Mongrels

The citizens of Ceres were known by the derogatory term Mongrels, or Slumdogs. Unlike other citizens of Midas, mongrels weren't branded with a PAM chip and as such didn't have an ID. In the eyes of Midas, this made them outcasts and someone to look down upon.

## Society

Until they turned 13, the children in Ceres were all reared together by the child care administrators of the Guardian foster center located at the western edge of the Area. It was considered the only garden in the otherwise decrepit Ceres and has been under the rule of the Kuger Clan for generations, making them the most powerful family in Ceres.

Residents believed that Ceres was the only area of Midas where population control and eugenics didn’t take place. "Natural sex selection" had been declared a basic right at the time of the independence. However, due to various unclear factors, the birthrate was such that male children vastly outnumbered the females. As a result, the girls were given preferential treatment and those with any inclination to bear children could do so in an isolated and far more agreeable environment. This spared them the fate that befell all male children. When they turned 13, the boys were deemed adults and released from Guardian to live an independent life in the slums. Ultimately this meant that approximately 90-99% of the residents of slums were male.

It wouldn’t take long for the boys to realise the implications of their freedom. The lack of an ID was as good as a life sentence. The foreboding sense of claustrophobia was as overpowering as the stench that permeated the landfill that was the slums. Once out there, left to their own devices, the boys had neither the time nor space to think about their place in the world, so once they accepted the anxiety and the hopelessness, the only thing one could do is go with the flow and learn to survive. Reduced to its bare minimum, the ethos of the slums could be summed up as follows:

> You wipe your own ass
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## Structure

Because of the distorted gender ratio, there were no "families" in the form of "blood relationships" among the mongrels. Instead, it was the same-sex relationships that formed the foundation of life in the slums. There was also no concept of official or ceremonial "marriage", but the concept of a "pairing partner," an inseparable significant other that existed beyond love and affection, beyond contracts or obligations, was their version of a societal unit. Pairing Up officially was not taken lightly. When choosing “for life", a compatible and sexually-available partner who reciprocated this desire was needed, but that didn’t stop individuals from having no-strings-attached "sex friends". Consequently, very few boasted both a first and last name. Under the pretext of preserving a lineage, taking a wife and having a family was permitted, but only to a special and privileged class. In fact, currently, only five clans enjoyed such a privilege.

In Ceres, women capable of giving birth were its most valuable resource, and most stayed in Guardian, having never ventured into the Slums. But outside the foster center, they never made up more than 10% of the population. Though some males would get a sex reassignment operation, they would not be considered as valuable as fertile women nor would they be seen as real women in the eyes of the slum mongrels. The opportunity to have sex with a biological female was not likely to ever come to the average slum mongrel and so man-on-man sex was the norm and in general terms, a man’s sex life was his own business. In fact, ridiculing a man's sex life was a blatant violation of the commonsensical customs in the slums. However sexual predation and gang rape were parts of everyday life, and even such acts as castration and dismemberment weren’t a rare occurrence as end results of gruesome violence and abuse that went on in the slums. A man who loses the symbol of his masculinity becomes a virtual pariah, stripped away of that which he earned by birthright as a male.

The world of the slums lived by the “Survival of the Fittest” mantra. A man did what he had to do to stay alive. Those on top of the food chain reached it by asserting themselves and flaunting their power as a man. Sharpness of mind and the ability to lead others were attributes even more important than physical power and sexual prowess. But one had to be able to stand his ground in the face of adversity. In the slums, any sign of weakness was preyed upon and even the slightest concession could lose someone the respect he worked hard on earning. Those just out of Guardian and those who were old and sick or injured were targeted, the former for rape, the latter for robbery.

As the citizens of Ceres had no dreams or hopes, the only thing left for them to do was take it one day at a time until they grow old and consumed by the Slums. They knew that without a Midas ID, there was no way for them to climb the invisible wall out of the slums, and even if they did, there’d be nothing for them to do out there anyway. So most of them gave up even thinking about it, and in turn derided anyone who did, mocking them as delusional. The backlash against those crazy enough to attempt this escape in hopes of a future was merciless.

## **Work and Education**

As most youths busied themselves with gang rivalries until at least their late twenties, the labour force of Ceres was constantly shorthanded, which contributed to its current state. Instead of working, they preferred to prowl the Pleasure Quarters of Midas, looking for careless tourists to rob. This was as much a means to get by as it was adrenaline-stimulating excitement and a way for kids to prove themselves. Scrounging money off a sugar daddy was another way to put food on the table.

In Guardian, the children were provided with basic education, however after the forced emancipation in the slums, most of them found no way to capitalise on those skills. Apart from a small group of dedicated fanatics, such an education was, to the vast majority, completely useless. They were also presented with the “Certificate of Adult Status” upon leaving Guardian, which was supposed to attest to the fact that they completed the required education and were 13 years old. It would also serve as their ID in the slums, but in reality, it was mostly useless.

## Pastime

With more freedom than they knew what to do with, slum denizens had a lot of time to fill. With no arcades or recreation centers available to them in the slums, this was mostly done by hanging out with friends, getting drunk and high on cheap stout and drugs. One of the most common drinks was “tripper”, a hard, hallucinatory stout.

If not in their safehouses and hovels, there were several bars where they could do the same, if so inclined. In addition to drinking and socialising, games were played as well. “Gigolo”, an old-fashioned card game, was a type of sex game played through a challenge. Players would put their bodies on the line with stakes being anything from a kiss to sex. In addition to being a way for a man to hook up with someone who might normally not want to do it, it was mostly a way to up the ante and test someone’s courage and integrity. The actual prize of sex was rarely claimed.

> The raw reality was that a fun night in the slums was playing chicken with a patched-together jet bike.
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Assembling, fixing up and racing their jet bikes was another common pastime. Patched-together jet bikes were the main means of transport in the slums, as well as a matter of prestige for those who had the skill and knowhow to trick them out. A lot of the time, however, they would be used as tools for the gangs.

## Gangs

Since the environment of the slums is so volatile, a place where the *survival of the fittest* and *an eye for an eye* principles rule, those who were smart would seek the protection of peers. Often this would result in gangs forming. Young mongrels who leave Guardian would either seek a strong protector to take them under their wing or join a gang. Rarely, the fresh alumni would create their own gang right out of Guardian.

> The slums is a monster that devours the soul of youth and spits out the gristle.
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Gang violence was common place, and top gangs vying for power constituted the bulk of entertainment in their otherwise uneventful lives. The balance of power among them changed regularly, the place of the top dog up for grabs for anyone who could secure it. There was no denying that the violence of these ongoing turf wars is in large part to blame for the deterioration of public order in the slums.

Most of these conflicts were resolved in the free fire zone known as “Hot Crack” where the gangs would have an unrestrained opportunity to assert themselves. The gang who dominated Hot Crack was the undisputed top dog of the moment. Scores were settled mostly through brawn, but no firearms were used. In fact, an arms ban was one of the conditions of Ceres’ independence from Tanagura, and the Ceres authorities enforced it with an iron hand. Only the police force could carry them and even if someone else wanted to illicitly manufacture firearms in Ceres, nobody had the necessary skills or financial resources.

see Gangs

## Fashion

Despite the decrepit surroundings, slum mongrels preferred to dress in bright colours and wear bling. In fact, seeing someone dressed mostly in dark colours was considered fairly rare.

## Slang

Being a unique and isolated world, the slums birthed slang of their own mostly pertaining to their unique social system and struggles.

* 勇者 (マルス) - (Yūsha, The Brave, Marusu) **Mars**, those who dared to try to leave the slums;
* 駄犬 (テイト) - (Daken, Cur, Teito) **Tito**, a lap dog only good at cozying up to strangers;
* 野犬 (ボルグ) - (Yaken, Stray Dog, Borugu) **Borg**, a junkyard dog with all bark and no bite;
* 闘犬 (ノックス) - (Tōken, Fighting Dog, Nokkusu) **Knox**, a scrapper who hit anybody and anything that got too close;
* 負け犬 (コッカー) - (Makeinu, Loser, Kokkā) **Cocker**, a person who returned to the slums defeated, his tail between his legs;
* 仲間 (マリエ) - (Nakama, Comrade, Marie) **Marie**, a comrade;
* 友達 (ドニー) - (Tomodachi, Friend, Donī) **Donny**, a close personal friend;
* ショック・アイ (Shokku Ai) - **Shock Eye**, the compact, metallic silver taser batons the Midas police carried, widely feared among the Mongrels;
* ジュマ (Juma) - **Juma**, a term of respect for an elder;
* 生き字引 (アルダ・ガレ) - (Ikijibiki, Walking encyclopedia, Aruda Gare) **Alda Garé**, a person of great knowledge, Living Compendium;
* 他所者 (シンカー) - (Tashomono, Outsider, Shinkā) **Sinker**, Off-world refugee;
* 変質者 (ルーサー) - (Henshitsusha, Pervert, Rūsā) **Luther**, Human-shaped degenerate;
* 犯罪者 (クロミア) - (Hanzaisha, Criminal, Kuromia) **Chromer**, a living corpse, abhorrent criminal;
* 故買屋 (レイバー) - (Kobaiya, Pawnshop, Reibā) **Rayburn**, a person fencing stolen goods.
* 口入れ屋 (メイシー) - (Kuchiire-ya, Employment Agency, Meishī) **Macey**, a person scouting others for work.
* 情報屋 (スパルナ) - (Jōhō-ya, Informant, Suparuna) **Sparna**, an information dealer.
* (腐った)果実 (キリコ) - ((Kusatta) Kajitsu, Rotten Fruit, Kiriko) **Chirico**, person who is at fault, who did something wrong.
* 英雄 (マテウス) - (Eiyū, Hero, Mateusu) **Mateus**, the person who did the right thing.
* 天使 (ランジェ) - (Tenshi, Angel, Ranje) **L'ange**, which means an angel, or a lovely, beautiful person. In the official translation this was transliterated as Saint Langeais.