Where To Stay
From The Tough Guide to Bordertown
Choices of accommodation vary depending on your wallet, background, and level of desperation. Assuming that you won't be staying at the Bordertown Hilton anytime soon, you'll need to find digs in Soho, preferable cheap or free, and safe.
If you're not totally destitute, try the hostelries on the eastern end of Stone, where beds are available on a nightly, weekly, and monthly basis; payment up front (Border currency only, no Worldly cash or Realm script here), all races accepted, no questions asked. For those who prefer segregated accommodation (we don't approve, mind you, we're just reporting): The Crystoble Street Y is a clean, cheap hostel with a human-only clientele, and The Birch Grove is the best of the elfin hostels since The Talking Doll got torched. Look for it in the cobbled alley behind the Birch Street Bar & Grill.
If you can't afford to pay for a bed, you have several options. The Diggers operate three Safe Houses (for short-term stays) on Water, Plum, and Carmine streets, providing bedrolls, floor space, communal meals, and second-hand clothes to all who need them. No remuneration is expected, but visitors are required to follow Digger House Rules: no weapons, no drugs, no gangs, and everybody helps to clean and cook.
For camping or sleeping rough, the best place is probably Tumbledown Park (though guard your stuff or it will get nicked). Don't bother trying Fare-you-well Park, the Silver Suits will simply roust you out; there's a big "Clean Up the Park" thing going on there and tents are no longer tolerated.
Now, if you're in trouble (drugs, gangs, a relationship gone bad), and the communal ethos of the Diggers just ain't your style, then try the Soho Women's Shelter at 43 Lower Down, the Soho Men's Shelter at 18 Water Street, or the Banshee Lane Shelter (established specifically to help Wharf Rats, but others are welcome too).
Okay, those are some of your short-term options. Your next step, if you're planning to stay, is to figure out where you're going to live. If you're like most kids who run away to B-town, we're guessing that you're hoping to find yourself a squat. And yes, there are still blocks of derelict flats, warehouses, and storefronts that could potentially be habitable-but listen up, boys and girls. There are several things you've got to consider before you claim your Home Sweet Home: Whose turf is it on? What gang has staked that street and will they leave you alone? Where's the nearest clean water and sewage supply? What about electricity-or can you live without it? What precautions do you have against theft, or forcible eviction should some thug decide he covets your spot? (It's not like you can call the cops.) Can you heat the place without setting the whole block on fire? (There's no Fire Department in Soho either.)
You might find it more practical to join an already established, protected squat. Some of these are now legendary, like Brigadoon, Horn Dance, Castle Pup, the Chimera, Drowned Ys, or Carterhaugh; others have evolved into gangs, or bands, or otherwise closed their ranks. Whatever you're looking for, human or elf, you'll probably find it at The Poop (a neighborhood advisory network run out of a trailer in front of Cafe Cubana), where there are message boards full of "Squats Looking for People" and "People Looking for Squats" ...as well as maps marked with up-to-date gang boundaries, warfare info, and treaty reports.
Other good places to look for squats: the message boards at the Dancing Ferret, at the Mobile Heath Clinic, and at Elsewhere Books; the free ads in the back of The Mad River Weekly; the Housing List for students at The University Without Floors, and Craigslist>Bordertown (when the B-town internet is actually working).
And if all else fails, you can always go home again, can't you? No...?
Then you'd better start looking.