Invidia

[cancrymods]

INVIDIA

The Envy layer of Purgatory, Invidia, is a bustling high-tech city that never sleeps. Constructed out of shining white metal and glass, the city practically gleams in light, made all the brighter by the ever-active screens and lights constantly blaring and flashing no matter the time. The city is split across multiple levels, with a frenzy of vehicles zooming back and forth, presumably carrying Spectres to and fro. Floating platforms, glass elevators, stairs and the like also provide methods of egress, if you can stand the crowds of Spectres also constantly running around and getting things done. Despite the bustle of the city, don't be fooled into thinking it's particularly functional. Like Limbo, Invidia is mostly artificial, a place created in the image of a bustling, futuristic city but not quite living up to the ideal. If you just observe the city for long enough, it becomes clear that the apparent hustle and bustle is happening on a consistent and unchanging loop, creating the illusion of life and energy where there is none. Invidia is simply a stage and the occupants are acting out a fantasy. Particularly of note in Invidia are the giant screens that are plastered across almost all of the buildings – no matter where you look, you'll have at least one or two of them taking up a whole bunch of visual real estate. They're all broadcasting a massive variety of shows, with no more than one or two screens typically displaying the same thing at once, though almost every single show broadcast on the screens star the same girl... All of these shows seem to be advertisements for all kinds of fancy products that can't actually be found anywhere in the city, or following this strange girl around, vlog style, as she lives out her enviably effortless and intensely glamorous life. While there's no real night and day distinction in Purgatory, Invidia is unusually distinctive in that its sky alternates regularly between light and dark, creating a semi-reliable pattern of "days" and "nights", each lasting between eight to twelve hours each. Because of this, Invidia operates on a more typical day/night cycle than other layers. While under a dark or mid "morning" sky, the white surfaces of the city fade to black and the buildings become drenched in psychedelic lights in all manner of patterns of colours. Similarly, during "nighttime", the images and shows being projected on all the screens around the city become brighter and more energetic as if to make up for a lack of skylight. Invidia is populated with its own number of Spectres, most of whom seem to happily buy into the fantasy of living out busy lives in this city and who will be constantly running to and fro, getting things done. While Spectres of Invidia are friendly enough, they are also knee-deep in the sin of Envy. They are desperately envious of anything that anyone else has that they don't also possess – including the Executors. Be prepared to be subjected to a lot of passive-aggressive sighing about how they just wiiiiiish they had ITEM X like you guys do! But aside from that, they're mostly harmless. Because of the possessive nature of Invidia's Spectres, a barter system is alive and well here. Sometimes you might be able to simply take things without paying, as is the case in Limbo, but for the most part, characters will be expected to provide something in return for any goods and services they acquire in Invidia. This doesn't always have to be an actual physical object but either way – best be prepared to pay up. Invidia is broken up into three districts: entertainment, housing and labor. ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT: The entire entertainment district of Invidia is contained in a neighborhood-sized mall five stories tall, save for an enormous park just at its entrance. The outside of the mall is made entirely from glass, so it's pretty hard to miss. There are large floating platforms that can be used to move between floors or you can take the stairs if you're a coward. Trying to outline everything in this place would be a fool's errand and because of this, players are given some freedom to handwave locations and stores to shop at. You can also have your characters buy or obtain clothes, furniture, items, etc to make their lives in Purgatory a bit more comfortable, but stay within reason. ⚝ Park: While it's the only slice of greenery in the whole city, the park at the entrance of the mall more than makes up for this through sheer size and presence. The park as a whole is about the size and width of two soccer pitches put together and it's chock full of all sorts of flowers and trees, with a lazily flowing river snaking its way through the whole park... though if you decide to follow the river and see where it leads, you'll find it doesn't actually have a termination point and just loops back on itself endlessly. Thankfully, there's bridges here and there so you can actually get in and out of the park without wading through the water. Also of note are the trees that occupy the park – during the day, they appear to be cherry blossoms trees always in bloom, but closer inspection (or just looking at them when it's dark out) will reveal that they’re not actual trees but a sort of cyborg amalgamation of wires and wood. Thanks to this, when night falls, the trees light up the park with gently shifting rainbow lights, akin to a fibre optic lamp. It's #aesthetic as hell. ⚝ Fashion Boutiques: WORK, WORK FASHION BABY. There's any number of fashion boutiques in the district, all covering a wide variety of styles and fashions, though the general vibe from all of them is Designer Brands That Are More Expensive Than Yours. The Spectres who man these stores are all extremely excited about fashion and especially excited about sharing fashion with YOU!! If you happen to be foolish enough to walk into a store or even just pass by it and glance inside for a bit too long, you'll find yourself accosted by a Spectre who wants nothing more in life than to find them an absolutely slappin outfit and will not take no for an answer. Characters can physically leave the store if they really don’t want to get all dressed up, but the Spectre is VERY convincing. Depending on what players want, characters might actually end up with some fly gear OR they might end up with something that looks absolutely fucking ridiculous. Enjoy! ⚝ Tech Stores: Would it really be a mall without some fancy, minimalist looking store with all the latest tech in the windows that the people working there REALLY want to sell you? Of course not! There's a whole bunch of these stores scattered through the mall, all focusing on different types of technology. Laptops, tablets, phones, cameras... the sky's the limit! Of course, this is Purgatory, so there's no internet, nowhere to get new programs for anything, things frequently glitch out and just don't work... so maybe don't get too excited about it. Hey, it's better than nothing! ⚝ Arcade: YEAAHHH VIDEO GAMES!!! The arcade is one of the most impressive features of the mall, given that it takes up an entire floor of the mall all by itself. It resembles a Japanese game center more than a Western arcade, brimming with loud, bright machines and all manner of games for you to play and pass the time with. There's also quite a few crane machines, if you feel like testing your luck and most important of all... there's DDR. I would never deprive you of DDR. ⚝ Food Stands: Popup stands selling food and drinks can be found all up and down the mall. These range from savory snacks to sweet treats with all kinds of things inbetween, with the only real unifying theme seeming to be that they're all snacky and easy to eat while walking around. ⚝ Rooftop Stage: An extremely fancy and high-tech stage plopped on the roof of the mall. There are enormous screens boxing it in at the front and sides and floating platforms constantly rising and lowering all up and down the stage. It doesn't seem to be in use currently... not that you can really get close, with all the Spectres guarding it. If you try to get in to see it, you'll be very hastily shooed away. If you've been paying attention to the shows on the screens, though, the stage will look very familiar... ⚝ Train Station: Just outside of the mall is a sleek and futuristic train station with a single platform. Bullet trains come screaming through here every half hour on the dot, stopping only briefly to allow Executors to board. Using these trains, Executors can either travel back to Limbo or make their way to other layers of Purgatory without having to pass through the Underside. Isn't quick travel convenient? HOUSING DISTRICT: In stark contrast to the rest of the city, the housing district is utilitarian and honestly, kind of ugly. Rows upon rows of tightly parked apartment buildings stand tall against the skyline with tiny squares of glass showing where the windows are and betraying just how tiny the apartments inside really are. This is in wild contrast to the mansion slap-bang in the middle of the housing district that has the look of a place that was simply dropped there and shoved everything else to one side to fit. ⚝ Apartments: If you need somewhere to stay while you're stuck in Invidia, you could do worse than the vacant apartments here... but you could also do a whole lot better, too. These spartan, apartments are technically two-room setups, though the second room is literally just a minuscule toilet and shower area so you can do your business with some degree of privacy. The apartments are pre-furnished with the very basics, so you can cook, wash up and sleep here, even if you can't really do a whole lot else. At least they're free! ⚝ Mansion: A glamorous and luxurious mansion that looks oddly out of place, slapped right in the middle of the housing district as it is. The mansion itself it set at the center of an enormous garden, full of statues, flowers and all manner of finery you'd expect to see on the grounds of such an expensive looking mansion. Unfortunately, you won't be able to get a close look at the mansion for now, as the walls that surround it, as well as the single gate at the front, have a subtle distortion that makes them "too tall" to climb over no matter the angle or height they're approached from. All you can do is gaze enviously through the gates at the luxury inside... LABOR DISTRICT: While calling it a "district" is kind of overkill, that's what this area is colloquially known as by the residents of Invidia. Tucked away far from the heart of the city, as if the residents were ashamed of it, the Labor District lacks basically all of the flash and pizazz of the rest of the city. It seems quite out of place, disarmingly dark and grubby even in full daylight and lacking any of the eye-searing lights present in the rest of the city at night. And most notably... there don't seem to be any Spectres here. At least not at first glance... ⚝ Warehouse: Dark, quiet and seemingly abandoned. You get the impression that this was once a place that saw quite a lot of footfall, but abruptly, everything was abandoned and the warehouse hasn't been touched since. If you care to look, it's full of sets and props and all sorts of recording equipment – the kind of things someone would need to make a TV show. ⚝ Broadcasting Station: Much like the warehouse, this TV station has the general air of a place that was once busy and full of energy but now, it's been left behind by those who once used it. Contemporary with a roughly mid-2010s station of reasonable funding, it seems like the broadcasting station was abandoned intact and functioning, so if you really feel like playing around with it, it might be possible to get it up and running again.

THE UNDERSIDE OF INVIDIA

Full details of the Underside will be found on the appropriate dungeon long when posted.