SOMA

## SOMA crew (South of Main Avenue)

* **Home Base:**The Square Round , inThe Block 2-1, Ground Level Atrium and Sublevel One, FargoRRDMZ58102
* **P2 Rating:**4:7:72
* **Colors/Signs:**That's the thing about the SOMA crew, while they have colors and gang signs, often painfully elaborate ones, it doesn't do any good to list them here because they are always changing them according to the whims of fashion and the Terribles, forcing SOMA members to continually be plugged in and in-the-know about what's 'In' the Scene at the moment.
* **Rackets:**The primary money-making enterprise is running the Square Round, and especialy the fighting pits beneath it and all the associated rackets coming from that, including enforcement, loan collection and gambling (rumors exist of bodylegging and kidnapping for the 'Private Shows' as well). They also run quite a few prostitutes (mostly part-timers) out of the Round, and keep the bartenders (who are also SOMA) stocked with only the hippest and most fashionable drugs, which you have to be 'in the know' to buy. Less of a fighting gang than some others, they do protect their turf if necessary although unlike some, they view it as a sad necessity when all else fails.
* **Description:**Hipster gang, mostly sharing rooms above the Square Round.
* **Allies:**While technically loyal to the Underbergs  (who get a cut of the proceeds from the fighting pit and are SOMA's major drug supplier), SOMA actually maintains a cordial relationship with the Misko-ziibi tiwahe of the Tiošpaye as well, allowing Misko-ziibi bookmakers to operate out of the Pit as well. As they control much of the gambling that goes on in the Block, they do a lot of business with individual members of the Herd and the Brawlhallans and Brawlhallans often fill the ranks of the Pit's challengers on "Open Mike" Nights. While not an alliance, they have a kind of hands-off arrangement with The Squad, since they are polite and well dressed and have a local business, with the Squad considering them law enforcement's problem and the Square Round providing military discounts. The SOMA crew is also involved in the running and protection of The Night Bazaar, which gives them a strange network of contacts in the Prairie Public Underground, the Moorlocks, as well as the Craftpunk  and Biodynamic  communities. They maintain an uneasy peace with fellow Underberg loyalists in the Ralphs , as much as anyone has a peace with the Ralphs. There is also persistant rumors that, if true, the SOMA crew's alleged kidnapping racket also crosses over with the darker work of the Tamanous , although that's obviously just a rumor because if the Underbergs or Misko-ziibi ever caught them at that, they'd wipe them off the face of the Zone.
* **Rivals:**The amount the other local gangs love to hate on the SOMA crew is legendary, almost axiomatic around here. Something about a combination of their close-knit, almost cultish, nature, unsavory rumors about their activities and just an air of pretentiousness seems to bring out the worst in people. The Woodchippers , Drummers and Icehousers  all have ongoing beefs with the Crew. The Dirty E's , their only real competition as a criminal gang in Downtown are in a perpetual state of turf war with them and anytime the two cross paths its drawn blades. Their war for the territory south of the Block with the Pain has recently ended with the crew ceding everything between the Block and the River to the Pain's protection. While the Mulies  don't currently have an active beef with the Crew, this is an unusual state of affairs that can always change as they share a territory. Online, the Broken Chain Guild has an in-game and out-of-game rivalry with the crew, especially their own Khistova  guild, the Guild of Erendis, although this has spilled out into the real world before and might yet again.

The SOMA crew (SOMA stands for South of Main Avenue, their traditional turf) is probably as close to a proper gang as you're going to find out here. A tight-knit crew with business deals with local organized crime built as a business rather than a social club that protects a specific territory and takes a cut of all the business done there. They have codes of silence and gang colors and engage in fights for turf.

A lot of that is down to the gang's leadership. Unlike a lot of gangs out here, they actually have formal leaders. The Terrible Two (or just 'Terribles' locally) are the owners of the Square Round. They call themselves 'River' and 'Dale' and they are, for lack of a better definition, a "couple". Rumor has it that Dale actually is one of the Jacks who escaped the clan and reinvented himself as the ultimate city boy and River is the alienated daughter of some corporate heavy hitter run away from home, or maybe its the other way around. Given how good they are at building their 'personal brands' one should be suspicious that any rumor you hear about them might just be one they started themselves. I mean, the gang is the only one in Fargo with its own damn P2 rating, for Spirits sake.

The SOMA crew is close knit nearly to being a cult, if only a cult of personality around the Terribles, with the SOMA crew all living together in apartments adjoining the Square Round and doing shifts working there. But once you're in, you're in. The gang will make up shortfalls in your living expenses (although you will owe that to the Terribles forever) reciprocate any attack on you with violence and it is never full SOMA members who end up getting tricked out or sent to the fighting pit. The Crew looks after its own better than that. Combine the intensity of their close living situation, the code of silence, the cliquish environment fostered by the Terribles and their further isolation caused by the resentment of the other gangs, and it becomes very easy for the Crew to become a member's whole world.

The code of silence is particularly important in defining their relationship with the world because it gives room for all the nastier rumors about SOMA and the Square round room to grow. About private death matches or kidnapped transients forced to go through horror-sim-level tests, or esoteric, dark magic rituals or bodylegging or worse. And maybe, that's on purpose.

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