The ERA Black Market is a decentralized underground economy within the school comprised of an undisclosed, ever-fluctuating population of individuals or groups of students on a “need-to-know” basis. Those engaged in underground activities, whether affiliated with the Market directly or indirectly, participate in the Market to circumvent, escape, or exclude themselves from the strict institutional system of ERA’s federally-imposed rules and regulations. Participants are tasked and trusted to hide any and all illicit activity from authority figures such as members of Administration, ERA Staff, the Security Department, or any of those suspected to snitch or otherwise expose the Market to the public, be it intentionally or on accident.
There are different types of underground activities the Black Market engage in, most of which circulating their illegal and informal economies. Some activities include, but are not limited to: Production, distribution, and storage of prohibited goods and services; Smuggling and fencing contraband and/or stolen items to and from campus grounds; Prostitution; Gathering, keeping, and sharing confidential information or files of various individuals/aspects of the facility, and cracking computers/mobile devices, often via data leaks, social media, or security hacking.
There is no single Black Market under control of one defined leader; there are several, if not many. These underground economies are omnipresent, existing and operating in loose market-oriented and planned networks, often in constant communication with one another with a perpetual flow of information, rumors, secrets, and data throughout the entire facility. Their common meeting points include the Abandoned Building or within the Underground Tunnels, though locations are always in rotation, and meetings are organized in secret. Goods and services are either traded, or purchased with cash, as opposed to ERA’s Credit currency system standardized among all students and staff; cash is generally preferred, as it is harder to trace and is easy to acquire outside campus.
Several groups have become notorious among Black Market regulars, of which certain members have accumulated enough clout, power, and/or notoriety to be considered ringleaders of their respective groups.
SOL (Shit Outta Luck)
Clyde Kittenger, Lily Blackwater, and “Bob”, better known as the tightknit criminal supergroup Shit Outta Luck, are the Black Market’s most infamous and well-known gang within the Market. With Clyde as their self-appointed ringleader, SOL is never not seen together in the middle of conspiring or enacting a new ploy to scam students out of every dollar and Credit they have. They are despised and typically avoided, even among more powerful Black Market members, for being reckless in property damage, their violent and erratic tendencies, disregarding of Market secrecy, and their reputation of harrassment, cheating, lying, stealing, threatening, and backstabbing to get whatever they want.
While Clyde takes the credit for all their successful plots, it is almost always Lily masterminding the plans, while Bob is usually the muscle of the group, who is able to take on nearly every student and staff member in the campus with ease, with only a couple exceptions. Due to Clyde’s possible ties with the House mafia, Bob being nearly untouchable in every aspect, and Lily’s convicted charges of murder and cannibalism, Administration has become aware of the potential havoc SOL could wreak on ERA, and is too fearful to do take any action against them and escalate problems further for the school. In this regard, SOL’s effective diplomatic immunity to any and all crimes committed (even in broad daylight) has been ERA’s most common and primary reason to hate them.
Honorary Members
Big Top
“Big Top” (commonly defined among Market members as the collection of misfit clowns) are another prominent group with rising notoriety. Ravien LeJay, “Queen of the Black Market,” assumes role of manager to members Penny T. Nelson, Preston Puntur, and Bodacious “Fat Guy” Taurus, working to usurp corruption and gather crucial information within their networks, as well as to deter the Black Market from becoming too big or noticed.
Their breakthrough and formal organization came at the wake of the Wildcard Emissary, with Ravien being led to believe Skyber was the one causing students and Market members to fight each other, thus destabilizing the Underground so she could overthrow the networks and take control herself. Penny, Preston, and Fat Guy were all tasked to investigate the structure of power in the Clover Team, and hopefully topple their plans to take over to boot.
However, infighting soon arose, most notably with Preston’s morally dubious actions tarnishing the reputation of the otherwise inconspicuous and neutral group. Penny and Fat Guy now hold a temporary alliance with the Clover Team, upon discovering similar goals and debunking Ravien’s theory about Skyber.
FFA
The Future Farmers of America Club (known as the FFA) are very loosely tied to the Black Market, but up until the Wildcard Emmissary have become increasingly violent, territorial, and criminal in their behaviors, mirroring the socio-political state of rural America. They are regular clients of trafficked products, including heavy machinery, sulfur-rich fertilizers, and even loaded firearms.
As of now, all members of the FFA have been arrested and currently in holding by Security. The fate of the club remains to be seen, though the club itself has been put on indefinite suspension.