Sorry this is so late, I hurt my elbow (it's better now) so I had to pause reader question work and grinding out pages for the next chapter. I am well on track to be finished with chapter 9 before the haitus ends, though, so that's good.
From a Terran perspective, all housing in Jovia is high density housing. It's not uncommon for smaller apartments to only have a toilet, living room, and bedrooms; with a shared kitchen space and washrooms (mist showers, laundry, more toilets). Absolute lowest end of the property tax and highest end of the density spectrum are dormitories, which have shared bedrooms with lockers. The apartment Gillie and Idrisah currently live in is HUGE and fancy by their standards; the only thing making it not a "house" in Jovian terminology is the entrance opening to a shared hallway. Gillie's dads are fairly wealthy and have a smaller end "lot house," with "lot" referring to the private outdoor balcony space. The bigger the lot, the higher the property taxes (functionally a kind of rent, paid to the Social Housing Board). Arguably Talita's currently living in a lot house, but that feels like too nice of a thing to call a converted storage shed... the toilet's a separate building, so does that technically make it a dormitory?... but it's a private washroom... she just calls it an apartment.
If you stalk the lore closely, yes, I renamed the cylinder that Idrisah and Gillie grew up in.
Transcript
Angoryt asked: Idrisah and Gillie, if you two are going to move back to Nexus Jovia, have you already managed to get an apartment? Or will you be living with your relatives until you can get a place?
Idrisah: We submitted our SHB app as soon as we knew we were gonna quit. But our current placement is in an apartment block in the Solidarity cylinder… opposite to the Opportunity cylinder our parents and most of our friends live in…
Gillie: Average waitlists for most of the housing in Opportunity is two years, haha.
Idrisah: It’s not actually that long of a trip on the Spokes, but I would prefer to be closer.
Nexus Jovia
- Opportunity District
- Solidarity District
- The Spokes (microgravity train system)
Gillie: Better than staying with my dads. They've got a big house but they like, never leave it. I can’t deal with their neurotic hovering these days.
Idrisah: My parents are alright, but we have way too much stuff to fit it all in their tiny apartment. So we’d have to rent storage space or recycle a lot of nice things.
Image: Apartment layout with two bedrooms, and living room, and a toilet. Shared kitchen and washrooms are down the hall.
Gillie: Storage space is sooo expensive. I've heard of people using their allotted housing as storage while living somewhere else… but if the Social Housing Board catches you doing that, they will penalize you BIG TIME.
21 thoughts on “RttS Reader Questions 41”
Curona
I see plants depicted in the image of the lot houses and that got me thinking. How is lighting handled in a cylinder shaped habitat? Is that light bright enough to grow plants? And, if the living space is on the inside walls of the tube, where does the light come from? Is there a shaft or beam down the center that provides light?
Also, does Nexus Jovia have bing-bong too, or do they get simulated sunrises and sunsets?
Ave Zancuda
It just came to my mind, as somebody comfortable with living in the same place, in this future somebody could gasp on surprise when asking me if I never thought on traveling to another planet/notorious space station.
Thanks our lovely cast jobs we have an amazing view of what is working “abroad”, or simply not quite home. But for Billions of humans and Sophonts out there they never knew nor quite miss the idea of leaving the immediate place they born into
Vinemaple
In all honesty, I think “sometime during the week” or even “when it gets done” is perfectly fine for AMAs or other filler content during a hiatus. You’re tryin to catch up and/or rest up, after all!
Also in all honesty, I think “same space station, but in the farthest possible location within that station” is juuuust about right for living near parents or family that one’s not actually estranged from.
Fallingfeather
Makes sense that they have government owned housing in space- capitalism exists, but I imagine you CANNOT let a homelessness issue develop in places with such minimal space. They’d literally have nowhere to go. (Not that it should be a thing here either, but I imagine homelessness happening in a space station is even more unfeasible.)
Vinemaple
It’s also satisfying to hear that the apartments on Dirtball are luxuriously big: that’s probably a recruiting tool, and they have the space. Recently, for a few of my own projects, I’ve been trying to design micro-SRO apartments based on the micro-staterooms aboard a tall ship I once worked on, Japanese capsule hotels (which I see made it into the anime Planetes), the cabinet bed in Wuthering Heights, and those horrible bunk bed/cage things people in Kowloon live in.
mdhughes
There’s an SF story by Dean Ing, “Down & Out on Ellfive Prime”, about just that. Turns out you need a certain amount of slack in your station ecosystem, and people can live in that slack, and they learn useful skills.
Lilac
Huh, interesting about the housing (from the author commentary)…. I’m currently in a college dorm room so not too different lol, and its like okayish, but number one things I miss bad right now are privacy (No hate to my roommate they’re cool i just miss Privacy) and warm weather (it is very where i am right now…) so I guess i just hope they’d have super good soundproof walls? I dunno.. I imagine they keep it warm weather in nexus jovia, but maybe they simulate the seasons or something, or there’s like areas designated for cold and areas designated for warm? I don’t know, maybe I’m too Planet Life Brained
Teod
I want to know all cylinder names. I also understand that it’s a totally pointless information that probably doesn’t exist.
Origamigryphon
I dub one “Ingenuity”
Trees
I hear the rent is lowest in the Seasick District, where they accidentally installed the cylinder axis slightly off-centre. It’s also, for some reason, the location of the 24hr duelling-bagpipes and clog-dance battle arena.
Ave Zancuda
I’d like to name another one Gearwheel
Lezzlebit
Man, it sucks that they’re struggling with getting comfortable housing in Nexus Jovia that’s close to their friends. It’s too bad they can’t… they can’t… run…. a… away……. it’s too bad they… they can’t……………………. ah, I shan’t say it
LeBonk
Always nice to see collectively-owned and -managed housing systems.
I’m really curious how multiple rotating cylinders can all still be connected with a built-in transportation system between them
Varyon
Assuming the individual cylinders rotate, I note the “corners” of the Spoke seem to be at or very near the dead center of each cylinder. Assuming this is just a rough map and they’re all actually dead-center, that makes things pretty easy – the cylinders rotate on an axle of sorts that is connected directly to the corner of the Spoke. So you just have to reach the axle and then you’re in the zero-G Spoke and can travel around as needed.
petra
wondering if gillie’s dad’s living space illustration is similar to the dense vertically built neighbourhoods in chongqing, it gives me the same vibe
Cugz Arui
space housing sounds like a pain and a half. though honestly im surprised the smaller apartments even have a kitchen and that the living room and bedroom are separate. ive known someone on earth who had one continuous room with a bed region and kitchen region (both pretty small). the only other room was a bathroom which tbf did look a decent size
JoB
> honestly im surprised the smaller apartments even have a kitchen
Multi-sophont cohabitation may play a role in that. With the strict biochemistry incompatibility stated for RttS, having kitchens and toilets (the ins and outs of people’s bowels …) shared would take extra effort – unless you go the route of having things turn single-species at some mid-level (like, per building), of course.
Cugz Arui
i…i am the first comment?
Madame Thunderbone
Are you sure we should be 2016 YouTube “First”-ing a webcomic?
Genko
Yes ^w^
Vinemaple
Yes, you were, and welcome to the community!