Read the street like a person would. Your neighbors are little figures: the unaware stand hunched, arms tight, heads down — as they see more clearly they straighten up, open their arms, and begin to sway with life. The gray haze over the district is fear itself: watch it thin with every victory. The chalk tallies along the bottom wall are what people remember — count them growing; no one can erase them. When an enforcer walks away, their rigid square becomes a person.
Voices awake is the neighborhood's total awareness: the average across everyone, plus a count of how many people see clearly (50%+). It is the pulse of your movement between ripples — but it is volatile: crackdowns and informants can push it down. Only What people remember is permanent; memory is the part of awareness that victories have made impossible to take back.
Every action button lists exactly what it moves: green is awareness — the fuel that lives in people (their dots grow greener and larger), red is eyes on you, blue is trust, amber is fear & memory — the two dials that win the district. Awareness itself is the hidden fifth dial: it doesn't win directly, but aware circles are what spark the blue ripples that move fear and memory.
Talking, organizing, murals, and posts raise your neighbors' awareness — dots grow greener and larger as people see more clearly.
When a whole circle of neighbors is aware together, a structural win can spark — the blue ripple. Something concrete changes: a fine gets reversed, a firing gets refused, a rule quietly stops being enforced. Each win lowers Fear in the air (words travel faster for everyone) and raises What people remember (a floor that awareness can never be pushed below again — not even by crackdowns). A win that sparks near you also hands you +1 energy next turn — hope is fuel. If you see a faint blue shimmer, a circle came close and almost broke through: one more push.
That is the whole engine: awareness → wins → less fear + more memory → awareness spreads easier. You win the district when memory reaches 35% or fear falls to 15%.
Courage cascades. When someone in uniform walks away, doubt spreads to every enforcer near them — they waver at lower awareness from then on, and if they were already wavering, they may walk away on the spot, one after another. Three murals close together turn the streets between them into a free zone: awareness grows there on its own, and crackdowns lose most of their force inside. A witnessed crackdown within two turns of a structural win travels folded inside the good news — the whole district feels it.
Openings appear from time to time — a gathering, market day, a respected visitor, a sympathetic printer. Each lasts a turn or two and makes one action briefly stronger or cheaper. They are announced above the map; spend them or lose them.
Trust in you grows with every action you take. It extends how far you can reach to build connections and murals, makes your talks and meetings land harder, lets people believe you when you expose an informant (needs 30+), reaches a wider circle when you organize (40+), and improves the odds when you ask someone in uniform to walk away — and when they do, their courage gives you +1 energy on the spot.
Send a letter reaches anyone, anywhere on the map — no range limit. It creates a thinner connection (words travel it at half strength) and letters can be intercepted, so it raises eyes on you a little. Far and thin, near and thick: choose your threads.
Eyes on you is the price of visibility. Crackdowns raise fear and crush awareness where they land — but never below what people remember. If they come while too many eyes are on you, you may be taken; someone you raised will carry on.
Embers are earned at the end of every campaign run — win or lose — from your wins and defections. Spend them on Legacies at the map screen: permanent gifts that every future story begins with. Nothing is ever wasted.