Setting:InfiniCon/Lore

A page for any sort of lore or stories for the InfiniCon setting. Fill 'er up! I will also be posting stuff from the thread itself. If you are a namefag, I'll credit you.

Remember, as a writefag, you are making the lore. Take into account previous stories and what has been mentioned prior. The story and lore will likely shape around encounters and accounts you create.

Encounters/Accounts

This section is for any sort of encounter or events you happen upon in the vast world of InfiniCon.

Ghost

My name's Peter. Kinda awkward considering what I do. I'm a photographer. I work for the only official city newspaper in Infinity City, and let me tell you, I have seen some serious shit.

I've always had this knack for being in the right place at the right to snap a picture of an awesome mock duel by Jedi-Sith cosplayers, or a massive parade of the Spartans, or a chick with a particularly cute... yeah I tend to keep those pictures to myself.

But all rumours and gossip aside, I'm probably one of the few people who *know* that there is actually something... magical about Infinity City. Like I've said before, I've always had this knack for getting those shots that no one else can. And for the first time in my life, I can actually claim that to be a total truth.

It was a Friday night sometime about two years back when I first realized it. Cons are always going on in I.C., but that night was the premier of a brand new anime produced and written purely by Infinity City citizens about Infinity City. According to the critics it was supposed to be a massive overcharacterization of a group of people who suddenly developed super powers. I remember catching the first episode when it went got picked up by national television, it was almost painfully funny like that Big Bang show. The parody was almost too much for my tastes.

I was roaming the theatre floor, snapping shots of the cosplayers hired to dress as the characters from the anime. The night went alright and I got a lot of good stuff to send in for the morning paper. I even got some great shots of the lead producer and the head storyboard editor. When they learned who I was, they invited me to take a tour of their studio next week which I gladly accepted. It was the first complete anime studio to ever be built in Infinity City, a 'scoop' that I couldn't resist.

I left the premier that night and got a late night snack at The Apron. It's this Infinty City take on the French sidewalk cafe, except all the wait staff are 10's. But that's only part of the reason I go there. Their coffee cake is the best I have ever tasted and their prime seating is on a terrace that overlooks the very heart of the city. It's called Infinity Plaza, clearly the most inspired of names, right? Despite the city's naming conventions they clearly got everything right when they designed this work of art. The entire thing is over 100,000 square feet of open space. Lights set into the sandstone walkways throw up a majestic glow and dozens of fountains add to the regal feeling the place inspires.

Most of the time I just come here to sit and watch the people pass by. I'm not a fan in the slightest of some of the people who live here, but most of them are all right. And things definitely changed for the better when they instituted a formal dress code, some infractions are actually punishable by permab&s, which I laughed at. One of my co-workers maintains a blog that features a daily Worst Dressed. Some of the fashion faux pas she finds are now famous in the web.

Tonight felt different. I had that buzz in my feet, the itch where I've gotta get out and walk. The kind of feeling where I know that I'm not gonna go to sleep before dawn. I hate these nights, especially because it means that my boss has to officially write me a warning but he's mostly cool with it because he knows that I.C. sleeps less than New York City and I do my best work at night. I had an entire set of night shots that got featured on F-Stop.com, and that set came from a night exactly like this one.

So I set about the process I call 'walking,' I know another inspired name. I didn't care where I went, and I snapped every shot that inspired any tiny feeling inside of me, including the hatred I harbor for weeaboos. But hey, different strokes I guess. That's the other cool thing about being a photographer. 99% of people don't mess with you at all. In fact, most of them just wanna see the picture themselves. It's this self-vindication thing I think. People wanna know they look good doing what they love.

After about three hours of solid walking, I found myself on the top of this apartment complex called Broken Wings, probably named after some horrible animu I'd never heard of. I was in the lobby snapping shots of some cosplayers and then just kinda found my way up there. I have no clue how.

So I'm standing there thinking how awesome the view was when I saw this chick in a wierd lolita dress flying through the air. I snapped the Camera up so fast to take the shot that I whacked my cheekbone against the casing. It looked like she was chasing... something, I couldn't tell what it was, it was moving too fast for me to follow. All of a sudden, I found myself running across the rooftop of another building, camera still trained on the girl and the thing as they ran from rooftop to rooftop. I was too caught up in capturing the whole thing that I had no clue where I was going or where I was.

The two of them stopped on a rooftop and I saw them clashing. The lolita girl was wielding some sort of staff that would elongate and retract. The thing she was fighting I realized was a guy in strange rags. As I snapped pics I realized that under all the rags and torn outerclothing he was wearing protective body armor and carried a serrated combat knife. The two didn't even seem to notice I was there.

There was a lot of shouting, mostly the girl wanting the rag-man to give back something he apparently stole, to which he never replied, just kept trying to stab her. Eventually, he got through her guard and jammed the knife deep into her sternum. The girl collapsed and he bolted for the edge of the roof, leaped off and disappeared from sight.

I was pretty fucking shocked. I've always heard about people getting killed in Infinty City over pretty stupid shit, but this was pretty hardcore. I was so dumbstruck that I walked out from behind the vent I had been sniping pics from and just sorta half-walked, half-stumbled over to her. She looked up at me and laughed this wierd laugh. She said she knew who I was, she'd seen my picture in the newspaper attached to some of my work. She said I was an urban legend in the city, this ghost who appeared and disappeared, who captured the most amazing pictures of the people, all of the people, of Infinity City. I didn't play favorites or bash people, I was a good man who understood that everyone had a purpose and a worth.

And then she died.

Or at least I think she did. She kinda stopped talking and her eyes went blank. I've never seen a dead person, but I guess that's what it looks like. It was fucking creepy. I don't know how long I stood there, but the next minute I wasn't. I was standing back on the rooftop of Broken Wings looking down at a picture of her dead body on my viewscreen.

I punched a wall so hard I think I broke a knucle or two. I cried for a little while. The things she said about me kept bouncing around my head, her voice just wouldn't shut the fuck up. My whole life, ever since I was 5, I'd always wanted to be a photographer. I'd never been real important, sure I'd gotten noticed by a few people who realized that I had what they called a "talent," a "gift," but at least to myself I had always just been some dude with a camera. My dad once told me that humility was the greatest quality any human being can have. I watched a kung-fu movie one time about a guy who was able to defeat opponents just because he was so nice and humble. And now I was apparently some fucking legend, and I had found this out from a girl that I watched die in front of me. Or maybe not, I have no clue.

I never saw that girl again, at least not physically or from any other news source. It's like she never really existed. I still have the photos. Once a year I pull them out and look at them. I don't know whY I do it, I can't even tell you the date, I just do it instinctively.

I don't sleep much anymore. I saw a doctor a few months back, he said I must've developed insomnia as a response to some sort of stress, probably from working too much. I almost cried when he said it, but I laughed and made the appropriate jokes about sleeping when you're dead. He said I could seek some sort of medication or theraphy that might cure the insomnia, and I'd said that I would have to think about it.

To tell the truth, I kind of like it. Insomnia has a few benefits, the most prominent one is all of the Walking that I get to do now. Whenever I go out, especially at night, it's like I have this selective invisibility cloak. I can disappear in plain sight until I interact with people. And there's this sort of wierd teleportation thing that happens. I can just suddenly be somewhere. I can get into a lot of cool places with my newfound powers. My boss is ecstatic. He's added an entire section to the newspaper to showcase my work. But there are some photos I just can't show him. Stuff that the public can't know about. There's a certain side to Infinity City, a side where your worst nightmares are real. A place where heroes actually fight for all things good. It's a strange place and I, like the fly on the wall, can only watch and record what goes on. Maybe one day I'll publish all the shit that I've collected.

Then again, maybe I won't. Ever since that one incident, I haven't had anymore chase sequences. Maybe I will one day, but I sincerely hope that I don't. I've decided that I like life too much to watch someone get hurt over anything. It's actually kind of painful to watch anyone die now, even if it's a movie or in a book. I go back to that night and see that girl, such a pretty girl. Prime of her life, whole world of possibilities, and it was all taken away from her. And for what? I've asked myself that so many times. I've tried to find the rag-man who killed her, but that's never gone anywhere. He's disappeared just like that girl. Then again, Infinity City is pretty large.

I have a friend who directs some of the mock combat shows that go on in I.C. and I've been doing some practice of my own with a knife. One of these nights I'm gonna find that bastard, and when I do...

Untitled Account 1

The "Undercon" as it is now called was once just a set of service tunnels that the staff used to travel between different parts of the city without the traffic. But as the furries and other outcasts were driven to the darker corners of the con, they began to claim the tunnels as their own. The only thing capable of guaranteeing a safe passage through the tunnels is a staff shirt, as it is respected by all who call the tunnels home.

Of course, you don't have that glorious shirt, do you? You'll have to deal with the furries, who just want to yiff with you, or those driven Con-Mad, little more than snarling husks of men, who have gone feral, attacking anything that enters their turf, yet strangely they ignore their own. Then there are the Collectors, who want their waifus and husbandos, if you match what they want, then you will be treated well for as long as you last, if not, well, the less said the better.

If you are willing to brave those horrors, then you might just find The Market, the ultimate in dealer's rooms. While the Upper Con has a selection to boggle the mind, the Undercon's Market deals in the exotic, and the forbidden. Drugs, real weapons, the Star Wars Christmas Special(banned in 7 countries as a war crime), all can be found if the price is right. Though never tell a soul where you got these goodies, as while the market loves business, it hates attention from the con staff.

When I first moved into Infinity City, I knew things would never be the same. How could it be? In "The Real World", as I call it now, I was a single, barely-employed, overweight, lazy neckbeard who spent too much time on the internet. I had managed to save up enough money to actually go to Infinicon with some friends and, somehow, I landed a job at this toy outlet moving boxes from the trucks to the warehouse. Not an amazing job, mind you, but the crappy jobs got subsidized housing for dirt cheap, because we were so far away from the actual convention. Just another job, in the outskirts of another busy city, right? Well, I took up running to try and get in better shape. Something about the energy of the city made me want to move, I guess. Next thing I knew, I was jogging to the Anime district every night after work and jogging back home. Every day I'd get a little faster, so I'd have more time to spend looking at the shops and talking to con-goers. That's how I met Jayce.

Well, Jayce called himself a "businessman". t first, he seemed like one of those older Anime fans, with a job and responsibility and all that. I thought he was just a tourist at first, but, night after night, I would meet him at the same corner pub, and we'd talk. So, one night, he says to me, "I know you have a job, but would you like a better one? One that's closer to the daily action here?" Of course I did. I didn't mind the thirty-minute jog so much anymore, but I'd grown bored of the work I did (I guess the Con had spoiled me: brown boxes every day, boring people, tedious work, I wanted color and excitement!). He asked me to be a "Runner".

See, there were some things that people wanted that weren't exactly legal in Infinity City: Fireworks, some drugs, hard pornography, guns... and some weirder stuff I never asked about. An easy way to get caught with it was to deliver it above ground, walking or driving through a security checkpoint. The easiest way to not get caught was to run it through the Undercon. Now, I had heard some rumors about the Undercon being full of Infinity City's rejects, but I hadn't thought it was as bad as it really is, so I accepted. I got set up in my new apartment (overlooking Anime Square, no less!) and got settled in. The next night, Jayce shows up at my door with a box. He tells me to head to the alley behind our usual pub and open it.

Behind the pub, I opened the package. Inside was an odd-looking key and a note. The note told me to... well, I won't say where, because that would lose me my job. Let's just say that there are more entrances to the sewers than you'd think. The Undercon is a whole different place. Groups of furries (not the benign ones on the surface, either. These are the ones with flaps to stick their junk through and the sort), post-apocalyptic LARPers, crazies, homeless, and those who just... lost track of reality after being absorbed into the world of Infinicon... All these lived here. The Furries are MOSTLY harmless, but if there is a large enough group, they can jump you. The post-apoc guys are dangerous, and they want your stuff. Apparently, they have guns looted off of other, fallen Runners and smuggled in themselves. The crazies are all different, but mostly dangerous. You can usually hear them coming. The Homeless are probably the most sane. Once, I even ran into a guy who had set up a tiny apartment down there. He let me crash there after a few exhausting trips. Nice person.

That's about all I have to say about the Undercon. I know my story isn't especially interesting or insightful. I just felt I had to say it. I don;t especially LIKE my job, but I couldn't make a living in this city any other way, so I'm stuck with it. Infinity City is a drug, and those who taste it will do ANYTHING to get more. Stay out of the sewers, kids.

So, I guess I'm not gone yet. I'll detail a few of the more interesting things I've run across/picked up in the sewers.

• An all-Sailor Moon-themed rave/orgy.
• A large pile of melted pocky sticks. No packaging nearby.
• A gold and sapphire ring with the word "Eternity" engraved on the inside.
• A lost partygoer, dressed as a Cylon, holding a mostly empty bottle of Captain Morgan. I helped him get out before he got in trouble.
• A loaded AK-47. Gave it to Jayce, he paid me for it.
• A makeshift cannon, with an empty can of propellant (I think, label was rusted) and several busted-up walls and a large bloodstain on the ground.
• A corridor lined with unopened Pringles cans. I don't even.
• A theater's fly system, set up in a large chamber. Possibly, there used to be a stage here. No idea who built it or for why. Ropes were mostly rotted.
• A room lined with pictures of the same girl, obviously taken without her knowledge. Never found out who she was.
• What looked to be blueprints for a fully-functioning Pokeball. Smelled like vodka.
• A dead Bonsai tree with a tag tied to it that simply had the word "lol" written in pen on it.
• A room with several unfinished costumes, sized for different people. I think one was supposed to be Haruhi from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
• A server stack, abandoned. Jayce paid me for the location of it.
• Arrows painted on the ground, leading to a large hole. No obvious way out, so I didn't go down.
• A... very hefty woman, stark naked, masturbating against a wall. She looked me in the eyes as she finished, then got up and walked away. (Like a boss)
• A flower garden, well-tended to, by a woman dressed as Aeris from Final Fantasy 7. Admired her dedication to the role, went to dinner, she never called back. Bad kisser.
• A working HDTV, 56 inches. Kept it.
• Three copies of NFL Blitz for the N64, in a stack. Cleaned them up and sold them to a pawn shop for a buck each.
• A stack of signs that said "Free WiFi". Probably stolen from various cafes.
• An area that looked to be some kind of village or something. Nothing much of value. Bullet holes everywhere.
• A filled body bag. On closer inspection, it was filled with Philadelphia Cream Cheese boxes.
• A trail of some blue fluid that stopped after half a mile. was gone the next day, stain included.
• And old refrigerator with a smaller one inside, and a smaller one inside that, and a note inside that one that read "Fridgeception"
• A human skull, probably from a teenager.
• A stereo that played "The Phantom of the Opera" nonstop at full volume until I found it and smashed the thing.
• A box, wrapped like a gaudy present. Inside was a note with the words "Insert awesome gift here."
• Front half of a two-man horse costume.
• A man dressed as Gordon Freeman who followed me around for half an hour. Never spoke.
• A piece of paper with a Canadian and American quarter on it. On the paper was written "Interracial Love."
• A pile of Naruto-style headbands. The Leaf symbol was backwards.
• Several hundred mousetraps, all unarmed save one (Guess which I stepped on).
• Four guys on a couch, watching hentai and sipping beer. They muttered a noncommital "Hey man" as I passed.
• A very attractive girl, passed out, with a very unattractive boner poking out of her skirt. I covered her with my jacket. Wasn't that cold anyways.
• A pair of pants. Pockets were filled with spaghetti. Probably a reference, could be an amazing pick-up tactic.
• Four people, dressed in Wizard of Oz garb, skipping, singing "Follow the Yellow Brick Road."
• A swordfight between two armored knights, using pool noodles. Alcohol was probably involved.
• A cave made of cinderblocks. Abandoned sleeping bag inside.

That's about all I've got for now. If anyone has any questions, either about the City, the Con, the Districts, or the Undercon, I'd be happy to answer them.

Q:Did you have any particularly crazy encounters with furries or any other crazies in the Undercon?

A:Well, not as many as you'd think. The Furries aren't interested in anything that doesn't sexually excite them and the only things that do that have pointy ears and/or tails. I tend to do my business in a large coat and slacks, so I'm not really "their type" Now, I have been caught twice anyways. Once because I was careless and thought they'd NEVER be interested, and another time because it was a trap. First time: Delivering a small package to the Video Game District, saw a small pack of furries ahead. They shrank away, so I kept advancing. Suddenly, from behind, three pairs of arms snake around me and hold me in place as their "Alpha Female" comes around to look at me. Now, don't get me wrong, this girl was probably smoking hot at one point. If she took a shower and maybe brushed her teeth, I'd still consider it. HOWEVER. She was dressed in this greenish wolf getup, with her tits hanging out of holes in the front. She got really close and asked if I'd like to "Mate with her". That was the point where I'd had enough and used the only part of me they'd left free, my head. I drove my skull into her face, then struggled to break loose, which worked somehow in the confusion. I grabbed my delivery and ran for it. I was in MUCH better shape than them, so I eventually lost them. Still had to walk above ground for a mile or so before I could risk going under again. I still see that pack occasionally, but they leave me alone now.

The second time... well, some groups have "initiates". People who still operate on the surface, but descend into depravity at night with the UnderFurries. I met one at a club one night on my day off, and, being a little drunk, agreed to go back to her place. She claimed she "Knew a shortcut" through the sewers, This seemed like an okay idea to me at the time, because, hey, shorter distance = sooner I'd be getting laid. Anyways, I'm still a little fuzzy on what happened next, but I remember someone taking my shirt off and licking me. It was about then that I realized that I smelled an unwashed man, and, lo and behold, they had stuck a cat-ear headband on me and some neckbeard was undoing my pants with his teeth. I got the fuck out of there. They didn't stop me from going, thankfully. Saw the girl again a few nights later. Called in a favor from Jayce to get her deported from the city on false charges (her real crimes were worse, but would call attention to the sewers, and Jayce didn't want that).

A Security-Man's Account

Yeah, it's not exactly what I imagined myself doing when I signed up for the State Police. This place started this thing about the same time I entered the force. At first, the Station was just a little security post where a couple of officers would come down when they were holding a convention, but then it just started... growing. People started building houses, then larger buildings and now we've got this place. And of course, once it became a proper community, the state demanded that law enforcement be put into place. Of course, no one really knows HOW city government gets done around here; there's certainly no InfiniCon PD, but the locals kinda police themselves a bit. Still, you've got to have some form of law and order so the state started to build a permanent police station here; apparently it was just going to be some pre-fabs but whoever's running the show around here gave an anonymous donation, so we've got a proper precinct. I like it, kinda mix between some space age nonsense and noir. Certainly looks the part.

Of course, just like any metropolitan centre, Infinicon has its problems, especially when it's populated with people who have a certain kind of brain damage. We get assaults, thefts, murders, prohibited substances, rapes; they may dress up like a bunch of characters, but they're human. At least most are. But there are some unique challenges; replica weapons are everywhere, so you're always looking, checking for detals, a tell-tale flex or seam. Then there are the fights that break out every night or so; over the stupidest things. One night, there was a really bad riot, three dead, forty wounded included one of my officers and that's just what we found. Turns out it was because the ending of some show didn't have the right relationships or something. We're a bit better at this stuff now; we got a taskforce set up to look at trends amongst shippers, upcoming releases and season ends and they keep us pretty well informed so we can expect trouble. Most of the time, at least. Also, piracy. RIAA comes here so much, they've set up a permenant office and we've got a room for an FBI taskforce. Problem is, EVERYONE seems to be in on it; we pretty much have to provide protection for anyone serving subpoenas for copyrght infringement and it seems everytime we do, all we find are a room with some scuff marks on the floor and ethernet cables all over the place. Drives the Feds and the Suits crazy.

The officers here are all a bunch of good guys and girls. We've got a hundred and forty police officers, which is a bit small for an urban area this size, but we do what we can. We've got the usual departments; traffic, homicide, narcotics, vice and let me tell you, those guys see some shit, I can tell you, and your usual array of beat officers. We've also got a SWAT team and the officers here are all trained in crowd control. They don't get called out all that often, but there have been times when some kid goes even more crazy then usual, like the one time a bunch of those Emperor worshipping nutters took a cafe hostage, demanding the head of this Brit before they let the hostages go. That incident actually got a lot of attention for a while about how InfiniCon was out of control, but it died away pretty quickly. Too quickly, if you ask me, but that's beside the point.

Most of the staff are here on rotation; two years in. Can't blame, 'em really, not a lot of people volunteer for this district. Of course, you get some guys who go local or want to be here because of the 'Con. Most of the time, they're alright, but some guys around here keep their eyes out on them. Can't blame them, not after that time we got a gunfight in the lobby between one of the detectives and this local in a green jacket. The officer chased the guy right out of there. Still chasing him I hear from reports. There is a danger of going native, though, I suppose. Something about this place can get into your head at times, and people react differently to that. Some start drinking or watching sports really excessively, others pick up little habits; smoking, an odd accessory, but a few do go other the edge. There was this one officer, Brooks. Good man, I knew him from a while back, but he kept on picking up odd traits; started wearing body armor all the time, grew a moustache and wore some 80s looking shades. Started getting cited for excessive force, and was being investigated by Internal Affairs for overzealous use of firearms. Eventually, he quit the Force and now cruises around in a tank of all things; seems he got into one of those Japanese cartoons, Dominion, I think.

What my beard? I just thought I'd grow one. It's all in regs. Makes me look a bit more like a hardass to the locals. N-no, I've never heard of Cowboy Bebop. It's good? Maybe I'll check it out when I get rotated out. Nah, I've been here for five years. It's the organisation here, see. It's working too well for me to leave right now. Maybe when I've taught some of the new guys how to run things properly...

The Undercon? Creepy ass place. LA, New York, Vegas all tell stories about how their sewers are the worst; at least theirs aren't packed with gangs psycho dog fuckers who rape anything that's warm or paranoids who think that the bombs dropped a century ago. We don't go down there unless there's a good reason and when we do, we go in force. Seriously, the first time we sent some men to investigate down there, they came back, naked, covered in welts from high-powered paintball guns and tattooed with insults in klingon. Now anytime we step into that hellhole, it's full tactical and we don't mess about. We've actually had people from the military come and ask about experiences that some of the guys have had down there. Rumour has it that they're sending special forces in there to train or something. Just what we need, something to rile up the crazies even more.

Yeah, it's a pretty odd beat, but someone's got to be here to make sure that there's some sense of law and order around here. Otherwise, God knows what crazy replacement would pop up. Probably trial by trivia or something strange like that.

I Don't Even Bother Learning Their Names Anymore...

The florescents flicker overhead. Something smells off in this hall...damp. The AC might be flooded. God, I hope we haven't strayed into Furry Country.

Donnie kneels in front of the door. He works IT for the Mariot...but he's got a wicked pocky habit that keeps him in debt to me. I nod, and he fishes out his sequencer. This place is practically abandoned, no way they're keeping up on keycard protocol. I watch down one way, the Redshirt I've hired looks down the other. I don't even bother learning their names any more.

The door clicks open, and Donnie lets out a little "Hah!" I shush him quickly...it's getting too quiet, but if my contact is right, this room is where the Neonites stash their shipments. And they can't wear those leather coats without that slicked-back hair. We slip inside, and I make sure the door doesn't close all the way...could be an ambush.

Inside the room is...messy. Once this place gets bought out, they're gonna need some major Housecleaning. On one of the soiled beds is a box, and my eyes gleam. I pull a contraband boxcutter outta my boot and open it up. Gatsby. Goldmine. I motion the others to start loading their packs. The Narutards have a dozen badges to some game event next month, and I can turn those around to some guy outside for some quality bolts of fabric...the wheel turns round and round, and I think somehow I can pay off my bill...well...some of it, any way.

"YIFF!" "Yerf? Yerf scritches?"

Oh god, I can hear them outside. Donnie starts crying, and Redshirt and I share a glance. I think he already knows what's gonna happen. We zip up our packs and get ready to make a run.

BAM! The door slams open, propelled by my boot, and I can already smell them. As I leap out into the hall, I see him. Maybe the Alpha, maybe just a Bitch, but all he's wearing are a pair of cat ears and gray briefs that are strained by his erection. I head the other way.

The Red Shirt puffs beside me, and it would be so easy to let Donnie drop behind, but the kid's useful to me. As we round a bend, I shove Red Shirt hard. He bounces off the opposite wall and falls, stunned. We both knew it would end like this.

I don't even bother learning their names any more...

Water Treatment

my name is Alexi Valdergof, my and my friends were contracted to go into the undercon by some person who kept calling himself a "John" even though his nametag said "Mark, Seller of Goods" Crazy Americans... but he wanted something he kept referring to as "1st Ed Shadowrun". Who is this Ed Shadowrun and why is he first? he wouldn't answer any of our questions except that he would pay us a ludicrous amount of dosh and gear for it, which to be honest shut us up quite quickly, we've never been offered both Dosh and gear before so this Ed Shadowrun must be very important.

Now me and my team are experienced in the undercon but this had us worried, we've never been as deep as Water Treatment and Purification Subsector E-5. hell we didnt even know it went that deep but none the less we went in like the fools we were.

At first it was extremely simple the "furries" you guys call them, never came out only could be heard by distant 'yiff yiff yiff" in the background and an occasional Wolf trying to pull one of us down a tunnel, if we would've stopped there, Nikolai and Marc would still be here.

You see they took Nikolai when we first entered the Water Treatment Sector there was at least 20 of them, wolves, cats, and dragons rushing us only sound they made was a constant chorus of "yiff, yiff, yiff" we took many of them down but soon our guns ran out of pellets and we made a dash deeper into the Treatment plant,we were almost free until Nikolai tripped and fell...that was the last time i ever saw Nikolai...the look of pure terror as the horde descended upon him...i'll never forget it

And Marc? well he went insane down there, the deeper you go into the Undercon,the worst it gets...the stuff they post on those walls...thats what drove Marc insane, last i saw of him....he was running down a corridor stripping himself naked demanding to be taken right there by a dragon priestess. He was a good lad, a little young but good. I finally reached the room where Ed was, but there was nobody to be seen...just piles of paraphernalia, i started looking around when i first heard it, a bellow from a conjoined room a yowl of pure lust, and the largest Wolf i ever saw barrels into the room, id like i say i slew that foul beast...but no, i panicked i grabbed the nearest stack of paraphernalia and ran out of there hoping "John" would be okay with what i grabbed

after that all i remember was just running, i just ran i couldnt make it to the surface too many furries in the way so i just ran, i ran for gods know how long, but i finally ran into a group of like minded individuals, they saw the look of terror on my face and hear the howls coming from the way i came, and ran the way they came out, and not knowing any better i followed them.

When i exited the undercon i was in the middle of the Anime section, not too far from where i met "John" so despite all my being screaming for food and rest i hobbled over to his shop, our meeting place.

When i entered the store his face paled considerably his upper lip quivered and he said "did you get it?" as i poured out the contents of my rucksack, he dived into it like a pseudodog on a carcass, and with a squeal of joy he grabs this book hugs it tightly to his body and starts blubbering and thanking me...thats when i realized it...i lost two good friends for a god damn book, this wasnt a retrieval mission for a friend like we thought it was, no, it was just for a goddamn book...that was the worst moment of my life, when i traded the life of my two closest friends for a god damn book.

After receiving my pay i went and found my dealer...after that...i don't remember much,just a alcoholic haze

Another Account

Yeah, I like it here in InfiniCon. My friend and I run a model booth at some of the cons; we sell the usual historical stuff, sci-fi, plamo, Gunpla, some wargame minis here and there. It's actually a bit of a blessing, not having to rent a shop; we just drive into a dealer plaza, set up the van and the booth and we're good to go. Of course, you've got to be careful when things get busy otherwise some of the crustier patrons will try and rob you blind. Once had to run down a guy who was trying to leg it with a large Perfect Grade Wing Zero. He didn't get far and the packaging wasn't even damaged, which is a plus. Lucky for him, the State Police got him before the Imperial Legion could get wind of him. That's one of the downsides, I suppose. You get a few gangs of vigilantes but hey, keeps the shoplifters down!

We share a flat with some other modellers and mecha fans on the hubward edge. It's pretty cramped, but we make enough. We also all pitch in for a kick ass workshop for modelling in one of the rooms. I also run some showings on a projector against this large blank wall near the flat; I tend to show older shows and most people don't pay any attention, but every now and again, we get some kid who's only seen Seed or Eva and he sits down and watches and asks if we can get him some more of the series. And it feels good, to be honest, although once we were almost lynched by a group of the Cape Crusaders for showing 'Japanese filth'. Good thing I had Megas XLR on my drive, or I'd probably be handing from my neck with a Naruto headband stuffed in my mouth.

The Organizer

Original: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0IXkbhdOzgqM2tXeEFBWjBTeS1VU3pNVnhNUUg3QQ/edit

PREQUEL

6.00 am, wake up, shower, put on my suit, tie, take my bag, head out the door, sit in my car, drive to work, show my ID to the police and enter. Just another day in the city of colours, and I'm grim and grey as ever.

My friends are jealous every time we go out drinking, they usually introduce me to people with the words: “This is Ian, he works at InfiniCon...” and from there the chances are the conversation will be anything but pleasant. Either people don't know what InfiniCon is – and then I'll have to explain what it is, telling them that I work with managing a city inhabited by people detached from reality. Pretty much like a madhouse. Or if I am unlucky people do know what InfiniCon is – and then I have to explain to them that I can not give them free passes or a personal tour and that I don't know any of InfiniCon's rich and famous people.

I hate my job and I hate the city of colours I work with. I'm one of the guys who stay in the background. They say we are invisible, they say we are the ones who are not supposed to be seen. Our suits don't fit the theme. Naturally.

The thing is, our job isn't something people think about, people don't go and think that for every building in InfiniCon that they need permission from the government, so that is where we step in and get the proper permission. We remain in the background, we do our background checks on our citizens. We watch every move, hidden cameras, we spy and watch the citizens, for every act, we counter act to ensure that the real government don't step in and shut down the whole operation. Some speak of a conspiracy throughout InfiniCon, well... ...We ARE the conspiracy!

And this is our story.

CHAPTER 1

There are several ways to enter InfiniCon, but usually you notice right away. Most of the con is a huge city, so where do I hide? Or actually, where do we hide? The answer isn't really that obvious, you see, for a lot of people working on the convention, we are spread out evenly. Our main base is under ground, we have a few apartments down-town, most of our guys work with the police stations on the city limit.

You see, at one hand, InfiniCon is a city, it is supposed to have a city council, however it don't. InfiniCon has to account for a city and behave like one, however the citizens has never once shown any interest in the politics, the affairs required to maintain a city of that size.

When InfiniCon was build the first time, they prepare the foundation physically, however by the huge immigration from every kind of fandom imaginable, it was surprisingly few people who took into the interest that the city needs management. Sure a few fractions turned up here and there, but they didn't seem to want to take on the management either.

So we were established, the Convention Men. A secret organisation that runs underground and unseen. Our task was simply: Management.

The first issue our group came upon was financial issues. If InfiniCon was to be permanent and self-established, how would our organisation be paid for our work?

Fairly quickly the major convention centre was build along with a few minor convention centres, usually they had only temporary exhibits, people could rent them, it became the front for our secret group, but still secret.

Unfortunately people wouldn't rent the convention centres all the time, so for the rest of the time we organized things in them, giving us another use, we could almost charge whatever we would, and people would still pay. They were desperate. When we hosted them, we could additionally charge a fee for anyone to put up their tables.

As most of the city grew in size and popularity, we slowly phrased out, the convention centres became popular in which to announce new animes, LARP events or films coming out.

Eventually it was asked why we didn't just have taxes. We decided we just preferred to be secret instead. The nerds was happy not to know of our existence so why change that?

That was many years ago, since InfiniCon opened, I'm a fairly new employee compared to that, how the system works is only vaguely known, but fact is that our group don't lose money.

The next point was to hire people who knew stuff about city planning. I had a college degree in city planning of one sort of another, and soon afterwards I was given a job offer. I didn't question it. My job description was fairly simple: Establish contact with the government and ensure permission for a building has been granted. It was a fairly easy job. Most of the time someone would call me and tell me someone was erecting a building in the suburbs, I send out someone in a STAFF shirt and ask a few questions, the STAFF people was our most obvious agents, people trust them. Usually the STAFF t-shirt held enough authority that I could get the information I wanted to relay the construction to the Government.

Most of the time – that is 70% of the time – the people who construct anything in InfiniCon had the senses to make the proper paper work and hire real construction workers. The remainder 25% they still hired proper construction workers, but didn't fill out the paper work. For an ever growing city like InfiniCon, that was still a lot of people.

5% of the people neither had proper construction workers, or didn't fill out the proper paper work. They seem to have the idea that InfiniCon is anarchy. It's not, we can't let them build where they want or how they want. They are my biggest of concerns. I'm supposed to handle it delicately, our group wants to be secret, so how do I stop their working. Usually this is also where the story ends. I call the police, the police throws them out if they can't afford the construction, they crawl back in and they end up in the undercon.

As I arrived at my front desk this Tuesday morning – cloudy sky above – I was immediately notified of such an event. Someone was trying to build a house on their own in the suburban area of the city, they had begun overnight so it had not been noticed before.

“Hey, Susanne, could you call for one of the Staff guys to come up here?” I yelled for the departments secretary. “Sorry Ian, but they are all occupied.” “With what?” “Some fat bitch made a jump for it and made jam.” “Sonnovabitch, suicides are hard to sort out.” “Yeah, but it still means that the staff is all busy scraping off her blood from the street.”

I sighed and grabbed my staff ID card, we were instructed to venture as little as possible into the actual conventions. I found my parking space and drove off, after 15 minutes I located the house.

A young man wearing a gas mask and otherwise military gear was pitching a tent – admittedly it was not technically a structure, but still it was enough.

“Excuse me sir! Convention STAFF. Mind if I ask a few questions in regard to your tent?” “Not at all, be my guest.” “Do you plan to live in it permanently?” “No, just for a week.” “Why?” “I had a bet with a friend of mine if I could live for a week with no electricity. I think I can manage that.” “Okay, thank you. We may come round in a week and check if you are still here!”

Luckily someone had to live somewhere for two weeks before we had to report it to the government, and as much as we knew, people made bets like that all the time, and usually they failed.

Unfortunately due to the morning traffic I had to drive through the city, it was a weird sight, apartments made of bricks, with sheets and colours of all rainbows. And there I was driving my grey sedan with mirrored glass, trying to be as colourless as possible in a world of colours.

I must have not been paying attention because the next moment someone stepped in front of the car. Almost suicidal. I stopped the car, but noted that I didn't hit her, yet the person fell onto the ground. I turned off the engine, and stepped out.

“Excuse me, are you okay?”

A young girl lay in front of me, clearly breathing trying hard to seem unconscious.

“Look, I'm not one for playing silly games, but if you want to play unconscious, that is fine. But you lady, I'm a Staff member, so please don't pull any tricks on me. I'm going to call an ambulance anyway because I'm obligated to do so.”

Someone came up to me, I prepared my standard answer

“Yes, I don't think I hit her, but I'm about to call an ambulance.” “Are you a staff member?” “Yes, give me a second, I need to call that ambulance.” I pulled out my mobile phone and began calling the emergency number, “Can I see your staff ID then!” The person was dressed in a bright blue dress, I just pulled out my card and held it up.

Somewhere between that movement and me giving the last details regarding the adress, the blue dress grabbed my ID card and ran. I looked after her in a moment of confusion before noticing the young girl running away too.

Almost yelling into the phone that they should forget about the ambulance, I began running after the blue dress.

You see – if someone managed to get that thing on the black market, that card was going to make hell for us... the Con Men.