Blog:/cyb/

Welcome to Glitch City Voices. '''This page is a work in progress! Everything may be moved, deleted, or modified at any time.''' =A Primer= /cyb/ is a text board on the "parody of a parody" dangeru.us, which itself is based on a board of the same name and design that players can read through, in the cyberpunk visual novel/waifu bartending simulator, VA-11 Hall-a. It is a predominantly roleplaying board which is set in the "City That Shouldn't Exist" of Glitch City, a dystopian hell where megacorporations reign supreme, citizens are guinea pigs, and technology advances within weeks, not years. It's referred to in-game as "the world's guinea pig."

Originally conceived as a board to discuss cyberpunk media in all its forms, the board eventually grew into a heavily cyberpunk inspired long and shortform roleplaying board, with the majority of threads discussing events in-universe. Because of Va-11, Hall-a's vague cyberpunk background and constant references to other series (including, but not limited to, Deus Ex, Ghost in the Shell, 206X: Read Only Memories, Blade Runner, and Neuromancer), the roleplay universe of /cyb/ also grew to include other franchises, from the Metal Gear series to Invisible Inc, to especially Shadowrun. Much of the terminology, slang, and references come from Shadowrun in particular, along with its grandfather, William S. Gibson's Neuromancer.

ARGs
Instead of one overarching story that is presided over by a single GM, multiple GM's have come and gone from the active playerbase, operating their own threads, NPC's, and events. These groups came to be loosely associated with alternate reality games since their GM's often took advantage of danger/u/'s anonymity to post riddles, clues, cyphers, and encrypted messages to move their stories forward, occasionally with universe-altering results.

To prevent drama, a generally unspoken rule holds that GM's tend to avoid having their plotlines interfere with one another, but this happens anyway, sometimes resulting in a previously dangerous situation suddenly moving Up to Eleven. GM's also oftentimes reference each other's works, legitimizing each other as each player adds to the history of the universe.

=A History of /cyb/ (Circa February 2017)=

The Rise of the Phoenix Corps
Shortly after the dissolution of the tyrannical White Knights that originally reported under QUINCY (and some say Zaibatsu), a former White Knight officer by the name of Asagiri Sei, through a combination of crowdfunding and assistance from a small corporation, "Norn Inc," won a contract to retake control of the White Knights and to systematically replace Glitch City's standing law enforcement. The contract was embraced open armed, although some within the ranks of the former organization were less than thrilled. https://augmented.dangeru.us/article/1178

The Phone Booth Murders
A series of disturbing videos made their way through social media and were uploaded to the danger/u/ boards. Though grainy, the videos appear to be shot from a security camera, and depict a young woman hiding inside a phone booth from a man chasing her.

- Shortly thereafter, the phone booth bursts open, and the man is dragged inside, clearly struggling as a fountain of blood bursts from the phone booth. The girl, or at least a silhouette of her, is seen approaching the camera, which soon cuts out.

- Reports surface of random killings throughout Glitch City, but are mostly forgotten or ignored. A short investigation is launched into the demise of the man at the phone booth, who is discovered to be an off duty White Knight- the coroner of the case vanishes, and the investigation is soon dropped.

- A decker new to Glitch City decides to look into the murder, but goes missing herself, leaving behind a winding trail of cryptic messages with fearful descriptions. A certain purple haired lilim and a foxy hacker follow the trail to an old bank, which is soon destroyed by a small shadowrunner group.

-The string of murders end at last, with the horrors mostly forgotten in the wake of the following civil war.

The EDEN Civil War (Coloquially, "The 24 Hours War")
During the White Knight's original rule over Glitch City, a schism occurred led by a prominent White Knight officer, "Eve,", who left the city with a sizable number of troops and hardware.

- Beginning sometime in April 2XXX, Glitch City experienced several coordinated terrorist attacks, in addition to a series of news and media blackouts*. Rumors of the attacks being an inside job, as well as a conspiracy from within the White Knights began to flit around the Matrix when a few surviving suspects revealed sensitive information, moments before being killed.

- At least four bombings were recorded, including one that occurred in the Flooded District, and culminating with an attack on Glitch City's Central Train Station (Hammond Station?). During this attack, a client under the protection of a shadow entity was killed, motivating the organization to investigate.

- Using their significant resources, a user which only referred to itself as the  snake in the garden tracked, recorded, and released a series of phone calls in a document known as "The EDEN Dossier," which strongly discredited EDEN and proved that they were responsible for the terrorist attacks. The dossier also identified several rogue White Knight agents that were secretly members of EDEN who had re-infiltrated the ranks of the White Knights. Realizing that they were exposed, Eve declared war on the White Knights and Glitch City, stating their intention to remove Quincy from power. Soon after, EDEN deployed the full brunt of their military, including several commandeered tanks, mechanized units, and artillery, and attempted to take control of Glitch City's Central Square.

- Feeling victorious, Eve offered to withdraw her forces in return for the removal of Quincy and Glitch City's current government (and their backers) from power. The request was denied, and EDEN began the war proper.

- Despite their numerical advantage, the White Knights suffered grave losses, and were nearly pushed back until Nidhogg 046 took control of the city's built-in defensive systems. Responding to the invasion, the snake in the garden revealed itself to be but one part of the entity known as NIDHOGG, a distributed defensive AI network commanded by the man known only as "The Allfather" (or sometimes "old man"). Nidhogg 046 responded to the incursion by activating the city's mortar weaponry.

- Not to be outdone, EDEN responded by deploying their superweapon bipedal tank, codenamed LUCIFER, along with three military-grade AI's outfitted with their own war machines. With most of the standing forces of both sides thoroughly decimated, the battle shifted to one of AI vs AI, superweapon versus superweapon, as in desperation EVE resorted to attempting to launch nuclear weaponry. Most of the missiles were disarmed by the superior hacking power of NIDHOGG, but one that landed managed to be a dud. To prevent additional casualties NIDHOGG activated the Capital Emergency Submersion Procedure (CESP) to protect Quincy and much of the city from destruction.

- Whether from battle stress or the constant cyberwarfare in the Matrix, one of EVE's lieutenants went rogue, acting against EVE's orders and moving to assault NIDHOGG on its own. Cleverly utilizing the city's plate-based road structure, NIDHOGG managed to separate LUCIFER and the AI's, eventually obliterating the rogue lieutenant in the process. By this point in the battle, NIDHOGG also managed to locate Eve's location, and successfully hacked into the LUCIFER tank itself. With the head separated from the rest of the body, NIDHOGG finished off the remaining lieutenants, ending the battle.

- With her forces completely obliterated, the surviving White Knights searched for and discovered Eve trapped in the remains of LUCIFER, but still alive. On record, Eve refused to be imprisoned and asked that she be killed then and there, a request that the remaining White Knights gladly granted.

- Since the battle, there have been sporadic reports of multiple people claiming to be Eve on social media and the darknet, but none of these sightings could be verified. The White Knights, meanwhile, would never recover militarily or economically from this disaster, although they would later capture what was left of LUCIFER and refurbish it.

Goldfish With Freaking Laser Eyes
A thread suddenly appeared on /cyb/: Cyberfish Won't Stop Shooting Its Eye Laser.

In it, the original poster complains about his goldfish which they outfitted with a deadly Type-F Laser because it "looked badass". By slapping its fin on its belly, the goldfish would hit the button trigger for its laser mounted eye. The goldfish caused problems for the the owner, such as melting the furniture in its water tank, melting whatever fish food was given, and attacking its owner's hand with the eye laser. Suggestions were given such as holding up a mirror to it, but in the end, the owner dumped the laser goldfish into the Flooded District.

Later that week, the former laser goldfish owner announced that they had surplus Type-F lasers, and was selling them at 80% off. Shortly thereafter there were reports of Type-F lasers being mounted on various animals such as tortoises, cats, and more importantly, Shiba Inus.

The Tree of Yggdrasil
Ameritrade Robotics Corporation (ARC) known for their sophisticated line of security Lilims and Household Robotic Assistants, came across a large discovery several months ago, which caused them to skip out on The Summit from months past. The discovery of a 'mutant' tree far out of the city caused ARC to go about investigating how they could use the Tree to further their own robotics, an everlasting, rechargeable resource grew from the Tree itself, dubbed Yggdrasil Seeds.

As the time passes, ARC is contacted by a Organization known as the Black Collars to hand over the tree due to the catastrophic effects the Tree could have upon the city if it were to stay in the hands of those who do not fathom what it is they hold in their hands. As each of the Heads of the company begin conferring and agreeing to turn the Tree over to the woman who leads the Black Collars, Aria Masters. However, current Public Works Division Head, Sadie Thatcher saw the potential the Tree had to change this world with the power of the Seeds. She concocted and illustrated an assassination plot to become the new Head CEO of ARC and further the advancements in secret thanks to the help of a mysterious Assassin in Black later to be known as Morrigan Rothin.

After images of the Assassin find their way into Black Collar hands, and the sudden silence from ARC begins, the Black Collar Organization sends a number of operatives at first to begin taking back what is known to them as a Causality Weapon. While at first, the size is unknown, the Black Collars known as Markus Arx and Tarin Galerian soon find out about the Seeds themselves thinking those are the weapons that they were sent for. Tarin however, was aware of this information from the get go, as he'd already been in the city for some time researching the Seeds he'd gotten from the break in he managed weeks ago during the Full Black Out in the Midnight District. Due to his early involvement and exposure to the Seeds for such a long time, a Seal that had been set on him years ago began deteriorating faster than he could manage.

Soon after, a conference of ARC investors begins called upon by Sadi Thatcher to unveil the new Yggdrasil Generators. Small, portable, self recharging generators that they had made initially to power their new line of Security Robots, starting with the ARX Mk.4 (at that point) that would be capable of being more powerful than the previous ones they've made and based on the amount of skill and over all Output of the recent arrival of the Vigilante Hero and Black Collar known as Gold Knuckles (Markus Arx). The conference however, went south when Veriatech PR Manager -REDACTED- murdered Sadi Thatcher in the Giorno's Restaurant where Tarin Galerian had also tracked them all down to. Tarin was clearly not himself during these events, yet he hadn't revealed that his other half, Asmodeus, had taken over by that point and allowed the murder of the CEO to happen. With his fun taken out of the picture in Sadi's struggle to make something she didn't understand into what she wanted, he made for the ARC HQ in the Center of the Midnight District after some Choice interactions with the Radio Wire Crew and known Hacker Shonen, CN.

Thus brings the Biological Disaster known as the Tree of Yggdrasil. After so long, Asmodeus eventually triggered the Tree into its full form. Not sure what he was planning, the city immediately began measures of Evacuation, Assault, and Collection upon the Midnight District. While none of the Remaining Black Collars were able to get to the tree they assisted in general evacuation while Asmodeus was never to be seen by the public again after the event. Though, it was revealed it was also co-orchestrated by a woman simply named Lilith that let the events happen out of "Fun" and so, the Black Collars known as Markus Arx, A.K.A Gold Knuckles, and Tarin Galerian were both hit with Bounties of 100,000 Zenny and 500,000 Zenny Respectively, with the final woman, Lilith being brought to a total of /over/ 900,000 Zenny.

The Trunk of the Husk of Yggdrasil still glows dimly, unable to absorb enough of it's resource to sustain its properties with a large space craft sitting on the rest of it after it was fired upon by the Orbital Laser. There are no remaining Seeds from the Explosion of the Laser and destruction the Tree itself left.

Universe Changing Events
Occasionally, a few events in /cyb/ which were part of an ARG have resulted in city-wide changes to the universe, affecting other roleplayers and args in the process.

The Second Collapse of the White Knights
The destruction sustained during the 24 Hours War proved too great for the White Knights, and despite their efforts to recruit new membership, the organization suffered greatly from sub-par armor and armaments, ruined vehicles, low pay, and even lower morale. The Zaibatsu Corporation, still reeling from the expose' prior to the events in this wiki, could no longer maintain the White Knights and all but vanished.

- The White Knights were in the process of switching to smaller, specialized units with less emphasis on military structure when a series of riots broke out around Glitch City, made worse by the increasing economic and social disparity in the wake of the civil war. When a mysterious plague broke out from Glitch City Airport, White Knight riot teams, still fatigued from combating various fires around the city, were called to quell the "additional" riots spreading from the airport to the slums.

The GC Airport Terrorist Attack
Unfortunately, these were not rioters, but were techno-zombies, cyberized individuals who were infected by a powerful logic-virus which viciously took control of any inorganic, cybernetic life. When a defector from a certain major corporation reached the airport from parts unknown, the corporation decided to "test" a Techno-Organic Weapon (TOW) on the airport, by sending agents to infect the defector with the weapon. He soon died, and began to attack nearby individuals, spreading the contagion quickly throughout the airport. To make matters worse, the various entrances to the airport were detonated by explosives soon after patient zero was set loose, trapping most of the civilians inside.

- Not many people were thought to have survived the event, although security camera footage did watch as a certain cargo truck crashed through one of the glass windows leading outside to the airport runway. It miraculously survived the fall, and drove off, the zombies shambling in their wake.

- When the riot teams were later dispatched to stop the horde, they were completely destroyed- and the plague is thought to have spread out around the city, mostly infesting the Slums and poorer neighborhoods. With the loss of most of its remaining veterans, the White Knight organization ceased to be a significant military presence in Glitch City, and all new recruits tend to more closely resemble regular law enforcement instead.

District Chapel-3
One of several residential districts, Chapel-3 has some of the cheapest rates in the city, and it shows. Connected to the Slums, the majority of the district's citizens reside in the middle to lower classes, reflected in very few personal homes in favor massive, decaying apartments, micro-condominiums, and "coffin" hotels.

G.C. Airport (Destroyed)
Glitch City Airport was originally the main way to enter and exit the city proper, whether from space or from somewhere planetside. It was also the epicenter of a techno-zombie infestation that White Knight forces were unable to quell for months. Due to a combination of stigma and lack of finances, the airport, now a collapsed rubble, has yet to be rebuilt.

The Midnight District (heavily damaged)
Like its sister district Glitz, the Midnight District was reknown as a somewhat lower end nightspot and middle class residential/commercial zone, as well as housing a number of up and coming major corporations, including Ameritrade Robotics Corp. It was also the base of operations for several factions within Glitch City, but during a biological disaster, the entire district was cordoned off and flatly referred to as "The Zone" for a short time.

After the district fell victim to an orbital weapon discharge, the district was evacuated of what survivors and stragglers remained, and has not been repopulated since. An enormous, mutant tree husk remains at ground zero of the blast, occasionally visited by scavengers or curious scientists.

Westport
=ARGS=

The Asagiri Conspiracy
A crackjob conspiracy theorist winds up dead after looking into ex-White Knight Sei Asagiri and cat boomer Stella Hoshi's possible connection to a manhunting group The Reapers. Are Sei and Stella Cobalt Lily and Crimson Rose respectfully?

Megatower 1
A long abandoned tower full of strange technology seems to consume all who enter it. Literally. And it's trying to get out.

Tears in the Rain
What begins with an investigation into mysterious videos and missing persons escalates into a game of cat and mouse with deadly megacorps, diabolical businessmen, corrupt law enforcement, and technological nightmares that threaten to eviscerate the line between organic and inorganic. All memories will be lost in time... like tears in rain.

ARC Assault
Incomplete/GM Ragequit/

EDEN
Completed/GM Retired/Plot-centered NPCS deceased. Completed

MIRAGE
Discontinued, intrusion by different ARG.

My Goldfish Has Lazer Eyes
Completed/GM Retired

RGTF
Discontinued

STAND BY
Completed/GM Ragequit

Star Crossing Online
On Hold/GM Busy

White Fang's Vengeance
Completed

=Factions Within Glitch City=

Black Collar Investigations
A group of Outsiders to the city that had come due to the Disturbance of Ameritrade Robotics Corporation (ARC). They are known as a special Anti-Magic Military Task Force to those who have managed to find out the information necessary to their Organization. Their sole purpose is the Collection and Management of Dangerous Magickal Artifacts that have appeared within the world when they fall outside of their Island Lands. They were called to Glitch City due to the ARC involvement and Capture of the Tree of Yggdrasil, a Causality Weapon that could change the nature of any area it is in. While Magick has most certainly died out due to the Huge Technological Advancements of Glitch City, the Black Collars come from an opposing area where Magick has become the source of life, which has shaped their abilities.

EDEN
A splinter group of the original White Knights, EDEN was a paramilitary force lead by a disgruntled former White Knights officer, "Eve," who sought to return to Glitch City and liberate it from QUINCY's control. Following a devastating civil war, the majority of EDEN's standing forces were annihilated, with their leader choosing to be executed rather than captured. There are unconfirmed reports of surviving EDEN members living in Glitch City.

Ameritrade Robotics Corporation
Status: Headquarters destroyed by giant space laser, CEO and head researcher missing, presumed deceased.

Cyberdyne Corporation
Status: Inactive? Possibly defunct, leadership reported missing.

Geno Corporation
Status: Active, but several council directors victims of assassination.

Voice Corp
"Voice the Future"