Also Known As:
Zone:
Sol System
Location:
Weekend closet to Midsummer in the southern Martian hemisphere
Details:
Some 400 years ago, the rat-owned megacorp Genotype created a new race, using the original vectoring protocals that hadn’t been unpacked in centuries. The vectored mouse line was created as a servitor race to the rats. This wasn’t long-term sustainable, and the mice rose up, threw off their shackles, and tore apart the MegaCorp–and its board.
Since then, the approximate anniversary of the mouse revolution has been celebrated as a day of pride for clan mouse, a reminder of what they can be when they work together. Activists and philanthropy-minded folks often organize the daytime activities toward community works–cleaning up a neighborhood, visiting family, pitching in to build something new, accomplishing some epic victory in a multiplayer game. Nights are reserved for serious drinking and parties.
Over centuries, Merry Day has become a diluted tradition. Decorations are in pink and white, or red and black. For a time, rats were made into cartoon villians, but even that’s faded in mixed-population areas. In communities with a large mouse population, there may be a parade sponsored by the local corp, or a wider effort to pitch in on mouse-sponsored community events. It’s still good bonding, and sometimes mice need to remember that they stand as tall as any vector. Taller, since no other race has had to take its future in its own hands.
Another event has been scheduled on top of Merry Day for the last 50 or so years. Every year on the same weekend as Merry Day scientists doing new and original research on vector genetics meet for the annual G4 summit, a convention/conference held in the Rhiannon BlueSky in Martian orbit. It’s public knowledge that the Rhiannon was purchased with funds from Genotype’s liquidation, initially used as a community for many newly-freed rodents. What’s not as well-known is that G4 serves as the annual meeting for Genotype’s remaining shareholders, a double handful of rats, cats, and mice who’ve maintained their financial interest in Genotype over the generations, well beyond the corporation’s functional lifespan.
Need to Know (before you go)
Frequently two celebrations, the “official” celebration on Mars’s calendar and Merry Day observed on the nearest available weekend. Supervisors with mouse employees can expect to write off the entire week as a lost cause.