Awaiting the Garbage Gangs

[snurri]

Awaiting the Garbage Gangs
Originally uploaded by Snurri.

"While the field of waste management was an active and lucrative one before the Exile, since that time it has become even more crucial, as well as fiercely competitive. The abrupt loss of contact with corporate headquarters' coupled with the sudden lack of fuel for the familiar trucks led to localized 'gangs' of refuse collectors and recyclers, a situation which has remained much the same (through three so-called 'Garbage Wars') down to the present day. . . . Today the streets and sewers are generally peaceful, though off-duty brawls between the gangs are not uncommon. Some would argue that such rivalries are part of the mystique of the profession. The more established gangs hand out trading cards and replica uniforms to eager youngsters, though always with the warning not to enter abandoned buildings or the sewers alone. . . . The gangs have effectively taken over some of the services formerly provided by municipal departments. They are the primary force for animal control in the city; the Gunk Brothers, for instance, have a dedicated Rat Patrol which famously takes on not only the overgrown rodents (in the years since the Exile they have been seen to reach nine feet from nose to tail, with teeth large enough to take off a man's head) but also Roof Lions (descendants of a small pride once housed in the city zoo; see p.307 for a possible explanation of their dramatic propogation) and, on one occasion much debated, the brood of the possibly mythical Mad Green, a gargantuan sewer croc. (Maximillian Hael--chief of the Alley-Oops, a group of ragmen on the southwest side--once claimed that Mayor Faldbakken III had entered into some sort of alliance with Mad Green, but he disappeared soon after.) . . . As one might imagine, such a profession has a high percentage of casualties. One recent report in the Lost City Ledger a (theoretically) weekly paper on the west side, calculated the average age of the all-female gang the Scum Wranglers as just over twenty-two years old. (It is worth noting that the Wranglers had tangled with a creature identified only as a 'Big fucking shade monster' shortly before the report was written; in the battle three women were killed and four others received injuries which forced them to retire.) Considering their life expectancy it is perhaps not surprising that the gangs are known for binge drinking and irresponsible sexual adventures. The side effects of their work (as the so-called Wandering Comic Roberta Stommel says, "They may be heroes, but they stink") rarely dissuade potential partners. . . . Less celebrated in popular legend are the technical accomplishments of the gangs; their processing warehouses employ skilled seamsters and seamstresses, glassblowers, and electricians, as well as minor alchemists skilled in changing plastic to glass or other substances. Their products are sold to the city, to local water or dairy bottlers, and to the public through on-site boutiques. . . . Today there are several loose affiliations between the gangs, apparently an outgrowth of temporary alliances against various menaces of the streets or the sewers. Mayor Faldbakken III is an outspoken critic of this 'underground network' as he has termed it, but his political opponents (most of whom are either anonymous or short-lived) ascribe this to his fear of being supplanted as the primary power in the city. Popular opinion, at this writing, rests on the side of the gangs." (p.335-337)

Comments

[rudi.livejournal.com]

Roof lions!

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Yes. It's been pointed out that they seem to be the natural enemy for the rats, but given that they regularly dine on humans as well they can't really be considered allies.

[rudi.livejournal.com]

The text doesn't actually mention how big the lions are, although we do get size details on the rats. Could the lions be less than full size? Might rooftop living exert evolutionary pressures similar to island living (which produced small humans in Indonesia and pygmy mammoths in Alaska)?

That's leaving aside the possibility that "small pride of lions" was actually a typo for "pride of small lions" :)

Either way, perhaps the lions are keeping to the rooftops to stay away from the Rodents of Unusual Size?

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Oh, the rats (or ROUSes) can totally climb to the rooftops if need be.

The lions may well be a bit smaller; the problem is that most citizens have little frame of reference for lions pre-Exile, save for pictures in books.

[the-flea-king.livejournal.com]

My absolute favorite one yet. I think I say that every week. It brought to mind so many things I hadn't thought about yet, like... in a sealed system, resources will need to be recycled. Paper must be a real rarity. And what Rudi said. Mad Green! Roof lions!

Fucking. Awesome.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Paper is indeed tough to get, another reason that so many of the newspapers publish irregularly.

(Glad you liked it :-))

Sweet!

[pnew8.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Scum Wranglers!

Re: Sweet!

[snurri.livejournal.com]

There are some pretty colorfully named gangs. The Bottom Feeders, of course, but also the Holy Moles (and the related splinter group the Grease Monks), the Dead Donkey Eaters, the Manky Mouse Club, the Slug-Nigguraths, the Pellucid Darlings . . .