An Alternate CalFree

A New California Free State
A Local's Perspective

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>Well my friends, Capt. Chaos and Company did a fine job on their CalFree download. But there were a few things that I, being California born and bred, thought were important enough to follow up on. With a country like the California Free State, we could dump a TeraPulse or two and still not cover everything. It's just too damn big, too damn weird and too damn wild. But here are a few things the original download missed that you might find interesting. Sorry, no specific locations. You'll just have to wing it for now. All written by me, St. Stan. Take it as you will.
>St. Stan, Assistant SysOp

Beer and Loathing
The wine industry is surprisingly important in California. Half the wineries of Napa and Sonoma are owned (indirectly of course) by the megas, the other half are big corporate entities in themselves. Frag, the Gallo family still pumps a lot of money into both Sacramento and DeeCee. But Napa and Sonoma aren't the last word in California wine. Down south, round San Bernadino, are the Temecula wineries. Small, relatively independent, but putting out consistently good and sometimes great wine. A bit north and west of there are all the Santa Barbara wineries. Need I say it? There is no love lost between the Napa-Sonoma axis and Temecula/Santa Barbara. Keep in mind though that Santa Barbara is on the southern end of the Pirate Coast, and those two groups tend to work together on an implicit basis.

>The only reason Temecula hasn't been shut down is because the stars and other moneyed persons in LA like to escape there. It's a nice, quiet little retreat an hour or so away, where the air and soil are still in decent shape. Frag, I can't prove it, but I have every reason to believe Amalgamated owns about half the wineries down there.
>The Cube

>And the Santa Barbara region owes it's survival to the pirates. Not only do the pirates have some decent weaponry, they also provide Napa/Sonoma with a small, but significant portion of their water. It's a tiny amount, but enough that without it, profit margins would slip into the unacceptable region. And Napa/Sonoma wine has been about money for about 80 years or so. In return, the pirates get practically all the wine they can guzzle. Real wine, not the synthahol stuff you find in your corner Stuffer Shack. A case of award winning Cabernet Sauvingnon can fetch a pretty penny.
>D'Jor

>Think the only people that care about this are rich wine snobs? Think again. There's awful good money to be made in the shadows there. Napa/Sonoma have hated Temecula/Santa Barbara for years and aren't afraid to resort to the shadows to ensure their dominance. Just like any of the Megas. Believe it.
>Nazdack

While wine gets all the attention, California also produces some of the continents best beer, headlined by Anchor and Sierra Nevada. A haven for so-called "microbrews" since the late 1970's, the fracturing of California has only accelerated the "revolution." In fact, fully twenty percent of all the microbreweries and brewpubs on the continent are here in CalFree.

>No fraggin' joke. Went to a small town up in the Crescent for biz, right? Asked for a Bud. Everyone has Bud right? Not here. The only place you could get beer was in the local bar and the only beer was brewed on site. All through the damn Crescent it's like that. They simply don't get the major brews in some of these small towns. Practically needed a knife and fork for that drek...
>Unamused

>You would think that LA, with it's water problems, wouldn't fall into this category, right? Not a chance. About the only way to make the water taste better is to brew it into beer, kinda like how it used to be in Europe in the Dark Ages. LA now ranks up there Germany and England in beer consumption per capita. They have to use all sorts of adjuncts so it doesn't taste like total drek, but bad beer is better than bad water.
>Lager Lover

The 'Burbs
Los Angeles has always been a sprawling town. Even today, it's cheaper to build outward than it is to build upward. And so the largest part of the Free City of Los Angeles are the suburbs. For our definition, the 'burbs lay north of Studio City and the 134, east of the 5, north of the 60, east of the 57 and south of Fun City and the 22. In other words, nearly everything not mentioned in the original CalFree download. What's in the suburbs? Not a whole lot of interesting stuff for us shadowy types at first glance. A whole lot of houses and light industry. Traffic is still the joke of the free world, as the poor suburbanites have to commute typically more than an hour to work, each way.

>No wonder it was ignored. It's boring!
>Horseshoe

>Actually, there's a lot that runners might be interested in. It typically won't be a flashy or as rich as runs into Studio City might be, but there's some interesting stuff that can be found if you know where to look. Besides, the suburbs make great bolt-holes for a lot of runners.
>Animal Cracker

The suburbs are simply put, not homogenous. The best example is Pasadena. South of the 210 is downtown, rich and glossy. Cross the 210 and you have practically a ghetto. Go a few miles away, to San Marino and you have a rich enclave. This sort of wild variation is common in the LA suburbs.

>It only gets barely mentioned, but traffic throughout LA is hellish. Not as bad as some "experts" thought it would be (mainly due to arcologies and the growth of odd work shifts, such as so-called flex time, designed to avoid traffic), but still bad. Don't ever take the freeways when making the escape from a run. Trust me.
>High & Free

>The Burbs get a bad rap, but it's out there that the air is little cleaner, the soil a little healthier, the crime a little more tolerable and the people a little more friendly. Not by much, but a little bit better. And don't forget all the light industry; some of those small companies are ripe for a little shadow work.
>Forrest

Heaven, Where The Buffalo Roam
Just off the coast of Los Angeles sits Catalina Island. This small island is home to about 6,000 people escaping LA and about half as many buffalo.

>Honto? Buffalo?
>Wildsmasher

>Really. They were brought over for some old 2-D "Western" flick (the rolling hills of Catalina look a lot like the Midwest) back before the Awakening and since it was cheaper to leave them there, they stayed. For a long time, the buffalo outnumbered the people.
>Chavelle

While there are scattered houses and retreats across the island, the vast majority live in Avalon. A relatively quiet and peaceful port, the only major shipping it sees are the day tourists from LA. With it's boutique shops, clean air and fresh seafood, it's a favorite spot to spend a day or a weekend for those with enough nuyen to afford, but not enough to live there. In other words, the suburbanites love it.

>There is a lot of money on that island. A whole lot of rich folk live there and have lived there for decades (such as Wrigley, decades ago). They fight real hard to keep it quiet and peaceful...and theirs. Which means occassional shadow work for those that are good, have no morals and know how to be quiet.
>the Mega-Bite

>Which is partly why there aren't a lot of metahumans there. It's not outright racism, more of just the way the island is. I mean, I'm a ork and I've never been harassed or refused service. Of course, my gold cred stick may have something to do with that.
>Mash

>A lot of the population isn't actually rich. Instead, they service the rich or the tourists. Most of the these people had family that lived in Avalon since before the Awakening. They actually seem happier than your average wage slave.
>Oyster

>You would be pretty happy too if you lived on a piece of heaven.
>Catalina Cat

>Check this out. Only electric cars are allowed into Avalon, with the exception of the main street (which simply loops the island). Goes back to the days when golf carts were the most popular means of transport. With a fusion plant (on the back side of the island of course) providing abundant water and power and a clean environment, it's no wonder the super rich live here.
>the Marketier

>Wow. I wonder what it's like to have water 24 hours a day...
>Parched

Catalina is technically a part of the Free City of Los Angeles, but in truth, it's pretty much left alo ne. There is an elected council, but the real power (behind the scenes of course) are the mega-rich who live on the island.

>I've heard the Villiers family (fractured as it is) has a mansion there. Along with Damien Knight. In fact, a Melissa Knight sits on the city council.
>Cavalier Watcher

>Great. Another member of the fictional Knight family...
>Unamused

The Juice
With all those fusion plants pumping out barely drinkable water, there is a profitable byproduct. Electricity. Los Angeles has the lowest hourly wattage rates of anywhere in the free world. Almost anybody can afford electricity though they may not be able to afford water. In fact, LA exports a large portion of it's power up north (in return for a few buckets of real water) and east over to the Utes and the Pueblos.

>Exported juice is how a lot of Big Sur gets power, especially down south. I've even heard a wild rumor that says O'Malley actually buys direct from LA on occasion.
>The Big Sir

Shattered Earth
Simply put, the "Big One" hasn't hit yet. But don't think the ground still doesn't shake, rattle and roll more often than we would like. CalFree is hit several times a decade by earthquakes big enough to do damage, but not big enough to cause the whole country to slide into the Pacific.

>A lot of people get seriously spooked by earthquakes. I actually enjoy them. Even better than the "Temblor" earthquake simulator in Fun City.
>SHakE AnD BaKEd<

>You are seriously looped.
>Solid

Catching the Perfect Wave
Simply put, there is something seriously wrong with the minds of nearly everyone in LA. Despite all the environmental disasters, despite the traffic, despite the toxic oceans, Angelenos still love to go to the beach. On hot summer weekends, popular beaches like Huntington, Newport, Manhattan and Zuma are jammed with people of every race and color.

In addition, despite the fact that the fusion plants ruined a lot of good surfing spots (not to mention the toxic water), surfing is still incredibly popular. In some areas, a whole culture has sprung up around the sport.

>Those surf tribes are weird. A couple even have a shaman (typically an ocean totem) as their "Big Kahuna." And then there are those so seriously looped on BTLs and surfing that they give the Steppin' Wolfs gang a run for their money.
>Secret Spot

The Rock
Perhaps the most infamous prison on the continent, Alcatraz is still a huge tourist attraction. Shut down decades ago because it was "too expensive to operate," the old prison rakes in big nuyen for the Japanese. Actual tours of the island, popular before the Awakening, have been discontinued for a number of years now due to all manner of strange incidents. Boat tours around the island and the rest of the Bay, are still offered and are extremely popular.

>I would say several dozen tourists missing and uncountable bizarre accidents count as "strange incidents."
>Styrofoam Man

>Yeah, I've seen lights on at the old prison. And to me, they didn't look like normal lights. But hey, who knows?
>Steam Train<

>The Japanese authorities just leave it alone. Don't know why. I would think something uncontrolled would stick in their throats.
>Half-and-Halfer

>I've heard it's because the Japs are doing all sorts of weird experiments over there. The subjects are those "criminals" that simply disappear, or are sentenced to death. Stuff that would make those W.W. II pogroms look like kiddy stuff.
>Paranoimiac

>Heard it before. I've also heard it harbors a smuggling ring, a magic group, a few paranimals, or that it's simply haunted. Nobody seems to know anything for sure, except that people who go there tend to disappear.
>Professional Naysayer

>Sounds like fun...
>DeTon8

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