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Cam is watching a new recording of Atriama, tail swishing in the gap in his couch, and doesn't stop to pause the show when he feels a summons go by.
wormcan
He appears in the middle of what used to be a city. It's visibly postapocalyptic here; most of the buildings are hastily thrown-together structures, the few functioning vehicles look like they're from two centuries ago, and he can tell which areas people have been using because plants aren't reclaiming those. There are people present, but not many.
As soon as Cam appears, the young man who presumably summoned him sprints off while shouting "CAPE!" After which everyone else runs and Cam is completely alone.
As soon as Cam appears, the young man who presumably summoned him sprints off while shouting "CAPE!" After which everyone else runs and Cam is completely alone.
from_scratch
What a warm welcome. Cam puts a little tiny tracking device in the summoner in case he needs him later.
Where the fuck is this? What kind of plants are they, that should be a hint.
wormcan
They're...plants. Everything from grass up through small trees. Kudzu is fairly recognizable, and it's one of the more successful ones here. Unsurprisingly.
wormcan
Botany is a famously ineffective form of navigation after all. Anyone who sees Cam flying either runs or conspicuously tries not to attract his attention. Altitude just shows him more place. Eventually he can get high enough to recognize where he was. It's the southern tip of Japan.
(In which case the summoner was probably shouting "cape" in Japanese instead of a false cognate in some other language. Not that this makes it make any sense in context.)
(In which case the summoner was probably shouting "cape" in Japanese instead of a false cognate in some other language. Not that this makes it make any sense in context.)
from_scratch
Hello, Japan.
This is weird. Did something happen to Japan? Japan is a highly developed country. Did someone make a duplicate Japan on Mars and not let him help? Cam produces a map of Japan.
...Did someone make a duplicate Japan and leave out Kyushu?
The fuck?
This is weird. Did something happen to Japan? Japan is a highly developed country. Did someone make a duplicate Japan on Mars and not let him help? Cam produces a map of Japan.
...Did someone make a duplicate Japan and leave out Kyushu?
The fuck?
wormcan
That is a fairly accurate description.
Cam flew up from what isn't supposed to be the lower end of any Japans. And anyone with the ability to put a duplicate on Mars would probably also have the ability to make it halfway developed, even if they just didn't like the southernmost island for some reason. But Cam probably isn't going to find out much from up here.
Cam flew up from what isn't supposed to be the lower end of any Japans. And anyone with the ability to put a duplicate on Mars would probably also have the ability to make it halfway developed, even if they just didn't like the southernmost island for some reason. But Cam probably isn't going to find out much from up here.
wormcan
Depends how far he wants to travel. It gets progressively less apocalyptic the farther north he looks; some real cities still exist and he won't even have to fly over any seas. It doesn't get any less primitive, though.
from_scratch
This is very puzzling.
It doesn't look so primitive that there shouldn't be an Internet. Cam lands well outside a city, rids himself of wings and tail, and enters on an era-ambiguous motorcycle.
It doesn't look so primitive that there shouldn't be an Internet. Cam lands well outside a city, rids himself of wings and tail, and enters on an era-ambiguous motorcycle.
wormcan
He is obviously out of place and gets some strange looks, but mostly people just go about their business. At least nobody runs screaming this time.
Buildings look ancient, to match the roads and cars, and also tend to be in worse repair than they should be.
Buildings look ancient, to match the roads and cars, and also tend to be in worse repair than they should be.
from_scratch
At least Cam speaks Japanese. Internet café? Please? It's just not Japan if they don't have the Internet.
wormcan
There's an Internet. Even the Internet here is backwards.
...probably because it's 2011. That explains a lot by itself. Not everything, but a lot.
...probably because it's 2011. That explains a lot by itself. Not everything, but a lot.
from_scratch
That's really weird.
But! 2011 is after the invention of the wiki! Tell Cam everything, wikis of the world.
wormcan
Most of the world's wikis are going to be entirely useless. But there's at least one relevant one (Wikipedia! It's the Wikipedia!) so there is information to be had.
This world sucks.
Starting from the most salient thing he's noticed so far, they did in fact lose an island.
Monsters called Endbringers do this several times a year: attack, cut the city up, and leave. Kyushu was by far the worst. One bad day and boom, they just lost the southern tip. Events that threaten to be on the same scale are regular occurrences, even if they're usually much more limited. People manage to fight them off, but this world can't afford another slip.
This world sucks.
Starting from the most salient thing he's noticed so far, they did in fact lose an island.
Monsters called Endbringers do this several times a year: attack, cut the city up, and leave. Kyushu was by far the worst. One bad day and boom, they just lost the southern tip. Events that threaten to be on the same scale are regular occurrences, even if they're usually much more limited. People manage to fight them off, but this world can't afford another slip.
from_scratch
Cam doesn't immediately go put the island back.
He reads Wikipedia until the internet café closes, and then he rigs up some backwards-compatibility chaining and gets on the internet with his own devices, and he reads Wikipedia for another eight hours, and then -
he goes and carefully, gently -
puts Kyushu back.
wormcan
This is going to make a few waves. If he builds the island slowly and in the right order he can make them less catastrophic and point them away from the only-mostly-uninhabited lower reaches of the rest of Japan. And then he's got a completely uninhabited restored Kyushu.
from_scratch
Well, maybe people will move back into it sooner or later. He is of course very careful about the waves. He doesn't want to give anybody flashbacks. It takes a few hours this way, but still.
And then he heads back into inhabited Japan and reads Wikipedia some more, because this fucking world.
And then he heads back into inhabited Japan and reads Wikipedia some more, because this fucking world.
wormcan
Kyushu was not the only disaster to hit Japan. It was certainly enough of a disaster, losing a densely populated island and sending tidal waves unnaturally far inland, but wait there's more. Earthquakes in the aftermath, not to mention the nuclear meltdowns the other things caused... and the elevated cancer risks don't top the list of problems.
One might expect there'd be foreign aid when this happens, but everywhere else is dealing with their own Endbringer attacks. As far as the international world is concerned, Japan is over.
And the continuing disasters are having all kinds of unfortunate effects worldwide. Behemoth burns some oil fields, and cost per barrel jumps with all its normal effects. Leviathan wrecks harbors, and suddenly the Iowa car crop can only grow wheat. And that's without getting into what the Simurgh can do. Nobody explicitly says that the rest of the planet is heading the same way as Japan (especially not on Wikipedia, without a reliable source), but there's a pretty heavy implication. This world even had immediately pressing climate problems, with ash and debris blocking enough sunlight to matter, until a cape managed to clear that up last year.
One might expect there'd be foreign aid when this happens, but everywhere else is dealing with their own Endbringer attacks. As far as the international world is concerned, Japan is over.
And the continuing disasters are having all kinds of unfortunate effects worldwide. Behemoth burns some oil fields, and cost per barrel jumps with all its normal effects. Leviathan wrecks harbors, and suddenly the Iowa car crop can only grow wheat. And that's without getting into what the Simurgh can do. Nobody explicitly says that the rest of the planet is heading the same way as Japan (especially not on Wikipedia, without a reliable source), but there's a pretty heavy implication. This world even had immediately pressing climate problems, with ash and debris blocking enough sunlight to matter, until a cape managed to clear that up last year.
from_scratch
Fucking hell.
Okay.
Cam needs help or at least recognition to do more than occasionally act as benevolent Santa Claus. Japan is near enough to a blank slate with a population that probably fondly remembers being a high-tech cultural center. He can start here. Who's running the place?
Okay.
Cam needs help or at least recognition to do more than occasionally act as benevolent Santa Claus. Japan is near enough to a blank slate with a population that probably fondly remembers being a high-tech cultural center. He can start here. Who's running the place?
wormcan
It's still the same constitutional monarchy as before. Political structures are among the things least affected by tidal waves. He can get the Prime Minister's name and the address of the new Kantei trivially.
The government might be less willing to listen to him than they should. For one thing, there are ultranationalistic minority parties who might want nothing to do with him on that basis alone. And nearly all parahumans, like most other people in a position to leave, left. For the last ten years anyone with powers has more or less always been a new cape in the process of getting the resources to leave by any means. The exceptions are the occasional visitors from the Russian parahuman underworld, who are rarely acting as Santa Claus.
Cam is of course both a foreigner and apparently a parahuman, but with what he's offering they better pay attention anyway.
The government might be less willing to listen to him than they should. For one thing, there are ultranationalistic minority parties who might want nothing to do with him on that basis alone. And nearly all parahumans, like most other people in a position to leave, left. For the last ten years anyone with powers has more or less always been a new cape in the process of getting the resources to leave by any means. The exceptions are the occasional visitors from the Russian parahuman underworld, who are rarely acting as Santa Claus.
Cam is of course both a foreigner and apparently a parahuman, but with what he's offering they better pay attention anyway.
from_scratch
Right then. He conjures up the recent email correspondences of movers and shakers, obtains their private email addresses, and sends them all mail in politely formal Japanese taking credit for the restoration of Kyushu and asking if there is anything else they would like done, no strings attached, he realizes this sounds too good to be true but when you can make Kyushus from nothing you don't have a long list of demands?
wormcan
It took longer than it ought to for anyone to confirm that they did get their island back. Once there's both confirmation that it happened and exactly one person claiming to have done it, everyone pays attention. Most relevant people would like to meet in person before Cam does anything big. Anything else big.
wormcan
Transport isn't quite as trivial as it used to be. If Cam can come to Tokyo, as many as possible of the important people will be able to meet him.