What had begun as a psychedelic vision of nudie bars gone mad snowballed into a staple of turn of the century entertainment and adventure. "Total Depravity" was first installed as an experimental web site with full interactive capabilities. What it became was the most financially successful franchise of night clubs (and day clubs) in the history of the world. The chain catered to every primal want and need, every perverted nightmare and delicious fantasy. Every kind of hallucinatory desire, stimulation and derision, it called on the homicidal crazy and the euphoric numb. The country embraced it like candy canes, whips and chains, sugared insane. It was the club-med of the working, fucking class. It was the prostitute's salvation and the pimp's legitimacy. The drug-dealer's home out of the rain. It was what everyone wanted - and what they were willing to pay for.
And the checks started rolling in.
The combination of an actual, physical place of misfortune and an entire genre of pop-art set the world reeling. It was a complete revolution, and it was patented.
The actual mutants would be at the openings of clubs, films and coffee-houses, famously giving out autographs and posing for gory pictures with psychotic-feigned smiles and laughing eyes. The latest in experiment. The latest in lime. Reporters dug up the histories, the lesser seen members, the periphery. Plakke was found, to his chagrin, somewhere in Montana. The life he had carved out for himself was eaten up by his ill-gotten past. He was an instant celebrity. The 'recluse' of the group.
Mike was constantly having his picture taken while trying to mow his grass. The 'normal guy'. Wife and kids. Sporting goods store owner. Everyone just knew he was trying to keep out of the way, surely a driving force behind the whole movement. He ended up moving to Canada.
Somebody found a picture of Shannon and called him up at Harmony. 'Never heard of them,' he replied shortly and transferred the call to Ed Wolters.
Anderson and Lathers, stars of "Late Night Gas Patrol" came out of obscurity with smiles and make-up. They did a talk show circuit for about a year and made a movie based on the short story. Steve Buscemi played "Joe the Dead". It was never released.
Jhasen and Ben moved to New York and became instantly celebrated street artists in the tradition of Bisquat and Artaud. Their poems turned to plays and Broadway eventually shrugged its dramatic shoulders and gave them a home.
Bates and Nate had started an iconoclastic software company that flourished when the Mutant connection had been realized. What was being seen as 'experimental' was immediately seen as 'visionary' and they were soon at the top of the stock market and the year's hottest bachelor-geeks. They each bought two new pairs of pants.
Sally became the pop-princess of the new decade. All of the references to her as the mother's whore came true, she denied it only enough to tease the media, to stroke them. She began a career in painting and acting, working out of Boston and getting her masters in linguistics. 'What an odd major!' everyone would say, admiringly.
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