Grind
Urban renewal with a "green" twist! Volunteers from the Hong Kong Citizens' Initiative have teamed up with Kowloon City youths and nature enthusiasts to plant gardens in the city's medians, alleys, and gutters. Flowers, vegetables, and ornamental trees are springing up in the most unexpected places, adding cheerful scenery to the horrendous blight that is Kowloon City. Local residents this of this as just a first step toward a more livable Kowloon. Another hot green trend: rooftop gardening. The rooftops of dilapidated tenements are being turned into urban nurseries. The gardens not only improve the looks of the buildings; they also absorb heat and slow the erosion of these poorly maintained structures. As gardens spread throughout Kowloon, some even claim to have seen an ancient nature spirit from before the days of Kowloon's massive development, helping the plants along. Many families have their own personal trove of vegetables, or just a place to escape this urban hellhole. It's all some can do to keep from sinking into hopeless depression!
The article is accompanied by a photo of a small boy in filthy clothes holding a huge head of cabbage.
[Randal] What the hell is a garden?
It takes about an hour to reach Kowloon (the traffic is still pretty bad). You reach Cheng's apartment building, one of many monstrous structures packed side to side along the street. Their crumbling concrete facades are adorned with rusty iron balconies and graffiti. On the matrix side of things, AR is also filled with graffiti and icons reminiscent of gangster movies, along with the standard blinking, screaming advertisements, which seem even more hostile around here.
Gangs of teenagers patrol the streets. Some look at you funny, but most ignore you. The occasional gunshot rings in the distance. The police are nowhere to be seen, and the vending machines on the side of the road are heavily armored and set in concrete.
Kitten
The gangers pass the time talking about bitches and combat biking. After a while, the long-haired appears to get a call over his commlink. "Here he comes!" He says. You see Fong walk by the alley. When he passes, the gangers run out behind him, and the stocky one puts an arm on Fong's back in a "friendly" way. "Don't do anything stupid," he mutters, "and act like we're buddies, ok?" Fong attempts a nervous grin, but he's not much of an actor.
The walk three abreast, north toward the busier part of town. You scamper behind them. Before they get too far, a jalopy with two more people in it catches up to them. They push Fong into the back and get in with him.
Frostmane
The elf, the muscled ork, the barista, and about a dozen bystanders collapse into the throes of ecstasy. A passing car slams to a halt; a biker coming up behind it can't stop in time and slides into the back of the car. He's thrown off his bike, over the car, and skids along the pavement, writhing with passion.
The driver of the getaway car manages to grab a shotgun. As he points it at you, his hands shake and his eyes roll back.
Your move again! To be exact: the getaway car is parked on a street perpendicular to the one you're on (i.e. at an intersection) about 10 meters from you. The kidnappers are a few meters away from the car. Don't forget the -2 penalty if you want to keep sustaining the orgy.
Menzo
"I'm always looking for a good time," the woman says. "Though, my tastes go a little beyond starting fires and bashing skulls. Not that there isn't a time and place for everything. But like, for instance, the other night I went to a free spirit poetry slam. Those guys are a riot! And so I come in here, and you've got this fine dark fur," she strokes your forearm, "and you smell like the stuff these spirits were smoking. I mean can spirits even do drugs? How does that work? Anyway, somebody told me there's a bartender here who knows where all the action is. So I figure that's either you, or the handsome fellow in the leather jacket who was here before."
