Neon Wastes

The Wastes should be dead. By any reasonable calculation, they are. The infrastructure failed generations ago, the signals that power the lights have no documented source, and the map the Wastes reports to other worlds doesn't match anything on the ground. And yet — it runs. Louder than anywhere else.

The light is wrong here in a specific way: too saturated, colors that don't exist in other spectrums, signs advertising places that closed before anyone was born. Newcomers find it overwhelming. Locals don't see it anymore. What they see is the negative space — the dark patches, the places the neon doesn't reach, which is where everything actually happens.

People from the Wastes have a high tolerance for instability and a low tolerance for pretense. They learned early that when systems fail, what remains is character. They tend to be either very loyal or completely unreliable, depending on who you ask, and both assessments are usually accurate.