#jinx of course can tag along with the hench-persons to use public facilites

[wolfinthethorns]

Ok, so, @faraige made some observations in the tags on their post about wanting to see the 3D models of Silco's office:

And this has punted me down a rabbit-hole of headcanons about Silco being more of a tragic figure than he lets on, and some general Zaun society context... I started this in a reply to @faraige 's post, but I'm going to start my own thread so as not to derail.

In my mind he doesn't have a private apartment, let alone a bedroom, and sleeps on the infamous couch. There's a discreet washstand behind a screen tucked in a corner somewhere, the wardrobe by the desk for clothing and bedding (+/- the odd trunk or dresser for storage), and a tin bath stowed away somewhere for when a stand-up wash won't cut it (more on that later).

The way I see it is that the opulence of his office is largely for show, to remind the Chembarons and Enforcers who's boss (same with the clothes) but he actually pays himself a very meagre personal stipend to maximise the profit going into the Zaun Liberation War-Chest. He's surrounded by the trappings of luxury, but has very few home-comforts himself. And because he's so very tied up in projecting an image, some of that is also strategic - he wants his inner circle (Sevika, Ran, Dustin, the Burly Henchman fanon has decided is called Mek) to know that he's eating the same street food as them, that he doesn't have some fancy-schmancy bathroom when their place barely has hot water plumbing, that his personal life isn't significantly better appointed than theirs, so they don't get envious. Humility, of a sort, helps retain loyalty and belief in The Cause because Silco's clearly not out to line his own pockets. The cigars are an indulgence, but then again, they also play into the image of power he projects to all but a very trusted few.

And the particular tragedy is that he probably has fewer comforts than his employees (who I believe he pays well - definitely better than the other Chembarons at grunt level - because he sees them as the Children of Zaun, not cattle)

Now, I'm basing a lot of how I picture the infrastructure of Zaun on the poor bits of late 19th/early-20th coastal-industrial cities like London, Liverpool, or New York. Indoor plumbing, let alone hot water, is something of a luxury. Private kitchens are not the norm, people eat from street vendors or at public canteens. Privacy is at a premium. The aforementioned Hench-persons have probably got their own little flat-share sitcom going on in a converted warehouse, and it's nicer than most - they have their own bedrooms, an indoor loo, maybe a shower (albeit from a hot-water tank, so the pressure's lousy and the second person in is getting a cold wash), some cooking facilities and cold-storage for food. And all that's fine because if they want a meal, they go to Jericho's or the like. If they want a good long soak, they go to the public bath-house. If they want somewhere comfortable to sit and chill, they go to the pub. These are all normal, social activities.

But Silco? The King of Zaun? He can't really be seen in normal, everyday places like that because he has to maintain that façade of Power. So he eats alone (or, at best, with his staff at the Drop), he bathes alone, he drinks alone. He owns everything, so he has no-where to call his own space. In trying to create this nation, this community, he's painted himself into this incredibly isolated and lonely existence.