Day #287 - Michel Truong

The boy that played in the rain, a true Francanamese named young boy, became a pirate.

He dominated the seas in his stealth boat, he was the most feared pirate in the European waters, as his vessel was mad entirely from plastic and had non reflective matte paint it was nearly impossible to spot and when running in silent mode on the Dyson bladeless propulsion system it would travel swiftly and silently across the seas targeting unknowing cruise ships and bulk container tranports, these were easy prey as they had no human controllers.

Michel had a band of 5, no more and no less.

Michel (the Captain)

Bunk (his cabin boy)

Chef (the galley man)

Artill (the weapons expert)

Jammie (the engineer)

They called themselves ‘the Starters’

Day #286 - Dmitri (from Paris)

If he had a choice, he’d have the old France back, the one he heard tales of that had been passed down from generation to generation, in his mind they needed a new revolution but his people had such low population numbers due to centuries of ‘breed out’ performed that it meant that the French were really a people that no longer existed, gone the way of the New Zealanders and the Australians, now known only as Indonesia.

Dmitri knew nothing of the world though as all he knew was the ways of the French aristocracy, he longed to be a simple baker in a Francanamese Bread Shop selling pork rolls but his conscience wouldn’t allow him, he was French after all.

He performed the only task that he could to keep the French legacy alive, to train these ‘invaders’ in the ways of the French aristocracy, which in itself was tarnished as it hadn’t progressed or developed at all in over 400 years.

Dmitri was a bitter person and his job didn’t help, he could see he was trading away his history but his patriotism to the greater nation and the fact that he couldn’t get any other employment meant he had no choice.

He remembered the young boy from his neighbourhood Michel Truong and how he used to play in the rain, Dmitri was never allowed in the rain.

Dmitri would often find himself envious of Michel but then his inner pride would take back control of his emotions.

Dmitri decided that he would not place this burden upon another soul and decided to have himself sterilised so that he could bare no offspring.

Upon Dmitri’s passing the authorities sent a sample and a request off to Jairo’s facility in Brazil.

Dmitri was reborn.

His legacy lives on.

Day #285 - Mathilde Nguyen

Back in the year 2222 the then French nation decided that it needed a more significant place in the Asian market. To try to set this up they looked at several possibilities but eventual fell upon Vietnam as there were strong ties to their past and a good history between the two nations. Over the next 20 years they developed the first ‘Marriage of Nations’ on Earth, this is where the two economies merged, the Franc and the Dong became the new currency called ‘the Francong’ and the nation became known as Francanam and the people as the Francanamese. These changes were also implemented into the French Provinces of Quebec and New Caledonia. Francanam had become an instant player in the world economy, they had the power and prestige of the French combined with the dogged tenacity of the Vietnamese. The existing French aristocracy always thought that they’d have dominance over their ‘lesser’ countrymen but after the first 150 years they would see themselves reduced to less than 5% of the population. The aristocrats couldn’t breed like their Vietnamese brothers and became the absolute minority. They only place they still controlled to a certain degree was the diplomat roles as they were more readily accepted by other Europeans, but this too change in the next few decades, the Vietnamese language had gone the way of Latin and French was the dominant tongue.

Mathilde was born and raised with the ultimate goal of being the Francanamese Ambassador to the US, she was multi-lingual (as all diplomats needed to be) and was schooled in Paris, from the age of 6 she was schooled in the ways of the office, her mind was based on strategy and bullshit, the two key factors of any diplomat.

Her etiquette teacher (a descendent of the French aristocracy), Dmitri (from Paris himself) taught her the correct manner for all things from high tea to military nous, she had to learn to carry herself like a true Frenchman with, poise, arrogance and a disdain for anything that didn’t better the proud nation(s) of Francanam.

She nailed it and the Francanamese nation maintained a strong footing in the most complex nation on Earth.

Day #284 - Bubbles

Kenny 'Bubbles' Appleyard is one of 4 boys, the youngest. His mother was a music teacher and Bubbles was her only son that had an interest in music. Music is one of the only static things left in the world and practitioners are held in the highest regard as live music died out centuries ago being replaced with electronic synthesised computer generated music.

To get a band to play live music would be something short of a miracle in the common world as there were only a handful of bands in the US, they were difficult to book and expensive as hell.

Bubbles was the leader of Appleyard 5, a 5 piece Jazz band. Their instruments were relics worthy of a museum.

Their sound was like nothing that you could synthesise, it was so organic and full of body.

Fame didn't really follow the band as their only appeal was live music and only in certain circles, i.e. ones that could afford to book them and also afford the license to allow them to play.

In saying that though, the Appleyard 5 was booked solid all year round.

Bubbles had plenty of stories about the different gigs that they'd played, the most famous of which was for the Francanamese Ambassador's birthday but Bubble's favourite gig was the one that he played for a little 15 year old boy, the payment that he received was second to none as it resulted in the most beautiful instrument he'd ever seen, little JJ Up.

Day #283 - Delores Upright

Delores met Dudley when he was the local rep for the pharmaceutical giant, he was only 30 and so pretty, he really took care of himself.

He romanced her right off her feet and they were married in no time at all, although they were 10 years apart in age it didn't seem to affect their relationship.

But after about 5 months of marriage Delores figured out that she was a trophy wife.

There purely as a show piece for when there were functions to attend.

Dudley kept rising through the company ranks and she was left at home to raise the children and on occasion entertain guests.

The first two children were biologically Dudley's but the next three had different fathers. Of course Dudley knew about these indiscretions but he didn't care, she'd done her job and he was now the head of operations in Brazil.

Delores' appetite for men knew little bounds, she was a bit of a nymphomaniac, in fact with the cocktail of prescription drugs at her disposal which would cure any ailment she had no fear and would pretty much have her way with whomever she chose too. The 3rd child's father was Ortiz, he was a Plumber whom Delores hired to re-pipe her abode, it was a 2 month job that took two years, Ortiz wasn't a very good plumber but he was very good in other departments. The 4th child was the product of a whim, Delores went to buy a new vehicle and decided to do the salesman to get a better deal and a few extra options, she got the bonus plan. The youngest child whose name was Jazz Jones Upright is by-product of an affair she had with the saxophonist in the band that she got to play her eldest son's 15th birthday party.

Kenny 'Bubbles' Appleyard is the father of Jazz Jones Upright, or as he affectionately calls him "JJ Up"

Delores remains a trophy wife but with the aid of the drugs remains as beautiful in her 50s as she did in her 20s, she spends her days attending to her gentlemen callers.

Day #282 - Dudley Upright

Dudley was a natural capitalist which made him the perfect head of operations for Pfizer Brazil, Pfizer is one of the world's oldest companies now over 600 years old. How did they survive? well they have a brilliant marketing team, they concentrated their core business on niche products targeted at people's vanity.

It started with the erectile disfunction drug, this was developed by accident, they were searching for a drug that would assist sufferers of lung cancer by allowing the lungs to breathe air that is very thin but like so many inventions before it it had an interesting side effect. A prolonged erection. It became an instant best seller and a global marketing dream.

The next product was the MPB+ a cure for Male Pattern Baldness, the only negative side effect was that it made you impotent, of course you could just take the best seller and be back in business in no time.

Then came the breast enlarging pill, guaranteed to enlarge 2 cup sizes after the first week, they cleverly put in that you needed to continue taking the pill otherwise you'd return to your old original deflated self.

Erectile enlargement closely followed and it was bundled with the best seller giving a larger longer session.

Pfizer pretty much shut down their other operations to concentrate on this niche market as it only grew stronger in times of need and was a huge profit margin.

They still remained developing new drugs but apart from the cancer vaccine they developed and sold to all world governments there were no new significant discoveries.

Dudley was sent to look after Brazil because Brazil was where you could do what you please without fear of backlash.

Dudley prescribed to a number of the company products and for a man of 60 he looked in his mid twenties. His wife Delores whom lived back in their palatial manor in Louisiana raising their 5 children was a pin-up class lady, with an insatiable appetite for what Dudley couldn't provide her with from afar, he'd purchased her a companion doll and whilst this settle her hunger most of the time she'd been known to have gentlemen callers and even dabbled in the hired help. She had the dirtiest pool in the known universe.

As Dudley was hooked on vanity he was always juiced up to the eyeballs on a cocktail of Pfizer's best, he lost track of reality and the only thing that mattered to him was setting up Celebrity endorsements for the companies products and further development of the range. He setup Jairo's baby farm for merely that purpose, if he could supply celebrities with their own little clone of their own vanity he'd have their endorsements for life and everyone knew that with the state of the world's media having the celebrity endorsements meant the profit margins went through the roof, Pfizer's best product in Brazil was Jairo.

And Dudley owned him.

Day #281 - Jairo Santos

Jairo as he was preferred to be called was always strong academically and wasn't in the slightest way possibly endowed with adequate motor skills. He got picked on and bullied all the time. His father decided at an early age to get him into self defense classes. Not that karate crap or in fact any Asian fighting, in the arrogant Brazillian way he knew there to be only one true martial art for his son and that was the only thing that a descendent of João Pereira dos Santos could practise.

Jairo was awkward and uncoordinated but like his academics he persisted. He took great pleasure in learning the history of the 'Secret Fighting' style, known nowadays a 'Sexy Dance Fighting' Capoeira was one of the pure things left in his country.

So, he studied and studied and studied. He obtained his doctorate at the Pfizer University of Rio, Pfizer had setup base there to tap into the copyright and patent free 3rd world country back in the late 22nd century. This was the world's top University when it came to genetic engineering and Jairo was top of his class, he was also now an accomplished Capoeira Mestre and had already taken over the local academy, he was 24, a Capoeira Mestre (the youngest in the last 300 years) and a Dr of Genetic Engineering.

What Jairo did next would change his life forever, he wanted to start his own Gym but lacked the startup capital, so through his contacts at the university he got in touch with Dudley Upright, the Brazillian head of the Pfizer brand, they liked to take the best graduates into their employ and would pay quite handsomely. Jairo had a plan though, they would allow him his Gym and he would allow them a genetic factory which he'd run gratis. There were only two conditions, firstly that he could run his gym every night and secondly that he worked alone.

They agreed.

In his first year Jairo manufactured 137 fetuses for Pfizer for which they would perform their testing, as Jairo had cloned himself he didn't see the harm in it. In his second year he became the Celebrity Baby Farm that he is today. He doesn't get any of the profit whatsoever but he does get to keep his gym going which is all he cares for.