Strip Club

A nonrandom event series which occurs in week 6 (Closing) and 8 (Aftermath).

## Description

*It's been a good few weeks, getting settled in as owner of <arcology name>. The power of being overlord of this great building and everyone in it is incredible, but so is the responsibility. It's a good thing you have ample opportunities for stress relief. You're going to need them after today. There's a nasty disturbance on a business level of the arcology. Normally, the arcology's public safety drones would suppress this kind of nonsense, but <assistant name> program is suggesting that you resolve the dispute.*

*As you step off the elevator, you hear female shouting. Apparently one of <arcology name>'s few remaining strip joints has closed. It was a topless bar and strip club all in one, but the owner is packing up his things. He's explaining to a crowd of his angry former employees that he can't make ends meet. As the price of a slave whore is barely higher than that of a lap dance from a free stripper; it's not surprising. It looks like the girls are on the verge of trashing the place.*

## Choices

### Offer to take them in

*The now-unemployed strippers are not impressed by your offer to take them in. "What," one of them says, "be one of your shivering little cunts? You'd have us signing ourselves into slavery inside two weeks. Fuck off, we'll take the streets." Under the nonlethal riot cannons of the security drones, they file off, muttering mutinously. Unfortunately, you don't have any pretense to enslave or imprison them.*

* No effects

* In week 8:

*One day, you walk by the commercial space where the strip club that closed was located. It's now advertised as a massage parlor, but the real merchandise on offer is obvious. You can see a bored-looking, half-dressed masseuse rubbing a client, but the sounds of someone having hard sex are filtering out from the back room, and the pricing sheet lists more orifices than massage options.*

*As you pass, a tired-looking streetwalker walking by wearing ripped jeans and a torn top offers herself to you. She's halfway through her clumsy come-on before she curses and rushes over to kneel at your feet. As she does, she shrieks, "You own this arcology! You - you offered to enslave us strippers when the old place closed down! Please, please, can I accept? I'm sorry I didn't earlier. I'm sorry. I'll fucking do anything! Please!"*

**Enslave her (-1000 cash)**

*She sobs with gratitude as the biometric scanners scrupulously record her every particular as belonging not to a person but to a piece of human property. The medical scan discloses that her aphrodisiac addiction is very new: she will probably be able to kick the habit in short order if you decide to withhold further doses.*

### Offer them severance pay

*You have a word with them, stepping closer and speaking quietly to defuse the situation. You tell them you're aware that they're in a difficult place, but you also explain that the Free Cities are a new and changing place. No one can rely on the old way of doing things any more. You offer to pay each of them a small stipend to help tide them over until they find other employment. They're surprised at your munificence but accept it with gratitude.*

* -1000 cash
* +500 rep
* In week 8:

*One day, you walk by the commercial space where the strip club that closed was located. It's now advertised as a massage parlor, and indeed, you can see a couple of competent-looking, modestly dressed masseuses seeing to clients. The only chink in the old world decorum is the pretty sign detailing pricing, which lists not only various massages but the masseuses' hands, breasts, mouths, pussies, and anuses.*

*As you pass, a pretty streetwalker walking by wearing an attractive club girl outfit sidles up to you. She's halfway through her first flirty come-on before she recognizes you. She gasps and says, "You own this arcology! <player title>, I was a stripper here! Thank you so much for helping us. That money set most of us up pretty well." She hefts her chest. "It bought me new boobs, that's for sure. So, um," she bites her lip in indecision, "I hear -" she hesitates and then the words come out in a rush. "I hear your girls do really well. I've seen them, they look good. Can I come?" You arch an eyebrow and begin to ask whether she knows what that means. "Yep," she interrupts. "I'll be your sex slave."*

**Enslave her (-1000 cash)**

*She smiles with gratitude as the biometric scanners scrupulously record her every particular as belonging not to a person but to a piece of human property. She's seen what Free Cities life is, and she seems to have come to the conclusion that being a slave in the penthouse is better than being a free whore on the lower levels.*

### Offer to set them up independently

*You offer a way out of their situation. They, you suggest, can keep working in the now-vacant shop if they work together to pay the rent. They can move into a couple of vacant rooms nearby that you can easily have set up as a bunkhouse. You'll collect a little more rent, and they'll have a second chance. They accept it with gratitude. It's quite likely they'll either fail or have to accept being whores rather than strippers, but that's not your concern. Your arcology's prosperity has increased.*

* -500 cash
* +100 rep
* +1 prosperity
* In week 8:

*One day, you walk by the commercial space where the strip club that closed was located. The girls you set up in cheap housing tried to run the place as a worker-owned strip bar for a while, but as you suspected, they were obliged to start whoring in short order. With the price of sex driven so low by slave competition, there's hardly any profit in bodies patrons can't even touch. The girls here might be prostitutes now, but they're still free and they're surviving.*

*As you pass, a pretty bottle blonde comes running out. "Hey," she calls, "you're the owner! You set us up with this place!" You ask her how they're doing. "Well," she says, smiling ruefully, "turning tricks ain't easy, you know. But we get by. Those rooms you set up for us are nice and cheap, even if we're packed in there like sorority girls." She winks. "Hey, I don't suppose you've fucked a free woman lately? I'll give you an Arcology Tour, on the house. Least I can do."*

* + **Take an Arcology Tour** or **Politely decline**
		- +2 prosperity
		- -1 space
		- +500 cash