i have been thinking


we ought to get ourselves to the northern continent of the americas






[[ooc: HI this is Thor putting out there the idea of getting to North America. This was first raised in an ooc discussion post, but it's good to get characters talking about the idea and figuring out how/if people who want to can help the effort.

Please use this network post for group discussion, I'm not planning to have Thor respond to everyone! Contribute your characters ideas for getting there and how etc. Just because Thor wants to take a boat doesn't mean it's the best idea! (see the plot engagement thread for the mods' thoughts on what might work best)

Basically, if we can get a few of the displaced to the shores of NA, another gate can be set up to allow everyone else to go if they want to explore and find stuff out.

Yay!!!!]]

Fellow Displaced, while there's certainly quite a lot to divert attentions to, allow me to offer some reprieve.
In my infamy, I've decided to publish a series of novels under a new surname. There's something in there for everyone, of course. If you like what you see, please support my endeavors! R&R, as they say.

Ah, yes- all appropriate warnings for mature content, blah bah blah. Read at work at your own risk.

King of the Scoundrels by Trixie Mistil
Summary:
Marius is torn between three lovers: One rich, one famous and the other dangerous. The biggest catch? They'll do anything for him. Overtaken by the politics of the upper echelon, Marius must maneuver to to keep himself safe while navigating the burning hunger within him. To sate his dangerous desires, he must dig to find the truth behind wicked facades.

[ there's a link to a free copy of the first erotic novel in the series. while it's kinda trashy, it's also fairly well-written, poetic at times, drama intense, and unapologetically sexy. there's even some surprising romance thrown in. whoever ends up reading it will find that it ends in a cliff-hanger.

the next one is under a pay lock. ]

[ it's been a difficult few weeks, and it feels almost like everyone's still trying to hold themselves together. there's a quiet hush over the unrest, which means that it's absolutely time to get some shit together. ]

Oh, hello.
Just a few thoughts that I've put together, I suppose- prior to my arrival here I had a rather good sense of the goings-on within the very fabric of reality. While I certainly can't indulge myself in such feats since I got here, I can say with confidence that the multiverse loves patterns. Something that's simple to predict. For instance, there are some of us here that seem to mirror a similar set of circumstances with one another while still coming from different universes. (See: Tony Stark and Stephen Strange.)
With that in mind, I thought that there simply must be something similar that links us all together in a thread of commonality.

Come now-
You all must have noticed.
Everyone's hot.

[ mystery solved.

it could be that he's just bored. ]

( annabeth, as a general rule, doesn't like written correspondence. it goes hand-in-hand with the demigod thing. being dyslexic and having her brain fire in ancient greek typically means she misspells things, or substitutes one word for another, or worse, that she simply makes a complete fool of herself.

but the implant allows her to simply think, and her thoughts have never been unclear, so as they say... give it a whirl, girl.

do they still say that in 25xx? who knows. )

It looks like people had discussed combat training and sparring on here before, but I haven't been able to find anything currently happening.

Is anyone experienced in hand-to-hand and/or close range weapon training? I don't want to get rusty. I'll also teach if you're interested in learning, but I'd like to find someone to regularly spar with if I can.

Also: do we have an armory?

Would anyone like to go dancing? You don't need to know how, I can teach you if you're at all amenable to things from the 1920s on through the 1940s. Ain't no bother, neither, so go on and put that thought right out of your head.

But if dancing ain't your style, I'm planning on putting down a dinner on Sunday. I can't promise I'll make the best insect protein steak roast you've ever had, but it'll probably be pretty damn close. RSVP if you'd like to come so I can get a decent headcount and won't leave nobody hungry.

Hope y'all are faring well after our latest adventure.

I do sincerely appreciate your time,

- EPH.

( maybe it's on account'a his southern hospitality an' all, but he's feelin' a queer sort'a loneliness an' he knows the best way to get outta his own head a spell is to reach out to others. findin' out most'a the places he might've otherwise wanted to see for yourself ain't accessible in this new world surely didn't help his head none. )

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.