Midnight 2325

hole noun \ˈhōl\ : an opening into or through something : a hollow place in the ground : a place in the ground where an animal lives

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Media Channels So Far:

Chicago Tribune Chatham Standard- Neighborhood news IS Now- Intelligence Services Main News Channel The Lamp- New Chicago municipal and infrastructure news RaWeird- Microreporting on weird events- multifeed The Stranger- Strange news publication West Zone Defense Neighborhood Advisory

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The Lamp: New Edison Power Plant Relocation Project Begins

Monday Morning, Jan 4th, 2326- Infrastructure modification began today in New Chicago, as New Edison begins the process of transferring its fusion power plant assets out of the Coalition States and up to their new headquarters in Ishpeming. 

(Above- Construction Begins On Removal Of Power Park’s Fusion Reactors) Disassembly on both the Central Zone’s Power Park Fusion Reactor Complex and the West Zone’s Edisonian Reactor Complex began today, deactivation and removal taking place in shifts over the next 6 months.

(Above- Power Park Fusion Reactor Complex, Central Zone)

(Above- Edisonian Reactor Complex, West Zone, Noble Sector Baseline)

(Above- Inside View of one of Edisonian Reactor Complex’s Fusion Reactor Centers) To continue meeting New Chicago’s extensive power needs during the 2326 transition period, New Edison has deployed an extensive fleet of temporary power solutions, including our ground-mobile, lake-based floating, and hover-deployable power plants. These resources, in addition to the New Edison Mooreland Reactor (now operated through lease by the Coalition States), should be able to handle 75-80% of the city’s power needs with minimal brown out or black out periods.  As is always the case during work on power infrastructure, Department of Infrastructure Maintenance (DIM) requests that citizens be power-conscientious and limit usage so as to not overtax the grid. 

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SATURDAY MORNING, JAN 2ND, 2326

(Current Time)

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ISNOW: Intelligence Services Gives Sneak Preview of SEAM Augmented Reality System

Friday Evening, Jan 1ST, 2326 (Current Time) To ring in the new year, Intelligence Services provided a select group of technologists, reporters, and culturati with a sample of the future interface system they claim will replace the Matrix. They call it SEAM: Sensual Experience Augmentation Matrix, and it takes augmented reality to an entirely new level.  SEAM is the first commercial deployment of nanoprocessor-embedded smart matter devices into commercial and public spaces. Smart matter combines a mix of distributed micro sensors and high-speed computation clusters to turn architectural features and everyday objects (doors, windows, chairs, wallpaper, plates, etc.) into interface-ready processing units. 

Scattered throughout a space, the smart matter devices run programs which, using algorithm sets not unlike Ihara-Grubb Matrix sets, create virtual information objects. These spime-generating smart matter devices, when combined with Intelligence Services already formidable array of wireless broadcast networks, create an augmented reality overlay of Matrix-quality experience, which not only informationally-enhances the physical world, but which can provide a virtual interface to real-world objects.

What does this mean?  Imagine stepping out onto a balcony at night with nothing more than a special SEAM dock plugged into your DNI port. You look skyward, and dimly see the stars overhead. Utilizing smart matter-based SEAM microsensors built into the windows, you use a simple gesture-based command to conjure up an enhancement window, which seems to appear in the space right in front of you. Using the enhancement window controls, you dim down the ambient light coming from the city, and zoom in on the star of your choice.  Not much different sounding than a simple TimeSquare+ system and a cybernetic optic enhancement, right? Except, with SEAM, you don’t need the TimeSquare+ or any optics gear (implanted or not), AND once you’ve opened your window, you can wave over a SEAM equipped friend, and they can also make use of the enhancement window you’ve opened. SEAM is entirely socially shared, so does away solipsism-inducing subjective sensory disorders. Additionally, SEAM allows for Matrix-level virtuality in the mobile, pedestrian, world of everyday interactions. SEAM docks include limited NAC functionality, which allows 5+ sense simulations to be directly accessed from environmental smart matter on-site. What does that mean? SEAM culinary vendors can sell packages that let you taste, smell, see, hear, or feel anything you want, anytime you want. Meal a little too salty? Adjust the SEAM setting. Accidentally spill wine on your blouse? Remove the stain in SEAM, and no one else using SEAM will notice.  The on-site smart matter provides superior security to regular network oriented information transfer (the details have not yet been released), but we won’t see the informatic and epistemological utility benefits until Intelligence Services does their next demonstration in February.  SEAM units are available for pre-order now.

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Chicago Tribune: Night Club Fire Leaves City Uncertain As The New Year Turns-- Known Underworld Luminaries Among Victims of “The Pit” Blaze

Thursday Afternoon, Dec 31st, 2325

With the fire finally extinguished at the private “fight club” known as The Pit, Chicago holds its breath as reports of 47 deaths are confirmed by West Zone Defense. The roster of the dead reads like a true-crime novel: Mario and Lucchio Cantucci, alleged heads of the Cantucci syndicate; Victor Scarlotti, alleged head Iron City’s Scarlottie crime family, in town for a charity event; Dino Cantucci, son of Lucchio; Johathan “Jackie” Cero, known as The Zero in the media; Phillip Gorletti, cousin to the Cantucci’s and reputed underboss; Izio Giannini, a convicted Southside gangster; James “Jimmy the Spider” Belzoni; and Anthony “Ten Ton” Rafallo... the list goes on and on. Initial reports that the fire was caused by a malfunctioning generator has given way to speculation that the fire was the after-effect of a incendiary weapon deployed to effectively wipe out the Cantucci criminal organization. 

(Picture- Luccio Cantucci)   Neither West Zone Defense nor CLEAN have made statements, beyond the initial announcement of the deaths (after early reports seemed to indicate that everyone had made it out of the private event before the fire became dangerous), but it seems an unlikely coincidence that the entire Cantucci organization, or at least most of its vital membership, would be gathered together at the site of “accidental” fire. Without wanting to speculate, The Tribune is attempting to track down the other guests who may have been at the gathering, organized by the Ancient Order of Hibernians, but until we can get firsthand reports of what took place within The Pit early this morning, we can only hold our breaths and brace ourselves, as a community, for what might come next.

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RaWeird: Thermal Artist Catches Image of Plasma Weaponry at The Pit?

Thursday Morning, Dec 31st, 2325 Reports coming in from an artist (anonymous for now, until we see which way the official wind is blowing) who was using thermal imaging gear to do heat map illustration of Chatham early this morning captured imagery of a massive thermal flare in the distance during one of this shots. This timestamped image seems to fit the thermal flare to the same period of time that fire at The Pit supposedly started. Basic searches show the same sort of thermal phenomenon when commercial gear picks up temperatures at the top of its scale, which combined with the geometric nature of the image, seems to imply a plasma wash, maybe contained by a ferrocrete plane (interior basement wall).  Generator malfunction? What kind of generator is laying out plasma? I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we didn’t see CLEAN investigating this one. 

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Chatham Standard: Firefighters Battle Blaze At Private Club “The Pit”

Wednesday Evening,, Dec 30TH, 2325 West Zone Defense Firefighters are current engaged in fierce battle to extinguish an already contained structure fire in the exclusive “combat club” known as The Pit. 

Initial eyewitness reports conflict as to whether other than staff were still inside the club at the time of the fire, with some reports describing a large private charity event hosted by the Irish American social group the Ancient Order of Hibernians, while other reports from staff inside the building at the time of the fire indicate that the gathering was safely evacuated before the fire spread throughout the buildings basement area. 

The Pit, a private club and fight arena, has a decades-long storied history of hosting everything from boxing matches to sword fights, and also has its fair share of unlicensed fights taking place on the premises. It is not known if the Ancient Order of Hibernians were hosting a pre-New Years Eve fight event at the time of the fire. 

Initial reports seem to indicate the fire was started by some sort of internal generator malfunction, but that has not been confirmed by West Zone Defense Fire Fighters. Staff were safely evacuated from the building by firefighters, and the search for guests will continue as the night progresses. 

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MONDAY MORNING, DEC 28TH, 2325

(Current Time)

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Merry Christmas New Chicago!!!

(Current Game Time) Friday Morning, Dec 25th, 2325

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The Stranger: The First Annual Post-Reality Celebration and Winter Solstice Gathering of the North American Occultural Society

(Current Game Time) Monday Morning, Dec 21st, 2325

All The Strange That Is Fit To Print... What’s this, faithful enquirer, The Stranger bringing you news of yet another tired neo-pagan celestial celebration? Fear not, for this is news of a far weirder variety. This is not only a celebration of the longest night of the year, but the first official celebration of the end of reality. That’s right, you heard it here first (or maybe you’re more properly connected, and you’re hearing it here second): reality is officially over, and we’ve entered a new period: malleality. Or so says chaote, social engineer, and president of the newly formed North American Occultural Society, Ryt Seid.  “For the past 800 years reality has this ghost of a concept, haunting every aspect of contemporary society, from physics to law. Those of us who have questioned its tentative nature and shoddy definitions have been laughed at, scorned, imprisoned, or worse, but 2325 seems to have brought a surprise ending to all of that... and one none of us expected. There’s a glitchiness to things now, and whether you attribute it to memetic engineering failures on the part of the epistemic elite, hiccups in the simulation system modeling the universe, or some sort of energetic awakening among the people, non-anecdotal proof is starting to roll in. The Occultural Society is our effort, as the youth who stand to inherit this more malleable world, this malleality if you will, to gather, explore, and try to understand these new, fluid rules sets that seem to govern things. The cat is out of the bag...it is an exciting time to be conscious and alive.”  The astute reader will notice that there is nothing particular new in Seidd’s rhetoric that we haven’t seen a thousand times before from gurus, transjectivists, and fans of esotericism... but what struck The Stranger was the no-nonsense air with which she talked about the Occultural Society’s goals. “Governments, Religions, and Institutions of Knowledge have been the foundation of life and society for thousands of years... all of history, really. No one can really argue their value, or their resiliency. But they’ve been as caught off guard by these recent shifts in the scheme of things as the rest of us have, and the standard reaction to these kinds of changes from the powers that be is almost always restriction, limitation, and control: all tools that work perfectly well in reality, but none of which are particularly well suited for existence in malleality. We, as empowered, conscious citizens of the world, need to begin developing new tools, new perspectives, and new modes of interaction to deal with our new environment. In just the last two seasons we’ve seen an explosion in ‘psychic phenomenon’, mass encounters with xeno- and cryptozoological organisms, and... uh... lets just say magh is becoming a less externally isolated, more internally-based thing every day. So these gatherings are more than just another way to try slap a hierarchical structure down on folks, manufacture bullshit social power, or create a new scene, which is pretty much what we’ve seen from the existing spiritual and esoteric groups in the Coalition States- we’re looking to demonstrate what is possible, measure it, document it, and see what we can learn from it about ourselves and the world around us. No cowls, no secret handshakes... Hell, no secrets at all, if we can manage it. The parties are just ways to try to draw people out so we can do that. Come for the music and merry making, and if you see a little something that changes your life, well, you come back again with a purpose.”

Hyperbole or hyperstition in action? Hard to say. We’ll be counting down until the sky goes pink in the Chasm tonight. For those bored with reality-as-it-stands, the Post-Reality Solstice Celebration runs tonight from dusk until dawn at Tree Bar (Ivory Sector 4).

(Event hosted at Tree Bar)

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West Zone Defense Neighborhood Advisory- Rogers Park and Pilsen: Please Report Missing Pets And Unusual Animal Activity

(Current Game Time) Thursday Morning, Dec 17th, 2325 

New Chicago: West Zone Defense are asking for the public's help in investigating a rash of pet disappearances in the Rogers Park and Pilsen neighborhoods of the West Zone.  A number of local residents have reported animals missing from yards, enclosures, pens, and balconies in the past 30-45 days in the Rogers Park and Pilsen neighborhoods, primarily on Baseline and Level 1. These pets have ranged from rabbits, cats, and dogs, to livestock animals such as chickens. The sounds of animals fighting have been reported in the neighborhood, but no signs of animal attacks or dead animals have been spotted in these neighborhoods. It is possible that the disappearances are a human-based crime, and so we ask citizens to be vigilant, to report any abnormal sights or sounds related to animals in these neighborhoods, and certainly to report any missing pets or disturbed enclosures.  While no evidence of mutant predators in these neighborhoods has been been found, WZD recommends citizens take the proper precautionary measures when out on the streets or in parks, including carrying any personal armaments available, until such a time as mutant predators have been ruled out.  If you have seen, or have any information regarding the animal disappearances, please contact WZD Animal Control. If you see any unexplained activity, or signs of mutant predators in your area, please contact WZD emergency services immediately.

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Wednesday Morning, Dec 16th, 2325

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Tuesday Morning, Dec 15th, 2325

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RaWeird- More Warnings

(Current Game Time) Monday Morning, Dec 14th, 2325 Out in Uptown Baseline, early AM: I couldn’t stick around very long, as WZD had a prowler enroute, and I didn’t want to get questioned. But here they are... I got five images this morning, but only two of them came out even remotely clear. These are warnings, people, posted right at borders between UV and Uptown. We’ve all heard rumors, like maybe it is the Russian Mob trying to send some kind of scary message to stay off of their turf, but I don’t buy it anymore. Corpnews can call them “unregistered mutants” all they want, but THAT was not a human head. Those are not human-fucking-teeth. And I don’t want to hear any bullshit about monsterborgs either- that was legit gore dripping out the bottom.  I bailed, then worked my way back about 90 minutes later, and the Shivers were idle, the area were closed, and there was a quad unit of PRA Fiddlers on site, gathering up the evidence and cleaning the site.  There’s no official news of this. The neighborhood is a total creepout zone right now, so I didn’t really see other people on the street. How often is this happening? Have any of you seen anything like around the border of Ukrainian VIllage?

(PRA Fiddler Encounter Suit)

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Friday Morning, Dec 11th, 2325

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Thursday Night, Dec 10th, 2325

(Current Game Time) (Previous Relevant Game Dates) ______________________________ Recovery of Atlantean Items and RAQA Arrival- Thursday Predawn, December 3rd, 2325 ______________________ Defeat of Jup’Thir - Wednesday Evening, December 2nd, 2325

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IS NOW: Unprecedented Aggression Against Sovereign Corporate Body Leaves Intelligence Services VP Unaccounted For

93 hours after the illegal abduction of the Executive Board and members of the VP Staff of Intelligence Services by the agents of the Civil Law Enforcement Agency of the Coalition States, many questions remain unanswered. 

(Left to Right:Chief Cultural Officer Chandler Bankcroft, Chief Technical Officer Gilga Uy, Chief Executive Officer Jared Yoro, Chief Security Officer John Rheul, and Chief Financial Officer Elizabeth O’Connel)

(Where Is Harlan Ousterbachen?)

(Civil Law Enforcement Agency Headquarters, Central Zone, New Chicago)   Without valid cause, agents entered Intelligence Services property, illegally bypassed internal security checkpoints, violated 74 separate points of entreatment, and deprived the board members of their civil rights as dual citizens of the Coalition States. Now released, the Executive Board is in mediation with President Jendroska and the CNRC (Corporate Negotiaton and Regulation Commission), to resolve the twin issues of damages and trade impacts. 

Based on faulty information, CLEAN claims its raid was an attempt to prevent an internal coup and terrorist bombing of IS facilities by a splinter faction of their own employees. No information on what this splinter faction’s motives would be, or why they would choose election day as their target date has been provided by CLEAN, nor has any proof of these claims. “Reliable but confindential informants” are being sited as the source of the intel, and CLEAN representatives assure us that all action was taken to maintain the safety and security of the Intelligence Services board.  Assuming this is true, it still leaves one issue unresolved: why hasn’t Intelligence Services VP of Surveillance Harlan Ousterbachen been released from CLEAN custody yet? And for that matter, where are his Branch Manager staff? Were they also taken into custody during this Keystone Cop Anti-Terrorism episode? If so, why are we approaching the 100 hour mark without their release, or any specific comment on the matter? During a period of such tense negotiation at the highest levels, the remaining uncertainty regarding CLEAN’s illegal detention of Ousterbachen seems contrary to their apologetic stance.

Stay tuned for more news as it becomes available.