April 24, 2035 - 5:57pm - Your apartment in Pittsburgh
*** You are Joe, a 27 year-old blonde dude. You have an older brother, William, who is serving in the military right now. His wife Amber is a middle-aged blonde doctor in Pittsburgh. ***
Everything went to shit a long time ago, but people are just now realizing it, you think to yourself as you debate whether or not to go out with friends. It's a Friday night, and your usual gang is over at Robbie's, probably already getting drunk and stoned.
The evening news will be starting soon, however. You've been doing a decent job at keeping up with current events.
Here's what you know so far:
There is no government, the economy has pretty much collapsed, and unemployment is the new epidemic to go along with crime and poverty. You actually lost your job at the steel mill recently due to circumstances out of your control. The state of affairs is a lot like those old dystopian films like Soylent Green or The Running Man.
The only thing keeping some people from blowing their brains out are these radio and TV programs ran by an organization calling itself Orion. You guess they could be related to FDR's fireside chats you've read about in old history books as a kid (that was before educational funding was abolished). Every evening, some dipshit comes on the air and tells the world that everything will be okay, and that all we need to do is trust in Orion and they will fix everything.
6:26pm. The news is over. Same old shit. Some prostitute went fucking insane and shot up an entire stairwell full of sleeping homeless people in downtown Pittsburgh. DOW is down a record 1100 points. For the third time in a row, the Olympics are canceled.
On now, is Orion's fireside chat. They might be able to lift your spirits. But the guys at Robbie's are waiting, and you really need to get fucked up in light of your job loss.
