235 bloom

In 2089 Des Moines, Iowa (the traditional, ancestral, unceded land of the Báxoǰe, Sauk, and Meskwaki peoples) along the “2-3-5”, a highway-turned-metro-transit hub, communities are in an ideological struggle to make real their own visions for the future. This is a land of suburban agri-jungles, community-scale 3D printers, and up-to-two-story-tall battery-powered mecha. The federal government has become mostly irrelevant to people's everyday lives, as communities have been largely self-sufficient for decades. Through a handful of independently-produced roleplaying games (Salvage Union, ECOPUNK: 2044, and others) 235 bloom explores the invasion of the Des Moines metro by plutocratic ideologues, following the stories of Emil, an Emergency Services Cooperative worker who is in over his head in the Civil Resistance, and Baz, a hotshot BE-TLE pilot whose mercenary cooperative has returned him to his childhood home. 235 bloom also features seven guests to help scaffold the future in which this story takes place, over three prologue episodes.

235 bloom is a collaboration between Des Moines & Dragons and The Institute for Manufactured Futures, with music by Isac Lundholm, Tommy Ljungberg, and Des Moines musician GoatFoam; and with cover art by Des Moines artist Maddy Fusco. This is a work of speculative fiction taking place in Des Moines, in the year 2089. The locations may be real, but any similarity to actual persons or their descendants is unintentional. Please be aware that this series deals with issues of paramilitary and other violence, including fasco-capitalism, colonialism and occupation, as well as natural disasters in a real city in the future lifetime of current generations. Please take care while listening.