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“They say the El trains keep evil out. I say they trap it in. You ever walk under those tracks at 3 a.m.? City hums like a tuning fork—and something always hums back.”

Location: Central Business District, downtown Chicago
Established: Late 19th century — the Loop got its name from the elevated rail lines, but the power beneath goes older than iron and stone
Access: Public thoroughfare, 24/7 movement, though certain buildings have locked doors and “missing” floors after dark
Connected Factions: City Hall (multiple ward offices), CPD Arcane Division, White Page Society, independent Outfit operatives with legitimate fronts

Description - Exterior

A canyon of stone, steel, and glass. The Loop wraps around downtown like a jaw, its elevated train line chattering overhead like a warning. Massive civic buildings stand shoulder to shoulder with glass-fronted department stores and corporate towers. Pigeons, pickpockets, and ghosts pass through the same alleys without noticing each other. Daylight makes it gleam. Nightfall makes it hum.

Description - Interior

There is no single “inside”—but those who work here know the rhythm: subways rattling below, elevators sighing upward, the thrum of commerce never sleeping. Underneath it all, in steam tunnels and maintenance shafts, the city mutters to itself in pressure releases and soft Veil bleed. At the center of it all, LaSalle Street throbs like an artery—but some corners never change. Same bricks. Same gum. Same shadows.

Public Face

The shining center of Chicago—government buildings, department stores, train stations, theaters, and financial headquarters. A symbol of modernity and progress.

What's Really Going On

The Loop was built over older ground—burned cities, buried neighborhoods, and pre-grid fault lines. The El tracks themselves act as unintentional containment: Veil energy trapped in rotation, spinning like a centrifuge. Arcane pressure builds under certain intersections. “Lost time” incidents are common, and echoes of long-dead workers have been seen pushing carts along platforms that no longer exist.

Notables

The Harold Washington Library – Secret watchpost for the White Page Society
City Hall Sub-Basement 4 – Sealed after a Veil breach in 1937. Now guarded by off-duty cops with blank IDs
Arcane Division Loft – A CPD office hidden behind a law firm, watching Veil activity via pigeons tagged with silver rings

Rumors & Hooks:

• The Loop’s energy grid pulses like a heartbeat. Technicians report machinery rebooting on its own, in unison, every 3:13 a.m.
• A long-shuttered hotel above a CTA station shows signs of life. Lights on. Keys jangling. No known entrance.
• Every New Year’s Eve, a phantom streetcar makes a full circuit of the Loop. It’s always empty—except for the conductor.
• A city archivist disappeared in April. His last file mentions a “stairwell to nowhere” behind the old Carson Pirie Scott building.
• CPD won’t pursue criminals through certain alleys between State and Wabash. Too many of them don’t come back.
• Certain rooftop corners are collecting glyphs—chalk symbols no wind or rain can remove.
• A high-powered lawyer begs the crew to “break the cycle.” He wakes up every morning with blood on his hands and no memory of the night before.
• A new department store mannequin is gaining attention—not for how it looks, but for how it moves when no one watches.
• A meeting place must be chosen within The Loop. The crew has one chance to get in and out before the Veil crushes time around them.