setting
Flesh is cheap, blood is weak - inconsistent, consistently.
SETTING
The City
An entire city built on top of the dead!
The City is simply known as The City. Humanity has dwindled down to only a small number, and towns are so few and far between that traveling is hardly worth the trouble. The City is the largest one remaining and anyone who lives there will tell you they’d never leave. Everywhere else seems more like a small village struggling to keep itself alive, but The City is very much thriving.
At the center of the city is the Gene Co. building, tallest of them all. With the sun long lost behind the smog of pollution, the Gene Co. building almost seems to light up the city with it’s bright lights and shining facade. At the foot of Gene Co. sits the largest martketplaces, full of odds and ends and basic needs. Theatres and circuses are everywhere and it’s hard not to find yourself a good time, providing you have the money.
The residential areas are split up into three. At the top, closest to the Center, is the high-class residences. There are many large, old victorian houses with fenced yards and gardens that have all dried up. In the middle class area you find apartment complexes; they aren’t extraordinary, but they’re decent with electricity and heat that is reliable for the most part. But in the lower class section of The City, apartments are overcrowded, run down and rarely do they have heating. It gets cold, it’s dirty and it seems like half the time the electricity is out. It’s not a place anyone wants to live, but some people are willing to make sacrifices in order to get that surgery.
In the alleys of the low-class area lie the submarkets. Here, you can get whatever you want for the fraction of the price - and a high risk. Anything from clothing and filtered water to surgery and Zydrate can be found here, if you know where to look. But you put yourself to the risk of poisoning, or botched surgery. But more importantly, if Gene Co. catches you buying or selling illegal substances, it’s major trouble.
On the very edge of the City lies the cemetary. It’s cramped with headstones and mausoleums owned by the wealthy. At first it has a hauntingly beautiful air to it, but don’t go too far. The further you go in the darker and more dangerous it gets. Corpses raided by graverobbers lie rotting in plain sight; some left strewn across their graves, and others left in piles. And in the very back lie the corpses of the poor and the gruesome victims of the Repo Man.
Modern Life
You can run, you can hide - but he always has a way of finding you.
Everything revolves around the consumer. And as a consumer, you have to have an income in order to survive. It’s easy to find yourself a job in the marketplace as a bartender, a waitress or a salesman. But there are plenty of other options out there for those looking for something more exciting.
Gene Co. provides employment opportunities with great benefits for both medical and law fields. Becoming a GenCop is quite easy and it provides stable hours with decent pay, and great discounts on surgical procedures and Zydrate. Most commonly it is the job of a GenCop to remind people of their loan payments, and uphold the law that Gene Co. lays down. Becoming an Organ Nurse or a SurGEN is easy through Gene Co.'s GENtern intern programs.
Working for Gene Co. can be harsh, however. Once you work for them, it is very difficult to leave and they keep you under surveillance to be sure that you aren’t spreading company secrets. They may or may not require you to take part in their surgical experimentation, which you are not allowed to speak of. But their highest secret is the Repo Man. Nobody knows who the Repo Men are, or how they got their position. But one thing is for sure; once you become a Repo Man, Gene Co. owns you completely in exchange for a luxurious life with all your bills paid no matter how expensive.
If you crave the limelight, becoming a performer is quite easy if you have the talent for it - sometimes even if you don’t. SurGENs often hire people to take part in fashion shows, to show off their cosmetic artistry. Plays and operas are always going on in the theatre houses, and there are also circuses for more exotic performances. For the more popular performers, body guards may be appointed to ensure safety.
For those who don’t exactly agree with the law and want to be self sufficient, dabbling in the submarket is an option. It requires stealth and underground networking to be successful. Grave Robbers, extracting and distributing Zydrate, are probably the most successful of the submarket. Sometimes dealers will buy Zydrate off of Grave Robbers if they can’t be bothered with the cemetary themselves. Prostitution is popular in the submarket as well, and hookers can be found in almost every alley. But there are also underground surgeons, with or without formal training, whom usually offer surgery at a fraction of Gene Co.’s price. Whether or not you get what you paid for is entirely up in the air, however.
Technology
Industrialization has crippled the globe - nature failed as technology spread.
This dirty world is littered with old technology either proven failures and left behind or outdated by technological advances. What we once called technology is now trash and litters the streets, particularly alleyways.
The most notable technology as you step outdoors in the city is the billboards. Gigantic backlight billboards with advertisements blink at you, mostly for Gene Co. but sometimes for TV shows or theatre plays. Equipped with a loud speaker, vocal ads also often advise people not to partake in illegal transactions.
Television is probably the oldest form of technology still available. With society so centered on entertainment, almost all plays and operas are recorded live for TV with reruns often. Soap operas are the most popular television non-live content. News is rare, and when it’s on Gene Co.’s new surgery advancements and new plays or operas are usually the only thing reported. Radio dramas are almost as popular as television.
Communication is extremely easy with modern technology. What looks like a watch worn on the wrist is actually a communication device, which can record voice or even small 3-D video. It can also project a keyboard and you can type. It can connect to the main network, or it can connect one on one with a specific person.
networking ✖ logging ✖ ooc ✖ mod journal ✖ aim chat ✖ ic chat ✖ plot ✖ setting ✖ rules & faq
taken characters ✖ reserved characters ✖ wanted characters ✖ applications ✖ drops & hiatus