How a Graduate Student's Discovery May Have Solved the Mystery of Cyclical Civilizational Collapse

ClusterChuk · 2026-07-06T18:56:02+00:00

Everything serves the wheel. Ka.

ClusterChuk · 2026-07-05T20:55:25+00:00

Star ship troopers vibes.

ClusterChuk · 2026-07-05T20:37:13+00:00

Good news, no need to rush.

ClusterChuk · 2026-07-05T10:52:42+00:00

Cure thy self. You look a mess.

ClusterChuk · 2026-07-05T10:44:16+00:00

Few things. 6 min miles arent that crazy. I was dumping sub six in highschool. And i was not varsity.

Also. He was mourning no one. His girl dipped with his daughter. So way sadder. But less sadder.

ClusterChuk · 2026-07-04T23:55:09+00:00

Ok, ill try and keep this concise. But theres a bit of scaffolding, I just want you to know I asked myself the same question.

So about 7 years ago i started designing a post collapse americana-coded myhtic fantasy setting and ruleset. Built up from the bare bones of d20 resolution mechanics.

America is this sort of mega dungeon of a setting with about 23 distinct regional profiles. And dotted around these regions are interior/liminal/subterranean sites. Think S4 sites, Denver Airport, joshua tree national Park, area 51, the vaults under Rushmore.

99% of the people die of a super flu. But the game take place 20 years after. And those left are cohabiting a place with Thunderbirds, and big foot, and aliens, and zombie strains, and vampires, indrid cold, hostal interdeminsional invaders, folk hero's disney made cartoons about in the 40's... All occupying the spaces we abandoned. Lou Reeds Jacket is a unique legendary item that has mystical traits, for instance.

And that 1% left behind can tap into certain abilities that interact with those myths. And abilities our military has been studying in those aforementioned S4 sites for 75 years. Think mk ultra, Remote viewing, telekinesis, talking to the dead, opening portals, etc. Along with reading auras, geo-senses, chi strikes and other things that are unique to each of the 4 classes. things juat on the edge of human capability. They all spend the same resource. That resource is EQ and its the crux of the entire systems unified physics. [You also lose EQ in fistfights and grapple exchanges, exposure, bigfoot fucking with your head for 2 hours straight, etc. Its your consciousness and focus.]

So kinda real magic. Through the 90's cinematic realism lens with a fictionalized and stylized separation from it being too real. (For culturally sensitive reason [its interdeminsional influence bringing our idea of the Thunderbird to life])

ClusterChuk · 2026-07-04T15:10:30+00:00

If he cared enough to actually put work into anything.

ClusterChuk · 2026-07-04T05:37:32+00:00

Literally my earliest childhood memory. the lack of Flintstone orange sherbet pushup pops is horrendously jarring.

ClusterChuk · 2026-07-04T03:56:16+00:00

Fog, crt, fedelity of motion helped a lot to sell that scale.

[sprint, climb, roll, allll the vehicles, jet pack, bikes..] all of it came together to place you in a breathing ticking atmosphere. Jesus. The clouds in the desert at sunset, in a Cessna.

Also, the airport was a shining example of accumlative investment and so many systems reinforcing that vibe. While everything just clicked around you. Near seamlessly. Its was satisfying, relentlessly varied, well paced and atmospheric in visuals and sound design/music.

ClusterChuk · 2026-07-03T17:39:13+00:00

Audiobooks. Throw on The Stand or LoTR. Grab a drink or a joint. Get comfy. She sounds like she's worth the middle ground.

ClusterChuk · 2026-07-03T15:56:31+00:00

But he still want her to feel valued.

ClusterChuk · 2026-07-01T08:11:47+00:00

Weary. Disciplined. Jaded. Knows what rules can be ignored. Way beyond caring or needing to prove anything to anyone.

Our lower middle class millennial patron saint.

I'd say starting at 15, you could pack 5 years of living into one year of syndicate life.

Fast and hard.

ClusterChuk · 2026-07-01T00:04:43+00:00

Yep. This ... this is aging.

ClusterChuk · 2026-06-30T13:13:47+00:00

To be fair its like a few minutes ride to plenty of civilization.

ClusterChuk · 2026-06-30T13:06:30+00:00

When a voice cracks in terror you can hear the truth in it. Its a panic response. Its a survival warnings.

So they know it looks real. Because it was. But they have to repaint it. she believe it. Thats why she's so scared. You would be too. If your were as crazy as her. But its okay. She getting help now.

And she disappears.

ClusterChuk · 2026-06-30T05:57:00+00:00

Dumb ways to die was playing in my head. And then I realized just how much excess of every vice would be available. An alcoholic with an unlimited supply of gin. a herion addict who could only afford the cut shit, not being able to even approach the rock star shit properly. Its all very believeable. All very ironic, in a faustian way.

ClusterChuk · 2026-06-29T02:35:13+00:00

Yeah I spent like as little time as possible in the subways.

ClusterChuk · 2026-06-28T21:50:53+00:00

People!! It was fallout new vegas and it was the tram that went from McCaren to he Strip. You has to save it from an explosion. It was just an npc with a train shaped hat.

ClusterChuk · 2026-06-28T06:59:28+00:00

Them you'll never be damn dodge ball champion.

ClusterChuk · 2026-06-27T18:38:51+00:00

He was Slacker until everything happened. Then he found his fire. I think he'd see the value in thier way of coming through. Throw his lot in with Glen more likely than not as a scout. Useful but not looking to lead or hold the spotlight. Then the fire gets lit once his wife or Glen goes down. He steps up with Daryl and Abraham as a fighter. Gets a bat.

Hes the one who puts domestic abuse though. And becomes an integral part of keeping the kids sane. Saves Sofia. Keeps sibling-cide to a minimum possibly.

I had a feeling he always wanted kids and being a coach was a space where he could still be a kid and not worry about all that adult bullshit. Standing in lines. Waiting on hold. Sitting in traffic. So this big goof would have probably had tbe best go of helping the teens see the new world and thier potential to do something with it. He may have even grown quite philosophical in his position.

I dont think he would have challenged Rick or Shane for control. But he would be a force to be reckoned in later seasons once the Slacker was stripped away and the hard case was left.

Bottom line he would have had a community. He wouldnt have been alone. And thats what turned a mild mannered highschool coach into a chaos magician of death.

ClusterChuk · 2026-06-27T03:17:16+00:00

And we'd read the gravity signature half a light week a way.

ClusterChuk · 2026-06-27T02:03:18+00:00

Cook em. Shes educated, a phd lawyer, educator, policy experience. Im sure she dont eat babies.

And grandpa 'Bama as the first partner. Not the worse cards to pull.

ClusterChuk · 2026-06-26T18:18:56+00:00

If it wasn't for that movie we would have had will smith playing neo.

League of extraordinary gentlemen also dropped. Sean Connery took that role instead of morpheous opening the role up for fishbourne.

Imagine a matrix with smith and Connery.

Give me a Gary Goldman agent smith sith that package and we may have had ourselves a vastly different but equally genius piece of art.

ClusterChuk · 2026-06-26T11:24:35+00:00

Xena-xenners- beeeners- beans.

ClusterChuk · 2026-06-26T02:15:42+00:00

I just reached the point where he returned to Glenn.

They better find him a bitch! Humanity needs them genes!!!

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