Intro: Sublimation, Polyethylene, and the Heresy
In November 2009, there began for NaNoWriMo's sake a story about a broken America, jaded youth, and a sub-society founded on chaos, which was eventually named Polyethylene. At the same time, my friend Voltaire happened to come up with a group of characters who only half fit in with the story she was working on. Adding bits of Polyethylene to the ideas she was forming about these new characters, we created Sublimation, a real book(!) that we're writing together. We've been working on it for about a year, and we're making good progress. This year, then, when NaNo came around, I pulled together some different thoughts floating around in my head to create the Heresy, a canon-defying story about things that could or could not happen after the end of Sublimation.
Since Sublimation is the Real Novel, we'll start there and say that Polyethylene is a loose prequel, and the Heresy is a loose sequel. And then there's the Unreal City, which is Voltaire's, not mine, but it's kind of an official sequel to Sublimation so I'll briefly mention it.
Sublimation
After his estranged father's suicide, Theo is quite roughly plucked from his home and carted off to Agartha, where he is "offered" to be paid quite handsomely to reproduce his father's genetic research. Insert corny closing line about "if he can survive his living company."
Setting
The story is set in approximately 2060. Oil is effectively gone, its aftermath still leaving the global environment ravaged, with coastal cities flooded and seasons and crops skewed everywhere. Naturally, there's been plenty of economic and political turmoil as well. The United States has fractured into three vaguely-defined territories--the American Empire, the Conservative Christian Republic, and the United Islamic States--as well as a multitude of city-states and other small self-governing bodies. Federal programs are basically defunct; even the police force has been replaced by the privately-owned Argus Security Corps. At least in the American Empire, the pharmaceutical industry has mushroomed and risen up to take the place of oil as the ones pulling all the strings behind the government decisions. And in the less reputable scientific circles of the Northeast and paranoid rumors across the CCR, hushed word has begun to spread about an altered strain of humanity.
Agartha
A research facility owned by Caine Merodach and his superpower of a pharmaceutical corporation. It was founded for studies on longevity, but current events soon divert research elsewhere. Hidden away in a thick cedar forest in the Pennsylvania mountainside, it contains living quarters and most basic necessities for the scientists it houses, in addition to labs of course. This is where most of the main characters live and work.
Residents: Theo, Linnea, Caltech (so really Devereaux but call him Caltech kthx), Sindri, Jan, Tybalt, Robyn, Sidhe, Aster, Dakota, Adelaine, gynecologist who needs a name, android.
MaddAdem
Another research facility competing with the scientists at Agartha, with something of a reputation for underhanded means of operation, including kidnapping, hacking, and general thievery.
Residents: Vergil, Lakshmi, Cybele, Madvarra, Jason, Hosannah, Nathaniel, some Aislings (Mothy!), some wendoggies.
Characters
Theo: Bitter, cynical chemical engineer/de facto team leader.
Linnea: Distraught, demi-optimistic geneticist who just wants everyone to leave Theo alone.
Caltech: Pseudo-Victorian-aristocrat ice maiden, doctor-turned-electrical/computer/mechanical-engineer upon realizing he hates humanity too much to help them.
Sindri: Annoying purple-haired twat who people keep around because he shockingly does good biochem work and is fun to mock.
Jan: Pot-smoking everyman who does biology. Token conscience.
Tybalt: Mercenary/creeper/hedonist/ex-burlesque performer/chocolate addict.
Robyn: Mercenary/ho/surprisingly not an apocalyptic cowboy.
Sidhe: Mercenary and hacker with a real law degree from Harvard and a well-faked computer science degree from MIT.
Aster: Overly sheltered young genius; token innocent.
The gynecologist: Kind of punky redhead who was convinced to leave France and her wife once the folks at Agartha heard about her research.
Dakota: Intensely unlucky (yet adorable). Enough said.
Adelaine: Slutty, materialistic teenage parahuman (but not the right kind of parahuman).
Android: Caltech's very nicely dressed robot girlfriend with a Turingbot mind and copper veins.
Benedict: President of Agartha; holds executive power over the facility but doesn't actually work there. Infinitely compassionate.
Vergil: Very dapper MaddAdem sort-of-leader who doesn't really care about anything but his wife's coma.
Lakshmi: Coma girl.
Cybele: Childish, self-absorbed, creepish genetic experimenter with an alarming amount of control over the facility.
Madvarra: Terrorist and creeper with grimy cyborg fingers, hanging around thanks to nepotism.
Jason: Schizophrenic on hallucinogens, this time with 80% more genetics education, vodka, and confusion about 90's pop culture.
Hosannah: The other crazy hacker.
Nathaniel: The quiet one.
Wendoggies: Terrifying.
Persephone: Omniscient, omnipresent spooky MtA chick.
Caine: Vain megalomaniacal redhead with way too much financial/political influence.
Argies: Rent-a-Cops on steroids (figuratively... usually).
Black Rose: Disgruntled young militant anarchists who live in the woods and enjoy burning cars.
Polyethylene
This is the story of one certain location in Sublimation's background: a colony of runaways and eccentric street-dwellers up in what used to be Boston, with some peculiar rumors circulating about it. It takes place approximately 3 to 8 years before the start of Sublimation.
Back when it was just called "Runaways", I described it as
a flaming ball of dark, angry modern-life cynicism sprinkled with a bit of hedonism and sadism, spawned from reading too many post-apocalyptic dystopias, but it might organize itself and evolve, possibly with fantasy or sci-fi aspects.
Jason. Same one as above; this is where he was before MaddAdem. Left for the colony in the north because home felt too sterile and stifling.
Zack. The boyfriend Jason is fervently dedicated to; somewhat reluctantly accompanies him up north.
These two are more or less the same Zack and Jason from the Ohio Crew in a new setting.
Lucid/Cassander. A very angry blond who the other guy may call Lucifer or Samael or Morningstar or somesuch. He hates society and history and likes to break things.
The other guy, sometimes known as the black-haired guy or the surgical mask guy and possibly called a lamprey by the blond and I have no idea what his actual name is. Voluntarily mute sociopath. That's him in my "CAUTION WEAR YOUR RESPIRATOR" icon.
They're basically hobos in some city which may be Philadelphia and may be in post-apocalyptic ruin.
Cairbe. Quick-tempered, controlling, bitterly sarcastic, and very redheaded, with a bit of a Napoleonic complex.
Lithia. Practical, clever, easygoing, and very capable of surviving on his own anywhere. Gets himself in pretty high places eventually.
Cairbe steals his 'house' (aka an a burnt-out factory), they bond over a fight, and then they head north together.
The Prince. Creep who saw a clever system and managed to promptly put himself at the head of it. He more or less rules the colony, lawless as it still is, from the throne he made in the top floor of an old department store.
Saint Jimmy. One of the Prince's right-hand man types. He's the resident doctor. Just because he helps people, doesn't mean he's nice.
Iris. Part of the Prince's harem. Very creative; turns the wreckage into art and beauty and function.
Polyethylene originally had its own altered versions of Theo, Linnea, Addie, and Tybalt. They probably won't be seen anymore, now that the 'real' versions are being used in Sublimation and are sufficiently different to cause confusion.
The Heresy
This may or may not be what happens to Jason and Sindri after the end of Sublimation. It's called the Heresy because it combines and defies several canons. There's a pair of spooky, opium-smoking oracles making grand prophecies about powerful figures from a handful of Voltaire's stories and how they'll bring about Armageddon. And Jason becomes conscious of his fictionality and wages war with a deity.
The Unreal City
This is Voltaire's story, not mine. But it is the direct, official sequel to Sublimation, so it might get referenced, and every now and then I write something like fanfiction for it.
Fic: Within These Walls, David and Hanna.
Since Sublimation is the Real Novel, we'll start there and say that Polyethylene is a loose prequel, and the Heresy is a loose sequel. And then there's the Unreal City, which is Voltaire's, not mine, but it's kind of an official sequel to Sublimation so I'll briefly mention it.
Sublimation
After his estranged father's suicide, Theo is quite roughly plucked from his home and carted off to Agartha, where he is "offered" to be paid quite handsomely to reproduce his father's genetic research. Insert corny closing line about "if he can survive his living company."
Setting
The story is set in approximately 2060. Oil is effectively gone, its aftermath still leaving the global environment ravaged, with coastal cities flooded and seasons and crops skewed everywhere. Naturally, there's been plenty of economic and political turmoil as well. The United States has fractured into three vaguely-defined territories--the American Empire, the Conservative Christian Republic, and the United Islamic States--as well as a multitude of city-states and other small self-governing bodies. Federal programs are basically defunct; even the police force has been replaced by the privately-owned Argus Security Corps. At least in the American Empire, the pharmaceutical industry has mushroomed and risen up to take the place of oil as the ones pulling all the strings behind the government decisions. And in the less reputable scientific circles of the Northeast and paranoid rumors across the CCR, hushed word has begun to spread about an altered strain of humanity.
Agartha
A research facility owned by Caine Merodach and his superpower of a pharmaceutical corporation. It was founded for studies on longevity, but current events soon divert research elsewhere. Hidden away in a thick cedar forest in the Pennsylvania mountainside, it contains living quarters and most basic necessities for the scientists it houses, in addition to labs of course. This is where most of the main characters live and work.
Residents: Theo, Linnea, Caltech (so really Devereaux but call him Caltech kthx), Sindri, Jan, Tybalt, Robyn, Sidhe, Aster, Dakota, Adelaine, gynecologist who needs a name, android.
MaddAdem
Another research facility competing with the scientists at Agartha, with something of a reputation for underhanded means of operation, including kidnapping, hacking, and general thievery.
Residents: Vergil, Lakshmi, Cybele, Madvarra, Jason, Hosannah, Nathaniel, some Aislings (Mothy!), some wendoggies.
Characters
Theo: Bitter, cynical chemical engineer/de facto team leader.
Linnea: Distraught, demi-optimistic geneticist who just wants everyone to leave Theo alone.
Caltech: Pseudo-Victorian-aristocrat ice maiden, doctor-turned-electrical/computer/mechanical-engineer upon realizing he hates humanity too much to help them.
Sindri: Annoying purple-haired twat who people keep around because he shockingly does good biochem work and is fun to mock.
Jan: Pot-smoking everyman who does biology. Token conscience.
Tybalt: Mercenary/creeper/hedonist/ex-burlesque performer/chocolate addict.
Robyn: Mercenary/ho/surprisingly not an apocalyptic cowboy.
Sidhe: Mercenary and hacker with a real law degree from Harvard and a well-faked computer science degree from MIT.
Aster: Overly sheltered young genius; token innocent.
The gynecologist: Kind of punky redhead who was convinced to leave France and her wife once the folks at Agartha heard about her research.
Dakota: Intensely unlucky (yet adorable). Enough said.
Adelaine: Slutty, materialistic teenage parahuman (but not the right kind of parahuman).
Android: Caltech's very nicely dressed robot girlfriend with a Turingbot mind and copper veins.
Benedict: President of Agartha; holds executive power over the facility but doesn't actually work there. Infinitely compassionate.
Vergil: Very dapper MaddAdem sort-of-leader who doesn't really care about anything but his wife's coma.
Lakshmi: Coma girl.
Cybele: Childish, self-absorbed, creepish genetic experimenter with an alarming amount of control over the facility.
Madvarra: Terrorist and creeper with grimy cyborg fingers, hanging around thanks to nepotism.
Jason: Schizophrenic on hallucinogens, this time with 80% more genetics education, vodka, and confusion about 90's pop culture.
Hosannah: The other crazy hacker.
Nathaniel: The quiet one.
Wendoggies: Terrifying.
Persephone: Omniscient, omnipresent spooky MtA chick.
Caine: Vain megalomaniacal redhead with way too much financial/political influence.
Argies: Rent-a-Cops on steroids (figuratively... usually).
Black Rose: Disgruntled young militant anarchists who live in the woods and enjoy burning cars.
Polyethylene
This is the story of one certain location in Sublimation's background: a colony of runaways and eccentric street-dwellers up in what used to be Boston, with some peculiar rumors circulating about it. It takes place approximately 3 to 8 years before the start of Sublimation.
Back when it was just called "Runaways", I described it as
a flaming ball of dark, angry modern-life cynicism sprinkled with a bit of hedonism and sadism, spawned from reading too many post-apocalyptic dystopias, but it might organize itself and evolve, possibly with fantasy or sci-fi aspects.
Jason. Same one as above; this is where he was before MaddAdem. Left for the colony in the north because home felt too sterile and stifling.
Zack. The boyfriend Jason is fervently dedicated to; somewhat reluctantly accompanies him up north.
These two are more or less the same Zack and Jason from the Ohio Crew in a new setting.
Lucid/Cassander. A very angry blond who the other guy may call Lucifer or Samael or Morningstar or somesuch. He hates society and history and likes to break things.
The other guy, sometimes known as the black-haired guy or the surgical mask guy and possibly called a lamprey by the blond and I have no idea what his actual name is. Voluntarily mute sociopath. That's him in my "CAUTION WEAR YOUR RESPIRATOR" icon.
They're basically hobos in some city which may be Philadelphia and may be in post-apocalyptic ruin.
Cairbe. Quick-tempered, controlling, bitterly sarcastic, and very redheaded, with a bit of a Napoleonic complex.
Lithia. Practical, clever, easygoing, and very capable of surviving on his own anywhere. Gets himself in pretty high places eventually.
Cairbe steals his 'house' (aka an a burnt-out factory), they bond over a fight, and then they head north together.
The Prince. Creep who saw a clever system and managed to promptly put himself at the head of it. He more or less rules the colony, lawless as it still is, from the throne he made in the top floor of an old department store.
Saint Jimmy. One of the Prince's right-hand man types. He's the resident doctor. Just because he helps people, doesn't mean he's nice.
Iris. Part of the Prince's harem. Very creative; turns the wreckage into art and beauty and function.
Polyethylene originally had its own altered versions of Theo, Linnea, Addie, and Tybalt. They probably won't be seen anymore, now that the 'real' versions are being used in Sublimation and are sufficiently different to cause confusion.
The Heresy
This may or may not be what happens to Jason and Sindri after the end of Sublimation. It's called the Heresy because it combines and defies several canons. There's a pair of spooky, opium-smoking oracles making grand prophecies about powerful figures from a handful of Voltaire's stories and how they'll bring about Armageddon. And Jason becomes conscious of his fictionality and wages war with a deity.
The Unreal City
This is Voltaire's story, not mine. But it is the direct, official sequel to Sublimation, so it might get referenced, and every now and then I write something like fanfiction for it.
Fic: Within These Walls, David and Hanna.