Post by YukiTen on Nov 19, 2012 9:20:47 GMT -7
The preface to Smell of Burning Innocence is the basic synopsis for The World of Today.
The official anniversary of the apocalypse is the 19th of August in the year of 2012. This date marks the first recorded case of what would later be called Tanner's Disease. It all started, however, with the creation of a company called Tannercorp. It is named after it's founder, one Jacob Tannerman. Tannerman was a scientist who found the magic formula of genetically engineered food. He all but solved world hunger and drastically lowered the prices of food world-wide. There were those that opposed that red T in a blue circle, but what was their argument? Tannercorp was feeding the hungry and providing healthy and cheap food to the poor.
Tannercorp was a miracle to many, it's food strong and able to grow big and luscious, more so than its natural counter-parts, even in the harshest of climates and its meat grown in labs producing more food in less space than animals could, without the cruelty that most factory farms possessed.
Then, Tannercorp met its doom. Its Board of Directors decided that vaccinations were Tannercorp's future. The vaccinations were much like its food; affordable and widespread to those who needed it most. A miracle.
Until it wasn't.
As it turned out, the way the chemicals needed to create the genetically modified food and those in the vaccinations would mix together in the bloodstream was a lethal cocktail, just waiting under the surface until the body confronts an illness.
Tanner's Disease.
Brain degeneration. That is the first step. It manifests as a desire to consume other humans. Their blood, specifically. Only human blood. There are side effects of consuming human blood to those who have Tanner's Disease, however. The eye is a very fragile organ and very closely connected to the brain. First step victims find their pupils becoming ragged stars in their torn iris's, bright lights suddenly painful. The discover they have no appetite for regular food, though blood itself is not enough to sustain them, and they find their desires stronger, the brain degeneration causing a de-evolution of sorts, the intelligent human mind becoming more animalistic and passionate. Their saliva turns to a sweet venom that those who aren't victims of Tanner's Disease find drug-like in its effect, lulling and pleasurable.
The second step lays within the resistance of the first step. The brain so desires human blood that when denied, the desire of escalates into that of human flesh. Second step victims do not have a choice to whether or not they give in. They simply do. However, the effects of consuming human flesh is dire. It causes further degeneration within the brain. Pain exists no longer for second step victims and their body starts destroying itself, organs rotting alive within their gut, boils erupting on their skin, blood trailing from their eyes like tears, their muscle atrophying and their body consuming itself, leaving them emaciated.
The slang for First and Second Stage victims of Tanner's Disease? Vampires and Zombies, naturally, though neither are among the dead.
But it has been many years since the 19th of August in the year of 2012. Technology has advanced, the rich pouring their money into creating floating cities to escape the chaos of the surface. There are still wars and remarkably human-like androids have become a reality to fight them with all of the most modern technology imbedded into their human-like bodies. Airships have replaced airplanes, small groups of people living among the clouds and the floating cities in the large, bird-like vessels.
This is the world now.
The official anniversary of the apocalypse is the 19th of August in the year of 2012. This date marks the first recorded case of what would later be called Tanner's Disease. It all started, however, with the creation of a company called Tannercorp. It is named after it's founder, one Jacob Tannerman. Tannerman was a scientist who found the magic formula of genetically engineered food. He all but solved world hunger and drastically lowered the prices of food world-wide. There were those that opposed that red T in a blue circle, but what was their argument? Tannercorp was feeding the hungry and providing healthy and cheap food to the poor.
Tannercorp was a miracle to many, it's food strong and able to grow big and luscious, more so than its natural counter-parts, even in the harshest of climates and its meat grown in labs producing more food in less space than animals could, without the cruelty that most factory farms possessed.
Then, Tannercorp met its doom. Its Board of Directors decided that vaccinations were Tannercorp's future. The vaccinations were much like its food; affordable and widespread to those who needed it most. A miracle.
Until it wasn't.
As it turned out, the way the chemicals needed to create the genetically modified food and those in the vaccinations would mix together in the bloodstream was a lethal cocktail, just waiting under the surface until the body confronts an illness.
Tanner's Disease.
Brain degeneration. That is the first step. It manifests as a desire to consume other humans. Their blood, specifically. Only human blood. There are side effects of consuming human blood to those who have Tanner's Disease, however. The eye is a very fragile organ and very closely connected to the brain. First step victims find their pupils becoming ragged stars in their torn iris's, bright lights suddenly painful. The discover they have no appetite for regular food, though blood itself is not enough to sustain them, and they find their desires stronger, the brain degeneration causing a de-evolution of sorts, the intelligent human mind becoming more animalistic and passionate. Their saliva turns to a sweet venom that those who aren't victims of Tanner's Disease find drug-like in its effect, lulling and pleasurable.
The second step lays within the resistance of the first step. The brain so desires human blood that when denied, the desire of escalates into that of human flesh. Second step victims do not have a choice to whether or not they give in. They simply do. However, the effects of consuming human flesh is dire. It causes further degeneration within the brain. Pain exists no longer for second step victims and their body starts destroying itself, organs rotting alive within their gut, boils erupting on their skin, blood trailing from their eyes like tears, their muscle atrophying and their body consuming itself, leaving them emaciated.
The slang for First and Second Stage victims of Tanner's Disease? Vampires and Zombies, naturally, though neither are among the dead.
But it has been many years since the 19th of August in the year of 2012. Technology has advanced, the rich pouring their money into creating floating cities to escape the chaos of the surface. There are still wars and remarkably human-like androids have become a reality to fight them with all of the most modern technology imbedded into their human-like bodies. Airships have replaced airplanes, small groups of people living among the clouds and the floating cities in the large, bird-like vessels.
This is the world now.
