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pyrephoxThe year is 2016, and the Earth is under foreign occupation.
The invaders came without warning, seven years ago, and they conquered the globe not with a bang, but a whimper. Everywhere, adults simply closed their eyes and fell into a blissful sleep from which none could be awakened. Some lasted longer, fighting the Bliss until exhaustion took them at last, but within a week, almost everyone who was eighteen or older (and in some cases, younger) had Blissed Out, leaving only the children behind.
Many children, especially babies and infants, died in those first months, screaming themselves into starvation next to mothers and fathers who dreamed peacefully on. Other, older, kids killed themselves or each other, just trying to keep the world's machines running. Wildfires, started by a malfunctioning powerplant, ravaged most of California, allowed to burn without opposition for the first time in a long while. Floods became prevalent, with no one to adjust dam outflows or river locks...in most cases, no one to even /know/ that such things needed to be done.
And then, the invaders came. Dreams were filled with alien music and the sensations of a deep and all-encircling sea, and translucent, gel-like behemoths swam through the skies and sea alike. Where they passed, their song called to the refugees, and those who followed the song fell into Bliss, no matter their ages.
Two years ago, one small gang of children, led by a woman who'd managed to keep the Bliss at bay through drugs, work, and sheer dumb luck, managed to bring down one of the alien drones. From its body/chassis/mind, she was able to create ANIMa, a weapon to fight the aliens, to delve into the other world they inhabited and bring them to bay. With feverish hope, she threw anyone she could manage into ANIMa training...at first, getting only madmen and corpses back. Trial and error revealed the need for an anchor to hold the pilot to the real world, and give them a way 'home'. Now, there exists a small squadron of fighters: twelve children and the adult who's willing to kill them if it'll save the world.
Their base encompasses twin stadiums in Seattle, surrounded by flood waters that have yet to recede. Suze calls them Alpha and Beta, but they probably have other names among the children. Alpha Base has barracks, training rooms, classrooms, supplies, and an armory, and is the heart of day-to-day operations. Beta Base is...well. That's a good question, because Suze doesn't let anyone inside. She says that it's more supplies, but if so, no one's every been sent to get anything from there, no matter what they get low on.
The surrounding territory is ruled by gangs of children, who constantly squabble amongst themselves for territory and supplies. Food isn't really in short supply: a remarkable number of window and mini gardens have been preserved, and empty lots are usually turned into a gang's place of pride. Although there are easily two dozen gangs roaming the Seattle streets, two of the most notable and powerful are the Brats and the Raths.
The Brats (short for Navy Brats), are the children of the sailors stationed at Bremerton Naval Base. When the Bliss came down, the kids locked themselves inside, refusing entrance to anyone who didn't have proper military ID. They expected to be rescued shortly, convinced that no matter /what/ was going on, the government would need the military base, and thus come back and wake their parents up. It never happened, and after a while, the kids took matters into their own hands. You still can't get on Bremerton unless you have a military ID (although the kids have made 'updates' to the ones they hand out to new recruits), and joining the Brats means going through a Basic Training regime dreamed up by angry, scared thirteen year olds. 'Real' Brats have senior status, and the base is run by Captain Smith (his parents used to call him 'Greggy'). All the adults are stacked up in some of the emptied supply warehouses, and one of the few things that the Brats do for free is store bodies: if a kid Blisses out, or someone finds an adult, they can go to Bremerton and have them put somewhere their throats won't get slit. The Brats do a brisk trade with other gangs: they're generous with weapons, but downright stingy with ammo. There are rumors that they're trying to get the submarine base functional again, but at the moment, no one among the kids has the know-how to do anything more than accidentally sink one (which has happened).
The Raths are what the rest of Seattle calls the Meek. When the Bliss came down, Rev. Daniel Pierce of Mars Hill Church knew what had happened. Okay, so the Rapture was actually a /spiritual/ rapture rather than a bodily one, but he knew that he had been left behind to gather up the lost children and teach them the Way and the Hope in the times of the Tribulation. In the first months after the Bliss, he offered shelter, comfort, and a potent cocktail of apocalyptic spirituality to the children of his congregation. As the time went on, he eventually began offering the little girls of his flock something else. About two and a half years after the Bliss, his newest 'bride' when to her marriage bed with a switchblade. She claimed to be baptized in the blood of the holy, and reborn as the Lamb, a wild-eyed child prophet who gave her kids new marching orders. The Meek stalked the streets, finding the Blissed and bringing them back to help their flock also become Baptized in the Blood. The Lamb is now 16 years old, and has instituted a canon of militant prayer, and a belief that the Blissed are dead, in every way that matters, and that cutting the throat and burning the body simply helps them reach Heaven at last. The Raths don't trade much, and they're constantly looking for ways to get into Bremerton Base: the preserved Bliss victims are a hideous sacrilege to their faith. Other kids, they mostly ignore, unless the kid shows interest in joining them. However, they're openly hostile to the ANIMa project, both because it's led by an adult, and because they believe that the project is tampering with God's Will.
The invaders came without warning, seven years ago, and they conquered the globe not with a bang, but a whimper. Everywhere, adults simply closed their eyes and fell into a blissful sleep from which none could be awakened. Some lasted longer, fighting the Bliss until exhaustion took them at last, but within a week, almost everyone who was eighteen or older (and in some cases, younger) had Blissed Out, leaving only the children behind.
Many children, especially babies and infants, died in those first months, screaming themselves into starvation next to mothers and fathers who dreamed peacefully on. Other, older, kids killed themselves or each other, just trying to keep the world's machines running. Wildfires, started by a malfunctioning powerplant, ravaged most of California, allowed to burn without opposition for the first time in a long while. Floods became prevalent, with no one to adjust dam outflows or river locks...in most cases, no one to even /know/ that such things needed to be done.
And then, the invaders came. Dreams were filled with alien music and the sensations of a deep and all-encircling sea, and translucent, gel-like behemoths swam through the skies and sea alike. Where they passed, their song called to the refugees, and those who followed the song fell into Bliss, no matter their ages.
Two years ago, one small gang of children, led by a woman who'd managed to keep the Bliss at bay through drugs, work, and sheer dumb luck, managed to bring down one of the alien drones. From its body/chassis/mind, she was able to create ANIMa, a weapon to fight the aliens, to delve into the other world they inhabited and bring them to bay. With feverish hope, she threw anyone she could manage into ANIMa training...at first, getting only madmen and corpses back. Trial and error revealed the need for an anchor to hold the pilot to the real world, and give them a way 'home'. Now, there exists a small squadron of fighters: twelve children and the adult who's willing to kill them if it'll save the world.
Their base encompasses twin stadiums in Seattle, surrounded by flood waters that have yet to recede. Suze calls them Alpha and Beta, but they probably have other names among the children. Alpha Base has barracks, training rooms, classrooms, supplies, and an armory, and is the heart of day-to-day operations. Beta Base is...well. That's a good question, because Suze doesn't let anyone inside. She says that it's more supplies, but if so, no one's every been sent to get anything from there, no matter what they get low on.
The surrounding territory is ruled by gangs of children, who constantly squabble amongst themselves for territory and supplies. Food isn't really in short supply: a remarkable number of window and mini gardens have been preserved, and empty lots are usually turned into a gang's place of pride. Although there are easily two dozen gangs roaming the Seattle streets, two of the most notable and powerful are the Brats and the Raths.
The Brats (short for Navy Brats), are the children of the sailors stationed at Bremerton Naval Base. When the Bliss came down, the kids locked themselves inside, refusing entrance to anyone who didn't have proper military ID. They expected to be rescued shortly, convinced that no matter /what/ was going on, the government would need the military base, and thus come back and wake their parents up. It never happened, and after a while, the kids took matters into their own hands. You still can't get on Bremerton unless you have a military ID (although the kids have made 'updates' to the ones they hand out to new recruits), and joining the Brats means going through a Basic Training regime dreamed up by angry, scared thirteen year olds. 'Real' Brats have senior status, and the base is run by Captain Smith (his parents used to call him 'Greggy'). All the adults are stacked up in some of the emptied supply warehouses, and one of the few things that the Brats do for free is store bodies: if a kid Blisses out, or someone finds an adult, they can go to Bremerton and have them put somewhere their throats won't get slit. The Brats do a brisk trade with other gangs: they're generous with weapons, but downright stingy with ammo. There are rumors that they're trying to get the submarine base functional again, but at the moment, no one among the kids has the know-how to do anything more than accidentally sink one (which has happened).
The Raths are what the rest of Seattle calls the Meek. When the Bliss came down, Rev. Daniel Pierce of Mars Hill Church knew what had happened. Okay, so the Rapture was actually a /spiritual/ rapture rather than a bodily one, but he knew that he had been left behind to gather up the lost children and teach them the Way and the Hope in the times of the Tribulation. In the first months after the Bliss, he offered shelter, comfort, and a potent cocktail of apocalyptic spirituality to the children of his congregation. As the time went on, he eventually began offering the little girls of his flock something else. About two and a half years after the Bliss, his newest 'bride' when to her marriage bed with a switchblade. She claimed to be baptized in the blood of the holy, and reborn as the Lamb, a wild-eyed child prophet who gave her kids new marching orders. The Meek stalked the streets, finding the Blissed and bringing them back to help their flock also become Baptized in the Blood. The Lamb is now 16 years old, and has instituted a canon of militant prayer, and a belief that the Blissed are dead, in every way that matters, and that cutting the throat and burning the body simply helps them reach Heaven at last. The Raths don't trade much, and they're constantly looking for ways to get into Bremerton Base: the preserved Bliss victims are a hideous sacrilege to their faith. Other kids, they mostly ignore, unless the kid shows interest in joining them. However, they're openly hostile to the ANIMa project, both because it's led by an adult, and because they believe that the project is tampering with God's Will.