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Earlier this week, @KorpsPropaganda did her own wonderful thread on this, but I think I want to muse a little on why I seem to be thinking about helixes so much these days. https://twitter.com/KorpsPropaganda/status/1024845734640640001
I mean, everyone can already guess the surface stuff. It is *fun* to be the bad guy once in a while. I didn’t actually know I was into half of its themes when I first properly met Karen, but it took about fifteen minutes for her to bring me around on them. There’s more, though.
The Korps, at its heart, asks two questions:
First, "What can I offer you that you’d trade the world to have?"
Then, once you’re hooked, "What would happen if I just kept feeding your darkest, most selfish desires?"
First, "What can I offer you that you’d trade the world to have?"
Then, once you’re hooked, "What would happen if I just kept feeding your darkest, most selfish desires?"
This is an oversimplification, but I firmly believe that, on some level, everybody has their price. That price may not be money, specifically, and for some things the price may be effectively infinite, but as a species, we are born to make trades. It's just what we do.
For many people, all you need are either the RCGs or the way the Korps will hand out body mods like nobody's business. They'll shape you, body and mind, into who you want to be. RCGs sorta accidentally turned out to be smartphones that cure your depression; how can you refuse?
(In hindsight, it’s not really a surprise that so many trans folks have flocked to the Korps, or discovered themselves to be trans after significant exposure and exploration.)
Woo, tangent. The point is, the Korps will continue to dangle carrots in front of you until you start biting. Once they know your favorite flavor, that’s when the fun begins.
Counselor Balina Dakós is an extreme example, both in and out of fiction. I am still working on telling her origin story, but she was originally tempted with revenge; trifling things like fixing her hand were just perks of taking the position.
Hardly a noble or a unique start, but as time went by she kept finding juicer carrots deeper in the organization, and more and more readily became the monster the Korps wanted her to be. By the time she was the terror we all know today, nothing of her old self remained.
The Korps has vague aims of world domination. Whether they would be good for the world as a whole is an open question, and one that honestly should never have a concrete answer. They are villains because that is how they are positioned, and heroes don't conquer the globe.
However, their methods are, even if one is sympathetic, completely amoral. Often downright evil. They'd love to work with you, to get you to sample their tasty produce and lead you into the bright and shining future.
But they won't hesitate to get the axe if you won't play along.
But they won't hesitate to get the axe if you won't play along.
The fun that comes from playing in this worldset, at least for me, is in the journey that you go on by thinking too long about those two questions. Self-actualization by examining your deepest, darkest pits. You can't fight your demons if you don't know them.
(Okay, to be honest the *real* best part is getting to be the person dangling those carrots, but shhhh let's keep that a secret for now.)
Someone boosted these late at night, so I'm setting this tweet to go off again at a reasonable hour so I can think about how much this has changed in the last couple of years.
