Creative Concepts From The Collective Conscience
This franchise, For You and Me, was largely inspired by the writings of Margaret Atwood, who painted an incredibly disturbing picture of the United States under a uniquely American kind of authoritarian rule, and the dystopian film Elysium by Neill Blomkamp. The more utopian alternatives presented in our series are inspired by the fiction of Ernest Callenbach, and the very real struggles that influenced the political philosophy of Abdullah Ocalan. As American children of the 2000s, we have been exposed to terrorism, shootings, war, state violence, and the collapse of the safeguards of democracy within the first twenty years of our lives. For You and Me is a 'zoomer' reaction to the digital age, late capitalism, post-colonialism, globalism, and the strange cultural revolution we find ourselves in as the 'periphery' of Western society makes its voices ever more heard.
Following the collapse of the United States in the 2020s, the world has reorganized from nation-states into competing military-industrial monopolies. Without the domination of a single super-power, the United Nations has taken the role of world hegemon. The militaries of Earth are united under Central Command, an executive body governed by a council of the most powerful regional alliances and a General Assembly that recognizes stateless members. Only the wild republics that emerged from the collapse of the United States remain independent of Central's authority.
In 2112, the human population has grown to fifteen billion. While technology has maintained civilization, climate change wreaks havoc on much of the world. Millions flee to off-world colonies owned by CosmoCorp, a multi-national conglomerate headquartered on Mars. The expenses of immigration to the colonies can be paid for with 50 years of unpaid labor, a contract that is genetically passed on to the workers' children if they die before their contract ends. The UN maintains a global welfare state and a stringent environmental recovery on Earth by importing asteroid minerals and exporting heavy industry to CosmoCorp's colonies.
The story begins with a series of devastating terrorist attacks on Earth by the First Colony Alliance (FCA), which opposes any UN-controlled colonies outside of Earth's orbit. Dr.Ayati Kyala, an American by birth and one of the few to escape a CosmoCorp' contract, survives an attack on her orbital laboratory. Kyala is introduced to Evergreen, the self-aware battle AI that has defended Pacifica for nearly 100 years. Evergreen and Akler explain that they need her help to stop CosmoCorp from solidifying the largest mass enslavement in human history.