@cassian.andor

[evasives]

I want to talk about Riverstone, among other things, as they relate to us being here, as Displaced. My apologies over the length.

I think this company has its hand in the pot here, in New Amsterdam, far more than it lets on. This will tie into the other major corporations in the city, which I will briefly expound on for the newer arrivals.

Giles Bell: biomedical advancements and wetware surgeries
Pulsar: space exploration and expansion
Vyonation: technology and data security

Riverstone is another giant corporation, though it is based out of New Beijing. It has offices here in New Amsterdam, and it works with the three major corporations present. All of them are deeply intertwined and connected, far more than they let on. Just assume corruption on every level, it is easier.

I know many of us were preoccupied in New Beijing with a certain AI, but I spent my time elsewhere. They are known as a media company, but their influence is everywhere - you cannot go far in New Beijing without Riverstone's hand at play. Their initial foundation was based around being an entertainment company that bankrolled robotics and artificial intelligence, but their goals were moreso to find a way to counteract AIs. They had no interest in living alongside AIs, so much as wanting to use them for human advancement.

The Ling family has had control of this company for over 500 years. They work primarily in entertainment on the front side, but they have their hands in many pockets including: a rival car company to Pulsar's, neural implants and cyberkinetics, and they have invested in biological and environmental sciences.

Here is where there is an important tangent.

There were a series of earthquakes in September 2510, half a year before the first of the Displaced were dropped off in New Amsterdam in June 2511. September of 2510 saw massive power outages, and at first it seemed to be located in cities such as New Amsterdam, New Oslo, and New Venice - but these earthquakes hit on a more global scale, and given the scattered locations, I do not think a natural occurrence is the most likely explanation. Several cities were better prepared, some were completely surprised and suffered for it. There was no warning for this earthquake, no natural signs of build up. The reported epicenter is off the coast of state of Washington, in the former North America - which is a different continent from where we all live now. A facility 100 miles east of New Omsk first reported the seismic activity, but a month later it was closed. New Omsk is roughly 3000 miles east from New Amsterdam, between here and New Beijing. Further details about this entire mystery quake are vague, details missing. The reports have gone unquestioned.

The curious part about this comes from Riverstone. It seems they were prepared for an outage, halting projects in preparation. They were given no explanation except to prepare for spotty services. Someone in this company knew what was happening. I discovered this while in New Beijing, but I am still looking into the nature of what kind of projects.

From [Bad username or site: ren @ amamiya], we have Project Spinetail. They existed in the Marianas Trench, a location in the Pacific Ocean which is off the coast of New Beijing and New Tokyo. [ give him a break, he's not from earth! maybe others aren't either and need all this geography stuff noted! ] They were working there in September 2510, but the project was halted. Further details are unclear.

September 2510 is a significant date. I have reason to believe we, as the Displaced, may have already been on this planet at that time, and the reason involves a deeply invasive spinal surgery wrapped up in heavy power outages. Given the success and competence of the medi-units - which can literally bring someone back from the brink of death - a spinal surgery of this nature would likely have only been completed as a result of power loss to a medi-unit. This is something we saw when Cassius set forth the EMP and disrupted New Amsterdam exponentially. People in medi-units at this time died or were further damaged. The spine was entirely replaced by cyberkinetics, a field both Giles Bell and Riverstone have their hands in. Through El I have discovered the spine came first before the neural implant, which is not standard to this world, and that it was likely meant to be hidden. I believe this surgery was necessary due to the massive outages from the September 2510 quakes, as there have been no other significant outages that line up with this spine's existence. The cyberkinetics were not known at the time of arrival, their existence was later confirmed by [Bad username or site: jyn @ erso] after seeking unrelated medical attention.

This is a blanket statement that I will not talk about my sources and risk losing any of them. My investigations here are ongoing. You do not have to believe me, skepticism is healthy, but I am going to put what I have found out there regardless. I am sure we all have our own interests. It would be smart to pool them.

Related to corporate politics and the upcoming election, it seems there are several names that come up quite often in connection to Jovavich - the head of R&D at Pulsar and one of three running for governor of New Amsterdam. Mariana, Larkin, Johann, and Soto. See the notes from [Bad username or site: jyn @ erso] below. Johann is our biggest mystery of the four.

As a final aside, I have reports that Giles Bell is soon releasing a new drug trial after receiving a large subsidy from the UN. It supposedly comes with health risks and hazy research. I am not sure if we have anyone left who still works for Giles Bell, but it might be something to look into - especially given the state we tend to arrive in as Displaced.

Comments

@jyn.erso

[realists]

Marianna Webster-Doyle is Jovavich's personal assistant. She wears glasses she doesn't need, Pearl says it's fashion.

Olivia Larkin is Jovavich's second-in-command at Pulsar and expected to succeed her if she's elected as governor. She's smart and works hard, but there have been whispers that Pulsar might look for someone else to take over to Jovavich despite this going against her wishes. Guess she isn't as naturally brilliant as Jovavich.

Hanzo Soto is the CMO at Pulsar. He is in charge of making Jovavich's space projects marketable. Good luck with Jupiter.

No idea who Johann is. No names came up related to Pulsar at all and when I looked for the JPG from the emails that Cassius provided for [Bad username or site: hope @ mikaelson] and [Bad username or site: peter @ benjamin] nothing came up as related to Jovavich.

[ she attaches the email in question, linked from peter's original post where it was mentioned. ]

@ren.amamiya

[variate]

There were more of these messages that Cassius sent out, weren't there? These weren't the only ones.

[ the ones that Jyn attached. ]

[realists]

[ she also attaches ianto's spreadsheet ]

Those were the ones compiled on Peter's post. The others weren't relevant to my research.

@kira.solo

[forcevisions]

I work in the robotics division of Riverstone's New Amsterdam location.

If you need access to something to continue your investigation, let me know. I've earned a lot of goodwill there.

[ she's not sharing how because she's not interested in the questions that might come with it, and it's ultimately personal. ]

Can you explain what you mean regarding this spinal surgery more? What spine came before the implant, and what does it have to do with the Displaced?

[evasives]

I will keep that in mind.

[ the spinal surgery is also something quite personal, and it's the reason he's waited so long to come forward with any of this. minute details won't be forthcoming anywhere. ]

The surgery for the spine was given before the surgery for the neural implant. A surgery of that nature - complete replacement of the spine - would likely have only been done during a power outage due to the advances of the medi-unit. Cyberkinetics are rarely necessary save for emergencies or birth defects, and they are designed to work with the implant. They usually come after. Why would a person get a new spine before an implant, something the people of this world are given at birth?

I know we as the Displaced are dropped off at varying times, but my theory is that perhaps we have all been here from the same moment and our drop offs are scattered for other reasons.

[forcevisions]

That would fit with the fact that those dropped off in November had been seen in June, previously.

[ They're being held in a facility, just like those found in November had been. ]

Are you talking about a surgery done on a Displaced's spine?

[ That's the piece she's missing. The people in surgery during the EMP were obviously native to the world — but his oblique reference to "a spinal surgery" seems to be the indirect link that has him tying that experience to the experiences of the Displaced.

But if it was done on one, was it done on all of them? Was it related to the earthquakes? She feels like the need for a spinal surgery introduces some other questions that are distracting. ]

@goro.akechi

[impede]

You'll have to forgive Ren for the shortness of his answers, but I want to add more to what he received from Cassius.

The information he got was as he described, but there were two "names" noted within the documents, clearly shortened for a reason. The names? JH and JPG.

JH are the very same initials that were held by the mysterious leader in Zerzura. Yes, James Henries. In our world, James Henries is long deceased. I believe someone may be using this as an alias for some reason, though I can't fathom why.

JPG comes up again, as Jyn noted. That means JPG is linked not only to Project Spinetail but to Katelin Jovavich.

For any newcomers, many of us were drawn to a mysterious parallel world called Zerzura at the beginning of December. In that world, the governing body worked hand in hand with a scientific figure called Project Spinetail. They were one and the same. We were brought there because of the mysterious blue energy that was said to be capable of "saving" Zerzura, while the world we stand in now is surely dying. A side effect of being there was that many of us began to think we were a "part" of Zerzura: born and raised and desperate to protect it. The world itself altered to accept this change within us, rather than being surprised by it.

I believe there are answers in whatever Zerzura held, just as there were answers in those dreams that everyone talks so much about. Just as there are answers in those earthquakes.

Unfortunately, I wasn't "freed" early enough to experience the dreams.

There are two other standing questions. Why would we be held from before September 2510 to June 2511 at the earliest, and are we being released in batches? Or is something else at play?

Furthermore, what of the supposed killed lifeform?

@faith.lehane

[watcherless]

How's a warehouse sound?

[ She hadn't told Laura or Ren out of spite, but this is way over her head. Faith attaches an address to the far edges of the city, one that Cassius gave her information about following the New Beijing mission. ]

It was gutted after the first of us got "freed," and it's where the June transport was heading.

It was busy — construction happening — around November 2510 to April 2511.

[impede]

Curious set of dates.

Do you mean that it was completed in April?

@ren.amamiya

[variate]

If JPG is coming up again, that means that there's one person at the facility that either isn't dead, or like you said, someone using that name as an alias.
If it's the first one, then how? If it's the second, then why?

[impede]

Perhaps it's time to see what Katelin Jovavich has to say.

[evasives]

I am not concerned about tone for this, but I appreciate you adding more detail.

I think the names are important, especially because of the overlapping nature of all these organizations. Names are solid. JPG does not seem related to Jovavich so far, but given her expansive connections it could just be a buried link - unless he is this Johann. Whoever he is, he comes up a lot for consultations.

I would also note the people from Zerzura appear to have come to this world, and they show no signs of having ever been elsewhere. Much like the corporations, I agree that all of these things are interconnected as well.

Your questions are mine, and everyone else's I am sure. And I could very well be wrong about us being here in September 2510, as I have no physical proof beyond data and information about this planet, but there is no proof about anything regarding our pull into this world.

[impede]

Ah, my apologies! I was referring to his brevity.

JPG was communicating with Jovavich in those E-Mails. We know those came from Cassius, and so did this information. Do you think that's too tenuous of a link? Johann is just as good of a name as any.

I didn't know about those people from Zerzura. Curious but enlightening just the same.

You may be wrong, but you've done well in your investigations. The important part is knowing that you may need to adjust your assessments.

Have you done detective work before?

@kira.solo

[forcevisions]

What if it really is James Henries?
One of the messages Cassius sent out during the EMP referenced a man who'd been spotted at all sorts of different times. Over the span of a hundred years, and he always looked the same.

@marcos.diaz

[heliophilous]

So, when you said you were looking into things, you weren't kidding, were you?

( this is a lot of information and even right now, marcos is still trying to digest all that's been said. )

The drug trial, you have anything else on that? Would they stoop to using human subjects, you think?

[evasives]

You never asked to what extent.

[ so that's your bad, marcos!! ]

Unfortunately this is all I have for now, as Giles Bell is the least accessible to me. I would not be surprised if human subjects were involved, whether illegally or quietly paid behind the scenes.

@angela.roberts

[unlucky7]

Forgive me if this seems irrelevant or has been covered elsewhere. I'm new and still trying to understand aspects of the world.

It seems this is a world where few, if any, disabilities exist due to the levels of medical technology. Would the individual who received a cyberkinetic spine have been otherwise able to function in the world without it or was the invasive surgery critical for their survival?

I suppose expanding on that, are there others who have had additional modifications or changes to their body? Replaced prosthetic limbs? Organ replacement? Modifications to preexisting cybernetic or otherwise internal hardware?

[evasives]

There are no irrelevant questions, especially when you are new. I have had months to get used to this, others even longer.

They would not have been able to function, no. It was a matter of medical interference or death. And normally the medi-unit would have been advanced enough to heal a broken spine, given the proper time - which is why I believe a power outage necessitated the surgery. It interrupted the healing process in the medi-unit, which normally only takes about 24 hours.

As for other modifications, regarding the Displaced I am not sure. I would hope maybe others would come forward if this rings true to them as well, even if it is a replacement limb to something they have already lost. Prosthetics would presumably be replaced, as they need to function with our neural implants in this world.

Cyberkinetics as an industry is deeply advanced and designed to be unnoticeable, to work in complete sync with our neural implants. Genetic modification is possible in the womb, so physical birth defects are rare. Replacement organs are also a possibility, and cyberkinetics can serve as a temporary fix as well while the organ is grown. There is little stigma about cyberkinetics, but the emphasis is on looking as human as possible.

@diana.prince

[monomachy]

[she reads this post, as she does with all the others that go on the network, but something sticks in her mind. it was months ago now, but she recalls seeing something about the elections popping up in her inbox. she'd thought it was spam; she'd been here for hardly a month, and hadn't cared much about the politics of this world. her main concern at the time had been figuring out how to get home. it seems her priorities need to change.]

I received a chain of emails a few months ago. I didn't think much of it at the time, but considering everything that's happened to us here and in Zerzura, I'm less keen on thinking the name "James" paired with a redacted surname is a coincidence.

@goro.akechi

[impede]

"Side projects."

Were you "taken in," so to speak, by Zerzura?

[evasives]

It makes me curious about this personal side project.

It does add more to the theory that JH is James Henries - though I might point out the number of blocked letters in this email does not align with the number in 'Henries.' Whether it's a flaw of the blackout or truth to the spelling is another unknown, unfortunately.

@jack.miller

[personalwar]

[ It's a lot of information, pertinent information, and Jack only wishes that this sort of discussion was more common on the network. He reads over everything a few times, making his own notes. He doesn't see any reason why Cassian would lie, which means that he'll accept all of the information as is (though, as always, with a grain of salt).

Curious as he is about the spinal surgery and who specifically that affected (his bet is that it's Cassian himself), Jack can see from other conversation threads that he's not going to name any names. Better to focus on other aspects of the post, then. ]

Looks like you've been doing your homework. Nice job.

You didn't say it outright, but you're thinking that someone who's a part of Riverstone might also be involved in the Displaced arrivals, right? I'm wondering if these earthquakes might have something to do with us showing up here, even.

What else do you know about this drug trial? I've been working security at Vyonation, but so far it's been a dead end. I'm thinking a career change might be needed, especially if we don't have any Displaced rooted in Giles Bell right now.

[evasives]

[ you'll never catch him admitting it!!!!!!!! at least not yet. cassian isn't opposed to sharing the fact that it's his spine, he's just not ready to do so. part of it still feels like a weakness. ]

Quite a few months of homework.

The corporations are so overlapped it is almost laughable to consider them separate entities, and I put Riverstone in that too. Giles Bell and Riverstone have worked together often, especially in medical advancements. If one of them had a hand in our arrival, I would bet on all of them having a hand in the pot too. I definitely believe the earthquakes are significant to us, but to what avail is still unclear.

Unfortunately not a lot, besides their plan to move forward with it soon. It has not been my focus so much as something that came up along the way. Having someone in Giles Bell would be quite useful regardless of what comes out of this trial, as I believe all three of these corporations have information for us.

@sora.sky

[lighthearted]

[ Well, most of this goes way over Sora's head, but he's still impressed by what Cassian has been able to figure out. Cassian really knows what he's doing and it reminds Sora of wise, guiding figures in his life like the King or even Master Yen Sid.

There is one part that he can follow, though, and that he's been interested in ever since their time spent in the dreams. ]

Do you think there's any way we can get to this Mariana Trench? I know it's way out in the middle of the ocean, but we need to see it with our own eyes, right?

[evasives]

[ ciphering through information was cassian's literal job. he knows this is not the end, but he finally reached a point where it would be more beneficial to talk about it with people besides his housemates. ]

Given it's proximity to New Tokyo, I suppose going from there would be the best bet, but I would not know how to get to the Trench itself. From my understanding, it is quite deep underwater - though if a project existed there in some capacity, I imagine that means the technology exists for it.