(UA) The Zero

[Carl L. Congdon]

Slightly bemused by his lack of direction
Came to this world by Caesarian section
Chooses his clothes to match his pallid complexion
Now it takes him all day just to get an erection
Hey you, things aren't what they seem
Makes no sense at all.
                            Placebo, "Burger Queen"

It's horrifying how casually cruel people can be. How the
"to-whom-it-may-concern" violence common to large cities can annihilate
the human spirit. How the rejection by ones peers can slowly kill you
inside, driving you to violence, suicide....or the numbed half-life of a
shambling sleepwalker. How the iciness of parents who resent your
existence can reduce you to the spiritual level of a houseplant. There
are many out there who could tell you a long, sickening litany of the
scars endured at the hands of supposedly normal, loving, well-adjusted
people...if you could see them, or hear them.
    Dirk Allen met them, or a small cell of them under Chicago. Between
"The Greatest Secret of Them All" and "Dead Harlots of the Western Sky,"
Allen wrote a short story of people so crushed by violence, ignorance,
and lack of love and hope that they failed to register with people
visually, audially, or in memory. According to Allen, they congregated
in out of the way, abandoned building in extended, dysfunctional
families. Most of their time not spent on simple survival was spent
nursing old wounds, cursing the darkness impotently, shivering and
moaning, staring off into space, or turning on each other in fits of
rage, resulting in violence, rape, and murder. But sometimes they turn
their hatred and bitterness outward, against those who made them the way
they are, and then the true terror begins. How many murders are ever
solved, or even discovered? How many rapes are reported versus the
number committed? How many people end up spending a short season in hell
because they crossed someone they didn't know or remember? How many
haunted buildings actually are? When released, Dirk's short story, "The
Zero" was favorably compared to Harlan Ellison's "The Whimper of Whipped
Dogs" as an allegory of urban alienation. No one, of course, thought it
could be true.
    Dirk Allen knows better, and so do quite a few people in the Occult
Underground. And wouldn't it be nice to find a few of them, the perfect
assassins who would do just about anything for a little recognition, a
little respect, a little attention and maybe (God forbid!) affection or
friendship? Of course, finding one in the first place is damn difficult,
and you always run the risk of finding a Zero (singular and plural)
who's so far gone that s/he would torture and kill anyone who showed
him/her anything resembling attention or interest. Of all the Occult
Underground, it's rumored that only Jeeter has made any lasting alliance
with them...and anyone who hurt Jeeter will end up facing down an angry
mob of people s/he never knew existed. But lots of weird things are
rumored about Jeeter.
    The Zero generally look like human beings, except they always dress
in black (or go naked; after all, no one's watching) and their skin is
always pallid, no matter what their ethnicity. They always look
anorexic. All of them have 5 Failure marks in Self or Helplessness, and
may have more Failures elsewhere. They are tempermental to the point of
violent bipolarity. Establishing communication with one of them, let
alone any sort of relationship, is extremely difficult. This is because
they somehow never quite register visually....or audibly...or on
film....or in forensic evidence...or in memory, even among former
friends or relatives. The most disquieting of them are the children,
usually born of rape, who've never known what it's like to be a
"regular" human.
    Dirk Allen sure doesn't like talking about them. It might have
something to do with the fact that the 'leader' of the Chicago cell told
him, "You'll be one of us soon enough." Among Zero circles,it's the
nastiest insult that can be given to an ooutsider.

The Zero (aka The Forgotten, The Annihilated)
The embittered ignored

Points: 180-200
Body: 30-70
Speed: 30-70
Mind: 30-70
Soul: 5-15(max)

Annihilism: This is a Soul-based score that all Zero possess. It is
different, though, in the fact that it's uppermost limit is 100 *minus*
the Zero's Soul score. It represents how hard it is to remember the
Zero, find any evidence of his/her existence, or remember him/her for
any length of time. No one knows what happens to those Zero whose score
in this skill reaches 100% (Ascension, of  a sort? Or a permanent
annihilation?) Many in the Occult Underground would love to learn this
skill...until they realize what it costs. Use it to determine how little
an impression the Zero makes on the world around him/her. Note that
other Zero aren't immune to these effects. Note that the effects are
*always* on, unless the Zero dies. Some fun, huh?

--
Poets, priests, and politicians
Have words to spend for their positions
Words that scream for your submission
And no one's jamming their transmission...
And when their eloquence escapes me
Their logic ties me up and rapes me
 -The Police, "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da"