"The government's basically run by Houses now - the corporations. Whatever country's got the House with the best military engineering, usually, gets to be king of the mountain." Thus, in the South, Hapsburg is ruler, and the President and cabinet are more puppets than anything else. You pander to the weaponsmith to stay at the head of the global table. It's a joke, really, and everyone knows it, they just aren't saying it. As for the question one it's origin -
"Evolved naturally, no scientific hand in it. If it was left alone, probably would've kept evolving and spread, evened everything out." It was sort of a miracle, really. Which is maybe what led people so much into believing it was there for them to exploit alone. Like the ill were given this gift in the form of human sacrifices, and it was wasting it to do anything but put them under the knife, for greater prosperity.
And so the cramped, over populated cities continued to grow taller and wider, and the gap between the privileged and downtrodden stretched. Everyone now just a bit more desperate for the all cure that KN carriers provided. Andyr's head tilts, rolling the summary over in his head, and eventually shrugs.
"Something close to that, yeah. If you're poor and you need a new liver or something, you can sign a contract with one of the Houses, but that basically makes you their bitch for the rest of your life. Cities're so packed in anyway, the slums are more a hive for illness than anything else, so if you're born down there you're pretty much screwed." But he wouldn't know much about how the rich live, other than what he'd already said. What he's seen of them has been bits and pieces, when the Hapsburg staff was brave enough to pull him from his cell and put him around the public. Not a common occurrence - it typically doesn't end well.
no subject
"Evolved naturally, no scientific hand in it. If it was left alone, probably would've kept evolving and spread, evened everything out." It was sort of a miracle, really. Which is maybe what led people so much into believing it was there for them to exploit alone. Like the ill were given this gift in the form of human sacrifices, and it was wasting it to do anything but put them under the knife, for greater prosperity.
And so the cramped, over populated cities continued to grow taller and wider, and the gap between the privileged and downtrodden stretched. Everyone now just a bit more desperate for the all cure that KN carriers provided. Andyr's head tilts, rolling the summary over in his head, and eventually shrugs.
"Something close to that, yeah. If you're poor and you need a new liver or something, you can sign a contract with one of the Houses, but that basically makes you their bitch for the rest of your life. Cities're so packed in anyway, the slums are more a hive for illness than anything else, so if you're born down there you're pretty much screwed." But he wouldn't know much about how the rich live, other than what he'd already said. What he's seen of them has been bits and pieces, when the Hapsburg staff was brave enough to pull him from his cell and put him around the public. Not a common occurrence - it typically doesn't end well.