Fsociety

**fsociety** (also known as fuck society), is the name of a hacker group based in Coney Island, New York, led by the mysterious Mr. Robot. Its name is a play on both the derelict amusement park building in which it has its headquarters, and their message: "fuck society."

## Background

The group is highly secretive, electing to meet and communicate in person, rather than through digital means which may be traceable. fsociety is responsible for the massive Root Kit attack that took E-Corp offline before Elliot stopped them. After the attack ended, Elliot found a file left on one of the E-Corp servers by fsociety. Rather than delete the file, Elliot changed the access permissions on the file to allow only himself access to it. Later, he was approached by Mr. Robot on the subway, and taken to Coney Island to see the group's headquarters.

## Known Members

### The Hackers

* Mr. Robot: The group's leader, who is determined to draw Elliot into fsociety's activities. Mr. Robot is determined to bring down the world corporate structure, adopting a disguise much like the Monopoly Man when filming his video manifestos. He serves as a somewhat paternal figure to Elliot at times, refusing to leave him when he goes through withdrawal, and pushing Elliot beyond his normal boundaries.
* Darlene Alderson: An expert coder with few boundaries and little fear. She has little respect for others' privacy, including Elliot's, and generally says what she thinks. She has been involved with Cisco, a hacker associated with rival hacker group the Dark Army.
* Leslie Romero (formerly): The oldest of the group, who began as a phone phreaker. He is very experienced and world-wise. He helps Mr. Robot detox Elliot, and later walks away from the group for a time. Romero is murdered by a stray bullet from a neighborhood shooting a month after the Five/Nine hack.
* Sunil "Mobley" Markesh (formerly): A young male hacker who works at E-Bank. He becomes Darlene's closest advisor following the Five/Nine hack, but soon becomes suspicious of both Darlene and Elliot after Romero's murder. Sometime after July 5, Mobley has moved west, and is working at an electronics store as "Frederick." He lives with Trenton and his friend.
* Shama "Trenton" Biswas (formerly): A young, quiet female hacker. Trenton was born to Iranian immigrant parents, and wears a hijab. She is a college student who questions her parents' values as assimilated Americans. Sometime after July 5, Trenton moved moved west with Mobley, no longer wears hijab, and is working at an electronics store as "Tanya." She lives with Mobley and his friend.

### Associates

* Francis "Cisco" Shaw: Darlene's on and off boyfriend, who is associated with the Dark Army. He brings the Dark Army into fsociety's plan to bring down E-Corp by hacking Steel Mountain, only to tell Darlene they have bailed out. He is able to speak Mandarin Chinese.
* Dark Army: A mercenary hacker group associated with China. The Dark Army is the antithesis of fsociety, available to hack for hire, regardless of who they work for or what their cause is. Their leader is known as the Whiterose.
* A number of militants have joined after 5/9. These people, including Vincent Campbell, Ad Mitchell, Kevin Kerwick, and Kara Kirkland, were involved in stealing the balls from the Wall Street Bull statue and dropping it throught the roof the Capitol while Congress was voting on the E-Corp bailout in July. The perpetrators are involved in a car chase with the police returning to NYC and crash. Three are captured while the aforementioned Vincent Campbell escapes to the smart house base, albeit gravely injured.
* The FBI believe there to be members overseas.

## Mr. Robot's Videos and the Mask

Mr. Robot has created a series of short videos which present fsociety's manifesto, as well as warning their enemies about their upcoming actions. The character wears a plastic mask, a top hat, tuxedo, and wields a cane. His voice is heavily distorted. The man is portrayed by Mr. Robot in the first season and Darlene in the second season. The videos are filmed on VHS and uploaded using Vimeo.

#### Origins of the Mask

Elliot and Darlene first adopt the mask after Darlene finds one in a ten-cent store in Chinatown on Halloween 2014. It is taken from an obscure horror movie from the 80s that the Aldersons love called *The Careful Massacre of the Bourgeoisie*. In the film, obnoxious, rich kids are brutally murdered by a man wearing the mask.

The mask resembles the Monopoly Man from the Parker Brothers game. The Monopoly man, whose real name is Rich Uncle (later Milton) Pennybags, first appeared in the 1936 version of the game. He was drawn to resemble the ultra-rich property owners of the early 20th century, who would buy and sell property in New York City. This activity formed the basis of the game *Monopoly*, in which players buy and sell streets, utilities, railroads and buildings on a game board using the names of Atlantic City streets. Mr. Robot's use of the costume serves as a form of mocking, ridiculing the modern equivalents of people it is designed to resemble.

Mr. Robot's mask also resembles the British Guy Fawkes mask. The mask has a long history, dating back to the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to blow up the British House of Lords in 1605. The plotters were lead by Robert Catesby, but the masks took the name of Guy Fawkes, who has in charge of the explosives. The masks first appeared in the early 1800s, when children begging for money on the Bonfire Night, the anniversary of the plot, began wearing the masks, effigies of Guy Fawkes, and asking for, "pennies for the guy." Over time, commercial versions of the masks became available, with the contemporary mask designed by illustrator David Lloyd. As Bonfire Night's popularity was supplanted by the American holiday Halloween, the mask became a symbol of protest after it figured prominently in the graphic novel "V for Vendetta", notably being used during the recent Occupy Movement.

The Guy Fawkes mask became a model for Mr. Robot because it is worn by supporters of by the loosely organized activist group, Anonymous, which purses similar objectives and uses similar means to those of fsociety. Anonymous supporters regularly protest the actions of governments, corporations, and individuals that they consider to be unjust (or against 'the 99%') by taking vigilante action, usually by carrying out cyber attacks. They also post warning videos online wearing Guy Fawkes masks in a similar manner to the fsociety videos. Anonymous supporters may also wear the Guy Fawkes mask when they participate pin the Million Mask March in cities around the world on Guy Fawkes Day (November 5).

## History

* October 31, 2014: Elliot first dons the mask and comes up with the idea for fsociety when Darlene pays him a visit.
* November 27, 2014: Mobley and Trenton are working with Darlene, meeting at Ron's Coffee Shop. They have yet to meet Elliot.
* December 2014: Mobley secures the abandoned Fun Society arcade as base from Leslie Romero, recruiting him in the process.
* February 7, 2015: fsociety hacks E-Corp and infects a server.
* March 2, 2015: fsociety frames Terry Colby for the hack, leading to his arrest by the FBI.
* March 31, 2015: fsociety infiltrates Steel Mountain and plants the Raspberry Pi.
* May 9, 2015: The 5/9 attack. Tyrell Wellick is with Elliot when it is initiated.
* May 12, 2015: fsociety burn their equipment and throw a party at the arcade. Elliot is arrested. Within 24 hours, he sentenced to 18 months prison on charges of hacking Krista Gordon's boyfriend and stealing his dog.
* June 11, 2015: fsociety run Susan Jacobs out of her home and set up base. Their numbers have expanded to include about a dozen foot soldiers. They steal the balls from the Wall Street Bull.
* June 2015: Scott Knowles is forced to burn 5.9 million dollars in public. Leslie Romero is murdered.
* July 4, 2015: Darlene kills Susan Jacobs. Mobley is questioned by the FBI.
* July 5, 2015: Darlene and Cisco cremate the body. Mobley and Trenton go missing.
* July 7, 2015: A group of foot soldiers drop the Wall Street bull's balls through the roof during a Congressional meeting.
* August 7, 2015: Elliot is released early from prison. He meets with Xun, Cisco's Dark Army contact, to find out what "Stage 2" is.
* August 8, 2015: The foot soldiers returning from D.C. are chased by the police and crash. One member, Vincent, escapes with internal bleeding. Cisco finds him at the smart house and brings him to the ER with Darlene. At a diner, a gunman opens fire on Darlene and Cisco through a window; Darlene survives, but Cisco does not. Elliot decrypts a coded message at his apartment and finds a telephone number, which leads to an address, where sits a taxi, where he meets Tyrell. Kicked out of a taxi on their way to an address Tyrell gave, they begin walking and talking about Stage 2. At a warehouse where a Dark Army member is seen, Tyrell reveals that he has been working on malware that can create a devasting explosion. Their target is a nearby building that is housing the growing collection of paper banking records of E Corp. When Elliot tries to delete the malware, Tyrell shoots him in the stomach. Later that night, Tyrell calls Angela to tell her what happened. Angela leaves her apartment so that she will be the first person he sees when he wakes up.

## See also

* Fun Society

**Mr. Robot**