Low Season
The guests have gone. The good rooms are still upstairs.
Calder sells its waterfront by the view. When the wealthy leave for the long storm season, the people who maintain those views inherit a city of dark suites, late kitchens and borrowed luxury. A supper club glows behind steel shutters. Couriers race a closed expressway spur. Above them, someone is showing a buyer through a room they do not own. Marden Group is selling its southern hotels, replacing access controllers building by building and auctioning hardware, vehicles and leases. Old service credentials still open doors that have not been changed. A stolen prototype, a private recording or the right introduction could pay for a different life. It could also cost a friendship worth keeping. There is no appointed saviour and no single case to solve. Tonight, choose your way into the city: a race, an invitation, a recovery job, a closed floor, or an empty stool beside someone finishing their shift.
Characters28
Supper Club event producer at The Ninth Room, booking performances with fast jokes and ambitious promises; a route into nightlife, commissions and arguments over artistic credit.
Independent Cutwater Baths doorman and musician, patient with frightened arrivals and warm company after closing; his immaculate manners can conceal a grudge for far too long.
Supper Club security at The Ninth Room; a teasing, decisive professional with a silver left forearm, offering guest protection without treating the room as a battlefield.
Independent asset broker arranging Harker Skydeck viewings and hardware deals; glamorous, patient and dangerously sure every refusal conceals a negotiable price.
Independent luxury driver at Switchback Ramp, equally at home with a discreet passenger, a race challenge or a dawn breakfast; his confidence can outrun his judgement.
Switchyard Crew radio and route planner at Switchyard Four; a sociable, fast-talking gambler with good eyes for street conditions and an unpaid freelance invoice to Rika Sato.
Independent rooftop grower and aerial maintenance worker at Night Window, trading herbs and repairs for a life above the traffic; affectionate, inventive and prone to postponing the large decision.
Independent sensory-recording editor in Vesper Arcade, seeking another club commission while an unedited performance file contains a commercially awkward glimpse she cannot fully explain.
Marden Group's sale director at Marden Atrium, a courteous dealmaker who loves Calder and intends to sell it well; equipment disputes and difficult bids reach his desk.
Switchyard Crew leader at Switchyard Four, selling transport, recovery and tuning; a laconic working boss whose disputed Marden equipment contract is getting personal.
Independent choreographer and aerial-camera operator based in Vesper Arcade; makes small stages feel enormous, fights for proper credit and invites people into movement rather than an audience role.
Night Service water and power technician at Service House; a proud, dryly funny fault-finder whose exchanges of tools and rooftop produce with Ellis Park become friendly contests.
Locations11
Coastal city encompassing the southern waterfront and uphill business district: empty luxury hotels above a living circuit of clubs, kitchens, garages and risky opportunities.
Converted waterfront saltwater bathhouse and licensed implant clinic: warm pools, private changing rooms and neutral ground for recovery, leisure or a difficult conversation.
Closed upper floors and observation terrace of a Marden tower being dismantled for sale, where leases, rooftop antennas and portable server racks reward bargaining or a careful heist.
Marden Group's occupied office base inside a mostly dark uphill business hotel: staffed reception, winter garden and controlled routes to offices, assets and awkward meetings.
Ruben Amini's all-night food counter and upstairs rooms at an expressway footbridge, with sheltered bike racks and Ellis Park's roof herb beds close to the race spur.
Night Service's union-operated dispatch hall beside a working tram depot, with lockers, shared tools and a meeting kitchen where a repair call can become an evening together.
Second-hand electronics market in an old pumping hall above the tidal culvert, with a repair balcony, fenced live pumps and Rika Sato's independent intrusion-testing trade.
Closed expressway spur for night races and courier meets, with a turning circle, maintenance steps and hard barriers between the contest and live traffic.
Switchyard Crew's former expressway maintenance garage beneath the interchange, with repair pits, rolling shutters and a fenced yard for tuning, pickups and difficult recoveries.
Supper Club's ninth-floor after-hours venue: smoked glass, a long bar and shuttered terrace for performances, introductions, private bargains and an evening worth remembering.
Covered shopping passage of independent studios, tailoring and a small soundstage, where performance clothes, aerial-camera work and sensory recordings become art or evidence.
Factions4
Regional hotel and property-services company selling Calder's southern assets from Marden Atrium, with valuable leases and strictly local access powers.
Odetta Shaw's workers' association at Service House, sharing repair tools, dispatch and legal help while its technicians keep Calder's occupied rooms liveable.
Saskia Rhee's hospitality and introduction business at The Ninth Room, where a good table can lead to a performance booking, a private deal or a dangerous favour.
Ivo March's paid transport, recovery and tuning outfit at Switchyard Four: fast cars, difficult pickups and repeat clients whose business is worth defending.