The Cynical Plague

**The Cynical Plague** is a (semi) Daria themed custom scenario created by TheBrodsterBoy for Plague Inc(and later Plague Inc: Evolved), a game about infecting the world with a Plague and destroying it. It is notable for being the highest rated Plague in June 2019, getting featured by the developers.

## Synopsis

The official description goes as follows-

"*A unique gene causing several anti-social behaviors was recently isolated in a teenager from New England, and was sent to labs for further analysis. Unfortunately, during testing a common virus incorporated the gene into it's genetic code, allowing it to spread it's cynical tendrils worldwide."*

In the scenario, you control a genetic virus, containing a special **"Cynical Gene"**, responsible for Daria's behavior.

During the medical visit in *"Ill"*, Daria was discovered to possess this unique gene, but unfortunately, her doctor, deeply in debt, sold it to a shady medical company headquartered in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, known as *Houytoz Labs.*

While attempting to do research, the company injected the gene into a virus using *CRISPR,* and was planning to preform testing on the genes specific effects. However, a lab accident(perhaps linked to a hurricane) lead to the genetic virus being released and infecting lab personal, leading it to spread across the country, and later, the world.

You can choose to turn the world into a bunch of Daria-like Cynical Folk, turn them evil, turn them depressed, or turn everyone into a bunch of brain-dead bungholes.

If one follows the Daria plotline, the doctor will eventually be found by the FBI, and will reveal Daria's identity as patient zero. She can either escape with Janes help, fleeing to a cabin in Montana until the world is infected, or get captured and tested on, until Jane leads an army of Cynical-Folk to break her out. Either way, following the total cynifaction of the world, Daria is elected world president, and Jane vice president.

## Development

The Cynical Plague was directly based off of the YouthofAustralia story *"28 Daria's Later"*, which featured Daria learning she had a unique gene, scoffing it off, and then the gene ending up escaping via lab animals.

Beta versions of the scenario had a story directly taken from 28 Daria's Later, but TheBrodsterBoy felt it was too crowded, and altered the plot to fit the scenario later.

28 Daria's later was, in itself, based off a Iron Chef ALSO created by TheBrodsterBoy, *"The Daria Gene"* And, to further complicate matters, statements by Brodster indicate that The Daria Gene was in fact based off of *AngstGuy's "Snowflakes"* stating *"I read Snowflakes, and I thought, 'Wow, this story really seems to imply Daria's mental state is genetic in nature(and also Jane's). I wish the story had gone more into depth on the implications of such a thing"*

This inspired The Daria Gene, which inspired 28 Daria's Later, which inspired The Cynical Plague.

Early development of the basic trees occurred in early February 2019, and was shelved, due to the Daria community not being familiar with Plague Inc. It was publish as is on mobile in March, and was steadily improved. TheBrodsterBoy enlisted the help of *"Timus the Pwn Engine"* and *"Elizibar"* as bug testers, and *"Coolsy"* for coding help.

Development slugged on until early May, when difficulties with the mobile scenario creator stalled the project. Brodster held off until a sale, rebuilding it from scratch on the PC version.

In late May, it was released. It was been patched with bug fixes ever since, including the large edition of an additional abilities tree.

## Trivia

* TheBrodsterBoy originally planned to write a full backstory fic, but these plans were ditched after Brodster stopped being active on the Daria fandom, and moved his attention to his *"Dan Vs"* forum.

* The Plague contains 30 references to various pieces of work, as well as 20 from Daria, and 5 from specific Daria fics.

* The Plague was originally a Neurax Worm, but was changed to a Virus during the switch to PC.

* A symptom tree involving increasing IQ was planned and partially implemented in beta, but canned early on.
* This scenario was the highest rated scenario in June 2019.

* This was featured by Pravus Gaming, a famous Plague Inc youtuber.
* Houytoz is an anagram of Youth Oz, as in YouthofOz or YouthofAustralia