OPEN

[keenly]

FORM: Sending Crystal
SENDER: Colin
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: Think tanking about Darktown
WHEN: Present
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: CW: Descriptions of medical conditions associated with poverty, specifically trench foot and scurvy.

This is Colin the shopkeep. Now that two separate crises are under control, I have something I want to bring to your attention because I know how good-hearted and generous all of you are, as demonstrated all last month.

It's Darktown. I've been helping Anders in his clinic there, and...I thought I'd seen poverty before. I thought I'd lived it. I thought my family was poor when I was a kid because we didn't have much. We shared a wall with our neighbors and there were seven of us living in two tiny rooms. Sometimes we didn't eat well, but we never starved. Our roof leaked sometimes, but we could fix it and be dry after that. We had a roof and walls and clothes and food. After the, um, the war started a few years back, I went hungry for a while, but my teeth weren't falling out.

People in Darktown don't have walls or a roof. You'd think living under Hightown would mean they have at least a roof, but they don't. On the seaward side, people are exposed to everything--cold, rain, snow, everything. And the muck that leaks down from Hightown is some of the worst stuff you'll ever smell. Most people down there can't work, or can't find work, and they have to live down there with their families because they can't afford rent in Lowtown. They spend day in and day out wading through filth trying to find coins people dropped through grates. That means their feet are constantly wet and cold, and that's bad even in summer. I treated feet what were soaked and pale and cracking, skin sloughing off and frozen in some places. Some of them have to take a cot in the clinic till they get warm and dry, but it'll only happen again after they've left, and on and on till they lose their feet.

And they don't have food, not really. Sometimes they'll get lucky and catch rats or pigeons or seagulls, but otherwise it's whatever they can find what was thrown away or dropped. And yes, their teeth are falling out, some of them. They have scurvy, they have rickets, they can't breathe for the chokedamp. Sometimes you find people who suffocated to death without anyone there to help. By the time a healer gets there, it's too late. And magical healing can't do anything about the damp and the cold and the hunger. It can't cure scurvy or rickets, or fleas and lice, and it's not very useful against frostbite.

If they try to go up to Hightown they'll just be arrested, or worse, escorted back. Everyone thinks they're thieves and carry diseases. There's nowhere for them and nobody wants to help them. And you can see in their eyes that they know that. They have these...hollow, vacant looks. They've given up. They're broken.

I think that this is the kind of thing the Inquisition is meant for, and we need to address it. These people need food, clothing, and shelter. It needs to make a real difference and not just look good. And seeing as we all have different experiences and different expertises--is that the right word?--we all must have something to bring to the table. So I wanted to discuss all of this with all of you and maybe together we can come up with some ideas we can bring to our leaders. So what can we do about Darktown? What are some possible solutions to these problems?

[OOC: for the sake of organization, I'm putting in a few top-levels under which people can make comments about specific concerns. Anything that doesn't fall under these, or any suggestions to improve the overall state of poverty in Darktown, you can make your own top-level for. Threadjack, go crazy, y'all know the drill.]

Comments

[justice_is_blond]

How much yarn does a pair of socks take? And how long? A massive amount of socks could make a definite difference.

[Despite temptation, Anders is not going to ask about non-circle shapes even jokingly. This is about Darktown.]

[sunshinethroughgrey]

It really depends on whether or not I am making them for men, women or children. Children can usually get four pairs out of one skein. Women two, men one and a half.

[She could make jokes in kind -- but as it was said. Darktown.]

[keenly]

They really need blankets as well.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

That will take at least eleven skeins of yarn. Not something I am begrudging them, but it will take time to make. I knit most of my days so I can turn out two blankets a week.

We ... might think about making tie blankets from warm cloth.

[keenly]

I'll cast about for used cloth in Lowtown. A lot of people sell scraps and things too worn to use.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Oh nonsense, don't do that. I'll just sell a dress and get good warm fabric to make new blankets from.

[keenly]

...How much do your dresses cost?

[sunshinethroughgrey]

...More than I honestly want to think about, Colin.

[justice_is_blond]

So if we go that route, buying in multiples of two would be best so as to make certain that full pairs are made of each. What is the time investment? Forgive me for all the questions; I know nothing about knitting, only sewing. But if the time and cost required isn't too high, we could possibly see residents wanting to learn how to make their own and we can provide them with the needed materials.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Time investment for socks? Well if I am spending a good part of my day knitting and reading? About two days. Of course I have a full work rotation so if we teach others to make their own socks ... that could go much faster.

[justice_is_blond]

Two days. Perhaps that's not the best way to use limited resources after all. I'd no idea a sock took that long. Sewing might be the most cost- and time-effective thing to teach.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Well we can do that, but you cannot really sew socks. I can teach people to knit as well, so those women who have to stay with their children can make them clothes and more importantly, have a skill they can use to sell to fancy uptown ladies.

[justice_is_blond]

Right.

If they do wind up with time enough to make some to sell, we'll need a seller who doesn't disclose where the goods came from. There's a great deal of scorn directed at those from Darktown by the... fancy uptown ladies.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

Oh well I think we both know a few of those.