Curio

Intro

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Or anywhere else in the world. It all began with three things:

1.) Mankind's mastery of science.

2.) Mankind's habit of pushing boundaries.

2.) Dinosaur DNA.

Dinosaurs have long captured the attention of humanity. Any information regarding the ancient beasts was aggressively pursued. Any fossils were violently fought over. Pop culture adopted the light of wonder, awe, and fear they saw dinosaurs in. There were countless movies and stories about dinos.

Eventually, scientists were able to hatch a hybrid dinosaur. It was a long road, but upon marrying the genetics of modern-day creatures and the ancient beasts, it was possible to create a living dinosaur.

There were also Hollywood adaptations warning against reviving the creatures. Very popular adaptations from what I understand. But that was a long time ago.

A very, very long time ago.

There were no problems controlling the dinosaurs. Even the biggest, scariest ones were very carefully monitored and controlled. There were outbreaks of animal rights activists fighting the system. However, just as could be expected, the new industry instantly became too powerful for protest to change much. The world ran on dinosaurs.

University students published projects reporting how dinosaur dung could power entire neighborhoods.

Before the blink of an eye, the richest places on Earth were the places with the most room for dinosaurs. The entire balance of the world shifted. Entire countries rose and fell, it seemed as if all of the world's problems could be solved with dinosaurs.

As with the nature of the ancient creatures, the world changed wildly. Eventually, science surpassed the dependency on dinosaurs. People still visited the parks to see the dinosaurs, but they became no more interesting than an elephant.

And here is when the boundaries of science truly should have been respected.

A collection of DNA was found buried in the ice of the North Pole. This strain of DNA was slightly different than that of most dinosaurs we know. It was much older and had survived frozen in the ice for millions upon millions of years.

Again, there was a time period when nothing could be done with this new DNA. However, when it was eventually paired with the genetics of 20th-generation dinosaurs, something new emerged:

A dragon.

The first few dragons were mutated, and unfortunately, suffered a short life before a painful death. But science got smarter. Or perhaps it wasn't science at all.

Whatever happened, dragons arose. The world was for a second time, taken by storm. More parks were built to prepare for the wave of dragon enthusiasm. All living dinosaurs were mostly eradicated. We already knew how to make more of them, so why leave them to take up space? They could easily be respawned. World peace and animal activists rioted. The dragon genetics grew stronger. They were not yet released to parks for the public to witness.

Some of the most prestigious scientists dissented and turned away from the dragon project (more commonly referred to as Curio).

Right after the split of the scientific community, something truly horrifying happened.

With the ancient genetics and the mixed DNA, an equally ancient and mixed virus was accidentally born. One day, a caretaker of the lab reached to touch a young dragon. The poor creature nipped him, and the cut allowed the virus in.

The caretaker, Brady Ophoff, grew very sick. His coworkers looked on with worry as the next day, he grew unhinged. His skin became ruddy and hot to the touch. Despite their best efforts, he groaned in agony. His cut festered and ate the surrounding skin. After two days and three sets of panicked staff at the hospital, they noticed something odd in his brain.

Why yes, it was this new virus. If I were the scientist, perhaps I could explain exactly how it worked. But I am not, therefore I cannot.

The world began to truly fall apart. Panic and anarchy followed. The new population of dragons broke free from unmanned buildings. Power grids failed.

Here enters another widely popular Hollywood obsession:

The zombie apocalypse.