Themes: trauma and anguish, helping and manipulation, blackmail
Hope is, of course, not their real name - or most likely not. They were the first person who came into La Cage and headed straight to the cellars and sewers. Instead of trying to make out some sort of living in the rooms and halls of the old hospital, they established their own little domain in the dark places and set the rules of the underground. And from there, they can sometimes help with problems that don't belong in the daylight - from plumbing to obtaining documentation. Hope made themselves the ruler of the cellars, indispensable to many, hated by most and shunned by nearly everyone. They, too, naturally have their sensitive, human side. And their own problems, among others, pyrrolidone addiction. But in the harsh conditions of the sewers, it is harder and harder not to let their empathy become a victim of their extreme survival instincts.
La Cage is a horrible place most people try to escape from - with the sewer people living on the very bottom of everything, literally. The people living there mostly want to forget their names and some of them do not really have them anymore. They are a colorful bunch - homeless folks with nowhere to go, people hiding from the upstairs world, young persons on the run from their families, nearly forgotten service people, or even some with no recollection of how they got there. But they make end means somehow, digging through trash, going with the flow, living in the shadows. The lowlifes at the bottom of the barrel. They have been toughened by all the punches that life has dealt them and have very little to lose. And some of them are maybe even… happy here?
The sewer people will live in the cellar of the building in a cleaned-up but still dark room.
The meltdown of the People´s Pile nuclear plant affected many and changed Revachol forever. Many people risked their lives, some willingly, most because they were not given a choice by the regime. How many people died during the People´s Pile disaster cleanup is not known, the Coalition did their best to cover it up. The lives of those who were “lucky” enough to survive were changed forever. They hoped that the regime would at least tend to their wounds and help them deal with the consequences of the prolonged exposure to radiation and the horrors they witnessed. The fools. A few times during the years a new hope was sparked that someone might help them. No one did and so they decided to take matters into their own hands and formed the People's Pile Disaster Support Group to help each other out and fight for the care they deserve.
The collective of anarchists is, as it usually goes, not the most structured group with any clear hierarchy. They banded together because they shared a common vision. The Union is right about the oppression of capital, but wrong about the requirement of authority. The mankind does not need to be governed. The movement stands on three main principles - mutual aid, voluntary cooperation, and direct action. Those are non-negotiable, however, when it comes to the beliefs of the individual members, they vary greatly. Maybe that is the reason that they fight as much against the regime, as among themselves. But the group is fresh and ready to take on some less abstract shape. How will the anarchy shape La Cage?
The Den used to gather local elders to play card games - a good excuse to gamble, drink beer, and of course, gossip. A few years ago, card games became suddenly trendy, and many local youngsters joined the Den. But the way they played was totally different: they were loud, bold, aggressive, seeking for adrenaline, wagering way too big. Now, the elders have all left the Den to these gambling freaks. Stakes are high and are becoming even higher. And soon it will be too late to back off.
