Lets make this our place
Against my better judgement I am writing something for Newgrounds. Against my even better judgement I am doing it using usernames of people here, rather than their real names. But with hopefully good judgement I am not doing sign-ups Those who I’ve used in my story may request their removal if they so wish, or you may give me hints and tips and background on yourself if you’d like your character to be more accurate. I will try my best anyhow... Comments would be welcome, but up to you :)
I am also aware that the formatting will be rubbish. NG hates me using MS Word to type this up. So apologies if we lose paragraphs, indents and so forth.
Introduction
20X1 --> Growing competition for resources from developing countries such as India and China spark local disturbances between countries. The anti-globalization movement grows in strength as a counter-weight to the power of the brand.
20X3 --> The Los-Angeles round of global trade talks fails, just like the previous rounds. Richer countries advocate ever increasing protectionism in the face of cheap imports and mass movement of labour. In Europe mass immigration from Africa threatens social cohesion in France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
20X4 --> The People’s Rupublic of China denounces a ban on Chinese investment in the United States. In the coming months the Chinese Government freely spends their trillion dollar foreign exchange reserves in an effort to weaken the Dollar. Unemployment and defaults on mortgages rise across Western Countries.
20X5 --> Terrorists attack the American state of Hawaii and poison the islands’ water supply. Although death is kept to a minimum the ground water is contaminated and the President orders a general evacuation. In Europe, construction begins of a coast-wall along Italy, Corsica and other southern countries to stop illegal Immigrants landing. Mass protests are held in the streets of most European countries both pro and anti-immigration.
20X7 --> Economists predict that the American Government is close to bankruptcy for the first time in the Nations’ history. Congress debates reopening foreign trade to China. Mineral resources are found in the Indian administered area of Kashmir increasing tensions with the nuclear armed Pakistan. Anti-Globalization has reach its Zenith when the local HQ of McDonalds’ in France is destroyed.
20X9 to 20W5 --> The world slowly splits even further to the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. Industrialised countries bear the brunt of this realignment as costs of raw materials increase exponentially in the face of Chinese and Indian consumption.
20W6 --> The Government in Iraq collapses again as all remaining foreign troops leave the country. Hundreds of thousands are killed and the troubles spread to Iran and across the Middle East.
Focus on the United States
20W9 --> The United States Government implements the ‘No One Left Behind’ policy for its citizens. The Government mandates work and life-progression to the majority of its citizens in an effort to increase productivity and keep the Union intact. Those who refuse to work at the job assigned by their local State are stripped of their citizenship. The Supreme Court defers ruling on the issue.
20Y1 --> Protests against the program are suppressed by the police and army whenever they occur. However the majority of citizens mostly support the policy as tangible benefits can be seen to their standard of living. Politicians liken the program to ‘All for One and One for the State’
20Y3 --> The program is generally successful. From a school-age citizens are assigned a future career path and receive the education and skills needed to perform that task. The Government central Human Capital department co-ordinates and controls the allocation of human resources effectively enough to reduce inflation to 12.5% per annum.
Children can be expect to sit tests at the age of 7 from which the majority of their working life will be mapped out for them. Exceptions exist for those with money…
20Y4 --> This year.
Chapter 1
‘I am part of the generation that wants the right to choose’. These were the words that Jade had written in stark script across the cover of her history text-book. It was past midnight and her house was still and dark, her family asleep. She was eighteen and shortly was meant to pass-out from her state College and take up a job for the State’s television network as a news-researcher. In a way then she was lucky as she had not been assigned to manual labour for the rest of her life.
Jade had been just fourteen years old when the program had been brought in. The Government hadn’t really known what to do with those of her generation, they were caught in the years between those who had had the freedom to choose their life and those whose choices were scripted for them by Human Capital. During the introductory years of the program the rules, regulations and laws had tightened around her from all sides. Her friends moved state at the behest of Human Capital, her school hours changed and the chance to go to any University was denied to her on the basis of her past academic achievements as the Government had shut down all but the Elite Universities.
If it was hard for her, it was harder for her parents. They had lived through many years of trouble in the world such as rising prices, lower standards of living and the threat of terrorism and war. Although Jade was their daughter, they had been worn down over the last five years by arguments with her over her future and what SHE wanted to do, rather than what she had been assigned to do. In a way their spirits had been somewhat broken with the foreknowledge that once they retired at seventy it was likely that they would lose their home and everything else they had worked for. The State needed houses for those who could work, it had retirement homes out of the city limits for those who couldn’t.
In the still of night then Jade put the book by her front-door and with her backpack stuffed with what possessions she thought she would need she quickly took her first fully-rebellious steps into the outside world. She was going to join the Newgrounds fellowship.
Newgrounds had been a popular website many years ago. But since the program had started new content for the website had slowed to a trickle. Human Capital didn’t require flash artists very much… The website had had a popular forum section where people were able to chat about most things. Before the site shut in 20Y3 due to the disappearance of the site administrators a group of active users had often argued about the state of the world, the Program and what they could do about it. They’d swapped contact details and made promises that they would be there in times of need for each other.
In her pocket Jade had the address of three people who might be able to help her. People who had rallied on Newgrounds and MSN against the Governments’ creeping control of life. If only they still believed in the cause, Jade knew that they could help her, she remembered each of them clearly from their online personality to those she had got to know over the phone or MSN… Last night she had made a choice, she would find David first, aka Zengaijin… and then soon she knew she’d have to find a way to get her lover to her… Fyndir.
A few days later in the UK
“Damn, I still can’t get through…” Fyndir dropped the phone back on its cradle. “There’s just some crap about a reassignment again, automated bullshit”..
“How often do they get reassigned?”, the other speaker was quite well built with a Scottish accent.
“I don’t know, normally she’s managed to give me a warning! It’s only happened twice since we’ve known each other…”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s okay… She loves you, you know…”
“It’s still bullshit…”
“This whole world is bullshit… You know that..” Mick snapped his pencil in half and pulled out the lead inside.
“It’s time we did something about that…”
end chapter 1
