NationStates Jolt Archive

If nations had magnetic forces, Gigatokyo would have a field the half the size of the planet Mars. It attracted everyone - high and low - from all walks of life, all seeking to ride the biz to the ragged edge and succeed and win big or fall into the pits of abject decrepitude and poverty. It was like a collossal gambling game with one hundred to one odds and rigged by the dealer - the vast majority of those who tried to run on the fragile surface skin of the economic bubble sank like stones to the rocky bottom. It was these muck-raking bottomfeeders that formed the buzzing, lurching shadow-economy that Gigatokyo was really famous for.

In the gloom created by a forest of skyscrapers two kilometres tall lay the eternally-dancing light of neon and steel, of vapid sodium vapor glowing and flickering as the Crowd moved, impelled by the Van Der Waals forces of desire and commerce...

OOC: It's an open, do-your-thing type RP, with your character coming from your nation and running into other peoples' characters every now and then, but the basic lowdown is that in the year 2065 in the aftermath of ecocidal collapse, Tokyo has expanded to become a vast megalopolis, the skyline dominated by huge skyscrapers, and your character has come seeking his or her own destiny. The government has pretty much deteriorated into squabbling bureaucrats and is dominated by huge corporations whose remote actions are too vast and abstract to matter much. The great allure is the shadowy business that goes on in the gloom of the arcologies - the body-mod shops, the cybernetics and neurosurgery, the designer drugs, the expensive artificial animals, and the criminal underworld.

David Avispa, lately of the Republic of El Hefe, found himself on the streets of GigaTokyo along with his sister after a little 'incident' in Puerto Yelho had forced him to run. He had thought the big city was the best destination - but he hadn't thought it would be this big.

His first day he had come to the sudden realisation that 100,000dc in drug money wouldn't last at 200dc a day. Thus he was walking the streets looking for a place with decent rent that took cash and asked no questions.

Rain was drizzling from the sky, big wet drops that plopped down on his head. His pants were soaked already, and he was shivering. In El Hefe, rain like this would feel good. Here though, he was definately going to catch a cold.

He stepped inside one of the places he had found - it looked distinctly 'old' four star. Peeling red velvet on the walls, and tattered paintings. The ad said 50 a week, no maid. 'I doubt the inside of this place has seen a maid in a year.' he thought as he approached the desk.

The sallow-skinned, skinny Japanese youth sitting idly before him, legs up on the counter and his pimply face buried in the folds of a holographic porno magazine boredly tossed Avispa a plastic key and pointed at the thin, rickety staircase. Outside the thunder rumbled, the rain pitter-patting on mottled concrete, glowing with the electric light of a thousand venom-coloured neon signs. The air in the hotel smelt slightly sickly of cloves and ozone.

"Thank you." The attendant didn't seem to notice - and he walked up the creeking stairs. The bannisters were worn and broken in places, crude duct tape patches held some together. He kept climbing - the maintenance didn't come up here often apparently. There were pools of water on the floor, and he could swear he saw a frog-thing jump under a door. At the end of the hall there was an open window - not that it had a view other than a building scant feet away.

There was a billboard there though - flashing lights advertising sexual services to the hotel dwellers. He found the room and took a look inside. It was strewn with garbage, but there didn't appear to be any present occupants. A little work, and some paint and it would do.

*bump*
OOC: Anyone else interested?

BUMP