The Lost Boys
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| Philadelphia is home to one of the more active cells of the Lost Boys Network. The Delaware Valley holds satellite campuses for companies like Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and others. Companies heavily involved in medical research. Merck and Wyeth are both rumored to be heavily involved with the Delta Protocol, making the region something of a gathering point for Lost Boys from across the eastern seaboard seeking ready access to treatment.
This is also a hot spot of the resistance. While there are those who are happy to toe the line and play nice with the Protocol like the good former soldiers they are, there are an increasing number of Lost Boys who have become fed up with being human guinea pigs and are seeking a ready means of producing their own serum, if not uncovering a means of undoing what was done to them entirely. For obvious reasons they tend to be somewhat circumspect about their operations, and few outside of the inner circle know the true identities of those involved in it. The cynical assume it's just the Delta Protocol trying to flush out trouble-makers, others swear they're on the up and up and are gathering in cells of their own, awaiting some signal to act.
The resistance call themselves The Detail. Which sounds very martial and cool until it's realized it's meant to imply being sent to the kitchens as a punitive measure for misconduct while in uniform. Some say it came about because the founders of the Detail tried throwing everything at their problem, including the kitchen sink. Whatever the origin of the name, the Detail focus on getting serum to those most in need, spreading news of movements within the Protocol, and preparing its members to handle the withdrawal that comes from a loss of access to the serum. Their cooks and chemists are starting to produce their own low grade serum, and rumors are they're working to develop a version of the serum that can stave off withdrawal and rejection of the enhancements without the all the negative side-effects. A version cleaner, even, than what the protocol produces. There are even rumors, as yet unsubstantiated, that they're working to create a serum that allows for over-clocking, even without the side-effects of withdrawal. Whoever is in the inner circle, whatever is behind the Detail, membership provides a second source of serum that the Protocol does not control.
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Staff
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Rules and System
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| All Lost Boy merits found in Hurt Locker are approved for play. In addition, there is a merit created specifically for the Lost Boys here in Philadelphia to reflect the presence of The Detail.
A Devil In The Detail
( to , Supernatural Merit)
Prerequisites: Mortal, The Protocol
Your character is an active member of The Detail. This merit serves both as a representation of your Status in the Detail, but also provides your character access to the Detail's supplies of bootleg Serum. It functions like the merit Protocol Fixer, save that the serum provided is the Toxicity 7 version outlined in The Serum section of Hurt Locker p97. This is a separate status track from Lost Boys Network, and like all status is limited to 3 at character creation.
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Joining the Lost Boys
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| The Lost Boys have only one thing in common: at some point in their lives they served in the armed forces of the United States, and upon their discharge they found themselves pawns to the Delta Protocol. This is not to say that every Lost Boy is some super soldier; on the contrary, some were quite average during their time in the service. Yes, you will find Navy Seals and Marine Scout Snipers in the Lost Boys, true. But they are there alongside truck drivers, aircraft mechanics, and the battalion cook. Air Force computer technicians have received enhancements, as have Navy Corpsmen and in one inexplicable instance? A member of the Army marching band. (She played Trumpet.)
The experiments being performed on these living test subjects seem keen in having a true cross section of American life in the crucible all at once. So apart from the requirement that your character have served in some capacity, and that they no longer serve in active duty, the field is otherwise wide open.
If you have a handler, you need to fully detail your relationship to your handler in your background. We need to know who they are and if your character is just a job to them or something more. If you are working with the Detail, what's your take on the group? Do you buy into the hype, or are you just there to score some extra bootleg serum now and then?
When you're ready to prepare your application, consult our complete application guidelines.
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Theme and Society
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| Philadelphia is no stranger to addicts. But the Lost Boys are something new. Something different. Addiction kills, yes. But their addiction also makes them killers. The augmentations to their bodies require a constant supply of what to most humans would be a toxic cocktail of chemicals both rare and unusual. There's no rush to it. It keeps you alive, but it makes you sick as a dog, too. And that's the good stuff. The bad stuff? The bad stuff can make your skin break out in lesions, make you bleed from your eyes and shit blood for days. The bad stuff will keep you alive, too, but it will sometimes make you wish it didn't.
For veterans of the global war on terror, coming home to this betrayal has a bitter pill to swallow. The suicide rate of victims of the Delta Protocol far exceed that of other veterans, and the VA has no time for these retired warriors. Not that it could help them if it did. The Delta Protocol made certain that those chosen for these experiments would have no choice but to fall in line behind their handlers and fixers in order to receive their life prolonging injections. But they counted wrong.
It wasn't long before someone had reverse engineered the serum. It wasn't long before desperation made someone try an injection of that bootleg serum. And it wasn't long before such experimentation stopped killing those desperate enough to undertake it. With the prospect of a life away from the dictates and desires of the Delta Protocol now a real tenable hope, The Detail has emerged, claiming responsibility for the research and claiming to be committed to performing more. To delivering more and better replacements to the serum in the hope of finally bringing true relief to all those who have been selected for the Protocol.
This is a situation that most can already see is going to end in bloodshed. A whole lot of bloodshed, too. Which side are you on?
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Current Plots
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| TBD
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