Themes: (lack of) control, transferred affection, drive to get better, sibling rivalry
For ten years, Zhen was the only child of the Kims, the crown prince of a successful family. After ten years as an only child, Zhen’s parents adopted Nuri. Orphaned by the atrocities at Co Hoi, little Nuri had been spoiled rotten while Zhen could only watch from the sidelines. Their comfortable life couldn’t mask the sense of inadequacy that developed, but a little bump of cocaine could. Now, Zhen struggles to go more than a few hours without the precious white powder, and it only got worse after arriving in La Cage: the quality here is poor, and their finances are limited, so sometimes they trade family treasures or less savoury services to get what they need. Waiting for a Paledriver to smuggle the Kims away from the war in Safre, Zhen met someone who made them want to quit for the first time; finding out they had died on their way to safety almost destroyed Zhen but brought them to the Association for Rights of the Dead where they met someone new – and fell in love almost instantly. Zhen hates their reliance on something that used to be fun, something their inattentive parent, Dr. Tai, the esteemed addiction specialist, had always preached against. How can they get the help they need without having to admit the truth to their family or new love?
FULL GROUP TEXT
(mandatory for members of the group and Immigration Officers, optional for others - for example various other foreigners)
The immigrant housing occupies one whole wing of La Cage, the more decrepit one, hosting families that are far from home. People love creating distance between one another. Migrants from Graad and Oranje and some undocumented poor souls live here, stuck between horrible jobs in local sweatshops and old dreams. All together, squashed under one roof, the various cultures are clashing and mixing with each other, while everyone is still trying to maintain a sense of belonging. But is it even possible to call La Cage home?
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.
Association for the Rights of the Dead (ARD) started as a lobby and interest group trying to bring back burying people into graves and other traditional funeral customs, however, it already succeeded in it´s political goals. Now, ARD is mostly concerned with providing funeral services, taking care of places of rest and helping people grieve.
For most people in Revachol, death was something that happens out of sight, with dead bodies disappearing into incinerators and memorial places overgrown with vines. ARD is here to change that, both by offering funeral services and by organising some cultural events, like the famous Dance of the Dead, when dead people symbolically join the parties through photos and songs.
A group of youth "criminals", as some other older folks of La Cage would surely put it. And disgusting ones supposedly! Digging through trash and maybe even through the dead bodies stored in the old morgue. It's almost all bollocks. They do not see themselves that way, of course. They prefer calling themselves "treasure hunters" or "scavengers". That's their jam - getting their hands on rare fortune, diving into the unknown to save poor things from being orphaned and forgotten.
