Associations

> A case officially recognized by the Associations is guaranteed to be rewarding. And money attracts an awful lot of attention.
>
> Roland

**Fixer Associations** or **Associations** are large professional business organizations run by Fixers which operate within the City and are among the major factions in the universe of Project Moon.

## Overview

> The Associations handle requests often made for Fixers such as security, combat, assassination, intel, patenting, and trades. When there is money, there are Associations. The Associations follow the demand, not the other way around. Demand equals requests, and requests equals profit.
>
> Walter

Associations are comprised of Fixers - both combatants and noncombatants - that specialize in the more dangerous lines of mercenary work, taking the jobs that nobody else wants to. Much like the work taken up by individual Fixers and Offices, this covers a wide variety of work which is not purely combat-based, including patenting, collecting information, and overseeing trade deals. They help manage the majority of the Offices under their contracts, and Associate Fixers (Fixers employed by Associations) are generally allowed much greater pay and more high-tech equipment than they would have under a basic Office. Regular Offices can also agree to enter a cooperative relationship with an Association and become an associate Office, with both benefits and downsides; on one hand, they are guaranteed a stable income from completing requests given to them by their Association, and don't need to worry about other clients. On the other hand, they cannot refuse any request sent by their Association, even ones which greatly risk destroying the Office.

Because of their larger structure, Associations are capable of covering more ground with their Fixers and can take requests from any District. From their various sectional headquarters, Associate Directors and Fixers manage requests from either the City's various denizens or the Association's own associate Offices.

The head of an Association is known as the **President**, while a **General Manager** also oversees the Association's operations. Each Association is split into four branches based on compass directions and have jurisdiction of the corresponding quarter of the City, and each branch is led by a **Branch Manager**. These branches are further subdivided into sections, each of which is run by a **Director**. Sections are ranked from 1 to 6, with 1 being the highest and holding the most experienced Fixers, and 6 being the lowest. There are said to be significant differences in pay grade and effectiveness between each section.

There are 12 total Associations, and each one has its own uniform, rules, methods, and specialties. The Hana Association acts as the leader of all the other Associations, handling overall management of the Associations as well as Offices and Fixers in general.

## Relations

### The Head, the Eye and the Claw

Main articles: The Head, The Eye, and The Claw

## Trivia

* The Associations follow a numeric naming pattern, with each being titled after the word for a number from 1 to 12 in a different language. For instance, "hana" is Korean for one and "zwei" is German for two.
* According to Kalo, under the hierarchy of The Thumb, an Associate Fixer has the same rank as a Thumb Capo.