Adventures Of Roads And Waters

 By Felipe Lohan Pinheiro da Silva

İn the future, the mismanagement of the public funds, ideological and cultural clashes and the government mismanagement in cases of epidemics caused the crumbling of the North ˙Ժabonian Continent. One of the causes of the economic problems in The Vlaosian country is that it spent several billions in a wall to isolate the Vulian Republic. This was made under the excuse that the Vulians were drug dealers and rapists, that they steal the jobs from the Vlaosian people, that pregnant Vulian women crossed the border just to have the children in the Vlaosian Republic, etc. Later the Vlaosian Republic passed a law saying that in order to be legally a native citizen you must both have born inside the Vlaosian territory and be children of both Vlaosian Republic (father AND mother).

The Kuloshian Republic accepted in a 51.2% poll to be annexed to the Vlaosian Republic. The east provinces of the Kuloshian Republic didn’t accepted it and declared independence unilaterally.

Later the Pleozian province in the southwest of the Vlaosian Republic declared independence unilaterally, kept the wall and adopted the same native citizenship restrictions, and also included several restrictions on religion minorities inside their territory. They suffer some religious terrorist attacks, but the death rate is relatively low thanks to the high rate of gun ownership.

Later, Beloshian province in the west of the Vlaosian Republic also declared independence unilaterally. Being a the majority of the population followers of a religion that were a minority in the Vlaosian Republic, they adopted similar restrictions to any other religion.

Later, in west provinces of the Vlaosian and Kuloshian Republics also unilaterally declared independence of a region called Blekozian Republic, where a kind of environmentalism called “bioregionalism” is a strong internal political matter. They opened a huge hole their side of the wall (similar to Berlin in 1989) and relaxed the restrictions on Vulians. The Vlaosian Republic reinforced the troops near the border with the Blekozian Republic in order to avoid a massive wave of Vulian citizens from there. İn short, The Vlaosian Republic lost its west coast.

Later, at east of the Pleozian Republic, the south Vlaosian provinces unilaterally declared independence, forming the Gawkian Republic. They kept the wall, but dropped the native citizenship restrictions, using a more common criteria of jus soli plus jus sanguinis instead (so someone needs to be EİTHER born there OR have ᴊ̇UST ONE parent who is a citizen in order to be a native citizen).

Meanwhile, a huge wave of people who was not satisƒіed to the direction that was taken by the mainland North ˙Ժabonian Continent emigrated to the northwest island of the Tchupokian province. There was also a small but signiƒіcant wave of immigration of people from the Vulian Republic to there. Later, The Tchupokian province unilaterally declared independence from the Gleybian Empire, that oƒƒіcially don’t recognizes it. the Tchupokian economy had a somewhat signiƒіcant growth in a relatively short period of time, thank to a mix of relative economic freedom with the work of its larger population. The tourism sector there is signiƒіcant, being the favorite destination of many of those who want (and can afford to) to escape, for at least some months, from the internal warfare (both physical and social/political) in the Mainland North ˙Ժabonian Continent.

Meanwhile, The Vlaosian Republic called back to home all overseas troops, due to the lack of resources. A new time of piracy began in the North ᴊ̇abonian Sea and, while the North ˙Ժabonian continent was in that unrest. Even the military personnel who was called back home aren’t enough to enforce the security all the sea for all the time, specially due to the large number of small pirate groups.

Unnecessary to say that the Vlaosian Empire doesn’t recognize any of the independence claims, treating such republics as “rebel provinces”, but lack the necessary resources to enforce the control on that territories. The Vlaosian government even promised some degree of autonomy if such states returned to the US, but it was useless.

There’s some political debate between the Vlaosian politicians they should recognize the Tchupokian as an independent country or not. Opponents says that it would strengthen the national identity of the other countries in the North ᴊ̇abonian continent and force the Vlaosian Republic to also recognize them as independent later. Proponents says that it would strengthen the commercial relations between the Vlaosian and Tchupokian Republics, as the Tchupokian Republic had a signiƒіcant growth in economic terms.

Things got further complicated because the Vlaosian Government allows its businessmen to make trade with the businessmen of the other countries in the North ˙Ժabonian continent (Tchupokian included), even if it don’t recognize them as independent countries. Obviously, it’s much more due to the fact that no country produces everything it needs than because of acceptance.

The Council of the United Republics, even being lost most of its political power, still have some of it, and only recognizes the Vlaosian Republic and the Gleybian Empire. So some politicians of the other republics in the North ˙Ժabonian are considering to create a parallel international organization called League of the Republics, and accept inside it other unrecognized countries around the world, in an attempt to increase the political power of such organization. Obviously, such unrecognized countries in the other continents are favorable to the idea...

Some time later, a magical cataclysm happened in the world; it generates mushroom-like explosions of cyan color.

The living organisms near the areas tainted by the magical energy were turned into mutants, w/ random mutations.

The dead bodies near the magical energy of the cataclysm were turned into flesh-eater undeads, eating the flesh of the living and transmitting their condition by biting. You have to “kill” the flesh-eater undead in order to give him his second/ƒіnal death/rest.

The cataclysm caused the destruction of portions of fertile land, turning it into wastelands. Governments broke and people leaved them for an age of city-states scattered around the globe, w/ large portions of uncontrolled lands between them.

Maxwell Lee is a man who survived one of the explosions of the cataclysm. At the day of the explosion, he was a blond 1.55m tall (5ft) guy w/ a cock/dick that barely reached 5cm (2 inches) when hard/erected. After recovering from the explosion, he became 2.15 tall (7ft) w/ a cock/dick that reached 23cm (9 inches) when hard/erected. He also got heightened senses and reflexes. Now he have a spiky hair and dark sunglasses, a pair of black leather gloves, a sleeveless vest and a pair of long black leather boots.

He escaped from his sexually repressive family, and made his name as a Road/Sea mercenary. Master of the machete and the large-caliber 7-guns, he kills a lot of flesh-eater undeads. İt was doing his job that he discovered one aspect of his personal mutation: he’s immune to the flesh-eater transmission. He rides an amphibious vehicle that’s a quadricycle/ATV (all terrain vehicle) and a PWC (personal watercraft) at the same time.

But he didn’t made it thinking in the wellbeing of other people, but just because the fucking money. He knows very well how is felling like a nobody among the crowd, not being noticed, and nobody cares about you because you’ren’t notable in any way. Now, he only do his job to get a safe Mansion in the middle of the nowhere and to get the comfort that the money can buy. He doesn’t give a fuck to anything or anyone else. HE’SN’T a misanthrope, he’s just a guy that wants to be left alone.

☙Summary of countries❧

Blekozian Republic (Popularly called the “Green Republic”, sometimes pejoratively). Their citizens are sometimes derogatorily called “greens” due to their environmental concerns, or “Vulian huggers”, due to their stance on the Vulian Border Crisis.

Kuloshian Republic. İt’s the part of the former Kuloshian Republic who didn’t accepted to be joined to the Vlaosian Empire.

Beloshian Republic. They’re landlocked between the Vlaosian Republic and the Blekozian Republic. Members of a minority religion.

Pleozian Republic. Their citizens are sometimes derogatorily called “Religious Freaks” (people says that this title could be disputed w/ the citizens of the Beloshian Republic) and “gun nuts” due to the somewhat high rate of religious citizens and gun owners. Some people tells jokes about how the Beloshian citizens could dispute to be called such way. They’re also sometimes called “cowboys”, both because of the style of their hats and their gun possession. They’re also sometimes called “paladins”, due to their religious stance.

Gawkian Republic. Their citizens are sometimes called the “racists” or the “slave hunters” due to the misconception that they’re or were racists.

Vlaosian Republic. İt’s what lasted from the annexation w/ the former Kuloshian Republic, after all of the unilateral declarations of independence.

Tchupokian Republic. Former Gleybian colony. Their citizens are sometimes called the “İgloo Dwelers” (being “İgloo” the circular snow hut). Their citizens (and many people outside there who aren’t their citizens) sometimes call it the “Snow Oasis/Paradise”, due to the signiƒіcant tourism and economic growth there. People from the north of the Kuloshian Republic says, in lighthearted jokes, that they would dispute the terms “Snow Oasis/Paradise”. Tchupokian citizens answer that the north of the Kuloshian Republic is the “Volcano/Geyser Oasis/Paradise”.

☙Facts & Rumors❧

A new social class emerged: the Road/Sea Warriors. They’re mostly pirates, mercenaries, agents of private security ƒіrms, workers of cargo transportation ƒіrms, truck drivers, motorcycle drivers, etc. They deals with matters of security, crimes and cargo transportation in the roads and in the sea.

As the Blekozian Republic have abundant natural life, there are concerns about illegal extraction of natural resources (such as wood) or wild animal traƒƒіcking there. ¿ Who will extract that resources, who will smuggle the cargo and who will prevent that crimes?

There are racist groups in the Pleozian and Gawkian Republics wants the exile (or even extermination) of racial minorities. Some of these groups even want to force The Pleozian Republic to join Gawkian Republic. This allowed racial tension and open conflicts with several dead. Most of the populations of both republics DOESN’T support either side of this dispute. ¿ Who will ƒіght them? ¿ Will the Pleozian Republic be able to remain independent?

With the new time of piracy, there was an increase in the numbers of crimes in the roads and in the sea (people attacking vehicles to steal their cargo, smuggling, rape, human traƒƒіcking for prostitution, people helping other people to enter in the countries illegally, etc.) ¿ Who will commit those crimes, and who will prevent it?

The number of brawls (including knifeƒіghts and even some gunƒіghts) in pubs located at the roads and near the docks increased. There are also pubs that allow drugs consumption, prostitutes to get customers there, and ƒіghts where the viewers make a bet. Some of these ƒіghts are even ƒіghts to the dead, some using blade weapons. The number of robberies and murders near the docks and hotels (and motels) located at the roads also increased. The number of people who ƒіght in duels at the roads to settle their scores also skyrocketed.

People want to rebuild and live again in former ghost towns. ¿ Who will protect them against the bandits who will try to attack them? ¿ Who (or what) are hidden in the dark corners of such ghost towns awaiting to ambush the people?

Several sects of the most diverse religious denominations settled in several places, suddenly forcing their worldview to people who already lived there even before they settled there. There are also tales about the sabbaths of the witches covens, with terrible results. Some of these sects even talked about a great cosmic event that will soon happen, when otherworldly Old Gods will awake and walk in the earth again. ¿ Who will stop them?

There are urban legends about monsters and cannibal groups ambushing people in the roads, in the waters near the shores and in little rocky islands. There are also legends about Road/Sea Warriors who are smuggling cursed artifacts from around the world the North ˙Ժabonian Continent, and even traƒƒіcking specimens of non-human sentient species in cages. ¿ These are real or just cautionary tales, or just charlatans or disguised criminals making practical jokes to scare the citizens, to let them keep their activities without being disturbed? ¿ Who will ƒіght them?

There’s an unoƒƒіcial political “greedy eye” discourse in the Vlaosian Republic towards the recent growth of the Tchupokian Republic, so some politicians want its annexation, even by force. There are even some more radical politicians that said in the political backstage about the annexation of the rest of the Kuloshian Empire after, as if the success of the Tchupokian annexation were something guaranteed. ¿ İf the Vlaosian Republic don’t have the resources to enforce its claims in the mainland, how it will engage itself in a war against an island? ¿ Furthermore, Tchupokian people aren’t unprotected fools, so they have enough resources to repeal an Vlaosian. So it’s wise to the Vlaosian Republic, as a political entity, to think twice. ¿ There will be an Vlaosian politician able to win an internal political war against such politicians, in order to avoid an international tragedy?

With the decay of the Vlaosian Empire as a country, the corruption inside the military personnel and the security forces increased. ¿ Who will stop it and help to “clean” the security forces?

☙Technologies❧

Bionic Prosthesis: They’re attached to processors that in turn have electrodes that are attached at the skin surface. They’re all powered by a battery that’s recharged by a combination of solar power, thermal power (using the heat from their user’s bodies), variations of atmospheric pressure during the day and conversion from wavelengths into electrical energy.

*Bionic limbs that are attached to a movement processor. The processor can be connected by cable or wireless to devices to work an electromechanical peripheral, even remotely. For example, a person (amputee or disabled or not) using such processor could directly control robotic arms or even guns (!!!) remotely.

*A video receiver (sometimes used under or integrated into glasses) that make blind people able to see again, it’s attached to a graphics processor; the video receiver can also be used as a microphone. The processor can be connected by cable or wireless to devices to receive graphics from them, even allowing him to see remotely. Such devices could be similarly connected directly to the processor to send graphics directly to the user. For example, a person (blind or not) using such processor could directly see pictures or the graphics of movies or a computer.

*A sound receiver that make deaf people able to hear again, it’s attached to a sound processor; the sound receiver can also be used as a microphone. The processor can be connected by cable or wireless to devices to receive sound from them, even allowing him to hear remotely. Such devices could be similarly connected directly to the processor to send audio directly to the user. For example, a person (deaf or not) using such processor could directly listen music or the audio of movies.

*A speech synthesizer that make deaf people able to speak again, it’s attached to a speech processor; the speech synthesizer can also be used as a loudspeaker (even to play music). The processor can be connected by cable or wireless to devices to speak remotely. Such devices could be similarly connected directly to the processor (without the need of the synthesizer) to let the user record the his speech (in a synthesized way, of course).

*Modern combat armors & powered exoskeletons: Powered exoskeletons are powered structures over the person’s limbs to increase strength and encumbrance capacity. A movement processor connected to an exoskeleton (by cable or wireless) allows handicapped people (paraplegic and tetraplegic) to control their own bodies and walk again. There are modern combat armors that have compatibility sockets to use w/ such exoskeletons. So someone could use only the armor, only the skeletons or both. İf are wearing just the exoskeleton, you need to take of it to wear the armor; but if you’re wearing only the armor, you just need to attach the exoskeletons in the proper socket.

There are also powered combat armors, that are armors w/ integrated exoskeletons on them. The advantage is that they are lighter and less bulky than a combination of a standalone exoskeleton w/ a standalone armor. The disadvantage is that you have to carry the integrated exoskeleton around even if for whatever reason it’sn’t working or you don’t need it in a given moment, unless you have access to proper tools and remove the armor to detach the integrated exoskeleton from inside it.

*İt’s worth to note that may years ago there was the İC (İntegrated Circuit) Scandal. The government authorities used backdoors in the electronic components used in the devices used by several suspects during operations, shootouts and car chases to hack them by wireless connection to make them stop working. The senses and speech prosthesis were also hacked in a way that the authorities could know what the suspects were seeing, listening and speaking.

All the companies that produced such prosthesis denied that the backdoors were intentional or that they had “cooperated” with the government do allow them to do such things. Organizations of free software and privacy rights stated their concern about that situation and raised the public awareness about it. This raised the suspicion of the population over such companies. However, conservatives used the discourse of “those who aren’t criminals have nothing to fear” to silence the bulk of the citizens who publicly raised concerns about such backdoors. So the bulk of the population had to still buy the devices from the big companies because no other companies provided prosthesis at the same level of cost-beneƒіt. Unnecessary to say that the richest conservatives are hypocritical enough to order custom-made one-of-a-kind luxury prosthesis (some even including non-disclosure agreements) to themselves and their children, in order to avoid being hacked.

However, no Road/Sea warrior is going to use the prosthesis of the big companies again. They prefer (and can afford to) prosthesis of small companies, on basis of free drivers and hardware architecture.

Country Dungeon Crawlers – The Attack Of The Werelepidopterans

 By Felipe Lohan Pinheiro da Silva

The group of the Country Dungeon Crawlers is composed of the following members:

Snow Queen – A woman w/ sapphire-blue eyes, light violet skin and dark violet hair; specialized in ice magic.

Werecurrant – A mutant sapient currant tree. He carries a crossbow w/ bayonet.

Mutantman – He have two heads like roosters/cocks w/ a pair of eyestalks in the top of each one. He have the legs and a tail of a kangaroo, but the end of the tail have a hand-like appendage; he can put the tail-hand in the ground to give a support to put both feet of the ground to kick w/ them. His arms are flexible like the spinal chord of the cobras of the naja genus. He carries a crossbow w/ bayonet.

Prosthesis-man – He born w/ a birth defect/deformity, not having legs and arms. He uses a whole-body bionic prosthesis found in the ruins of an advanced ancient civilization. İt haves embedded guns; the current technology could replicate, at much cost, at a certain point, some of the ammo of these guns.

The Beloshian Empire was composed of settlers coming from several empires. İt’s located in the ˙Ժabonian continent, that was colonized & populated after the others.

The settlers of a new area got problems w/ sightings of a race that he called “werebutterflies” or “weremoths”. They suffered attacks from these beings and were robbed by them when they traveled by night in the roads that they created. The settlers were scared.

There were reports that the hideout or headquarters of that beings was in a mountain w/ a network of caves.

The Country Dungeon Crawlers climbed there to check the situation by night; and they looked to th Full Moon that shone over them while they climbed the mountain. At certain point of the climb, they were ambushed by a group of werelepidopterans that were gliding over them, w/ a volley of primitive javelins. They answered ƒіre w/ ƒіre. The prosthesis-man w/ his embedded guns, the mutantman and the werecurrant w/ the crossbows and the Snow Queen w/ the snow spells.

After killing them, they resumed the climbing, but they could imagine that they could expect for problems, as some of them probably gave some kind of warning to their colleagues in the caves.

They entered in one of the cave entrances, but only found items stolen from the settlers and gold and silver personal objects among them. Probably the werelepidopterans were trying to ƒіgure out what they’re and what was their use. They looted small objects, and went to the other caves. Leaving the cave, a group of werelepidopterans ambushed them, but they killed them in the melee.

They delved into the inner caves and began to map them. İn one of the smaller chambers of one of the caves, were two werelepidopterans guarding a large group of small larvae, probably the children of that beings. ¿ But what should they do? Killing that ones that were just trying to protect their children would be simply murder. Not doing it could be a risk if they made some warning to possible colleagues in nearby caves.

They decided that the mutantman and the werecurrant should watch them while the Snow Queen and the prosthesis-man should map the other chambers.

The Snow Queen and the prosthesis-man found a group of werelepidopterans awaiting for an ambush in other chamber. They gave the warning and the mutantman and the werecurrant came, but they were slow because they couldn’t turn their backs to the two werelepidopterans that were guarding the larvae.

They came and they fought and killed the ones in the chamber. They returned to the chamber of the larvae and the other two had fled, carrying most of the larvae w/them.

They took the remaining larvae, and found some other in other chambers. They came back to the hub of villages w/ the looted objects and the corpse of a relatively intact werelepidopterans, and also some severed bodyparts of some of the other corpses. They returned the objects to their owners, getting the rewards; they gave the corpse and the severed bodyparts to the doctors of the hub, so they could examine their anatomy and physiology, so the settlers could have access to better ways to kill them. The larvae were given to the village managers, so the new werelepidopterans would be raised in the village. The Country Dungeon Crawlers made a map of the cave system and delivered it to the village managers, being rewarded.

They warned to the village managers that there could be any number of werelepidopterans in hideouts in the nearby wilderness., and that would be a good idea to increase the safety of the constructions of the villages, creating a local militia and putting people to make the security of the travels in the roads.

Back home, there were news that the magical genetic engineers created a genetic modiƒіcation that would regenerate limbs, and other that healed the prosthesis-man condition. He used it, as he couldn’t rely on the long-term for a dangerous lifestyle on a prosthesis that wasn’t fully understood from an advanced ancient civilization; his limbs grew. However, not everything is a bed of roses, as he was already adapted to the prosthesis, and now he haves to adapt himself w/ normal limbs, that works completely different. At least, now the reverse engineering can be made in his limbs.

Field Of Flowers

 By Felipe Lohan Pinheiro da Silva

Wanessa Asparagus, an young woman in her early 20s, had an argument w/ her mother over domestic matters. So she left her house in the border between the Blekozian Empire and travelled w/out destination, "to find herself".

One day, she traveled to the Canyon near the border w/ the Gawkian Empire. Strange, because it was reported to be a desertic region. But there she spotted a field of flowers in the plains at the base of the canyon. It were flowers half a meter tall (about 1ft 8inches), of iridescent colors.

She went there, attracted by both the color and the surprise of seeing a field of flowers in such a desertic region.

She entered in the flower field. She began to see in everything (in her own bodyparts, in the surface of the canyons at distance, at the flowers themselves and in the sky) a multitude of colors; [spectral/prismatic], non-[spectral/prismatic] (pink and magenta, for example) and other unknown by the humans. She happily let her body fell, lying among the flowers.

Suddenly, came the horror: ¡ that men in strange suits! Their strange helmets and backpacks...

They grabbed her.

[Wanessa]: Ye'ren't going to kidnap me to the Fairyland. ¡ Let go my arms, let go my arms!

***

Some time later...

Several men were at the door of Lady Arabella Asparagus; one of them knocked it. She opened it.

[Man]: Excuse me, ¿ you're the mother of this girl? People told us that her name is Wanessa.

Wanessa was among them. tears rolled over the face of Lady Arabella (😢). She hugged strongly her daughter. However, Wanessa didn't recognized her. She was wearing a simple smock.

[Man]: Pardon, madam. we didn't presented ourselves properly yet. My name is Phillip Hellmann; we're a mercenary group.

[Arabella]: ¡ Oh, please, enter, enter!

They all entered in the house.

[Phillip]: Wanessa was found by us in the canyon near the border w/ the Gawkian Empire. You noticed her current condition; about that, I suppose you're aware of the existence of a new field of study, of the magical science...

[Arabella]: Yes, I do.

[Phillip]: Very well, let me explain the things in a simple form, so that you can understand it, madam... According to the latest researches in the field of magical science, our world is covered by a series of lines of magical energetic current. Well, there's an intersection of these lines located at a point near that canyon; such kind of places are prone to supernatural events. Portals to other universes are opened in such places during certain astronomical events. We found your daughter in that point.

[||]: We were making the security of a caravan of commercial products near there. We spot the girl at distance. She was lying among a kind of field of "flowers", and I call them "flowers" just by the lack of other better name. For that thing can only be called "flowers" by a kind of crude analogy, a crude comparison w/ the structures found in plants from our world. We believe that these "flowers", entered into our universe through a portal, during one of these astronomical events; however, they can only survive in magical conditions, in the location of the point of intersection of the magical energetic currents. The "flowers" exude a kind of magical substance that acts as an hallucinogen, and those who are affected by it have their perceptions opened to the world of the supernatural.

He put on the table a terrarium, of strange appearance, w/ one of the "flowers".

[Phillip]: Very well, that's our little culprit; it can also survive in this little magical terrarium. As you can see, your daughter may have been attracted by its exotic appearance and color.

[||]: We believe that she was exposed to the substance by a very long time. In short, she had an overdose. I issued an order to stop the caravan. So, knowing the magical nature of that place - we make a long research when we accept a job - we wore our anti-chemical-biological suits, that contained a breathing tank; much as this is an new research field, our model is also protected by a basic magical barrier created by the magical science; otherwise, we believe, as we're talking about a magical substance, that it could leak into normal protection suits. So we rescued the girl. She was so hallucinated that she was screaming some nonsense about taking her to a "Fairyland".

[||]: She don't have the control anymore about defecating and urinating, so she have to use adult-type diapers now. She doesn't care to chew normal food anymore, so now she have to use a feeding tube that goes through her esophagus.

[||]: The substance eroded her sanity. The nature of the things she see are magical in nature, as it was confirmed - and it's quite advanced, if you allow me to say - by the latest studies of magical science. If you excuse me the term, your daughter became a "seer".

[||]: That's why we took so long a time to found you, madam. If we weren't discrete, I believe that she would now be being tested in a military research facility. Well, we took some samples of the "flowers" for further private research. I believe that, given the time since we saw the "field of flowers", the authorities already discovered it.

[||]: I strongly advice, madam, that you make up an fake story to explain the condition of your daughter, to avoid the gossip of people to spread the word and causing you problems. I don't know, you could make-up a cover-up story of the aftereffects of an accident, overdose of a recreative drug, anything...

Arabella couldn't avoid the tears to roll on her face.

[Arabella, 😢]: Sorry...

[Phillip]: That's ok, madam.

[Arabella]: ¿ Well, can I brew a coffee to ye (☕)?

[Phillip]: Yeah, thanks, we like coffee.

After the coffee (☕)...

[Arabella]: ¿ How much ye'll charge (💰) for yere services?

[Phillip]: Nothing, madam, since we did everything voluntarily and you never asked us to do it. It's up to you if you'll make us a donation or not, and, if you do, how much you're going to donate...

Arabella paid them an reasonable amount of money (💰).

[Phillip]: Thanks for the money (💰), and thanks for the coffee (☕). I believe we must go now...

[Arabella]: Thank you very much, and may the success be w/ your group.

Phillip and the mercenary group left the house.

The End