we’ve pushed them against the wall. It started the first night, before night fell, when we first felt the icy cold. Without really talking about it, we all just ended up huddled in the middle of the room, as far away from the snow and ice as we could be, close together for what little warmth we can find. We may not know each other, and some in this shed may not speak the languages of others (though I can understand all their prayers and curses and pleas) and maybe we have no comfort or hope or passion to offer one another, but the least we can do is share the heat of our bodies, because we have little else.

It’s still fucking cold though.

***

I think he must have a metahuman of his own. Yeltsin. Someone who can sense others. A sellout. But even if he had, how could he gather so many metahumans by himself? One man can’t travel across the whole of Russia.

Maybe that’s why so many of us here look different. Because the ones they caught are the ones who couldn’t hide. And then the snooper, the traitor detector found a couple others and threw us into the mix.

I’ve become a link in our cabin, and the ones next to us. We can’t have a leader because not all of us speak the same dialect. They can muddle along, but it’s slow. Only the people who share a regional language can communicate with any speed.

I share all the regional languages with everyone. I am the node of communication, the only person who can talk to everyone. So they look to me, because I am their voice, even though I seldom say anything of my own, usually just translate the words of others. I have little to contribute to this hell.

God it’s cold.

***

A man came here tonight.

He’s the only one of us who can travel in the cold without problems. He runs the largest gang, maybe forty or more.

He came walking through snow where others would stomp, wearing a thin shirt when others shiver in layers of cloth. Where he walks a circle of heat follows him.

It was warm for the first time in the shack. All fifteen of us, the neighboring shacks and our own meet him, and for the first time since we’ve been here, the winter is held at bay.

He talks to me, mostly. He comes from a small town in the mountains, and speaks very bad Russian. But he has a dream, a purpose, a passion that heats up his face. And he brings warmth. These things have brought together so many men by themselves.

But he lacks a voice. He says things to me, of his dream, of a world where all men can be equal without having to label or categorize one another, where we can all be warm and safe and happy and work together, sharing what we may have together for the betterment of all.

He is a great speaker, but he lacks language. He wants me to be his mouth, his words. He believes that, with me at his side, he could bring together the two-hundred men and women in this camp, he could break out of this prison and throw down Yeltsin, and create his socialist utopia.

I think he could do it.

But I can’t help him, can I? I am an American. First and foremost, even if I am here. This man wants to resurrect the great evil of my adulthood. I saw the Cold War, I had a bomb shelter in my house, stocked with spam and guns so that I might survive the nuclear Armageddon. I saw the Doomsday Clock, saw the minute hand three minutes from midnight.

But that was Stalin and Andropov and Gorbachev. This is not. I think this man might bring peace in his crusade. But I cannot help remembering the moment I heard that the Soviet Union had fallen. I was stuck in traffic, and I heard the words on the radio, and I couldn’t help it; I got out of my car, and all along the line of cars, dotted in and out, others were doing the same and jumping up and down for joy. And the news spread, and soon every car was empty, and the streets were filled with people glad to be free of fear.

I tell the man that I’ll think about it. He leaves, disappointed, and the warmth goes with him.

The others are conflicted. They tell me that, even if I did join him, his forty and our fifteen was only fifty-five, bigger than all other gangs by over two dozen, but not bigger than all of them put together. And Molniya, a small man, who can move like lightning for a few seconds, tells me that the other gangs are thinking of it, their heads meeting in secret and plotting, in broken and halting Russian and Chechen and Tuvan to bring him down.

But they all speak longingly of the warmth.

He could do it. They look to him now for the warmth he can bring, but I have heard the fire of his ideas as well, and he could ignite Russia against Yeltsin. He could free us from the cold and the hunger.

But he would make Russia red again, with the blood of his enemies and his own.

And I am American.

And it’s really fucking cold.


Just an ending note. The DP is only as simple as you make it. It may seem yes or no, but there are shades of gray in-between.

[PopeAlessandrosXVIII]

Wow, interesting......I have to note a few grammar issues.

It’s funny, at a remove.- Makes no sense.....
These things have brought together so many man by themselves. - I think it was a misspelling....

I actually became quite amused at the repetition of how cold it is in canmp. Gave me some good laughs. The hero seems like a real tool. Letting himself be used the way he does. It sounds fun to play with.

As for the DP....I'd say, if I'm gonna help with this uniting thing, I 'd wanna be more than a mouth piece. I'm not possitive that the hero'd think like that, but it's what I'd do. So, I'ma a yes, providing that he'll have a bit of sway with the goings on in the group.

Keep up the good work!

[Exmortis]

From the sounds of that the protagenist has been imprisioned in this camp as a result of his abilities. My recomendation is... Rally the troops and burn everything. :D

[Thunderbird]

Wow... really impressive. I liked this a lot! It takes a bit of work to identify the speaker in these 'modules' of text but I'm sure it will grow more clear as time goes on.

I say work with him at first but be looking for a way to alert the US government of what's going on when you have an opportunity.

[DeadManWalking]

@Exmortis, Just to be clear, by Rally the troops, do you mean rally the entire camp independently, or just get the fifteen or so people in the cabins near you in revolt against the armed soldiers around the camp?

[Exmortis]

*Grins*

Well, this is a concentration camp right, so there should be a reasonable amount of people guarding it. Not to mention the person who put the protagenist and the other meta-humans there seems Meta-humanphobic. (Is that right?)

Besides, fifteen random Meta-humans against a couple dozen armed guards behind a chain-link fence (Once again can't remember if that was in the story or if I just put it there to explain why these people don't just leg it) aren't very level combat conditions.

I think it would be safer if you managed to rally the entire concentration camp, whether or not you lead them to freedom or stir them into rioting and then taking your fifteen people out of the camp during the chaos is up to you.

[Crunchyfrog]

There might be a real risk of the fifteen splitting anyway, just because of the cold. When you're that cold, thought processes suffer. The weaker minded will just defect to his gang purely for the warmth. Saying no will just mean that the gang will dwindle in numbers and in strength.

I would say yes - it's the only hope for now, but perhaps there'll be a chance to force an alteration to the plans once we break out.

If I'm not mistaken, the protagonist's power is telepathy, or some kind of paranormal communication. If this warm guy has no voice or no means of communicating with others, he's going to need us, and that itself could be of value for bargaining when the time is right.

[DeadManWalking]

Thanks for the responses, I'm probably going to put up the poll in the next couple of days.

A couple things that I may have left unclear (I ended up writing most of that chapter in about an hour: long-term planning and deadlines are not my strong suit).

@Crunchy. It's not that the man doesn't actually have a voice, it's just that he has little shared language with many of the men in the camp. So he can talk, they just don't always understand very well.

@Exmortis: I should note that the Metahumans in the camp are not your traditional superheroes. They have powers, but they're not exactly the X-men. If you could shoot laser beams out of your eyes, it might be difficult to get you into the camp in the first place. Many of them might be more along the lines of four arms, or small bursts of lightning speed (Molniya) or heat emission, or translation. (Though that's not to say that all of them are only mildly powered. Several might have been tranqed, or had their family threatened, or were inexperienced with their powers, or simply didn't want to fight when they were relocated.)

[Exmortis]

Quote: I should note that the Metahumans in the camp are not your traditional superheroes. They have powers, but they're not exactly the X-men. If you could shoot laser beams out of your eyes, it might be difficult to get you into the camp in the first place. Many of them might be more along the lines of four arms, or small bursts of lightning speed (Molniya) or heat emission, or translation...

Exactly, which is why I said that a group of fifteen random metahumans had the odds stacked against them if they choose to try and break out by themselves.
Here is my thinking:

15 Inexperianced Metahumans vs. Armed guards (Behind metal fence or other kind of fortification) = Unnessersary risk.

It may be safer if you convince the entire camp to rebel. Amongst the chaos you and your associates can escape and it is fast to prepare. Although convincing the prisioners to riot may require some rather unsavoury methods. Additionally, it will most likely result in the deaths of the rioting Metahumans.

On the other hand, you could rally your fellow Metahuman's trapped within the camp. If you suceed in escaping you would have the makings of an army at your disposal. However, Gathering Metahumans under you banner and preparing your revolt could exhaust time and resources which could alert the guards to your activities, enabling them to stop you before you have even begun.

[DeadManWalking]

My apologies, I misread your previous post. Somehow I saw "not very level combat conditions" and took it to mean "for the humans"

Anyways, I'll put up a poll in a bit. This weeks been busy for me >.<

[Exmortis]

*Pokes story with a stick*

...

*Tilts head to the side in a thoughtful expression*

...

*Pokes story with a stick again*

[HalfEmptyHero]

Not sure if this is still active, but it was interesting enough. In your prologue, your quotation marks inconsistent. The most common way for using quotation marks that span multiple paragraphs is to put an opening quotation mark on each paragraph, and then a closing mark on the last line, like this:

Quote: "This is paragraph one.

"This is the second paragraph.

"This is the third and final paragraph."

However, I would recommend using a block quote in this case, as it is so long. Indentation is not needed (and would be quite difficult to implement on a forum) but simply italicizing the text would be sufficient.

[Vishal Muralidharan]

This simply cannot stop here... COME ON!!!!

[Thunderbird]

If I know DMW, he'll be back around eventually - never leaves for long.

In the meantime, if you want superhuman action, try Heavy Metal!

[Vishal Muralidharan]

Already On it! Its on the other tab!

[DeadManWalking]

Huh. So the poll, I guess, vanished or something, and I don't remember what exactly won, so unless someone remembers clearly and can tell me, I shall be putting another poll up, after a small delay for additional suggestions or changes to options.

Also, I'm back. Ish. I am also notoriously unreliable, as many of you know.

[DeadManWalking]

@Half Empty Hero

I probably should have made it more clear, but what I intended was not for it to be a single block quote, but a series of segments from a larger book, i.e. A Dummy's Guide to Metahuman History. It didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, simply because I wrote it as a continuous piece which gave it the sense of continuity.

Also, putting up a poll now because hey, why not. Our main character is freezing here, let's not extend it longer.

[Thunderbird]

Nice voting turnout for a tale that's been dormant for a bit. Good to see :)