Post-Apocalypse

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Are we trying for a society made up of mostly young people (the Chosen)? This reminds me of Jeremiah (tv show).

If people don't die off fairly quickly from the virus, then society wouldn't collapse quite as completely as you want, I think. And then after a generation or so it would not be a factor anymore - it would have died out leaving those born after with the remnants of society but no idea what to do.

You might consider something like the 'grey water' in Flash Gordon, that creates mutations in those that drink it (progressively worse in each generation, the first infected look normal but their kids have some mutations and THEIR kids have worse mutations, etc etc etc...) To make that work in this structure it would be...

• First gen after infection are 'chosen' and uninfected/mutated.

• Chosen women can bear unmutated kids (Who will all be 18 or younger, which is interesting)

• Chosen men don't pass on immunity, the immunity is in the X chromosone obviously, not the Y

• There may be some unchosen (older folks born before the breakout) who are not immune but have not been infected...yet?

• Infected pass on the mutation to their kids (except for the first Chosen generation) unless an infected man and a chosen gal have a baby.

• We'll need two levels of initial infection - some die immediately (leading to societal collapse), others live but pass on mutations to subsequent generations (all 18 or younger at this point, so not much of a factor yet, but first mutations are appearing).

That's my idea anyway.

[Autumn]

^ That's really in line with what I was thinking.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Great minds

[Captain Untouchable]

I like the idea of it being something that has infected the water supply, and continues to affect it. That means that avoiding infection among those without an immunity could be as simple as boiling the water before you drink it... but it also means that a simple mistake (not boiling water long enough, falling into a river/pond/fountain, getting sprayed by infected water, etc) is enough to cause infection. That kind of thing still means that practically *everyone* would get infected, but doesn't have any of the downsides of it being airborne.

[Regulus Varo]

I like this idea also

/charley

[Dasquian Belargic]

If you guys want to go with it being transferred by water, that's fine by me. I just thought having it genetic, or non-specific, would make it a little more... mystical I guess and in keeping with the slightly surreal feel all of this had has, when we've been talking about it.

Would someone just hammer out a summary of the virus then so we can start writing? I would but I am for the most part not interested in what the science is behind it, I just want to get writing

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I'm interested in a bit more world building before we dive in, as in New York and how things work there now. I'm sure everyone has something in mind they want to do, but it might get a little crazy if we just go at it with no planning.

Like, there should be some way to get food into the city/grow it and sell/trade for it. Is there electricity? Gasoline for cars and or generators? How long did government last before everything went kaput?

New York City. The world has been affected by a virus of unknown origin. Everyone was affected, except unborn children. It has been 18 years since the virus hit. Since then, many older members of the population have been killed off by the virus. Others show various signs of fatigue and deterioration.

NYC itself has become a city divided into little 'nations' inhabited by the various surviving communities, some of whom are more tribal/aggressive than others. Some ideas we tossed around: a group of feral, Lord of the Flies style kids living in Central Park; a biker road toll gang, in charge of the bridges leaving the city. Of course, not everyone will have adapted well to the collapse of civilization as we know it - but the smart ones realize that survival is no longer a certainty.

What lies beyond NYC? No one knows. There is no global media, no communication with the outside world - except perhaps some mysterious automated distress signals that can be picked up by intrepid radio-users - and seemingly no hope.

I want to play someone coming in from outside the City.

Anyway... are we talking Long Island, or the City as a whole with its suburban areas as well? You'd need somewhere for food to be grown to supply people - central park would work, but also any razed lots or plowed up streets would work fine. And meat, we gots to have a way to get meat other than 'city' meat like rats and pigeons. Or not?

Feral kids in the subway tunnels would be cool too. I am thinking there would be several 'gangs' of kids, what with all the parents kicking the bucket early due to virus and other illnesses and no proper medical care.

[Sigmund Landers]

And meat, we gots to have a way to get meat other than 'city' meat like rats and pigeons. Or not?

It's called the zoo omnomnomnom!

I'll probably revamp this account to fit and make him a kiddie gang-member

[Lilaena De'Ville]

The zoo! That solves that, pretty much. All zoos have petting zoos in them too so as long as people don't eat all the domesticated animals right off the bat (i.e. someone actually plans and takes care of them and breeds them) then there should be at least some beef around.

Anyway I was doing some writing last night to find my character's voice and I came up with some stuff you guys can think about. My char. is coming from Outside, and I figure that things in the City are fairly insular and cut off from everything else, as Jenny described.

So. I have her at 18, traveling with her 6 yr old half sister from who knows where to the City, because its rumored that the City has fresh water and a cure for the mutations. Which isn't true, but then, its a rumor. That's how rumors are. Anyway she's been constantly on the move since she was 11, meandering around trying to find the City, and I'm pretty sure she's about to finally find it.

But she's Chosen, and she's got to dodge Chosen hunters (probably needs a cooler name ) who'll want to catch her and put in a camp or something to repopulate the earth (or do experiments or ???). Her sister is not Chosen but has a slight mutation, so they also have to dodge Cleansers, who want to just kill all the muties to purge the species.

Also you could be born with a mutation and not be sick with the virus (that sickens and killsssssss).

Also also, if NYC is divided into different 'countries' then what people make up doesn't matter too much because they could just be in a different country. But perhaps we should get a map of the City and plot out rough boundaries.

[Mandy with an I]

I was thinking about eating elephants and stuff but your idea works too.

We could always have Central Park be like something I read from a Batman storyline about poison ivy - a "mother" figure taking care of children in a Eden-esque place with gardens/animals or whatever. But like, with more adults.

I don't think it should be "countries" per say, but more of a gang-turf war thing. Different groups have territories. Actually, all of this is reminding me Freak Angels.

[Dasquian Belargic]

When myself, Charley, Droo and Emelie were discussing this all in the Omega chat, we picked out the following section of map: http://www.sw-fans.net/wiki/index.ph...age:NYCmap.jpg

It's not a huge area, but it's enough that we can have divisions whilst at the same time increasing the likelihood of random encounters. We came up with some of those already, which I added brief/non-serious descriptions of onto: http://www.sw-fans.net/wiki/index.ph...ubicon#Setting

What we discussed was the appeal of the City as an enclosed space, where people are effectively trapped by other people. For example, to the North of that map you have Central Park. Here, we suggested there could be a kind of 'Lord of the Flies' set up, with gangs of kids in power, kind of like the barbarians of the North!

On the bridges leaving the City, there would be toll gangs, who make a living by exploiting anyone trying to come and go to and from the City. They would also probably be a big contributor to the rumours on what lies Outside, as they might be able to profit more from making people believe that Outside is even more of a wasteland than the City.

So, that covers North, East and West. To the South you have... water!

[Tionne Thanewulf]

So yeah, I'm a scientist IRL, so I can give you a few ideas about the virus... Generally, Lilaena's suggestions are great. So here's my input.

The virus was developed for military purposes, mainly to fight terrorism back in the Middle-East. Deep in its RNA structure, it had a ''genetic program'' embedded, kind of like a protocol it was supposed to run when it infects people. So yeah, kind of a smart virus. However, it got out of the lab(via some mysterious channels) and was released among the populace. At first, it did what it was supposed to do - kill. Later on...it started to mutate, subsequently mutating the host. It's behaviour became erratic and unpredictable, like it had a will of its own. But by the time it happened, it wiped out 98% of the population of the world. At that stage, it was transferred via bodily fluids or touch. So even how it is transferred changes over time.

Given the severity of the situation, the government had some time to react but I would say they lasted a year maximum. Why? Nobody knew what's happening with the virus, they were unsure how its transferred and why some people showed resistance/immunity...

So yes, that genetic stuff Lil suggested works. You can have remnants of the government, fanatic religious groups, feral kids... anything works.
I'd imagine there is electricity since most of the energy generation is automated anyways, however I don't think there is gasoline any more. Or at least its rare. Maybe horses?

I already have an idea for a character...but you are not going to like it.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Awesome.

I imagine in the City there are those horse drawn carriages around Central Park and that will help for some transport.

...gotta find a pic for my char now...

[Autumn]

Anyway I was doing some writing last night to find my character's voice...

Somewhere on google-docs is about two posts worth of stuff already for this girl. I...I couldn't help it.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I posted I'm also uploading a post icon to use to mark the RPs, but we can replace it with something different when/if someone comes up with something.

[Charlie Kippin]

^ Cooools.

I made a few of those yesterday actually, but whether people want to use them.. I don't mind

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Ooh I like them. Will put them up.

Also, just because some people think the virus was spread through the water supply doesn't mean that it was.

[Autumn]

I rather like the idea that maybe it's still not 100% known where the hell the virus came from or why the "chosen" are immune to it. Maybe someone knows... but I'd say the general screwed up populace doesn't.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I'm sure there are some scientists who know, perhaps those responsible (a la Will Smith in I am Legend) but generally the survivors are living off rumors.

[Charlie Kippin]

Maybe someone knows, maybe they don't. I like to think that is something we can explore as we develop the story