Paige Price's Questionnaire

Scottsdale Arizona, a rather well-to-do place. To give a brief overview of the city it's spread out across forty miles, south to north. There's Old Town or South Scottsdale, which is like a 1950s rendition of a western; the Central Corridor, picture private communities and even some lakefront property; North Scottsdale, characterized by multi-million dollar homes and unending golf courses. Where people are more preoccupied maintaining a facade of perfection than straining a drought racked water supply or acknowledging the world collapsing around them.

It's the kind of place where people with more money than sense congregate, which is partially why I'm still live here. No shortage of clients looking to fill their vast empty homes with whatever expensive bobbles suits their fancy and needing them to be appraised for insurance purposes of course.

I live in a modern three floor townhouse. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a garage, and open concept kitchen, dining room, and living room. Almost every piece of furniture is second hand. An intentional choice on my part, makes the space feel like a home.

As noted previously, I live in Scottsdale partially because of a plethora of well-off clients. I work with art and antiques. Most of my day job entails examining a client's collection, researching market and sales prices for similar items, and producing legal paperwork for insurance purposes or giving an estimation of the value of an object as an independent appraiser. My father, while not in the business ran in much the same circles as my clientele which helped get my foot in the door.

There are two things I spend my money on, my image and my personal life. My image as a professional requires a not insignificant amount of what I make, especially when I was starting out, tailored clothes and respectable watches don't simply grow on trees. Undertaking contracts has only opened a new venue of quality items I simply can't do my job without. Regarding my personal life, I'm the reason almost everything in my home is second hand, I love feeling the history of something even if I don't personally know it. For instance, while I am a practical woman and appreciate the efficacy of modern devices, I do enjoy the more tactile touch of my electric typewriter.

Things have changed, as you no doubt seen all over the news. People are wielding dangerous powers beyond our understanding. Supernatural predators are stalking the night, terrorizing any who cross their path.

Simply put, the world is in chaos.

While the government and various corporations look to perpetuate their own interests, those who are more forward thinking are left to wonder how precisely does humanity adapt? Do they turn away from modern science in a misguided attempt to shun the profit incentivized road to all encompassing servitude. Do they instead put their trust in an amorphous and ever opaque government whose only real goal is to rapidly recover and establish control over a situation of pure unadulterated chaos? Maybe they seek a third option, putting their blind faith into the unexplained in the hopes that may save them from hellfire and damnation.

No, instead I propose that humanity will take a different course. We will do as we have since the sun first dawned on our ancestors: learn, understand, and adapt. As a civilization knowledge will be our shield, because while not everyone can gain paranormal abilities it is possible to understand them. By discovery of the principles they operate under we can hopefully find a way to nullify or harness their effects for the benefit of civilization as a whole, rather than just for us privileged few.

Of course, this is a work that is larger than I. It may take centuries for the path forward to crystallize in less abstract notions. But I will dedicate my life for that work, in anyway a girl from Arizona can.