Trash City
Trash City is the expansive, intricately built settlement for the trashboy squad located deep within the Under of the floating sky city of New San Francisco. Overseen by the trashboy leader Dust, it serves as a remarkably vibrant home for the boys and a hidden sanctuary free from the mind-controlling influence of the Monitors.
Geography and Environment
Trash City is situated in a massive cement chamber that stretches thousands of feet deep and stands at least fifty feet tall. Because the trashboys get first pick of anything thrown away from the topside, they used repurposed garbage to construct a breathtaking, sprawling shantytown.
The city features houses made of disjointed corrugated metal, cardboard roofs and windows, and metal trusses that form bridges high in the air. Nets and thick swinging ropes connect different areas, while colorful fabrics of red, yellow, green, and blue decorate the cement walls. The lighting is equally eclectic, featuring indirect floodlights, strands of electric lanterns, desk lamps, and pinprick Christmas lights that look like a constellation of Under stars. Years later, when Dust sees the vastly expanded Shock Crew headquarters with its own elaborate rigging and colorful lights, he notes that it reminds him of Trash City.
Culture and Factions
The settlement is home exclusively to the trashboys—the lowest-ranking waste squad of Queen's Crew, Her Majesty's Navy. Life in Trash City is loud and rowdy, filled with the hoots and hollers of hundreds of mostly-naked teenage boys who sleep in tiny tents.
Crucially, Dust secretly uses his hidden mindmaster magic (from the four mindmasters in his squad) to keep the Monitors away from Trash City and his secret gearhead quarters. This makes Trash City one of the only places in the Under where the citizens' minds are free from the Planners' conditioning.
Key Events
Phoenix's Arrival
After accidentally destroying the whiproom with her forcefinding magic, the killgirl Phoenix is demoted by Queen and sent to work as a trashboy. Expecting the absolute worst, she is brought to Trash City by Dust. Despite her initial dread of the squad, she is struck by the breathtaking beauty and artistic layout of the settlement. She takes up residence in a tiny tent in the middle of the city, sleeping fitfully amidst the noise of the boys.
The Secret Safe Haven
Because Trash City is a Monitor-free zone, Phoenix's mind begins to clear from the Planners' influence while she stays there. Dust uses the safety of the settlement to reveal the harsh truths of their world to Phoenix: that the virus on Earth is a lie, that the Planners enslave mages for Civil Service to power the city, and that he intends to eventually overthrow them.