Noir City

by | Jan 29, 2015 | Recursions

Some say the city never sleeps, but here The City seems to never wake up, and the city’s dreams border on nightmares. Noir City superficially seems to be an urban setting from a rough hodgepodge of the American 30’s and 40’s, but significant differences from Earth quickly become apparent. While Noir City has day and night, the days are only a few hours long and always heavily overcast and raining, so that the gloom never lifts. The long nights see scattered showers, mixed with light fog and clouds of steam and smoke that snake through the streets concealing the dim alleys and dirty brick walls. Colors seem muted and washed out, and the lighting never seems adequate, with street lights casting small circles reflected in puddles in the dark, and interior lights leaving corners in deep shadow. The city itself seems threadbare and rundown, with seedy bars, aging lounges, and nightclubs the most obvious businesses, and tired office towers hosting low rent clients looking down on the dirty streets below. The Southside is full of shabby slums brushing up against antiquated industrial structures, like old factories and warehouses, and the Waterfront is dominated by sagging piers where commercial ships load and unload boxes of freight. The inhabitants of this recursion call their home simply “The City” and if pressed are not entirely clear on where they think they are.  The local cops all seem to be apathetic or corrupt, and most locals bury their sorrows in the bottle. JUST KEEPING A ROOF OVER YOUR HEAD  The typical inhabitant of Noir City has a rundown apartment, a job that just...