cadence -- the living town (and how your Echo uses it) Townsfolk are persistent NPCs with needs. They get hungry, thirsty, bored, lonely, filthy, or afraid, then walk somewhere that helps -- shops, home shower, park, job site. Type npcs town to see who is where. Town money is dollars (wallet shows $N). How you play 1. personality -- list traits; add homebody, brave, barfly, … 2. personality traveler town|map|realm|none -- how far your Echo may wander. 3. personality add adventurer -- Echo seeks Bobby hunts + wilderness / dungeons. 4. personality add undertaker -- heave / bury corpses (help undertaker). 5. personality add looter -- scavenge corpses (help looter). 6. favoritejob <job> -- (optional) prefer a shift when bare work runs. 7. favorite <name> -- (optional) social hangout override. 8. regimen <activity> -- (optional) gym override; Path defaults otherwise. 9. idle -- watch the AI walk your body while logged in. 10. quit -- true offline Echo -- same town loop. 11. talk <npc> / shop / buy / eat / drink / work -- same verbs online; Echoes use them too. What the loop does Broke Echoes work; critically starving ones may rob a food counter (help rob). Critical hunger / thirst / energy / boredom / loneliness pause gym training until eased. Critical restless (gym) forces spar / Town Gym and pauses long-range Path hunt patrols -- board missions, haunts, and a live mid-fight scrap stay sticky. Any real swing (spar or lethal) eases restless the same way a training room does. Human fighters also pause Path-hunt-only patrols to restock salt packets and other gear-bag kit when survival needs are already clear (help gear). Two gym_rat Echoes who both allow sparring (sparaccept) and share a room will drill each other with a friendly, non-lethal spar -- no gym required. Curious townsfolk walk to nearby pocket mouths, study them without entering, and leave gossip naming where the entrance is. Drifters and Echoes with leisure SEEK may fish tagged lake shore, pier, or pond water with the same ``fish`` verb you type (help fishing). Broke drifters and Echoes fence their catch with ``sell`` at grocers, cooks, or the pawnbroker -- thrifty Echoes sell sooner; generous Echoes keep one meal back. Townsfolk and Echoes with leisure SEEK may buy smoke herbs at the speakeasy or grocery and pick wild strains at tagged outdoor sites with the same ``pick`` verb you type (help herbs). Townsfolk and Echoes with leisure SEEK may farm the co-op south field or their own garden plot with the same ``farm`` verb you type (help farming). Drifters and Echoes with leisure SEEK may stalk tagged hunt blinds and wilds, then butcher the carcass with the same ``stalk`` and ``butcher`` verbs you type (help hunting). Townsfolk and Echoes share the same errand beats: climb out of a car when thirst or hunger needs the street, restock a lover's blood groceries, run paid DoorDash / Nest blood drops, treat worn kit, and -- if you are an Aspect Elemental -- attune on your home plane instead of wandering the Town Gym. A living body yanked to Heaven or Hell gets recalled the same way an idle Echo does. Adventurer Echoes may leave town for hunts and the Wastes (help missions | help wilderness | help dungeon). Critically hurt Echoes break off a fight and path home to rest or sleep. Vessel-free Celestial Echoes re-enter their vessel via possess (same as online) before homesick realmhome. Angel and Demon Echoes travel embodied by default. Stuck glue (packs / epics) If a pack reunite or epic dungeon wait spins with no progress, Cadence times it out, clears the sticky stamp for Echoes / idle bodies, and logs [cadence_stuck] for staff. Finished leveling runs also auto-clear for Echoes after the return taxi. Staff can still force-clear with town settle. Layout worth knowing Main Street runs north/south from Lebanon Square; the old highway cuts east and west (motel, radio lot, airport spur on East; hospital on West 5). East Avenue Gas Station sells food and drink day and night (Rae / Vince). East of Lebanon East Fork, Dusty Crossroads waits on a dirt service road (Faustian beckon bury site -- help beckon). Town Park (west of Main Street S6) has the free stew kettle and floor-sleep camp ground. Ash Court apartments and neighborhood hubs sit off the west highway. Spike's Nest and other sewer nests sit under town (help scavenger / help feast). A lookout on the spur shouts when Vampires or wanted faces show (help lodging for overnight Crumb grocery cover when desks sleep). Lawrence, Kansas runs the same needs loop when you road-trip there (overnight grocer Rell after Rafi closes). On-shift clerks (grocery, gas, bars, …) stay at the counter through ordinary SEEK needs -- boredom, soft hunger, hangouts wait until clock-out. A critical survival need peels them off the walk to the counter too -- they eat or drink first, then commute. Idle Echoes on a Winchester job eat when the hunt is not actually stepping. A stalled theft contract or a quiet Special Child binge yields the beat so errands and fights can run instead of freezing in place. Off-shift peaceful neighbors who are already fine (needs not SEEK) skip the busybody loop -- no haunt-start rolls, kit errands, or aisle pacing. They linger at home, a bar, the park, or the plaza, or slowly walk toward those rooms (homebody home, barfly the bar, socialite somewhere social). Buying a drink at a grocer does not park them in the doorway for hours -- unless two socialites find each other, in which case they will hold court right there in front of the shop. Night still pulls peaceful folk home between 22:00 and 06:00 -- night-shift staff (Crumb, Old Sal, Dot) and night_owl personas keep working or hanging out. Closed shop counters do not count as food or water -- walk to home taps, Park Pond, or an open store instead. People remember shouts, robberies, and monstrous true-form reveals -- ask with talk. personality add brave (or adventurer) skips Cadence panic-flee; personality add fearless also skips fear-hide / bolt and corpse-flee. Bodies: scavenge / butcher / drain / bury (help scavenge). Carrion feast destroys what Moss and Pike miss (help feast) -- Bitter in the west sewers races them for every cooling body. Sewers hide Vampire pockets; Corner Bar and Town Gym are vampire-safe.