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shegoestowar) wrote2022-08-08 01:50 pm
shegoestowar) wrote2022-08-08 01:50 pm
General Info
Dezba hails from 2599 in a cyberpunk, dystopian United States. It's been a dictatorship for as long as anyone can remember and those who claim to know better are imprisoned in work camps for the duration of their lives, their books and materials and data deleted and purged. No one knows how the US became that way, all of the history materials that can be accessed have been updated to make it sound as though this was the way the United States was ever since its inception.
The technology level is extremely high for the wealthy and elites, ranging from being able to delete negative information about them from the USnet (the original internet being banned) to having clones bred for them so that they can harvest organs and live longer. While things such as androids exist for menial tasks, the wealthy seem to get a real kick out of hiring someone poor, paying them nearly nothing, then patting themselves on the back for having giving someone less fortunate a job. Even gladiator games have made a comeback, being one of the few ways someone poor can claw their way up to the top with wealth and fame.
The US is also a police state where something called the Sedition Act remains in place for everyone (who can't bribe the right people). People aren't allowed to voice disapproval of their status, try to obtain technology which shouldn't be allowed to them due to their status, or try to pass themselves off as a higher status than they actually are. The police have military-grad equipment and training and are expected to crack down brutally on any and all protests, using lethal force if they deem it necessary, which it often is. The other branches of the military were folded into the police, given that the United States has a strict policy of isolationism and information control.
Ironically, the police is one of the only ways someone of a lower status can climb a bit higher. If they join up, they get a signing bonus of $100,000 and access to schools for their children and elder care for their parents. As a result, becoming a police officer is seen as a very good option. Millions apply every year they turn eighteen and the police have the luxury of being choosy about who is and isn't accepted.
Everyone is implanted at birth with a chip on their right hand giving their name, their parents' names, where they were born, and what their parental wealth status is, later updated to their own at the age of eighteen. That chip can be updated should the person's status change. Hacking these chips and altering the data is a crime punishable by fifty years in a work camp.
Schooling doesn't really exist for the rest of the nation. They're expected to work in service, so why would they need anything more than grammar since everything else, including financial transactions, can be handled by scanning the chip. No matter how poor or desperate they are, they're still expected to keep themselves well dressed and kempt since no one wants to look at a poor person who actually "looks poor and acts poor." It's seen as uncouth at best and an outright insult at worst, one punishable by ten years in a work camp.
However, what no one knows is that the end of the world is coming. Thirteen people have been chosen by prophecy to fight to either save humanity or let it die because climate change is on the verge of passing from inconvenient to those with few resources to potentially deadly to everyone. Each person is a representative of one of the thirteen major belief systems of the world: Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Shinto, Islam, Sikhism, Confucianism, Jainism, Hinduism, Taoism, Baha'i, Indigenous American, and Atheist.
The one who holds all of the power and could tilt the balance either towards salvation or death is an American atheist named Nathan "Nate" Winters. As powerful as the twelve are and as much as they can choose which side they're on, Nate's powers completely eclipse everyone else's. If he chooses a side, that side gets a near insurmountable advantage while locking everyone into the roles they had initially chosen.
Nate doesn't believe in all of that destiny or god crap and just wants to live out a normal life as a something other than a waiter or a driver or a janitor. Nate doesn't know what he wants to be, but he knows he wants something other than what his parents had and their parents had and so on. He also knows he doesn't want to train and become a gladiator.
So far, he's been subsisting by hacking bank accounts and siphoning small amounts of wealth into his, a crime punishable by death if caught. He lives in what's left of New York City, now highly flooded and squalid considering climate change's effects on it.
Dezba is one of those chosen by prophecy. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee to extremely poor parents (both sides having some Indigenous blood around their great- and grandparents generations, mostly Cherokee) who couldn't afford her (as abortion is banned unless one is wealthy enough to pay a judge off, punishment being death to the unfortunately woman who can't pay someone off after the birth of the child), so they gave her up for adoption, an unlikely fate given that her family could trace their lines all the way back to the 22nd century and were poor the entire time. The wealthy elites wouldn't want such a poorly (literally and figuratively) bred child, one without a hint of wealth or policing in her background.
And was instantly adopted by Ajei Walters, a Navajo medicine woman and shaman whose mother foresaw that Dezba would be their champion. She immediately hacked Dezba's chip and erased her birthname and family, replacing the given name with Dezba and the last name Mulcahy, her mother's maiden last name in an attempt to misdirect the authorities. Ajei is part of a fledgling resistance movement that uses guerilla warfare and if deemed necessary, terrorist tactics against the wealthy elite.
She also travelled America, taking Dezba with her, visiting what was left of Indigenous tribes, trying (and often failing) to get Dezba trained in their mysticism. Despite Dezba's Cherokee ancestry and who Dezba was to become, many were still resistant to teach this white-passing girl their secrets, feeling (understandably so) that someone with more Indigenous blood should have been chosen by prophecy. As a result, Dezba is incredibly uncomfortable in her own skin and apologizes more than strictly necessary, failing to meet people's eyes most of the time.
In desperation, Ajei reached out for the darkest medicine used by the Navajo people: skinwalking. Dezba was changed so that she can transform into something like a were-mountain lion, complete with heightened reflexes, vision, and hearing, retractable claws, sharpened teeth, and eyes that looked more cat-like than human. She can transform at will, but chooses to look fully human most of the time.
The point in canon Dezba would be taken from would be right after Ajei smuggled Dezba into New York City without alerting anyone by scanning her chip. Unfortunately, the absence of something can be just as glaringly obvious as a false something, so Ajei was captured by the police and presumably killed.
Dezba's chip was further altered by a compatriot of Ajei's named Saul to make her eighteen. He also arranged a studio apartment for her to live in and a job for her as a coat check girl in an S&M club in one of the few well-maintained areas in New York, the Gramercy Park Region.
She has crossed paths with Nate, long enough for Dezba to realize who he is and what his role is as well as get a schoolgirl crush on him. She's unaware that Nate isn't attracted to females and female-presenting individuals and he hasn't told her yet.
The remaining eleven have yet to make it to New York as they're all having to travel to the city using false pretenses to get inside, or in some cases travel from overseas to get there.
The technology level is extremely high for the wealthy and elites, ranging from being able to delete negative information about them from the USnet (the original internet being banned) to having clones bred for them so that they can harvest organs and live longer. While things such as androids exist for menial tasks, the wealthy seem to get a real kick out of hiring someone poor, paying them nearly nothing, then patting themselves on the back for having giving someone less fortunate a job. Even gladiator games have made a comeback, being one of the few ways someone poor can claw their way up to the top with wealth and fame.
The US is also a police state where something called the Sedition Act remains in place for everyone (who can't bribe the right people). People aren't allowed to voice disapproval of their status, try to obtain technology which shouldn't be allowed to them due to their status, or try to pass themselves off as a higher status than they actually are. The police have military-grad equipment and training and are expected to crack down brutally on any and all protests, using lethal force if they deem it necessary, which it often is. The other branches of the military were folded into the police, given that the United States has a strict policy of isolationism and information control.
Ironically, the police is one of the only ways someone of a lower status can climb a bit higher. If they join up, they get a signing bonus of $100,000 and access to schools for their children and elder care for their parents. As a result, becoming a police officer is seen as a very good option. Millions apply every year they turn eighteen and the police have the luxury of being choosy about who is and isn't accepted.
Everyone is implanted at birth with a chip on their right hand giving their name, their parents' names, where they were born, and what their parental wealth status is, later updated to their own at the age of eighteen. That chip can be updated should the person's status change. Hacking these chips and altering the data is a crime punishable by fifty years in a work camp.
Schooling doesn't really exist for the rest of the nation. They're expected to work in service, so why would they need anything more than grammar since everything else, including financial transactions, can be handled by scanning the chip. No matter how poor or desperate they are, they're still expected to keep themselves well dressed and kempt since no one wants to look at a poor person who actually "looks poor and acts poor." It's seen as uncouth at best and an outright insult at worst, one punishable by ten years in a work camp.
However, what no one knows is that the end of the world is coming. Thirteen people have been chosen by prophecy to fight to either save humanity or let it die because climate change is on the verge of passing from inconvenient to those with few resources to potentially deadly to everyone. Each person is a representative of one of the thirteen major belief systems of the world: Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Shinto, Islam, Sikhism, Confucianism, Jainism, Hinduism, Taoism, Baha'i, Indigenous American, and Atheist.
The one who holds all of the power and could tilt the balance either towards salvation or death is an American atheist named Nathan "Nate" Winters. As powerful as the twelve are and as much as they can choose which side they're on, Nate's powers completely eclipse everyone else's. If he chooses a side, that side gets a near insurmountable advantage while locking everyone into the roles they had initially chosen.
Nate doesn't believe in all of that destiny or god crap and just wants to live out a normal life as a something other than a waiter or a driver or a janitor. Nate doesn't know what he wants to be, but he knows he wants something other than what his parents had and their parents had and so on. He also knows he doesn't want to train and become a gladiator.
So far, he's been subsisting by hacking bank accounts and siphoning small amounts of wealth into his, a crime punishable by death if caught. He lives in what's left of New York City, now highly flooded and squalid considering climate change's effects on it.
Dezba is one of those chosen by prophecy. She was born in Nashville, Tennessee to extremely poor parents (both sides having some Indigenous blood around their great- and grandparents generations, mostly Cherokee) who couldn't afford her (as abortion is banned unless one is wealthy enough to pay a judge off, punishment being death to the unfortunately woman who can't pay someone off after the birth of the child), so they gave her up for adoption, an unlikely fate given that her family could trace their lines all the way back to the 22nd century and were poor the entire time. The wealthy elites wouldn't want such a poorly (literally and figuratively) bred child, one without a hint of wealth or policing in her background.
And was instantly adopted by Ajei Walters, a Navajo medicine woman and shaman whose mother foresaw that Dezba would be their champion. She immediately hacked Dezba's chip and erased her birthname and family, replacing the given name with Dezba and the last name Mulcahy, her mother's maiden last name in an attempt to misdirect the authorities. Ajei is part of a fledgling resistance movement that uses guerilla warfare and if deemed necessary, terrorist tactics against the wealthy elite.
She also travelled America, taking Dezba with her, visiting what was left of Indigenous tribes, trying (and often failing) to get Dezba trained in their mysticism. Despite Dezba's Cherokee ancestry and who Dezba was to become, many were still resistant to teach this white-passing girl their secrets, feeling (understandably so) that someone with more Indigenous blood should have been chosen by prophecy. As a result, Dezba is incredibly uncomfortable in her own skin and apologizes more than strictly necessary, failing to meet people's eyes most of the time.
In desperation, Ajei reached out for the darkest medicine used by the Navajo people: skinwalking. Dezba was changed so that she can transform into something like a were-mountain lion, complete with heightened reflexes, vision, and hearing, retractable claws, sharpened teeth, and eyes that looked more cat-like than human. She can transform at will, but chooses to look fully human most of the time.
The point in canon Dezba would be taken from would be right after Ajei smuggled Dezba into New York City without alerting anyone by scanning her chip. Unfortunately, the absence of something can be just as glaringly obvious as a false something, so Ajei was captured by the police and presumably killed.
Dezba's chip was further altered by a compatriot of Ajei's named Saul to make her eighteen. He also arranged a studio apartment for her to live in and a job for her as a coat check girl in an S&M club in one of the few well-maintained areas in New York, the Gramercy Park Region.
She has crossed paths with Nate, long enough for Dezba to realize who he is and what his role is as well as get a schoolgirl crush on him. She's unaware that Nate isn't attracted to females and female-presenting individuals and he hasn't told her yet.
The remaining eleven have yet to make it to New York as they're all having to travel to the city using false pretenses to get inside, or in some cases travel from overseas to get there.