Themes: meaning of love, believing in the ephemeral
Niko is a complicated one. In the past, they seem to have been extremely wealthy, at least judging from the older layers of their clothing. But bygones are bygones, and Niko is now a changed person: chaotic, mercurial, often angry, and prone to fits of violence in their very weird way. It's not that Niko hates the world; quite on the contrary, they love and accept everything in it. Including the highs, the lows, the closeness of love, the pain of fighting, and the glory of victory. Niko lives every second to the full, and that makes living with them very, very hard for everybody else. But as long as they provide both their wonderful art (miniatures) and, more importantly, they contribute to the designer drug thing, they are welcome.
Everybody who lives in La Cage is mostly poor and desperate. The families and professionals living in Apartment Blocks are the ones who really try to keep some semblance of normality in their lives. The Block B consists mostly of tradesmen and people of other desirable professions. People with no exceptional wealth or status, but the ones who are good and honest at their job and are beneficial to the La Cage. Educated, but not burgeois - teacher, nurse, students, social worker or people jilted from Block A. They mostly want to stay far from the troubles and extreme ideologies (to a small degree of success) but are willing to help each other as much as they can - like a big family.
Life in La Cage could never be called easy, but nothing takes the edge off like a little something to tickle the brain. The Druggies are less a formal group and more a handful of users that found themselves in the same grim alley every day to take the edge off before the corners got too crisp. Whether trying to escape or enhance reality, to get a grip or lose it, the Druggies explore the fractals behind their own eyelids, may it lead to enlightenment or their own destruction. The users of the group are enabled by the suppliers that take advantage of them: manufacturers and smugglers with their own agendas. Should the users ever manage to get it together, they might find some clever ideas to turn the tables.
The Polyamorous Paranormal Pursuers (3P) are a group of more than friends who are about one thing, and one thing only - to enable their psychic abilities. They do this by expanding their minds to the endless possibilities of human connection. Through polyamory… and love. But also science – yes, definitely science.
3P is about more things than they have members, which creates a colorful tapestry of emotions, relationships, and all the drama that comes with it. Their original goal is to research psychic abilities - they test out different relationship couplings and styles, all while writing it down on a clipboard (otherwise it's not science!).
However - Humans are not guinea pigs and have emotions, hence the true science has become more of a shiny veneer of gloss on a chaotic mess of entangled relationships.
Nearly everybody uses mind altering substances, that is fully normal. However, there is a new team in La Cage: team who can prepare designer drugs, drugs tailored closely for a very specific experience enabling people to go through certain moments again or even create a new, shared experience. They very much hope to help people with that: and of course, make some reáls in the process.
