Blue-Collar Residential

Example Location in Blue-Collar Residential

Life doesn’t always go the way you plan it. People who live here work hard all their lives; by now, they’ve either given up on their dreams or are still looking for a golden opportunity, both equally dangerous. Hope – even false hope – is a good place for a legend to strike roots. Maybe it’s the kid who sees dead people or the lady whose apartment feels like an icy cool lake, even in the summer. It could be the aspiring local politician who is always carrying a flute around, trailed by a crowd of reporters, or the car mechanic who you once saw pick up four wheels like they were pizza trays. This neighborhood is made of the little stories, each capable of becoming much more... for better or for worse.

But why is it so tough to break out of the cycle of poverty and debt around here? Is it that the jobs pay less and the rents are high? Are mobsters and loan sharks thriving on protection money and high interest paid by individuals with no other choice? Or are there some other, greater forces at play – ones that wish to perpetuate stories of tough luck and perseverance?

# **AREAS OF INTEREST**

## THE ETHNIC BOROUGHS

(Examples of ethnic boroughs include Chinatown, Jamaica Town, Japantown, Koreatown, Little Italy, Little Greece, The Spanish Quarter, etc.)

The cultural life in this small residential neighborhood revolves around the traditions and heritage of a specific ethnic group. Often close to the inner City, the streets here are busy and cramped and the buildings are far from new, with some areas well-cared-for and others run-down. Overhead, colorful signs in a foreign language are clumped on top of one another, hidden by national flags and decorations for an upcoming or recent festivity. The smell of mouth-watering signature dishes fills the air and often you can find a nearby open-air market swarmed by locals and visitors alike who are shopping for street food, fresh produce, meats, and delicacies. The ethnic borough is a close-knit community; everyone here knows everyone or knows someone who does.

The ethnic borough is home to a variety of practitioners of the ancient arts, such as healers, fortune-tellers, and witch doctors, sometimes operating in the open and other times only reachable through local social connections. One such practitioner is Vanessa La Bruja (Ixchel, Mayan goddess of midwifery and medicine), a young shaman who operates in a small apartment in the borough, shrouded with strange incense and speckled with jaguar icons and carvings. Vanessa mostly helps relieve the local elders of nagging pains but occasionally she gets a real case. She recently treated a juvenile delinquent who was afflicted by a supernatural illness as part of a local gang war. While Vanessa is tempted to investigate the origin of the dark curse, she is also hesitant as her intuition tells her she might be facing more than she can handle on her own.

Preserving the faith system of its ancestors beneath a brittle veneer of modernity, the borough also needs a constant supply of suitable traditional medicinal herbs, good luck charms, tools and symbols of worship, etc. Wong Lo Trading Company runs a large store full of everything Asian. Jars of expensive roots, dried leaves, mushrooms, and other ingredients line the dusty shelves along with a staggering array of instruments and decorations: bells, bowls, cauldrons, tea sets, calligraphy brushes, ritual knives, pigment, feathered bone necklaces, crystals, and coins, as well as tapestries, scrolls, tomes, statues, figurines, and much more. If anyone gives the middle-aged owner, Steven Wong, any trouble, the two obsidian Chin the statues at the entrance (Relics of Burmese guardian lions) will come to life and scare away the intruders – or do away with them.

## THE CHEAP MOTEL

When people get in trouble in the City, they skip town. But in truth, no-one really leaves; life in this City is everything for its residents and sooner or later they all come back. Runaways just need a place to lay low for a while, which is exactly what the cheap motel is for. Often located in a perpetual downpour of rain, the motel can nevertheless be recognized by the flashing roadside neon sign. The apathetic guy or gal at reception has seen it all and without a second glance welcomes the usual suspects: fugitives, vagrants, dead-men-walking. A handful of vending machines provide pissy coffee and snacks to keep you company. Other than that there is nothing to do here.

Inside the room there is an unidentifiable strange odor. The mattress is stained, on both sides, with what appears to be dried blood. There are cigarette burn marks on the furniture and the crumbling walls, which are thin enough for you to hear whatever is going on in the next room. The days here are rainy, empty, and boring. Sometimes, time does not seem to go by at all.

Existing in limbo has its advantages. When you’re out of time, the past and the future are just as close as the present – and there is someone here who can help you make use of that. Rodney (Witch of Endor) can be found in the lobby, strangely illuminated by red lights. A preppy man in his late 20s, Rodney will tell you he is a very old soul. He offers his help to visitors who maybe want to get some closure on their past. For a price, he can conjure anyone you name to appear before you. More interestingly, he can conjure their past or future selves, at your request. Whether these people later have memories of their meeting with you is hard to tell; most people choose to talk to those they’ll never be able to see again, or to versions of people who no longer exist or may never exist. It could also be that Rodney is a charlatan who spikes people’s drinks with a dangerous psychoactive drug. But hey, if it makes them feel better, he’s happy to help.

## Dine Right Diner

The Dine Right Diner is a 24/6 diner where you go to start your day with black coffee and pancakes in the morning, take a break around lunchtime, hold an informal face-to-face meeting in the afternoon, and have a sad dinner alone at the bar in the evening. If you’re there at night, the staff will start treating you as part of the furniture. Greasy meals and percolator coffee is all you’ll get here, but it’s cheap and it keeps you going. With neon lights lining the underbelly of the bar and framing each and every window, the diner glows in eldritch magenta and lipstick pink throughout the night. Red leather seats enclose the booths and a bell rings whenever someone walks in.

It’s the penultimate casual meeting place, where anyone is welcome and no questions are asked. Sure, sometimes a hobo wanders in and starts shouting in a foreign language until they give him some food and send him away. There’s also something funky going on with the soup dejour. Once or twice you may have witnessed someone trashing the place (or was responsible for that yourself). But for the most part the diner is where you can gear up, wind down, or just sit by the window and watch the City go by.

## Lovegood Investigations

Lovegood Investigations is a private detective and investigation office which is found on the second story of a crumbling residential or office building overlooking the street. Visitors knocking on the milky glass door at the entrance dramatically show up as crisp silhouettes, most commonly of attractive ladies and despicable gents. Black lettering on the glass identifies the practitioner: a private eye, a lawyer, an accountant, or a doctor. Inside, light filters through the shutters in smoky slanted stripes. The sound of the street below is muffled, yet constant. Behind a heavy wooden desk buried in paperwork and illuminated by a green desk lamp there’s a swivel chair where someone is often drinking, smoking, holding a gun, or all of the above.

## Precinct Police Station

The Precinct Police Station is the symbol of law enforcement in the district. It is a bustling hub of activity: people coming in to press charges, officers riding out in squad cars to answers distress calls, criminals brought in. The cops here handle everything from a cat stuck in a tree to the incrimination and apprehension of the most wanted criminal masterminds.

Beat officers, undercover units, task force detectives, and even a SWAT team all operate out of this modern-day fortress. The precinct is fully loaded with the necessary gear and armaments cops need to do their duty, not to mention a tempting evidence storage with plenty of cash, drugs, and confiscated arms to go around, but only the most foolish or daring of criminals would dare mount an assault on the district’s stronghold of authority.

## Temishill Garden

Temishill Garden is the City folk’s escape from the hustle and bustle of urban life. Spanning a mile or two in each direction, this massive green space includes lawns, ponds, wooded areas, and natural terrain – a welcome respite from the City’s asphalt and concrete. During the week it’s quiet here, with most people passing on their way elsewhere. On the weekends it’s more crowded, with the sounds of open-air concerts and seasonal fairs filling up the air. Designed for leisure rather than efficiency, the paved footpaths wind and coil around the park, making it hard to cut through if you don’t know exactly where you’re going. Even locals can find this place bewildering as the path often comes to a dead end in the rushes on the shores of the pond or just under a jutting outcrop of lichen-covered rock. There’s a teenage gang of little shitheads (the Merry Men) who mug people lost in the park, especially the affluent ones.