In the not-so-distant future, chemical engineers invented Sensitive Electro-Empathic Dust, or SEED. This miracle nanomachine is the first implementation of applied metaphysics theory, our first foray into the realm of magic. This telekinetic particle responds to thoughts and mental commands, and is able to manipulate its environment with millions of times more force than its own weight. This technology revolutionized everything and rendered nearly all other technology obsolete. Why bother putting dishes in a dishwasher when Seed can scrape it off for you? Why invest in construction equipment when Seed can do all the heavy lifting? Why lift a finger to paint a portrait when Seed can paint it for you? Nothing else was needed. Life became luxurious, and people came to depend on this miracle particle.

Then, the Mutation happened.

Suddenly, countless people found themselves utterly unable to use it. Billions of lives dependent on the miracles of Seed dove headlong into abject poverty and perished overnight. Politicians, desperate to hold onto power amidst the chaos, needed a scapegoat. They found the perfect opportunity in the Gifted.

The Gifted were immune to the mutation. They retained their power over Seed when everyone else had lost it. Rumors abounded that they'd caused the Mutation to make themselves special, and the surviving national leaders blamed them for everything that happened. Thus began a multinational manhunt for every surviving Gifted in the world.

Not all nations participated in, or even approved of, this turn of events. Some people who still had a scrap of morality left decided to save the lives of these Gifted instead of destroying them, and they started an "underground railroad" (so to speak) to transport these refugees to safer territory.

In this RP, you can play as a Hunter who tracks down the Gifted to arrest them, as a concerned citizen who helps the Gifted, or as one of the Gifted themselves. You're not necessarily stuck to one role; depending on how the story proceeds, you may switch freely between them. It's your life, and these are your decisions to make.

The story will begin on the day before the Mutation.

[u]Lore[/u]
[hider=Nations]
[hider=People's United Socialist Democratic Republic]
As you can imagine from its name, this country is a Happy Place where everyone is Free and Equal and there is No War or Poverty. Except, you know, when their Seed is gone. Then it becomes a madhouse. It's supposed to be ruled by the Benevolent Supreme Leader, Prime Minister Lambert Wulf. "Supposed" to be. In reality, it's ruled by three groups - the Prime Minister's cabinet, the Defense Division, and the Official Intelligence Committee. The latter two are in shambles after the Mutation, but are quickly regaining ground.
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[hider=Aetherion]
Also known as the Aetheri Republic. It was formed only a few hundred years ago by idealistic colonists who wanted to escape the overbloated, materialistic governments of their youth, and their descendants have since decided that they wanted to rule themselves. They're a constitutional republic, the first of its kind in a thousand years, and quickly became the most prosperous country in the world. The Mutation was only a minor setback for their economy, simply forcing everyone to retool and fish out old patents. They've been a beacon of hope for the rest of the world - that is, the parts of the world NOT hell-bent on destroying the Aetheri anyway.
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[hider=Technology]
[hider=SEED]
Sensitive Electro-Empathic Dust. It's "sensitive" to your brainwaves and "electrically" "empathizes" with them to act on your thought-commands. Each nanoparticle is powered by your mana, the energy that binds your soul to your body. With a little focus and a lot of imagination, you can make them do anything you want. The only limit is your mana supply. Seed is pretty efficient with mana, but if you use it continuously for big projects, you'll be dead in a few hours. Side effects of extended mana use include dizziness, nausea, and out-of-body experiences. Eat a full, healthy meal and get a good night's sleep to replenish your mana.

Most people have a chip in their brains able to store programs for controlling Seed in more complicated ways. If you don't know how to make a car, don't worry! Somebody somewhere does and put it on the internet for you to download. Download the program to your chip by connecting to the internet Seed Hub and start making cars to your heart's content. The brain chip should come pre-loaded with an internet connection program.

A typical day in the life looks like this: You wake up. If there's a set time you want to wake up, you instruct a few Seed to wake you up at that time the day before. If you didn't implement any bodily temperature regulation instructions for your Seed, then you would use it to pull off the blanket. You could make breakfast in bed if you can correctly imagine the exact locations of all your food and cookware, but it's easer to perform visually, so you'd get up and go to the pantry where your Seed-preserved food supplies are kept. Want eggs for breakfast? Telekinetically grab a plate, split an egg in it, and watch as the Seed cooks the egg for you until it's done just the way you want it. Take a seat on the couch and hover the fried egg by your mouth while you take small bites of it and watch your Holo-TV. Bored? Grab your printer board, pour on some printer powder, and activate an automated Seed program that creates a third-person action game for you with real, touchable 3D models. You won't need a job because the government distributes food to your door every morning, so you can spend your day however you want until bedtime.

For most people, that could mean anything from orgies and one-night-stands to drinking parties, gaming sprees, holo-TV binges, or more productive pastimes like sculpture, painting, or philosophy. If you're one of the more educated citizens of the country, you may be a game developer, architect, or media producer.
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[hider=Everything Else]
Cars, planes, phones, etc. were all rendered obsolete with the advent of Seed. Why drive a car or fly a plane when you can use Seed to carry you? Why bother with a cell phone when you can trigger a Seed in another person's head and talk into their minds directly? Heck, you could even plant nutrients in your bloodstream and dispense with eating (but people like eating, so it's thankfully not a common application). That said, there are still a few technologies that are indispensible, like shelter for example. And Seed particles, amazing as they are, can't clothe you all by themselves (unless you have a ton of the stuff and know some good clothing programs). People built vast mansions for themselves with intricate designs and clever tricks using Seed, all of which became a nuisance (at best) since the Mutation. Fashion designers, likewise, tried to be clever with Seed, and created things like TV Shirts that could play movies and write messages. Naturally, everything became awkward since the Mutation, and people whose shirts were stuck saying "Fuc- --" and "Se-y Bab-" were understandably infuriated.

That's not to say all traces of older-style technology have disappeared entirely. The introduction of Seed was a gradual one, and many people tried to fuse it with their old technologies before they realized its full range of capabilities. Older folks were witnessed using Seed to load clothes into a washing machine and push the button, rather than using the Seed itself to strip off the undesired particles. You get the idea. There are still cool Seed-powered plasma rifles, hot Seed-powered cars, and nifty Seed-based multi-tools lying around; you just have to find them. Protip: You won't find them in the core cities of the P.U.S.D.R.; government legislation made sure of that.
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In some respects, the premise of this RP resembles the anime Cross Ange, now that I think about it...

Who's interested?