The Prometheus: Large Mafia Game [Concluded]
This is a mafia game set in the far future. It will feature a dynamic unlike traditional mafia games. Most, but not all, of the details will be readily apparent at the beginning of the game.
James Sholken awoke to the sounds of the city. He could hear the baby in the next room crying as though he held her in his arms. Probably hungry, he thought. He opened the small cupboard next to his bed, feeling hunger pangs himself.
Only enough oatmeal for today, he noted dismally, and he couldn’t get more until the end of the week. And the government store might not even have any. The shortages had gotten more frequent.
Maybe he could get some food at work. But his department had no powerful politician as its patron, and so had paltry funding while the latest attempt to power a city block with sun power was lavished with money. His father had told him they used to try geothermal power, but one faction of the government stopped that, saying it was stealing the earth’s resources. He sneered to himself, and quickly glanced above his door. The light on the CCTV camera had gone out months ago, and never come on since. He had informed the apartment complex’s law enforcement officer as required, reasoning they wouldn’t replace it anyway. He was right.
He wondered idly if they could still make those. It seems every day now he heard of a friend, or friend of a friend, who was out of work due to some department’s collapse. He had snickered to himself at first, amused that even the government could not handle its own regulations. But he didn’t laugh now.
Departments had been failing faster recently, and had not been replaced as in the past. There was precious little funding, and he wondered when, not if, he would lose his job. He paused as he changed to go to work; was it even worth it? It used to be working allowed you to get a bit more than those who stayed at home all day. Not anymore.
He hadn’t gotten extra pay for months, and even if he could finally get a coupon for a new pair of shoes he didn’t think he could find any for sale. They just weren’t being made at anywhere near the demand.
But at least his work was interesting. James smiled to think about it, reading about old scientific discoveries. He worked in the Department of Science. One department to study science in the whole world, and their budget was the same as the Department Of Atlantic Pep, which made pro-government stickers in the northeast of North America. He consoled himself that the tiny budget was why his department hadn’t been axed yet, even if it meant all the scientific experimenting they could do was reading over historical journals.
He stepped outside and shivered. He took a moment to adjust to the sun. The indoors was grimy and dim, reeking of the odor of humans cramped into unbearable conditions, and the streets were grimy but brightly lit by the sun, which cast a pale white light over the cityscape the seemed to suck the life out of people.
He pulled his thin coat tighter and began walking to work. A banner hung limply off an old lightpost before him. It said, ‘Citizens Unite to Save Earth!’ and showed smiling people in a forest. He shifted his eyes to look for an enforcement officer, and saw only a few other people making their way through the cold. Looking back at the poster, he sneered openly. Had the person, or probably a committee, who designed it even seen a forest themselves, he wondered. Of course not, because traveling outside the cities and disturbing nature was forbidden. But he knew he was coming up to a working CCTV camera, and so pushed the thoughts aside so he wouldn’t be questioned for incitement of hate towards nature. He remembered one man he had seen arrested and dragged off after plucking a plant growing on the doorstep of his apartment. He never saw him again.
He saw the bus up ahead, right where it had stopped working three weeks ago. As he approached it, he again wondered if people could still even make buses. Departments were formed and given as gifts to friends and fraudsters with schemes for new sources of power. But none were assigned to maintain buses, because that wasn’t interesting to the rulers. He could not remember if the bus had broken down or run out of electricity. For years, the electric supply had been sporadic, and lately it was off more often than not. The power sources approved by the government had been steadily reduced, and the power generation plants scrapped or burnt. An old acquaintance had once told him the government did its utmost to destroy the actual sources of fuel. He remembered walking late one night where he could glimpse a large tower that housed government officials and seeing it lit up like a beacon.
He saw another banner; the faded lettering exhorted him to do his part to help all animals. He continued walking.
For lunch, he managed to snatch some food in another department, left over from a buffet laid out for an official who supported the Department of Plant Musicals; they tried to record the ‘natural harmonics’ of plants using various instruments.
In the afternoon, while reading in the light by his window, he came upon an interesting passage. He was reading an old journal about the space exploration missions in centuries past. The one he was reading detailed a journey to one of Jupiter’s moons. The probe had found a new element, and the sample taken back to earth showed to possessed phenomenal amounts of energy.
He stopped and blinked. The world was falling apart, partly for lack of energy. And now he saw before him the key. It wouldn’t solve all the problems, of course, maybe not even most of the problems. But if humanity could have a reliable and large source of energy, and if they could get rid of the corruption…
Many ifs, he knew. Collecting anything from Jupiter would surely be impossible; the government couldn’t even keep the buses running. Well, the government couldn’t, he thought. Maybe people could. Maybe they could actually find a way.
And so for the next few weeks he researched feverishly, poring over every old scientific journal, hoping for a miracle. And two weeks and one day later, he found it. A century ago an engineering group had published a plan for a spacecraft that could travel to the outer reaches of the solar system. The government had scrapped the plans as being wasteful and useless.
Once he found that, he began talking discretely to colleagues at work. The most common response was disbelief that turned quickly to fervent support. Finally, he began speaking publicly, having no access to mass communication tools.
That first day, a crowd gathered and increased steadily in size. People came out of their apartments from down the block or leaned out their windows. The government found out quickly, of course, and sent enforcers to break up the crowds and imprison Sholken. But as the enforcers approached, electric nightsticks held high, they found that the batteries had run out. The first few enforcers were dumbfounded when their usual action did not result in screams. For a few moments the enforcers just stared at their nightsticks, disturbed by this loss of power, as the listeners waited for what they thought was inevitable. Finally one man stepped haltingly forward, paused, then punched an enforcer in the jaw. He went down crying and clutching his jaw, and an instant later the whole crowd leapt as one at the enforcers.
After that the crowds swelled as people came from all over the city to listen to Sholken, tearing down banners, destroying cameras. From then on the government in the city was powerless. They issued thundering decrees but were ignored. The people simply attacked the enforcers, who fled in terror at their loss of control.
The city was riotous as the people exercised their newfound freedom. They surged over the streets and into the forbidden government sections of the city, pulling out officials by the hair and eating their food. Some even approached the edge of the city and the high gates topped with barbed wire that stopped people from getting out. Hesitantly, they opened the gates, the enforcers having long since fled, and looked out onto the wonder of nature. Again, people surged forth, this time outside of the city.
Sholken was constantly busy, having been installed by popular acclaim as the mayor, as he worked out how to get a rocket to Jupiter. The laws imposed by the government had been overthrown, and the city was like a beehive as people bustled about. But even the newfound freedom could not overcome the lack of an energy resource. Their liberation had given people more food, but it could not be sustained without energy.
And Sholken realized that a new energy source was essential, because the government had done everything they could to destroy the sources left on earth. Hundreds of years of use had left the planet lacking in natural resources, and the government had always invested in foolish schemes to find new sources it deemed acceptable.
Months after his first speech, he and a team of engineers were close to being able to launch a ship to Jupiter. They had relied heavily on old scientific papers, and salvaged most of the materials from the apartments and buildings of the government. Soon, they would be ready.
But they were not the only ones making plans. Though the other large cities had suffered great lose of control over their inhabitants as the rebellion spread, one with a particularly devoted Department of Environment Defense had sent an agent to disrupt the plans of Sholken. This man was a fanatic, devoted to the cause of protecting the sacred and holy earth; he was ready to give his life to stop Sholken. Worse, he was intelligent and cunning. This man managed to secure a seat on the spacecraft that would leave to the moon of Jupiter through a clever ruse where none would doubt that he wanted to help.
The spacecraft was readied for launch. The journey would last months, but the astronauts were full of joy. The whole city had assembled to watch. The spacecraft could bring back a live they had never known, a life of freedom and prosperity. And what better start than by blasting into the heavens, above the old city, above the old government offices?
After a triumphant speech to the crowd, Sholken turned to face the craft and said,
“This is The Prometheus! Now go, and bring back fire from the sky!”
And with that, the massive rockets fired and the craft rose into the sky, a blinding spot of light leaving a trail of white smoke.
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This is a mafia game with the standard rules – no out of thread communication by the dead, no screenshots, no chatlogs.
Quoting posts and PMs (even mine) is allowed.
The day and night phases will last 24 hours. Whoever has the most votes will be lynched, with a run-off in the case of a tie. Game will start at night.
I need about 22+ people.
The post at the beginning of the game will describe the exact situation the mafia game is taking place in (on the spacecraft). I'm going to try to make the game updates, roles, etc., more humorous than the opening story.
This should be loads of fun, so join up!
Current Signups (23) :
Ichigo
makaikhaan
Sigurd
Lord Winter
shlin28
Askthepizzaguy
Aries777777
pevergreen
beefy187
Rythmic
Andres
YLC
Seamus
Reenk Roink
Chaotix27
glyphz
twilightblade
Peasant Phill
Mithrandir
White Eyes
Yoyoma
Alexander The Pretty Good
KukriKhan
We have enough People! I'm going to be starting the game soon, hopefully before my 7hr trip today!
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Re: The Prometheus: Large Mafia Game (Signups!)
Originally Posted by Sooh
#Hillary4prism 
My kingdom for a 
.
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