Mean Meme Machine

# Metaplot Summary

> *The culture of "The Media Company" changes so rapidly -* thanks to everyone's ADD and matrix-addled brains *- that we accidentally left this extremely terrifying, elite undertow operations group in a state of decay and mismanagement, its parts scattered to the winds, its members wondering why the hell they're still on the payroll as they work lame-ass office jobs instead of executing strategic level psy-ops. The mysterious hive-mind -* or groupthink or DI or whatever clown show the conspiracy theorists are saying manages the whole triple-A now *- having long since forgotten about these monsters they made, has moved onto lower hanging fruit like gradual cultural shifts and public policy manipulation through cyberbulling and memes. And you know where that leaves me? With a boss who won't shut up about the one time she assassinated some Aztlaner general or whatever and singlehandedly destabilized all of Central America through covert drugs-for-guns ops, and the only reason she'll stop now is because she has to get back to approving these monthly idol stream highlight trids for MeFeed. Now unless you're about to give me a bunch of vouchers for free ten-pulls or answer all my Consensus questions for me, go get to work and stop making me waste my own time by ranting. I have dailies to finish. -* April
>
>

The Horizon Group is a bit of a mess. A largely headless corporation run by either The Consensus, the original Horizon Project, or nobody at all, it has still managed to remain on the Corporate Court purely through social pull and the fact that nearly the entire sixth world uses their services. The Seattle HQ is particularly directionless, still reeling from Spinrad Global's explosive entrance into AAA status and its accompanying media blitz. Mass chaos ensued as the company started coming up with reactionary products to match their new rival: the HBI48 idol group to counter the SpinRad Combat DJs, a new line of monocyles, absurd new cyberware systems, and even a failed attempt at entering into the laser weapons industry.

With the whole world seemingly burning down around them, tensions are high in the normally very soft and squishy offices, and opportunities for promotion (fueled by violent subterfuge and shadowrunning, of course) are ripe. Voluntary extractions from the company are on the rise, as employees become disillusioned with the company's hypocritical "virtues." Turnover in HBI48 has been high and stock in the idol experiment has been falling steadily, though new advertising efforts and the determination of its staff has kept them relevant. Meanwhile, deep in the forgotten recesses of the downtown Horizon Campus, the Special Assignments Group bides its time, looking for opportunities to escape the shadow of the decaying corpse of the Dawkins Group.

Naturally, none of this is being handled smoothly.

# Factions

## HBI48

A group of girls designed to fight, spread joy, and to win the hearts of all!

In reality, the Horizon Battle Idol 48 is a new corpsec experiment that's saddled with additional PR and outreach duties, as well as tasked with pulling market share from Spinrad's Combat DJs. It's working for the most part, though their greatest asset of all seems to be that nobody actually takes them seriously.

### Summary

HBI48 is based on the ancient AKB48 idol troupe model, which is organized into three "Strings," each lead by a "Center," with Third String being the most junior and First String being the most senior. When not busy with events or performances, Third String acts as normal corpsec and provides event security, Second String acts as a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) for Horizon Seattle, and First String functions as special forces. The Center acts as the team leader during any organized mission. Second String receives corporate sponsored barracks housing, while First String receives their own private residences.

More recently, two expansion groups have been added to the HBI48 lineup: the trix-idols, consisting primarily of matrix game streamers who do not have any physical presence and provide matrix support; and 3W, a Horizon Asia-sponsored K-pop boy band moved over to assist with a recent string of personnel losses and help with a fresh media start.

Idols are expected to follow a code of conduct, with the three primary rules being:

* No cohabitation
* No relationships
* Spread love and joy to all

### Goals

* Spread love, joy, AND COMBAT
* Steal market share from Spinrad Seattle's Combat DJs
* Push Horizon Seattle's culture and values on as many people as possible
* Defend Horizon assetts

### Status

* Suffering heavy losses/turnover
* Good equipment/budget
* Regional management has low confidence

### Notable Members

* Ace Powers - Manager
* Allie Yukari - 1st String Center Idol
* Rosa Wilde - 2nd String Center Idol
* Kitty Tennie - Ex-1st String Idol, currently on a K10 fueled rampage with her 10 "cats." 50,000 NuYen bounty.
* Yuki Uchida and Suzy Goh - Former second string members who were terminated for being in a relationship with each other, which was exposed by Trust in exchange for bounty money during TRUST, THE ASCENDED. As of Weekender's Day Off, they are still working together as shadowrunners.
* El Ellie - 2nd String Idol, Market Runner
* Yoyo - Guest Idol, brought over from Korea with his performing group, Market Runner
* Neural Overdrive - Trix-Idol, Game Streamer, Market Runner

## Special Assignments Group

The vaguely-named Special Assignments Group functions as a group of in-house consultants for Horizon Seattle, and additionally serves as temporary workers when critical jobs suddenly go vacant, typically due to extraction, foul play, or other sudden unexpected events. Many of Horizon's Johnsons and intelligence agents are put here to give them a plausible (but paper thin) cover story.

### Goals

* Get out of the Special Assignments Group
* Minimize hours in the office
* Maximize hours at leisure
* Continue to collect a salary for existing

### Status

* Overmanned, undertasked
* Poor budget/equipment
* Regional management has high confidence

### Notable Members

* The Weekender - Johnson, Ex-Dawkins Group Agent, Financial Assistant to King HumungaMax and Mint
* April - Special Assignments Group Receptionist, Intelligence Analyst

## Regional Management

Upper level management at Horizon Seattle is sorely lacking in crisis management skills, and it's showing at the worst possible time. In an effort to help with their broader course correction, Horizon has started cleaning house and bringing in outside talent, which has caused some pretty serious cultural shakeups and unnecessarily high tensions.

### Goals

* Maintain social media and entertainment media dominance
* Do whatever Horizon Americas / the Consensus app decides is best
* Push Spinrad Global out of Seattle or make their continued existence unpleasant
* Self-preservation

### Locations

* Horizon Seattle HQ, Downtown Seattle
* Charisma Associates Building, Bellevue

### Notable Members

* Gerald Hardman, Seattle Physical Security Director, previously from Ares