gabbyncat: (Default)
ExpandUnder the Cut )

So the old city is divided by the rivers into three "Quarters" which I've tentatively named the North Quarter the Central Quarte and the Cultural Quarter. There aren't many bridges. There is a central curving "high street" which is where most of the old buildings can be found and this has a bridge over each river (Main Bridge - should think of a better name) and Roman Bridge. There is a second bridge, St. Peter's Bridge between the north and central quarters. In the central area is an old 19th century slum area (the old warren) and that's where Alex's tenement is. I think we are going to have to set the city in this world. I suggest an imaginary tiny European principality between France and Italy, possibly with a large English-speaking community, possibly with English as the official language.

NB. Subsequently agreed on an island in the Adriatic sea between Italy and the Balkans. The historical remnant of ancient `Illyria'. The island is English and Italian speaking with a large British ex-pat population for reasons not yet well specified.
gabbyncat: (Default)
ExpandUnder the Cut )

I'm thinking we've got a rocky promotory, next to a big natural bay and a swampy river delta. So the old city is tucked into a flatish bit which is nevertheless rock for building on. This slopes gently down to the sea and the harbour, and is full of picturesque (or not so picturesque) old and cramped housing. Then the slope of the promotory gets much steeper and no one really built there, although there is a keep (?disused, ?ruined) at the top and a lighthouse on the point. However these days the steep slopes have been terraced and wealthy cliff-top mansions built overlooking the old city and the harbour. Meanwhile poorer housing has sprawled out from the city towards the marshy land of the delta, some of which is being reclaimed for yet more new housing. The old road from the city runs along the edge of the rocky ground, trying not to get too high. Meanwhile upriver from the delta is fertile farmland which used supply food to the city. There are a couple of much smaller rivers which essentially bring rain water run-off down from the ridge into the old quarter.

Hmm... not on the map but maybe a reservoir up there now and a hydro plant?
gabbyncat: (Default)
The City
- Currency: Arryn

Alex Porter
- base guitarist

Harry Moss
- younger than Alex
- Dark hair
- Journalist
- Can't cook

Marco ?
- connected to big business

Crown Estaste
- where Alex lives
- name should be changed
- bad area of town

Carla
- Shopkeeper
- Is Alex's contact
- Knows about the undercity/underkin

Aliens
- Live in `the undercity'
- Are referred to as `underkin'
- Build tiny, yet helpful, clockwork robots
gabbyncat: (Default)





Harry is contacted by the owner of the construction site. He spins a good line, makes lots of promises about people getting to see the place before they have to sign anything. Invites her to visit his previous construction job.

Alex points out the promises don't need to be worth anything once Harry has moved on from the story.

Literary agents gets back in touch with Harry. Harry asks for a meeting.

Harry can't get a meeting with the chair of the sub-committee. She starts doing a search on his business interests.

She does get a meeting with another member. The H&S report wasn't at the meeting because of some mix-up but they had a summary and the chair had seen the report.

Harry (and Alex) visit some kind of construction expert who explains problem with site. Also says construction company was supposed to be in trouble.

Harry pulls owners of construction company, one of the board members triggers Alex's interest. Turns out it is his landlord. Further digging reveals landlord and construction company boss are siblings/cousins/spouses.

Alex confronts Marco about connection between landlord and construction company. Alex gets warned off (forcefully). He's been encouraging Harry too much.

Beat up Alex goes to see Harry.

Harry is phoned by councillor friend who warns her off. Harry tries to find out who is giving the warning really and also where the whole Health and Safety thing came from.

Harry meets literary agent and presses her about who put her up to offer Harry this job. It's not Harry's area of expertise, offers a lot more pay than she's used to etc. etc. Meeting doesn't end well.

Harry has agency name, she looks up list of board members and finds sub-committee chair on it. Alex in full-blown conspiracy theory mode.

Alex and Harry go to see whistle-blower again only to find it is his funeral/wake. He died in an accident.

Harry makes list of all things whistle-blower claimed. Some they might be able to verify as the place is going up.

She and Alex break into constructoin site. Harry starts taking photos but they've tripped an alarm and goons arrive. They are trapped in the half-constructed building.

Harry phones police and reports their own trespass. She also uploads her photos to somewhere but this should not be made explicit.

Harry and Alex keep up running hide and seek through construction site until police arrive (possibly in the nick of time) when they allow themselves to be arrested.

Harry has trouble getting bail, the sub-committee councilor guy is blocking it.

He comes to meet and pretty much tries to bribe and blackmail her to drop the story. Harry says she'll think about it.

One of Harry's lawyer friends swings bail for her and Alex. Her camera is not returned to her.

Alex is still living at her place.

Harry and Alex go to ?bar where whistle-blower was killed and try to get information. They get clues about about the "gang" of strangers who got into the fight with the whistle-blower. Also that one of these took the whistle-blowers ?necklace.

Harry has taken all the various company details to a stock-broker friend. He gets back to Harry and Alex an reckons the construction company is being asset stripped. The blocks will go up, the company will go under, and no one will be liable for any problems. He traces all the transactions to some uber-real estaste company, councilor is on the board as are landlord and construction company boss.

Alex wants to know why knock down tenement in first place?

Get back in touch with the construction expert. Rumour is the big uber-company has put in a bid to build the new shopping mall/council offices/leisure complex/whatever the city is planning. Clearly they hope to site on the old tenement land which is a good location.

Alex and Harry attacked by goons again, in the fight one of the goons gets killed and is revealed to be carrying something which links him to the construction workers death/exonerates the construction worker.

Harry writes up human interest story on whistle-blowing construction worker, using uploaded photos and construction experts advice. Their own experience of the attack and the evidence they got from the body.

It is published.

Harry threatens to write a second story about the proposed shopping mall development and the various other people's involvement and bluffs that she has the plans and development documents associated with the development. SHe does a deal with the councilor that this won't get published if the proposed demolition of the tenement block is called off and charges against her and Alex are dropped.

Most of those involved go free but whistle-blowers name is cleared and the tenements are no longer due to be demolished.

PTSD

Oct. 24th, 2010 10:20 pm
gabbyncat: (Gabby)
Everything hurt. Everything. Alex woke to find that he was in agony.
Except for that one little patch on his back that had somehow avoided
the pain. He focused on that, tried to use it to fool his body into
thinking he was OK. Once the initial shock of the pain had subsided,
Alex prised his eye open. Far too much daylight in the room. This
wasn’t his flat, clearly - he had blackouts up until about twelve. He
was on a sofa, sleeping under his leather jacket. Who’s sofa though?

“I see you’re waking up. Want a cuppa?”

“Unless it’s got morphine in it, no th- fuck it, yes please.” Alex sat
up with difficulty, swinging his legs round and planting them on the
floor. He slipped on his leather jacket and yawned.

“Moss, what did you do to me last night?”

“Funny.” Spoons clattered in the kitchen.

“Seriously though, what happened? You called me to come with you on a
story... it was in the tenements... and we ran into Marco, and fuck.”

“‘Fuck I just remembered’ or ‘Fuck my booze-addled mind can’t remember
anything else’?” Harry prompted, handing him a mug.

“Nope, nothing. And I’m not booze-addled.”

“We ran into Marco’s boss. And then one of Marco’s boss’ rivals showed
up. Stuff heated up. You tried to defuse things. You kind of did -
they stopped fighting each other for a while, at least.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah. Didn’t think it was a good idea to leave you at home alone.”

“Fair enough. Well, thanks for looking after me.” Alex paused. “Fuck,
it’s just come back to me. Did I really appeal to their ‘sense of
brotherhood’?”

“‘Fraid so.”

***

Alex had never really counted on having to go into hiding. The City
was smaller than you thought, and everyone seemed to recognise him.
But when he jumped out into the road, heart pounding, narrowly
avoiding a car-induced death, all to avoid the shadow of an alley-cat,
he knew the drug bosses had won. They had got into his head.
gabbyncat: (Alex)
It wasn't that Marco didn't like Alex. In fact Alex was all right, mostly, for someone who was fundamentally a do-gooder and nosey with it. However Marco was a small fish in a big pond and Alex had pissed off one of the big fish. Marco was simply delivering the message.

He told himself this as he watched Alex leaving the small studio where he worked. Marco knew where he was going to to deliver the message. There was a small alleyway, a short cut between a row of shops and the back door of Alex's tenement block. Alex always took that shortcut on his way home. Marco lurked in a doorway across the road from the entrance, half hoping that Alex would turn a different way, walk on to a bar, or down to the bay, or just go in by the front door for once in his life, but no.

Alex turned a corner and headed down the alleyway. Marco shrugged his shoulders in resignation, cracked his knuckles and followed. He had a message to deliver after all. Hopefully Alex wouldn't harbour any ill-feelings about it.

Next Bingo Square: PTSD

Beauty

Oct. 19th, 2010 11:56 am
gabbyncat: (Default)
Harry leaned out of her sitting room window. Her small apartment was at the top of one of the old city tenements that teetered over the street below. If Harry looked down she could see the cobblestones of the street and the long-disused central gutter directly beneath her. If she looked out, her gaze was carried over the cascade of rooftops as they tumbled down the steep hillside and into the bay.

On mornings like this, when a light sea breeze blew up the hill and the sun was bright, everything looked fresh and inviting. The cramped, jumble of streets and houses became a delight.

If she craned her neck round a bit she could see the ugly squat squares of concrete of the new buildings in their rigid and space-efficient grids, although even they had flashes of colour where the residents had placed window boxes or the graffiti artists had left their mark. For all its awkardness, and density and inconvenience, Harry had to admit that it was a beautiful city.

Next Bingo Square: Dancing
gabbyncat: (Gabby)
Skip the before-last step, it’s about to shatter. Button up coat before leaving, since it’s raining. Again. Alex rummaged in his pockets for a cigarette, and once it was clamped in between his lips, shoved the door open with his shoulder. It was heavy, and the hinges screeched. He had left his iPod at home. Sod’s law dictated he would now get stuck in an elevator on his own for a week or something.

Water was dripping from the gutter. It was leaking all over the place, had been for weeks now. Alex added it to the list of things he needed to get fixed without people noticing it was broken. He fumbled with the lighter for a while, struggling to light his cigarette in the face of gusts of wind and rain.

Narrowing his eyes and turning up his collar, Alex walked down the steps and onto the pavement. It was really tipping it down. He glanced at his watch. The last bus had left five minutes ago.

“Alex!”

“Harry? Fuck are you doing here?”

“Reporting, remember? How are you?” Kissy-kissy, stand back, judge. Alex suddenly remembered he hadn’t shaved in ages.

“Same old. But seriously, it’s getting late. How’re you getting home?”

“Getting late? What, you think it’s not safe?” Harry snorted.

“Off the record?”

“Maybe.”

Alex scowled. At that moment, three young men sloped out of an alley.

“Marco, go home, will you? You’ll catch a cold.”

Two of them sniggered at the third, who made an unpleasant gesture at Alex.

“Ah, worried I’ll get mugged, eh? I can handle a few youths, don’t worry.”

“Not Marco I’m worried about. Come on. Let’s go.” Alex laid a firm hand on her shoulder and propelled her towards the exit of the cul-de-sac.

“Well, alright then, let’s. How you getting back?”

Alex squirmed for a moment.

“Left the car at home. Kinda hoping you could give me a lift, actually.”

“Aha! Sounds like someone needs a favour.”

“I’ll walk it if you push me too far.”

“You’ll have to put that out, though.” Harry jerked a thumb at his cigarette. Alex shot her a disgruntled look and then spat the cigarette skywards, grinding it under his heel as he walked over it.

“Classy.”

“One more fag-end isn’t going to tip the block into disrepair, is it? That ship sailed long ago.”
Next Bingo Square: Beauty

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