#(and the collective [fucking tenuous; sometimes coerced] cooperation of its residents)

[justashadetalkative]

Details: the Spire

It’s hard to over-emphasize just how cobbled together the Spire really is, in both a physical and an organizational sense.

What was basically intended to be the framework, the prototype, the proof-of-concept, is what has gotten locked in as the final product. They’d only fully designed a few levels. They were still working out basic shit like larger-scale life support, food production, transportation.

They were still figuring out just how far they could stretch the principles of universal design when contemplating a multispecies population; still experimenting with Felidaen’s magic to see how many conflicting environmental and access needs it could resolve. They hadn’t fully thought through law enforcement, or government, or how leadership might pass on.

They hadn’t intended to have permanent residents outside their own small personal circles for decades yet, if ever. They were still brainstorming; researching; dreaming. And the plan had been that people would always, always have the option to leave. That was half the promise of the Spire: access to new worlds, and the resources to start over.

Didn’t really work out that way.