C
CosmicWeinerDog
Guest
Original poster
"I'd been fading in and out ever since I walked through the elevator.
The wound at my side felt like I'd been leaning on an exposed nail on a picket fence. Round had missed my lung and in turn a sucking chest wound, but didn't exactly fall into the scratch category. Broken rib without a doubt and possibly entry into the digestive track. Didn't want to think about it. Stimulants and a pressure dressing were keeping me on my feet but those would only hold up for so long.
I had zoned out glaring at the blinking cursor of a console that was years outdated before me. The ringing chime of an alarm from a far distant corner of the facility rang out but this wasn't a new development. The guards weren't coming, not here. After a while, a chiming bell just becomes background and eventually your ears loose the frequency all together. It's funny how the smallest things can scatter your attention, send you adrift and pull your mind from everything barring you. Funnier still is what redirects your focus. It was Q's voice that pulled me from the daze.
"How is this even a question?" she chimed, her voice weary from coming this far. "He's the reason for all this. The firm, Having to squander in piss living for months, being turned into personal play things, Countless deaths. Everything is gone Doc." the tone she hell slowly rose in volume as her words elevated in pitch. She was angry and she had the right to be. "Everything..."
As her final word caught my ears, I continued to hold my gaze on the blinking console.
Auxilary protocols disabled.
Self contained unit stasis: Online.
Matrix intergration: Disconnected.
Command?
I felt her hand move to my shoulder and I could feel warmth even through the fibers of the armor. Maybe it was my imagination, I'm not sure. "Just pull the plug doc. Pull the damn thing and be done with it."
How the hell did I even find myself here. Seems like yesterday I was a working stiff with a SIN and everything. I never shot a gun, hell I didn't know the shadows from a Saturday morning cartoon show. How did I fall this far down the rabbit hole?
"Doc please..."
I miss the days where the world was simple...
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All men dream, but Not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible...
- T.E. Lawrence
The Setting:
Through backhand deals, corporate employee shuffles, sense of adventure or a bad hand in general, You find yourself in Cairo Egypt. A country ripped to shreds through a constantly shifting wave of ideals, fractured religious framework, clashing politics and a desperate populace hungry for a sense of purpose. Two years ago, the country was thrown into a brand of chaos as the ruling theocracy was removed from power forcibly by the people of the state. Order has been attempted through both corporate, Governmental, Gang and Militant methods but for reason or another, a unified front has yet to be established beneath the shadow of Giza. Some are drawn here from the sense of freedom found in the chaos, others for the freedom obtained in a state without labor law restrictions, others because the land is fertile with one of the most mystically rich environment on the planet. Most however, were just unfortunate.
Without ruling framework, the city of 28 million people festers daily. Pockets of dolled up environments still exist for the person with a dollar to spend, but they are few and far between. Lack of trash collection has made it not entirely uncommon to see rubbish piles crammed into unused alley ways, in some cases towered up all the way to the brim of the multi story buildings that encase it. Violence is rampant, Law enforcement is corrupt, the economy is shot, and it's not entirely uncommon to see a body in the street on your way to the store.
In addition, due to peculiar tax codes set in motion decades before. Building owners and construction companies could actually avoid paying property tax entirely on a construct if it was incomplete for a total of 20 years. While this seems silly, it's how certain high influential figures in the region through out the country's history have been able to create tourist spots and high traffic land marks of which they wouldn't be weighed down by tax legislation. A level of corruption hidden beneath ancient laws that no one bothered to change. While in some cases this leads to entire districts under the ownership of a single influential figure, more often it leads to ruined construct framework scattered over the egyptian sands. Because of the economic turmoil of the nation, it's not uncommon for squatters to take refuge in these structures and live within them. Deaths occur regularly from these crumbling skeleton buildings as no one regulates their upkeep.
Gang activity is rampant but the more terrifying brands of these scale much grander than street punks and bedowin nomads. Larger organizations hold to ideals kept through the previous theocracy and often cling to religious lines. The Muslim is one such organization and holds an impressive display of power throughout the middle east. Often these religious groups tend to yield a high number of magically connected members from which they draw their muscle.
While not a government power, The Dragon Aden keeps a check on all things within the middle east, though manly focuses his(her?) resources on keeping external powers across the sea from gaining footholds within his domain. While more behind the scenes than Lowfyr and his German based corporation, with substantial enough digging one can often find the dragon's fingers in all manners of things. He's most well known for single-handedly razing Tehran Iran to the ground in 2020. The muslim brotherhood revile him for this act as it was a response to the the Ayatollah's jihad against the Awakened.
Giza itself sits just outside of Cairo and is basically the same city. Located furthest from the nile, this urban landscape was built predominantly around the pyramids and sphinx themselves. At one point, this place was a tourist ground for people on their way to the sites. Since the dawn of the sixth age however, these sites sport some of the most powerful leylines in the world. The closer one gets to the landmark, the looser definitions of reality occur. Because of this, several extremist groups of shamans, mages and adepts flock to these grounds.
Finally, the American University of Cairo is likely the reason why you and your firm are here in the first place. An epicenter for archeology and science for centuries, this has not changed in the rise of this age. Embrace the chaotic environment, the University has taken the opportunity of lawlessness to attempt a jump in research and technology without the weight of labor laws on their shoulders. It is this organization that fronts Morpheus Labs' payroll and why scientists,researchers and techs find themselves transferred to the chaotic region all too often.
Where you come in:
You, cheeky roleplayer person, are a corporate wageslave. You begin the story in a small subsidiary company called Morpheus Labs. You have a SIN (Social Identification Number), You do your taxes, you pay your union dues. While the state that Cairo's in isn't particularly appealing, the freedom of research your firm is able to proceed with within the environment is likely the reason the company was established here. Within that freedom, your project has flourished.
In a nutshell, your company is focused on Information withdrawls, Deposits, reprogramming and suggestion capable of the human and metahuman brain during REM sleep. While the science of this process is rather in depth, the basic direction of the technology takes the human brain as it is naturally and treats it as a computer, interfacing with it directly in a non invasive format at the state it's most open to suggestion. Money inflates, buildings crumble, and weapons rust. Secrets however, last quite a bit longer.
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