HOW TO SURVIVE IN AUDA WITHOUT REALLY DYING

Hello.

This is going to be an exploration of my universe...The city of Auda. I'mma throw a disclaimer at you. THE FOLLOWING POST IS WICKED HUGE. HOWEVER, IF YA'LL MAKE THIS GORGEOUS...YOU MAY GET A CHARACTER NAMEDROP IN TEH BOOK.

This is basically going to be a city study. Like...how it operates. You are all civilains in this crapsack world.

I am going to go ahead and supply you with some elementary knowledge, and then throw a character sheet at you. It may become fairly involved, and for that I apologise. Auda...it's a freaky place.

Auda is a city on the planet Erf, which resides in a universe just barely rubbing ours. Well...really, It's just rubbing our internet. Same difference.

A BRIEF OVERVIEW:

Auda is an internet dominated city, run by the dictator Mr.Face. Near the heart of the city, The great Audian Duct Tape Riot is in full swing, with fires burning constantly. There is famine...poverty...BAD INTERNET MEMES...All over the place. The main language is english. The citizens typically cannot read, although if they could, one would find that the street signs are generally written in Internet lingo and or 1337. People survive off canned goods once or twice a week, and being unemployed is more common than being employed. If you happen to have a job, probability dictates you work as one of the Guards. Basically the Guards serve as the things that keep the government from running out of victims. But..that's a tale for DDS.

There are three main subdivisions of the city:
The Brownstones- 'wealthiest' section of the city, closest to the heart of Auda and the governmental building. Also most likely to be on fire, as a result of proximity to the government building. They are hideously drab, ill-repaired rowhouses, tightly packed along horrifyingly narrow streets. It would not be unusual to have all your windows boarded here...or really anywhere in the city. If you live here...you have to beable to afford the property tax, even if you OWN your house. You are also probably better fed than the rest of the city. CONGRATS!

The Burnout District- Next closest to the city, and you could call this the middle class. Aptly named...the whole place is constructed on burnt down rowhouses, out of the rubble. You would walk like 15 blocks from here to the government building. Probability of owning your own shrinebox decreases, and the idea of eating even every other day is low. You also have to pay taxes. The burn out district is one of the two districts really affected by the Duct Tape tax hike. Duct tape is intregal to keeping your house standing, in most cases.

The Cardboard Slums- Well...Sort of exactly what it sounds like. PRFOUNDLY AFFECTED by the duct tape taxes, as the housing units here are composed primarily of duct tape, corrugated aluminium and of course cardboard. The cardboard slums tend to operate somewhat independantly in faction form within the government of Auda, to try and compensate for their dire lack of materials. Probability of having a shrinebox IN YOUR BLOCK...slim.

HOW THE INTERNET WORKS: AN INFORMATIVE GUIDE
Your house may have a shrinebox.
This is the only way you can interact with the internet...As the internet is worshipped as a god.
The internet is also heavily regulated under the regime of Mr.Face, and as such, using it has become unwieldy and costly.
This is, however, how 99% of materials are aquired.
Different coding languages are more effective than others, and as such, the wealthier you are at the start, the more likely that you got at least some school before the school system collapsed, and know an effective coding language. (More on this as need arises.)
Memes and the like are tossed around as actual vocabulary...Again, more as the need arises.

How to use:
Get object of equal value to the object you want to obtain from the Internet.
Code object with appropriate coding language and stick in shrinebox.
Recieve the object you asked for in the code for a measly 25% tax from the internet warehouse 3-5 buisness days later.

So...that should start you off I think...OOH. Character sheets. RIGHT.

Name:
Age:
Where do you live?:
Appearance: (Please note- Being emaciated is TYPICAL OF THE WORLD. AS IS PALENESS. Continue.)
Personality:
Employed?:
Relevant other Information?:

Name: T.Morbid Namechov
Age: 22? ish?
Where do you live?: Brownstones. Trying to convince sister to downgrade to alleviate economic stress.
Appearance: About 5'6"...quite thin....cuts his own black hair...Grey eyes.
Personality:....AWKWARD. GUILT-RIDDEN. WELL MEANING...but constantly conflicted over his situation.
Employed? Yes. Just got a promotion.
Relevant other Information?: uhm...not at the moment no....

Name:Mr.Face
Age:70
Where do you live?: In the West Wing
Appearance: 8 feet tall, faceless except for a mouth filled with pointy, pointy teeth. actually paper coloured. Like...straight up...WHITE. Dresses in buisiness suits and has a pair of Armani loafers.
Personality: Well...he's a sociopathic dictator. And he tortures for the lulz. YOU TELL ME.
Employed?:Yes. Dictator of Auda.
Relevant other Information?:Agoraphobic like you wouldn't believe. also...Blind. He echolocates. Like a Dictator.

If other things become necessary I will post them, and make an edit indicating where the information can be found.

EDIT ONE:
If you scroll down on this page a bit, you will encounter relevant information regarding money, and a brief legislative history of Mr.Face's regime. This is relevant when determining how starved you are, and how little schooling you have recieved, among other things.

EDIT TWO:
If you turn to page two, You will see the second set of governmental job options. Have fun.

EDIT THREE:
If you turn to page two and scroll down you will encounter a lovely description of the government building. This is likely to expand as questions are asked.

EDIT FOUR:
Just beneath edit three, there is a tenative guide for idiomatic expressions and linguistic wierdness. It is still incomplete, and will be updating itself there. I will not mention it on this post when it gets edited.

EDIT FIVE:
Contains in depth info on the subsystems that happen in the Cardboard Slums.

EDIT SIX:
There is now a lovely failpic of the government building on page five with some useful er...labels. Frolic in its faillyness.

IM SO JOINING THIS! But.... tomorrow, when im not a zombie. So you shall see my chatacter(s) tomorrow. At some point when i wake up.

((As it is with Rav, you'll see my character(s) tomorrow.))

Name: Chalan Derevko
Age: 19
Where do you live?: Cardboard Slums
Appearance: about 5'7", very thin, dirty most of the time, black hair with blonde streaks that hangs to her shoulders, bright green eyes
Personality: (will develop)
Employed?: no
Relevant other information?: tends to spy on people in the better districts

Imma join this when im ungrounded!

Name: Zerechi Alsmrin known as Zeri for short
Age: 15
Where do you live?: Cardboard slums
Appearance: Thin, about 6 foot 2 inches, dark brown hair, light blue almost grey eyes
Personality: Mostly keeps to himself, quiet.
Employed?: If you count being a thief employed
Relevant other?: Both his parents are dead and there are no other family members

Name: Freya Thorn
Age: 17
Where do you live?: Burnout district
Appearance: Short silver-tipped blue hair, blue eyes, pale skin, very thin, a bit on the short side.
Personality: Well, most of you know her already, but for those who dont, she's a little crazy, easily bored, and enjoys violence. Pain, both her own and that of others is nice to her.
Employed?: Yes. And she quite enjoys her job.
Relevant other?: N/A

Name: Zane Entirei
Age: 18
Where do you live?: Cardboard Slums
Appearance: Pale, slightly gaunt looking, very very thin. Messy poorly-self-barbered dark brown hair, green eyes. Average height, pale.
Personality: Wary and cautious of others at first, for obvious reasons, but makes a good ally if you can get through to him. Independent, doesnt like to show weakness, tough and hardworking.
Employed?: No
Relevant other?: N/A

I would join this...but i'm going to be busy the next couple weeks (or busier) but i will stalk this and if it is alright with you i'll toss in a character when my life isnt so....busy.

So... I seem to have misarticulated something in the character sheets... 'Relevant other' should have the Word 'information' tacked on to the end... I apologise for the misunderstanding... And will be editing as soon as i get off this failpod.

Ok. Additional infodump time.

Again. I do apologise for being excessively...loquacious about all this. It's just relevant. I swear.

RELEVANT HISTORICAL FACTOIDS:

From this point in time, Mr.Face has been running the government for 30 years. He usurped the monarchy essentially by holding a revolution...The monarchy sucked...however...Mr.Face isn't an improvement in any way.
The school systems collapsed 14 years ago.
The duct tape tax (16% on all duct taped products and the rolls themselves) has been employed for about 6 months.
The Internet- Shrinebox system was rerouted by Mr.Face 26 years ago, so realistically, some of your characters will have no idea that it ever WASN'T rerouted to the Internnet warehouse.
Incendiary punishment for property tax evasion imposed as law 20 years ago. (They will kill you with fire, and burn down your house, too.)
Food taxes imposed 24 years ago...Many people do not remember a time when there was no rationing.

TAX INFORMATION:

Income tax: 60% of income.
Income --> Income after tax
1,140 --> 456
1,000 --> 400
900 --> 360
800 --> 320
700 --> 280
And that covers all the cellblock positions. The guard monthly minimum is 500, which is what you start out being paid as a newb.
Food tax: 25% of price of food. Here's a cheat sheet:
Expired cans: Untaxed- 4 Taxed- 6
Unexpired cans: Untaxed- 12 Taxed- 16
Duct tape tax: 16% of price of duct tape.
Internet warehouse withdrawal charge: 15% of value of object
Property tax: 25% of value of lot. Ok. So here's the breakdown for that By district:
Brownstones: 200 rectangles monthly
Burnout district: 100 rectangles monthly
Cardboard Slums: 50 rectangles monthly

OTHER MONETARY INFORMATION:

The monetary unit: Rectangles.
What it's worth: 16 rectangles covers payment plus tax of one can of unexpired food.
Your income: Varies based on your rank within the Guard. If you don't mind the unfortunate implications of working in cellblock five fulltime, then you make 1,140 a month. This is the vertical pay limit.
Cellblock 4 pays 1,000 monthly.
Cellblock 3 pays 900 monthly.
And it continues downward from there, logically, as seen above in the TAX INFORMATION section.

Ok. That should do for now...More info as I find necessary, I promise.

Name: Aliyah
Age: 16
Where do you live?: The Brownstones
Appearance: She is short and small, neon blue hair and almost jade colored green eyes. Very thin and normally pale.
Personality: She's a quiet girl but has a very bad temper. Takes a lot to make her smile, although you make get a smirk when she thinks you're acting stupid. Has a very low toleration of joking around and such, is a pretty serious person.
Employed?: Yes, cell four
Relevant other Information?: N/A

Name: Dylan
Age: 19
Where do you live?: The Burnout District
Appearance: (Please note- Being emaciated is TYPICAL OF THE WORLD. AS IS PALENESS. Continue.) Brown hair, hazel eyes
Personality: Quiet, soft-spoken,...uhhhhh....
Employed?: Guard in Cellblock 4
Relevant other Information?: Just made him up....

Name: Varity Staples
Age: 18
Where do you live?: Cardboard Slums
Appearance: http://www.hji.co.uk/ImagePopup.aspx?imageid=qhs31573&imagename=Anya Dellicompagni BHA Midlands3&imagetitle=Anya-Dellicompagni-BHA-Midlands3
Personality: Absolutely classless, has a temper, wild. Selfish and says the first thing that comes to her mouth. Would sell you out for some cigarettes.
Employed?: Her work?
Relevant other Information?: Somehow, people keep dumping their kids on her. She never wanted them and is more than happy to give them up to Mr. Face, but they do come in handy sometimes. Use to have access to a shrinebox from a Brownstone guy who also taught her a few letters, but he died in the riots.

Name: Tilla Staples
Age: 14
Where do you live?: Cardboard Slums
Appearance: ruddy and pale skin, unsettlingly large black eyes, tangled brown hair to his shoulders, clothes are alwas too big for him and he's short.
Personality: He's kinda crazy. Zones out a lot, has random periods of time where he's either talking a lot or dead quiet. Goes ballistic when people touch him, but is otherwise normally subdued. Has is own strange notions on how the world works.
Employed?: No
Relevant other Information?: Varity's little brother.

Is this ok?

Name: Tara Freid
Age: 20
Where do you live?: Cardboard slums
Appearance: A bit shorter than average height (and that's our average height, not Audian average); exceptionally pale; has pin-straight, brown hair that hangs to shoulders; gray eyes
Personality: Sharp, unyielding, trusts no one but herself, sarcastic
Employed?: Yes--guard in cellblock five
Relevant other Information?: Her family owned the house before Mr. Face took over. She secretly keeps an underground bunker where she stores food and valuables, and where she often sleeps. Her shrinebox is also down there. Her parents have since died (father killed in riots, mother died of illness), leaving her the sole owner of the property.

Alright...so as most of you already know, I am going to be out of town for about a week. This chat will commence upon my return from internet-free out of townland.

Until then...DO OTHER THINGS WITH GREAT ANTICIPATION FOR MY RETURN, UPON WHICH...WE WILL BE COMMENCING.

Wow. That was pretty redundant.

And, Winter's friend, if you are reading this...HI! I APOLOGISE FOR BEING OUT OF TOWN ON THE DAY YOU FIRST SHOWED UP...WE WILL HAVE A PARTY TOGETHER UPON MY RETURN, I'M SURE.

Bye all!

ADDITIONAL MONETARY INFORMATION:

INCENDIARY TAX COLLECTION:
This is a job option, although somewhat more...pyromaniacal in nature. And also, There are less of them, since blatant property tax evasion is...actually a less common occurance than petty theft or food tax evasion.
The description: You burn down things built on property that has not been paid off. Ideally with the tax evaders inside. That's...about it, really.
The pay tier proceeds as such:
Cardboard Slums: 500 Rectangles --> After tax: 200 monthly.
Burn Out district: 700 Rectangles --> After tax: 280 monthly.
Brownstones: 900 Rectangles --> After tax: 360 monthly.

Name: Astley Carmicheal
Age: 22
Where do you live?: Brownstones
Appearance: Light brown hair, self-cut just above his shoulders. Grey-blue, supposedly un-feeling eyes. Tall(about 6"0'), Thin, and Gaunt.(shocking...)
Personality: Prefers not to show his Emotions, but it doesn't mean he doesn't have any. He doesn't /fully/ enjoy his Job, but he thinks it's better than the Cellblocks.(we'll see how he develops...)
Employed?: Incendiary Tax Collecter in The Brownstones.
Relevant other Information?: Attended school till age 8. (not much else, at the moment..)

T.Mor:

I...Well, See, I would say that I woke up...but that would be a lie...Uhm. I rolled out of bed, and onto the floor...My mattress was on the floor, so it wasn't all that far. Time...What time...WAIT.

It was my day off.

I grinned. This...This was wonderful. The whole of Caturday...to simply...erm...work on patching the leaks in my roof...and...uhm...not go to work...and...not go to work...and not go to work...and...Uhm...yeah.

I trudged downstairs in my work clothes anyway, because those were the only clothes I owned. But I went downstairs in my socks, instead of in my combat boots, and made some instant coffee. A half cup of instant coffee.

Ana came downstairs."Why are you here? I thought you had to go do that...job...." She halted at the foot of the stairs.

"...Day off." I stated, almost burning the roof of my mouth on the hot caffienated liquid.

"Shouldn't you be picking up an extra shift?" And she was mad. Already...Fantastic...

"Uhm...I worked three extra shifts so far this month. It's fine...." I told her.

"Fine? How is it fine? You're sitting here when you could be getting paid." She reprimanded me, all...the way she is already.

"I thought...I thought you hated my job?" And now we were into the daily arguement.

"I do. But as long as you have it...I mean... We could be eating more..." She stated. "And I mean...if you got a raise...we could afford to...Do all kinds of stuff...and like...the roof wouldn't leak...and...we could keep the house..." She said all excitedly. She did this every time too. And yet...what did she do to help? ...nothing. Nothing at all...

"We could sell the house...." I suggested, following the pattern. "We could move and eat everyday... And I wouldn't have to get a promotion..." I suggested, knowing that she was going to shoot me down, like she always did.

"NO." Right...like I said. She always did this...I mean...this was practically a daily conversation. For five years now, this has been the daily conversation. I was sick of it... I mean... It made me sick... And I never understood how it worked...How she could be mad at me for killing people, and yet...want me to get a promotion...

I just ignored her for a moment and went to the closet, checking on water. We'd need more water...hm. "Ana. Drink this real fast...I'm going to go refill the jug for next week..." I poured her the last glass of pre-boiled water for the day.

"...Ok..." She always listened about food and water...No. Didn't want to think about it. Not at all. I did not want to think about Ana, or food...no. I was going to walk the 12 blocks down to the river, fill my water jug, pay the fee for that...and go home. And then...erm...I didn't know...Work on the coding for a piece of plywood to nail to my ceiling, probably. Show those leaks who's boss.

"See you in a bit..." I went ahead and grabbed the mask on the way out of the door... no need to get killed in the streets for pocket money I didn't have... And walked outside into the grey, smokey somewhat drizzly mess that was the street I lived on.

I took the normal route, only having to reroute myself twice on account of fires.

Chalan lay in her cardboard hut, not really wanting to get up. Her life really wasn't worth living, and having to suffer through another day didn't really sound good. She covered her face, wishing herself to go back to sleep, but it wasn't working. She groaned and got up, getting ready for the day.

Getting ready consisted of...well, not much. She stood up, ran her hand over her the clothes she had slept in, brushed her fingers through her hair, and...that's it. No clean clothes, no hairbrush, no breakfast. Chalan had finished her food supply too early, and would now have to go without until she could afford more, or steal something. Sighing, she left her small cardboard shack.

Chalan had no job, no family, and no life. Well, she had a life of course but it totally sucked. Having no one to talk to didn't help either. Chalan hadn't talked in so long, she had pretty much forgotten how.

Not having anything better to do, she headed to one of the nicer districts, hoping to find food to steal. Not really having a lot of place to hide, she headed for one of the small streets, figuring she wouldn't be noticed.

Astley
Ugh.. Another Day...
I woke up and rolled off the bed.. I couldn't afford anything like a blanket, or even a decent mattress.. most people couldn't..
I was lucky to even be able to afford to eat more often than most.

It was... I don't know what day it was... but I would probably have to go to work anyways...

I sat up slowly, and brushed off my clothes, I could only afford the one set, so I have to sleep in them...

I walked Downstairs, and Saw my dwindling pile of cans, I wasn't eating tonight...
I sighed, Grabbed my Jacket, my Mask, my Gun, and My boots, and Walked out into the street... I still wasn't entirely sure what day it was... but I started walking towards the Government building anyways, all but ignoring the fires... I had probably started some of them Anyways...

SOME SURFACE FEATURES:

GOVERNMENTAL BUILDING GEOGRAPHY:
WEST WING: Largely unlit, as a result of being Mr.Face's private quarters. He does not need the light...so, why bother with the additional power bills?

PRISONS: In the east wing...MORE INFO WILL BE PROVIDED IN DEPTH LATER.

FRONT OF THE BUILDING: Home to a large lobby with two sweeping staircases off to the east and west wings....provided of course you don't get lost in the myriad of completely symmetrical hallways first of course. Mr.Face did this architecturally for HIS convenience. NOT YOURS. Within that front lobby is a big brown box, nailed to the wall, with a button on it. It will read off an assignment aloud when it is pushed.

More on hallways and general looks:
The hallways are all made of stone, they do sustain an echo. The doors are typically really heavy fancy wood, although have a bizarre anachronistic quality to them, due to Internet. They don't all match, style wise. It's clear that they're the fanciest things available, but...yeah. The doors have braille labels on them, along with...well...fractured english labels, even though Mr.Face is the only literate one among them. Beyond the doors, they are all identical. Every single hallway turns on to an equally identical hallway. People have gotten lost in the place. And woe betide those who wander into the West wind while Mr.Face is...there.

Laboratory: Near the heart of the building is Mr.Face's Lab, which houses all of his internet stuff, OS, the real sacrificial table, and miscellaneous other torture devices.

I think that should suffice for the moment...

A TENTATIVE AUDIAN COLLOQUIALISM MANUAL:

So. As I have mentioned before, Auda is...really idiomatic in its' language stuff, which is why I was reluctant to put something like this up, but...I realised that there would likely be some wierd blanket language rules that I could put up, and some common phrases to explain, which would hopefully help ya'll out some.

Again, I apologise for the relentless infodumping.

So...On with the info.

SWEARWORDS AND SUCH- Well, Most four letter words in Auda get translated out to simply 'Expletive'. There are occasional instances of memetic mutation bringing up actual swearwords, however, as with most memes, Audians have NO CLUE where said meme actually originated, and as such, don't pay them much mind.
RELIGIOUS SWEARING- Where we are all accustomed to 'Oh god' or...in some cases 'Oh gods', Audians typically say 'Oh Internet'. Or, alternately, "Oh Ceiling Cat'. This is as a result of the Internet being worshipped AS a god. Ceiling Cat is held as a minor diety...And is considered to be watching over the public at all time.

MISC. OTHER:
-If someplace is known to be rather pleasant, it is compared to Dallas. This is rooted in Peter Chimaera's "Quarter-life: Full life consequences" FanFiction, although, as usual, most Audians do not even know there is such a thing.
-Peter Chimaera in general is quite well quoted, actually...It's strange.
-Bullets= Dakka. Dakka is the more common term. This originates from Warhammer 40K. The most common use of the term? 'I need moar dakka.'

As more things become apparent I will simply update this post, without indicating that on the monolithic first post. And, also, feel free to employ whatever memes you have at the ready in daily dialogueing here, You may just perpetuate a favourable idiomatic expression, and if that works out, I'll throw it up on this post.

Yeah...

Dylan

I woke up with water dripping in my face from the hole in the celing. I sleeply tugged on my boots and trudged down stairs, grabbing the cold insta coffee I had been drinking last night. I finished it, tugged on the mask, and walked out the door.

Name: Amorelle
Age: 16/17 she's not sure
Where do you live?: Brownstones. For now.
Appearance: (Please note- Being emaciated is TYPICAL OF THE WORLD. AS IS PALENESS. Continue.)
Chestnut Brown hair, green eyes, naturally pale (though the lack of food does not help), and thin. Duh.
Personality: Quiet, quick witted, likes to cause mischief when bored, can have a dark mind set.
Employed?: No, she is housed by her parents. they are guards and what not.
Relevant other Information?: Supposedly, she does not exist. Or, at least, her parents never speak of her. She only goes to the house for sleep or food, other than that, they don't acknowledge her and vise versa. They had a falling out a year passed. She could be kicked out at any moment.

Aliyah

Blinking slowly I sat up and rubbed my eyes in an attempt to pull my mind from the last bit of sleep. Just sitting in the middle of my mattress I closed my eyes after glancing at the window and let myself relax for a moment. I had time before work to shake of the effects of the day before. I didn't really mind my job, it was all to easy for me to push the pain from my mind and move on. I've been called cold hearted but I don't really see it that way. Just a necessity, how else was I to go through the day without breaking down.

I repeated a phrase over and over in my mind for a moment, letting it sink in before standing and making my way out of my room. Separate heart separate mind. I just had to remember that and I could easily make it through another day.

Skipping the food I grabbed my mask and started out the door. Time for work.