Pip Rippon's Curated Guide - Chapter three (part 2)

Pip Rippon's Curated Guide - Chapter three (part 2)

This is part 2 of the third part of an updated version of my Curated Guide, which I first released around fifteen months ago. It was intended as a resource to help you (and me, to be honest) understand Hellsborough and The Dark Peak. 

I try to explain a world on your doorstep. A world that you probably have no idea that exists: The unexplored parallel world of Sheffield, S6 – Hellsborough and The Dark Peak. I think that I now understand the place. When I say understand, what I mean is, that I can cope with it.

Want to know what's going on when you're here?

Apart from the ever popular chatting in a bar approach, which can yield wildly varying results depending upon who you choose to talk to, there are four main sources of news in Hellsborough and The Dark Peak.

If you are a denizen or jellyhead, then all of your informational requirements are served by the hive mind. Unless you wear a psycmask out of choice or because you are compelled to (like me), then the hive mind will remain silent to you. I have to admit that I find it a constant drawl which I struggle to decipher, but I'm sure that's me, as I hear no complaints from anyone else; as I have noted before, your average jellyhead seems content yet distracted.

Secondly, there are The Dark Peak District Council information posters -- referred to by some as the propaganda of the fungal network, but the examples that I have seen are mostly functional public information do's and don'ts, pretty tame and lacking in any political message. You'll also see DPDC posters advertising events in the area. I guess that's a belts and braces approach by the DPDC's marketing department in case you (as a jellyhead) miss announcements released via the hive mind.

The third source of news and information, is the informal network of individuals known as the clowns. The clowns are denizens, so they too have indigenous access to the hive mind, but they are also the couriers and spies of The Dark Peak. This method of finding out what you need to know is more direct, and will involve the expenditure of ¢hits, but if you need your information fast, this is likely the best route.

Finally, The Hellsborough Heretic is a subversive publication by the crosslander resistance / netherlander alliance, and is therefore the main communications medium for the disparate clans of the nethermen who reside on the fringes of Hellsborough. Often hard to find and always involving venturing out of Hellsborough, the Heretic will advise you on developments within the resistance, usually without giving anything tangible away. If the copy you find is in date (about a 50 / 50 chance, in my experience), then you might be able to then track down details of a resistance meeting or some other gathering, if that's your thing; good luck with that.

Language here. It's kind of the same, but different, like everything else. Alot of my research (diary) notes are interpretations of the original, so it's not the same, but similar enough to get by. The nouns are very much functional -- take slipper for instance, fish, or barker for dog, or scratcher for your domestic cat. Of course there are some exceptions, but they're usually easy enough to work out, wooltard for instance. Demonspawn is a strange one, until you listen to the context and that particular animals' predilection to violence at certain times. But both of those, to give their full name are clovenfeet, which details their two-toed evolution. Ripperthroat and Ripperwing are self explanatory. Corvids -- strangely -- share the same Latin name as the same creature in the off-world (which is a pretty strange phenomenon, when you think about it -- I mean, are these creatures so old that they pre-date The illimitable cleavage? It could be a possibility, especially considering that Milting have close associations with corvids)

Outside of the standard canon of the bestiary, Ripperthroats are the one exception to the standard off-world flora and fauna that I have come across so far. Barker, Scratcher, Honker, Ripperwing, Quacker, Demonspawn, Wooltard, Skewerwing, Screachwing, Scrufftail, Slyfluff, Flatface are all commonplace in both the off-world and Hellsborough and The Dark Peak, and the majority of them, as with the local dialect and nomenclature here, usually pretty much make sense without too much explanation.

Finally, the date system. The Dark Peak calendar does not count years in an infinite sequence, instead year names are repeated every 60 years, with the name being a weather-beast amalgam. In The Dark Peak, because of the murk and the lack on penetration of either sun or moonlight, the calendar -- although still the length of a year of 365 days, the months differ. There are 18 months in The Dark Peak (0-17), with each month consisting of 20 days (0 to 19), with 5 days at the end of the year for celebrations.

That's what you notice when you arrive, maybe. Next, let's spend a couple of chapters looking at how Hellsborough is very different from the off-world.

If you know anyone else that you think might find this interesting, then please forward this email to them :)

I have launched a new series of diary entries that I call “Pip Rippon — Stranger in a Strange Land”, in which I describe my struggle to survive as an immigrant in Hellsborough and The Dark Peak, and how I make ¢hits, and how you can use my knowledge to make money in the off-world. I think you’ll enjoy it, check it out here: Stranger in a Strange Land.

In other news, Hellsborough Chronicles book one “Dark Peak” is now available on Kindle and paperback.

If you can leave a review of Dark Peak on Amazon, I'd be more than grateful.

Hellsborough Chronicles book two “Darker Peak” is now being worked on — look out for early releases.

Cheers, until next time,

Pip :)