Metahuman Affairs Division

The Metahuman Affairs Division (MAD) is one of the most prominent branches within the Federal Office of the Abnormal. The MAD is responsible for a variety of important tasks, such as maintaining the database of registered metahumans, managing the superhero teams of the American Superhero Association, and approving the use of metahuman abilities within the medical, entertainment, and business industries. The MAD's activities are confined mostly to legal and managerial matters, and do not engage in direct combat or fieldwork, which is left to the Operations Division of the FOA.

## Organization

The MAD is divided into several subdivisions, which are known within the MAD as Departments. Each Department has its own area of control with regards to metahuman regulation and affairs.

### Department of Superhero Administration

The Department of Superhero Administration (DSA) is responsible for managing the numerous superheroes present within the United States. While the metahumans of the American Superhero Association save lives and fight crime in the field, the DSA handles the more mundane, but no less important, matters of facilitating superhero activity. The DSA is in charge of managing the funding for individual teams (with aid from the FOA's Support Division), performing the screening processes for recruiting metahumans into superhero training, and handling public relations.

#### Office of Superhero Recruitment

The Office of Superhero Recruitment is responsible for recruiting metahumans to superhero teams. While they have minimal role in the training of superheroes, the OSR screens candidates for useful powers, evaluates mental states, and assesses the current skill levels and capabilities of recruits.

The OSR is lead by the Chief of Superhero Recruitment. On the next run down from the CSR are the four Regional Recruitment Managers, who oversee operations within the four Census Bureau-designated regions of the United States: the Northeast, West, South, and Midwest. Under each of them are a series of State Recruitment Managers. Each state has a series of recruitment offices, usually located within a few major cities, lead by an Office Supervisor. The ones who do must of the gruntwork on behalf of every Office are Recruitment Officers, who work in teams lead by Senior Recruitment Officers.

Recruitment Officers fall under several roles: Psychological Evaluation (assesses the mental state of potential recruits), Ability Assessment (tests skills and metahuman abilities), Records Examination (performs background checks).

#### Office of Superhero Relations

The Office of Superhero Relations handles the PR of superhero teams, setting up public events, arranging sponsorship deals, managing superheroes' social media accounts, and dealing with the media.

### Department of Metahuman Labor

The Department of Metahuman Labor is charged with managing how civilian metahumans use their power for the purposes of employment, enforcing compliance with state and local laws with regards to how metas use their abilities. With a permit issued from the DML, metas might use superstrength or telekinesis to aid in construction, pyrokinesis to aid with firefighting, or healing to aid in practicing medicine. State laws differ frequently with regards to what powers can be employed, whether metahuman employees can receive higher pay for their abilities, or what degree of certification is required for power usage. However, legislation governing the use of powers for the purpose of labor does exist at the federal level, such as the case of Roche v Lebraun.

### Department of Metahuman Administration

The Department of Metahuman Administration is responsible for the general monitoring of metahuman citizens within the United States. They maintain the Metahuman Registration Database, which catalogues the existence of metahuman citizens for public view. In so doing, they also evaluate the danger posed by various metahumans, and are responsible for determining what degree of surveillance certain citizens require.

## Resources

The MAD, as one of the FOA's largest divisions, is a massive area of government with many billions of dollars in funding, and tens of thousands employees. They have a deep hold on numerous social media platforms, enabling them to spread news and twist narratives at a need, as well as ties with many corporations which allows the MAD to influence the usage of metahuman labor.

## Drives and Ideology

The MAD on the surface exists to provide security, stability, and order to the citizens of the United States, and ensure that metahuman powers are used for the betterment of society. Many of its lower level functionaries believe in this optimistic purpose, while others simply want to work with people with superpowers, and others still only care about earning a paycheck. In truth, a truth known to its higher level executives, the MAD exists for the purpose of exerting as much control over America's metas as possible. Every one is to be rooted out and catalogued, so that their powers might be used to advance the goals of their leadership.

## Operational Practices

The MAD is known for quite meticulous keeping of records and ruthless gathering of data. They pay closest attention to metahumans with useful abilities, attempting to corral them into positions were they can be monitored and made use of. Those with great potential for destruction are usually directed to work as superheroes or to join the military, through the glamourizing of such positions and the disenfranchisement metas often face in other employment. Those who don't make the cut are carelessly discarded.

In civilian works, the MAD keeps metas on a tight leash, ensuring that those with useful abilities are carefully regulated so as not to massively improve society, which would cut into the profits of corporations. Thanks to their efforts, most civilian metas do not receive pay that is superior to ordinary humans, no matter how beneficial their abilities might be. This keeps the human majority happy, and the metas sufficiently downtrodden to prevent them making big waves.