Highlander: The Game Is Up

[Ancient History]

Random brainscrawl of the day...

Grainy video. A European tourist or journalist, on his knees, bag over his head. A masked man angrily gesticulates at the camera, a flag in the background over an old tile mosaic - an abandoned mosque. You don't need to read the words scrolling along the bottom of the scream to get the gist. The blade rises, brown arms tense for a moment, then drops.

Lightning strikes.

There is an eruption in Cairo - an explosion equivalent to the eruption that buried Pompeii. And it all went on YouTube. Just like that, the Game is up.

It was hard to be an immortal these days - too much technology, IDs everywhere, to hard to carry a blade, conceal a body. The video sparks interest as it circulates the web but doesn't really turn into outrage until the first Watcher files hit the internet. Then comes scandal - arrests are made by Interpol, some minor public officials and immortal CEOs who thought themselves safe ensconced in their carefully hoarded wealth and positions, disappeared into secret prisons. Most of the remaining immortals strive to flee into obscurity, away from the needles and scalpels of doctors.

Sanctuaries are raided, libraries seized. The histories emerge, the nature of their "Game." The Gathering, the Prize, all the mythology that has accumulated around these "immortals." Incidents increase - an immortal monk barricades himself in a church in Rome, and as the police close in takes his own head - the Vatican is nearly completely destroyed, the pope and most of the cardinals killed. The crackdown increases; the cry to war "Everything that lives, must die."

Some fight back. Centuries of honing their skills have left immortals with a talent for survival. Infiltrating government camps, freeing those they can, freeing their quickenings when they cannot.

There are six free immortals left. They have just returned from the last bloody but successful raid, and take refuge in a safe house. With all the immortals in custody dead, they need only wait...years maybe, or decades...and people will forget. All about the immortals, the Game, the Prize...

...but somebody cannot wait. They feel the quickening as one of the last is taken, and draw their swords and axes in the dark. The six are now five.

The Game begins again

The Prize is life.

[Stahlseele]

Interesting idea at least O.o

[RobbyPants]

I like it. Is this another short story, or a setting for a game?

[Ancient History]

Neither. I just think that when you strip the noise and crapitude away from it, there's something solid about the Highlander concept. It's something you could tear down and rebuild forever.

Also, I love the idea of Jason Vorhees-style serial killer stalking the last couple immortals...all of whom think each other might be the killer, knowing that they're just a couple heads away from winning the cosmic lottery...how long before they turn on each other? After all, there can be only one...

[Blasted]

That's a really good concept. I wonder if you could do it without the Highlander license.

[Maxus]

I never understood what the Highlander Game was aimed at.

And my last name is McLeod! Seriously, I should have geeked out on this in High School. But alas, I did not.

So what's the Cosmic Lottery prize?

[Stahlseele]

mortality i think.

[hyzmarca]

Connor chose mortality because he wanted a normal life, but he didn't have to be mortal. One of the big things they emphasize is that if a bad guy gets the prize then the world plummets into darkness forever, do not pass Go do not collect $200.

As presented at the end of the movie, it's basically massive psychic powers, with global-scale telepathy being the easiest to access, but not necessarily the only power available. Connor, with no experience in using the Prize, was able to hear the thoughts of everyone on the planet when he concentrated.

There's an implication that this scales into global-scale mind-control if one were so inclined, with an evil Last being able to effectively rule the world forever.

[Ancient History]

I also like the idea that as you approach the Final Battle, the Quickenings get more catastrophic - until the final Quickening basically sends humanity back to the Dark Ages.

[Stahlseele]

which would on one hand be another reason for humans to jhunt and kill them, but on the other hand would have made them more appearant way sooner i guess, right?

[Ancient History]

Critical mass sort of thing; maybe after a while the quickenings start doing geometrically more damage - exacerbated by the immortals being hunted down.