Strange/AgonyEcstasy Emporium

Rumors of Beginnings

For long aeons, the AgonyEcstasy Emporium was nonexistent/a mere rumor/open exclusively to the people of Strange. But, now, suddenly, a fresh new red marble path with black throbbing veins has intruded itself into the main square of Strange, inviting all to visit therein. But how did this start?

Some say that the giant green mass that is the Emporium suddenly burst out of the ground, consuming buildings and entire streets in an instant, establishing itself and reaching out that path like a perverse tongue. Some claim that the Emporium has always existed, always will, and merely decided to extend out its own path. Some say that the Emporium and the path was there all along and people're only taking notice now. And those're only the reports that're comprehensible.

The point isn't how it got here. The real point is that the AgonyEcstasy Emporium is open for business.

A Base Description

The Emporium is, quite simply, a great growth of green hair taken over entire blocks. Its material has hardened into something beyond mere horn-hardness, forming quite a formidable foundation for the great commerce center. A highly spacious main hall, filled with squatters and traders, riddled with almost endlessly twisting tunnels is the first things greeting visitors.

Omega is, apparently, the caretaker of the place, which might very well be formed from Hydra itself. Zie is bound within its whorls of hair-tendrils, moving amongst the halls and passways in an enclosing tangle of green. Zie is always pleasant.

But the possibly most remarkable feature, the one bringing seekers just for it, is inside the great 'court', a bowl-depression. Filling that court's very bottom, a vast pond of living memories and dreams, everything Hydra has ever collected into itself. A startling vast treasure for Hydra to make available, many agree, but it does have a price. "A memory for a memory." Vague enough, this rule seems to result in differing interpretions in practice. Some seem to only get one memory copied into the pool. Others actually lose that memory.

The Emporium also has other notable features:

• STAPLES, the no-limits body modification shop. Visiting STAPLES is an easy way to get yourself killed if you aren't aware of your own body's endurances and how the procedures in there can test them.
• The dream-pods, within the main hall, where anyone can apparently rest without any apparent risk. Rare enough in Strange that some people willing pay the price of their dreams to sleep there.
• The Emporium is filled with squats and mini-shops, and no one apparently preventing them.

Remarkably enough, even a thorough search is hard-pressed to find any incidents of Strangevirus infection occuring within the Emporium, even through it is absolutely swimming with the stuff. This is distinctly odd. Hydra has been rumored to have incredible degrees of control over the Strangevirus itself, though... at a terrible price.

Habitation

You can set your home in three of the rooms here, and drop objects in them to represent 'stalls' or encampments or the like. You can also use the vehicle-object program. Simply do @set thing=v, then @idesc for interior description and @attach an action to that thing then @link the action to the same thing. This will set up an one-room thing. You probably can't add it to the whereare or such, but it works well if you just want to create a tent or such (@link the object to one of the rooms set abode, those rooms being the Main Vein, the Memory Court, and the Dream Pods, though the first two would be the best places). You have my permission to do this freely and as you will (the whole squatter thing is part of the theme), just keep in mind the mood of the area. And kindly do drop a note to me at Grace. :)

If you would like to create your own room, just contact me at Grace, or drop a note here (that would be easiest than figuring out which instance of Hydra I've been set to), and I'll set you up with a link to your room or such. (You can also ask me, or XOR the building Function, for building help.)

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Attractions