Metrak Arc of Ascendance, Ring 4

Metrak Arc of Ascendance, Ring 4

is a commercial world contained within floor 01827. It's structure consists of tens of thousands of tunnels containing moving shops, vendor centers, cafes and apartments within magnetic rail lanes across an entire mechanized republic, charging around 5 pound a round trip and entering in and out of other dimensions that defy how its spatial coordinates exist. The parasolis is a cavity within that contains a large internal sun and a community of sunhatted, white masked, slick overalled gardeners who title themselves the Parasoli. Namelessly, anonymously, they form a collective and provide the organic materials and subsistence for the Metrak. Special 'solar slugs' are often launched into the sun to create ripples in space-time, chewing on the fabric of reality when exposed to sunlight, leading to fauna, artifacts and resources sent back for the parasolis to form a cohesive trading community. These resources are sent to suppliers and manufacturers above which utilize them as products in the rail shops and cityscape towards the center. The surface, with modernized skyscrapers and commerce receives no sunlight from the parasolis and is cloaked in perpetual night. Due to scarcity of resources money laundering is common, from drug trafficking, unstamped product smuggling, gambling, theft and criminal activity. Tourism from other floors and travelers often helps feed the economy, but is just as likely to supply the seedy criminal underbelly.

The dark city is lit by neon lights and signs across the surface, occasionally receiving a terrestrial downpour of rain from temporal-interspace amplitudes in a nearby floor. Casinos, hotels and high-rises are the exotic territory of the upperclass, with most below finding themselves working or living in the cart tunnels and their consumeristic culture.  Rhode Sinclair is a descendant of the nostradynamus crime family, the youngest member in a family of 8. The Nostradynamus have made a lofty living building a protection racket outside recognized authorities, and offering their services with the rail companies, banks, stores and various businesses whom are often the target of crime.

As a young girl Rhode had an affinity for three loves, cats and music. She was often punished by her father, the late crimelord Debonaire Sinclair for smuggling animals into their hotel and was considered grossly incompetent in much of her tutorage, compared to her siblings. While the rest of her siblings eventually took up the family business, managing the crime racket while their mother operated their hotel, Sinclair improvised her own future. She broke into her family's safe, took out half the fortune within and decided to run away. Her family's own guards nearly would catch up with her, leading her to a chase that led her into the rail tunnels. She would only escape by heading into the Parasolis after a shootout, injuring her significantly. Sinclair spent months in a tent, and then months after hiding out with the Parasoli. Her only hobby was learning to whistle, and even sing the native chants, playing the harmonic music over and over, learning the right notes and vocals. She would randomly show up trying to sneak out, only to succumb to her injuries and be dragged back to rest and heal again. At times Sinclair would try to steal from the storage and sneak back in to take petty treasures, only to be caught and told its pointless- everything within their commune was shared anyway.

Over time she recovered her strength and learned a deft skillset, climbing trees, learning shortcuts within the metro hopping from cart to cart. Sinclair eventually collected enough treasures, synthetic materials and unnamed magical artifacts to forge a plastic suit over a latex catsuit. She would play music as she learned her thieving craft, at one point accidentally stopping a car bomb on a market-cart and earning praise. Rhode would later confront her siblings caught trying to steal fake jewels from a jewelry her sibling was meeting that night, and began her career on the surface cityscape as an infamous cat burglar. Frequently the girl found herself returning to an abandoned concert venue and practicing vocals on electronic equipment. By her own reports, this was when Ellie herself encountered the burglar, as the lone audience member in a "Private concert." The burglar, stunned, greeted her first fan with a taser, to Ellie's happy reply. They spent the night going over Sinclair's treasure, and Ellie thanked her with a lone gift- a silken soundworm able to repeat vocals in mnemonic sonic fashion when heard that persist as neural signals in a self-enforcing loop.

Rhode took this worm back to the parasolis, and seemed to devise her own lyrical equipment. After sending recordings with what Ellie calls stunning "80's electric digital FM synthesis with a hint of punkwave post-pop eclectic soul acoustics, Rhode was immediately hired by Vivotech record labels and topped out charts, finding herself selling out concerts tickets and venue events. Rhode's popularity exploded, becoming not only the spirited sound of the underground, but also the commercialized jingly tune played in shopcarts, tunnel elevators, and even the backdrop of the city. Sinclair's popular image was soon plastered on billboards and digital advertisements, earning her wealth and wide acclaim. Rumours about her moonlighting as a slinky stealthy cat-burgular, being connected to the underworld or originating from a crime family were swiftly squashed by Vivotech lawyers and libel suits. Overtime Sinclair amassed a massive army of fans, whom she would recruit subtly as a literal army through her lyrics.

In anonymous, masked catsuits, lenses and gimp masks with large headsets over them, the minds of her followers played the recursive lyrics on repeat until her fans became fanatics, surrendering individuality in place of accumulating her hidden henchmen's numerical headcount. With her own glamorous pastel getup, Rhode sadistically contrasts her uniqueness with the drab, dark tight constrictive wear of her fodderized henchman. She covets all treasure in the glittering megalopolis and isn't above giving out free copies of her albums to rival gangs and criminal groups, finding they're often ecstatic to join her later and become reduced to mere foot soldiers for her sinister entourage.

Silken Sound Worms, located on floor #18192 hold a symbiotic relationship with the Idoleyi fish, depending on the latter to consume them so they may lay their eggs at the right hemisphere. Due to the fish's migration and feeding patterns not matching its requirement, the Soundworm's harmonic vibrations contain psychic altering properties that heavily suggest new routines and prioritization, leading the fish to not only consume them but change course. These properties require further study.