Everybody's Mall

Everybody's Mall is a territory where a large shopping center, department store, amusement park, and themed environment. It is a highly controlled environment and settlement which is located between the end of the Penumbrian (Borealis) region, where the rest of the world disappears behind the Briar Wall. It is possible to live in the environment and it is considered extreme tourism, many can only stand to take short trips there.

What's the name of your settlement? Why is it called that?

Everybody's Mall was originally a planned site for an above-ground station for the monorail system in Penumbra, at one point there were plans to expand the route. However something unknown cancelled this project, and instead a giant theme park was built there. There is also a residential community and private education system. The name refers to its construction as well as the joint ownership of land.

How big is this settlement?

There is a permanent population of ~30,000 people and over an area of coverage is approximate to that of Southwestern United States. It fills a void between Green Halos and the Caloris Alpine Colosseum walls, which are miles-high mountains surrounding a crater basin south of the Penumbran line. It has a largely fluctuating population due to the extreme environment in the Antumbran region, with a small core population who have adapted to it. It is self-sustaining and relies a lot on tourism, so the population is kept low.

The permanent demographics are (including rank of population size)

Green Men (aphid cult) - Leader, Jack in the Green (Citron) - 4

Flittermaus (bat/parasite cult) - Leader, Heavy Metal Mab (Heavy Metal) - 1

Mall Rats/Hags (untouchables, transients, criminals, magicians) - Leader, various - 3

Crater People (snake cult) - Leaders, Water Horses (Brimstone) - 2

Algae People (hydra cult) - Leader, Queen Zennor (Brine) - 5

Aether People (wolf cult) - Leader, Red Hood (Flint) - 6

What’s the purpose of this settlement?

The region of Everyone's Mall is a owned by several groups:

• Green Men, who are a community of wilderness experts and ethobiologists (the descendants of them), and are found in the Halos around the crater states, in particular smaller ones like Nod, Wulfbright, and Morvoren, whose haloes overlap and more trade is common.
• Lead Hearts, who are a corporation who make low-cost survival gear and grant tourist visas for extreme tourism. They often ignore safety standards in favour of saving money, but they are relied on by a lot of people who cannot afford the high cost of living or want to be free from the feudal working conditions on Antumbra's surface. They are often likened to Mall Rats but usually weasel their way into legitamite work and certifications.
• LUNED, who are responsible for the Watchers and other technology, and although popular in the Penumbra, are looked at differently in Antumbran society, as more oligarchal or tyrranical, as they enforce a caste system in their research bases.
• The Caloris Group, a large megacorporation and political party who are heavily involved in the Caloris area, but also own a significant amount of the Antumbran bases, and although their meddling is quite diverse the actual core members of the group are quite insular, they tend to be traditionalists.
• The Boreal Group, another megacorporation and political party who collaborated once with the Caloris Group to pioneer survival in extreme temperatures alongside the Green Men and LUNED, they are seen as progressives but ultimately spend a lot of time squabbling and splitting hairs over policies rather than getting anything done. Many of them claim to be from the Crater People, professing that they understand the fundamentals of an idyllic and fair society.

This settlement was made as a trading and transportation hub very early on and is somewhat outdated now, but was very crucial in the early settling of the planet and the survivability of organic life, eventually becoming a realm of its own, and a bit of a no-man's land in which disputes can be settled.

Some of the main purposes of this settlement over time -

• Trading Post
• Mail Post
• Residential Area
• Private School System
• Transit Station
• Research/Maintenance Stations
• Theme Park
• Mall/department store
• Basically its its own country

What's the surrounding geography like?

• At the south end of the area is a large set of ridges which make up the crater wall, beyond these leads to the Briar Wall
• There are some highly controlled Green Halos and Metal Spas, meaning haloes of wildlife or deposits of volatile metals which are luminescent and pass as a tourist attraction.
• Venturing North, between an area known as The Middling, are other crater states, the nearest being TKName. It is mostly barren and only used for necessary transport.

What's the tone or vibe here?

• Like a dangerously unsafe theme park but in unconventional ways
• A gated community parodied like in the Simpsons and King of the Hill
• Works on social credit
• A necessary evil, that is so soulless it manages to bridge us all together
• Hollywood, but the one in Florida
• No one can tell if it's an ironic representation of Antumbra or not

What does “a roof and a meal” look like here?

If you have money to burn:

• You can have dinner at a Hell's Kitchen type establishment that is running a cooking reality competition show all of the time (it's how they recruit new chefs for the kitchens)
• Menu features a lot of lichen cuisine, something really trendy and only available in the penumbra, they also use real milk in some of their more expensive dishes, on rare occasions (it is usually illegal)
• You can stay at a luxury hotel with both Penumbran and Antumbran rooms, including one that is technically in Antumbra, it's built high enough to avoid the Briar Wall, and this particular hotel even has its own restaurant and other insane luxuries. They are climate controlled. There are a lot of themed suites. You can even take an express train from here to TKHennLisnerLasVegas, which although unpleasant and much like commercial flying, is the only direct way there.
• You can also stay at one of the nicer suits in any of the Theme Parks
• Med Spas and Personal Magician Services

If you're on a budget:

• Mostly, they eat Freeze Dried or "Ready Anywhere" meals, you can also get minerals and supplements pretty easily here from vending machines, and some recreational places like discos and clubs. They have a lot more flavours and sometimes have festivals with rare foods, but those tend to have an upcharge.
• You can sleep outside, at Nod, which has long been considered a spiritual pilgrimage space to Asclepius, this is a crater so the atmosphere is more like Penumbria, though it is not as comfortable as it is not used to housing large permanant populations, and isn't prioritizing tourism
• People who can love to eat pencils, and flavored pencils are common, typically these are made with the cheapest parts of the harvested wood(?) and chemosynthesists love it as a cheap snack. Also common among Mall Rat establishments.
• This is a great place to get a cheap magician's ceremony (to boost luck, favour, win a competition) without it being too dangerous, unless you really fuck up, there are lots of cheap med spas too but they crack down pretty hard on illegal surgery
• There are are not love hotels here like there are in other places, but there is an informal district where couples often stay as you can camp out in a tent, known as "parking lots". They are expressly forbidden to live there permanently but people try and keeping them clean and orderly is difficult
• There ARE more long-term trailers available that are close to the parking lots but they are specific spots and it's hard to get one.

Type

Megalopolis

Characters in Location

• Elka Carnovia