“Time to clock in.”
The words inhabit your mind as you prepare yourself for another day of the grind, taking a deep breath before the storm. You didn’t have time for a proper breakfast this morning, except just a bagel and a cup of the many multi-billion dollar corporate brews of coffee available with just a click on your phone. It’s good enough, at least it has to be - how else are you going to get through the day? The same cup of coffee, the same time of day, the same as everyone else. It’s a Wednesday and you only need to survive the other half of the week before you get two days where you have the energy to do what you really want; at least that’s what you tell yourself in your caffeinated stupor. Never truly awake. Never truly asleep. After your shift ends it finally hits you.
“How did it get like this?”
You never aspired to be another cog in the machine, working grueling hours for stagnant paychecks while the boss of your boss spends his weekend at an exclusive country club while slamming back martinis. You tricked yourself into thinking that this was temporary, and that soon you’d set aside enough to start your life for real. Unfortunately, this is where a lifetime of going with the flow got you. You look to the other faces in the crowd as you go your everyday commute. They’re all just like you, dreaming for a change but resigned to their lot in life.
“No more.”
It’s time you got angry. You’ve always told yourself you were different and now it’s time to prove it. You had dreams and ambitions once, and someone needs to wake up the masses and make them realize the same. As of now you’re waging a war against the machine, and your weapons are art, attitude, and audience. The big suits have been sitting pretty for too long off your blood, sweat, and tears, and now it’s time to put the heat on them. There’s only two ways for you to go now, will you be the voice of a generation or fade into obscurity?
The Taygete Project started as a collaborative work between some of the wealthiest corporations in the world, developing a fully modernized harbor city integrated by its self-sufficient online network and governed by a board of the companies themselves. Everyone around the world is free to apply to become a resident of Taygete after extensive screening and paperwork, after which those accepted are assigned a unique ID in which they are required to have at all times for any legitimate transaction. Much importance and encouragement is placed upon participation in Taygete’s online social media and network service, with the city promoting popular residents via algorithm and moderation while silencing those that express thoughts deemed distasteful. “A city run for the people, by the people” is the motto in Taygete, followed by “and while you’re here, enjoy a nice cup of Average Joe™.”
In current times, the corporations will boast that the Taygete Project is a phenomenal success while in truth the wealthiest in the city have played the system by their own rules to remain on top. The less fortunate have been shunted aside by gentrification and impetuous policies. “The Suits,” as referred to by the lower classes have become so out of touch that they do not even have to look at the poor, and laws are but mere suggestions for those who have money. Every day is a battle to stay relevant, with people finding very quickly how hard it is to make a name for oneself when they are but a drop in the ocean. Those that believe life to be easier when complicit join the thousands of expendable applicants for the same job for a chance to earn bread crumbs, while others lash out in the form of crime and vice.
To make things stranger, word has spread throughout the city of supernatural and occult happenings. Considering how blurred the line has become between fact and rumor in the high-speed feed of information, nothing can truly be confirmed in the wave. Perhaps some are testing the waters to see what they can make stick, or perhaps they’re looking for something greater to believe in...
Maybe you’re an aspiring influencer trying to gain a following. Maybe you’re a desk jockey working the third double-shift in a row this week. Perhaps you’re a grunt for a private military company or an associate for a family in the criminal underground. Hell, you might even be a millionaire finding out that all your assets have been frozen as a casualty of corporate warfare, and now you’ve got to climb back up to the top. One thing’s for sure, someone richer and more powerful than you is pulling the strings and it ends now. Feel free to get creative with your origin, but keep things within the realm of reason.
After you’ve decided where you come from, determine your “X-factor.” There’s something about you that breaks the mold and makes you truly unique - something that gives you an edge over everyone else. This can be anything from a marketable talent to a literal superhuman ability. Note that this will be up to my deliberation and discretion for approval, so again, keep things reasonable. Though superpowers exist, I’d rather it not be the primary focus of the story.