Understore
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The Understore is a staff-only area residing beneath the main shop floor, and it contains all the necessary facilities required to keep Emporium running. Much of the floor is simply open space leading to the freight elevators, facilitating the movement of goods around the store where no customers can get in the way. There are also employee facilities, and other necessities for the continued operation of the store that customers don’t need to see. Many rooms are simply marked “Maintenance”, their purposes forgotten by all but a handful of staff. The rest of the rooms are given over to miscellaneous storage; over time filled with the battered cardboard boxes which naturally accumulate in any little-used space.
Only the Utility Room & Laundry and Kitchen Supplies are easily accessible as part of the Warp Zone.
Utility Room and Laundry
To ensure employees can keep their vests and other clothing items neat and pristine, there is a small washing area thoughtfully placed in the Understore. The room is dingy concrete. The ceiling drips, and stalactites are starting to form in colours that seem to shift uncomfortably when inspected. The air is heavy and humid. There are a collection of washing machines, a particularly grouchy single dryer, and a single vending machine for washing capsules. The machines are old. Treat them kindly, and perhaps they will do the same for you.
Kitchen Supplies
The Kitchens are supplied by a great echoing pantry, full of barrels of elemental feedstock, supplemented by prefabricated versions of some of the most popular meals. Replacement parts and utensils - many of which are utterly alien to conventional anthropomorphic body plans - can be found herein.
Backup Generator Room
The backup generator is a self-contained unit designed to ensure continuous power supply to the store, in the extremely unlikely event of any emergencies. Wait, if this is the backup generator, where’s the primary? What kinds of emergencies? Don’t worry about it.
Vaultkeeper’s Office
While descriptions of the vaultkeeper vary wildly, they tend to agree that it is some form of Glory with eyes everywhere. The more out-there reports do not limit the location of these eyes to being on its body.
Going by these descriptions and the proximity of its office to the soul vault, the consensus is that their job description involves watching over or guarding said vault.
Nobody has ever heard it speak. We think.
Soul Vault
The ███████ is where the ████████████ maintains ██████████████ ██████ ███████████. It is not to be ███████████ ████████████████████ ██████████████████.
Undertailor
The Undertailor works closely with the Elemental Extractor department to ensure maximal efficiency and minimal waste in production.
Fine-tuned design projects and delicate tailoring are being carried out at all times: ❀artists at work, please do not disturb without sufficient cause❀
Note: If the door to the Undertailor is open, please close it while averting your sensory organs. If this is not possible, please ignore the situation and carry on with your day.
Elemental Extractor
A great thrumming machine looms over this portion of the Understore, extending from floor to ceiling. It is loosely cordoned off with a chain-link fence dotted with inscrutable warning symbols. A particularly prominent sign reads:
Authorised personnel only.
Personal Protective Equipment to be worn at all times.
Emergency contact: █████████████
Hardware Testing
A large, open area with chipped concrete walls, filled with sandbags, rubble, and extremely battered concrete barricades. Sometimes items come out of the Warehouses with no instruction manual or even proper packaging. To ensure a customer isn’t sold a stellar ignition engine in place of a toaster (again), these items sometimes need to be tested. Crashing, thumping, screeching, and booming sounds can frequently be heard as employees try out these mysterious items. Fortunately, this area is well soundproofed, and the noise can only occasionally be heard by the customers upstairs.
Growth Sector Maintenance
Growth Sector Maintenance is a labyrinthine maze of colossal roots and leaking pipes, barrels of arcane fertiliser and reservoirs overgrown with alien flora, where mushrooms sprout from every nook, nozzle, tap and cranny. Down here, spores choke the air, and the roar of heavy machinery and rushing water is all but deafening. In the twilight of this claustrophobic space, sightings of beings strange even by the standards of Emporium are common, and they say strange things happen to those Employees unfortunate enough to overstay their welcome …