{"id":70,"date":"2013-10-13T21:14:42","date_gmt":"2013-10-13T21:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.payneful.co.uk\/tales-of-sin\/?p=70"},"modified":"2022-11-03T11:08:12","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T11:08:12","slug":"the-mercenaries-tale-1-04-undercit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.payneful.co.uk\/tales-of-sin\/the-mercenaries-tale-1-04-undercit","title":{"rendered":"The Mercenaries&#8217; Tale &#8211; 1.04 Undercit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Oppressed People\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/5I1DnaKhui6DurwpeJMYcv?si=df9375d6e8d44201&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption>This page&#8217;s musical accompaniment: &#8220;Oppressed People&#8221;, from the <em>Final Fantasy VII<\/em> soundtrack composed by Nobuo Uematsu. Despite the name, this is a track that always stayed with me from FFVII as I feel it genuinely captures the &#8220;making the best of it and loving it&#8221; atmosphere of a slum that&#8217;s a den of vice. This is an excellent cover version by a chap called Sean Schafianski, but you can find the original version easily by Googling it.<br><strong>-Sean.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The area beneath the plates was now known unofficially as \u2018Undercit\u2019, derived from the literal term \u2018under city\u2019. The name and the town itself was unsanctioned by the City of Light for the simple yet unusual ruling by the city\u2019s government that anything below 200ft of the City of Light\u2019s lowest foundation plate was not recognised as being part of the city, with small exceptions given to the vast public transportation lifts for purposes of security. Even the City of Light\u2019s neighbours didn\u2019t recognise Undercit as a geographical entity. Salmanic Inc\u2019s official stance, being the main influence over the government, was that contrary to evidence Undercit didn\u2019t exist; after all, you need somewhere to keep the lower echelons of society, and it\u2019s even better if you can keep them out of the picture when painting the city as a picturesque haven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This oversight in governmental ruling meant Undercit had the freedom to not only grow into a den of lawless vice, but was allowed to bloat into a subculture of its own. It was rife with the slightly murky deeds and habits of crime, including booze, drugs, sex, casual violence, rape, vandalism, thievery, grift, public nudity, general disregard for safety and, due to the lack of enforced closing times at the bars and the minimum of plumbing and sanitation in Undercit, frequent <sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-70-1' id='fnref-70-1' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(70)'>1<\/a><\/sup>urination in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From an architectural and town planning standpoint, Undercit was awe-inspiring. If the City of Light was the pinnacle of design-by-committee, then Undercit was its inversed sibling. There was a controlled chaos to the streets and alleyways. Shacks made of corrugated tin leaned against elderly brick buildings that had long outlived the point where building officials would have condemned them. Wooden market stalls elbowed against each other for room and, as their owners worked at night while their competitors slept, often moved around to different spots over the course of a week. Doors occupied the space between housing that would barely constitute as a narrow alleyway, let alone a liveable habitat. The streets elevated around the pipes, turning into rows of shacks separated by stairs and ladders constructed of wood, iron and steel. Every structure had a character of its own, having been handcrafted with effort from whatever the builder could lay their hands on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The atmosphere wasn\u2019t one of desolate oppression, either. Despite Undercit\u2019s mournful past of unprivileged migrants, the new criminal boom had reinvigorated the town. Punks roamed the streets looking for a good time. Hookers plied their trade, displaying their assets without the need to worry about concepts like \u2018public decency\u2019. Biker gangs camped around open bonfire barrels swapping stories and admiring the latest hoverbike purchases. Somewhere, a Militaristic Mime of the Church of the Combustible<sup class='footnote'><a href='#fn-70-2' id='fnref-70-2' onclick='return fdfootnote_show(70)'>2<\/a><\/sup> demonstrated their anti-sound cannon against the side of a wall to the appreciation of a gang of street urchins. A particularly vocal seller of \u2018long pig\u2019 pushed his freezer cart along the streets, trundling over the arm of a corpse that had previously been feeling fine about five minutes before, when it hadn\u2019t been stabbed in the chest and robbed of its wallet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the down-and-outs, murderers, rapists and criminals, Undercit had a jolly atmosphere to it and was quite the place to be. Presuming that you were a down-and-out, murderer, rapist or criminal, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n<div class='footnotes' id='footnotes-70'><div class='footnotedivider'><\/div><ol><li id='fn-70-1'> Not defecation, though. Even the lowest common denominator of society has a line it refuses to cross, especially if it\u2019s a slimy brown one. <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-70-1'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li><li id='fn-70-2'> It was inevitable, really. Just hope that on the day the mimes turn you\u2019re not around to see it. <span class='footnotereverse'><a href='#fnref-70-2'>&#8617;<\/a><\/span><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The area beneath the plates was now known unofficially as \u2018Undercit\u2019, derived from the literal term \u2018under city\u2019. The name and the town itself was unsanctioned by the City of Light for the simple yet unusual ruling by the city\u2019s government that anything below 200ft of the City of Light\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,26],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-mercenaries-tale","tag-the-city-of-light","tag-undercit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.payneful.co.uk\/tales-of-sin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.payneful.co.uk\/tales-of-sin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.payneful.co.uk\/tales-of-sin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.payneful.co.uk\/tales-of-sin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.payneful.co.uk\/tales-of-sin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.payneful.co.uk\/tales-of-sin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.payneful.co.uk\/tales-of-sin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.payneful.co.uk\/tales-of-sin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.payneful.co.uk\/tales-of-sin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}