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| game_systems:traveller:starlightdrifter:adventure_journal [2025/12/20 14:01] – [Red Light District] Bryan Stephens | game_systems:traveller:starlightdrifter:adventure_journal [2025/12/20 14:19] (current) – [Red Light District] Bryan Stephens | ||
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| Not fades — dies. | Not fades — dies. | ||
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| Every comm implant, screen, neural link, and datapad Viktor carries drops into dead silence. For a man who has spent years as a constantly connected agent, the sudden absence hits like a missed step in zero-g. His reflexive awareness of feeds, channels, and threat updates finds nothing to hook into. There is no hum of background traffic, no comforting flow of data at the edge of his vision. His muscles tense without permission, waiting for an alert that never comes. The phantom itch of incoming messages flickers and fades. | Every comm implant, screen, neural link, and datapad Viktor carries drops into dead silence. For a man who has spent years as a constantly connected agent, the sudden absence hits like a missed step in zero-g. His reflexive awareness of feeds, channels, and threat updates finds nothing to hook into. There is no hum of background traffic, no comforting flow of data at the edge of his vision. His muscles tense without permission, waiting for an alert that never comes. The phantom itch of incoming messages flickers and fades. | ||
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| The paper has directions to a closed down former business, “The Muzzled Puppy” (the less said about what it did the better), including a code to open the door and the general location of a data stick. Rally remembers this location from the past week and offers to take Viktor to the red light district. Hanson and Galen come along, and Rally brings Reigns //”She keeps me out of trouble”// | The paper has directions to a closed down former business, “The Muzzled Puppy” (the less said about what it did the better), including a code to open the door and the general location of a data stick. Rally remembers this location from the past week and offers to take Viktor to the red light district. Hanson and Galen come along, and Rally brings Reigns //”She keeps me out of trouble”// | ||
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| The red-light District sprawls along the arcology’s underside and outward into the ground-level sprawl—tight streets under old support ribs, neon reflected in puddles that never quite dry, steam venting from grates that smell faintly of disinfectant and hot metal. The air is warmer here, louder, crowded with basslines and bargaining voices and the soft hum of signage that never sleeps. | The red-light District sprawls along the arcology’s underside and outward into the ground-level sprawl—tight streets under old support ribs, neon reflected in puddles that never quite dry, steam venting from grates that smell faintly of disinfectant and hot metal. The air is warmer here, louder, crowded with basslines and bargaining voices and the soft hum of signage that never sleeps. | ||
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| Muggings aren’t rare. “Accidents” happen. A wrong turn can lead you into a corridor where the lights don’t reach and the music fades just enough for you to hear footsteps that aren’t keeping time. Some predators work alone. Others work in polite little teams—one to distract, one to lift your valuables, one to make sure you don’t chase. And yet the district stays busy, because it offers what the arcology’s upper levels can’t: raw sensation, anonymity, and the dangerous comfort of being seen for exactly what you want tonight. | Muggings aren’t rare. “Accidents” happen. A wrong turn can lead you into a corridor where the lights don’t reach and the music fades just enough for you to hear footsteps that aren’t keeping time. Some predators work alone. Others work in polite little teams—one to distract, one to lift your valuables, one to make sure you don’t chase. And yet the district stays busy, because it offers what the arcology’s upper levels can’t: raw sensation, anonymity, and the dangerous comfort of being seen for exactly what you want tonight. | ||
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| It’s glamorous in patches—velvet ropes, mirrored foyers, curated perfumes—and brutal in the seams between those patches. The district has a rhythm: lure, promise, transaction, | It’s glamorous in patches—velvet ropes, mirrored foyers, curated perfumes—and brutal in the seams between those patches. The district has a rhythm: lure, promise, transaction, | ||
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| After making sure she has this, Viktor heads to the bathroom, and slips outside. Viktor steps into the streets with a sense of satisfaction. This is like the old days. A seedy street. The traces of drug smoke, urine in the air. He looks like he belongs. Normally a loan man on these streets is a potential victim. Not Viktor. His carful eyes note the potential predators who move on. They are only alive because they are good a picking prey. The man in the long coat with golden eyes is clearly a predator. | After making sure she has this, Viktor heads to the bathroom, and slips outside. Viktor steps into the streets with a sense of satisfaction. This is like the old days. A seedy street. The traces of drug smoke, urine in the air. He looks like he belongs. Normally a loan man on these streets is a potential victim. Not Viktor. His carful eyes note the potential predators who move on. They are only alive because they are good a picking prey. The man in the long coat with golden eyes is clearly a predator. | ||
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| Viktor comes to Muzzled Puppy. Above the entrance hangs the sign. Not lit. A thick, weather-pocked plaque with faded paint and a cracked laminate face, the edges curled where years of heat and moisture worked it loose. The art is blunt and unmistakable: | Viktor comes to Muzzled Puppy. Above the entrance hangs the sign. Not lit. A thick, weather-pocked plaque with faded paint and a cracked laminate face, the edges curled where years of heat and moisture worked it loose. The art is blunt and unmistakable: | ||
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| ==== Infiltrations ==== | ==== Infiltrations ==== | ||
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| //We used a points for heist system here, but I have knitted the narrative chronologically. -Bryan// | //We used a points for heist system here, but I have knitted the narrative chronologically. -Bryan// | ||