Greetings.
Who am I?
That matters not. You can call me Arthos.
What does matter, is who are you?
You are an individual who spends his or her time on a website dedicated towards writing stories and acting them out through a social medium. You call it 'roleplaying'. You are used to creating and discarding characters on a whim. Certainly, you may get attached at one point or another, you may know your creation so intimately that they may very well be real, you may know the creations of your fellows so well that you could claim them to be your own friends, and you may have even cried during their deaths. But you always did so under the impression that these people didn't exist - that they were merely characters in a play. Their death, while meaningful, truly did not mean anything except for a story.
This intrigues me, so allow me to pose you a question:
What if they weren't?
What if you were controlling a living, breathing person? If every word you type dictated an action - every detail, from the most blatant to the most subtle, translating directly to your puppet.
If this person was hurt, you got them hurt. If this person died, you let them die. If this person loved, you guided them to it. If they lost, they will suffer from it, because you were not strong enough.
I have, at my disposal, a device - many, actually, but for the purposes of my Social Experiment, I shall hand out... Oh... Seven. One for myself, and six for you. Not six each, six period. These devices allow you to control the person of your choosing, exactly as I described as above. Think of it as a video game - with your keyboard as your controller. Every word you type, a real, living person does.
So, if you typed 'Sidd stabbed Mike', Sidd would take his knife and stab Mike. If you typed 'Sid stabbed Mike in the stomach, the thigh, and then the rib-cage', congratulations - you just made Sidd kill a man, and it will be described what happens as the light leaves that man's eyes, and his blood leaves his body. Your detail dictates accuracy.
'Sidd, livid that Mike had said such insulting words, saw, in order, red, and his knife. Allowing anger to once again take control of his drug-addled mind, Sidd ripped the knife out of his pocket - not even feeling the nice gash he gave himself from such an improper draw - and leapt onto Mike, slamming his blade into his stomach, his chest, his thigh, over and over, soon literally seeing red as Mike's warm red blood covered the assailant from head to toe. Mike was too exhausted from his previous battle to put up any fight, and he trusted Sidd, meaning he truly did not see the attack coming, and any attempt to resist was too little, too late, as soon his body was too starved of its lifeblood to fight back. The last thing he saw before death took him was the anger in Sidd's eyes, and the glint of a blood-covered knife.'
And that, dear friends, is how this experiment will work. You will control the characters you volunteer, and their every action - and every repurcussion - will be because of your decision to dictate.
Now, obviously, it is running through your mind right now - technology as I have described doesn't exist. He is lying. He wants to tell a story and he wants to make it stand out.
I won't fault you for thinking this, but as you make your decision, think on this as well - Would you be willing to stake someone's life on that conclusion?
I present to you, A Social Experiment.
Earth, present day, a distant dimension.
There exists, in the human genetic structure, 'Junk DNA'. This is DNA that appears to have no purpose. In the human body, a vast amount of our DNA is noncoding 'junk' DNA. Within this landfill of junk DNA lies two 'golden genes' which only ever activate, and begin coding, cease being junk, if exposed to a certain type of radiation that does not occur naturally on planet Earth.
Until today.
From reports from the Voyager probe, NASA's scientists have discovered a new type of radiation that, astonishingly, can be reproduced in lab conditions. Months, years of studying went in to learning what this radiation was and what it did, but years of inconclusive results, and a lab-explosion that leveled three buildings, led to the project being scrapped. What NASA didn't know was that the explosion that sealed the experiment's fate saturated the Earth's biosphere with this radiation. A very, very minute amount, but enough to have effects on certain, 'lucky' people.
While 'Voyager' radiation is not harmful to human beings, it does activate two junk genes hidden in their genetic code, and this activation is 'where the magic happens'.
The first gene acts as a mental stimulant. It allows humans to perceive, process, understand, and retain information at astonishing rates, and even allows them foresight abilities. This gene, like its twin, must be consciously activated for its effects to be seen, and is most notable by its prominent alteration of the eyes - they turn a very full silver and cease to reflect light, and as such it has been called the 'Silver' gene. Its mental stimulant abilities could allow a child to read a library in days, and learn and retain everything he skimmed over. One such child went from a normal toddler to a boy with a college education in months, by combining his foresight abilities with a search for knowledge. The Silver Gene's foresight abilities are largely a mystery, but they seem to allow the individual to see all currently possible futures in one bright flash, up to an undefinable limit. The seer retains and understands all knowledge, and has been shown to be %100 accurate.
On the other end of the spectrum, is the 'Golden' gene. Whereas Silver is a mental stimulant, Gold is a physical boost. It gives human beings inhuman amounts of strength, increases their natural healing abilities and their reflexes. The first known Gold Gene user was able to crush tank armor in her bare hands, at the age of seventeen. The limits of its healing abilities seem to be the brain - if the brain was destroyed or rendered dead in any way, the healing would cease to function and the person would therefor die. This doesn't mean that Golds are easy to shoot dead, however, as a natural stemming from the Gold gene is an increased skeletal durability, thus, drowning and suffocation seem to be the only true ways to put down a Gold. Like the Silver gene, the Gold gene must be activated consciously, and is characterized by a golden shade in the eyes, and while inactive, the person is as mortal as anyone else.
No person is able to leave these genes active indefinitely, as each has its own related weaknesses. The Silver gene, for instance, burns through their energy at a rapid rate, and only continues increasing its consumption as it is used longer. The Gold gene, however, is more stable in its energy consumption, but upon deactivation, all of the pain it overrides is felt by its user immediately, at once, with nothing held back. Both genes gain energy from consumed food, meaning a common characteristic of Users is a disproportionately large appetite.
The Company was formed a decade after Users began appearing in the world, with the sole goal of rounding them up, studying them, and understanding them. Obviously this has proved difficult for a multitude of reasons, but they have proven resourceful in their own, human ways, and as such it is usually only a matter of time before a User is found and captured, dead or alive. Many Users believe that the Company has a Silver of their own, as it is the only possible explanation of how they are so capable of finding them, without fail.
The Company has spent three quarters of its budget keeping itself and Users a secret from the international public, and given how few Users even exist in the first place - one User for every one million people on earth - it isn't hard to begin with.
This is where You come in.
You are a User, you have recently discovered your powers and, understandably, fled your life in fear, either of government intervention or the reaction of your loved ones. It is your duty to survive until you can either remove your abilities and return to your old life, master them and hide them, or learn just what they are, and what you should do with them, allthewhile dodging - or perhaps even joining - the Company.
Chaos or order, freedom or tyranny, good or evil. It is said that with great power comes great responsibility, and the powers you have make you a god amongst men. Will you rule them, or let them rule you?
Should enough interest be generated, I shall activate my devices and begin the selection process... Or, to put it in better terms, draw up character sheets and allow you to choose. My only condition being an example of your work. After all, I wouldn't want to put the potential fate of the world in the hands of the inept, now would I?
Just remember: This isn't just some sci-fi/fantasy roleplay. You are living out actual events, through the very people that allowed them to come to pass. Every decision you dictate is the one they shall make. You are controlling true people, with hopes and dreams, loves and hates. Think carefully on the gravity of your decision - should you volunteer, and should you be accepted, you will be in charge of another human being, and everything dictate will be done by them.
Everything they do, will be on you. From the most selfless act, to the most heinous crime. It is all because you made them.
For now, I shall be in charge, but once I deem the story worthy to begin and be told, I shall leave it in the hands of a man I trust to oversee things.
Toodeloo,
-Arthos
