OK, another background for another leader, ripped straight off of Diamond Dogs, but heck the intro ripped off Rod Stewart anyway, so I guess it's a backhanded compliment... I'll let you have fun spotting all the references:
*****
Man, we mustve smoked some freaky . .. .. .. . that night. Its still fuzzy in my head. Only Jack could have held a concert in that bunker on his estate at the end of the world. Grey concrete and post-industrial chic meshed with bright colours and freaky graffiti and silks and cushions like a harem. He calls it Usher. He flings his doors open and tells everyone to come. And they do. Its weird though cos Jacks got his own standards. You, you, not you, you with the come to bed eyes, especially you! Some jerk turns up dressed in black like a funeral and Jack chucks him out.
This aint no wake, goes Jack Im not at home to the miseries. I'm going down banging. Always face the curtain with a smile. So it goes.
And the guests? It must have been every bozo from here to here to New Mexico. That Thai woman constantly puffing her cigarette. Well I guess she wasnt going to have worry about lung cancer. Some failed general from Columbia turns up with the finest grade A coke. Hes handing it out on trays on top of dwarves and eunuchs, for chrissakes. Some scientist with a hairdo like Einstein discussing Wittgenstein with a German girl who looks like shes stuck in the eighties. Theres a cop bent down at the feet of a priest. I dont even want to say what they were up to but the bloke in the corner almost threw up over them.
Screw it, goes Jack, you cant take it with you. So it goes.
And Jack picks up an umbrella and rings a large gong like at the start of those old movies and out comes all this wine and food. Caviar and quails eggs and Beaujolais; all that stuff you saw at those celebrity weddings in glossy magazines, only its real and its all for us.
1961 Margaux, goes Jack and he pulls out the cork with his teeth and spits it on the floor. Then he shakes up the bottle and turns it upside down and opens his mouth and guzzles down everything that fits in his throat. So it goes.
Theres golden drapes nearby and Jack rubs his hands down them provocatively and starts singing. It all opulence and extravagance and no-ones bothered any more. Before long everyones on the floor, throwing cushions at one another. Theres feather flying here and there and young lovers are pulling off their clothes and letting all their flesh hang out. Must have been like Roman times. The band just keeps on playing. Theyre all dressed up like some gig on the Titanic.
Party like its nineteen-ninety-nine, goes Jack, conducting a band using an... unorthodox... baton. So it goes.
And then theres an alarm bell and warnings and beeps and buzzes, and this great metal door starts closing over the entrance hall, grinding and thunking as it goes, and Jack puts on a mask and tells us that Red Death is about to arrive and wouldnt we like to see the whore of Babylon before the end and a telly comes on showing the world in flames and he leads us in a chant.
Leonard Bernstein! Leonard Bernstein! Leonard Bernstein! So it goes.
And we all brace for the impact, clutching the ones we love the most. Only it dont work that way. Seems whoever built Usher had a sick sense of humour, cos it didnt fall after all. It stands right up to the world and blow a raspberry in its face, but were all to wasted to care.
And the next day weve got the hangover from hell. But it was worth it. So it goes.
*****
Image:
http://www.solarnavigator.net/music/music_images/Ziggystardust.jpg
Basic concept: An eccentric Rock Star who ends up leading a tribe of survivors who were in his bunker at the time of the Scourge. Should be relatively unpredictable, ideally having Creative and Aggressive traits. All his comments in the diplomacy screens should be lines from rock songs (e.g. "War? Huh? What is it good for?" or "Help me if you can I'm feeling down")
Possible City Names: Graceland, Neverland, Bohemia, Metropolis, Purple Love Palace, Birdland, Highway 61....
) can be removed:
