Age of Harmony [or Dances with Dark Forces]
< Back
Note: I am aware the ruins would be well underground and completely destroyed after 10 000 000 years but fuck you.
Note: I don't actually think the future will be like this and I don't actually want the future to be like this.
Chapter One
Humanity has fallen over 10 million years ago. We have been able to maintain our current society by doing nothing the previous society did. We live like we did for millions of years before society. We live off the land. We hunt and gather, but with much better technology. Anything more structured than that is only doomed to fail. It gets too powerful then it crumbles under it's own weight.
We use lysergic acid diethylamide as a hunting aid and a way to see things you otherwise cannot see.
We can "jump" wherever we want. The entire planet is at our fingertips. Using wormholes. But people tend not to travel much, it's the same thing wherever you go. A band of people and a whole lot of ruins. Most tribes keep to themselves.
We communicate telepathically but still use our voice for basic commands and to alert others of our presence.
Chapter Two
We're exploring the ruins of old Winnipeg on a medium dose of lysergic acid diethylamide. It's dangerous to go into ruins because of the radiation, but as long as you're only there for a short time you should be fine. We're not looking for anything in particular, it's just fun to explore.
We were wandering the city for a few hours and we came to a church, dating back to the time we thought God was an old man in the sky. We go in to check it out.
Chapter Three
In the church is a beautiful array of flowers. Somebody must live here, these don't look natural, they're all very well kept.
An old lady telep's us a "Hello?" I telep "Do you live here? It's dangerous to spend too much time in hot zones." "I've removed cancer from my body five times." "You have medical abilities?" "Give yourself some ayahuasca and I can remove tumours for you too just as easy, as the lysergic acid diethylamide turns her into a demon.
"You know we could use you at our camp. There's a little girl there who requires your attention." "I'm not going anywhere."
Chapter Four
We jump back to camp and tell people about who we found. Camp is an old diamond mine in former Canada.
"You haven't heard the rumour of the old witch who lives in a church? You're lucky you got out of there alive." "She seemed nice." "She's deceptively charming." "I was thinking we should take Mar to see her, this may be our chance to cure her cancer." "No, she'll just kill her and eat her. We should just stick with the radiation treatment."
Chapter Five
A band of mercenaries jumps to us and attacks the camp. The first one yells out "Go!" I take out my gun but they have us out armed. A firefight goes down and most of our camp is killed. We only got a few of the mercenaries who are clearly used to fighting, we are not used to fighting. I've never killed anything smarter than a moose. They killed without feeling.
I play dead and lay on top of Mar.
They steal all the diamonds and leave everybody but the two of us dead.
All that just to have some shiny things to look at?
Chapter Six
I decide to take Mar to the witch doctor, but she is nowhere to be found. She left a note. "I felt darkness approach me and I knew it was the diamond hunters who wished to enslave me, so I fled. If you know anything about me you'll know where to look."
All I can think of is flowers... There's a massive unkempt garden of flowers at the old Canada/US border. Well I've got nowhere else to look.
I jump to the gardens.
Chapter Seven
The witch doctor is meditating on a field of flowers. She senses me approach and teleps "You met me for all of two minutes and you knew where to find me. That's some impressive intuition."
"Well there was a lot riding on me finding you. I want you to cure this poor girl's cancer." "The dark forces have their claws in this girl. She's too pure to live. At least in this world. I can try to remove the cancer, but I must tell you in this case the dark forces won't let her go." "Is there anything we can do?" "...We can gain a lot of power from the dark forces if we deliberately sacrifice her." "Nope! You're crazy. Goodbye." "You're making a mistake! You could have everything you've ever wanted." "All I want is for Mar to be safe and healthy."
Chapter Eight
We jump back to the old camp. I guess we'll need this cancer treatment. It's not much but maybe we'll get lucky. Plus we're running low on lysergic acid diethylamide.
Maybe we can travel to other former diamond mines to see if they've been robbed too. And if not maybe live with them. Have a tribe again.
We go to another diamond mine, only to find a lot of dead people there too.
Chapter Nine
We find one survivor. He says they're building some kind of... thing... and they need diamonds. He says watch out, they're here now, inside the mines.
A mercenary walks out and kills Mar like it's nothing. With the lysergic acid diethylamide I see the dark forces dragging her down. I draw my gun but the mercenary jumps. I cry for awhile.
"Do you know where he's going?" "They live in old Winnipeg, but I wouldn't go after them alone. There's a lot of people that want them dead, let me take you to them. We could even do a service to the planet. I have no idea what they're planing on using those crystals for but it couldn't be good."
We go to another settlement in old Manitoba that managed a stale mate against the mercenaries and they fled, but killed many.
Chapter Ten
We get a band together. Apparently they're working with some kind of witch. One of them says "There's another witch who may be useful to us." "I think I know who you're talking about, she's at the old border gardens."
We jump to the gardens and telep her "We need your help to battle another witch." "I know exactly who this witch is... We were friends in Winnipeg who were taught by the same man. Alarn, the other witch, killed this man because he was abusing us sexually. I don't judge Alarn for killing but she's always been more cut-throat, did what needed to be done."
"If she wants diamonds... There's only one thing she could be doing and she must be stopped."
Chapter Eleven
We jump to the mercenaries, a surprise attack, and we kill a lot of them. I see the one who killed Mar and leave him alive. I tell one of my men to watch him, I'm going to torture him to death later.
Alarn is meditating on a pile of crystals. The witch doctor says "You've gone mad!" "You've done things to gain favour with the dark forces as well." "But I would never sacrifice more than one or two people, what you want to do will destroy everything." "Destroy what? The last pathetic grasp humanity has made at civilization? The dark forces need to feed and a few million pathetic humans will do nicely." "Something is different about you... You're possessed, aren't you?" "Well yeah. I've always been possessed and so have you." "I have? Maybe you're right."
One of our guys yells "Enough!" and shoots her. With the lysergic acid diethylamide we see the dark forces coming up beneath her and swallowing her up. All of the crystals melt into a big pile and the dark forces rise from it." The witch doctor says "We belong to them now, there's nothing we can do."
Chapter Twelve
I don't care if we're on a doomed planet, there's only one thing left I want to do.
I find the guy I told to guard Mar's murderer dead and the murderer gone. I look back and the portal is growing ever bigger. My winning intuition tells me he's going to want to get as far away from this as possible and must have leapt to the furthest possible point. My arm band tells me that's Kerguelen Islands, long deserted.
Chapter Thirteen
I jump to the Kerguelen Islands islands and he's there. "Oh, hello." Then he says "Look, I killed her because I had to. The forces, they control me, they told me the only way to cure her is to make her dead, so she can kneel at the feet of the dark masters, who only want what's best for the world. By bringing her to them I would gain favour."
He says "It won't be long now, the portal grows exponentially, I'd say we have about half an hour until the whole planet becomes death." "If that's what's best why did you flee?" "...Because I'm scared." "I know how to cure that." And I shoot him. There. Satisfied. Now I can die.
Chapter Fourteen
Suddenly I fall into a black pit and darkness is all around me. I see skeletal faces looking at me through the darkness. I look down and the bottom is nowhere in sight, just a slightly darker black at a point in the centre with a greyish black around it.
I hear a voice saying "I liked it..." "...Liked what?" "You knew everyone was going to die anyway and yet still you had to kill that man yourself. That's the kind of thing that will give you favour with the dark forces." "Glad I could be entertaining... What have you done with Mar?" "Oh she kneels before the dark master. He enjoys her purity." "What have you done with her!?" "You don't really want to know that, do you?" "...And what's to become of me?" "I don't really care."