Morning breaks in The City… Not so much a break as a slow tear in the night's hold, the sun like a wet yellow marble pushing through tissue paper in an overcast sky. The bleak, uncomfortable angles of various half-used skyscrapers line the horizon like an orthodontist's night mare. The City wakes up.
A pall has fallen over the citizens of The City. There is a quiet dread on their doorsteps. Somewhere in the night, or perhaps in an accumulation of a lifetime of nights, the citizens had lost something. Life had become a flat, two-dimensional representation of respiration, punctuated by trips to the coffee machine. Most of the citizens had a distant memory of when The City was young, before the bright colors in the streets faded and chipped to become miasmic hieroglyphs.
It was almost time. The Spider opened its six eyes and looked over The City as the morning commute began. The ground had been set over an eternity of apathy and escapism, and would soon yield its fertile fruits. Tomorrow… Yes, tomorrow The Spider would cast its web over the fractured landscape of The City and begin its feast. It could sense the coming of The Machine™. It could feel the inexorable power. The inevitability.
Somewhere in the monotony, a mind awoke. A flash of insight, a playful grin, and a plan. A way to get back to the before, and a way forward into something new. Something bad was approaching, but it was important to know that it could be stopped. It was time to go out there, and make a difference. It was time to tell the others.
The Citizens held a town hall meeting. In their hearts, they knew that something in The City meant them harm, but they didn't know what to do about it. How do you deal with a formless, nameless, intangible threat? Eventually, it was agreed that the only thing that could be done was to find out who is most responsible for the heavy, morose weight that has befallen The City.
_________________________________________________ _____________________________________
Round 1 has begun. Every player must make one post before a vote can be held. The soonest the next round will begin is in 24 hours.
