The Weird, The Virtual, and the ColCorp Brainwash

The Spin's fearless Marge reports on what the elite hold over us, and what we can do about it.

When I started to report on The Enclave it was hard not to see it as pure opportunity, a city of dreams, a place where we were safe in a world struggling to stay above The Sink. But The Enclave has been poisoned from the beginning by greed and misinformation, starting from the literal top: HC's corpo execs.

While the Enclave's foundations have been left to rot, the rarefied air at the top of The Peak has been breathed in by an ever more disconnected set of corpo leaders. Now the worst of them all has abandoned us to HC's modern Virt and told us to be happy with the dead mall they own as our online home, and the wrecked and dark Wall boroughs they leave the majority of the workers to.

Economic inequality, bad leadership, these seemed like things that we could take on. But not only have entire districts drowned--violating one of The Enclave's greatest promises--but people are dying and disappearing in ever greater numbers.

This year I've dug deeper and deeper into the problem, the comas, the strange overpowered criminals, the neglect and more. The Enclave has never been a perfect place, but it was once a far safer one. You've read along with me as we've dug into new and old politics, and all the corners and crannies that evil--and I do mean evil--hides inside in this city.

What I have to report to you in today's column is going to seem unbelievable. But it is the truth. I have interviews with 20 different ColCorp employees who encountered a strange being in The Virtual and were rendered into comas by HC, only to come out with weird and magical abilities. I have dozens of ColCorp employees on the record talking about a mysterious hypnosis effect that pulled them off the line when they were trying to protest for better treatment. I have videos and data that includes inexplicable scientific measurement. Follow along and it is all available to you now, being shared with the Enclave's universities who are at as much of a loss to explain it.

I have that explanation for you now though. I have encountered people who have come from another place, their descendants, and witnessed for myself their weird abilities. It is the truth.

More than that though, I have definitive proof, backed up across the world and available to be chipped from any nearby repository, that the comas and disappearances are a plot by HC's John Dyer against the citizens of The Enclave. To what end, I'm not sure, but the wires lead to his fingers.

We are in danger. But the power that Dyer and his ilk hold over us isn't only theirs. As the 20 people I interviewed who developed Weird abilities can attest to, these powers may be available to all of us. We can use them to fight back.

Story continues on flatsite onionpage and in data torrents - click here to continue

Shadow B Corp "M" Funds New Informational Campaign

Citizen Reporters May Find Helpful New Tools, Spin-Vetted

MCorp has been making quite an impression in the media landscape as we lead up to the election. Its funding has supported more than two dozen grants from Independent Enclave Screamsheets. Now, the corporation has funded a number of amplification campaigns to get this data out as well as slickly produced virt data-jackets that allow for virtuals to separate facts from fictions. While MCorp's leadership is carefully hidden behind a number of corpo privacy measures, employees involved in this effort have been discussing the positives in public--along with their surprisingly good pay.

The Spin has vetted everything MCorp has produced thus far and it all looks clean and factually correct. At this point we recommend using their tools and resources as part of a mix of inputs to understand the upcoming election choice.

You should already have a profile registered with the authorities as a citjourn. Once that's done and you've got the initial work under the belt, you'll likely have to register your new higher level of experience! You'll have to register the new stats that come with joining our great adventure of reporting on morons every day for the next two years.

Here's how it works:

Add +1 to a rating : You can mark permanent changes to a specific rating, though your profile should note a limit beyond which you can't go. Consider what each rating can do for your character and choose carefully. You can't go beyond your registered limit.

Take another Move from those available on your profile : Everyone's profile has a variety of moves you can make. If you're going up a level you can take one of the moves that you haven't already marked as having.

Take a Move from those available on another profile : All the profiles we've supplied show what they can do under the Moves section. You can learn something new and unusual though! If you do you can take a Move that describes your new skill from any of the other profiles below, just check their Full Descriptions to think about what you'd like to do.

Gain an Ally/Gain a Team : You can gain some support staff that will be registered as working with you! You may already have some people you know that you're picking out, or just putting it out there that you're recruiting and getting some folks to show up. Allies and teams work similarly, they both are organized around a single motivation, even if a team comprises of 2 to 6 people. However, members of your team may have their own motivations outside of the team's requirements.

The motivations you can register for your new Ally/Team:

• Subordinate (motivation: to follow your exact instructions)
• Lieutenant (motivation: to execute the spirit of your instructions)
• Friend (motivation: to provide emotional support)
• Bodyguard (motivation: to intercept danger)
• Confidante (motivation: to give you advice and perspective)
• Backup (motivation: to stand with you)

Ally/team members should have names registered along with what their background is too, how they look, and any special skills they bring.

Register a Haven Feature : Have you got a serious home base to operate out from? Are you intending to improve it? Then you need to add that information to your profile! Select a new haven option from the list in the Expert profile. You have added this facility to your haven.

Don’t bother trying to register a new feature if you don’t already have a haven!

Not So Unlucky

Time and experience have given all players the following ability:

Any negative effect that results from a failed roll can be negated by spending a luck point.

Advanced Moves Unlocked

HC has been studying arrivals and changelings as they've been acquiring power throughout The Enclave and beyond into the Sunken States. Now that you've convinced Cu Graves that John Dyer needs to be defeated, he's opened this database to you.

This means a lot of medium-sized magic, quick but more powerful stuff that allows you to do more, but at a cost, the abilities require some time and focus, making them harder to pull off in a fight and more time consuming. Some of them include components as well. You'll be sorting through them for a while.

New Abilities

Walk in Darkness

Given a minute to focus with no enemies looking directly at them, the user can slip into the shadows, magically moving from one to another in perfect silence. +3 to any rolls involved in staying hidden for as long as you are in an environment where shadows exist. The minute the user steps out of the shadows the effect is gone and time must be spent on focusing again to regain that state.

• 11+ choose 1.
• 7-10 choose 2.
• 6 or less the Keeper chooses one.

Choose:

• +3 effect works as described.
• You must roll Weird to exit the shadows, if you fail you cannot interact with the real world until you make a successful Weird roll.
• Take 1 harm as the darkness seeps into you.
• You can only stay in the shadows for one round or five minutes out of combat.

Marginamania

You've been studying for a while now, reading books, learning new spells, meeting elder gods. You've noticed that sometimes the answers just come to you now, maybe you read them in the corner of some book. Or maybe you spent a little too much time knowing an unknowable god-thing.

• 11+ Not only is the answer to your strange question in your head, but an idea about what to do with it is now on the tip of your tongue.
• 7+ The answer to a strange question that could not possibly be reached through exploring the situation around you is suddenly in your hands. Choose one:
  • You summon the reference material and can act on it but the very act will make you forget and you'll not be able to act on this in the future.
  • You can get this knowledge, but there is a price to pay--in blood. Take harm between 1 and 3 depending on the question.
  • Your subconscious makes a deal it's sure you'll get around to paying off some day. You owe Someone Something.
• 3-6: You know nothing new.
• Less then 3: You've spent too long scribbling strange spells and calling on the etheric forces, choose one:
  • Pay the bill: All your previous deals have come due. Something bad is about to hit you hard.
  • Take 3 harm instantly.
  • Lose an ability of your choice. You can relearn it later.
  • Spend a point of luck.

Lockdown

Bring down a barrier at will, in any area visible to you. You can be inside or outside the target area. No communication, no random wandering in to the fight, no reinforcements, mystical or otherwise.

• 11+ You and your team can still get messages out.
• 7-11: Success anyone inside the barrier is just as cut off from the outside world as your enemies. If you are outside the barrier you can't enter without dropping it.
• 6 or less: Your attempt fizzles and you experience some form of blowback.

Soul Shout!

From deep inside the depths of your body you summon up the will to yell and bring forth the beast. All rolls are +Tough and will alert enemies to your presence and any nearby allies to your need for backup.

• 11+ You knock over every enemy around you, bowling them to the ground and dealing them +1 harm.
• 7+ You knock over everyone around you, leaving you the only one standing.
• 5-6: You yell really loud. People look at you funny.
• 4-: You blow out your vocal cords. You can't speak for the rest of the day.

Channel the Void

Only available to those who have connected with the Void. Roll +Weird. On a hit, the Keeper will tell you something new and interesting about the current situation or the focus of your attention, and might ask you a question or two; answer them.

On a 10+, the Keeper will give you good detail. On a 7–9, the Keeper will give you an impression. If you already know all there is to know, the Keeper will tell you that. On a miss, be prepared for the worst.

+1 Forward on Weird rolls for the rest of a combat or for 5 minutes.

New Rituals

These medium-sized rituals can be executed during normal play or doing legwork, but you must have the materials on hand and the needed time and quiet to focus.

Lucky Margins

By scouting an area in advance and using the detailed formula to mix up a strange glowing clay you can, during the legwork phase, set a circle around a location or building. (You can also set the clay in the corners of a building floor) You can then perform a complex ritual at any time within the border to sacrafice a luck point and give extremely bad luck to anyone not in the casting circle with you. The result will be severe, for those inside, guns will misfire, people will trip, spells will go awray. Spell maxes out at three stories high.

Dirty Hands

For as long as you choose to fight open handed you can focus the power of an hour long ritual into them. By focusing on a single person over the course of the ritual and giving them twin carbon rings the spell lays a significant power on to them, +1 physical +2 magic. But the minute the user has those hands pick up anything in anger, with the intent to use it as a weapon, they lose focus and the bonus is gone. The power leaving them may attract some attention.

Push Your Luck

New ways to spend your luck points. All the normal negatives of spending luck apply. You can choose these for your sheet, the same way you would a normal move.

Someone to Watch Over Me

Magic can be tricky, especially with those not born to it. But you've become a master of the weft and wield of the etheric energies of The Verdant. If they are not a changing and not born of The Verdant they can have power attached to them. But it has to be your power. Expend a luck point and any humans in the circle gain protection from magic (+2) for a year.

Esoteric Materiel

The Virtual has become a thin barrier between the The Real and The Verdant and that barrier is more thin every day. What can be done but exploit it?

Sacrafice a luck point and bring forth features of the corresponding Verdant location with the place you are in The Real (or visa versa). The barrier is thin, and so this can be done by the player without a roll. The player describes the features of the other side and manifests them in place, the only rule being that they must be nature-based if you are pulling through The Verdant and technology-based if you are pulling through The Real. You can pull through many features of the area of the other side or just one and retain a connection with that object for as long as it is in the new dimensional plane.

Roll to exert control over those objects through force of will.

• 7-10 will allow you to move the objects or plants or whatever however you like within your field of view.
• 11-12+ will allow you to not only move these objects at will but deform them as you'd like and prescribe them a pattern (like a circle) that they will continue to move in.
• 6 or less and the object stays in place.

Critical Role

At will spend a luck point to keep yourself alive no matter how much harm you take and give yourself +2 to all rolls and +1 to all rolls by your team. However, if anyone rolls a 1 - 3 at any point the resulting blowback will not kill you but be epically severe. The effect lasts until dismissed or the sunrise.

Networking Certification

Spend a luck point and be able to summon any allied group you wish instantly to this location in the form of a leader and a gang of 10 members. They will be instantly psychically informed of the situation and act as an Ally and a Gang together under the player's control. All effects of spending luck apply.

TILT!

Spend two points of luck to rewrite the power of any district in favor of a present group of your choice. If you are currently active in that district, everything members of that group attempt will suddenly be easier, +2 to any rolls. The effect will last until that group has claimed control of the district.

Throw the Board

Spend two luck. All harm for your group and its allies is reset to zero, all negatives are eliminated. Any bonuses and carry-forwards are retained.

FLOOD FIVE

The five top stories we are keeping our heads above this week

"DeadLights" Launch to Acclaim and Concern | A new subbrand came out of HC last week, entirely expensive, luxury forward, but already with loud fans and critics across the feeds. The DeadLights pop-ups across the Enclave turn the megacorp's data-mining towards more personal endeavors, for the cred price of a medium-sized boat the new Virt VR rooms will sim a recreation of a loved one for three minutes. Influencer reports have noted the experience's accuracy and surprising humanity. Critics have noted how telling this is on the amount and depth of gulptech deployed to collect data across the virt and flatnet. Spin's editorial team polled the room and the general feeling is that it is a miracle of modern tech and a cold predatory perversion of our lives designed to paint a happy face on unacceptable business practices used for far worse purposes.

Don't Float On | Detached docks below West Southern Mids have played host to an increasing number of Floats over the past week. Conductors were interviewed, refugee stories collected, and the floatilers shared some of their logs with The Spin. A number of our reporters collected data that seems to indicate a general rise in the water outside of the Sunken States and perhaps even in some outlying areas inside the upswell border tides. Community organizations have joined together, with OEM coordinating, to find living space and resources for incoming refugees from sunk areas. Templefolk have proven particularly helpful in marking out an ever increasing dry space in The Basement that can hold many people in temporary housing.

This continues the pattern that began last month as more and more people come to The Enclave looking for a safe and dry home base.

TLU Wins Concessions From ColCorp, recognition from the Executive Council | Strikers outside of ColCorp in the Wall and Mids areas of their GeneVat plant have won concessions from management. ColCorp has agreed to recognize them as a bargaining unit and begun negotiations with the guarantee that it will step back from the current 7 day work-week as the beginning point of a future contract. The other condition that CC has agreed to is to nominate a representative of The Labor Union to the Advisory Board of the Enclave Executive Council, where they will be able to more easily communicate with the C-Suites of all the city's megacorps as negotiations begin with other units.

Reportedly, recognition to the EEC for TLU was nearly blocked by HC's own John Dyer, but he was outmanovered by savvy work from TLU organizers, who noted their next bid for unit recognition has come from HC's ranks of virt engineers. The rest of the EEC is, as always, more than happy to stab HC in the back in hope of negating some of its ultra dominance of Enclave markets.

Klavdii Zayt, lead of the ColCorp unit, was elected by TLU to be their representative to the EEC.

ColCorp Spice Rack Spilled | The ColCorp 17-secret-spice recipe that has been one of the keys to their dominance of the printed food market has long been a closely guarded secret. Spices were not even printed simultaneously or in a single site to assure no individual could possibly reverse engineer the recipe. However, a hacker has liberated the recipe and, after a scavenger hunt that sent participants all over the Enclave resulted in a fully assembled recipe, wrasslin fanclub the Luchadorables has published the full file to the Virt. Rumor has it that ColCorp CEO and founder, The Colonel has quietly put out one of the Enclave's largest bounties for the booster. He may not be able to keep it up for long though, ColCorp stock halved yesterday night in after-hours trading on the city market. While it is slowly rising, it seems unlikely to return to its previous status for a long time.

"Doctor" Nagor issues Challenge | Quack self-help "doctor" Aul Nagor was out-argued, out-maneuvered, and shamed on his own show. Funding, which had been rumored to have been coming primarily from fan of the show John Dyer, quickly dried up. Nagor has pivoted the way of many a scummy influencer before him and started on a career as a wrestler, declaring his intent to take down the guest who punctured his reputation.