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HelpRe: Albus Snape Dumbledo Future Congrats-Sign Up's
in reply to a message by Albus Snape Dumbledo
UN: britto08
DH: Nicholas Aurelius Greentree (21)
DW: Anna Kathryn (nee Sterling) Greentree (21)
Living in the city of Briar, Virginia in the country of United States of America.
Enjoy!
In the year 2210, the world is both a simpler and more complicated place. In the century-and-a-half before, medicine and technology had leapt ahead and diplomacy had made great strides. This led to many extremely good things: cures for virtually all diseases, conflicts being handled without war, the gradual reversal of environmental damage done by humans and near-elimination of pollution. And yet all these advances were revealed to come at high costs. For one, people simply weren't dying. Average life spans had increased to 100 plus years, which led to a huge spike in population. While couples with more than two children were increasingly rare, great-great-grandfathers were still around. Strict limitations on development meant that people crowded into established cities, with many towns that at the time of their last expansion held perhaps fifty thousand people now forced to hold twice that or more. By 2140, the world population was over 10 billion; even with all the advances and some expansion allowed, there simply weren't enough resources to go around. Earth had simply gotten too full. Crime rates rose for the first time in generations, and poverty rates were staggering. In this same year of 2140, the phenomenon known simply as The Dying Years is estimated to have begun. As the name implies, the decade between 2140-2150 saw death rates not even the Black Death in the 1300s could top. But it wasn't sickness that took the people. Crime rates skyrocketed as desperation took hold of the world population. Drug use especially exploded, with people foregoing the expensive designer pill drugs for cheap old-fashioned ones like crystal meth and heroin. Too few doctors and horrible living conditions meant more people died of simple infections, accidents, and injuries than had since the early 1900s. Riots and protests that turned ugly killed hundreds of millions. But most heart-wrenchingly, the biggest killers were outright starvation and what have been termed "acts of despair." Suicide, accidents caused by things like botched self-abortions and self-injuries, and even euthanization of babies and young children by parents who couldn't bear to see their children suffer killed billions of people worldwide. At the same time there was a freefall in birth rates, with an estimated half of the population miscarrying or electing not to have children. In the decade between 2140 and 2150, the world population had plummeted to around two billion people.
By the time Nicholas and Anna were born in 2189, the world had changed significantly. It was a world of huge dichotomies--the cities remained incredibly technologically advanced, but the majority of people outside them scratched livings from the earth, hunting and foraging and farming where they could. Even the poorest homes had a television, but electricity often broke down. Literacy rates were higher than ever before, but schools were often only one or two classroom per grade because there simply weren't enough children to fill more than that. In the cities extravagent fashions and body-modification are everywhere, while in the country people generally cycle clothes through family and friends until they fall apart. In this new emptier world, people married younger (average age going from 35 to 20) and had more children (generally between 3-5). But again, there is a silver lining. Jobs and space are more available, as is healthcare and even higher education. Anna and Nicholas, who met and fell in love in high school, both went to college though both were extremely poor. Anna is now training to be a doctor while Nicholas is a teacher. In college, however, the vast differences between the haves and the have-nots, the cities and the rural areas, are starkly highlighted. Both feel there is little need for this in such an empty world, but neither is sure how to change it.
In this world, classic names are in vogue, as well as flower and word names.
DH: Nicholas Aurelius Greentree (21)
DW: Anna Kathryn (nee Sterling) Greentree (21)
Living in the city of Briar, Virginia in the country of United States of America.
Enjoy!
In the year 2210, the world is both a simpler and more complicated place. In the century-and-a-half before, medicine and technology had leapt ahead and diplomacy had made great strides. This led to many extremely good things: cures for virtually all diseases, conflicts being handled without war, the gradual reversal of environmental damage done by humans and near-elimination of pollution. And yet all these advances were revealed to come at high costs. For one, people simply weren't dying. Average life spans had increased to 100 plus years, which led to a huge spike in population. While couples with more than two children were increasingly rare, great-great-grandfathers were still around. Strict limitations on development meant that people crowded into established cities, with many towns that at the time of their last expansion held perhaps fifty thousand people now forced to hold twice that or more. By 2140, the world population was over 10 billion; even with all the advances and some expansion allowed, there simply weren't enough resources to go around. Earth had simply gotten too full. Crime rates rose for the first time in generations, and poverty rates were staggering. In this same year of 2140, the phenomenon known simply as The Dying Years is estimated to have begun. As the name implies, the decade between 2140-2150 saw death rates not even the Black Death in the 1300s could top. But it wasn't sickness that took the people. Crime rates skyrocketed as desperation took hold of the world population. Drug use especially exploded, with people foregoing the expensive designer pill drugs for cheap old-fashioned ones like crystal meth and heroin. Too few doctors and horrible living conditions meant more people died of simple infections, accidents, and injuries than had since the early 1900s. Riots and protests that turned ugly killed hundreds of millions. But most heart-wrenchingly, the biggest killers were outright starvation and what have been termed "acts of despair." Suicide, accidents caused by things like botched self-abortions and self-injuries, and even euthanization of babies and young children by parents who couldn't bear to see their children suffer killed billions of people worldwide. At the same time there was a freefall in birth rates, with an estimated half of the population miscarrying or electing not to have children. In the decade between 2140 and 2150, the world population had plummeted to around two billion people.
By the time Nicholas and Anna were born in 2189, the world had changed significantly. It was a world of huge dichotomies--the cities remained incredibly technologically advanced, but the majority of people outside them scratched livings from the earth, hunting and foraging and farming where they could. Even the poorest homes had a television, but electricity often broke down. Literacy rates were higher than ever before, but schools were often only one or two classroom per grade because there simply weren't enough children to fill more than that. In the cities extravagent fashions and body-modification are everywhere, while in the country people generally cycle clothes through family and friends until they fall apart. In this new emptier world, people married younger (average age going from 35 to 20) and had more children (generally between 3-5). But again, there is a silver lining. Jobs and space are more available, as is healthcare and even higher education. Anna and Nicholas, who met and fell in love in high school, both went to college though both were extremely poor. Anna is now training to be a doctor while Nicholas is a teacher. In college, however, the vast differences between the haves and the have-nots, the cities and the rural areas, are starkly highlighted. Both feel there is little need for this in such an empty world, but neither is sure how to change it.
In this world, classic names are in vogue, as well as flower and word names.
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