Harlem Nocturne is a stylistic noir mystery roleplay set in the retrofuturistic city of
Icessen, 1947. Though renowned by the continent as the leading innovator of technology and machinery, its sterling reputation carried the burden of crime on its shoulders for years. Drug syndicates, kidnappers, serial killers, corrupt officials; the restless city had seen it all. Citizens would have been more surprised of a peaceful day than a mass homicide, not that they had it in themselves to be able to be surprised anymore. They were all counting the days before they fall victim. The lucky ones make it their whole life without being one, but luck was a scarcity.
The feds were singing a different tune. Every day was a mocking commemoration of their incapability to stand for the very foundation they were built upon. Justice was just as easily spat on and laughed at as the homeless begging for crumbs in alleyways. Silver linings and solved cases paled in comparison to the overwhelming remainder they have yet to find. Most of the force succumb to cynicism and vices, with a few faltering to the same evils they used to fight. Starry-eyed rookies were easily snuffed out and told to face the music. Icessen has and always had been this way, they'll tell them. No point in solving more than you can earn to live another day.
But one fateful day led to another and God blew on the bullet that assassinated the mayor's kid. It wasn't long after his wife and even the mayor himself got their names in bold header on the obituaries days after. Riotous unrest in the slums and the streets are rising to a fever pitch as the threat of a city-wide gang war echoed across the boulevards. Homicides, manslaughters, and abduction rates are breaking records faster than city hall clerks can tally them. To the general populace, it was just another Tuesday. To the police department, it was a red string: one with a spool so wide, it wove and wound around their fingers like they were puppets to a game they didn't know they were playing.
Something was brewing amidst themselves and what they would do about it might be the fine line that divides Icessen from true justice and absolute anarchy.
