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roseembolism ([personal profile] roseembolism) wrote2006-12-01 03:41 pm
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TEAM SEVEN




A long, long time ago…things were simpler. A child would be substituted for a changeling, a fairy would take a liking to a human woman, or a ghost would wander out of the spirit lands to take up local residence…and the only thing the humans could do would be to try to outwit them. Which was easier than it sounds, granted, because most supernatural critters have wits somewhere between hamsters and toast.

But technology advanced, as did the knowledge of magi wielded by various secret societies, priests and crazed sorcerers. And before anyone could say “inquisition”, humans and supernaturals were in a long, quiet war that took place in the shadowy areas of the world. Worse, as the world grew more crowded and smaller, different types of supernaturals started bumping into each others territory and fighting each other. Gradually things deteriorated into chaos, and threatened to spill out into the public eye. Then about 20 years ago, after a major war threatened to literally rip the world apart, a treaty was formed between James Baker, (representing the humans), Lord Aldryani (Representing the supernaturals), and Henry Kissinger (um…), agreeing to form an agency to enforce peace, mediate between factions, and generally keep the supernatural world from impinging on the real world- and vice versa.

The current result is the Paranormal Investigation and Enforcement Department. PIED is officially considered an adjunct to local police stations, one devoted to supernatural crimes, sort of. Most cops consider PIED to be “Those spook cops”, if they consider them cops at all. While the government as a whole doesn't exactly deny it’s existence, requests for information or interviews tend to disappear. As for the supernatural side, PIED is respected more for its power than its authority; the supernatural communities are too disjointed and chaotic to have a unified response. There are in general two factions: creatures that wanted to get along with humans anyway, and those that still consider humans prey. Unfortunately, the humans that know about the supernatural pretty much break into similar factions. Negotiation to keep things quiet can be more of a pain than kicking ass.





In San Francisco, PIED is housed in an old building in downtown, near the SFPD main station. The ex-hotel is cramped, musty, hot in summer and cold in winter, and is one of the most heavily spiritually defended buildings in the Bay Area. Team Seven is not the only group in this building: the majority of the office space is taken up by administrative offices to handle the huge amounts of paperwork generated by a bureaucracy that has only a tenuous legal existence.

The majority of personnel are human, but since PIED has to obey governmental anti-discrimination policies, there’s a more than a few supernaturals as well, primarily of the faction that likes coexisting with humanity, or at least human fashion sense. The paperwork involved there can be quite bizarre.





Your Boss: The Chief, AKA The Chief. Age somewhere between 25 and 40, background unknown, blond, green-eyed, and has an appearance and attitude that resembles a classy office manager more than a law enforcement officer. Exists mainly to give you assignments and run interference with other agencies- apparently never seen outside the office.

Freja: The person you go to for any bureaucratic request, and runs interference for The Chief. At six foot three, with a bodybuilder’s physique, and masses of black curly hair, her claims to being half troll just might have some backing. Stay on her good side- she’s nasty with the requisition forms.

Other personnel will appear as the whim hits me, or if someone wants to contribute some, please be my guest.





Administration: what it says, by far the largest department, including the secretarial pool.

Library/Archives: Responsible for the departments huge library , as well as securely storing seized artifacts. Currently without a department head, due to the autophagic insanity of the curator.

Disinformation: Charged with coming up with “realistic” explanations for supernatural events. Like UFOs.

Investigation: takes care of preliminary investigations, until it’s time for Team Seven to intervene.



Apologies for the huge post. More information on PIED, as well as some (mostly unnecessary)cosmology, next.

[identity profile] baronlaw.livejournal.com 2006-12-01 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Good reading but you might want to use a cut tag to keep the size down for most peoples browsers. :)

(lj-cut text="This is a cut")

Using the correct < vs (

(Anonymous) 2006-12-01 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Thanks, I just did. ;')

[identity profile] racerxmachina.livejournal.com 2006-12-02 01:24 am (UTC)(link)
One comment: check for consistency of acronym. You have PIED, PAIS, and PAID. Which is right? (notes she who works for a college and deals with tons of acronyms daily)

I am reminded of the three warring factions of the Makai in YYH:
those that prey on humans (Mukuro)
those that want to stop predation on humans completely (Raizen)
those that do not want to be told what to do, either way {or left alone, I think.} (Yomi)

The major war seems interesting, too. Wars cause migration and population flux, you know...
mithriltabby: Happy bunny BLEAH (Bleah)

[personal profile] mithriltabby 2006-12-02 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
Just imagine what the CIA could’ve done in the 1980’s with vampires as deniable assets...

[identity profile] roseembolism.livejournal.com 2006-12-02 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm sure some governments somewhere tried using supernatural assets...the problem being that said creatures are hard to control. How exactly do you use a creature that regards it's fellow agents as lunch?

And let's not even talk about the Russians trying to use Shuggoths as nuclear reactor technicians...
mithriltabby: Bowler hat over roast chicken (Eats)

[personal profile] mithriltabby 2006-12-02 07:50 pm (UTC)(link)
When it’s a sentient creature, you explain to it that as long as it avoids lunching on particular classes of people (e.g. your own agents, not too many civilians) that it has carte blanche for other categories of prey and the support of your organization. Imagine how hard Dracula would’ve been to take out if he had coffins lined with his native earth in government-protected buildings...

[identity profile] roseembolism.livejournal.com 2006-12-02 05:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Post edited for proper acronym use.

I hadn't thought of Yuu Yuu Hakusho. Primarily I was going by the notion that in mythology in general supernatural creatures tend to fall into categories of: actively malevolent, teritorial, neutral unless provoked, or helpful unless provoked. Not that a given class of creature falls into a single category- look at kitsune, for example.

More info on the war will come up in the game.

As far as population movement, one thing I didn't really get a chance to elaborate upon is that San Francisco is a major melting pot for supernaturals that followed various human ethnic groups, meaning you have supernaturals of many different cultures mingling, creating unique problems. I mean, what DOES a vampire do if a kimchi restaurant opens up next to his lair?