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Freezing Shadows, Chapter 1
🕑 Added 2024-11-02 22:11:45 +0000 UTC
Chapter 1: Start of Service
The doctor smiled that professional smile at me. I’d been around them enough to know when they were actually happy to see me, or when they were just doing their job. Doc Spinelli was doing her job. Saw a bit of pain in her eyes, as always. One of the nurses filled me in, back when I started with the testing. I reminded her too much of her fiancé, back before the plague hit. They were supposed to get married the next month, already had a dress and everything.
I was used to looks like that. I’d grown up with it. Anyone who was old enough to have actual memories of the Plague had a story like that. A father, brother, son, lover, friend, whatever. One day everything was normal, and then they were gone, in one of the worst ways possible.
My dad told me once that the surviving men actually had it the worst. Sure, things had changed, but society still expected the man to be the breadwinner, the protector. Now, the man was an endangered species, to be coddled and swaddled in bubble wrap so that nothing bad happened to them. And eight in ten of the survivors were sterile.
The suicide rate following the Plague finally got the US to do something about gun control, though. The optics of the few men remaining in the country eating a shotgun finally broke through the ranks of ‘over my dead body’ gun nuts. The ones that were still alive, anyways.
“All right, Mr. Greene. I know you’re eager to get back into immersion, but we have a few tests we need to run, first.”
“I know, Doc. This is the last test round of testing before we go for the full year, right?”
“That’s right,” she nodded. “As you know, the grounds for the trial is the gradual extension of immersion time, to ensure that the pod’s systems properly combat muscle atrophy, and keep you properly supplied with oxygen and nutrients for the duration. This fifth test, the six month trial, was the last ‘work up’ test. Assuming everything looks good, we’ll be going into the full year trial immediately.”
“Good. Just in time for the live service of Shadowmen to start.”
“Hmph. Well, while I can’t say as I approve of the content of that game, I do have to admit that, given all the metrics I’ve seen, it has proven to keep you and the other testers properly engaged, mentally. I would have preferred if they made it a bit more hopeful, though.”
“C’mon, Doc. You know the answer to that. Just look at what happened to Flower Garden. They tried to make a game world that was literally pure sunshine and happiness, to give people an escape from the shitty way the world is, and people practically burnt it to the ground. Sure, living in Shadowmen’s Seattle isn’t a piece of cake, but the fact that you can have some level of control over the situation that you wouldn’t in real life? That is huge to a lot of people.”
Spinelli sighed. “I know, I know. We’ve gone over this every time you log out. And I admit, I went and checked those figures you brought up, last time. The neo-skinhead and radical religious groups have seen a decline in engagement on their publicly facing platforms, because their target audience has something else to occupy them.”
“Radicalization often comes from a feeling of helplessness and being unable to control anything. Especially when someone gives you someone to blame for everything, and tells you that they’ll make things like they used to be. All sounds like music to the ear for a desperate man. Honestly, if MetaTech hadn’t reached out to me after the accident, there’s a good chance I could have fallen down that road.”
The doctor took a breath, and said, “Really? You always seemed, well, as normal as any man is, these days. But then, I remember the mental health crisis right after the Plague.”
“It may be more socially acceptable for guys to open up about their feelings, now, but that doesn’t mean it is easy. One fun thing about living in a game world, though, is that I had easy access to therapists. That, and not having to see these stumps where my legs used to be? Actually being able to walk around? Did wonders, even if it wasn’t ‘real’.”
“Well, clearly you’re not suffering from any post-immersion mental disorders, which is good. The physical scans we’ve taken of you look fine, as well. Muscle function is good, heart and lungs all normal. And records indicate that the, um, reproductive system is fully functional.”
I chuckled at that. First test period, we found out some interesting side effects that people either hadn’t noticed, or hadn’t commented on. Just like combat in game spikes the heart rate and the brain waves, and causes the pod to activate your muscles so they don’t wither away on you, apparently getting laid in the game caused all the ‘bits’ to perform, as well. Now that I thought about it, people probably hadn’t noticed because most guys didn’t need to go into a game to get laid, so it just hadn’t come up.
“The mail I got said the company had an idea on that front?”
“Ahem. Yes.” The doctor blushed softly. “Obviously, with the population imbalance as it is, women who may want to have a child don’t always have access to an unrelated male who is willing and able to make the proper contribution. So, sperm banks have become big business.”
“They want permission to ‘harvest’ every time I get lucky in the game, I take it?”
“Basically, yes. Other than the unique means of collection, it would otherwise work just like any other deposit to one of MetaTech’s sperm banks. You would get paid a percentage of the sale price, naturally, which would be deposited to the same trust you are already using for the test work.”
I had no reason to disagree. Wasn’t like I’d be doing anything else with the stuff, after all. Might as well make some money instead of just letting it go to waste. So, a quick vid conference with a corporate lawyer and a few digital signatures, and everything was set up, and I was reclining back into the pod as the lid closed.
“Link start.”
I was well used to the startup sequence by now. Blackness became multicolored lines of light that streamed past my view, before settling into the calming scenario of an aerial scene, overlooking a sprawl of a city. I knew from my time in the Beta that this was the Seattle Metroplex. Basically, what happens when Seattle eats all the smaller cities and towns around it like Redmond and shit.
Shadowmen was a cyberpunk setting that literally had the entire globe involved. Where you initially started in the game was your ‘home sprawl’ in real life. That gave a bit more familiarity to the setting than you’d normally find, and an extra level of immersion when you traveled, and had to get help finding your way around.
Technically, this was my first login, since I was transferring from the Beta servers to the live servers, so I had to go through the initial ‘worldbuilding’ screens again. Nothing deep, the average gamer didn’t have patience for that shit, but enough to give anyone a basic idea of the world, which they could then explore more in depth during character creation. I was a little upset that I didn’t get to bring my character from the Beta over, but I understood why that was the case. I had some high end gear on that bad boy, that would shred anyone just starting out.
Welcome to Shadowmen!
The year is 2070, chummer, and things have gone about as well as you might expect. Corps went and got themselves declared as people back in the early days after the big rollover from dates with a 19 to ones with a 20. Then, they went and got themselves named countries, because countries could still tell people what to do, and the corps weren’t going to let that happen to them.
Needless to say, nothing good came of that. Corps were unchecked, but had lots of money to buy lots of guns, so they used those guns to try and trim the fat on their competition in what became known as the First Corp War. It ended about like you would expect. Some winners, some losers, but the little guy getting shit on by everyone. Anyways, that’s how the Corporate Court came to be, so that corps could rule over corps, and they all rule over us while the nations gnash their teeth.
And then shit got strange.
2012 was the end of the Mayan calendar. End of one cycle, and start of the next, or something like that. No one really believed in it, not really. Not until a bunch of pissed off Native Americans blew up half the volcanoes in North and South America all at once, perfectly normal humans got a cold and then woke up the next day as an elf, orc, and so on, and, oh yeah, a FRAKKING DRAGON landed in Warsaw and said, “THIS IS MY LAND, NOW!”
Politely put, the world lost its collective shit, and there was a solid couple decades where things were utterly mad. Borders were redrawn all over the place, some countries ceased to exist, others clawed their way into being, and the superpowers of old got kicked square in the nuts as they found out that the world didn’t play by their rules any more. Fast forward to 2070, and things have more or less stabilized.
In North America, the Unified North American States (UNAS) makes up a solid part of what used to be the United States and Canada. The other nations on the continent are the NCSA, or the New Confederate States of America (yeah, they tried to make that work again), the Free American Nations (basically making up tribal lands that those pissed off Native Americans made Uncle Sam give up), the Free Republic of California (CalFree to their buddies), the Elf country of Ola Serin in what used to be Oregon, Mixsate (totally not a subsidiary of Mixsanto Applied Technologies) occupying Mexico all the way to Panama and parts of South America, and the Treaty City of Denver, where countries like to pretend the resident dragon doesn’t rule over them, but everyone knows the chip truth.
Seattle is in a weird place. When the big political types started making all the treaties to keep angry Indians, dragons, elves, and nukes from making a bigger mess than what was already happening, the UNAS was in a shitty place. They knew they were losing most of their territory west of the Mississippi, and California had already told them to frag themselves, so they needed something to keep a toehold on the Pacific.
Seattle was that something. The Seattle Metroplex is an enclave of UNAS territory in the middle of the Free American Nations. While relations have improved to the point open war isn’t on the table (usually), that doesn’t mean everyone smoked the peace pipe and is happy happy with each other. That stuff only happens in bad trid shows, or good porn trids. Not quite Cold War tense, but there are plenty of people on both sides that would love to stick it to the other guy, so long as there’s no chance of it blowing back on them.
As for who actually runs the Seattle Sprawl? Despite what the Governor’s office tells you, that’s the corps. All the Big 10 megacorps (those with the badass AAA rating), have operations in the city, and more than a few of the AAs do, too. But they don’t matter to you, except as who’s likely to pay your fee when you do a job. You’re a Shadowman (gender neutral, despite what some will tell ya), and since you’re usually up to less-than-legal fun and games, that means the people you gotta pay most attention to are Red Knight Protective Services, the corporate police force contracting with the metroplex for all those law enforcement and head cracking needs. So if you see a Knight in shining armor, de-ass the area with a quickness.
Now, let’s get you into Shadowmen.
Notice:
Due to the nature of the full immersion experience, MetaTech recommends your character sex and gender reflects your real life (RL) ones, at least for your initial character, to prevent Immersion-Based Cognitive Dissonance Disorder. There are means in game to experience other sexes and genders either through simulation, or through temporary or permanent changes to your character. MetaTech denies any responsibility for harm suffered due to IBCDD for those who ignore this warning.
Character Limit and Permadeath
To increase the sense of immersion and stakes in Shadowmen, all accounts may have only a single character at any one time. When a character dies permanently in game (beyond clinical death), they are dead, and are deleted from your account, though tales of their deeds may live on in game. When creating a new character, you may carry forward a portion of the Karma (experience) and NuCred (money) your old character earned, and use it to enhance your new character, so death does not put you entirely back to the beginning.
The IBCDD and Permadeath rules had tweaked a lot of noses early on in the testing process. People didn’t like that they couldn’t just hop in and out of characters testing new things as they liked, and even if they never considered playing as the opposite sex, some people just didn’t like being told not to do something. Still, those concerns had died down as people actually got into things. Eventually, anyone who really didn’t like it just stopped logging in, and that was that.
Beta Test Account
Thank you for your help in Beta-testing Shadowmen! As a reward, all characters on your account will be given Prime Runner status, starting with 500 Build Points, instead of the normal 400.
Pre-Order Account
Thank you for your pre-order of Shadowmen! As a reward, all characters on your account will be given the following rewards:
Access to certain player-created spells, items, and abilities for purchase in character creation
NuCred limit for purchases in character creation is removed (all other limits remain in place)
Now, that was interesting. They hadn’t shown us these windows during the Beta. The actual rewards were cleverly done. The Prime Runner thing was a nice boost, since some things could be bought easier with BP than with Karma later on, but the truly broken things weren’t allowed in character creation, even with more points to spend. Same deal with the money limit. Normally, you couldn’t spend more than 250k NuCred at character creation, but you had to ‘buy’ NuCred with BP, and the really broken things were all unavailable at the start. Basically, it made people who were in the Beta and pre-ordered the game feel a bit more important without giving them too big a jump on the other players, since anyone who tried would catch up to them quickly enough.
Now, time to get started making my new life for the next year.
Comments
Gustavo Campanelli
if you ever played shadowrun, Mages and Shamans are OP, and so are physical Adepts.
Jakob Scafer
Can't wIt to see what class our MC picks - from the name of the series I think I have a clue tho.
Paigeon
I Had done a reread of into the Black Just one month ago. I like like the vrmmorpg Stories of Mr. grosse.
Robert Gardner
TFTC
Solveen Dathe Rizzal
TFTC. Makes me want to read through Into the Black again... Also, please keep posting on this regular schedule (or dumping the three books onto Amazon as someone suggested in the Prologue), so much easier to stay semi-immersed into the story.
Demian Buckle
Thank you for the Chapter.
Iron Akela
I assume since it’s 2070 you’re going with 4e. I’m very curious how this develops :o)
Chris Haynes
this is looking v intresting
Nancy Schneider
Thanks, looking forward to this continuing storyline!
Will-o'- the-Wisp
More pls
Will-o'- the-Wisp
SAO reference noticed
Casey
Looking forward to more of this.
