Slave Species

[Silux]

Earth. 2035.

Homo Sapiens is no longer considered a free species.

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IC
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Nobody knows where the parasite had originated from. Theories suggest it could have been a biological weapon gone wrong, an extraterrestrial creature or even a previously undiscovered species living on the planet that had means to rise up once again from a millennia long sleep.
The true origin of the infectious parasite may never be truly discovered, as it struck too fast for anybody to learn much about it besides it’s physical nature and effects.

It first made itself known twenty years beforehand, in the year 2015. The parasite has been in control of nigh on all of humanity for the past 8 years.

Those who resisted the infected humans and those who avoided outright infection named the parasites ‘Victras Worms’, small, niggling, grotesque and malformed Platyhelminthes Invertebrates that enter their host through any cavity they can find: this includes the mouth, eye sockets, ear holes, anus and even genetalia in severe cases. The Victras Worm then travels through the circulatory system of the host and latches onto the brain using a set of fast growing, fleshy tendrils. Once this agonising stage has been completed, the worm is latched onto the host for life, and separating the two becomes impossible without the death of the host. The host becomes totally dependant on the worm that lives in his or her brain.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the parasitic creature is that it seeks to control it’s victims not by directly influencing thought processes but rather altering mood levels and serotonin bursts to the point where the parasite is adored by the host. The infected human becomes totally devoted the worm that they are fully aware is living inside their brain. The host experiences rushes of intense pleasure, and more advanced stages of infection see the host almost worshipping the parasite as a kind of divine entity that must be ’spread’ to all humans.

Humanity faces a grim fate at the hands of the parasite, with an approximate 99.55% of all humans having been infected to this day. Governments and armies have taken to compulsory infection to spread the infection to all those who resist it. Great complexes have been established in the last 15 years that are literal breeding grounds for the parasites and areas for infection.

Those who retain their free will are forced to live a life of extreme danger and oppression, hunted from all angles in a world even more hostile to them than before, by a united ‘race’ who seek nothing more than to take the very thing which makes them human.

It would seem there is no hope for those that resist, and that it is only a matter of time before they are consumed by the ever growing oppression of the Victras parasite.

…Unless there was a way out.

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“I cannot easily explain to you what has happened to our imperfectly perfect world. Not in any way that could truly make you understand. We struggle in a utopia with a corrupted heart, a united society joined by some grotesque parasitic organism. They wear the guise of true happiness and total perfection in everything they do.
Governments where the first to be corrupted by the infection, which then slowly and subtly abused their powers to bring the services into their circle of infected. And that was it...
Once the military organisations across the planet had been infested, there was nothing to stop the population of Earth being forced to obey the new Victras regime. On the outset, it would seem like an acceptable fate for mankind, our self destructive tendencies are no more, and technology has leapt forward with no civil or international wars to slow progress.

The mega cities were the first large scale demonstration of the power of the new ‘human’ regime: colossal modern settlement complexes dotted with compulsory infection centres, or C.I.Cs for short, that suit to the every need of the parasite.
Luckily for us survivors, they sprawl for miles on end - true utopias - and they give us a perfect place to take shelter against the oppression.

The Old World, outside the mega cities, is entirely different. What we once knew as home lies dead and broken, abandoned in favour of the sprawling new world. Supplies are abundant, and space is plentiful, but the crumbling ruins of a free mankind is unsafe for anyone brave enough to venture there.”

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“I have just had to watch a good friend of mine forced into infection. There was nothing I could do. If they knew I was there, those ‘obedient’ soldiers would have taken me, too.
I have seen many things in my life: men mutilated by explosives, shot dead on the spot, even tortured and pissed on; time in the military really takes it’s toll on a man, you see. But nothing came close to what I saw when they put him under.

The held the worm in a small tube, no bigger than a standard issue bottle of water, and it was suspended in a liquid jelly which I assume must be some sort of containment sustenance. I didn’t think the creature was so… large… for a body infesting parasite. The soldier grabbed the fucking fat, wiggling, squealing worm and held the damn thing in the palm of his hand, with it’s head and tail sticking out either end.
And what did it look like? Like a piece of living shit, I suppose. Black, shiny, bulging and pulsing with veins and vessels of all different varieties, complete with a small gnashing mouth that incessantly screeched and squealed for a host.

I could’ve unleashed my guts all over my hiding spot. That thing was the cause of the infection. That thing would latch onto my friends brain, and never let go.

I can still hear his screams over the penetrating whines of the worm, though. They were perhaps what will haunt me for the rest of my days. He was a strong man, but he was terrified. I don’t blame him. I was terrified and I was only watching.
I got to watch them strap him down, still screaming his lungs out as they placed the worm slowly onto his skin, at which point it stopped squealing. Instead it just began to convulse it’s body, pulling itself close to his face. Ever closer.
It didn’t dare go for his mouth, he would have bitten the thing in half without a second thought should it have attempted it.
Instead, it slowly dragged itself over his eye ridge, down his nose and slowly slither up his nostril.

And then there were screams of pain. Screams of agony. The kind you imagine to hear in hell, and nowhere on earth.

His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and then there was silence.

His eyes became vacant - they unstrapped him. He was obedient.

All I remember him saying was: “I have finally embraced the infection”

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Technology, in standard modern fashion, has advanced exponentially since 2012. Naturally, computer processing power is one of the groundbreaking innovations. Computers in 2035 are capable of near instantaneous transport of massive amounts of data: the copy and transmission of whole petabits of information is possible in mere nanoseconds. This intense processing power also comes in useful for actual calculation capabilities of machines; while sentient A.I is still a long way off being possible, cybernetic constructs have achieved a whole new level of kinetic realism and response to the environment.
Previously unsolvable mathematical and theoretical problems have become solvable, too, thanks to the increasing power of microchips, meaning the quality of education and lifestyle has sharply increased over the last 20 years, introducing regenerative medicine, self cauterisation and basic medicinal nanobots.

Weapons and defence technology has also benefited greatly over time. While older models of standard issue rifles still exist, and are still used widely, especially by the infection survivors, Gauss weaponry is becoming widely used in the mega city complexes and by infected soldiers. Gauss weapons fire solid slugs of metal at supersonic speeds using miniaturised electromagnetic rails. Most hand held gauss weapons can only be fired semi automatically, as the automatic re-chambering of a machine gun does not co-ordinate well with the Gauss design.
Heavier emplacements can use a rotating barrel to fire Gauss pellets at a continuous and regular rate of fire that can tear up even the hardiest of emplacements.
Energy weaponry is a field that is new to modern science, and such equipment is extremely rare, unstable and dangerous. Almost all examples work by concentrating either light waves or sound waves to incinerate or pulverise targets from afar. The most powerful of such weapons have been known the reduce buildings to rubble or ash from only seconds of continuous fire.
Personal protection has advanced too: new composite materials can be built by using nanobot assemblers to position material fibres in a way that was impossible before, allowing for extremely lightweight and flexible body armour that can absorb punishment far more efficiently than standard Kevlar.

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Name:
Appearance / Physique: (Include pictures if you wish)
Age:
Personality:
Equipment: (If you are unsure about what is allowed, do ask. But I trust your judgement )
Pre-Infection Occupation:
Place of Origin:
Background:

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1. No Godmodding or Meta-gaming.
2. No power playing.
3. No auto-hits.
4. Actually... just nothing of the sort. You know the drill by now.
5. Be respectful.
6. Romance is allowed, even sex to an extent, but please for the love of god keep it tasteful, realistic and if you can help it, fairly clean.
7. Play like a logical, mature person who is here to have fun. Abuse that and I shall end you
8. Place Bannana Cream Cake into your CS so I know you actually read these rules

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Silux - Dr. Alex Joel

custoscustodum - The Professor

Noxious - Marie Bella Lawson

JonathanTrick - Michael Risk

CaptainQ - Valken Cyros Diedricht

Hellis - Nathaniell Lancaster

[Noxious]

Concerning origin, do you plan on making us all from one country? Is travel an option? When the infection hit would we all need to have been in a similar place to have found one another?

[Silux]

The likely course of action would be to agree on a location for characters to have convened at by chance just prior to the RPs opening.

I have no preference where this would be, so feel free to suggest.

[Noxious]

oooh. Argentina. They're always the hardest place for me to get when I play Pandemic. But I really have no problem playing anywhere. A place where people vacation could be a good place to start because it would give us all a reason to be there. So, not Oklahoma. (Oklahoma sucks, if we choose oklahoma I will immediately make my character 15 and pregnant.)

[Silux]

Haha, nice and specific, just how I like it

We will wait to see what others say, though. Chances are we will start in a converted city or one of the new mega-cities, so choosing an actual geographical location instead of a current day city would be logical.

However, i'm not sure a holiday resort would be on the agenda list for our characters, bearing in mind the regime has been in control for 15-20 years, our characters are more focused on staying clean, than having a quick vacation

[Noxious]

ahhhh...the timeline of infection being 15-20 years makes holiday out for sure.

[Silux]

Maybe on weekends.

Our heroes need a place to unwind eventually

[JonathanTrick]

'Like a piece of living shit', that made me smile more than I should have. XD

As for the mind and motive of the worms, I'm just reading up a little on wikipedia, but I'm going to add a bit of crazy speculation. You said pretty much in your post that the humans that are infected have an incredible level of co-operative thinking. Like the victim who was infected in your post, he woke up to say 'I have finally embraced the infection'.

There has to be a way in which these worms themselves communicate among themselves. Before I start speculating about unexplained psychic abilities, I thought that one good explanation could be through pheromones. You mentioned also in your post that these worms manipulate neurotransmitters in the human. Perhaps this could hint at a level of ability to manipulate other kinds of chemicals as well. I was thinking one way communication between them could occur is through the secretion of odor-less pheromones into the air, much like perhaps bee colonies (and certain plants) work. This enables them to tell each other about their status. One point of speculation I thought about for amusement is that these worms actually share their sensory information through this chemical secretion.

To that end, for motive I actually had an idea that once the infection reaches a certain stage they develop a kind of 'hive mind' in which the entire species is interconnected, sort of like they all have a shared sense of autonomy. How this could work, I thought that the individual parasites have their own decision making power, but they get instinctual drives from the hive mind as a result of what they sense from the pheromones. Let's say, an Infected human discovers a non-infected human. Perhaps they could secrete a chemical signal to this hive mind that alerts all other Infected nearby. Now, each one wants to go attack the uninfected human but can make their own decision as to how to do it. This could be like, they're 'agents' being assigned 'missions' by the hive mind.

So as for their motive and mind, they could all share a sense of interconnectivity but at the same time have autonomous decision making.

Sorry if any of this seemed silly, I was just thinking out loud with my imagination. :P
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Bannana Cream Cake!

Name: Michael Risk

Appearance / Physique:

Michael Risk is a giant of a man. He stands at 6 foot 5 inches, with a wide build, appears strong and naturally muscular, whilst at the same time very intelligent and calculating. Tan skin, brown hair of short-to-medium length. Risk prefers to wear long black coats over casual functional wear such as jeans and t-shirt, and prefers loose-fitting clothes in general.



Age: 26

Personality:
Quiet and reserved, thoughtful, intelligent and articulate. Strong moral code and sense of right and wrong, and a strong will to act on this. Not afraid to use violence. Above all, however, he is a survivor.

Equipment: (If you are unsure about what is allowed, do ask. But I trust your judgement )

Pre-Infection Occupation: Child (he was six years old, given the regime has been in for 20 years)

Place of Origin: Would have been born in The Old World, before the infection. Moved into one of the mega-cities, once they were built, had a family who rejected the parasite and went into hiding with them.

Background: His family were finally found by the parasite when he turned eighteen, after he had an argument and stormed out of the house in which they were hiding. While he was out, the parasites found his home and turned his parents. When he came back, they were gone, having been taken away, but he never found out what happened to them. He still had his survival instincts however, and has managed to stay in hiding from the Infection ever since, surviving by keeping his head down, which is difficult when you're such a big guy.

[Noxious]

I would say that for the sake of the roleplay not having all uneducated or feral children we could say that the infection struck about 15-20 years ago, but had not taken over the world to the extent that it disallowed education to the non-infected until 5-8 years ago?

[Silux]

First off, that CS is nice. Once we have a chat about equipment (if you need to talk to me about it), it is accepted.

Now - let us consider the inetr-individual communication: The parasite and it's host are both beneficial to each other, in that each one receives and makes use of the other's cognitive capacity. What this means is that the parasite can effectively learn and be aware of it's surrounding simple by virtue of being attached to the brain of the host. This works in favour of the parasite, mostly, as the parasites will be able to communicate with each other by manipulation of the hosts who who converse in the normal manner.
However, I do like where you are going with a pheremone / neurotransmitter based 'hive mind', though I would hesitate to label it as such. I like the idea, and it would probably work on the idea that the host is modified to 'sweat' out various pheremones and chemicals which gain the attention of other pheremone sensitive beins (i.e, other hosts). Naturally the connection and levels would grow stronger in larger groups, meaning that the hosts mental capacity and precognition would be increased in number due to a shared connectivity of mental capacity.


@Noxious: That would be reasonable. The parasite could have first been discovered 20 years prior, but global hold only have existed for a few. let me make some changes to the OP.