(no subject)

Happy birthday, md_donighal! And happy something-day, ficbitches!

This day in Trinity Universe history: happy new year

More recap.

1999
[Aberrant] In a media spectacle attended by VIPs ranging from former President Carter to Secretary-General Annan and from Steven Spielberg to Tom Cruise, Project Utopia reveals the nature of the "something big" hinted at in several of [Justin] Laragione's late-1998 press releases, with the introduction of "Team Tomorrow," a group of novas from around the world organized to implement Utopia's goals of a better future. This first real-world "superteam's" initial lineup consists of Caestus Pax, Lightning, Griffin Armstrong, Ewen "Apollo Kid" Banks, Pratima "Splash" Basham, Ricardo Montoya-Bernal, Alison "Psyche" Pfalzgraff, and probationary members Hiram "Slag" Goldberg, Gvuthbjørg "Ragnarockette" Danielsdottir, and Christoph "Shadow Artist" Yannik. "T2M" begins to combat global terrorism, organized crime and natural disasters with the cooperation of law-enforcement agencies worldwide, even as Utopia's fledgling Science and Technology Department begins working on solutions to famine and environmental crises.

I think it was jachilli who coined T2M as "the Village People of Righteousness".

The "Thetis Proposal" crosses Laragione's desk. Submitted by an Internal Affairs agent who uses the proposal's name as her code name (in honor of Achilles' mother who sought to render her son invulnerable), it details what she sees as the "risks and harsh steps" (read: dirty tricks and other black ops) necessary to fulfill Utopia's vision of a better world, and proposes a division within Utopia to carry them out. Though resistant to the suggestion, Laragione discusses it with the Æon board Council, who (to his surprise and shock) greenlight Thetis' "Project Proteus" (named for the Old Man of the Sea who assumed his true form only when hopelessly trapped) and name her its director.

Whether the Council's approval had anything to do with Proteus division, I can't say for sure, but I suspect it.

2000
[Aberrant] The Y2K bug hits many of the world's computer systems, causing moderate problems. Power production, airline traffic control, Internet traffic and financial institution computers are the most affected. Utopia-affiliated novas race around the globe to restore (or, in some cases, generate) emergency power and direct what few planes are in the air. Most people notice only that the airlines and banks are shut down for a couple of days, and that Web pages and e-mail have glitches for a few weeks. Y2K becomes Utopia's biggest public-relations windfall since the coming of the novas. (Project Proteus takes advantage of "coding glitches" and "irreparable data-loss" to disappear a few more files into the Babel Dossier.)

This last sentence is my own addition, but it's based on material in Aberrant: Project Utopia.

2002
[Aberrant] London's Millennium Dome reopens as the London Museum of Living History, including an area of extensive documentation on what is already being called "the Nova Age".

This isn't recap — I found out about it after the fact, while prowling for dates (I think it was in Aberrant Worldwide Phase II).

2003
[Aberrant] N! The Nova Network, debuts on cable and satellite systems in 47 countries. N!, a spinoff of E! Entertainment Television, is dedicated solely to covering the lives and exploits of novas. It features biographies of famous novas, quasi-scientific documentaries on nova abilities and physiology, nova sporting competitions, interviews with novas, and nova-related news from around the world. Within three months of its initial airing, N! becomes the highest-rated channel ever.

All the world loves novas.