Editing Madison (section)

==Government and heroic organizations==
Madison originally had the 83rd PRT office,<ref name="R3">PRT departments in nearby areas are staffed and set up to send their capes out to neighboring regions in case of emergency. Further, some cities have PRT ''offices'' but not departments, which aren't fully staffed and rounded out with X criteria and Y resources.<br/><br/>Take, for example, the small town of Stafford. Less than 15k people, three parahumans. PRT office is established in the same building that handles passports, drivers licenses, and votes - literally a one room affair with one staff member and one part time employee.<br/><br/>Two parahumans in Stafford are technically Protectorate, but for varying reasons don't have it in them to join a major team in the big city: - [https://redd.it/42tso6 Comment by Wildbow] on Reddit</ref> whose resident capes were presumably mainly concerned<ref name="R1.3.2">The 66 or so largest cities in the US & the various special case scenarios (Brockton Bay being one) have a much more regimented approach. Offices (PRT establishments in smaller cities, small towns) are far looser, but don't have, say, informations departments or branding departments, or whatever else. So the cape is sorta asked to pick up the slack or handle some of that themselves. Being proactive about being liasons, keeping tabs on police scanners and incidents at schools. Time traveling outside of their city to the nearest PRT department to get stuff like costumes done or so on.<br/><br/>There's a lot more leeway in how much they patrol or don't patrol, how many events they do, etc. Though they'll get pushed to do something in various departments, even if it's sort of a 'You haven't done an event in the last two months, the guys at [nearby department] are very strongly suggesting that you go and do a school assembly or something in the next few weeks' thing. - [https://redd.it/5ezjhd comment by WildBow on Reddit]</ref>with guarding decommissioned tinker devices.{{Ref|name=17.6e1}} Now it has a full Quarantine PRT department with cape members rotated out on a regular basis.<ref name="R2 e1">🐦'''PRT Quarantine Zone #7 - Madison'''<br/>Formerly PRT Office 83, Madison was the site of a Simurgh attack, which took place over thirteen hours at the tail end of 2009. The area is a 'no man's land' within, as communication with those in the area is deemed high-risk with massive potential for causal fallout. PRT teams are brought in for a series of duties, described below, and rotate out on a schedule. These teams are hard to find and prepare, as they often center around a thinker who the others know, so they can support them and identify any odd behavior, they must be cleared & signed up for crisis events, with a great deal of counseling and evaluation prior to their assignment. Such cohesive, balanced and capable teams are often more comfortable elsewhere, and the PRT faces the awkward position that sees this being treated as a punishment detail.<br/><br/>Within the walls, infrastructure is failing, some power effects linger from the 2009 fight against the Simurgh (runaway Master minions, a cloud of energy, and unstable tinker tech rubble), there is a high number of dangerous case 53s, and the unevacuated human element is just as dangerous, with a number of newly triggered individuals and bandits.<br/><br/>Outside of the quarantine zone, all possible citizens have been evacuated, but some facilities and neighborhoods remain occupied, primarily by a low-level criminal element. Ironically, in a city with so much of a PRT presence/focus, the area is lawless, as authorities have other critical things to focus on. - Excerpt from a [https://redd.it/3ec7eu Reddit comment] by Wildbow.</ref>
===[[Watchdog]]===
Members are periodically swapped in.<ref name="R2.5 e0">'''themanwhowas''':
:2.You mentioned PRT Watchdogs. Is that a group of PRT-specific capes? What are their responsibilities besides evaluating Simurgh victims?<br/><br/>'''Wildbow''':
:2.The Watchdog group is the group [[Accord]] belonged to. Parahuman thinkers and investigative bodies keeping an eye on economy, politics and other possible shenanigans behind the scenes. - Excerpt from a [https://redd.it/3ec7eu Reddit comment] by Wildbow.</ref> Considered a Punishment Detail<ref name="R2 e1"/> to be constantly checking on people in the zone.<ref name="R2 e3">Outtake<br/>
The outtake process, following from the now-defunct D.D.I.D. measure (revoked in Summer 2010), involves a long series of checkups by PRT staff and allowed staff within the quarantine zone. Individuals must maintain appointments with counseling services regularly over ten months, missing no more than ten out of eighty.<br/><br/>
Once an individual completes this regimen:
*They are placed on a list for outtake. They may or may not be placed on a low-priority or high-priority list, allowing for needs and/or risks. Wait time may be two weeks to eight months, depending.
Staff in the PRT building conduct a thorough background check.
*The subject is contacted and summoned.
*The individual receives initial screening from a PRT-approved parahuman, provided by the Watchdog arm of the PRT or the Protectorate.
*The subject must provide verification of identity, conducted through a digital waypoint. If ID is not available, outside authorities (banks, DMV) should be contacted, or the PRT staff may use internet credentials on the part of the subject (professional or school emails and password, etc).
*A relation or outside contact is brought in or otherwise contacted to serve as a third party and verify details.
Secondary screening by PRT thinker.
*An impromptu discussion follows, with the PRT officer, outside contact, the quarantine individual and (if viable/possible, the outtake screener, see below) conversing. For the individual, this is the first opportunity to reconnect with their old life. For the PRT officer, the conversation should be observed for discrepancies or alarm bells.
One of three stress tests are chosen at random and conducted; the subject’s response to stress should be measured and noted. The deception may be bypassed if staff decides there is no need, depending on the ability of the screening thinker. The goal in this is to provoke the subject, knowing that the vast majority of Simurgh afflicted are poor at handling stressors. Stress tests include:<br/>
:*Notification that they have failed to pass procedure and must remain within the quarantine zone for another ten months/for life.
:*The outside contact cooperates by providing sufficiently stressful news: the death of family to Endbringers, death of a child, loss of something valued, etc.
:*A Medical examination is conducted and they are told they have a terminal illness.
*Final screening by PRT thinker, typically a different one than the two prior screenings.
The subject undergoes a medical checkup.
*The individual is freed, with mandated checks six times a year. The individual should avoid high-profile events, and has their drivers license marked.
*More severe and problematic measures under the D.D.I.D. act have already been removed from the process (including the tattooing of those leaving quarantine). - Excerpt from a [https://redd.it/3ec7eu Reddit comment] by Wildbow.</ref>

===Civilians===
Largely evacuated even outside of the zone. No one wants to live at a quarantine site, and those that do have almost free rein in the lawless abandoned city.<ref name="R2 e1"/> This did not mean everyone of them wanted to leave when given the option.{{Ref|name=R4.2|Civilians.  Five of them.  They were wielding improvised weapons.  A makeshift bow and arrow, spears.  Nothing that posed a serious threat to Newter.<br><br>“These are my friends,” Newter said.  He was holding his hands and tail up in the air.  “More will be coming shortly.  We’re not here to hurt anyone.”<br><br>“Why ''are'' you here?  You’re insane, coming to a place like this.  You know what the Simurgh does.”<br><br>“We do,” Faultline said.  “But we have a friend, she’s got a bit of precognitive talent.  Enough that it should clear us of any schemes the Simurgh is pulling.”<br><br>Eyes went wide.<br><br>“We’re looking for answers,” Faultline said.  “Information, either about or from the monsters who came through that portal the Simurgh made.  Give us something to work with, we’ll show you how to leave.”<br><br>“Assuming we want to,” one man said.<br><br>''Why wouldn’t you?''  Faultline wondered.  She chose to be diplomatic and keep her mouth shut.  “Assuming you want to.  I’m sure we could come to another deal.”|#Interlude 18.f}}

In the early days of the quarantine there was even a non-profit, '''Eyes Inside''', trying to monitor the situation as an outside observer even if their behavior was getting increasingly suspicious.{{Ref|name=R4.1|Eyes Inside is a civilian nonprofit who are very concerned with the fact that people don't know what's going on inside the walls. What they want is recorded material of the worst of the worst that's going on inside. But when capes go in with the recording devices and computers, they end up tumbling down a rabbit hole of hearing about worse things. Every time they radio in to request the waygate to teleport them out, the nonprofit insists they go deeper to get more info. Past a certain point, it starts to feel like they were in the Simurgh's radius, as paranoia escalates and things stop making sense.|https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/3ec7eu/ /ctht547|Excerpt from Reddit Conversation}}

===Detainees===
Newly triggered individuals, [[Case 53]]s<ref name="R5 e1">Cauldron capes were explicitly ''more'' stable. Case 53s (barring Shamrock, Madison and Dealer C53s) all had a reason for being dropped where they were, with individual programming. - Excerpt from a [https://redd.it/4plwx6 Reddit comment] by Wildbow.</ref> including a few especially dangerous specimens, capes created from the readily available vials strewn everywhere, panicked civilians.<ref>Fool Option - You're amnesiac and monstrous, the last thing you remember is waking up in a prison. Then the entire world turned upside down and you were dropped in a strange city at war. You can decide from a few options (ie. deciding on thinker classification, hardy body) and everything else is randomized.


<br>[...]<br>The nature of the quarantine and the high level of conflict within the walls make for an environment and distinct goal. There are two or three monsters within the quarantine that could be called mini-endbringers, and you're bound to run into one. Things have settled by the time you get your powers, and teams of capes and armed personnel man the walls. Paths to victory include brute forcing your way past the barricades, effective infiltration, recon and attempting to rush through a gap or weak point in patrols, or gathering up a small army and storming the wall.- [https://www.reddit.com/r/Parahumans/comments/2w65qh/ /copkgq9 Another excerpt from a CYOA]</ref> 

Also of interest, besides all of the above, two major groups were formed in the first weeks of the Quarantine. The Locusts, an ethnic gang, and the D.V.A.R.G., skilled professionals from many walks of life. All had capes in their group and all were scrambling for territory.<ref>The Locusts are an ethnic gang with numbers but not particularly good powers. Their focus right now is on finding and distributing more vials in hopes of getting more firepower. Their leader is a self-duplicator, and the two lieutenants are blasters.<br>First questline: Scavenging<br>Secondary questline: Decide on a way out, seize the needed assets.<br><br>D.V.A.R.G. is a group of companies and factions who've banded together. They're skilled individuals, including a few with military training and a number who've done construction work, and a lot of powerful capes, including a speedster, brute, and a very powerful space-warping breaker. They've marked out an area, and the breaker has been altering the environment, all to better fortify against outside threats and plan for the long-term. They're somewhat elitist (for good reason) and xenophobic, and if you want to join, you're going to have to prove your worth. Problem is, their leader is obviously simurgh-affected, so making full use of their facilities may require some changes.<br>First questline: Prove your worth, alone.<br>Secondary questline: Behead the king.</ref>