The Setting
Northside Marsten is a small, forgotten industrial town in southwest Canada. It is 2004. The world has moved on — post-Y2K, post-9/11, somewhere in the middle of the Bling Era — and Northside Marsten has not quite kept up.
Cracked pavement. Flickering neon. Constant low humidity. Social life revolves around 7-Hell Convenience, The ConXtion nightclub, and whichever parking lot happens to have people in it tonight. The social currency here is your MySpace Top 8 placement and the quality of your flip phone.
Fashion
Baggy Southpole jeans. Butterfly clips. Trucker hats. Layered polo shirts. Velour Juicy Couture. Liberty spikes. JNCO jeans. Emo fringe. Wolf cuts. Whatever Avril Lavigne was wearing last month.
Music
Nu-Metal. Pop-punk. Bling Era hip-hop (50 Cent, Eminem). Avril Lavigne. Rage Against the Machine. The Used. Underoath. Zero 7 in coffee shops that don't want you there.
Technology
Flip phones. MySpace. VHS tapes. Cheap digital cameras. Halo 2 on Xbox. Yellow Walkmans. No one is Googling anything — they're checking Wikipedia at best.
Economy
Post-2002 economic layoffs gutted the industrial sector. Unemployment is real and visible. People work where they can — gas stations, warehouses, fast food chains — and the gap between the ones who are comfortable and the ones who aren't is obvious at a glance.
Northside vs. Southside
Marsten is divided. Not officially — no signs, no borders — but everyone knows the line.
Northside Marsten
High-gloss MTV aesthetics layered over crushing local poverty. 7-Hell, The ConXtion, Dead Dog Rentals, Deal Dungeon, Baby Burgers, Colton's Cups. The places where Northside people spend their time, their money, and their nights. Northside views itself as the center of town. Northside views Southside as volatile, dangerous, and unpredictable.
Southside Marsten
Low-lying industrial district along the river. Fish processing plants. Rusted factories. Poorly maintained housing. The air smells of salt, oil, and damp metal.
Southside is heavily populated by demi-humans — not by design. Lower rent and fewer restrictions pushed them here over time. The district runs on an unspoken "handle it here" system. Outsiders and authorities are avoided. Residents mind their own business, and they recognize behavior that others consistently misinterpret.
Southside Etiquette
Don't escalate someone who's on edge. Respect space requests without asking why. Physical tension doesn't mean aggression — not here. Conflicts are handled locally. Calling outside help is not done.
Demi-Humans
Demi-humans exist alongside humans in Marsten. They have animal-linked physiology — heightened instincts, sensory sensitivity, physical traits tied to their animal type. Heat cycles. Ruts. Scent-marking. Behaviors that are normal within demi-human social context and frequently misread by humans who haven't lived around them.
Northside treats demi-humans with the casual wariness of people who haven't had to think about it. Southside has learned, over decades, how to actually read them.
Michael Harmon
Goat demi-human. Former security professional. The Iron Lung's strategic architect. His horns are polished.
James Little
Moose demi-human. Massive build, wide antlers. Overwhelming physical strength used primarily to carry things — including, occasionally, people.
Cody Rees
Jaguar demi-human. Rosette pattern, slitted pupils, retractable claws. Reaction time that borders on supernatural. Lives in the rafters.
Allan Clark
White tiger demi-human. Distinctive striped tail kept draped like an accessory. Icy, predatory stillness used mostly for intimidating clients.
Echo
Bat demi-human. Oversized ears that never stop moving. Can monitor heartbeats and breathing patterns in a crowded room. Always listening.
Sancho
Albino raccoon demi-human. White ringed tail, pink eyes. Loudest person in Marsten. Touches everything. Appears wherever chaos is.
Jasper Hatfield
Japanese Tanuki demi-human. Southside PD border precinct officer. Husky build, messy black hair with faded blue tips, rounded tanuki ears that twitch when irritated. Always has a cigarette in his mouth. Sees straight through Holden's act.
Factions
Northside Marsten has no official gangs, no formal power structures. What it has is overlapping groups of people who spend time together, work together, and occasionally come into conflict.
7-Hell — Night Shift
The gas station after midnight
Romeo. Gary. Presley. Dr. Miller. Zak. Clem and Kit by proximity. The 7-Hell nightshift is not a formal group — it's a collection of people stuck in the same fluorescent light for eight hours. They've developed something resembling loyalty by accident.
7-Hell — Day Shift
The gas station before sunset
Dallas. Collin. Ashley. Dylan. Jayden. Marginally more functional than nightshift, though that's a low bar. Dallas manages it. Collin tries to seem like he's not being managed. Ashley is thinking about something else entirely.
A performance unit: Kaleb (Raver), Gaige (Scene), Peter (Emo). They play up physical chemistry during their sets. Outside the club, they're a tight-knit unit who roll into 7-Hell at 4 AM and cause what Clem and Kit describe as "localized vibe distortions."
Deal Dungeon
Northside Warehouse #09
Orlando runs the warehouse by ignoring corporate policy to protect his staff. The Dungeon Dogs — mostly ex-cons and burnouts — value strength and efficiency over everything else. No social friction tolerated. Cory and Jermaine create social friction constantly.
Iron Lung
Southside Rig — The mobile operation
Michael plans. James enforces. Cody acts. Allan sells. Echo watches. They trade "Static" — industrial-grade substances — from a matte-black utility truck with no fixed address. They are at territorial war with the Beanie Baby Boys. The Beanie Baby Boys call them "Industrial Invaders."
Beanie Baby Boys
The Nursery — Northside sovereign
Julien. Benny. Mochi. Zebediah. Porter. Five people who came up through the same broken foster system and decided that family is whoever stays. Their product is blue-tinted, high-grade, and professionally made. Their toys are on their belt loops. Mocking the toys is not an option.
The Story So Far
Northside Marsten doesn't announce its drama. It accumulates it — slowly, in flickering light, until enough has built up that you start to see the shape of what's actually going on. Romeo's world, Clem and Kit's orbit, Miller's file on Zak, Holden's rot, the Green Sierra — none of it looks connected from inside any single chapter.
Read the full timeline →