A new program in human genetic engineering is taking volunteers for experiments in epigenetic mutations for superpowers. Sourced out of the secret underground science facility in the neighborhood, the researchers have put an ad in the local newspaper stating their need for daring volunteers. Performers are required to locate the bases’ most unseemly practical and imaginary entrance point, which is within 30 yards. Once the facility is located, participants are told to behave like laboratory animals to confirm their applicability to the study. Each must choose their own animal and play the role with total animation and emersion if they want to receive their free superpowers. Those who do not behave properly are ejected from the program. After a few moments, the scientists declare who is the most fit for super-power research. Depending on the animal chosen, the genetic engineering program will endow participants with qualities belonging to that animal. Each participant is to determine which these are to be and then give an account of how this may either help or harm his or her lives. Acting out scenes of most their desired scenarios is encouraged between the participants. How might adjustment to a new life with animal super-powers be? Play with the question extensively. After sufficient time has passed to comprehend the significance of the new life, the researchers call with some unfortunate news. Tests indicate that half the animal subjects will experience and adverse mutation side effect of super-villainy. Participants shall now choose the person whose superpower makes them the worst super powered villain and the best super powered villain for experimentation. The other participants have the task of preventing the villains from their tyranny on the event score by herding them into the research facility’s secret entrance. Once captured, scientists state that they have realized the experiment was too variable to continue and will be turning off the gene-mutations and all return to normalcy.
This is a flux event score because of the dramatic nature of the directive content, the spontaneity and fun involved, and the fact that it dealt with two of the 14 essential questions, Change and What am I? Flux event scores are characterized by instructions, which can be followed out by their participants for the purpose of acting out a narrative experience that exists in the mind of the originator. Often times they involve an empathetic element which is clearly evident in this score’s use of imaginary animal play. Humans constantly subject animals to experimental procedures. By simulating the experience, participants gain appreciation for the uncertainty of their lives. Throughout the event the participants are given great freedom and license to act out personal fantasy. Like any great imaginative scenario, the consequence of the participants’ choices has a relevant effect on the actions to come. This makes the decisions important and dramatic in a way which is lively and engaging. Furthermore, the imaginative quality of the subject matter gives people permission to act in ways that they almost never would but possibly desire to in secrecy. The freedom to act in open-ended yet guided ways gives the participants a scaffold from which to build a creative identity. Change is evident in this event all through out. Participants become aware of a change to come through a newspaper ad promising superpowers. To get them they must act like animals, which they temporarily become. The adjustment to their new life is also a part of the flux event score. Then, the super-villain twist takes the change even further into the darker themes of sub-conscious creativity. Finally, all are returned to normal at the end of the story indicating a full-circle change. ‘What am I?’ is a question that may only be realized through self-discovery and self-creation. As beings in possession of free will, self-knowledge will invariably involve how one constructs themselves, which in this case is through experimental superpowers.