To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch 59 The Toy Man

The Toy Man

The scents of a thousand spices filled Astarte's nose as she walked down the familiar market way of the under city. When the rising water levels began to threaten the old city engineers had elected to evacuate the city and demolished all the buildings whose structure would be threatened by the rising tides. After the dust had settled bulldozer's and excavators had dug up as much rubble as they could before the sea engulfed the city's ruins. After they drained the bay back down to what it was before, and a new city was plopped right on top of the ruins of the old one.

But Mombasa was a city that had been inhabited for over a thousand years, the old city's ruins were only the latest in along series of ruins. The people of New Mombasa began to slowly discover these forgotten places, old sewers, forgotten maintenance tunnels, and buried basements, all were slowly excavated over the years and a network of tunnel systems began to form. Criminals, prostitutes, and everyone else who did business on the wrong side of the law carved out a small piece of the underground for themselves, some even broke into the raw earth itself to make a way for more business. Now over a century after the first black markets had popped up the system of subterranean tunnels had grown into a labyrinthian leviathan, growing, and spreading unseen under New Mombasa. People called it the 'Dark City'.

In Astarte's youth the Dark City had been a very dangerous place, but after decades of Maiden effort and expansion most of the Dark City had been pacified enough to allow for people to flourish and thrive in the dark environment. Restaurants were now able to safely operate without fear of extortion or being run out of business, a cavernous old brick subway terminal had become a vibrant open 'air' marketplace that sold anything you could want. People of every shape and color went about their daily needs without much fear of being attacked in the open.

"How do they do that?" Alwen asked as she stared at the neon glowing shape of a dragon E-tat.

"Micro LED's in the ink that can absorb nutrients from the blood stream and turn it into light, they use a strong magnet to shut them off when its needed. Essentially it's an artificial form of bioluminescence, they eventually go dull after a few years, so you have to get it touched up every now and then." Aster explained.

"There's so many" Alwen said in amazement.

Aster took a moment to put herself in Alwen's shoes and looked at the crowds of people with a new appreciation. Two centuries ago everyone would be wearing jeans and t-shirts, but after the Union took over earth and the Japanese began to bring back Edo era clothing every culture on earth began to bring back their own traditional clothing. And for a city like New Mombasa that could draw from some of the most vibrant cultures on earth, it meant that everywhere you looked was a burst of color and patterned clothes. And as the resurgence of old clothing eventually grew stale and to rigid people began to explore new ways to innovate old fashions. Designers blended two seemingly opposing fashion styles together and created something that took the best of either, Persian silks matched with beautiful Javanese embroidery. Chinese dresses with an English Victorian twist. Everywhere you looked you could see different fashion styles that popped and caught the eye, it seemed that the goal was not to blend in with what everyone else was wearing but instead to be as unique looking they could be. A thought that was supported by the variety of piercing's, E-tats, and even some fashionable cybernetics.

The whole city was bursting with life and excitement, so much so that it made Aster and Alwen look incredibly drab in their funeral clothes

"Modern Terran fashion is about being as individualistic as possible, it means that everywhere you look you'll find something exotic to see, especially down here where everything is lit up in neon." Aster said as they passed a lion man with bright neon highlights in his mane flexing for a group of scantily dressed females, both Lioness and human.