:: A note from the sysop ::

Welcome to the Boston BBS. There's been a lot going on here as of late and we're still struggling to keep up with all the changes. First of all, as I'm sure you all know, Dick Villiers went off and started his new venture, Novatech. He decided that his old stomping grounds here needed its own mega and so changed the signs on the old John Hancock building and called the place home. The data has been pouring in so fast on this bad boy that every time I put a page together there is something wrong or outdated with the info. So sorry chums, if you came here seeking news on Novatech, there isn't any here just yet.

There is still plenty more going on here though that is worthwhile. The population continues to grow way too fast, the T is overpopulated with college kids and with businessmen looking to score a middle management hole-in-the-wall job for Villiers. Harvard, Northeastern, and Boston University all over-enrolled their freshman class (word is some over zealous programmer from MIT&T hacked the systems of those schools to mess everything up). so that has made for a shitty time all the time in the above world. What else... The Farmers' Almanac is saying the winter is going to be the coldest on since '47... Of course they also said that we were in for a rainy summer and half the white mountains burned in a drought and cigarette-induced forest fires.

In other news there has been a brash of takeovers and corporate shifting going on in the area. Dicky V. has been spearheading the moves but many of the other big players in the Hub have been looking to fight against a Novatech monopoly over the area. Renraku was doing a brilliant job of maintaining control over their subsidiaries and then their arcology went under a lock down and all their drek hit the fan. The residual effects of this have been felt as far as B-town where companies like Dreamstate Interface turned into a press beacon for northeast companies that may bring out the next techno-terror (the media loved that phrase -- just enough cheese to keep 'em happy). The otaku clan Netwalker was completely obliterated by the Roxx gang and this has made the remaining tribes in the city slink deeper and deeper into the underground. The exception, of course is Triple Zero, who are more than happy to pop a cap in anyone looking to  "dis 'em".

A brief rundown of what you can expect to see here (other than a bunch of big egoed sometimes mis-informed console jockeys) might enlighten this project for you a little bit, no? Well, the rationale behind it is fairly simple... places and people. The selected topics involve the real movers and shakers in the Boston environment. The big players in the local market, underworld, and political scene. Essentially research has been done, and data tested for accuracy. Of course there can never be 100% assurance on any of these  factors as the world is always changing (enough of this blubber, if you are here then you should already know this). There are many more facets to the world of the Hub and they are being observed as I write this. This first batch is the jumping off point. They were posted at (00:01:22/10-04-60) and will be removed around noon time on the fourth. So enjoy scanning the data chums, keep on keepin' on.

Information provided herein is subject to the personal biases of the author and posted comments within are not regulated short of deletion of irrelevant or malicious materials. Those who feel that they must generate this type of garble will be dealt with. This board is for the dissemination of knowledge and is no one person's pulpit. So play nice and you will be treated with respect.

Dreamstate Interface

Public Image
 

Located off of Route 128, Dreamstate Interface is a known leader in state of the art Matrix technology. The general populace doesn't hear much 'bout 'em 'less they push the limits or have some sort of breakthrough. According to the Globe Dreamstate is easily two years ahead of the competition in terms of developing metal-meat interfaces and software. Public matrix grids are complete brag sheets to boost its image. They advertise their SOTA for "industrial grid protection" and "data organization".

 
Lucky Slim :: (01:23:33/10-01-60)
They got some mean products comin' out of those labs of theirs. The new Sellistar Maxim Knowbot is a tech horror so good on defense that even some otaku are running scared.

Luna :: (01:23:44/10-01-60)
The SMK series is state of the art but I wouldn't make claims like that without empirical evidence.

Lucky Slim :: (03:10:13/10-01- 60)
What... are you some sort of whizzer science guru, I know what I know.

Errant Minion :: (06:20:55/10-01-60)
I don't know about the guru part but she is otaku.

Luck Slim :: (06:45:09/10-01-60)
Jesus, those kids are everywhere.
 
 

The public head of Dreamstate is one Kinnietta Louis. She's been personally responsible for building this company from the ground up (at least that's what the PR department would have you believe). She is a very eloquent speaker and an attractive lady, looking to be in here late 20's even though she is pushing 45. Her education is an impressive one, and something the company likes to flaunt. She entered MIT&T at seventeen with a double major in matrix programming and hardware networking. She went straight through to get her Ph.D. at 23. Directly upon getting her doctorate she was hired by the old school tech-guru corp, Matrix Systems and put to work on developing prototypes of the decks we've come to know and love.

 
Scallion :: (02:55:12/10-03-60)
Know and love... Are you nuts? Chum, you couldn't do nothing on those decks accept look at a pretty interface.

Truant :: (13:11:25/10-03-60)
Hello... anybody home???? Nanosecond buy out.
 

With the mainframe crash of 2035 Matrix Systems was driven out of business. Kinnietta floated around the Boston software market and eventually got a large enough loan to establish her own company. And this is the public fairy-tailish version of how Dreamstate Interface got its start.  Everything was apparently going as planned until  September 29, 2059 when the Tokyo Stock Exchange bit the big one and nose dived almost 12%. The resulting backlash triggered a global sell off of many non-triple A related corporation. The big boys were left standing while the little ones found their stock values plummeting overnight. Two days later, Dreamstate Interface had lost 20% of its value and there was a mob of investors trying in vain to sell their shares.  ~Enter Richard Villiers~  The megacorporate sweet talker saw the opportunity and started buying up these available shares, handfuls at a time, under assumed names. Then in the days following the unveiling of Novatech, he consolidated these purchases into one great horde of stock, thusly inserting himself as the CEO of Dreamstate. In Kinnietta's poised and graceful speech at the announcement of the buy-out, she said outright that Dreamstate Interface was going to be a leader in Novatech's Matrix Hardware and Digital Security fields. Little did she know the drek that had yet to hit the fan...

 
Hollywood Insider :: (10:23:32/09-11-60)
I'm sure those must be some interesting board meetings, especially when Villiers shows up... Remember chums, Villiers first corporate raid was Matrix Systems, Kinnietta's old employer for those with short attention spans. And any runner worth his metal has heard the urban myth that it was Villiers that was responsible for the crash of their data store.

Not to mention Taylor and Carl, I'm sure they're real happy with the DI tippity top structure.

Darker Realities
 

The true origin of DI is a little more elaborate then most people might realize. Before the days of Novatech, on paper it said that Kinnietta was the CEO but there were really five major players in the Dreamstate hierarchy. Taylor Robertson and Carl Bordeaux were former Matrix Systems employees and have been involved in Matrix hardware design since the days of Echo Mirage. They are both in their 60's and their resumes are amongst the most impressive things I've seen. The third is Michael Fitzpatrick, a novahot programmer who's won the Krohmheller Prize for his virtual environment codes (read: Ultra-Violet IC fields). The last member of the board, other than Kinnietta, was Cindy Littlefield. She began work on December 20, 2059... just one day after the Renraku Arcology in Seattle was put on lockdown. All that is known about her, all that I can find anyway, is that she used to be a corp-girl computer technician from Renraku (which explains why I put the reference in about when she was hired). All the personnel files within the arc are sealed with ice thicker than God and I wasn't gonna risk my motor skills to find the low down on Ms. Littlefield. Safe to say though I'll bet that chica has got some mega drek in her head and is a hell of a lot more than a "computer tech."

 
White Noise :: (15:35:17/10-02-60)
That Fitzpatrick guy doesn't mess around with his code chums.... If you've ever tried to sleaze your way into the UCAS Denver city government grid you can see his drek hot UV wonder bunnies in nerve-melting action... It aint pretty.

Hollywood Insider :: (15:37:03/10-02-60)
Why would the Denver city grid be UV protected?

White Noise :: (15:40:48/10-02-60)
I dunno.... Never got that far, I value my sanity a little too much to meddle with that kind of psychotrope.
Any of you console junkies out there have any idea what's going on over in UCAS Denver?

Electron Sorcerer :: (15:43:02/10-02-60)
The Data Haven may qualify as UV space, but I haven't heard of another independent UV space in that area.

Pythia ::  (15:49:58/10-02-60)
Pieces of the data haven are UV. Those are scary places. WN is referring to the UCAS city council sites and drek... I haven't tested the system yet but if it needs UV there must be something in there worth protecting.

Electron Sorcerer :: (15:52:57/10-02-60)
Those spaces? Last I checked they were clocking high on the Red level of GridBench. Not entirely surprising, however.

Dances-with-Credsticks :: (18:05:58/10-02-60)
You guys been dipping into my Awakened peyote again? The Denver City Council is too fractious to keep up a UV space. They can hardly keep up the Red space they have now, and that's only really because of the powerful influence the Pueblo Sector has over the grid.
    The Data Haven on the other hand, now that wouldn't surprise me. I've never been near a UV space, but I know there has got to be some scary shit going on there.
 

Novatech's emergence as the actual owner of DI messed some things up bad for the big five at the helm. By the end of the takeover procedure the owning percentages looked something like this; Villiers: 25% Kinnietta: 14% Michael Fitzpatrick: 10%. Taylor and Carl were dropped to middle management and both subsequently quit. Cindy was taken off the board of directors and put in charge of Aware, the branch of DI dealing in SKs and pushing the boundaries of computer intelligence. Villiers also brought in two more people to fill in the holes in the B of D. The first being Leah Cameron, a drek-hot vice president of corporate R&D from Transys Neuronet. The second addition is Yu Hikovah who recently released a brilliant report on the potential and direction of advancement for protein storage. He was a former employee of Tan Tien Inc. Both Leah and Yu control about 10% of voting stock.  To date the big money makers for Dreamstate have come from contracts with other Boston area corps and various clientele within some of the megas. They truly deal in the hottest of the novahot. The aforementioned "industrial grid protection" is really networked semi-autonomous knowbots (SKs) which support a fully functional ultra-environment saturated in cascading psychotropic IC. Novatech specs list DI as the provider of Matrix security for all their east coast subsidiaries as well as the corp headquarters in the old John Hancock building. Let me clue you in chums, for your physical and mental well being – don't try and access their higher level stores. I hear they sometimes hire out shadow-deckers to test their latest toys by setting up hits against themselves. This shouldn't surprise many of you out there.

 
Caked :: (04:55:30/10-01-60)
T |-|@T |$ Tr|_|e... Fr|ed me g00d.

Cellophane Dreamer :: (04:56:45/10-01-60)
Told ya buddy.

Cassanova 33 :: (11:23:47/10-02-60)
Has anyone heard anything on the project Kinnietta was running on the resonance and otaku?

Carrot Juice :: (14:24:36/10-02-60)
I heard it got a kick in the ass after the Renraku shit hit the fan. With AI's becoming something that can be constructed (or at least confirmed to exist) then DI's little project suddenly becomes credible. Word over in Newton says that it was Kinnieta that really hired out the Roxx to get the Netwalker tribe. She was looking for fresh meat to experiment on.

Luna :: (15:00:27/10-02-60)
I've heard this rumor also but cannot substantiate it. I've looked very hard for evidence of such a plot but have found none. If there is a link between Dreamstate and the destruction of Netwalker then Kinnietta will be dealing with 000 in no time... you have my word on it.
 

With the rise of Novatech, and Dreamstate as the new mega's leader on the technologies front, DI has gone through a period of rapid growth. The original building site where all that was DI used to be is now just the organizational headquarters. The old labs have been gutted and cubicles installed for paper work and keeping everyone happy and in the know about DI's latest. Marketing and PR are housed here as well as a display of Dreamstate's public grade technology which is rapidly becoming integrated into the Greater Boston school system, replacing the Fuchi modules that were available before. Two of the buildings adjacent to the original on 128 were purchased by DI and being converted to a hardware building and a software building. Both have been gutted and almost entirely rebuilt within the last four months, amazing progress given the particularly bad winter. Meat security is extra tight though since the constructed elements to keep people out are not yet fully implemented.  <format break > wink, wink, nudge, nudge, nothin' like top tech drek after only killin' couple rent-a-cops... <trace initiated>.... Intrusion confirmed, source:: Maimin' Mike Mason...</trace> <initializing intrusion countermeasures>

 
Ultraviolet :: (01:58:55/10-02-60)
Good old Maimin' aint the brightest slot around, neh?

Luna :: (02:03:16/10-02-60)
He's been dealt with. His interruption will be left here so others won't try the same thing. Maimin' Mike Mason is not going to be maimin' much until the treatment restores his memory.

Electron Sorcerer  :: (15:54:52/10-03-60)
I knew there was a reason I like you Luna. Heheh.
 

Of particular note is Project Next Step which is what Cindy appears to be spearheading in the Aware division. Chums, I feel it necessary to let you know that this info I'm about to let you in on came at a high price. An assault on the DI building led by our lovely sysop, Luna, extracted it but her second in command, Charley Bravado got lost in psychotropic IC and never found his way out.  The facts surrounding Project Next Step are few but the potential implications are great. Apparently DI is testing its best mind-blowing IC on its own semi-autonomous knowbots. The idea seems to be to compare the results to similar tests being conducted on human patients. The location of this part of the experiment could not be determined. However, Ms. Littlefield seems to be rewriting some of the IC code and installing it as the primary operating system for these online SKs. So these machines are running solely on programs who's only goal is to infiltrate the inner workings of the online human mind and destroy it. Couple this with the SK's ability to "think" and you've got one mean motherfragger comin' atcha... link them together and the result is disastrous (for us net junkies any how). The data from the human reaction to the PsyIC could then be implemented in the SK's programs and there you go... one hoop kickin' defense system liable to fry as many meat interfaces as it can get its grubby strings of code on. And I don't think I need to bring up the even more frightening potential behind SOTA leaders messing with adapting human properties into bleeding edge machines.

 
Scallion :: (11:17:52/10-03-60)
Man, I don't want anything to do with that drek. No thank you!

Hollywood Insider :: (13:13:22/10-03-60)
Sooner or later it will be the standard for anything worth cred to hack. You can't ignore it, you just gotta evolve with the technology... Always on the bleeding edge chum, it's the only way to keep up in this business.

Dr. H :: (15:47:11/10-03-60)
The SK interface both from one machine to another and the invasive protocols they are using for brain frying are so intricate that it's gonna take a hell of a lot of code tweaking to make it a safe place for hackers

Hollywood Insider :: (15:50:17/10-03-60)
A) It's decker and B) No drek.
 

Livewire Communications

Simon Saying :: (16:20:38/10-02-60)
Buddy of mine was a "resource gatherer" ie: corp decker figuring out what the competition was up to. He specialized in watching Livewire. When his company was bought out my friend found himself on the street corner... Five weeks later he found himself in the morgue.
 

Livewire Communications also has one of the largest nets of communications satellites in the UCAS. They ensure worldwide network stability even with a total land blackout. These satellites are also available for Matrix operations but only if you are corp affiliated, a government agency, or a damn good decker (perhaps the last part should be in the Darker Realities side of things wink).  Their networking hardware is top rate also. Boston and the surrounding sub-plex are essentially all wired to one another with LC's SOTA tech. What they are doing is not revolutionary R&D but they seem to have a knack for upgrading their systems at a very low cost. Their networking motto is something like "We plan ahead for your communications so you don't have to."  The television stations love them because their extensive satellites make for easy global interactions. If they have a reporter in the middle of the Congo then they know that the report will get through. So all those neat environmental reports you see on channel 5 are brought to you by the Livewire global uplink system.

 
Joe. Joe who? Joe Momma :: (02:55:59/09-29-60)
I busted into that drek once man... Lemme tell ya somethin'. So smooth, and the access... hot damn. Needed to jack out and change my boxers.

Pythia :: (05:21:56/09-29-60)
There's a nice image... Leave it to the boys to go and pollute the boards with their "witty" innuendo.

Scallion :: (22:01:34/10-01-60)
That boy, Pythia... Not the rest of us.

Pythia :: (22:45:52/10-01-60)
Whatever Scallion -display_wink-

Scallion :: (02:19:12/10-02-60)
Sigh.... women.
 

Livewire also has a large public Matrix store. It looks like a graphic representation of Boston, a very detailed one at that. You pick where you want to go and then you're there, as if in a sunny spring day. The different nodes are digital mock-ups of the place they are advertising. To get info you actually go into the place and talk to a digital rep of the company. There are even beggars; they stay to themselves…. If you mess with a place though, all of a sudden they convert into attack IC. It's not a pretty sight. (no pun intended)

 
Wizzer on the Draw :: (18:12:17/10-01-60)
I was involved in some of the structural coding of the node and I'd have to say that its integrity and use of SOTA programming methods has paid off well for Livewire... Course as soon as I was done they let me go... pricks.

Gamma :: (19:41:10/10-01-60)
The animated graphical interface is top notch also. The SenseAdept system they are running has everything down to yelling taxi drivers and alleyways that smell like garbage.... Don't know why they have that feature since its a public place, but hey... realism pays.

Lucky Slim :: (23:11:07/10-02-60)
Remember the "great hack" of the BPG? I was there for that... all of a sudden the whole place went all tie-dyed and the map was all re-written so everything went to the wrong place... It was freekin' weird.

White Noise :: (01:29:31/10-03-60)
Glad you enjoyed it.    display: evil_grin

Darker Realities
 

I'll just start right where I left off; with the public Matrix store. Now the coded springtime city is a digital amazement (for a public datastore it is very impressive). However, as you might guess, the sites are completely internal, so there's no access to a company's personal super computers. Or at least that is what the Livewire people would have you (and the corps) believe.  The truth is that a novahot programmer, and notorious Boston deck junkie named White Noise came along and decided to make cruising the valuable local datastreams a little easier. Before I get into this whole deal I'll let you know how to find the place. First you go to Newbury Street, to the Vose Gallery node. Ask the digital interpreter where the best place to get gravy fries is. He'll reply that he does not know that information. Reply, "Thanks, and your mom wears slickers with her knickers." Once you do this go out of the shop there will be a beggar there. Say, "I heard something in the wind last night." The bum will ask you what it was. Reply, "It sounded something like white noise." After this go to a Red Line T entrance. Ask the teller at the token booth which stop is FSU. She'll say which part. Reply, "The fun part." Then she'll tell you to watch for signs. Get on the digital T (I'm not sure why they bothered to have this feature) and you'll notice a little sign on a post that says pull emergency stop cord 10 seconds after departing this station. Do that and you're in. Oh yeah, the jump gate is only open from 02:34:45 until 02:35:30 in the morning on Thursdays… Don't ask, but after the first time you get hosed down by sniffers (datatrail followers and ID programs) to make sure you're legit (or not legit as the case may be) you should be set to get in.

 
Joe. Joe who? Joe Momma :: (10:10:44/10-01-60)
Jesus, that's harder than cracking the sequence access system for the Underworld Expatriates grid.

Finesse :: (10:55:29/10-01-60)
Joe man, trust me, it's well worth the work to get in.

White Noise :: (16:48:32/10-01-60)
I think so!

Luna :: (16:55:01/10-01-60)
White Noise, you're still around? Rumor led me to believe you were done in by something in the Denver datasink.

White Noise :: (17:00:03/10-01-60)
Vicious rumors... I've been in New Orleans working with Overwatch on a project. I have a message from Dharma Clipper for you.

 

So you do all this stuff and you think you're in right… Wrong. White Noise is a twisted fragger. When you pull the cord you are immediately transported to a plain black field. Barking can be heard all around. A cackling voice from above says, "If you're corporate sponsored, this is your last chance to leave." Then the dogs are released. They barrel at your icon like an army. Hundreds of dog images. A handful swarms around you (the sniffers) and checks you out. Don't try to fight them, it's not in your best interest.  You are then shifted to a living room atmosphere, I think its supposed to resemble the 1980's. There is an archaic color TV connected to some video game system. Cheesy synth musac bellows forth and big block pixilated letters flash "Welcome to Pong" Smaller letters say, "Defend yourself" Suddenly you are playing this game that you just move a paddle from side to side making sure a square ball doesn't go out the bottom of the screen. It gets progressively faster and harder. You have to make it to level 24 to get access.  The actual node is an exact mirror image of the Boston public access grid, only in photo negative, it is very cool, and very dark. The bums that are the IC in the public grid have clown icons in the White Noise version. It makes for a very eerie feel. The buildings seem a little askew also, like they are bending downward.

 
White Noise :: (03:04:56/10-02-60)
You forgot the purple sky with the pink tempest... That was one of the hardest things to program. Gimme some credit... And what's with "one sick fragger"... I resemble, I mean resent that... One last rant; if you don't know what pong is all about you need to study up on your history of computer evolution.

Luna :: (03:06:23/10-02-60)
display: eye_roll  Get over your bad self, White Noise.
 

The access points are all within the proper facility as per the public access grid. If you want the Fuchi info, go to the old John Hancock icon. You still have to access your way in and once you get in you can't get back out; that would be pretty dumb to let the corps have direct access to the underground datastore.  So the nature of the info here is just to get you a jumping in point. Many of the "Who's who" in the Boston Underground come here as well though. If you go to Lansdown Street and look where the Avalon should be, there is a place called The Everywhere Café. If you need info go there! You'll find it, for a price!

 
Fastjack :: (06:32:50/10-01-60)
Kudos on The Everywhere, White Noise. It's saved my butt a couple of times when I've come up short on info for a Johnson.

Joe. Joe who? Joe Momma. :: (08:12:60/10-01-60)
Shit!
 

Well, this is supposed to be about Livewire Communications, I guess I got a little side tracked, I think you guys will thank me for that though!  Livewire is fairly seedy in its dealings. They are independent of corp ownership, they are they're own company, but they frequently play favorites… Basically whoever is willing to shell out the most in "donations". I mentioned before, Livewire's knack for being able to easily adapt when the next batch of SOTA comes out. The reason for this is that they keep, on staff, a battalion of grade A deckers. It is these deckers' jobs to break into the datastores of companies developing communications technology and grab their designs. That way Livewire can plan ahead and develop cost effective interface products. Devious yes… Consumer friendly… yes…. Illegal… yup!  The CEO of Livewire Communications is Garret Krellman. He is a businessman to the core. 5,000 nuyen suites, mansion, sports car, his wife is even a simsense star. He received his MBA from Dartmouth along with a masters in conflict management. He knows how to wheel and deal and knows how to turn a profit. He has at least three other women he sleeps with and two other wives. He reportedly has both Mafia and Yakuza ties, and uses them both for underground information. Two members of the board have mysteriously disappeared in the last six months. One was just found in Boston Harbor with busted knees and his feet firmly planted in concrete blocks. He is just as shrewd in his business life. What I'm saying chums… Don't frag with him.

 
Simon Saying :: (13:27:34/10-03-60)
Like I said before. That bastard killed my buddy. I've looked into him since then and his Mass General records are all fragged up. I'm no doctor but something about his genetics just looked all wrong.

Dr. H :: (20:02:39/10-03-60)
Simon, I just looked at them and you are very right. It looks like maybe the guy should be a meta, troll maybe... But obviously he's not. It's interesting that the likelihood of him kicking the bucket by his 45 birthday of a heart attack is 76%. According to this med spread, he's 41 now... Better look out!

Raven Four :: (23:14:27/10-03-60)
Cosmetic surgery chums... Works wonders.

Dr. H :: (02:22:35/10-04-60)
Like cutting him off at the knees, rebuilding his entire skeleton, and resizing all his internal organs... Yeah Raven, drek, why didn't I think of that... display: head_shake
 

Other than this Livewire Communications has some other shady dealings. They are currently highly funded by Ares, although no one seems to know where the money is going. I heard a rumor that one of the fetcher deckers that is under Livewire's employ was the fixer Rufus Malone. He might have had some pull with Knight, but I thought those two were at sword's points… Who knows!

 
Hollywood Insider :: (04:11:20/10-02-60)
Project Airman Sunbeam... The next line of satellite communications technology. The system is set to be unleashed in '62 and the "smart" system they are looking to implement for it could have some major ground based communications ramifications. Also I guess there is something about it that will make airwave communication harder to crack and trace.

Pythia :: (07:22:44/10-02-60)
Also the R&D department is working on a cheaper way to build secure networks for large, global corporations. I think the goal is for Ares to get a nice secure network for themselves and their most important affiliates.

Ultraviolet :: (10:09:12/10-02-60)
Projects like that never work... Someone can just splice the line and bingo... they're in.

Pythia :: (11:33:23/10-02-60)
Well, I think that's the catch that the Livewire project is trying to get around.

Massachusetts General Hospital

DeeDee :: (19:47:54/10-03-60)
Even the talent here in NYC all has ties to Boston. Nearly all the supplies come out of a Boston firm in one way or another. The staff at Bellvue is made up of a bunch of disgruntled docs that didn't get accepted to the B-town system out of med school.
 

MGH is also a leader in providing health care. Since they own all the medical institutions in the Boston sprawl, and part of the sub-sprawl they have more than enough money to throw around. For a basic annual rate you get coverage and benefits. Many of the local area mega-corporations offer a package deal upon hiring whereby money from an employee's paycheck are siphoned out and in return they are covered by the MGHHMOPS… the abbreviation for "Massachusetts General Hospital's Health Management Organization for Personal Security". Talk about a mouth full. It's usually referred to as "Mega Mops" in everyday street speak. With the Mega Mops deal you are insured in any MGH affiliate and/or subsidiary.

Gallie :: (13:00:43/10-01-60)
The mega mops is wonderful if you are upper middle class and hive a SIN... If not, stand in the line outside the hospital and try not to bleed on the flowers... And while you're at it start praying 'cause your gonna need it whether you make it or not.

Chromed Accountant :: (19:33:07/10-02-60)
The money that they make off this plan alone is in the 8 digit realm, probably close to 70 to 80 million nuyen annually. Since they have virtually a monopoly on the health care market there is next to no one getting in their way. This, coupled with the deals they have struck with almost everyone but Novatech have given them a strangle hold on the market.

Dazed and Confused :: (23:30:12/10-02-60)
Call me dumb, but what does Novatech have?

Hollywood Insider :: (23:45:45/10-02-60)
They have their own facility located outside Worcester. I've heard it is a pretty capable hospital in its own right but as the company grows there's going to be more strain in the Boston area than the place can handle... Maybe Villiers is going to go do something like buy out MGH. -That was a joke-
 

Perhaps the most publicized event in the history of MGH came in the aftermath of the crash of 2029. The government was decimated and after getting back on its feet found itself in financial turmoil. One of their moves to try and get back some money was to sell off segments of itself. One of these parts was the Center for Disease Control. At that time the CDC was doing cutting edge research into the VITAS plague (genetics and potential evolutionary links to known diseases) as well as many other SOTA projects. Harold Brackman, the then director of the CDC pleaded that the government only allow an established health care organization purchase them. He stated bluntly that a corp would exploit the research for malicious ends. The government bought into this argument (since they already saw the blooming megas as a threat) and sold the CDC to Mass General. The entire establishment was relocated from Georgia to a super high tech nuke proof building on route 128 (two buildings down from DSI actually). They continue to do high tech research, now mostly looking into rejection of cultured implants and the risks of gengineered virus use and the implantation of nanites in medical situations. An interesting aside, at 87, Harold Brackman is still the chair of MGH-CDC. He looks about 60 and runs five miles everyday.

 
Simon Saying :: (01:12:04/10-01-60)
Privatize the CDC... Fragging brilliant. It's good to see so many great minds thinking of so many wonderful things... Sure, why don't we hand out the secrets of VITAS and genome research to the private sector. What's next, nukes for the mega corps?

KMC alto :: (03:22:54/10-01-60)
Umm, chummer, that's been going on for a long time.

Dill Sunrise :: (08:12:15/10-02-60)
I heard the reason Harold looks so good is because he's had more cultured bio-implants put into him (and re-put into him) than most sammies. A chum of mine on the inside says he's a guinea pig of his own age slowing experiment... If that's the truth then I wanna know what's going on.

Darker Realities
 

So you've read the reports of the breakthroughs, and seen the trid-surgery shows on MGHTV. You know that they just cut the time necessary to culture a fully functional new heart in half and that the latest MGH figures show Boston residents living the longest out of any major North American city. So then you got to do yourself justice and ask "What's going on in the basement, what might us shadowfolk like to know about?" There's plenty, I don't know nearly all of it, and even some of what I do know I'm not posting here for shear paranoia of mad docs crashing my pad (like they'd ever find it).  During the Awakening paranoia it may not come as a surprise that MGH quickly positioned itself in the genetic research field of looking into other races. At the time it was almost commonplace to be able to get a metahuman baby to experiment on, the parents didn't want a "freak child". However, it might be a little shocking to know that this type of research is still going on.  Although not directly funded through MGH (but rather the Humanis policlub), Mass General facilities and doctors are still trying to find a removable gene or series of genes that could be spliced out to save a child the "horror of growing up different". The "research material" is "gathered" by abduction from hospital maternity wards, kidnapping of children, and actually breaking into an adult metas house, rendering him/her unconscious and then making off with them. It's quite disturbing and serves to give the policlub a even worse name but they decided long ago it was a valuable tradeoff for the potential knowledge to "save humanity".

 
Pure and Proud :: (10:10:13/10-02-60)
Thank God someone is doing something about this problem. Damn metas gonna run us true breeds out of town.

Luna :: (10:12:43/10-02-60)
some people never learn
    initialize trace.... done
    initialize Oberon..... done
    cross referencing...... identity match Pure and Proud = Mark Allen Dubois residence: 16 Salliston St., Amherst, MA
    employer: University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Well, Marky Mark, I hope you have a good next couple of days... For those who still don't get it. Racists and ideologic bigots can keep to themselves.

Ultraviolet :: (10:44:22/10-02-60)
You go girl. It's sick to see that people actually support this drek.
 

A variant of the above research is in the DED project. This is a MGH sponsored experiment. DED is an acronym for a series of medical mumbo jumbo but for all intents and purposes it might as well stand for "Do Elves Die". That's right, the docs are looking into the natural age limitations of the elven line. Testing their resistance to diseases and natural factors that have age related side effects, everything from smoking to childhood pneumonia. The methods are not as blatant as the Humanis experiment but are much more shrouded in secrecy. Basically it involves a categorization of any elven patient that makes their way into the hospital. Thus the medical records of elves seeking treatment at MGH are not secure, they pass freely amongst anyone involved in the research. Testing involves genetic sampling from blood tests, infecting clients with diseases (take two of these and call me in the morning) and administering drugs that speed up the aging process (in humans at least). "It appears you may have a kidney irregularity, we're going to put you on these pretty pink pills and observe your progress"  The results have been slow in coming as this experiment is only about six months old. It appears the age enhancing drugs are causing some surface differences, most notably the early deterioration of collagen fibers (wrinkles) and some subjects have shown higher levels of aches and pains and bone fragility. Whether or not this is a result of the drugs or not has not been determined.

 
Seamus :: (04:56:34/10-03-60)
This sort of medical trickery has been going on for ages. Over here in the Tir it's sort of the opposite, the docs experiment on the non-elves to try and figure out why they die so quick.

Dr. H :: (09:29:47/10-03-60)
This question, unfortunately, has been one of the most fevered research opportunities since the "keep it up drug" fiasco at the end of the last century. After good sex, it seems living longer is a top priority on most (meta)human wishlists.

Pythia :: (12:09:32/10-03-60)
Hmmm, now if only we women had a drug like that.

Joe. Joe Who? Joe Momma. :: (18:46:24/10-03-60)
What? So you can get it up?
 

There are a variety of experimental drugs being tested as well. Since the FDA is fairly ineffective, MGH, as well as most other health care conglomerates, are doing their own testing. Some of these drugs are essentially straight out of the concept phase and into the patients. The side effects of these new drugs have many ill consequences. A new heart medication for those recovering from a myocardial infarction (translation = it don't beat no more) caused blindness in 85% of the people that took it. A cure for epilepsy started wiping out patients long term memories, and a recent acne treatment reacted with the pores to make them stop producing oil all together. It left 35 teenagers with dry cracked faces and the need to apply moisturizer every two hours or else their faces could literally crack if they were to smile.  Perhaps more interestingly is the psychotropics lab. An underground (literally, it's located in subbasement three) MGH facility, it started as research into insanity and curing the mentally ill. Then a year ago Dr. Anthony Marcus took over and he revamped the place. He felt that insanity, especially that brought on by traumatic moments, could be cured by an equally traumatic experience. He started to use the latest in psychotropic drugs to cure the ill. He has recently started to claim some level of success through a "psy-cocktail" he has worked out. From what I can gather though this "success" essentially means the drugs rewrote the patients personality and criss-crossed so many neurons that the person from before the insanity isn't even a memory in the newly "reformed" version.  Not surprisingly there have been many datasteal attempts by dealers looking for that mixture. Most of them linked in one way or another to the Morellis family.

 
Day Chipper :: (06:51:06/10-01-60)
Right on man, they're doing this over in 'Frisco also. Only the experiments are on the street junkies and it's not about insanity.  The dealers want to know how far the human envelope can be pushed before the mind gives up. Some of the cases of re-written personalities and total whack jobs that are now walking the streets here are the stuff of urban legend,

Fromball :: (12:03:12/10-01-60)
This research in the basement is nothing more than a chip designer with a grant. There is no way this Marcus fellow is legit in his claiming a treatment for insanity in high grade street drugs.

Dr. H :: (14:16:31/10-01-60)
That's not necessarily true, Fromball. The nature of certain types of insanity is such that if something can be done to re-write the part of the brain that is not doing its job correctly, then the insanity could, in theory, be fixed. On a more personal note, Dr. Marcus is a very smart MD. He was in the top of his class up at Dartmouth in the graduating class of '47.
 

This is just the tip of the iceberg with MGH. There are plenty more schemes and plots revolving inside this massive medical industry. For example the MGH-CDC research into Strain III, The "controlled release" of Biogen-87 into the Rox. (For those of you who don't know Biogen-87 is an airborne hemorrhagic fever [35% fatality rate] with a genetically timed off switch. - It was released to try and get the public to vote for containing the Rox like Chicago and potentially ripping the whole thing down for more corp offices and housing.) Luckily the docs got something wrong and there was only a small localized breakout, only nine deaths.  Other experiments that may be of interest are the cyber/bioware implant research going on in MGH-CDC. I have not looked into this but I do know there are tests being done on the human meat and sprit limitations - that's right, cybermancy. I caught wind that they are under contract with UCAS in trying to delve deeper into this phenomenon. Also in the bioware field is research into synaptic and neurological enhancement. This is another disturbing issue dealing with the implantation of cyber and bioware into little kids to see how it effects them as they grow older, in relation to people with the same implants who get them at a post-pubescent age.  I'm sure you're caught wind of something going down in the MGH system or have an update on what has already been said. If so, don't hesitate to put it up. .

 
Low Jack :: (19:37:21/10-03-60)
Dose suckas tryin' ta mess wit tha Rox... Dey don' even care 'bout tha kids or nothin. Dey jus gonna come in here an' bus the whole thing open to tear down an build more corp drek... Sho, dat's definitely what tha city need. I was in tha containment zone... I saw dat shit hit the fan, aint no way dey could pull dat off.

Day Chipper :: (22:14:45/10-03-60)
It sounds like they did almost get away with it.

Hollywood Insider :: (22:40:22/10-03-60)
The bio-cyberware takes the form of eye and ear implants mostly... as far as what MGH designs. They do have a small division, Hypotech, which makes medical oriented cyberware. As for the cybermancy thing... Yeah it's there, and yes it is funded by the UCAS. Remember the rumors about the team wreaking havoc in Brazil, Serran Skyira? Well, it seems that there are some whispers in the shadows that Serran Skyira was a team of vat grown UCAS soldiers who used to be loyal members of the Boston area Air National Guard.

Terran Primary :: (10:32:34/10-03-60)
Biogen-87, according to a report from Dr. Allan McGuiness (who developed the strain), my have mutated into something that has an extremely long latency period, like leprosy. If this is the case expect to see the whole town of Boston go to hell in about fifteen years.

Day Chipper :: (11:00:43/10-03-60)
Thank God I'm a west coaster!
 

Bo Cyrus Junction -- Speakeasy

Beatrice :: (09:25:46/10-02-60)
It took me six years in the shadows before I got invited into the place. The big fixers hang at the Junction as well so there are economic reasons to want to be let in as well as social.

Darker Realities
 

To become a member of the Speakeasy you must know the right people, be either a runner, a fixer, or someone with a sizable bank account looking for information or some odd job. It is a selective crowd, only the best of the best. A sign behind the bar reads, "Welcome to the Junction, where no one knows your name."  The place itself is seemingly a small bar. It is in the basement thus there are no windows, the place is dimly lit by leaded glass overhead Tiffany style lamps, a few of which are original dating back to when the place really was a speakeasy. The large oaken bar is fully stocked and the man behind it, Bo Cyrus, as he is known, takes orders and sets up meets, all for a nominal tip. The floor is polished; worn marble tiling with some cracked jade inlays. Because of the speakeasy's subterranean location the ventilation is poor and the atmosphere is a blue-grey haze of high-grade cigar smoke -- compliments of the imported Cubans, Bo Cyrus is always smoking and giving to the regulars. The chairs are plush leather (real leather) and the tables are fine wood with inlaid marble and onyx squares. Complimentary chess pieces are in a box, which also contains a standard deck of playing cards on each table. Gambling is not allowed, too many big egos go through the place. There are also several private booths for the utmost in private meets. They are part of the general room but have a curtain that can be drawn to keep prying eyes out of the conversation. A whisper of jazz often emanates from the multiple tiny speakers situated around the place. Most every Thursday is jazz night. Real musicians, who must pass an extensive background check… most of them are actually ex-runners or current runners with skillsofts, play their music on a small raised platform in the back corner..

 
B-Rated :: (22:45:54/10-02-60)
Them is some good cigars Bo's got in that place. He gotta be one connected mofo 'cause I bet it's hardah to get those things then it is to get alpha grade cyber.

Benefactor :: (21:35:42/10-03-60)
Some of the deals that have gone down in the past have been huge. Some of the clientele that have passed under the where no one knows you name sign have walked away in a much higher tax bracket... On the flip side, many of the same people have never made it back down into the Junction.

Simon Saying :: (01:43:36/10-04-60)
That's the risk we all take.

Benefactor :: (01:55:53/10-04-60)
The stakes that are all over job offers in the Junction are higher than your average run, but, as I said, the pay off is much greater. Juvenile runners are not here for a reason, the jobs are too important to hand off to novices.
 

The man who runs the place, the bartender Bo Cyrus, is something of a local legend, in the shadow community anyway. He is a connected man. He knows the jobs that are going down in the town and who to talk to to get at them. Rumor has it Bo Cyrus was a runner himself and was part of the famed New England runner troupe Sigma Force. This was the band, which spawned such urban legends as White Noise and the brilliant hermetic, Cellophane Dreamer.  Nowadays Bo Cyrus is a graying man who appears in his early forties. The smoking may have added a few years though. He has sparkling blue-gray eyes that match the wisps of cigar smoke that hang in the air. He has a quiet unassuming voice that commands respect from the listener. Also, odds are that his real name is not really Bo Cyrus. The speakeasy has been named that for the last 100 years and according to a framed news review of the place from 1955 it was renamed Bo Cyrus Junction after an old show tune.

 
Rainman :: (14:43:42/10-02-60)
Bo Cyrus also has a fair amount of interest in Novatech. I've heard of him meeting with Villiers on several occasions... Also I've been told that he doesn't allow runs against them in his establishment.

Cellophane Dreamer :: (20:12:15/10-02-60)
Wha-chu smokin'? I think you got your info ass backwards.

Beatrice :: (04:26:52/10-03-60)
Rainman, I landed a job on a Novatech subsidiary in the Junction... I think you might want to check your sources.
 

The building above the speakeasy has recently been renovated. As in the innards of the building were gutted and completely redone, Bo Cyrus now controls the entire thing. He made the top two floors into his own private luxury apartment where he lives alone. The other three floors are safehouses for his friends and supply houses for outfitting runners. The whole building, including the speakeasy, is bioguarded to prevent astral viewing and warded to keep out unwanted spirits and such. The windows are made of a super resistant polymer and thus are pretty much bullet proof. The door to the apartments is magically bolted and sealed with a retinal scanner. There is also a guard on duty who is more than capable of quieting most threats.  There are four apartments all together, the space for the other two has been converted into storage for arms, tricks of the trade, and contraband. These apartments are fully outfitted with a top grade Matrix connection (which is free to use but if a trace gets back to the apartment there will be one less runner in the world compliments of Bo Cyrus). They come fully furnished with trid and opulent furniture, bathroom with full shower/bath, even a bar of soap and shampoo. Bo Cyrus looks out for his friends, people can stay as long as they have to up to a week. After that arrangements are made to get the troubled individual out of town.

 
Emerald Steel (14:13:17/10-03-60)
Yuri, the doorman for the apartments does not take any crap. I stayed in room 2 for two nights about 8 months back... One of the goons after me actually traced me to the Junction and tried to bust in. All I saw was some strange glowing lights (I'm guessing magic) and then I heard a slew of animalistic noises. Don't know what happened but when I woke up I was informed that I had one less problem to worry about.

Hollywood Insider (17:49:17/10-03-60)
That's because Yuri is a spell throwing shapechanger.

White Noise :: (18:00:15/10-03-60)
Oh really???
 

If ever there is a raid or other reason for someone to need to leave the speakeasy there is a convenient, if messy, back door. (However bribery and Mafia protection keep most raids at bay) This feature is actually an original escape route from the 1920's. Off the bar room there is a liquor pantry, which has several standing wooden wine kegs. One of these is empty and when moved a manhole cover is found. Lifting this gives access to the old tunnels of the city. Long sense taken out of use they are damp and dank culverts that are home to rats, decaying refuse and other not-so-pleasant things. Rumor has it that these underground tunnels somehow join up with the catacombs in the Rox but it would take even an experienced guide at least ten hours to get there. Another rumor is that Bo Cyrus has a super top secret safehouse in these tunnels somewhere. These are nothing more than rumors though. -grin-

 
DigDug :: (15:37:14/10-01-60)
Yuppers, those tunnels all connect, sure do. And it only took me seven hours there Mr. person who wrote this...

Ultraviolet :: (23:11:46/10-03-60)
I think it's more like Ms. person who wrote this Mr. DigDug

Luna :: (23:15:14/10-03-60)
Yes, Ultraviolet is correct.

Emerald Steel :: (07:22:17/10-04-60)
There is a secret safehouse under the Junction... Oh the wonders that place holds!

The Rox

Black Roses :: (21:12:15/10-01-60)
The Rox is a pit. As the rest of the city grows around it, it just gets more filled with the people who didn't make it. The bourough is like a pressure cooker... Eventually it's going to bust out into the rest of the metroplex.
 

The gang image saturates public opinion also. If you ask someone on the street about a resident of the Rox you'll get something like they're all members of The Roxx (the gang), they're all drug runners and users, and they are all thugs. This stereotype has been solidified even more by the "Raging Attitude" vid flick and the subsequent trid spin off, "Boston Public Defenders". The real life PD has the public convinced that outside the Rox is a 24-7 safe place to be. Public Service ads warn children not to go there at any time and on the flip side that the area is "quarantined" at night... Supposedly those leaving the Rox confines at night are searched before hand and their weapons confiscated.

 
Low Jack :: (11:22:33/10-02-60)
Dats tha biggest load ah b.s. I heard in a long time... Aint no 5-0 rollin' in Roxbury. An' quarantine... My ass. I walk in an' out alls I want, don't matter what kinda heat I'z packin'.

Machine Against the Rage :: (09:48:14/10-03-60)
There's no place in Boston that's safe all the time. The public service and PD are all full of lying politicians and corporate funded propaganda machines.

E.Z. Triggerfinger :: (02:30:44/10-04-60)
Tha Roxx got it goin' on. We do got dis place, it ours an aint no one steppin' up 'cause dey get wrecked. Know what I'm sayin'.

Low Jack :: (06:29:25/10-04-60)
Y'all aint got drek.... [50 Mp deleted]

Luna :: (06:44:23/10-04-60)
There will be no turf wars on this bbs... thank you very much.
 

The corporate take, or at least the public corp take, is an interesting look at policy. Novatech, more accurately, Villiers, loves advertising what they/he has done for the Rox. He's helped reform the schools, funded matrix terminals and other educational tech. The slogan is "making the world safe for our kids" or some such drek. The public buys into it though. One the one hand they are terrified of getting geeked whenever they're within 10 blocks of the Rox border, on the other hand they praise the area as evidence of the rich and powerful helping out the less fortunate. Some local politicians have stated on the record that the "reform" programs going on in Boston's inner city should be the foundations on which other cities help their destitute... Of course their rivals say it is nothing more then a drug run hellhole.

 
Ace Marker Eleven :: (09:13:14/10-01-60)
The only thing that will really help Roxbury is if the city council, or Novatech, decide to send people in there to actively clean out the place. Every corner has a btl dealer and every street has about 100 paying customers. The dealers and the runners-in-hiding are the only ones there that have any money... Everyone else depends on welfare which hasn't kept up with inflation for the last 15 years. Active clean up is the only option to clearing the place out and making it into a decent neighborhood... However, the odds of that happening are between slim and none.

Telee :: (22:14:25/10-01-60)
True enough. I doubt either the city or Novatech will be doing anything that commits their own people to the front lines.

Ace Marker Eleven :: (06:03:25/10-02-60)
If the public outcry was loud enough... they might.

Darker Realities
 

Ok folks. The public image may be on the right track but it has been so skewed by Hollywood that it's not even funny. Sure we've got drugs, we've got crime, and sure the numbers are just a little higher than the national average, but so what? All the brainwashed corp boys and girls think it's a pit, unless they are under Novatech employ and then they revel in their great corp philanthropist of a boss. Of course the papers claim no corp ties, and so do the television stations. On an interesting aside... I was forced to watch a "made for trid movie" which was really really bad. I took mental notes of all the companies that advertised on the station. Jacking in I did some research and found 85% of them were Renraku subsidiaries.

 
Rover Cowboy :: (12:33:26/10-01-60)
Gotta love the trid, eh?

Jenson :: (13:35:17/10-01-60)
Oh yeah! Back on topic... It's true about the crime rates.. If they were as bad as the corps made them out to be then everyone who lived there would be either dead or carrying along a pound and a half of shrapnel in 'em.

Kimos :: (15:51:25/10-01-60)
But the real is secondary to what the corp wants you to see. If people knew the truth on half of what was really going on, they'd be sometimes shocked and sometimes relieved.

Ultraviolet :: (11:13:32/10-02-60)
Preach on sister!
 

Some of the truth about what's going on there is pretty scary. The Roxx gang is one bad bunch of bangers. However they are a Mafia sponsored group of badasses. The Morelli family seems to rely on them for many a hit, when tact is not called for anyway. The Bane-Sidhe, the Irish gang, makes it a point to kill anything with even a slight point of the ears so the Ancients are pretty much unheard of. The Cutters are a very small band in the Rox, virtually unheard of. The O'Rilley family sponsors the ones that are here though... It's interesting to note that this is a reversal of how Mafia sponsorship ran a short while ago. The Roxx used to report to O'Rilley, and the Cutters had loose ties to the Morelli clan. This harkens back to the revamping that the Fairy Godfather has begun to implement. The Roxx have a real bad rep and so the Don dumped them. This didn't make him many friends in the underworld. Don Morelli took this as a way to try and get a better grip into the Beanplex underworld. This will be further looked into in the O'Rilley and Morelli pages.

 
Ace Marker Eleven :: (09:31:52/10-03-60)
The mafia mess in the Rox is creating more tension on the Zoe suited side of things than with the bangers. It seems that power leverage in Roxbury is very important to both families... Of course the Rox is pretty much controlled by the Morelli troupe. Since the O'Rilley's have their mits on just about everything else I guess it makes sense.

Torpedo :: (11:12:13/10-03-60)
The turf wars that rage at night are pretty bad... There are a lot of casualties... There are more than there need to be but the EMT's always seem to get lost on the outskirts of the Rox. No one cares about the people here... it's no wonder, it's not an easy place to love.

Low Jack :: (11:15:37/10-03-60)
It aint no worse than the rest of tha city. There ah places ya go an' places ya don't. Simple as dat.
 

The Boston black market is predominately run through the catacombs in the Rox undercity. A man who calls himself "Saint Nick" is unarguably the most influential when it comes to contraband and obtaining industrial grade materials. He specializes and outshines the competition when it comes to military grade weapons and SOTA matrix technology. He is a charismatic gent, reputedly from Cali. He showed up three years ago and has organized the market. Since the cops rarely venture into the Rox business is fairly open but apparently Nick has a number of informants in the PD just in case they decide a raid would be prudent. Other black-market items include many-a-cyber dealers, information brokers, inside corp informants, and fixers. None of the fixers are given much sway since they get competition from Mama. Another project in the black market has been the expansion of their influence. The Hub is now predominately the "hub" of all of greater New England's under-the-counter transactions. Saint Nick has positioned himself well and is not shy in letting it be known. Manchester-Concord, Nashua, and Burlington are all dependent on his abilities.

 
Simon Saying :: (11:22:13/10-02-60)
I've spent a lot of time in the underground and I've never met "Saint Nick". I've heard all the stories but I've never met him... Gotten some great toys through his establishment but never seen the man.

Pythia :: (21:13:15/10-02-60)
Does that sound, perhaps like another Saint Nick you might have heard of and never seen???

Day Chipper :: (13:43:47/10-03-60)
I met him once when I visited a buddy of mine in Boston, at least I think I have. Met someone in McMannas' Corner calling himself Saint Nick... he was a nice guy and it seemed like everyone wanted to talk to him... don't know for sure though.

Low Jack :: (22:32:27/10-03-60)
I pulled a deal with tha brotha, scored myself a piece of info once by bestin' him in a poker match... Nice guy, an shits right he a connected man.
 

The Rox is also probably has the highest concentration of runners in New England. It's virtually a paradise. There are no questions asked and everyone tends to look out for everyone else. The cops and the Feds don't come around and the location is great, right in all the action... I sound like a fraggin' real-estate agent. And it's only a short T ride to the Back Bay!!! **wink wink nudge nudge** Of course you only get your back covered once you're acknowledged as a "native" which generally takes a couple years.... So it's not all bells and whistles.

 
Wild Willy Whistle :: (12:56:25/10-02-60)
The system here is great! I've been around for about six years livin' in the Rox and I know when anyone is looking for me... I scratch some backs and in return, I get looked out for.

Groucho :: (15:38:16/10-02-60)
It's a good thing you got them Willy... Word is you need 'em.
    

Sen. Everett Kennedy

Mako :: (01:17:15/10-02-60)
Everett has done a lot for Boston and all of New England really. He is spearheading the move to get some corporate laws past to downsize the amount of power that the megas have over every day life... Believe yo me.. I want to see that get passed.

Politico :: (06:37:38/10-02-60)
With all the corp lobbyists shoving cred into the senators pockets? I doubt it, I seriously doubt more than 1/4 the house or Senate vote for approving this bill, even though 99% of them know it's the right thing to do. The personal profit involved in voting this down far out-weighs any duty to country that should be the basis for the vote.
 

Everett (to get back on task) is a 45 year old human male. He looks about 30 though, and some say he has the same twinkle in his eye that his ultra-famous relative had a century ago. This is not all he shares with JFK. Everett is a star politician. He sits on several committees and helped form the one on metahuman equality. His network of connections throughout the DeeCee political underground is so extensive that it is rumored he knows about as much about what is really going on as the head of the CIA. Everett is a highly charismatic leader and also a good-looking man (which many attribute to both JFK and grandfather JFK jr.). His features are near elven. This is no surprise given that about a third of the new generation of Kennedy's are elves.  Everett is a highly educated man having gone through Harvard for seven years. He has a Ph.D. in Political Science and a masters in Economics. This Harvard stint gives him more common ground with JFK from the last political dynasty of the old USA.

 
DeeCee I See :: (17:10:13/10-01-60)
He's got his eye on the throne. He's been born and bread to be the commander and chief. He might as well have it tattooed on his forehead, "Hi I'm Everett, I'm gonna be president."

Pessimist :: (19:17:26/10-01-60)
Sure he is.... DeeCee, sure.

Hollywood Insider :: (03:57:23/10-02-60)
I've got evidence that our beloved senator has got some beta grade headware, tailored pheromones, and has been progressively getting slight alterations to look more and more like good old JFK.

Gamma :: (14:22:49/10-02-60)
Can you blame him?!?!

Rewind :: (23:32:38/10-02-60)
Umm, Gamma... JFK got shot... in the head.
 

The biggest news from the Kennedy camp is that Everett is gearing up for the presidential run of in the upcoming 2064 election year. His running mate is Miriam Smith the well-known senator from South Carolina. If you don't remember why that name sounds familiar I'll refresh your memories. She was the one that orchestrated the bill that reworked social security in 2037. She is now 63 and joined Kennedy in the race for office.  Everett's timing for this campaign run is impeccable. It will be exactly one hundred and one years since the still talked about John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. The stories of his greatness are still taught in the schools. Also there is an overwhelming public sentiment to return to a simpler way of life. Not to say that people want to throw their trids out the window but they look at the world and see how messed up it is and want it simpler. Most people correlate the past with simplicity and they see Everett as a symbol of that past. He also is riding on the same good looks and mega-charisma that JFK had.  His political platform is based on environmental issues, metahuman rights, and bringing more power to the people. He has actively campaigned for higher regulations on the corporations and wants the government to have more say in what is going on in the UCAS. The populace loves this, even in the "I love Richard Villiers" town of Boston… The fact that he is a homegrown boy helps considerably also.

 
Politico :: (22:55:11/10-03-60)
He's gonna have some fierce competition in that run. Three more candidates are about to announce their running intentions. The fact that the race is on so early is perhaps a little bit of foreshadowing. The issues that are big are REAL big. With the rise of Novatech, the Renraku mess, and the unrest amongst the triple A's, the government has taken the opportunity to seize some power back. The political machine managed to score some victories in some very glitzy trials with some very high profile witnesses called to the stand. This brought up public awareness and interest in politics which the suits in Washington have been trying to keep rising... It's been a while since the public has seemed to give a damn about their representatives... The last few years, since Dunk bit it, have been a real turn around for the UCAS political scene.

Franky :: (04:29:32/10-04-60)
But for any of this to matter for Everett, the energy has to be maintained for the next three and change years. Politics is often times considered a fairly boring past-time in the 2060 world.

Politico :: (05::00:00/10-04-60)
Some of the issues will take that long to resolve. Not to mention the Kennedy camp has the next "three and change" years measured out as to what Everett is going to be seen doing. If all goes as planned the build up to the election will be a moment of marketing unseen since the third batch of Star Wars films came out in the 2020's.

Darker Realities
 

Everett has made quite a name for himself in Senate circles. He is vehemently outspoken on his platform issues and doesn't give the time of day to opposing viewpoints. This has made him a target of political conservatives and most all of the right wing. They are strongly opposed to Kennedy mostly because his strong charisma manages to work its way into the moderates and sway them to his side of an issue.  The corporations are not a big fan of Everett Kennedy either. Given that he wants to cut back on their near limitless power and let the government have a greater control over extraterritorial conglomerates. They have spent many a nuyen looking for dirt and the skeletons in Kennedy's closet. So far all they've managed to find was a connection to the Mafia, O'Rilley in fact. But it would be far to dangerous to expose this link as the O'Rilley family has more than ample "counter-dirt" to spill to the media if this story should break.

 
Prudence :: (02:23:25/10-02-60)
That mafia link runs deep. We're talking rigged elections and skewed public opinion polls. Some people even say that he's had a couple people put away or silenced, notably Darren Henry from Florida three years ago. Some of the "Wonderboy's" winnings have reportedly been compliments of O'Rilley's under the table dealings.

Net Escaper :: (05:24:15/10-02-60)
Well, I think we all know that the O'Rilley bunch would have a great deal to benefit from if Everett manages to get into the oval office. I imagine Conor will be calling in a few favors here and there.

Ace Marker Eleven :: (07:22:25/10-02-60)
Try Everywhere, Net Escaper... I used to work for the O'Rilley's and I know that Everett has got a big looming bunch of favors that Conor could call in at any given time.
 

This Mafia connection is a link direct link to the Capo. Conor and Everett go back a long way. It appears that Conor pulled some strings the first time Everett ran for the open Senate chair, in return Conor got some red hot under the table info on then corporate VP of Villier's Boston division, (then Fuchi) Jeff Ericson.  The relationship between these two has remained a fairly strong one. Kennedy wins by landslides every time and the write-ups in the papers always put him in a favorable light. It's good to have friends in the right places!

 
Politico :: (10:23:45/10-04-60)
The ties that bind Everett and Conor are stronger than titanium fiber. Essentially through the years their fate has become so intertwined that if one falls the other falls also. It'll be interesting to see what happens as the '64 election gets closer and the other candidates haul out the big guns for dirt hunting.
Another facet to Everett, which probably stems from his connections to mafia inside info was his action on the Renraku arcology situation. Just as people were waking up and hearing about the lock down, Everett was getting off a plane in Seattle, preaching to the news stations about the tyranny of 'raku's ways and about all the innocent people caught on the inside. Of course whether or not he realized the magnitude of what was going on on the inside is unknown but he was on top of that story.
 

Overall for a politician, Kennedy has a fairly clean record. Either that or he has done an exemplary job of sweeping the dirt under the carpet so to say.  Regardless of what he has done, what Everett Kennedy knows is another story completely. The man's mind is as deep as the Denver datastore with facts, hearsay, rumors, and blackmailesque information on almost every prominent social and political figure in the Boston and DeeCee areas. He has access to the personal lives of all the other presidential hopefuls and knows the deep dark secrets of their private lives. The Mafia connections have helped him gather much of this information and he owes them a considerable amount. (So guess who one of the power players in the country will be if Kennedy gets elected!) Reportedly (on one of the undermatrix chat rooms) one of the reasons Kennedy picked Miriam to run with him is because she has similar connections and knows a fair amount of dirt on the other candidates.

 
Maco :: (22:14:04/10-01-60)
Miriam used to be bed fellows with Mike Hassel, another potential runner in the race... Truth is she's just a sharp lady that has been playing the game for a long time. I'll bet she knows a lot... I also bet she knows a lot on Kennedy. Better to have people like that on your side!

Terran Primary :: (03:01:34/10-02-60)
Everett does have a very pro-active environmental stance to the public. However, it seems that he is in support of medical research in the Congo Basin. This means mass deforestation and exploitation of the indigenous peoples. Not to mention capture and torture of the wildlife in the name of medicine.
 

Capo Don Conor "The Mick" O'Rilley

Verifier :: (19:46:45/10-01-60)
The Mick's involvement in MOM is whole hearted. I know he's gotten flack for trying to be a public do-gooder to cover up his top notch mafia family. This is not the case though... He really believes in the MOM movement.

Hollywood Insider :: (22:57:35/10-01-60)
So how much is he paying you two guys?

Amethyst Raine :: (08:22:59/10-02-60)
I had to cover the MOM convention for the Harvard paper... Christ, I almost died! It was nuts. All these people suddenly charged in with tear gas and baseball bats. Once the riot spilled into and down Newbury I was gonna high tail it out of there but I ended up propped upon this troll's shoulders watching the whole thing. I was amazed, shops were looted, buildings were set fire to, people gunned down in the middle of the street under the blaring sun. Of course the story got me recruited by the Unassociated Press in Seattle so I guess I can't complain too much.

Telee :: (11:34:38/10-02-60)
And we care?
 

The public, or at least the Herald, loves to link O'Rilley to Mafia activity. The truth is that there is no certainty behind the claims. The paper will assert that O'Rilley is a prominent underground figure and then have little or no evidence to support it. There have been several occasions where the Herald has claimed to have evidence to put O'Rilley in jail but suddenly the items will disappear, the people will leave town, or the official forms will disappear from the Herald's vault. Truth be told chums, the only time Conor has ever been on the bad end of a court appointment it was related to the Newbury incident… and he was only called as a witness.

 
Carrie Adley :: (20:37:24/10-02-60)
No drek it's hard to stick stuff to O'Rilley... He's slipperier than the Teflon Don of last century. And he's got more moles in the Boston papers than I have in my backyard. Whenever we pinpoint him, whenever we think we've got him nailed a key witness will disappear or our mainframe will have a mysterious crash... It's a pain in the hoop.

Darker Realities
 

Ok, chums, this is where it gets interesting. Now Don O'Rilley has been making waves in the Mafia world for quite some time. Being the only elf in the Commissione he already has some strings holding him back. However, he is not letting these slow him down. As a political move he married Patricia Muldoon, eldest daughter of the Muldoon family, the second most powerful family in the Beanplex. The current Don of the Muldoon clan, Kyle, is something of a failure. He is weak willed and unmotivated, his father instilled next to none of his business sense in his son. Because of this O'Rilley, for better or worse, essentially has control over the Muldoons through his wife.  There is a large amount of dissention in the Muldoon family as every made man and higher knows that O'Rilley is the one ordering them on "business".

 
Mull Doone :: (12:33:36/10-01-60)
There are clear supporters and opposers to the O'Rilley marriage. Since the Muldoons were sort of slipping into the gutter some of us see it as a good thing... an opportunity to put the name back on the map. Others are sick of hearing O'Rilley this and O'Rilley that and are pissed that now they are part of the bigwig Boston gangster crew.

Hamstring :: (15:23:35/10-01-60)
Seems like you should count your blessings that O'Rilley didn't just drive you all out of town.

Mull Doone :: (17:23:27/10-01-60)
Yeah, maybe but the older members would much rather have been left alone and let the family name dwindle... More honor in that then there is in being bought out by another family.

Killroy :: (22:47:26/10-02-60)
The faerie godfather is a marked man... His days are numbered

Simon Saying :: (23:45:28/10-02-60)
Whatever, Killroy, you're not scaring anyone.
 

O'Rilley's personal power is impressive. He surrounds himself in experts and plots every move with the precision of a laser. He essentially owns city hall. Some people claim O'Rilley has more freedom than the corps within the Boston area. His image as an activist and pro-rights demonstrator has fostered his good guy image in the eyes of the general public. As an Irish elf he has publicly addressed the Bane-Sidhe and proclaimed the elves in Tir na nOg wrong in their expulsion of all the non-elves. This got him great favor in the eyes of the meta public, but the word is he doesn't believe it. O'Rilley is a well to do elf, why should he care about the struggles of despots?  O'Rilley also has a good deal of insiders and informants in the media world, not to mention the police and the public sector. The reason that the Herald never can substantiate the stories they find out about is because by the time it hits print the word has already been passed to the appropriate sources and the person/ place/ thing in question is "cleaned".  The Boston PD answers almost exclusively to O'Rilley. Before this used to be a mark of contention between the Muldoon and O'Rilley families but with the union of Conor and Patricia that has been solved.  There are also trash collectors paid to keep their eyes open as well as corp secretaries and even some middle management on the payroll. All rumors of consequence are to be reported directly to Conor so he can deal with them as he sees fit. The O'Rilley blackmail and extortion circuits are models for many of the other Dons in North America.

 
Politico :: (10:10:10/10-01-60)
The connection factor of O'Rilley touches on several key areas. The police, the news, the politicians, and the gangs all have people on the payroll. If there is something going on in the city, he knows. The channels that the information gets relayed along are secure and trustworthy so it is very rare that O'Rilley receives bad data... The cost for misinformation is quite high so most gatherers will do a little snooping before passing on the goods.

Amethyst Raine :: (11:22:34/10-01-60)
Even the college papers have informants to the mafia. It's amazing how many key research projects got talked about at Harvard and then almost immediately disappeared.
 

There have been many posts and boards up on Capo Don Conor O'Rilley as a progressive Mafia boss. This would be an understatement. This man does his homework. He has researched the methods of the yakuza, the Triads, the other families, and has a good grip on Mafia history. (Either that or he has an "expert" in his close circle of confidants.) In the last five years the codes of omerta (silence) and rispetto (respect) have been actively enforced in the O'Rilley family. If members are caught breaking their oaths they are dealt with accordingly. The punishment usually has a Yak tint to it also ("You ratted on the deal, cut off your finger.")  Apparently a runner in the Don's personal circle by the call sign "Ace Marker Eleven" made the slip of calling O'Rilley the fairy godfather while he took a leak in the bathroom. Wall microphones picked it up and by the time he zipped his fly two thugs drug him out into the hallway and beat him to a pulp. When he woke up he was in a shack in the woods. Conor himself was there and played back a audio tape of the event.  "Was that you Ace?"  Yeah, I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean…"  That was all it took, a quick smack from the Don's bodyguard shut Ace up. The Don pulled a butterfly knife, looked at AME and told him to cut out his tongue.  This sort of behavior has kept the loyalty high. It is not entirely out of fear though because if you are nice to O'Rilley, he is very nice in return. He is a beacon of charisma and underworld stragglers flock to him. He takes good care of his own, it is not uncommon to wake up the morning after a successful run and find a smooth new sports car sitting in your driveway.

 
Ultraviolet :: (22:59:11/10-03-60)
Is this the same Ace Marker Eleven that posts to these boards?

Hollywood Insider :: (23:11:23/10-03-60)
Yup

Ultraviolet :: (23:30:47/10-03-60)
Good thing he's still got his fingers!

Ace Marker Eleven :: (02:16:24/10-04-60)
Thanks guys.
 

Although the Conor O'Rilley clan is a fairly stable bunch, the other two families are both chaotic within themselves and between one-another.  The Muldoon's are divided into two camps. Camp A says that rule by Don O'Rilley is better than a mob war. Sure he may be pulling the Muldoon family strings and the profits floating away from them but a war would be devastating. The general attitude is that O'Rilley is nice enough to keep them around and trying to fight him would be like the corner store declaring corp war on Yakashima, it just doesn't happen that way.  Camp B wants a mob war, wants to fight O'Rilley and take him for all he's worth. They want to bring the issues before a meeting of the Commissione and try and get other bosses to side with them. Some very shadowed talks have apparently been made between this branch of the Muldoons and an activist group in the Morelli family. They feel the yen vacuum of O'Rilley taking away all the familial profit and hate Conor for that and their fellow Muldoons for not acting.  Luckily for O'Rilley four of the five sottocapos (underbosses), are in camp A. Kyle Muldoon is also in camp A because he doesn't want anything to happen to his sister. .

 
Killroy :: (11:38:35/10-02-60)
There is a definitive movement between the Muldoons and the Morellis. We are trying to stop the elf from bringing down everything we've striven for for the past 200 years. Yes, it is a overwhelming battle to fight but many of us cannot sit by any longer and watch O'Rilley do what he's doing.

Benefactor :: (00:33:11/10-03/60)
The two families mentioned above have also tried to get some of the New York Cappos to side with them. The Genovese family seems to be the most likely to bite as they already have some interests in Boston and do not particularly like O'Rilley and his "progressive" ways. If the NYC mobsters get involved in B-town it'll be an interesting scene as whenever there is the threat of unbalance among the big NYC five tensions always get sky high.
 

The Morelli family is quite literally a mess. Their other Sicilian families look on them with distaste and shame. The Don is a greasy man named Alfonse who looks like he should be flipping Pizza crusts; wearing wife beaters, and drinking cheap beer. He is only a Don by inheritance and the stragglers gathered under the Morelli name are little more than gangers themselves. The chief business for them is running drugs and likewise consuming them. In the underworld scene they are only given credibility because of what Alfonse's grandfather did for the name. He used to have the power, prestige, and charisma of O'Rilley. But two generations of genetic failures sent the family slipping down into the failed Mafia pit of shame.  With the movements brewing in the Muldoon clan, Alfonse's sottocapos and consiglieris are urging him to accept the Muldoon's offer of cooperative war on O'Rilley. Alfonse doesn't want to give the go ahead though simply because he knows if someone wanted to put a hit out on him, he would be a dead man. He doesn't have anyone he trusts enough with his life. What he hasn't realized is that if he doesn't act, the hit could come from the inside. The rest of the Morelli family has a lot less to lose and a lot more to gain from a mob war.

 
Emerald Steel :: (09:31:36/10-01-60)
Alfonse is a throughly disgusting man. He is truly a boil on the back end of mafia culture.

Cellophane Dreamer :: (11:16:59/10-02-60)
Yes but he'll accept because if he doesn't then he'll just get a hit sent out on him by one of his own members. Essentially he already has because three fourths of his "family" is already working in conjunction with the Muldoon branch of anti-O'Rilley's to get things moving.
 

Don't think however that O'Rilley is oblivious to the goings on in either of the other two families. He knew from the get go that he was going to continuously improve his rating on Boston's Ten Most Marked Men list. He is well protected, despite his public appearances, and his extended family is more than prepared for political or flat out physical violence.  Of course he is not immune and perhaps is not nearly as safe as he thinks he is. There are movements to oust him on more than just the obvious planes. For all O'Rilley's greatness he seems a little too comfortable. He's staring straight ahead and looking dead behind. He seems not to realize that the greatest beasts are moving just beyond his peripheral vision.

 
Joe. Joe Who? Joe Momma. :: (00:12:27/10-03-60)
I think O'Rilley's got it under control. He knows he is not safe and that he is marked more than any other figure in the Hub. He'll make it to whatever his elven biology deems is its natural limit.

Ace Marker Eleven :: (00:33:45/10-03-60)
I think he's got a rude awakening in the form of hot lead headed his way sooner than later. With as much power as he's got there are a lot of people he's stepped on to get there and others that are just plain put out by his ways and his methods.

Politico :: (02:13:18/10-03-60)
Time will tell what fate has got in store for good old Conor O'Rilley. No amount of speculation is going to answer that question. All that we do know is that there are troubles brewing and on their way to a head. Maybe they will settle down again or maybe they'll bust... we don't know!

Pythia :: (04:11:34/10-03-60)
True enough.... I'm goin' to bed.
 
 

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