Endtown by Aaron Neathery for August 29, 2012

so the final solution began…topsiders uber alles….

First step, blame the victims. Second step, figure that out when you run out of victims.——————————-An Electromatic Radio is a terrible thing to waste.

I wonder what sort of evidence they had that the mutants were carriers of the virus? Once mutated they might not longer be carriers or if they still carry the virus, they might be beyond the contagious phase of most viruses. I wonder if we’ll learn more about the virus from Flask’s catharsis or from Marx’s comments on it.

If they are sure that mutants carry the virus, how/why can the TSers use mutant brains in mutts and transports?

Here the mutants are showing the best traits of the human experience, loving and helping a friend.

Then here comes the still-looks-human displaying the absolute bloodlust that overtakes many.Humans are so easily tempted to hurt, injure , lie and slander, and trod upon others. This is about as graphic as political events.

Those poor little bean hunters! heart wrenching! So sweet, about to be savagely attached by the “perfect, correct looking human of just the right sort”

the irony is heavy.

The irony is that the Topsiders are the ones who have imprisoned themselves. The mutants don’t realize that they are the ones who are truly free.

So now the TSers are packing zero… javelins?

Wow, no wonder they’re so overzealous about killing every mutant they see.

Doesn’t say much for a technologically superior bunch of “perfect” beings that they can’t combat a single pathogen. Curious that they were able to develop an effective defense against something they claim to know nothing about. Damn convenient stroke of luck that was…;-)

Also, I can understand a little more now why Linda was so distraught to be turned into a mutant, and wasn’t comforted at all by Holly’s offer to stay in Endtown. As it stands, so long as Linda is alive (and so long as she knows Endtown’s inhabitants are alive), her baby boy will never be able to take off his suit. Makes me wonder if Linda will ever be able to accept her mutation, or if she could ever be pushed into betraying her fellow mutants for the sake of her son.

If the Topsiders cannot see themselves, I wonder if they have already mutated and just do not know it. But then I guess the suits would not fit.

If the Topsider’s had already mutated we would not see them mutate when their suits are breached. All evidence is one mutation per being from this virus, else Endtowners would be constantly changing. On the other hand, the TSer’s circumstances have certainly evolved them to something beyond human while retaining human shape.

So many questions, so few answers.

Rather than individual suits, it would be easier to build a huge domed city and have people wear suits when they go outside, and rather than eradicate other sentient beings, it would make more sense to put them on reservations or in hospitals to study and learn what is causing the virus. The topsiders don’t really think things through very well.

Some things do not compute here: .Why does a suit that is never taken off have a headpiece that is detatchable and has to be glued on?. Anything as technologically intense as those suits would have to be would have to have repairs done to it from time to time..Why were there spare biosuits in the PT if its not even safe to go with out a suit inside the domes?. Speaking of PTs, why is there a windshield? The operators can’t “see”.. TSers use handheld weapons. How do they know what they are shooting at? .I know that a lot of what we think we “know” about Endtown is made up of a little fact and a lot of conjecture, but this stuff Flask is dishing out really upsets a whole fleet of applecarts. Now it’s not exactly “Oh by the way, the Earth is round” level of paradigm adjustment, but these last couple of days have undermined quite a few reasonable assumptions.

I suspect that if the Topsiders identify the cause of the mutations, they would not stop killing mutants. They would try to turn the mutagen into a weapon for themselves instead. Like some real-world factions would rather turn smallpox into a weapon instead of eliminating it. Notice the powers that have the last remaining samples of smallpox keep putting off destroying them. And the anthrax used in the mail attacks years ago was weaponized by a mad scientist in a government lab.

Here’s another question: What do Topsiders see if they look in the mirror? Do they see a digital construct of themselves?

If you must live in this suit, how do you bathe, shave,comb your hair, trim your nails—-hazzard for punching holes—-How can you live with the stink!!!!Blessed Be.

“In theory, would there not be many more mutants than TS?”About the time of the mass outbreak of mutations, all countries panicked at about the same time and fired off all the weapons they had, which is what created the “soup” that mankind calls an “atmosphere” now. Many of those weapons were explosive in nature, just wiping out life indiscriminately. Those survivors awake at the time of the outbreak turned into monsters and attacked whoever was next to them. So, the number of surviving anthro-mutations was relatively small. Topsiders, on the other hand, had to be hermetically sealed against the “soup”, meaning they’d either be in military bunkers, research labs, or hi tech factories. The thought that most Topsiders are former Apex employees could be supported by the fact that Apex has all three location types, and they’d be expecting an all-out war and would have more people in bunkers in reserve. But yes, mutants should outnumber Topsiders.As for mutants having a technology edge – the problem is in how to get materials to safe “houses” for retooling. Many “colonies” are just a handful of people living under a bridge or in a collapsed building. Places like Endtown are rare, and materials would have to be hand-carted across the Great Waste to the colony. Ignoring the fact that some of the needed machines weigh several tons and any vehicles carrying them would be targeted by TS surface to surface missiles. The reasons mutants don’t launch a serious counter attack are that they’re still focused on just scavenging food, and they don’t have the luxury of organizing openly like the TSers can.——————————-It’s all automated, Gray.

“Speaking of PTs, why is there a windshield? The operators can’t “see”..TSers use handheld weapons. How do they know what they are shooting at?”I’ll just address these two questions. Flask seems to be saying that the goggles just overlay facial features over the suits of other “us” that are in the field of view. We’ve seen from the inside of a TS helmet before – there’s a lot of augmentation going on, but they still have the option of switching to “visual mode”. So, they can “see” using visual light, thermal radiation and probably UV. Their links to the PTs additionally give them whatever the PT has, which probably include radar, telescopic, and possibly mass. As to why they have windshields – it might be a holdover to more romantic times when Topsiders would just park out at the top of a hill and stare up at the stars between pumpkin hunts…———————————-I’d like to announce a format change.

“These human purists are so fanatical and fearful they only trust their suits. Saw two humans (unchanged) much earlier in time, in a special area. One of them showed some kind of a rash on the skin. They were let out then summarily executed by the TS.”Are you talking about the Al and Hank adventure from “A Fistful of Beans”? Hank claimed that was a birthmark. So, yeah, getting the death sentence for a skin blemish is a bit over the top.—————————24 hour progressive chat.

Very interesting to reread this in 2021, when we live within a world plagued by a virus, and people want to seal us up in masks and vaccines, and saying this will never end.