A Beasthood · The Towers
Bullhattan
Your word is the tallest thing you will ever build.
Their gift: The Word. A promise shaken over the Vaults binds. The cost: A broken word follows its breaker; it binds only what was said aloud, and can't make anyone keep it.
About 500 Beasts call Bullhattan home.
The place
Cold glass towers over Vaults full of Marks, tickers scrolling the day's deals: the higher the office, the bigger the deal. The towers are taller than five hundred Beasts could ever fill, and Bullhattan keeps building. At sunset a dealer sees gold glass; the Flex courier on the step below sees the steel their crews carried.
Their gift, and what it costs
The Word. A promise shaken over the Vaults binds, and if it breaks, both palms go cold. A contract is a Word written down. The cost: a broken word follows its breaker, and every handshake after goes cold. The limit: it binds only what was said aloud, and can't make anyone keep it.
What they want, and what they fear
Want: to be the centre everyone looks up to. Fear: the Blackout's dark, when a promise was only as good as someone's memory.
People you might meet
- Augustin Rhee (Medieval, Vault keeper since the Grey Year) stops strangers mid-handshake to fix the grip. "Firmer. You're promising, not apologising."
- Ingrid Solvang (Wolf, Downtown). Last week they took three Beastro cooks up the lift. Two said yes; the third asked where the kitchen was.
- Lazlo Reinholt (Bull, Uptown). Downtown brings up Lazlo's famous calm in the Blackout, which they slept through.
Neighbours and old business
- WAGMI Way. Needed and resented: the Way thinks in Beastcoin, the towers in contracts, and every coin is Marks by nightfall.
- Fort Flex. The Boundary Disputes, still argued; every tower's bottom step is Flex ground. Flex hands read a big deal's Marks, for a haggled fee.
- Trusty Lake Estates. Calls the towers "new money".
Books from Bullhattan
A Beast's Book is written from their holder's choices.
No Book from Bullhattan is open yet. A holder of a Beast from here can begin theirs in the game.
More about Bullhattan
Their scarSixty years ago Fort Flex crews raised the Spire on the Vaults for Marks and a place at its first launch.
Sixty years ago Fort Flex crews raised the Spire on the Vaults for Marks and a place at its first launch. The Marks came; the place went to an Uptown house. The Uptown house's hands went cold for good; a Flex runner has stood at the door since.
In the 72-Hour Blackout two years ago, every ticker went dark and the towers' files moved in the order of the old road's posts. What woke the posts is argued at every desk.
In the Grey Year the Hush's first circle shook a bargain in the Vaults; Augustin Rhee witnessed it and keeps a copy.
What they argue aboutUptown vs Downtown: is the Spire's top storey for the towers' own launches, or shared ones?
Uptown vs Downtown: is the Spire's top storey for the towers' own launches, or shared ones? A buttoned collar, or an open one. Downtown holds it, narrowly.
This seasonThe top storey goes to a vote this month.
The top storey goes to a vote this month. Ingrid has shaken on a Beastro kitchen up there by spring; Lazlo, on none. One pair of palms is going cold, and every desk has picked a side.
A customOpen Hands.
Open Hands. On the year's last night Augustin reads out every word shaken that year and still open, and both shakers stand and say how they'll keep it. All December, Bullhattan makes tiny promises ("I'll hold the lift Thursday") to have an easy one.
PlacesGlass Lobby: over the Vaults; a public handshake rings the bell.
- Glass Lobby: over the Vaults; a public handshake rings the bell.
- Dark Hall: off the Vaults, unlit since the Blackout. Words here bind nothing, so Beasts speak plainly.
- Night Desk: the overnight market; the Wake is held here.
What they think is going on"It's noise. Focus on the work."
"It's noise. Focus on the work." The Vaults hum; the doors have been re-hung three times for the draught.