Steven ou l'Optimisme

Chapter Two: Gallicula, A City of Kings and Paupers

The grand capital of Toontopia, the city of Galicula. Home to the Toontopian royal family, the French family of Gravois. They have designed the modern capitol with defense in mind, and by defense, we mean for themselves. It is most obvious when looking at the capital itself. The city can be divided into three sectors. The first sector was of course the royal palace and its surrounding gardens. Such a magnificent and grand garden is sure to have been inspired by King Louis XVI's palace in Versailles. The gates are heavily guarded by the soldiers of the Toontopian royal guard battalion, one of the most elite guards of the kingdom, and the most loyal to the royal family.

Outside of the palace gates were the aristocrats lived. The streets were most pristine with the upmost importance of cleanliness. This part of town hosts many upscale gambling houses, high-end restaurants serving the finest of French cuisines, and the most elaborate goods and fashion money can buy. They even had their own cathedral, with decorations made of the most elegant silver, gold, and diamonds. They know (or at least to themselves) that this decadence is why God has let them live the good life.  These aristocrats are guarded by thick castle walls, walls that made one think that they have been up for centuries from the medieval period. In actuality, they have been up for just a few decades, the upkeep has just been deplorable on the other side.

That other side is what is beyond the walls of the Aristocracy. The commoners live in this sector of the capitol, and its conditions vary from ok to unbearable. Not all the commoners living in this city were poor slum-dwellers. Many of these commoners owned good businesses and were living okay lives. But that is still just a minority of the commoner population. The other commoners were living in absolute poverty.  One part of the commoner's area of the city could be pleasant for commoners standard, but the another part would be slums from end to end. Many of these poverty-stricken lived in horrid conditions often having families living in one room in a large slum house. Orphans and beggars roamed the streets looking for money or food just to survive another day. Some of them have jobs in the newly established factories and mines, but those conditions tend to be worse than that of the streets.

This was life for many. For our hero Steven, it was a new adventure and a chance to be free. His family insisted he lives up with the aristocrats of the town, as the Diamond family are pretty well known, those aristocrats consider them friends. But Steven persisted in living by himself and since he left home without much money anyway, he would rent an apartment room with the commoners. Steven has already changed his surname from Diamond to Universe as not to arouse suspicion from the commoners. After being met by guards (whose soul purpose was to antagonize the common folk), Steven drives on into a part of town called La Bohemia, a street where a lot of cheap housing was available for rent. The street gets its name from the many artists that were neglected by the aristocracy, and the very much simplistic and colorful lifestyle. It is not very spacious in these apartments, mostly because these family houses were converted into apartments. For many artists and runaways, it's not too shabby.

Steven stops in front of a house on that street that had a sign that said "rooms for rent". A very basic home in the middle of the part of town which was close to the city's central river, the Blanc, which intersected the Lafayette river that steamed from the River Rhine and bordered the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Young Steven walks up to the homely estate, proceeding to knock on the door, but to his surprise, the door just collapsed in front of him. It wasn't a shock to the landlord whom like the house, was very homely.  An old commoner who Steven might describe as having the face of that up and coming American politician he has heard of recently. The man is currently in his long johns, probably not caring about how people see him (though then again, the poor commoners wear a lot worse).

"Oy! You break the door, you buy it" the man says to Steven, looking at his now destroyed door.

"My apologies good sir. I am just looking for a place to stay for the time being, and I noticed that you had room in your... quaint abode".