Little Europe

Home. Old brick and corporate glass, loud and crowded, with the Hot Zone just to the east.

The feel of it

After the 4th Corporate War, Little Italy and Northside were stitched together with some scraps of West Hill, and you can still see the seams in the buildings. Crumbling pre-war brick stands next to corporate towers. Artists, mercs, office workers and small-time hustlers share the same sidewalks, and most residents can barely make rent.

Across the water to the west, the spaceport is going up. The Hot Zone lies to the east. People here trade, argue and borrow from each other's cultures. Nobody ends up in Little Europe by accident. They choose it, and they get attached.

Who's in charge

• Amanda Polishchuk gave up freelance Solo work in 2040. She owns Camden Court, the most fortified apartment building in the district, and lives in the penthouse.
• NCPD answers emergency calls and patrols regularly. Officers look for any reason to stop and search people, so think about how much hardware you carry in the open.
• Night Corp keeps its headquarters here. So does Danger Gal, the detective agency.

What people are talking about

• The Downtown border. Downtown split off in 2042. The border gets redrawn at least once a year, through bribes and the occasional burst of violence.
• The gift boxes. Someone left gift-wrapped boxes in a day market. They burst and sprayed enhanced synthcoke over the crowd, and about a hundred people were hooked on the spot. NCPD called it a Mass Addiction Event, and it sparked the Bozo Civil War.
• A rumor: Polishchuk is said to fund the Undertow and their violent protests across the border in Downtown. Nobody has proved it.

Where to go

Drink and meet

• Greta's: the best-known pool hall in the city. Hustlers, side bets and a loud, proud lesbian crowd at the bar.
• Fiddler's Green: an Irish-themed pub for cops, veterans and edgerunners. Kate Mulvaney holds messages for her regulars.
• Chopper's: Norman's old butcher shop, now a dive. Beer or rotgut for 10eb. The Eurotrashers drink here because Kate won't let them into Fiddler's Green. In the back, 80/20 sells used cyberware cheap. Don't ask who had it before you.
• Short Circuit: a bar and repair workshop run by Brain and his husband 3-Piece. Workshops rent for 5eb an hour. Trusted Netrunners get into the Brain Bar, a digital hangout, and the Gauntlet, a Black ICE arena for settling bets. 3-Piece runs a tech Night Market upstairs.

Eat, shop, wash

• Kaito Market: goes up on Thursdays and comes down on Sundays. Cheek Turn sells sidearms, light armor and ammo. Fifty Farms has fresh produce. At Taco Taco, 5eb buys two SCOP tacos or one mystery-meat taco. App Shack sells cheap everyday software, not Netrunner gear.
• The Bristol: communal baths downstairs for a eurobuck or two, an indoor park on the third floor, coworking on the seventh, and E-Z Cyberware on the sixth for custom installs and removals.

Gear and services

• Torrell and Chiang's: discreet armor tailored for people whose work needs it, and dry cleaning that can handle what the work leaves on your clothes.
• Revere Courier Services: physical deliveries, sensitive data runs, and paid protection work for freelancers.
• Holy Angels: Father Kevin offers sanctuary and mediates disputes. Weapons and violence stay outside, where 6th Street guards the church.
• Danger Gal: the first floor of the clock-tower offices has a café and public meeting rooms. The floors above are off-limits. The pink décor hides a very capable agency.

Sleep

• Cube-A-Rama: cramped cubes in an old brick building. A Netrunner collective rents most of one floor, and nobody knows what for.
• Camden Court, if you've got the eb to sleep like the City Manager.

Keep out

• The strip of Biotechnica forest by the bay used to let visitors in. Now security patrols it with cyberwolves.

Next door: the Hot Zone

• The ruins of the old city center, hit by a nuke in 2023: toppled towers, contaminated dust, radiation and sinkholes.
• It's shrinking. Reclamation crews work inward from the edges, Little Europe's side included. Night Corp pays most of the bill and nomads do the digging.
• No CitiNet inside, and no cops on the ground. NCPD flies over in armored AVs and shoots anyone they see firing a gun.
• Maelstrom holds the Totentanz club and sabotages the rebuilding.
• People survive in the ruins anyway. Father Grace visits the scavver camps with free medical care.

Getting around

Little Europe has NCART Red and Blue Line stations and an Exec Monorail station. Call a Red Cab with your Agent or a data term. For gossip on the way, ask for Dimitri, who knows every street on the Island.