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--- humans [2016/06/20 14:17] – created pinkgothic
+++ humans [2017/11/18 15:34] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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-Most **humans** in Nightshade have had their //curiosity disabled//. The Cheshires have contaminated water supply with what would best be described as 'nanobots' - but is usually called //"curiosity toxin"// by survivors that don't exactly have the means to verify how the substance functions, assuming for a moment that they have a theory about the absent emotion at all (and have //correctly identified// the absent emotion, even, as it's not something frequently amiss).
+<blockquote>Something about the composition of the world has changed. That's the first thing apparent to [[character:Laure Joubert|Laure]]'s senses - like a transition from a dream into lucidity, something not quite tangible sharpens.</blockquote>
+One of the first things the [[:Cheshires]] did when they came to Earth was to poison humanity.
+They could have destroyed mankind by infecting them with a slow-working virus. Instead, they opted for something subtler: The removal of human curiosity. Distributing a substance in the water supply((This was arguably an ironic move, given Cheshire aversion to water, but all the more enjoyable for them. By distributing their technology through the hated substance, it provided them with a way of 'proving' their dominion over it.)), the change was applied quickly - too quickly for the lucid ones to notice anything was as much as wrong, given the subtlety of the symptoms.
+Some humans are not affected:
+  * Humans subsisting on rainwater or directly from rivers, rather than water served by waterworks.
+  * Humans in regions that were overlooked (e.g. Antarctica).
+  * Humans not neurotypical enough for the substance to take effect.
+  * Humans that have been specifically chosen as unaffected for entertainment purposes.
+It's easy for Cheshires to reverse the effect. Presumably the substance consists of some kind of nanites that can receive instructions to undo their tampering, but it has yet to be analysed by anyone lucid. Amongst the lucid, a frequent (technically incorrect) term for the substance is **curiosity toxin**, in as much as it's been identified at all. (It's difficult for lucid humans to correctly identify what it was they were previously missing, let alone what caused it.)
+Having ones full lucidity re-enabled feels a lot like the transition from a dream to a lucid dream, or like waking up. There is no amnesia - the human hasn't forgotten anything that happened while they were under the influence of the curiosity toxin, though details which their lack of curiosity failed to commit to memory are of course amiss. This can result in jarring effects when realising, in a lucid state, that something that feels //very strange// now has been a constant companion for several days (see for example [[sessions:2016-05-30|Bastien's awakening]]).
+Having one's curiosity stripped, conversely, feels a bit as if someone were reaching into one's mind and peeling out the fundamental drive behind one's worries and concerns. It's rather soothing, all things considered. That said, Cheshires typically don't disable human curiosity after re-enabling it, since the human will remain aware of Cheshires from when they were lucid (though they may of course miss them occasionally if their attention is elsewhere).
+Curiosity-disabled humans are otherwise fully functional. Their subconsciousness is still fully aware of deviations in the world - they will route around damaged bits of road, for example, even if they don't stop to think about why the damage is there. Nonetheless, it's true to say that humans affected by the curiosity toxin are almost exclusively driven by routine. Matters not covered by routine - creativity, most strikingly - have practically disappeared in consequence of this.
+At time of playing, the curiosity toxin has been actively subduing humanity for **three months**.