Despite the standard day and night cycle, some of you may notice this place still doesn’t feel quite right, a bit outside of time. That shouldn’t stop you from having fun! And should you need to go back to the Grove — or if you’re someone looking to get into Neo Eden in the first place — you need only to gaze into a mirror placed in each of your bedrooms or apartments and wish to go home… which may lead you to fall catastrophically through it to the other side. Try not to hit your chin on the ground.
Life goes on regardless. In this city, there’s a lot to do. You could go shopping at the strip mall near Mania Square, where Heimr and Ydalir have set up a temporary shop to continue to provide for everyone’s needs. They’ll still take shells, but there’s nothing much they can do if you run out of Credits — both will gently suggest you find work in Neo Eden. You guys own businesses back at the Grove, it can’t be that bad, can it?
The good news is, Mr. Bone-Jangles and his entourage of skeletons who you swear weren’t originally here 12 hours ago are happy to help you get a job, where the interview process involves simply “showing up and asking your holographic boss if you can be employed”. Starting your own business is more difficult — you’ll need a loan from the bank! — but not impossible. Any hologram humans that come in to buy things will ignore you, get what they want, and leave. The only time you can interact with your fellow neon-coloured humans is when they’re making a purchase, at which point their items will digitize and they’ll leave. All very odd, but at least the customers aren’t rude to you… or your skeletal coworkers who have joined you for back-breaking labour.
After work, perhaps you want to head to the amusement park — Thrill Point is an utterly massive one to the far northeast of the city past the river that cuts through the digital roadways. With drop towers, roller coasters, rides for little babies who hate heights and fun, and tons of food stalls to stop at, you could feasibly spend all night here and almost forget that you have to be at your next shift in the morning! If you seek a different thrill, Arcadia is a nightclub southwest of Mania Square, where the music plays all night, the liquor flows freely, and anyone under 21 who enters gets marked with an X on the back of their hand by a harmless laser beam. Just outside Arcadia is a small photo booth named “The Swap”, and if you enter with a partner, both of you hitting the “TAKE PHOTO” button will bodyswap you for 12 hours. It will also print out a funny photo of you as a keepsake. Enjoy being someone else for a while!
Head to the Rent-a-Ride, where you can rent any vehicle on wheels — electric scooters, cars, motorcycles, hoverbikes — as long as you can pay the expensive fee. Speeding will get you a ticket from your local robopolice; breaking standard civilian laws will get you arrested and thrown into the unmanned city jail. And try not to tailgate or crash your ride — not only will you be on the hook for vehicle damages, but you’ll be shafted with a ludicrous hospital fee. Seriously, people live like this?
But, if a calm walk through nature is more your style, City Park and its
digital trees to the north may suit your needs. The fish in the river here can be fished up by hopeful anglers, though all are wiggly, inedible robots. Hm.
no subject
Flamebringer is generally a good driver. The issue comes from the fact he recently went blind in his left eye, giving him generally no depth perception at fucking all, and while that's not really an issue (he thinks)... it sure puts him at a disadvantage when he takes that turn, having to swing wide to avoid Stan blowing him off the road. This results in his car careening off to the right slightly before he regains control and slams the gas as hard as he can.
They're both easily going 60, 70, probably higher down these tight city roadways. Neck and neck, Flamebringer hooks a sharp and sudden right, curb-checking the convertible and legally, technically hitting a hologram. Thank God she doesn't go flying over his windshield like a real person would.]
How's it hanging, old man?!
[He yells over their combined motors, whether Stan is about to pull ahead of him or not.]
Think you can drive at these speeds without hitting a wall?! [can YOU]
no subject
HA! You're gonna have to do better than that to run me off the road!
[This road is a little busier, with a few more hazards here and there. More cars to dodge, more needless construction. Walls. But that's what bike lanes and sidewalks are for!]
Kid, I've hit so many walls I've lost count! It's never stopped me before and it's not gonna now!
[And he VROOMS, taking a slight but temporary lead as he weaves between cars in their lane and cars in the opposite lane.]
no subject
It's the business on the road that starts to trip Flamebringer up. In Kazdel, the roads are... well, they are not. If you go to drag race, you're gonna do it out where there's no buildings or city plates or people to obstruct you. Here, the roads are getting narrower, there are other cars that may or may not have drivers in them — and Flamebringer doesn't want to take the risk that he could run into someone they know — and then they hit active construction?! Hello?!
The skeletons are hard at work and holding signs that say SLOW DOWN and Flamebringer only slows down enough to be wedged safely behind Stan as they travel through a one-lane coned-off street. He tsks under his breath, impatient but unable to do anything unless he wants to drive into the construction proper and end the race early. Yeah, no.
He'll have to floor it the second they're out of there, he decides, and that's just what he does as he veers into the adjacent lane the second after the coned-off area ends. The problem... is that he does it a second too early, and the back tire of his car catches on the edge of the sunken-in ground.
It brings him to a total stall and lets Stan keep going past, while Flamebringer desperately tries flooring the gas to drag himself out. Everything he shouts after that are profanities in Kazdelian.]
no subject
Eh, he'll just steal a new one.]
HA! I'VE STILL GOT IT!
[Let him gloat for a second, do a little victory dance. Then he calls back out to Flamebringer. You might think he's not close enough, but Stan can be pretty damn loud when he wants to be.]
HEY! YOU'RE NOT DEAD OR ANYTHING BACK THERE, RIGHT?
no subject
[Mutter, mutter, a hiss under his breath... and Flamebringer is giving up on the car. He can't get it unstuck from the hole the back wheel is trapped in, and honestly, this is someone else's problem to deal with now. They can tow the car, if there's even a tow service here. Flamebringer... will walk.
Thankfully, he didn't flip the car, and the only real damage done is to the vehicle itself, not the man operating it. Flamebringer doesn't think he can shout loud enough down the block for Stan to hear him, so he huffs, jams his hands into his pockets, and starts hoofin' it up the street.
The skeletal construction workers stare after him in a way that is somehow reminiscent of angry retail workers.
Once he's further up the street and able to be heard, he hopes, he shouts back as loud as he can:]
YEAH, I'M FUCKIN' FINE, ZEYDE.
[It'll be a few more minutes until this huffy Sarkaz gets to the arcade on foot.
...]
You broke a hydrant. [You know, in case you missed it.]