Falls City

America is closer to collapse than ever before. The countries of the rest of the world have resigned themselves to complete independence and trade is almost nonexistent- the oceans, due to the environmental crash, are unnecessarily dangerous and prove too hard to cross, even for large freighter boats. Antarctica is decimated. The current generation no longer remembers what it was like to travel internationally. Even the skies are limited, and air travel by plane happens rarely.

The largest American cities are either in ruins, like previous New York, or reshaped and renamed to reflect the inevitable social and economical shift that eventually got to each and every one of them.

Falls City is arguably one of the safest population centers in the country, with a static crime rate of 5.2% (5,200 people for every 100,000). This only accounts for violent crimes; other types of criminal activity are often caused by corruption within the FCPD or large crime syndicates spread hidden throughout the city. The FCPD are known to be highly incompetent. Nobody grows up in Falls City with the goal to become a police officer- it’s a job reserved for failures who still think they can make a difference if they just have the right intentions. 


A large power plant sits on the outskirts of the city. It’s highly radioactive and supposedly used for some kind of important science research, but the government says it hasn’t been activated in at least a decade after a minor containment breach almost poisoned the only clean water Falls City had left at the time. Many people still think the place is just a front for some kind of elusive underground complex, but admitting that is only really socially acceptable online. There’s still an air of pessimism around the topic, and it’s generally accepted that there’s a less than impossible chance of the city being radioactively incinerated. You learn to put it out of your mind if you plan on staying.



TECHNOLOGY

Many minor cosmetic enhancements exist in 2085. Things like hair dye and tattooing have been completely streamlined and enhanced. For example, you no longer have to go to a hair salon and sit through long hours of bleaching- a more convenient (but expensive) option is to get the color you want simply installed via a tiny microscopic chip at the base of your neck. 


You can imagine how complex this technology may seem, but advancements in DNA editing created a whole plethora of ways of subtly altering your physical body via manmade intervention. At first this started out with the scientific community slowly identifying new ways to combat rare genetic diseases like sickle cell; eventually developing various cures to cancer, which obviously caused a societal uproar. Governments particularly wanted this technology heavily monitored and controlled, but most scientists believed in the free transfer and sharing of any discoveries made and vouched for complete transparency when it came to saving real human lives. This was the ideal outcome, but one that sadly never came to fruition. The federal government seized as much DNA editing research as they possibly could and defunded science organizations until they were scrambling to fund themselves. Many were forced to either disband or sell off parts of their research in order to keep afloat. All the while, the federal government continued to develop the stolen research in private until they came out with a completely commercialized version of what once was something that could revolutionize the entire human lifespan. Those miracle cures to cancer and DNA editing sequences that targeted rare and painful diseases were put on the backburner in order to roll out something that could bring them in ludicrous amounts of money- basically, modern plastic surgery.

Now, people could come in for an appointment and simply install whatever kind of body modification they desired. There were limits, but anyone could change their eye color, hair color, skin markings… if the DNA sequence was something simple enough for the technology to edit, it could be altered. This is done through something called CRISPR-Cas9, which actually exists in real life. CRISPR-Cas9 is created through utilizing the natural defense that bacteria have against viruses. The bacteria take certain parts of the virus and incorporate it directly into their own DNA sequences in order to use its own systems against it, in turn effectively keeping the bacteria safe from any future infection. Using this basic structure, humans can take certain parts of their own genome (a segment that contributes to eye color, for example) and clone it in order to adapt and change it to their liking. 


All of this is then forced onto a tiny chip and inserted almost painlessly into the base of the neck, which is currently the most common location of installation. But just like vaccines, this kind of body intrusion caused all kinds of political arguments and many people still refuse to get any sort of body modification done this way because of this. All kinds of theories about the government using the chips as a way of mind control and subtle societal manipulation are out there- and with the constant distrust the government faces right now, something like that doesn’t seem too implausible. Scientists aren’t too fond of the technology either, even if they admit the idea is revolutionary. 



VEHICLES


Vehicle and transportation development has consistently stayed static for many decades due to the natural rise in bigger, more exciting technology. Cars still have no ability to fully fly or stay off the ground for an extended period of time, but many have simple hovers installed upon creation of the vehicle and the FCPD are its primary customers. Most citizens think the feature is almost entirely useless- it doesn’t really serve much of a function except for looking cool and intimidating crooks in normal vehicles during car chases.



Nobody really rides bikes anymore. They’re vintage.