FelicityBane Administrator Overseer member is offline
Joined: Aug 2004 Posts: 341 Location: Dallas, TX
Paragon VICE Blog « Thread Started on May 7, 2009, 3:56pm »
Something about closing doors and opening windows May 7, 2009
By Claire Carter
Everything you've heard is true. Behi, parent company of the Paragon Times, has begun a third round of buyout offers. The general ailing of the print media industry coupled with the tanked economy (and one or two massively destructive attacks by Girl Zero) have put the 150-year-old newspaper far into the red.
My coworkers and I figured that if we'd made it to buyout number three, it was a major gamble not to take the money and run—surely, actual layoffs couldn't be long in the coming. So, after ten years working at one of the most reputable papers in the Western world, I took the money and ran.
And here I am now, working at Paragon VICE, Paragon's best weekly. I'll be covering superhero goings-on (thanks, in part, to the long-running series of columns on same in the Times) and some of the stranger lifestyle trends in this, possibly the strangest city on Earth. I'll be blogging here and contributing a weekly column to the print edition, which, Statesman willing, will hopefully survive this latest turmoil.
So, lifestyle. Just about the only thing anyone's talking about these days is the new Architect Entertainment, a joint enterprise between Crey Corporation and Aeon Corp that allows members to construct entirely believable virtual reality simulations of superheroic (and supervillainous) activities.
Having experienced one of these simulations myself, I can say AE is to video gaming what a 747 is to crawling and that much of the buzz you're hearing is justified. But there is so much buzz that no one seems to be bothered by the parent corporations sponsoring the project. Both have CEOs who have been arrested in disgrace, and one is seen as little more than a puppet R&D firm in Arachnos's control... while the other enjoys a cozy alliance (or "meeting of interests") with Lord Recluse.
Now, nothing bad seems to have come out of AE just yet... but that is a hell of a connection there. Still, you'd be hard-pressed to walk into an AE facility at any time of day, any day of the week (it's open 24/7) and find it not packed to the gills with superheroes major and minor, right alongside suspiciously athletic people in unassuming business wear. Some of that popularity's bound to wear off, but as the casual users slowly disappear we'll see, in stark relief, the full-blown addict. Think Dance Dance Revolution, but for world-building.
I'm not an anti-video game crank. But I do have to question the wisdom of letting companies like Crey and Aeon build utterly convincing virtual reality suites for use by just about anyone who walks in the door... including and especially the superhero set. There's a reason behind all this, and we'd do well to walk through the AE doors with open eyes.
I'll be filing my first column for the print edition tomorrow, and yes, it'll be more on Architect Entertainment. See you there.
FelicityBane Administrator Overseer member is offline
Joined: Aug 2004 Posts: 341 Location: Dallas, TX
Paragon VICE Blog « Reply #1 on May 28, 2009, 3:47pm »
UNDOCUMENTED: Authority in the Port May 8, 2009
By Claire Carter
Like a lot of the undocumented vigilantes, "The Port Authority" did not pick his name. Rather, it was given to him by the people he's chosen to protect: the dock workers and other blue collar workers of Independence Port. The name's half a joke, but one apparently given with love.
"We like to say it's because he does a better job protecting us than the real Port Authority," says Edward Kracynzski. "He ain't bringing any RICO convictions, but he sure as hell is hurting the mob's business."
Kracynzski is in a position to know. As fifteen-year head of the Longshoreman's Union in Paragon, he plays fearless leader to his constituents, diplomat to Management, ambassador to the cops, and shield to the mob. His reward? Watching over a dying fiefdom hit harder than most by the recession. To him, it's encouraging to see someone--anyone--who gives a damn.
"Don't get me wrong. In the long run, this guy's just delaying the inevitable," he says. "But we watch this whole city we and our fathers and grandfathers helped build grow up around us and everyone forgets that we had anything to do with it. If this guy wants to crack some heads for us before we finally bleed out, then I'm not stopping him."
The Port Authority first appeared some four months ago, when he entered the fray of a firefight between members of the Tsoo gang and the alleged Frost syndicate popularly known as the Family. It's unclear what exactly the two mobs were fighting over--they've been at it ever since the Tsoo emerged ten years ago, and it's only intensified in the past year--but police reports and interviews with the now-incarcerated criminals agree that the Port Authority shut it down rapidly.
"He was this big wall of a guy, black guy, carrying this shield with a fist on it, and he was swinging this spiked mace around," said Danny "Adonis" Carcetti, from behind visitation room glass. "Flanked the Tsoo and then took a run at us. I don't know what that shield was made of, but the bullets didn't even dent it."
Sightings escalated from there. The Port Authority has hurt or crippled no less than 45 members of both the Tsoo and alleged Family syndicates, and while no definite pattern to his attacks has emerged, the longshoremen say he's after the mobsters who target them.
"It doesn't take a brain surgeon, man," says thirty-year longshoreman Teddy Gill. "Frost or Tub sends someone around to lean on us, a week later they're in the hospital or jail."
Thankfully, neither the Family nor the Tsoo have mustered a retaliation against the longshoremen, beset as they are by fierce rivalries and a steady influx of up-and-coming superheroes who do their time in Indy Port.
The most obvious conclusion about Port Authority's identity--that he is, himself, a longshoreman--remains largely untouched by both the Paragon Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs. FBSA spokeswoman Anne Lopez said only that her agency would "investigate the 'Port Authority' vigilante in a timely manner." This comes as no surprise to people familiar with FBSA policy; though undocumented vigilantes are technically as illegal as costumed villains, so long as they operate within the same parameters as registered heroes, they are usually ignored.
Kracynzski hopes that trend continues.
"The Port Authority ain't hurting anyone who isn't asking for it," he says. "Us little guys need superheroes too."
« Last Edit: May 29, 2009, 2:29pm by FelicityBane »
FelicityBane Administrator Overseer member is offline
Joined: Aug 2004 Posts: 341 Location: Dallas, TX
Paragon VICE Blog « Reply #2 on Jun 5, 2009, 2:21pm »
UNDOCUMENTED: Ghosts in Kings Row June 5, 2009
By Claire Carter
As one of the oldest neighborhoods in Paragon City, Kings Row enjoys as rich a history as any neighborhood in the United States.
One of its legends—dating back to at least the 17th century—is that of the “Kings Row Revenant,” which back then was called the “Smithport Spectre,” among other things. Depending on which source you follow, the Spectre was either an avenging Manitou of the Narraganset tribe or an actual flesh-and-blood vigilante.
The legend of the Revenant persisted through the centuries and continues to be told today, and the central questions—whether it is real or fictional, spiritual or flesh-and-blood—remain unanswered. The Paragon Police Department (PPD), headquartered in Kings Row, says “the activities designated to the Revenant are indistinct from mundane vigilantism and do not warrant investigation.” Occam’s Razor in action.
Most residents of Kings Row respectfully disagree. Everything from recent vigilante assaults on would-be rapists to the Kings Row Riot of 2004 have been attributed in full or in part to the Revenant, and as in the 17th century, the people repeating these tales can’t seem to decide if the Revenant is a real person (perhaps carrying on a legacy, or simply a copycat) or some kind of supernatural force.
“The Revenant’s making sure the sinners pay for their sins,” says noted neighborhood street preacher (and homeless man) Pastor Eddie. “I ain’t ready to say she’s the left hand of God, but maybe she’s acquainted with it.”
Eddie’s theory is a popular one among the poorer churchgoers in the neighborhood, but another aspect of his story also stands out: the almost universal belief that his version of the Kings Row Revenant is female. This was not always the case; in the 1970s, a locally-produced documentary interviewed several Kings Row residents who referred to the Revenant (who had taken to hanging drug dealers from power lines and fire escapes) as male.
All the same, the current “female Revenant” theory sticks, due in no small part to the stories of some would-be victims “she” has rescued.
“Absolutely a woman,” says Karen Grubbs, who lives near the King Garment Works factory. “And absolutely not human.”
But even Ms. Grubbs’ finality gets hazy, the deeper she gets into her encounter story. In her account to the police, Ms. Grubbs’ was pulled into an alley while she was walking home from work by two members of the Skulls gang. The two gang members intended to sexually assault her, but were stopped cold by the intrusion of a woman, garbed in high-tech armor from head to toe. This does not, Ms. Grubbs insists, mean her savior was just another vigilante.
“I’ve never seen anyone move like that. She was strong, she was quick, and she moved in ways people can’t move, like in those kung fu movies,” she says, referring to “wire-fighting” stunts seen in many martial arts movies. Ms. Grubbs says her savior then “just disappeared” without any trace.
Tales like hers are not uncommon. The PPD has six similar reports filed in the last three months, all from women saved from physical violence or sexual assault, and each time the victim is quick to call their savior the Revenant.
Of course, attribution is not the same thing as fact; the costumed savior never identifies herself.
Caught in the twilight zone between fact and myth, I turned to Felicity Bane, one of Kings Row’s most famous daughters. Ms. Bane is in the process of publishing her second book about popular myths in Paragon City, and devotes a chapter to the Revenant.
“The Revenant is Kings Row,” Ms. Bane says, quite seriously. “She is how the neighborhood perceives itself, and she becomes what the neighborhood needs her to be. For now, for whatever reason, the neighborhood needs her to be an avenging angel—and a woman.”
Ms. Bane referred me to the Roman concept of the genius loci, the protective spirit of a place. She said the original English pioneers of Smithport had it right with the word “Manitou,” which means roughly the same thing. She says it’s anyone’s guess why the Revenant has focused her attention on sexual predators.
Amelia Sands, another daughter of Kings Row and a licensed hero with a checkered past, has a more practical approach to the Revenant.
“Everyone who lives in the Row knows that the Revenant is real,” she says. “Could be a title passed down from one person to the next. Could be a title passed down from one spirit to the next.”
When asked about the possibility of copycats, Ms. Sands was equally pragmatic.
“If it’s copycats, does it matter? People still think it’s the Revenant,” she says. “It’s legend by now.”
« Last Edit: Jun 5, 2009, 2:24pm by FelicityBane »
FelicityBane Administrator Overseer member is offline
Joined: Aug 2004 Posts: 341 Location: Dallas, TX
Re: Paragon VICE Blog « Reply #3 on Sept 18, 2009, 4:05pm »
UNDOCUMENTED: In the Garden September 18, 2009
By Claire Carter
Eden is one of what are popularly regarded as the "forgotten" hazard zones of Paragon. Like Astoria before it, Eden (formerly "Woodvale") was rendered unlivable by a devastating and historically unique cataclysm. That it doesn't get nearly as much attention as many of the other HZs probably has to do with its destruction before the the Rikti War when, as they say, everything changed.
It may be that the collection of sentient plant and mineral life called the "Devouring Earth" is smarter than it is often given credit for: they were aggressive enough to reclaim an entire city neighborhood, but not so much that they demanded an immediate response. Heroes pass through on their way to more pressing matters in the off-limits 'Hive,' but few stay to join Crey security forces in the fight to reclaim the neighborhood.
But "fighting back" may be the problem. Some few humans now call Eden home, and instead of attempting to "reclaim" the wilderness for humanity, they have acclimated to the status quo.
The first and most well-known of this small, elective tribe is called the Eden Spear, though in a past life he went by Phillipe Rodrigo. Phillipe was a crew foreman in a construction company based out of Skyway when Woodvale was destroyed and overtaken, and in the following months, the video and news coverage of Woodvale's transformation into Eden captivated his interest.
"I recorded and watched the news footage until the tape went bad," said Rodrigo. "What we call civilization overtaken by wild, wonderful fauna -- just beautiful."
I received clearance to travel into Eden to find Rodrigo and his tribe personally, which may very well be the most dangerous thing I have ever done. But a man like Rodrigo cannot be fully understood outside the context of his home, much like the other Undocumented.
"I've always felt adrift," he said. "And then I came into Eden, and I felt real comfort for the first time in my life."
For such a tall and imposing figure, Rodrigo speaks quietly, and his tribe respects him. They're much like him: about two dozen regular men and women who voluntarily gave up their status as 'real' citizens to join Rodrigo in a small village deep in the forested ruins formerly called Adeva Towers. Some of them have only been here for a few months, but the change is palpable. They are stronger, leaner, quieter, and far more at-peace than the kind of people you bump into on the street.
That's not to say the clan hasn't had problems. One woman tried to sue Rodrigo after her brother gave up his job to live with Rodrigo and the others. He died a short few weeks later after contracting an unknown disease from a mosquito bite. The case was thrown out, but two other similar cases have been brought forward since then, under similar circumstances.
Rodrigo readily admits the lifestyle is not for everyone.
"It is dangerous out here, I will not deny that," he said. "And I understand the grief of the families. I share it."
Rodrigo has fared better. Classified as a low-level mutant by GIFT, Rodrigo enjoys strength, agility, and tough skin exceeding normative human genetics, though nowhere near the range of someone like Statesman. Still, these traits allow him to walk freely in Eden in nothing much more than a kilt, while the rest of his tribe sports pants and long-sleeve shirts.
Coupled with a sturdy metal spear constructed from materials salvaged from destroyed Crey R&D labs, Rodrigo has become the tribe's default hunter and protector. It's a job he takes to well, though he doesn't like to boast. I get the impression that answering my questions is the most he's spoken at once since he moved here.
I spent a week with Rodrigo and his clan, and after the first 24 hours I found I didn't much miss the smell and noise of the city. I didn't miss my cell phone, or e-mail, or Twitter, or traffic. The distant blue haze of the War Walls were the only reminders I had of life in the city, but after awhile they too became simple background noise.
I helped them dig a new well. I helped them erect a new hut. I went hunting with Rodrigo. I am and always will be a city girl, but the appeal of this simpler, more vital life was not lost on me.
Of course, cavorting with nature isn't all Rodrigo gets up to; he wouldn't have the "Eden Spear" nickname without it. Rodrigo keeps to Eden, and he defends the territory from hostile intruders (human and otherwise) fiercely.
A PCPD after-action report credits him with leading the defense of the Founders Falls security check point against a rush of Devouring Earth creatures, and another says he was instrumental in suppressing a skirmish between mercenaries and a red-clad paramiltary group that threatened the integrity of a War Wall pillar. Rodrigo and his tribe have also saved the lives of several heroes (and more mundane sightseers and daredevils) who got in over their heads, a frequent occurrence in "his" zone.
Still, he says, he isn't doing anything anyone else in his position wouldn't do.
"I am not denying my humanity by moving away from the city," he said. "I have only come here to rediscover the beauty of the world, and to find my place in it."
« Last Edit: Sept 18, 2009, 5:36pm by FelicityBane »
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