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zenderael_ooc2011-12-11 12:53 am
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Entry tags:
Underwood & Fall City
The Pacific Northwest
OOG direct setting
In General
Underwood
Major Locations
Fall City
Major Locations
A General Overview
The Pacific Northwest in 2050 is very similar to the Pacific Northwest in 2011, so those of you from that area, or who have spent some time in Portland and have at least had to drive through that hole known as Beaverton, you can stop reading now. For everyone else or for everyone who hasn’t spent enough time, keep on keepin’ on.
The setting was placed in a variant Portland/Beaverton area largely due to logistics. The mods were creating a span of time between 2011 and 2050, and the game at large; creating new cities entirely was off the mark. However, we also didn’t want to use cities and say "it’s in Portland, go to it." Therefore, one who knows the city might not have to read the summary, but the summary provides enough about the city that everyone can participate. Further, we can create our own set-pieces here, and are encouraged to do so.
The Pacific Northwest, in modern terms, is a liberal, lush landscape of deciduous and evergreen trees, rivers, fields, flowers, animals, and tattoos. We’ll break this down into sections.
Geography
Climate
Flora and Fauna
People
Local Flavor
Geography
The Pacific Northwest is home to just about any geography you’d like. Ocean is one hour west, mountains are one hour southeast, and desert lurks on the other side of those mountains. There’s plenty of rain, rivers, bridges, and hills. There’s also plenty of valleys, and sometimes from one place to another you’ll fall down so low your ears will pop and you won’t even know it.
Fall City is criss-crossed by three rivers, allowing for seven different bridges to be used to hop from one end of the city to the other. Handily, the bridges are organized in such a way that Fall City is generally divided into four quadrants: NE, NW, SE, SW. These will be described in "Neighborhoods" under Fall City. The important part is the rivers. They do actually make something of a triangle, and at the base of that triangle, just outside it, lays Underwood.
Your character can realistically spend time at the Coast or in the Mountains. They can also Go Camping and Head Out to the Desert (though it’s a defined desert and not what you commonly think of as desert, so it’s not always warm, it just doesn’t get any rain.)
Climate
There are three seasons in Fall City/Underwood: Wet, Notwetbutcold (otherwise known as Winter), and Summer. I’ll describe the type of seasons, and then below you can see a generalized chart of what each month looks like, as the seasons aren’t necessarily contiguous.
Wet
The stereotype of the Pacific NW is that it always rains and the sun is never, ever out. This is true. Well, almost true. For about 7 months' worth of days in the year (but not nine months straight) there is probably not much sun. However, days of consecutive rain lasting more than two hours isn’t actually very common outside of the Wet Season.
During Wet Season, streets flood. Cars skid. Everything is dripping. Headaches from humidity. Dry skin even though your socks are soaked through. Everyone’s snippy because they’ve all got some form of SADD or another. There’s dark and musty and fog in the morning and if it’s the Wet before winter there’s ice all over the place, black ice, hard to see ice, ice hiding, waiting to surprise you and ruin your day (and bruise your butt.)
Everyone owns a pair of galoshes and if they don’t, they’re silly. Everyone has hats. No one can straighten their hair anymore. It’s just wet. A lot.
There are usually 3-4 days of rain and then one day of mediocre drizzle, however there’s never more than a few truly torrential bits a month.
Notwetbutcold, otherwise known as Winter
Days range from 5 degrees to 45, and the air is crisp and rather delightful. People still ride their bikes and heavy coats and scarves can be seen on every individual. Because the weather is generally mild in the Pacific Northwest (outside of buckets of Heaven’s tears) 40 is intensely cold, and it only gets chillier. Due to the humidity, it feels like your bones are getting tapped and every last cell of warmth within you fleeing from your pores.
There are also Fog Days involved in Winter. These days are a horror movie waiting to happen. We’re talking seven feet of visibility. Street lights make yellow blockages out of what could be another car drunkenly swerving at you. You look out a store window and expect a zombie to come hopping out. The Fog doesn’t let up until the night.
But otherwise, generally sunny, short days. Fall City and Underwood are just north enough that the sun rises late and sets early, creating a pitch-black five o’clock hour.
Summer
There is a game that we play in Portland in 2011, and it’s "Tattoo Count." Here’s how it works. Summer comes along, and everyone in Portland, regardless of gender, takes their shirt off. The first to 100 unique tattoos wins. Excluded are back wings, stars, crosses or tribal sleeves. This is still played in the Pacific Northwest in 2050, except ALSO excluded are X-DAV logos.
Summer is the renaissance of the Pacific Northwest. Everyone thinks it’s all rain and muck and let ‘em, the summers belong to those tough enough to brave out the buckets. Clear skies, 75-90 degree days, iced coffee~ oh! It couldn’t be better, really! The Pacific Northwest Summer brings green, brightness and beauty, along with mania.
You see, they’ve all been depressed under the rain. There’s a lot of coupling, wild actions, crazy night outs, and beer, beer, beer. Again, that conspicuously north thing brings about longer days, so there’s more play time, less guilt.
There are still rainy days in Summer, and a Summer is "good" or "bad" based on the number of rainy days each month has. Generally, humidity comes before and after a rain but not in-between, or only mildly so. A "good" Summer begins at four days of rain a month or less. A "bad" Summer starts at 6 days of rain or more.
From Game Start
The Game starts in January, and here’s what your characters can expect! If a month is hyphenated, the first portion is the first half of the month, etc.
January
Winter/Wet
February
Wet
March
Wet
April
Wet
May
Less Wet, But Still Wet
June
Wet/Summer
July
Summer
August
Summer
September
Summer/Wet
October
Wet/Winter
November
Winter/Wet
December
Winter
Flora and Fauna
Fauna Resource
Flora Resource
Some highlights:
Flora
Morel mushrooms grow wild and free in these parts of Oregon, and so there are actually folks who make their living being mushroom hunters! Morel mushrooms are a delicacy, and also extremely expensive. There are also Chanterelle mushrooms further north, closer to Canada... equally expensive, equally tasty! People who hunt for Morel mushrooms are crazy into mushrooms, and knowing about fungi is a hobby for a lot of outdoor enthusiasts, and also something of a dying art.
Fauna
Birds in the PNW include Owls, Wrens, Hawks, Eagles, and Vultures! The most notable Hawk is the Nighthawk. Mod Snapple has actually seen an Owl chilling by the lake near her apartment, a great big white one! There are also a mother eff tonne of angry geese in the PNW, specifically in Underwood. Geese. Everywhere.
Black Widows are up in this hizzouse, too. Black Widow bites are not as deadly as folks from non-Widow’d areas think they are, but they are certainly venomous. A Black Widow bite, in the singular, will make you wanna vomit out everything in you, and if left untreated will eventually, slowly, and painfully kill the victim, but not without a lot of stink and gross. However, in the PNW, Black Widows are exceedingly rare, particularly the coastal areas. They’re highly common in the drier mountains, however.
Crane Flies, otherwise known as Mosquito Hawks, are everywhere and that’s why mosquitos aren’t! They look like giant mosquitos and hover like aliens, but they’re actually super friendly and kill the evil biters right out.
Moths are ENORMOUS in the PNW, but not actually that common! The wetter months make sure they’re not visible to humans that often, but when they’re seen, they’re always as big as your hand or bigger. Sigh.
SOUTHERN ALLIGATOR LIZARDS ARE SO FUCKING CUTE.
The most poisonous snake in the PNW is the Western Rattlesnake, meaning there’s not a lot of scary poisonous snakes around!
Mammals are generally as usual, the only exception being the occasional crazy big cat that’s wandered down from the mountains. This does not happen nearly as often as you think. Coyotes are a yes, as are wolves and goats and all sorts of stereotypical American animals. The big cats that are in the Oregon mountains are specifically Puma and the Canadian Lynx.
The Locals
If you are to believe the Stereotypes Perpetuated by Modern Media, cough-cough-Portlandia-cough-cough, the Pacific Northwest are a bunch of Insane, Extremist, Wild, Pierced, Tattooed, Hyper-sensitive, Passive Aggressive, Trendy, Pushy, Pretentious, Occasionally Arrogant, Cause-Oriented, Goddamn Hipster Music Snobs.
I’ve taken the liberty of repeating this paragraph with the lies crossed off:
If you are to believe the Stereotypes Perpetuated by Modern Media, cough-cough-Portlandia-cough-cough, the Pacific Northwest are a bunch of
This is however the worst of the PNW, and the Fall City/Underwood area. Though some of these are straight up epidemics, some are results of a generalized hightened sensitivity since it rains 9 months of the effing year. People just aren’t always pleasant when everything they do is wet and cold and wet!
The real truth is, people in the PNW are really just varied as all get-out. The zanier people do show up here; there are several dreaded hippies doing yoga. (In fact, Mod Snapple’s dear friend lives in a house with a man who refuses to have furniture and has built a tent in his back yard to sleep in!) There are also the staunch conservatives/tea partiers. (However, not a lot; Mod Snapple used to work in a Starbucks facing a major meeting place in Portland, and the democratic rally? Thousands. The tea party rally? 20? 30?) What the PNW is really known for in its people, and why it’s viewed as so insane, is the blanket feeling of "anything goes" covering a deep-seeded desire to be monochromatic.
The queer community in the PNW is strong and perhaps the most in your face to the straight community, but it also desires that the world be as full-force as they are. The weed/rastafarian/yoga culture is relaxed and slow paced, but it also desires the world be as full-relax, chill, sex-free as they are. The overpowering predominant message from every walk of person in the PNW is that they desire overt sameness with their mission, except they don’t want to tell you so; that wouldn’t be very welcoming! That’s where the passive aggression comes in.
Chances are, your characters are met with disdain or overtly cheery acceptance of their gaming hobby, but nothing in-between. Their friends definitely share the same interest in music, and usually share the same interest in sexual habits and eating and sleeping, as most people in the PNW seem incapable of maintaining friendships with people "too different" from themselves.
Oh, and one last thing: lots of drinking up in there. Most people, when asked, "wanna hang out?" will suggest a bar, or to check out the limited-edition tap down at such-a-place. Further, everything’s limited edition. Everything.
One last-last thing: a very strong sense of locality. The desire for sameness is also the desire to self-support. There are not a lot of chains in the PNW.
Example: There are 3 McDonald’s in Portland. There are 7 local Burgerville chains, and countless other local burger joints.
The Local "Flavor"
Keywords: Food & Food Carts, Beer, Sexual Freedom, Pro-Queer, Pro-Trans, Passively Racist, Asian stuff!, Anti-Corporatism, Pro/Looking The Other Way Drugs, Religiously Indifferent, BIKES! PEDESTRIANS! PUBLIC TRAAANSPO!
Details:
Some of the culture rests within the people, but a few other things the PNW is known for (and loved/loathed for).
1
Mentioned previously, very few chains! The PNW punishes companies who sell themselves to the highest bidder. Example: Local chain Kettelman’s Bagels just sold themselves to Einstein Bros. Business drop? 1mil lost in a month. Another Example: Local Coffee Stumptown just sold 90% to Equity Providers. Local Coffee Shops Brewing Before? Over 100. Local Coffee Shops After? Less than 50 and steadily declining.
2
The idea of being "strange" or "weird" is lauded here, to a point where it is sometimes pretentiously handled. This breaks my heart to write out, but often, the communities that are the most prejudiced against in other parts of the countries make outlandish stereotypes of themselves in the PNW, mostly due to the fact that there is little "stereotyping" to be done. The passive nature of the assimilation desired by most PNW-izens doesn’t actually require that sort of force be used, but because everyone is so weird here, it’s common that at-risk or prejudiced-against groups will exaggerate to be extra weird. This leads to a very anxious personality and hum to a lot of interactions. One never knows whether an eccentricity is real or faked.
3
Food Carts! These are literally carts that sell you fresh-made food. They started in the PNW and have become popular nation-wide, and by 2050 they’re a staple, but Fall City is still one of the original homes. There are Pods everywhere, which are collections of various types of food or sometimes various restaurants specializing in different aspects of a food. Example: a dumpling house, a noodle house, a rice house and a teriyaki house! Or: A czech place, a polish place, a french place and a spanish place! These developed in response to the very Pedestrian culture of the PNW, just like how hot dog stands developed in NYC!
4
Pedestrians! People in the PNW usually have a very neighborhood-first, local-first attitude, and prefer to protect the environment. Though traffic is still awful-bad, it’s because most roads are only 2 lanes, and there are still a disproportionate amount of public transportation users and bikers. If people can walk to it they usually will, and the local bus service, FCMT, or Fall City Mass Transit (Fassit, or Fuksit, for those who hate it so!), is consistently voted number one in the nation. Through the Orange Max line, one can get from Underwood to Downtown Fall City in 25 minutes!
5
Asian markets, Asian stuff! There is a notable Asian flare in the PNW, with all official signs written in Japanese, Korean, Traditional Form Chinese and Simplified Form Chinese. The most important of signs also include Vietnamese and Thai. Everyone knows about several hard-to-pronounce food-types, and "real" restaurants abound, where one has to work very hard to communicate with the servers. Wanna eat duck feet? No worries. You can find it in the PNW.
6
Music? Everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Seattle’s been known as a hotspot for years, and starting in the ‘00s, Portland became known as a rising city for unique and indie rock. Nowadays, Fall City is a burgeoning music front, partially the beginning zone of the Mutated-Jazz front. Street musicians are common and quite talented, from improvisational celloists to beatboxers to interpretive dancers accompanied by full-on swing bands!
7
Strip Clubs? Strip Clubs and gambling are very, very legal in the PNW, and there's a balls-tonne of dive bars that randomly have keno or poker installed. You know the quality of a joint is going to be PBR-tastic when you see the Deuces Wild machine. Further, there's a big to-do about Chinese restaurant/Karaoke hybrids. Those Chinese restaurants where the food is greasy, americanized and huge always seem to have the best karaoke? Strip clubs have hilarious names and are generally kitchy and themed.
Underwood
Key Features: Strip Malls, Ponds, Cheap Rent, Authentic Chinese Food, and... a quiet place to raise children?
Underwood looks like any Jo-Schmo Suburban area, with wide strip malls featuring Starbucks and local venues, and an over-abundance of grocery stores and Target-like structures. Apartments are cheap, and are usually interspersed between several houses. Most people in Underwood drive, even though the FCMT makes traveling not-so-bad, even if it’s suburbia. Things within Underwood that are a seven minute drive take thirty minutes by bus, and are not easily accessed late, but things in Fall City from Underwood usually only take ten to twenty-five, depending on how far downtown one wants to go, and via which method. (For instance, a bus, risking traffic, will take ten minutes without it to get downtown; the orange line, always avoiding traffic, always takes twenty-five minutes.)
Underwood Major Locations
Stephanie Cruiser High School
Some say it looks like a jail. The slender, thin, repeated windows with the grid-work introduced between two layers of plexiglass; the red brick facade; the slanted, black metal roof; the sullen expression of the students trotting in and out of classes... how could they think it looked like a jail, honestly?
Known for moderate academics and moderate after school activities, the not-jail of Stephanie Cruiser High is your PCs only option for High School. Ages 14-20 attend here, with 19-20 in specialty "pre-req" certification programs.
Underwood Technical College
Don’t be misled by the name! It’s not really a college, but a collection of any and all technical schools your character might want to go to. Wanna be a social worker? a publisher? a mechanic? Go here, not Fall City University, and save a dime!
Its short, brown buildings, slanted white roofs and wide, open windows are definitely not jail-like, but probably not much different in feel than Stephanie Cruiser High. There’s a courtyard, though, with thieving squirrels.
Underwood WifiCafe
run by: Alison Koch (PC) and NPC best friend David
The name isn't very creative, but it gets the point across, which is what Alison and David were going for.
The cafe has a homey atmosphere consisting of earthy tones, folk music, and fresh baked goods. It employs two bakers who prepare their goods on a daily basis, throughout the day as required, ensuring freshest quality of their products as per Alison's strict guidelines. The recipes are all of Alison's creation, and she even tests all the coffees and teas before offering them to her patrons. It serves a variety of baked goods, from coffee cakes to pastries, desserts of all sorts, and even a few select savoury pastries, such as ham and cheese or a ground beef and onion stuffing. Coffees include everything from your plain old coffee or double-brewed, to cappuccino, latte, and espresso, as well as chilled varieties, such as iced cap or even an espresso milkshake. There is less variety for tea, which she only provides to make the tea-drinkers happy, but they are still very high-scale quality, as she won't skimp on quality even if she may skimp on variety.
The furnishings consist of light-toned wooden tables and chairs with crimson cushioning, booths along the walls and smaller two-seat tables across the floor, and a few stools at the counter. The walls are lined with hand-woven tapestries of goat hair or wool, all crafted by Alison, in various earthy tones, some of them showing scenes of Bedouin society, others simply decorative patterns. A variety of display options are employed for the delicious delectables, from clear-covered cake trays for cookies or donuts to a display case for muffins and pastries, with a behind-the-counter shelving system to store the majority of their treats. The place is kept very clean, following guidelines set out by Alison that are stricter than the code for such a business.
Music consisting of folk instruments such as fiddle, flute, windpipes, drums, and others, plays through the sound system, kept low volume, with two viewscreens at either end of the counter showing music videos. All of the music comes in video format and is stored on bluray, allowing those who wish to watch the videos while enjoying their coffee or pastry, and others to ignore it entirely and focus instead on the cafe's true purpose: as a wifi hotspot. So long as customers purchase drink or pastries, the can remain within the building to access the internet, and the prices are not so out of reach as to make it unaffordable to those with less funds. In fact, prices are fairly reasonable - Alison doesn't believe in overcharging, and charges enough to make a profit with David while paying employees without having to gouge their customers.
Employees include: Two bakers, four waitstaff, Alison, and David. The cafe is open late into the wee hours of the morning before closing at around 2am, opening again that morning at 10am. Shifts allow for enough sleep between closing and opening, Alison often opening while David closes with their shifts overlapping. The bakers get off at 10pm, and the waitstaff take alternate day shifts throughout the week. Occasionally Indie Star Sasha And plays a night at the cafe, but it’s often random and she sings strange songs about croissants.
Fall City
Fall City is surrounded by three rivers. These rivers, and the seven bridges within Fall City, separate it into four neighborhoods. The rivers are named, of course: The Sellwood, the Pearl, and the Sauvie Island Irrigation Channel, installed in 2025. The bridges are named, and are listed with which neighborhoods they bridge together.
Because we’re not really hiding the fact it’s based upon Portland, an image of the skyline:
Fall City’s skyline is incredibly similar.
The rivers used do not follow the same path as Portland’s rivers. They make an isosceles triangle, with The Center (see Major Locations) directly at its tip.
The bridges are named thusly (natives will know a few, but some are fictionally named bridges):
Willamette - connects SW and SE.
Burnside - connects SW and SE/NW and NE.
Morrison - connects SW and SE/NW and NE.
Troutdale - connects NW and NE.
Powell - connects NW and SW.
Ross Island - connects SE and SW.
Columbia - connects SE and NE.
The description of these bridges will eventually be mutually decided in game. As PCs meet or cross various bridges, they will be described, or as they appear in plot, they will also be described.
Once a description is set in place it will be updated here.
Neighborhoods
NE
Personality: Posh, upscale, removed, clean, athletic, superior, up-and-coming (but really just gentrified), expensive
Who Lives There: Executives, successful individuals, the paranoid, the fear-of-safety-sorts, the quiet, richer white families
Who Probably Doesn’t: Most minorities, most trans individuals, students, the poor or extra-hard-working
Types of Residences: Housing Shares (students could live here in these, but they’re still very expensive out here), Apartments, Lofts, Houses, Mansions
NW
Personality: Quirky, Fun-Loving, Eco-Friendly, Hipster-ish, Local, Boutique, Foodie
Who Lives There: Successful Individuals, Artists, the paranoid, the fear-of-safety sorts, the quiet, richer white folk, the wild but wealthy, the pretentious, the funky-but-fashionable, the trendy, the hard-working, students, has a huge queer community (but lesbians mostly live in se! why? there’s just always been a huge community there!)
Who Probably Doesn’t: The poor, the extra-hard-working, Most minorities, Executives, the quiet, richer white families
Types of Residences: Apartments, Lofts, Limited Housing Shares, Limited Houses, Top-Of-Store Living
SE
Personality: Quirky, queer, asian, eclectic, sprawled, practical, truly trendy, about-to-be-gentrified, "hipster deluxe, i knew it before it was cool!," occasionally ghetto-fab, has an industrial sector, lots of hipster/dive bars
Who Lives There: The poor, the extra-hard-working, Hipsters, lesbians♥!, queer folk, trans folk, minorities, has a part of town where almost every sign is Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese, and has the west coast’s largest asian food mart, drunks, druggies, struggling artists and musicians, successful artists and musicians, students, families
Who Probably Doesn’t: anyone too white or too rich in their identity, the paranoid, the fear-of-safety types
Types of Residences: HOUSING SHARES, Apartments, Houses, Top-Of-Store Living
SW
(includes Downtown, and technically blends into Underwood)
Personality: dichotomous, business, foodie, bar! bar! bar!, studious, practical, personable, presentable, distinct, distance, some sprawl
Who Lives There: STUDENTS, EXECUTIVES, just about everyone but families!
Who Probably Doesn’t: Families.
Types of Residences: In far SW, near Underwood: Houses, Housing Shares, Some Apartments; Downtown: Apartments, Lofts, very very limited Housing, Dorms.
Major Locations
Fall City University
Smack dab in the center of downtown, FCU (cutely referred to as FUCK U by churlish students) is the most beautiful during Fall. The center courtyard is full of deciduous trees that turn gold at the onset of September and only become more luxuriously coloured until late November. The University is known for being top-notch in almost all areas, and where it lags it carefully hides through media spin and celebrity instructors. Tuition isn’t cheap, but most PCs have either gotten in on Federal grants or are able to make it by some unexplained hand-of-god.
Dorming is mandatory your first two years here, but for most students dorming is extremely less expensive than living in an apartment. Those who demand to live off campus have a near impossible time doing so without living in craigslist style housing shares.
Center
"Center," as it’s known, or the Center Square, is the direct middle of Downtown Fall City. The Christmas Tree goes here, along with the Menorah, as well as many costume balls and outdoor things... like summer movies or comedy shows, or swing dancing!
Papa Luck
A "faux" dive bar that was established in 2035. It boasts a cleaner interior than neighboring dives. Yards and yards of Christmas lights hang from the ceiling, accompanied by neon signs, plastic dinosaurs, ornaments, paper fans and other items that make for an eclectic "design." Seating at the counter is made of cushioned stools that have lost most of their cushiony aspects, and there are booths opposite and against the wall that can comfortably seat a group of six or seven. There are three pool tables and a jukebox in a section specifically for playing.
Papa's is renowned for their large selection of hard liquors and beers on tap available for cheap to reasonable prices and their friendly service to regulars and newbies alike. The bulk of their customer base tends to be regulars in the twenty to mid-thirties range. The dimensions of the bar are actually on the small size. It tends to fill up by eight o'clock, and if you don't get there before then, good luck with parking. Papa's does have a food menu, but it's very limited. You can expect to see fries, onion rings, carrot and celery sticks, jalapeno poppers, and few other minibites. Their grilled cheese sandwiches are a popular menu item, with up to two toppings included without extra charge.
Its original owner sold the business to local loan shark Carl Tealey in 2045, but aside from a switch in ownership nothing about the establishment was changed. There's a room in the back that he sometimes uses for business deals.
Hours: 4pm-3am
Last call: 2:15am
(Concept based on Aero Club, LA. 1, 2, 3)
Fall City Cultural Center for Urban Understanding
Run by a culturally-diverse board of directors and staffed mainly by volunteers, the culture center was organized by a multi-cultural advocacy group who petitioned for funding by the government. It took many years to finally get the required funding, and then more years to plan out the building and get it constructed. During this time, they also managed to collect donations from other sources, such as fund raising and political groups looking to earn themselves some votes with cultural minorities.
The center's main purpose is to offer those of cultural minorities a starting point towards finding resources and aid in settling into an American culture, and help them find others of their own cultures for support. As such, they have many programs that are held within the center, as well as plans to organize and hold events in other cities across the country, to promote cultural understanding and make their goals more widespread. These programs cater to specific cultures as well as multi-culture programs that are offered as ways for people to learn about another culture they may have interest in, such as children of mixed culture parentage. They range from simple meetings to supply people with resource pamphlets and discuss issues, to support groups.
Another goal of the center is to promote cultural awareness and understanding to the American people. To reach that end, the center offers a variety of services. There are a series of small theaters on the top floor that show movies from across the world every evening, with special movie events held once a month. There is a larger theater at the west end of the building for live shows and presentations. A food court extends from the main lobby, where a venders offer a variety of foods from around the world.
A library takes up most of the east side of the building, full of books, albums and movies that portray a variety of cultural experiences from around the globe, including everything from simply showing how different the movie and author industries are, to sharing in the struggles of people in other countries. As well, there are some shops offering movies, books and music, as well as artwork, from every country one can think of. And finally, an art gallery that focusses on displaying collections from artists of other countries, both historical and modern.
The center hosts events for many things regularly, and the board spends most of their time organizing and pulling off these events, advertising, and ensuring funding to continue the on-going maintenance and availability of services provided. Group and individual sessions are held in office spaces on the second floor of the main lobby section, with movie theaters to the west. Shops are on the first floor of the main lobby section.
Places are available for rent to those who fit a special criteria for service providers within the building, designated by the board. Rent is decently priced, and intended only to provide funds for maintenance of the building. Support meetings are free, while events, such as theatrical displays or special dinners, have varying costs depending on what's being offered.
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FAMILIES:
Do parents still blame everyone-but-themselves for their kids' behaviours or are families more, well, family-oriented and responsible? Does this vary based on anything? (culture, tax bracket, etc)
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Of course nobody likes to blame themselves for anything, so the shift is largely between blaming other authority figures in the child's life or blaming the children themselves.
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Underwood shops
A lunch and dinner restaurant located on the corner of 5th St. and Acorn Ave. It is owned by the youngest of the Ramsden siblings -- you guessed it -- Chester. The menu consists of dishes he enjoyed while traveling and mingling with the locals. To them he changes little, and for that the tastes of the dishes he serves are praised as authentic. Many refer to it as the international comfort food restaurant of Underwood.
Ramsden's Custom Tailoring
A custom clothier and tailor shop owned by twin sisters April and May Ramsden (so named because one was born April 30th, 11:58pm, and the second May 1st, 12:01am), located on 6th St., opposite Chester's. Their turn-over time is decent, but you can take confidence in the fact that they'll give your order all the attention it deserves.
Ramsden's Metalworks
A custom metalwork jewelry shop owned by Cassie and Lily Ramsden, the eldest two sisters of the Ramsden siblings, located on 6th St., next to Ramsden's Custom Tailoring. They're known for their whimsical and intricate designs, as well as their affordable prices for simpler pieces. They also take on jewelry restoration and repair, though their prices can be on the high side compared to other shops. "Quality" was drilled into the Ramsden's upbringing, though, so you can be sure that your valued pieces are in good hands, and if they feel that they can't do anything for it, they'll tell you.
The business was originally owned by George Ramsden, their father, but he has since retired.
Last, but certainly not least, is Ramsden's, the first business opened and owned by a Ramsden, located on 8th St. A sewing and knitting materials store, Ramsden's has been passed down three generations and has come to rest in the knobbly hands of Audrey Ramsden, mother of the entrepreneurs mentioned above. Beginners and experts alike will find something to busy their fingers with in Audrey's inventory, and she is open to taking custom orders, too.
Audrey is always in shop, choosing to do the bulk of the work herself, though she does have a few employees. Since retiring, George has taken residence in Ramsden's as well. It's a common sight to see Audrey knitting behind the register with George on the side, reading or knitting as well, another testament to the fact that an old dog can learn new tricks.