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YOU CAN ALWAYS BE AND DO MORE – OR BE REPLACED. 

Lucresh

+entrepreneurial, excelling, driven, energetic /-image-conscious, competitive, workaholic A highly competitive steampunk-style city with propaganda and citizen rankings displayed. It’s common for citizens to mechanically augment themselves to reach peak states of productivity and achievement. How far will they go to reach peak performance? Some say that their very human essence is being sacrificed for an extra bit of prestige… or admiration.

Places

  1. A narrow, steam-venting alleyway where discarded, obsolete brass gears and burnt-out magi-tech batteries are piled high.
  2. A brightly lit 24-hour augmentation clinic with a glowing neon sign advertising "15% More Productivity."
  3. A cramped, oil-stained workbench in a lower-tier apartment, covered in blueprints and half-finished clockwork gadgets.
  4. A glass-walled elevator rising rapidly, offering a dizzying view of the smog-choked, gear-driven city below.
  5. A pristine, high-end cafe where patrons consume nutrient-dense, meticulously plated meals in absolute silence to maximize efficiency.
  6. A public productivity board flashing red as a citizen's ranking drops by a single decimal point, drawing stares from passersby.
  7. A hissing steam-pipe corner in a factory where exhausted workers sneak a mandatory, precisely timed 3-minute break.
  8. An opulent, steel-and-glass executive office with a panoramic view and a desk completely devoid of clutter.
  9. A roaring subterranean boiler room, unbearably hot, where un-augmented engineers frantically shovel glowing magi-tech coals.
  10. A sleek tram car where every passenger is simultaneously reading holographic reports and ignoring each other completely.
  11. A sleek boutique displaying polished chrome prosthetic limbs on velvet cushions like high-end jewelry.
  12. A cold, metallic public bench equipped with a timer that sounds a harsh alarm if you sit for more than five minutes.

Events

  1. A citizen aggressively polishing their brass mechanical arm while anxiously waiting in line for a promotion exam.
  2. Two rivals exchanging the "Optimae" greeting, their firm handshakes turning into a brief, intense test of mechanical grip strength.
  3. A sudden burst of steam from an overhead pipe completely ruining a junior executive's perfectly pressed, expensive suit.
  4. A street sweeper with augmented legs moving at terrifying speeds to clear a path before a VIP arrives.
  5. A low-ranking clerk crying quietly in a bathroom stall after being demoted, wiping their tears with an oil-stained rag.
  6. A sudden, synchronized chime echoing across the district to signal the start of the next optimized work shift.
  7. A vendor aggressively hawking dangerous "sleep-replacement" potions to weary students outside the Ascent Academy.
  8. A mechanical courier drone malfunctioning and scattering confidential corporate documents across a busy intersection.
  9. A wealthy investor pausing to check their reflection in a polished steel wall, fixing a single hair out of place before walking into a meeting.
  10. An engineer frantically recalibrating their augmented eye when it begins to glitch and spark during a delicate repair.
  11. A crowd pausing for exactly ten seconds to applaud a new productivity record broadcasted on a giant screen.
  12. A lone mechanic carefully extracting a tiny, crushed organic flower caught in the cogs of a massive street machine.

People

  • Max Daggerstripe (Cheetah), A courier who replaced both his legs with piston-driven steel to guarantee he is never late.
  • Vera Copperwing (Eagle), A mid-level manager who uses a ticking pocket watch to time every conversation, abruptly walking away when her seconds are up.
  • Jett Brineback (Crocodile), An underground mechanic who specializes in illegal, over-clocked augmentations for citizens desperate to climb the ranks.
  • Nina Fogbridge (Leopard), A high-ranking executive who is slowly losing her memories due to a faulty cerebral augmentation, but refuses to take time off.
  • Reed Rustjaw (Rhino), A heavy-lifter in the boiler rooms who refuses to augment his body, determined to prove organic strength.
  • Zoey Moonwing (Bat), A sleep-deprived student at the Ascent Academy who drinks dangerous amounts of alchemical caffeine to study 20 hours a day.
  • Leo Anchorclaw (Lion), A former champion athlete whose outdated brass augmentations rattle loudly, a constant reminder of his fall from grace.
  • Aria Silverhelm (Fox), A brilliant but ruthless corporate spy with an augmented eye that can read a document from a hundred yards away.
  • Finn Cutlasspurr (Cat), A wealthy heir who adorns his mechanical arm with useless but expensive jewels to flaunt his wealth.
  • Tia Blazeclaw (Hawk), A tram conductor who barks productivity tips over the intercom to passengers during their morning commute.
  • Dex Rumblebeard (Goat), A street food vendor who engineered a multi-armed cooking apparatus to serve twelve customers simultaneously.
  • Maya Shellstride (Tortoise), A renowned architect who designed the fastest elevators in the city, secretly terrified of the speeds she created.

Sensory details

Sights

  1. Holographic productivity boards flickering over every intersection, ranking citizens by output.
  2. Brass augmentation limbs catching lamplight as a crowd hurries through the smog.
  3. A tower of stacked workshops, each floor lit a different shade of gaslight.
  4. Steam venting from street grates in timed, scheduled bursts.
  5. A queue outside a promotion exam hall that stretches around three blocks.
  6. Clockwork pigeons carrying rolled contracts between rooftops.
  7. Soot-darkened banners advertising the current quarter's efficiency target.
  8. A discarded prosthetic arm still twitching in a gutter of black runoff.
  9. The gleaming private elevator reserved for the top-ranked hundred.
  10. Blueprints pinned across an entire apartment wall, annotated in three colors of ink.
  11. A repair stall where cracked gears are sorted into bins by tolerance.
  12. Dawn arriving as a dull orange smear behind the smokestacks.

Sounds

  1. The rhythmic ticking of a thousand clockwork gadgets, never quite in sync.
  2. Steam pipes hissing behind every wall.
  3. The shift bell, which nobody is permitted to ignore.
  4. A ratchet being cranked one careful tooth at a time.
  5. Two colleagues congratulating each other through gritted teeth.
  6. The whine of an over-clocked magi-tech battery pushed past its rating.
  7. Rain drumming on corrugated brass awnings.
  8. A surgeon's drill, muffled by clinic curtains and cheerful advertising music.
  9. Ledger pages turning fast enough to sound like wingbeats.
  10. The clank of a mechanical leg that badly needs oiling.
  11. An auctioneer selling off a bankrupt inventor's patents.
  12. Absolute, unnerving silence during the ten-minute sanctioned rest.

Smells

  1. The metallic tang of warm brass.
  2. Acrid smoke from an over-clocked battery.
  3. Machine oil soaked deep into wooden floorboards.
  4. Coal smoke that settles on the tongue.
  5. Antiseptic drifting out of an all-night augmentation clinic.
  6. Cheap stimulant tea brewed far too strong.
  7. Ozone after a magi-tech surge.
  8. Fresh ink on a still-drying contract.
  9. Scorched copper from a solder joint gone wrong.
  10. Sweat under a heavy leather work apron.
  11. Sour rainwater pooled in an oil-slicked alley.
  12. The strange, clean scent of a factory floor scrubbed for inspection day.

Tastes

  1. Stimulant tea, bitter enough to make the eyes water.
  2. Grit from the air that never fully rinses away.
  3. Dense ration bricks engineered for calories, not pleasure.
  4. Metal, from biting down during an adjustment.
  5. Syrupy energy tonic sold by the thimble.
  6. Cold coffee left on a workbench since the previous shift.
  7. Smoke, faintly, in every glass of water.
  8. A celebratory brandy that costs a week of wages.
  9. Salt from a pretzel bought at the exam hall doors.
  10. Chalky focus tablets pressed with the guild seal.
  11. Burnt sugar from a vendor's flame-caramelized nuts.
  12. The flat, filtered nothing of company-supplied drinking water.
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