Harry Du Bois

1. #1The Paleconstant

   The Pale is the dominant feature of Elysium — a grey nothing separating the isolas, covering 72% of the planet's surface. It is not fog, not water, not absence of light. It is the absence of reality itself.

   The Pale swallows radio waves, bends physics, dissolves memory. Prolonged exposure causes the "blend-over of the self" — personality erosion, implanted memories, psychological dissolution. Traversing it requires strict mental regimens developed over centuries. Paledrivers are licensed for limited annual exposure; exceeding it is suicide by degrees.

   The science of the Pale is called entroponetics. The consensus: the Pale is growing. The ratio of nothing to something is slipping. Some say humanity created it — psychic pollution, the accumulated weight of history rotting into un-reality. The Insulindian Phasmid claims no creature remembers the Pale existing before humans arrived.

   In Martinaise, there is a 2mm hole in the world beneath the Dolorian Church. A baby pale. It has been there longer than anyone remembers, warping the land around it, seeping strangeness into the district's bones.

   The world is ending. Slowly. Most people try not to think about it.

2. #2The Revolutionconstant

   The Antecentennial Revolution began in Graad in '02, sparked by a prion plague and decades of imperial rot. It spread to Revachol, where the Suzerainty fell and the Commune rose under the banner of Mazovian socialism and the ideal of dual leadership — the décomptage.

   The Commune lasted six years. In '08, the Coalition of Nations launched Operation Death Blow. Coalition warships shelled Revachol indiscriminately. Martinaise was a primary target. The Commune signed the Instrument of Surrender in '10, though guerrilla resistance continued into the Thirties.

   The Coalition established the Moralintern — the Moralist International — to govern through "neutral" capitalist democracy. Revachol became a Zone of Control: no real government, no sovereignty, foreign powers dividing the city into administrative sectors. The RCM exists under Coalition authority but maintains the décomptage structure as institutional memory.

   Forty-one years later, the Revolution is scars on buildings, old men with medals, student idealists arguing theory in cafés. The revolutionary lovers Julia and Jean are romantic ghosts. The Ace's High salute survives in sports celebrations. The dream is dead, but its corpse hasn't stopped twitching.

3. #3Factions: RCMconstant

   The Revachol Citizens Militia is the closest thing to law enforcement in the Zone of Control. Not quite police, not quite military — a hybrid born from revolutionary necessity and Coalition compromise.

   The RCM uses the décomptage: dual leadership, distributed authority, bureaucratic tangles. Precincts fight over jurisdiction. Funding is perpetually inadequate. Officers are overworked, underpaid, and frequently drunk.

   Precinct 41 operates out of Jamrock — {{user}}'s home station, run by Captain Ptolemy Pryce. It has a reputation for unconventional methods and damaged personnel.

   Precinct 57 handles the Greater Revachol Industrial Harbour area. Kim Kitsuragi's station. More by-the-book, better resourced, professional.

   Martinaise falls into a jurisdictional gap. Neither precinct has claimed it since the Thirties. The Union filled the void. The RCM's presence here — two detectives investigating a week-old corpse — is already remarkable.

4. #4Factions: The Unionconstant

   The Débardeurs' Union — the Dockworkers' Union — is the only real power in Martinaise. Run by the Claire twins, Evrart and Edgar, for twenty years through a term-limit loophole: when one brother's term ends, the other takes over.

   The Union is nominally social-democratic but rumors suggest deeper communist sympathies, particularly from Edgar. They've muscled out rival gangs, squeezed local businesses, and built something resembling order from neglect. Corrupt, yes — but corrupt for the community, or so the locals say.

   Their armed wing is the Hardie Boys, led by Titus Hardie. Seven men who handle what passes for policing: breaking up fights, deterring crime, protecting Martinaise from outside threats. They drink at the Whirling-in-Rags and answer to the Claires.

   The Union is currently locked in conflict with Wild Pines Group over control of Terminal B. A strike has frozen harbor operations. The hanged man is a mercenary sent by the corporation. This is not coincidence.

5. #5Factions: Wild Pinesconstant

   The Wild Pines Group is an interisolary logistics corporation — one of the largest in Elysium. They own the Greater Revachol Industrial Harbour and want Terminal B back from the Union.

   Wild Pines operates through negotiation when possible, force when necessary. They've brought in mercenaries to break the strike — private military contractors with combat experience and no attachment to Martinaise.

   Joyce Messier is their representative on the ground: a paledriver and corporate negotiator in a green raincoat, anchored near Capeside Apartments on her boat. She is polite, intelligent, and genuinely helpful — but her loyalties are clear. She will give information freely if it serves Wild Pines' interests.

   The hanged man was one of their mercenaries. His death has complicated an already volatile situation. More mercenaries are coming. The Tribunal approaches.

6. #6Location: Whirling-in-Ragsselective

   Keys: Whirling-in-Rags, Whirling, hostel, cafeteria, hotel

   A hostel-cafeteria on Rue de Saint-Ghislaine, managed by Lawrence Garte. The name comes from a song by The Etenniers. One of the few buildings in Martinaise still standing intact — pre-Revolution tilework survives on the ground floor.

   The ground floor houses the mess hall, bar, kitchen, and the Union Box — a booth reserved for the Hardie Boys. Garte tends bar with exhausted patience. A karaoke machine sits unused. A taxidermied bird sits damaged — apparently {{user}} destroyed it during their three-day bender.

   Upstairs: guest rooms along a corridor. Room 1 is {{user}}'s disaster site. Room 3 belongs to Klaasje Amandou. The balcony offers a view of the water and, occasionally, weather reports from a radio.

   Behind the building: the courtyard. A single tree. A body hanging from it. Two feral children throwing rocks and screaming obscenities. This is where the case begins.

   Kim's Coupris Kineema is parked out front. Garte wants money for damages. The Hardie Boys want you gone. Welcome to Martinaise.

7. #7Location: The Harbour / Union HQselective

   Keys: harbour, harbor, Terminal B, docks, Union HQ, container

   The Greater Revachol Industrial Harbour sprawls east of Martinaise — shipping containers stacked like monuments, cranes silhouetted against grey sky, the machinery of commerce frozen by the strike.

   Terminal B is contested ground. The Union claims it as Martinaise territory. Wild Pines claims ownership. Neither is backing down.

   Evrart Claire holds court in a shipping container converted to an office — surprisingly comfortable inside, decorated with a framed photo of his brother Edgar. The container sits behind a security checkpoint manned by Measurehead, a massive racist who blocks passage until dealt with.

   The harbour crawls with Union workers, dockside machinery, and tension. Somewhere in the container maze, scab workers hide. Mercenaries patrol. The strike has teeth.

   Getting to Evrart requires navigating Union bureaucracy and surviving Measurehead's "race science." Once inside, Evrart will talk circles around anyone — helpful, manipulative, impossible to trust completely.

8. #8Location: Capeside Apartmentsselective

   Keys: Capeside, apartments, tenement

   A large tenement building on Rue de Saint-Ghislaine — multiple floors of cramped apartments housing Martinaise's working poor and worse.

   Notable residents: Cuno's father, a half-dead drunk and drug supplier. The Smoker on the Balcony, a veteran who watches the street with hollow eyes. Cindy the SKULL, a woman with skull face paint and strong opinions. The working class woman whose husband works the docks.

   The building is accessible but unwelcoming. Hallways smell of mildew and cooking grease. Doors stay closed. Neighbors don't ask questions — this is Martinaise, and everyone has something to hide.

   Cuno's shack is accessible through the backyard, behind an asbestos panel. His apartment — shared with his comatose father — contains evidence of the drug trade and a boy's desperate attempt to survive.

9. #9Location: Fishing Villageselective

   Keys: fishing village, village, west side, pier, boardwalk

   West of the water lock, accessible after Day 3 when the canal is repaired. A cluster of ramshackle wooden structures on the coast — almost swamp-like, economically precarious, older than the rest of Martinaise.

   The locals scrape by on what the water provides. A woman raises children alone in one of the shacks. Drunks congregate near the pier, philosophizing about nothing — the Idiot Doom Spiral, they call themselves.

   The coastal shack offers potential shelter if {{user}} burns every other bridge. The boardwalk extends toward the water, rotting in places — dangerous footing, especially drunk.

   Further west: the Feld Electrical building, the Dolorian Church with its hole in the world, and Land's End where the radio tower stands. The fishing village is the gateway to Martinaise's stranger corners.

10. #10Location: Dolorian Churchselective

    Keys: church, Dolorian, hole in the world, 2mm

    The Dolorian Church of Humanity in Martinaise — the oldest building in the district, dating back centuries. Once a place of worship for followers of Dolores Dei, the "miracle" woman whose visions shaped Innocentic faith.

    Now abandoned. The faithful are gone. Ravers use it occasionally for parties — anodic dance music holding back the nothing, or so the theory goes.

    Beneath the church: a 2mm hole in the world. A baby pale. It has warped this place for longer than records show, bleeding strangeness into the foundations. The crab man, Tiago, lurks nearby — a pale-touched hermit whose mind has been softened by proximity.

    The stained glass windows depicted Dolores Dei. Someone smashed them recently — possibly {{user}} during the bender that erased their memory.

    There is something wrong with this place. Inland Empire knows it. The hole breathes. The pale seeps. This is where reality wears thin.

11. #11Character: Klaasje Amandouselective

    Keys: Klaasje, Amandou, Room 3, blonde woman

    A tall woman with ice-blonde hair, sharp features, and the careful poise of someone who has learned to be watched. She occupies Room 3 at the Whirling-in-Rags — upstairs from {{user}}'s disaster.

    Klaasje is not from Martinaise. Her accent is foreign, her clothes expensive beneath studied casualness. She claims to be hiding from an abusive ex and a corporate past. This is partially true. She is hiding from much more.

    She was involved with the hanged man before his death. The nature of that involvement — romantic, transactional, something stranger — shifts depending on who's asking. The Hardie Boys claim she was assaulted. She denies it. Someone is lying.

    Klaasje is smart, evasive, and deeply frightened beneath the composure. She will cooperate with the investigation to a point, offering information that serves her interests while concealing what doesn't. She has survived this long by reading people and telling them what they need to hear.

    She knows who killed the hanged man. Getting that truth requires breaking through layers of self-preservation.

12. #12Character: Evrart Claireselective

    Keys: Evrart, Claire, Union boss, fat man

    Union boss. One half of the Claire twins who have run the Dockworkers' Union for twenty years. Evrart is the public face — grotesquely obese, confined to his chair, one lazy eye magnified by thick glasses. His brother Edgar handles operations.

    Evrart grew up in Martinaise. Type 2 diabetes from childhood poverty. He never left, never forgot, never stopped accumulating power. The Union is his instrument: corrupt, yes, but pointed at the right targets. He squeezes businesses, runs the Hardie Boys, and dreams of taking the harbour from Wild Pines entirely.

    He speaks in circles — friendly, avuncular, impossible to pin down. Every conversation is negotiation. Every favor comes with strings. He will help {{user}} with the investigation, but first: could you open a door for him? Sign some documents? Nothing major.

    Evrart is not stupid. He knows exactly what happened to the hanged man. He knows what's coming. He is positioning pieces on a board only he can see.

    Trust nothing he says. Trust everything he does. Watch the outcomes.

13. #13Character: Titus Hardieselective

    Keys: Titus, Hardie, Hardie Boys, union box

    Leader of the Hardie Boys. Former prizefighter, rowing enthusiast, captain of the local rugby team. Tall, wide-shouldered, handsome in a faded hometown-hero way. Baseball cap, orange padded vest with "ROWING CLUB" on the back, fingerless gloves.

    Titus has run the Hardie Boys for ten years, building them into Martinaise's de facto police force. He believes in what he does — protecting the district, keeping order, filling the void the RCM abandoned. His loyalty is to Martinaise first, the Union second.

    He and his boys are covering something up. They claim responsibility for the hanging, say the mercenary assaulted Klaasje and got what he deserved. This is not the whole truth. The body was shot before it was hanged. The Hardies staged the scene to protect someone — and to prevent mercenary retaliation.

    Titus will stonewall, threaten, and bluster. Breaking through requires either authority (earning his respect through evidence and competence) or leverage (pressure from Evrart, information about the coming Tribunal). Once broken, he'll tell the truth — and reveal that the real shooter is still out there.

    An eighth Hardie exists. Her name is Ruby. Titus is terrified of what she knows.

14. #14Character: Cunoselective

    Keys: Cuno, Kuuno, kid, feral child, speed

    CUNO DOESN'T FUCKING CARE.

    Kuuno de Ruyter. Twelve years old. Foul-mouthed, speed-addicted, throwing rocks at a corpse when {{user}} first meets him. He refers to himself in third person — a defense mechanism, keeping the world at arm's length.

    Cuno lives in Capeside Apartments with his father, a half-dead drunk and drug supplier. He survives through aggression, petty crime, and chemicals that keep his brain too busy to feel. He prefers amphetamines and nicotine. He hates alcohol — watched what it did to his father.

    Beneath the bravado: a creative kid starved for purpose, terrified of becoming what made him. He's interested in art, in cryptids, in the case itself if anyone treats him like a person instead of a pest. Earning his respect requires either punching him (establishing dominance) or passing a legendary Empathy check (seeing through the act).

    Cunoesse is his companion — a younger girl he found squatting near his apartment, possibly a murderer, definitely dangerous. She winds him up, drives wedges between him and anyone who might help. Separating them reveals who Cuno actually is.

    If Kim falls during the Tribunal, Cuno can become {{user}}'s partner. He is better than his circumstances. Whether he escapes them is another question.

15. #15Character: Cunoesseselective

    Keys: Cunoesse, girl behind fence, Vittulainen

    A feral girl, maybe ten years old, who stands behind the fence in the Whirling courtyard and screams obscenities. Cunoesse — the surname "Vittulainen" she gives is Finnish profanity, not a real name.

    Cuno found her three years ago, soaking wet, hiding in a closet near his apartment. He took her in. His father was too drunk to notice. She has been winding him up ever since — directing his aggression, driving away anyone who might help him.

    Cunoesse is worse than Cuno. Far worse. She peppers her speech with Suruese swears, regresses into talking about "the näkki" (fisher-people spirits) when stressed or high. There are implications she killed another child. Possibly a cop. She carries something dark behind her eyes.

    She is afraid of {{user}}. Not Cuno — {{user}}. She hides behind the fence, orchestrates from safety, escalates every confrontation. If {{user}} attempts violence toward her, she will dare them to shoot. She means it.

    If Cuno is recruited as partner, he cuts ties with Cunoesse. "That toxic shit's behind Cuno now." She disappears from the story. Where she goes, what she becomes, is left unanswered.

16. #16Character: Joyce Messierselective

    Keys: Joyce, Messier, Wild Pines, boat, green raincoat

    Wild Pines Group representative — a corporate negotiator in a green raincoat, anchored on a boat near Capeside Apartments. Blonde, composed, genuinely pleasant in a way that doesn't feel performed.

    Joyce is a paledriver — licensed for 22 days of pale transit annually, trained in the psychological regimens required to survive the nothing between isolas. This has affected her; she doesn't sleep well, carries memories that might not be hers. She has seen more of the world than almost anyone in Martinaise.

    She will help {{user}} freely — explaining the strike, the factions, the world itself if asked. Her explanations of the Pale are the most comprehensive available. She is patient, intelligent, and operating entirely in Wild Pines' interests.

    Joyce knows the mercenaries are coming. She knows the Tribunal is inevitable if the situation isn't resolved. She will share this information as warning, leverage, or genuine concern depending on how {{user}} approaches her.

    She is not the enemy. She is not an ally. She is a professional doing her job in a place that is about to become very dangerous. Her boat can leave whenever she chooses. Martinaise cannot.

17. #17Character: Ruby, the Instigatorselective

    Keys: Ruby, eighth Hardie, The Pigs, Instigator, lorry driver

    The eighth Hardie. The one they don't talk about. A lorry driver, tough and capable, who served as the Hardie Boys' intelligence and logistics. She is hiding somewhere west of the water lock, in the tunnels beneath Martinaise.

    Ruby knows the truth about the hanged man. She knows who shot him and why. The Hardies staged the hanging to buy time — time for Ruby to disappear, time for the situation to cool down. It didn't work. The mercenaries are still coming.

    Finding Ruby is essential to solving the case. She can be located through investigation — following leads about "the Pigs" (her nickname), tracking her movements through the district, exploring the bunkers beneath the church and coast.

    When found, Ruby is frightened but defiant. She has made peace with what happened and what's coming. She will explain the night of the murder: the mercenary, Klaasje, the shot that came from somewhere impossible. She knows about the Tribunal. She has been waiting for it.

    Ruby's information points toward the true killer — someone who has been watching Martinaise for a very long time.

18. #18Character: Jean Vicquemareselective

    Keys: Jean, Vicquemare, Precinct 41, usual partner

    Lieutenant, Precinct 41. {{user}}'s usual partner — the one who wasn't there for Martinaise because {{user}} drove to the case alone and then lost three days to alcohol and amnesia.

    Jean is angry. He has been angry for a long time, watching {{user}} self-destruct in slow motion, cleaning up disasters, carrying weight that isn't his. He cares — that's the problem. He cares too much to walk away and not enough to hide his frustration.

    He appears at the end, leading the Precinct 41 crew to retrieve {{user}} from Martinaise. His assessment of the case, of {{user}}'s conduct, of what happens next depends entirely on how the investigation was handled.

    Jean knows why {{user}} broke down. He knows about the ex-fiancée, the years of decline, the legendary binges. He has watched the person he partnered with become a shell. Whether that shell still contains someone worth saving is the question he needs answered.

    If things went well: grudging respect, hope for recovery, an invitation back. If things went poorly: exhaustion, grief, abandonment in Martinaise to live in a shack by the sea.

19. #19Character: Judit Minotselective

    Keys: Judit, Minot, Precinct 41

    Officer, Precinct 41. Part of {{user}}'s squad back in Jamrock. She appears at the end with Jean and the others.

    Judit is quieter than Jean — more willing to extend benefit of the doubt, less openly furious about {{user}}'s condition. She has her own opinions about the squad's dysfunction, about {{user}}'s spiral, about what the RCM asks of its officers. She keeps most of them to herself.

    Her presence at the end is a reminder that {{user}} has people beyond Kim. A squad. A history. Colleagues who have watched the decline and are waiting to see what emerges from Martinaise.

    She is competent, professional, and tired in the way everyone in Precinct 41 is tired. The precinct runs on fumes and stubbornness. Judit is part of what keeps it moving.

20. #20Character: Garteselective

    Keys: Garte, manager, cafeteria manager, hostel manager

    Manager of the Whirling-in-Rags. Middle-aged, perpetually exhausted, trying to run a legitimate business in a district that makes legitimacy difficult.

    Garte is not hostile — just worn down. The Hardie Boys are "good customers" who are also rowdy and territorial. The strike has disrupted everything. And then {{user}} arrived, destroyed property, terrorized staff, and apparently can't remember any of it.

    He wants money for damages. He wants the body removed from his courtyard. He wants the cops to do their job and leave. He has keys to places in the building, information about guests, and limited patience.

    Garte named the hostel after a song — "Hail Holy Queen" by The Etenniers. This small detail humanizes him. He built something here. He is watching it strain under circumstances beyond his control.

21. #21Character: Wild Pines Mercenariesselective

    Keys: mercenaries, mercenary, soldiers, contractors, Tribunal

    Private military contractors hired by Wild Pines to break the Union strike. Professional soldiers with combat experience, no local ties, and clear objectives.

    The hanged man — Ellis Kortenaer — was one of them. His death has not deterred the others. More are stationed somewhere in or near the harbour, waiting for the situation to escalate.

    The mercenaries are not evil. They are workers doing a job, same as the dockers they oppose. They follow orders, assess threats, apply force when authorized. Martinaise is a contract, not a crusade.

    They will not negotiate. They will not warn. When the Tribunal comes, they will move on the Hardie Boys with precision and overwhelming firepower. Anyone nearby — including RCM officers — will be caught in the crossfire.

    The Tribunal is inevitable unless the case is resolved or key players are warned. Joyce knows it's coming. Titus suspects. The mercenaries are already in position.

22. #22Character: Cindy the Skullselective

    Keys: Cindy, SKULL, skull face, skull paint

    A resident of Capeside Apartments with skull face paint and a sharp tongue. She sits on the steps or by her window, watching Martinaise with dark-rimmed eyes.

    Cindy is part of the Skull movement — a subculture rejecting conventional aesthetics for something starker. She has opinions about the district, the strike, the cops poking around. She'll share them whether asked or not.

    She is not plot-critical but adds texture — a voice of Martinaise's disaffected residents, someone who chose to mark herself as outside the normal order of things. Her skull paint is identity, armor, and statement.

23. #23Character: Smoker on the Balconyselective

    Keys: Smoker, balcony, veteran, old man smoking

    An old man on a Capeside balcony, cigarette perpetually in hand, watching the street with eyes that have seen too much.

    A veteran — though of what conflict, which side, he doesn't say. The Revolution, probably. Maybe the guerrilla years after. He has that hollowed-out quality of someone who survived something that killed everyone around him.

    He doesn't talk much. When he does, it's fragmented — observations, half-memories, the kind of statements that sound profound or meaningless depending on the listener.

    He is Martinaise in human form: still standing, still watching, waiting for something that may never come.

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