Weeding Out Trouble: Daniel Obrove’s Average Life in Kudzu City; Or, Being Ordinary in a World of the Extraordinary; Or, Typical Human Male Prey; Or, Powers and Abilities and the Lack Thereof
Welcome to Kudzu City! Surrounded as it is by a hostile and barren wasteland rife with all manner of hybrid beast, monster, and madman, it can be said that the humanoid settlers that first founded the city are performing admirably. Their success is aided by several organizations of metahumans, aliens, and a handful of multi-billionaires taking a ‘hands on’ approach to their philanthropy. Superheroes, one might call them. The world that Kudzu City was established upon
is incredibly dangerous, of that there is no doubt, but the horrors are kept in check by these gods-among-mortals, allowing life to proceed normally. The struggle between hero and monster has become so commonplace in Kudzu City that residents hardly bat an eye when buildings are leveled and traffic halted by a battle in progress. At least the city still stands, right? The heroes keep the monsters scattered outside the city’s borders from dealing any real harm. Life goes on.
Daniel Obrove is an investigative journalist for Kudzu City’s leading news publication,
The Low Valley Journal, and he isn’t totally satisfied with the state of things. There’s a
complacency among the citizens of Kudzu that the reporter finds incredibly odd, considering all the horror that surrounds them. The
Journal has long since ceased active coverage of villainous schemes and monster attacks, convinced that the public isn’t going to be interested in news of occurrences which are so typical. Daniel has proven his merits to the paper though, and is allowed to continue to write stories about conflict between the city’s protectors and their enemies, though his colleagues wish he would focus his talents elsewhere.
The heroes, too, are for the most part wary of Daniel’s work. Most of them would rather not have a civilian getting in the way of their tussles with the menaces of the badlands. Many were happy when it was announced that the
Journal would no longer feature wide coverage of the attacks, content to be allowed to do their jobs without reporters getting in the way. Others are wholly untrustworthy of Daniel, afraid that he’ll learn and let slip their secret identities for an easy scoop. Still, some of the city’s heroes appreciate his hard work, though even those who see some value in Daniel’s stories are skeptical of how necessary they really are. After all, Kudzu is safe! The badlands are kept under control, and any threats breaching the city’s borders are quickly dispatched.
Daniel considers it too important that each event is covered in the paper, even if no one cares to read about them anymore. The people are overly accepting of extraordinary occurrences, and their guardians are too confident that any threat that comes their way will be beaten. What Daniel is trying most is to get people to understand is that the threats from the badlands are
changing. Each denizen of the wastes that hazards Kudzu City is different from the last. It seems only a matter of time before the lands beyond Kudzu’s borders prove to be too much for its protectors. Daniel Obrove hopes to find a pattern to each incursion, to catalogue each monster and villain to appear, and to hopefully make some sense of the madness, before it’s too late.
The Unquiet Metropolis: A Brief Discourse on Society and Survival on the World of Kudzu City; Or, Questions Left Unanswered; Or Additional Information
Kudzu City now serves its galactic arm as a prime industrial center, as well as a pit stop for interdimensional travellers, but the city rose from much humbler beginnings. One hundred and fifty years ago, the Kudzu Mining Corporation set up operations on the planet that would come to be host to Kudzu City. The badlands existed even then, and have always been teeming with hostile monsters, but they were not as big of an issue for the mining colony. Back then, only the occasional strange beast threatened the settlers, but as the city expanded it garnered more and more attention from the monsters.
Kudzu City’s rash of superheroes began when a mild-mannered miner was transformed through contact with a mysterious mineral into the geokinetic
Earth-Stirrer. With his help, the colony gained its foothold on the hostile world. Word spread of the city’s need for defenders, and more and more heroes either arrived from off-world, were born of necessity, were created by accident, or came to be via a plethora of other origin stories. Different heroes joined together into various teams and alliances, and as a result, a complex bureaucracy has formed. With so many heroes seeking glory, the chance to answer a threat must be lobbied for by each team. Daniel Obrove has tried suggesting that the heroes take the fight to the wastes. That way, every hero would see plenty of action. For various reasons, not least among them the fact that eliminating every danger to the city would put the heroes out of a job, the reporter’s advice has been ignored.
Kudzu City also boasts a growing scientific community dedicated to studying each unique creature that comes from the badlands. Daniel Obrove is unsatisfied with study of the creatures themselves, convinced that a better use of the science institutions’ time would be to stage hero-led exploration of the badlands, to determine the
source of each threat. It doesn’t help that the villains that attack the city usually gain their powers through exposure to a monster, and none are more at risk of falling to depravity than the city’s scientists. Kudzu City’s scientific community has a sordid history of researchers dropping out in order to pursue a life of super-crime. Both the science organizations and the villains they inadvertently create have declined Daniel’s request for an interview, usually with maniacal laughter from either party.
There are small villages and outposts outside of Kudzu City, founded by the brave few that attempt to explore the wastes beyond. The settlements are mostly left to fend for themselves as far as attacks go. Even the most powerful hero can become overwhelmed in the heart of the wastes. Luckily, the creatures ignore these smaller settlements and appear to be mostly interested in antagonizing the much larger Kudzu City.
Aerial travel across Kudzu City’s planet is impossible due to flying monsters. Interstellar trade is accomplished thanks to heroes who are able to escort ships into Kudzu City’s airspace. It is only a matter of time before a creature appears which is able to survive in space, however.
Because Kudzu City’s world is for the large part an arid dust bowl, agriculture and food production is seen to on one of the planet’s moons, then moved to the city. Water scarcity is also an ongoing problem. The Kudzu river was polluted by the manufacturing sector, although city researchers are working on a means to purify it. The coastline is miles away from Kudzu City, on the far edge of the wastes. A pipeline to the ocean is unfeasible, given the inevitable cost of its defense. Heroes with the ability to generate drinkable water are employed by the city to circumvent these problems for the time being.
The Hither and Thither Expanded; Or, Drawing Back the Curtain!
The news reporter Daniel Obrove is the alternate universe analogue of the wild magic-employing sorceress, Danielle Obrove. He is not her former life, her blood relative, or a close acquaintance. He's the Obrove if Obrove were a completely mundane journalist in a far-from-mundane city of powered individuals and intrigue, while
the witch is Obrove in the form of a powerful spellcaster with a nasty habit of going totally bonkers every now and then.
To get the scoop on other Obroves, be sure to pick up an issue of their alt list,
here.
There are more "Danalogues" to come, eventually, so we kindly ask that you...
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