Sunday, 19 July 2020

Rise of LOKI Session 1: Test Drive

Characters:
Arthur - Amputee Bullfighter
Kirato - Cowardly Chef
Hiro - Disfigured Dog-Walker

Norway, in Summer
Having unloaded from a pair of flights to Norway earlier, three refugees in ragged clothes sat in the back of a snowcat as it slowly trudged through a blizzard, towards an unknown destination.  Hiro was at first enthusiastic, humming a jaunty tune, but gave into the dull monotony after the first 15 minutes of a multi-hour journey.  None of them were sure why they were here, and the driver wasn't saying a word.

Arthur
Arthur used to be a bullfighter in Spain, and took a sick sense of happiness from the matador's "art" and the cheer of the crowd.  Eventually, his luck ran out, and a bull gored his right leg badly enough that it had to be amputated below the knee.  Not to be deterred, he went right back into the ring after recovering, only to lose the rest of the leg to the same bull.

The economic damage of climate change had overwhelmed Spain, as it had so many others, and Arthur had been in poverty for several years before coming to a UN refugee camp looking for aid.  He participated in a "job placement program" involving a battery of tests.  His test results were kept secret, and he was transferred to Norway, with no idea why they would send him so far away.

Kirato
Kirato had immigrated from Japan to Hong Kong as a child, where he would spend the rest of his life in poverty, struggling to get by with his abusive parents.  As an adult, he found work under Shiawase Corp as a line chef, making just enough money to pay it all back to his employer through rent and food.  He survived the brutal Corporate Wars by not being important enough to matter, but was forced out of Hong Kong when it fell.

He found his way to a UN refugee camp in mainland China with only the clothes on his back, and his most prized posession: a Gameboy Colour with a copy of Pokemon Blue.  After some time working as a chef in the camp, he was transferred to Norway, for some reason.

Hiro
Hiro was, at one point, a professional dogwalker in Tokyo.  An industrial accident had left him with a scarred face, which he hid behind a ceramic mask.  Once the city was mostly underwater, he found himself a refugee, and, a decade later, had nothing left but the mask.  As with the others, Hiro ended up in a UN refugee camp, took an "aptitude test", and ended up on a plane to Norway the next day.