Nea Karlsson || DBD Survivor

lore

Nea is of Swedish descent, a tagger and a bit of a troublemaker. She started rebelling when she was 16, she dyed her hair black and cut it in a way she liked it. In her early teens, her parents thought she lacked that thing that makes everyone else "normal". She may have gone too far when her friends, not thinking well, dared her to tag the old asylum. She was never seen again, and now tries her best to survive the Entity's dangers. Nea grew up in the small town of Hjo in Sweden. She had a happy childhood even though her mom and dad worked hard. As the opportunity to move to the US became a reality she started acting out. Her parents didn’t really pick up on this as a reaction to their move. Nea was forced to leave her friends and life behind. Nea shied away from what her parents considered “normal”. Instead she took refuge in skate parks, and her tag “Mashtyx” was seen more or less all over her new hometown, and Nea made a sport out of tagging government buildings. Finally Nea’s parents became used to Nea disappearing for a few days on end. As she’s nimble and almost catlike, she’s able to evade deadly dangers. Years on skateboards has proven worthy training. And keeping her head down, avoiding the fuzz can be applied to all dangers. The only question is whether she has some interest in not giving up.

memory 683

Nea skates over to Falls City park, searching for her friend Casey but doesn't find her. She skates to her home and her mother says she's in The Narrows handing out water bottles with a grassroots organisation calling themselves Life Drop. "Life Drop? The Narrows? What's Casey gotten herself into this time?" "You know Casey, probably some save-the-bees organisation that just doesn't understand the way the world works." No such thing as the American Dream anymore, only the Corporate Dream and the Corporate Dream and the American Dream ain't the same thing. She's read about The Narrows... supposed to be the poorest and most polluted district in Falls City. Maybe it's because it's the poorest that it's also the most polluted. Maybe it's because of corrupt yet legal policy against those who can't afford the big lawyers to change or challenge the corrupt policy. Paper mills. Car factories. Toxic waste facilities. All dumping on the land and water. A few politicians set the dollar price to poison the environment and an entire community of blue-collar workers pay the price, the ultimate price, with their health and lives. Nothing new. Same old, same old. The fat-cats and bureaucrats keep doing it because they can. So long as there's money to be made in poisoning the world, someone will be there to make it. That's everywhere, every city she ever read about, and Falls City ain't no exception. She used to care, but then there was too much to care about, and so she decided it was easier not to care anymore. Funny how that happened. All she cares about now is skateboarding and finding the impossible place to tag. Whatever, maybe she'll find something to tag in The Narrows. She skates down the street following Upper Falls River toward the poorest and most polluted district in Falls City.

memory 684

Funny how that happened. All she cares about now is skateboarding and finding the impossible place to tag. Whatever, maybe she'll find something to tag in The Narrows. She skates down the street following Upper Falls River toward the poorest and most polluted district in Falls City. Memory 684 "What are you and the mums doing?" Nea approaches Casey and several middle-aged women handing out water bottles and cases to local residents. Casey turns to Nea. "What are we doing? Anything we can to help." Nea laughs and nudges Casey. "Let's go to the park." Casey nudges her back. "Not today Nea, this is important... another day..." Nea watches Casey and the other women handing out water to the poor. "How many kids at home? Three? Okay, here's a dozen bottles. Four? Okay, take an extra container." "When is our water going to be safe?" "The hell if I know." "Is it dangerous to shower? To do the laundry?" "How bad is the water?" "Pretty bad. The water is killing our children. We need a centre to treat the poisoned." Nea listens to all the talk with horror and disbelief. She's never really had to think about something as basic and essential as water and now... she's thinking about water... polluted water... and the poor in her city. They're saying it's the worst case of Minamata disease in the country. She doesn't know what that is... Minamata... but it sounds bad, real bad. "What's Minamata?" Casey looks upset or disturbed as she hands out another container of fresh water to a resident. "It's what happens when people are poisoned with mercury." Nea sighs, feels for the residents, but knows shit happens and there's just not much you can do about it. "We can't save the world, Casey? What's a few containers of bottled water gonna do?" Casey freezes and gives Nea a look she doesn't quite understand. It's a moment before she responds. "Yeah, well, maybe we can't save the world, Nea, but we can sure as hell make it a little bit better, and that's good enough for me."

Memory 685 "Can't save the world but we can make it a little bit better and that's good enough for me." Nea thought about Casey's response the entire night as she researched the horrors of the Minamata disease. Deterioration of motor skills. Walking and speaking degenerate. Random convulsions. Paralysis. Children born with twisted limbs. All permanent side-effects of mercury poison. Mayor cut a deal with a beverage company. They rerouted good, healthy water from a clean lake for a bottled water facility that bought the rights to the water and connected The Narrows to the old river system. They thought no one would notice. They thought it wouldn't be that bad. They thought wrong. When mothers began losing their unborn children and everyone began to lose their hair fifty-thousand residents began to notice. They noticed, they complained, but no one did a thing. Business as usual. Nea takes a deep breath and releases it slowly. She's never really had to think about water and now that's all she's thinking about

Memory 686 "Come see this creepy, abandoned factory I just tagged." Casey shrugs. "I have no time for your ego." "Ego? What are you talking about?" Casey shakes her head. "Big deal, Nea. Your name on a ruined wall, or whatever, who cares. Why not stand for something? Say something? All that time and energy just to say you tagged a scary place. Whoopie. Big fuckin' deal." Nea scrunches her face. She feels under attack. "What's going on with you?" Casey shrugs. "I don't know... if you'd at least piss off a tyrant, you would have done something with your... your... art... if that's what you want to call it." Nea doesn't say anything. She doesn't know what to say. She takes her board and heads down to The Narrows. She stares at the overgrown and abandoned factories lining the river. They came. They profited. They left. It's so stupid and it's so simple. You poison the water you die. No money or power or law will change that.

Memory 687 "The Zyderr production mill. That's where I'll do it." They dumped crap in the river for years destroying the camping and fishing industry all over the country. Twenty years later The Narrows dies a slow, agonising death and there's no justice and there probably never will be. There isn't even an investigation or a hospital or a centre to treat the poisoned. The environmental agency says everything's fine, but it isn't. It really isn't. No one wants to say its mercury poisoning. To admit to mercury poisoning is to admit fault. To admit fault is to help The Narrows and pay for a cleanup. The city doesn't want a lawsuit. No one is moving or doing anything and yet children are suffering and dying. Children are suffering and dying... and no one is doing anything... and Nea can't stop thinking about them. Takes a special kind of evil to poison children. Something about the whole thing makes her want to get involved, real involved, like her friend Casey. Maybe she should tag those so-called public servants who only serve themselves.

Memory 688 Nea skates to the side wall of the bottling factory. They make glass and plastic bottles for fresh water and dump their chemicals and poisons in the river. "How fuckin' stupid is this place? How stupid is the city and that bastard of a mayor to allow such a thing?" She searches for the perfect spot, the perfect surface to tag. She sees a spot high up in the open. "That should annoy them." She sneaks to the front door, sees a camera, spray paints the lens of camera, begins to tag the wall. They poison water to provide bottles for good water. Absurd. Ridiculous. Unbelievable. Nea finishes her good work with time and paint to spare. She searches the premises and finds a large white garage door. Smiles. "Perfect." She'll tag her name nice and big for everyone to see. "That oughta piss off a tyrant as Casey says." The cause is actually getting to Nea and she wishes her art would piss off the factory and the city enough for them to clean up the river. Wishful thinking. "They came. They profited. They left... left an entire community poisoned. Gotta be laws against that and maybe even a death sentence for those who knowingly poison children."

Memory 689 "So you tagged their building. Big deal. Means nothing. You got your name out there... that's what you did... but what does that name stand for?" Nea doesn't know how to respond to Casey. She's never really attached a message to her street name like others. It's just not something she thought she'd ever do. "It's not about a message. It's about art." Casey says art is the message. "Art is rebellion. Some call it preaching." "Who said that? Who made that up?" "The corporations, Nea... of course they did. Get artists scared of using their art, of saying anything against their abuse and they win. Centuries ago artists protested tyrant kings and those tyrants did all they could to own or stifle their art through fear of poverty or fear of death. Nea... kings still exist... they do... just in different ways. Today the kings are CEOS and their kingdoms are corporations and some are good kings and others... not so good... and the not so good ones have found other ways to keep artists in line. Scare them in school. Tell them not to make a statement. Tell them to stand for something. Appeal to all. Just entertain. Entertain and inspire but don't say something. Don't be political. Nea... everything is political. Not to say something is to say something. Turning your back and ignoring corruption is a choice, a political choice of indifference." Nea sighs. She doesn't know. She's not sure. She's never really done it before like the others. It always kind of rubbed her the wrong way. Casey scoffs at her tag. "Stand up for something or stand for nothing. Your choice as an artist. Your political choice."

Memory 690 "Come with me." Casey jumps on her board and leads Nea into The Narrows. She leads her to a home where a father helps his son eat food in his bed. "He's only eleven. Never had a chance. The only mistake was trusting those who were supposed to protect him. He's dying. Mercury poisoning. Before, people in The Narrows died of natural causes... now it's all mercury poisoning." Casey sighs and shakes her head. "You sign your tag over the culprit's garage door and all you've done is advertise your street name. I heard your bullshit about not using your tag for a cause. What's the use of a tag then? What the use of a voice if you ain't gonna say anything? Ain't gonna stand up for something. Art is an act of defiance. Not an act of profit. Not an act of fame. Say something, Nea. Let the world know what's in your heart. Someone just might listen and do something. Lend your voice to the voiceless. Not rebel without a cause. Rebel with a cause."

Memory 691 Nea thinks about what Casey said as she lies in bed staring at a glass of water. "Casey's right", and Nea remembers a time when she wanted to say so much as a street artist. Somehow that got stamped out of her. She tries to remember how it got stamped out of her. The only thing she can think about is... school. No messages. No politics. Nothing. Just inspire and entertain. Yet corporations have messages and politics. Politics of selling. She remembers being told not to use art for politics yet who does that benefit? Kings. Tyrant kings trying to own voices or stifle voices by creating an inner self-editor that begins in school. "Keep politics out of it!" "Keep politics out of it? Everything is politics even the act of trying to stay out of politics. Politics... fuckin' politics... fuckin' corrupt mayor... Bastard didn't just switch good water for poison water... he sold the good water to a corporate king. Absurd. Ridiculous. Unbelievable." She never heard of such a thing. "No one should own the rights to water. No one. Water belongs to everyone. To all living things." Nea stares at a spray paint can on her dresser. She thinks of something to say. Something to make people stop and take notice. For the first time in a long time she doesn't care if it's a message or a political statement. Screw her high school art teacher who made her feel insecure about making statements with her creations. "Water is health. Water is strength. Water is a human right... Water is a human right... a basic human right.

Memory 692 Nea is amazed at how many poor communities shower, bathe, cook and do their laundry in poison water because a few kings bought the rights to their good water. It's absurd. Ridiculous. Unbelievable. She's never felt so involved in a cause before and she likes the feeling. Possibly her first cause since school tried to stifle her voice with fear of making mistakes... of saying something... of having a message... of going against the corporate dream. Not the American dream, the corporate dream. Nea surfs the net and reads about the kings and their scramble for fresh water all over the world. She's happy to read it's not going so well. In every country where these tyrant kings tried to own fresh water they were kicked out by the people. Yet these stories are difficult to find. Kings losing battles to peasants is rarely breaking news or news at all. Almost like the kings want to make sure no one gets inspired to fight against them as they desperately scramble to buy up all the water they didn't poison. They want it all. They want to sell it. And they don't want peasants getting in their way. Water is everything... Owning water is like owning life. Owning water is deciding who lives or dies. And that's what the kings and the mayor did in Falls City. They condemned and poisoned an entire community and did nothing to help them. And did nothing... Nea hopes in a higher justice, one that can't be owned or bribed, and she swears she'll turn the mayor's new luxury car into a work of rebellion. Can't change the world, but you can make it a little bit better. A little bit better... that's enough for her.