"Keep your lights on. Bad things happen in the dark."
Midnight City proverb
Go back 300 years and this would be unrecognizable wilderness. The colonists took to calling it "Midnight Parish" because of how deep the impermeable forest often became. Mist from the Atlantic Ocean rolled in constantly, blocking out the star and moonlight. For years, they kept huddled together in the basic comforts of log walls and lantern oil.
But time waits for no one. Adapting to the marching decades, the parish became a town and then a bustling city. Being a harbor on the East Coast certainly helped in multiplying its wealth and population by order of magnitude.
In the modern era, Midnight City is a sprawling labyrinthine metropolis. It is a vision of a future painted by billionaires who wanted to erase its significant history in favor of making it a party city. Unfathomable wealth was poured into the venture, sparking several mass migrations of people and companies to the area.
This economic boom, started in 1989, continued through the 1990s and early 2000s despite crashes and housing crises. The millions of citizens within its city limits wanted desperately for the system to work. But the elite 1% of the 1% skimmed whatever foamed to the top from this colossal effort.
While corporations flourished, their products began to stagnate. Their employees soon received pitiable raises and stock options dwindled to zero. This would be a symptom of a larger national problem, but Midnight City had evolved into a massive flashpoint for the East Coast.
Homelessness and poverty were on the rise. Hard drugs were part of its DNA, considering the very founding principles behind its sudden growth. The last dying wheeze of a decade of corporate greed was being forced out of Midnight City's lungs.
It was now up to the citizens to find a solution.
Sights and Sounds
With the massive influx of wealth and interest in turning Midnight City into what could be the future of mankind, no expense was spared in updating everything in preparation for the dawn of a new age. These upgrades were both physical and rooted in computer data, allowing for seamless transitions from flesh to machine. Virtual reality became commonplace as early as the turn of the century. The main focus of the city soon shifted from a paradise for corporate elites to a place focused on escapism.
No one wanted to live in Midnight City. No one wanted to leave, either, because that meant abandoning the pleasures they had grown accustomed to. Millions of people were enraptured by the never-ending maze of neon lights. Eventually, over the course of the next few decades, no one could escape.
The police received additional funding to deal with the growing gang wars. Futuristic cyberpunk thugs do daily battle with the enforcers responsible for maintaining their own brand of justice and order.
But, even with all of this madness to consider, the true heart of Midnight City has always been its reliant stream of unique dive bars, restaurants, and enhanced virtual experiences. Most prominent among these are various hookah dens that utilize the flavored smoke to mask the only sense not overcome by the virtual reality hardware. Raids into these illegal operations are often met with stiff resistance from the gangs responsible for draining money from people who do everything in their power and bank accounts to escape their lives. Anything virtual is a guaranteed hit in the criminal underground of Midnight City. It evolved into a natural evolution of the identity of the metropolis.
The culmination of this became the district system. Heavily policed, the districts are divided by net income and crime rate. The common denominator is that everyone is taxed too heavily and no one is paid enough except for the people on top.
Log in to comment