Extraordinary Comics Places

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Places in Universe 6806

The interesting locales, buildings, and dimensions of the Extraordinary Comics main publishing continuinty: Universe 6806

Setting: North Fairland

Theme: A strong foundation but fraying at the edges.

Description: A city on the eastern seaboard of the United States, North Fairland is a city revitalized. Founded in the 19th century to the north of the existing town of Fairland (a famous lumbar yard), North Fairland was established as a shipbuilding hub and trading port. Much of the 20th century saw it fall onto hard times as businesses moved, corruption reigned, and supervillains encroached. However, a series of changes in the 1960s and 1970s - such as the arrival of the super team the Cometeers, a boom biomedical and biotech development, and the growth of the Cartwright Technical Institute – set the city on a path to a brighter future. Things are better than they’ve ever been in North Fairland, but it can only stay that way due to the tireless efforts of its citizens – human and superhuman.

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Place: Cometeer Park

Qualities:

The past grows richer and the future glows brighter.

Hope blooms eternal.

Plenty of shade but no time to rest.

Description: A sprawling arboretum in the northeast part of the city, Cometeer Park is part monument, part community city, part historic landmark. Large trees and bubbling fountains provide pleasant accompaniment to the winding brick pathways. It was established in 1979 after the Cometeers sacrificed themselves to stop the evil Mayhem Master’s ultrachronotonic warhead from blasting the city into another eon. Large statues of the six Cometeer members dot the park and set out its main districts. Cometeer Park is the site of numerous community events and attracts thousands of visitors every day. All that commotion can make it chaotic; more than one supervillain has used that hustle and bustle as a cover for nefarious activities.

People: Cometeer Park Rangers – In the mid-1990s the city recognized that Cometeer Park was frequently the direct target of supervillain activity or was caught up in a superhuman conflict that as it made its way across town. Too many innocent lives were at stake to leave the site undefended, not to mention the historic value of the monuments made it a common target for vandalizing. The Cometeer Park Rangers was established as a way of solving these problems and much more. Acting as tour guides, emergency response unit, security guards, or whatever may be needed at any given moment, the Cometeer Park Rangers have become one of the city’s premier services. Due to the popularity and visibility of the park, they have almost come to be seen as the de facto fourth branch of first responders alongside police, firefighters, and EMTs. With their sharp green berets and fur-trimmed flight jackets they cut a dashing look and make for a comforting sight to North Fairland’s citizens out to enjoy their day.

Qualities:

"Yes, I can help!"

Making the Cometeers proud.

Looking sharp and staying sharp.

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Place: Installation 86 – “Cloudbank”

Qualities:

The first and last stop for freedom.

The bigger they are, the higher they soar.

Tanks rolling down main street USA.

Description: A massive base installation for O.M.N.I. – the Observation of Metahumans for the National Interest and one of the largest governmental bodies related to superheroes and supervillains. While nominally organized around intelligence gathering on supervillains and non-terrestrial entities that might threaten the United States, O.M.N.I. is also willing and ready to engage in… proactive threat reduction. Installation 86 is one of the few public-facing facilities they operate, mostly because it would be nearly impossible to hide. Its designation “Cloudbank” refers to its role as a depot for rearming, repairing, and refueling the fleet of advanced skyharriers that patrol international airspace.

The base has brought immense benefits to the area including vast government funding. The sight of skyharriers and uniformed O.M.N.I. operatives are a welcome sight to many of North Fairland's citizens. However, it is an unwelcome presence to many others. The proximity of "Cloudbank" paints a huge target on the city for supervillains for one thing. Local politicians often bend over backwards to facilitate the base in any way, no questions asked, because the money is vital to the local economy and the prestige is unmatched. But many say the situation is much darker than that: there countless rumors of secretive government projects, use of O.M.N.I. resources for the surveillance of private citizens, and even the use of O.M.N.I. personnel to silence political dissidents in the area.

Naturally, official congressional investigations into such rumors have always found no evidence of wrongdoing in their lengthy - and classified - reports.

People: Admiral Thomas Norton - A lifelong O.M.N.I. agent whose spotless service record goes back decades, he is that acting supervisor of Cloudbank. Thomas Norton got his start in operations and his knack for keeping track of large scale planning is unparalleled. In his mid-30s he made a name for himself as a capable leader whether facing off against supervillains in the field or managing intelligence behind a desk. Now in his mid-50s some might find it strange that his particular skill set is being used to run what is essentially a humdrum (if complex) warehouse. Admiral Norton's political ambitions have come to the fore in his latter years, and some say his eagerness to join the upper echelons of the Directive at O.M.N.I. headquarters have taken up more of his time and attention than managing the base itself.

Qualities:

"Been in the game longer than you've been alive."

Anything to make it to the top - where I belong.

Never found wanting.

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Place: Hickory University

Qualities:

It's all there - if you can find it.

Higher learning just means higher costs.

Old hickory has deep roots.

Description: Hickory University is one of the oldest colleges in the state. Its sprawling, stately campus is home to nearly 15,000 students year round, and "Old Hickory" has a luminous list of alumni that refer to their time at the school as one of the most important parts of their life. With degree programs in most existing fields and even emerging ones and well-trained tenured staff, Hickory University is in many ways the platonic ideal of higher education.

But not all of its reputation is quite so straight-laced.

Hickory University has a long tradition of occult activity, ranging from cantrips used to prank incoming freshmen to full blown alchemical research laboratories. Numerous faculty members specialize in magic - both curricular and extracurricular - and more than a few cults to ancient gods with unpronounceable names have formed beneath the shade of the shagbarks. The university even sports a dedicated eldritch library, but it is so charged with arcane power that finding what you're looking for might be a life or death situation.

People: Dean Aisha Paulson - Hickory University's preeminent scholar on enchanted artifacts and one of the youngest Prima Magicas in history, Dean Paulson is every bit a prodigy. Her reputation is sterling and her record speaks for itself. Most potent wizards earn reputations as eccentric sorcerers or power-hungry egotists. Aisha is neither. In fact, she is the de facto face of the university and leads numerous community benefits that have raised the school's already impressive profile ever higher. Of course, her desire to acquire, assess, and archive magical objects borders on the obsessive. Some say it is dangerous to chase down that many items of power and keep them all in one place - particularly beneath a school, no matter how warded it may be. But Aisha is confident she can handle whatever trouble might come her way.

Qualities:

The youngest Prima Magica in history.

A grand archive.

"Let me take a look at that..."

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Place: Arteaga-Southerland Centre for Community and Research

Qualities:

When everyone works together, anything is possible.

Familiarity and understanding are a cure for fear.

Where it started is where it continues.

Description: After android production was suspended and androids gained citizenship, doctors Arteaga and Southerland, the designers of the android brain and now rich men from their patents, donated a large sum of money to convert the former assembly facility and later the heart of the liberation movement into its current form. The work at the centre, both volunteer and otherwise, focuses on android-human relations and various research projects, often of the sort where androids and humans work together to tackle various issues and attempt to develop solutions to problems affecting both groups or the world at large. The projects can range in scale from local students looking into local issues to acclaimed scientists researching climate change.

The centre sees occasional trouble from protests to vandalism, since some humans still harbor anti-android sentiment and some androids return the feeling. But serious incidents are rare and most of the time the area is a peaceful one.

People: Dr. Cain Peace. Android, political activist, former liberation movement leader, and an expert in terraforming and geodesign. With an appearance of a powerfully built man in his thirties, clean shaven and with a short cropped hair, Cain looks more like a soldier than a scientist. But he is calm, diplomatic and nonviolent in personality, preferring verbal confrontation to physical, and will seek to subdue rather than injure if pressed into a fight. He sees citizenship for his kind as only the beginning, and between running the Arteaga-Southerland Centre, political lobbying, being active in regular and social media, and participating in social and research projects, many people wonder whether he even needs a recharge period like most androids and if he does, how does he find time for it.

Qualities:

"I am always busy, but I can spare a moment for you."

Make peace, not war.

Community leader.

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Place: North Fairhaven Beta, aka "Beta", aka aka "Flipside"

Description: Fairhaven Beta is a remnant of the odd magical and technological past of the city. Eight years ago, an event occurred that has yet to be fully understood but involved the collision of two parallel realities. Most of the damage was resolved with little incident, but Fairhaven did pick up an anomaly as a result- a portion of the city that originally belonged to another reality, coming with about 20,000 citizens of that other dimension. As far as people can tell, the main differences between the dimensions are that the heroes of Fairhaven Beta were villains in their reality, and the villains were heroes. Plus a lot of logos for brands appear to be flipped upside down, hence the "Flipside" nickname. There are thousands of small differences, though... different memes, different mannerisms, hundreds of small divergence points throughout history that's made simple assimilation difficult. While most of the big bureaucratic and infrastructure problems have been sorted out by now, the integration may never entirely be complete.

Aspects:

Things work differently here.

Reversal of expectations.

Never-ending friction.

People: Ralph Witterson - Ralph is the semi-official Betan "community leader". The Betans, by and large, view him as a kind of mayor-in-miniature, although his relationship with the official North Fairhaven city government is murky. Because of the initial pushback on official recognition of Betan citizenship and extending them rights, his predecessors forged alliances with Fairhaven organized crime that continue to this day. Ralph is a demagogue, and pushes the Betan population towards protests, strikes and demonstrations whenever he feels necessary. He deals at arm's reach with O.M.N.I and E.N.C.L.A.V.E over items of Betan technology and access to the occasional dimensional phenomena that still occur in the area.

Qualities:

Dangerous Demigogue

Son of a Hero

Mob Connections

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Place: The Garden District

North Fairland is a city reborn, but no rebirth is perfect. The Garden District is the rotten core of an otherwise prosperous city, and the last remnants of the corruption that reigned in the city's darker times. Repeated attempts to repair the district's rundown buildings and roads have all managed to fall by the wayside, and there are rumors that the city commission has been paid off by criminal elements to keep it that way. The denizens of the Garden District are mostly good people, but they suffer under the weight of organized crime and from the constant threat of supervillain violence. Several street-level superheroes call the GD home, working with the local police station to protect North Fairland's most vulnerable citizens.

Aspects:

Don't linger for too long.

We have our own heroes.

Keep your head down, your mouth shut, and your eyes on your own business.

People: Clementine Jackson Mother Jackson is an elderly, wizened woman who lives in a ten-story walk-up deep in the heart of the GD. She's sweet, welcoming, wise, and has a hand in every bit of criminal activity that happens in her neighborhood. Multiple crime families pay her for protection, leaving thick envelopes full of cash with her "grandsons," hulking, identical quintuplets who act as her enforcers. There are rumors that Mother Jackson is a powerful super of some kind, but they are unsubstantiated. Despite the menacing aura that lingers just beneath the freshly baked cookies and hand-knit shawls, Mother Jackson seems to genuinely care about the GD. She holds court all day in her building, and often distributes food and clothing to locals who need it. In the past, she has given advice or even overt aid to neighborhood heroes when the GD has faced truly grave threats.

Qualities:

Come in, come in. Cookie?

You should respect your elders, dear.

I'm not mad. Just... disappointed.

Place: Rig #99

Description: A sprawling oil rig built decades ago, visible off the coast. Rig #99, also called "the Niner" by locals, never made much money. Rumor has it that the geological surveys were doctored in order to scam investors out of their money. The result was a state-of-the art multi-platform rig with nothing to do. In the early 70s, it was the site of a colossal battle between the Cometeers and the Sultan of Salt - a nefarious ocean elemental-bot who was using the rig as a base of operations for its minions. Today, the Niner is a popular spot for kids to boat out to, though the platform itself is inaccessible from the water without specialized equipment. Even if one could make it onto the rig's main deck, they'd find its gigantic doors welded shut. The rig has many decks behind those doors, several even extending below the surface of the water. Rumor has it that the Sultan of Salt abandoned many mechanical and occult marvels there, locked away after its climactic battle with the Cometeers.

Aspects:

Watch your step.

A great battle was fought here.

Nothing is locked away without good reason.

People: Captain Seamus Tibbins

Captain Tibbins is an old-timer who runs a tour boat out from the North Fairland docks. He takes visitors along the coast, showing them all the new marvels that the city's boom has brought with it. He makes a decent living contracting with various firms who recruit eager young graduates from all over the country. Running the Tibbins Tour-tastic Tide Trip is a little demeaning for a man who was once a member the Sultan's elite Spray Squad, but a lifetime of monitored parole is better than jail, and at least he gets to stay on the water. Still... there are nights when he swears he can hear something coming from the old rig. A signal? He hasn't dared to turn on the battered old communications device he has hidden in the hull of his boat. Not yet. Because he's a changed man. Not yet. A reformed man. Maybe tomorrow.

Qualities:

Saltwater veins.

The sea doesn't forget, and neither do I.

Oh aye, I've seen things. Dark things.

Place: the Arcade

Qualities:

Super-powered Video Games

Streamers and Dreamers

Technology for the taking?

Description: The Arcade is the birthplace of holo-reality gaming and has become a hub for Fairhaven’s gaming culture. It’s a multi-story building of glass and steel, extending as deep into the ground as it reaches into the sky. The main attractions are the 4 massive holo-fields set on the bottom levels that allow for dozens of people at a time to play in the same battlefield. Holograms make everything look real, projected force fields make it feel real, and gravity manipulation serves as a safety net while also allowing for players to break physics in all the best video game ways.

One holo-field is always reserved as a shooter games and another for MOBA meets Dynasty Warriors style game-play. The other two have a rotating schedule, flexing for major tournaments and also showcasing platformers or niche games. The other levels contain holo-courts suitable for squad based games and holo-rings for 1v1 or 2v2 duels.

Use of the holo games requires the players to wear specially designed suits that have a holographic avatar is super imposed over them once the game starts.

Only so many people can play at a time, so the common area has eateries, shops and plenty of seating, all with countless screens showcasing the various game in progress. The main streaming services all have a studio on the premises, and several HR streamers have become internet celebrities.

Three years ago the owner and creator of HR gaming, Leon Maxwell, agreed to franchise his creation. 3 more HR arcades were built in other cities and was the birth of the Holo Gaming League. The Fairhaven Howlers are the current champions, but 4 more arcades are scheduled for completion before next season and a half dozen of the Howlers' best players just left to found the new teams.

Lots of gamers want to be part of the HGL and competition at the Arcade can be fierce. Several fights have broken out, and that doesn’t even count the attempts at stealing Leon Maxwell’s HR technology.

People:

Leon Maxwell

Leon is proof that not everyone with powers becomes a superhero. A self-proclaimed super-genius, he left a big gaming studio because he felt he was being stifled. He went on to program and publish several blockbuster independent games… doing all the work himself. With the fortune he started to amass Leon built the Arcade to ‘bring gaming into the 22nd century.’

He’s been approached by the military and dozens of corporations to sell his devices… all of which have real world applications outside of gaming. Leon staunchly rebuffed them all. He only agreed to the franchising to open the miracle of HR gaming to more people… and only because the other parties agreed that his proprietary tech would be black-boxed, and tamper proofed.

A true ‘Man of the Gamers’ he keeps the prices for suits, controllers and the actual game fees quite low. All his costs are defrayed by the various streaming services he lets operate inside the Arcade… at least publicly. His primary funding comes from O.M.N.I. because he built and operates a secret HR facility to train their operatives.

Qualities

Benevolent Super-Genius Inventor

Protecting my tech and the Arcade

Gamer to the Core

The Imm0rtal

Zeke “The Imm0rtal” Crenshaw is one of the biggest HR streamer in the world, routinely coming in near the top of the charts in the ranked shooter and slasher games. Zeke has offers to join both divisions of the HGL but refused because he makes more money from his channel.

As one might expect, he’s quite full of himself. He’s fond of saying “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”

He’s been accused of hacking the game on multiple occasions, but so have all the other top players, and Leon Maxwell is always on the lookout for cheaters. The Imm0rtal has multiple endorsement deals, a whole entourage that follow him around…many of whom are good gamers as well. Winning tournaments nets him private access to holo-rings and holo-courts… and he uses these to set up challenges for amateur gamers. Zeke says it’s a chance to let rising stars break into the big leagues, but in reality he crushes them in cruel and amusing ways to boost his channel’s ratings.

Qualities

It’s not bragging if I back it up

Getting rich by playing games

l337 s|<1llz

Place: Elysium

Qualities:

The veils are thin here

Sometimes, the best neighbors are the ones you can’t see

Do not call up what you cannot put down

Description: A few hours drive outside North Fairland is what at first glance appears to be just another shabby, slowly dying small town. A second glance would reveal many, many more psychics and fortunetellers than you would expect, drawing on a wider range of mystic traditions than you’ll find in most cities. And you’ve never heard of the denomination of the church on the corner… Of course, if you look at the town with just the right kind of eyes, well, you’ll likely either run screaming or want to settle down. Then the folks of Elysium will welcome you, the same way they’ve been welcoming newcomers since it was founded by Spiritualist mediums in the early 19th century. They’ll introduce you to the neighbors, living, dead, and none of the above. And they’ll tell you which neighbors you don’t want to talk to. Every town has its troublemakers.

People:

Mabel and Mavis Blood

Mabel and Mavis Blood, twin sisters and mediums, have been watching over the boundary between Elysium and the Other Side since they died at the same tick of the clock in 1871 and chose to relieve the previous guardian of his duty. They can keep out ordinary spirits and demons, although a few will always slip through, but greater powers can push them aside, and they’re helpless if a spirit is summoned by one among the living. When either happens, they will seek out the dreams of someone on this side of the veil who can help…

Qualities