Era: The Shock Settles In
Sunday, December 22, 1996 - Tuesday, December 31, 1996
Starts with: Aftermath of the
Los Angeles Riots
Ends with: The Flyby
Era Summary
If the days immediately after
TheChanges were when the world held its collective breath and waited for apocalypse, the remainder of December 1996 was when it started looking around awkwardly, trying to figure out whether to start breathing again.
The initial panic of
The First Sighting has come and gone.
Riots in major cities are being quelled and order is starting to return. The world hasn't dissolved, exploded, or played hosts to armies of angels and demons; people are starting to realize that there might just be life after Christmas.
Mages have really started to grasp their new powers. The
First Wave of theris has largely made the change into their new forms. And the news media, expecting vast tragedy, is coming up empty. Despite the human world's fears, the new forces shaping the world have yet to do anything truly ominous -- and, in fact, seem to be doing their best to keep events from spinning out of control.
As such, this is therianthropy's brief, shining moment.
It's still a strange and unsettled time, for theris and humans alike, but people are starting to look to the future again.
Major Events
None found.
Writing Tips
People took many lessons from the
Los Angeles Riots, but there was one thing that they generally agreed on: The nation wasn't going to fall apart overnight.
Theris' heroic and well-publicized response to the Los Angeles unrest was a relief to some -- somehow, a situation encouraging the worst of human nature had been reined in with minimum violence -- and a reality check to others who had forecast Armageddon the first time the fuzzy met the faithful.
Once the questions of survival and civic order were answered, though, more complex questions replaced them, and the crux of it was this:
What would be the place of therianthropes in a post-Changes society? It was a question that few bothered with in the first days, when nobody was certain there would
be a society to ask about ... but it wasn't a question that could be put off for long.
The Shock Settles In is largely defined by this question ... and the countless questions that sprang from it. With some theris acting like superheroes, what rules did they have to follow? Were there venues where human/theri interaction could be hazardous enough to restrict? Under what circumstances would natural theri capabilities need to be considered weapons? What additional services would theris need to deal with parts of life that the unchanged took for granted? Would standard medical care be sufficient for non-human bodies -- and would it be sufficient to contain any hypothetical diseases spread by theris and/or therianthropy itself?
With Redwing's group's heroics as a constant backdrop, most people feel obligated in this era to at least give therianthropes the illusion of respect -- and treating them with respect means trying to figure out how to deal with their needs and their rights. Of course, not everyone was bending over backward. Fundamentalists found themselves caught between theris' good public image and their own convictions of theris' Satanic origin. In this era, conservative leaders would be pushing at the boundaries of theri rights and laying the groundwork for the backlash after
The Flyby.
The full effect is much more subtle than the world-changing revelations of the first days. But there is much story potential here.
Stories Set In This Era
Other Associated Pages
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