“Low-value contracts don’t justify client vetting.Payment verification: standard. Intention verification: too expensive.The job you agreed to and the job you’re actually doing are sometimes very different.”— Deleted post, TFN best practicesThe main floor hit me like a wall of sound, light, and bodies.Bass thrummed through the floor, vibrating up through my boots and into my chest. Holographic displays pulsed overhead, throwing shifting patterns of color across the crowd, blues and purples and reds that painted faces in hues before sliding away to be replaced by something new.The space was massive, bigger than it had looked from the outside.The old warehouse's bones showed through the renovation: exposed brick walls, industrial support columns wrapped in LED strips, ductwork running across the ceiling like metallic veins.But everything else screamed nightclub, the raised DJ platform where someone in a chrome mask manipulated floating interfaces, the dance floor packed with bodies moving in rhythm, the booths lining the walls where people who’d paid for seating could watch the chaos from relative comfort and have a place where to eat the food.From I had seen, the crowd was a “classic” of New Clearwater’s Friday night population.Factory workers, still in jumpsuits, the fabric stained with whatever they’d been manufacturing, dancing next to corpo middle-managers who’d loosened their ties and rolled up their sleeves to look casual.Dancing groups of friends in matching neon accessories, probably celebrating someone’s birthday or promotion or just surviving another week.Couples pressed together in dark corners, their bodies closer than the music strictly required.Fashion here ranged as usual. Synth-leather jackets covered in glowing patches. Dresses that shifted color with movement.Chrome (...)