The Junk Yard

Anyone taking the train through the Gri’x is familiar with this scene between the borders of Crating and DownTown: the Junk Yard is a large back lot, tastefully situated out-of-view from the stately older buildings and the industrial centers. The lot is piled high with ruined vehicles, scrap metal, old furniture, broken appliances, and myriad other examples of daily life’s mixed debris, all caged up behind a tall chain-link fence.   The latch on the crooked gate sticks a bit, but if you fiddle with it like so, you can get in there, sure. The Junk Yard is open to the public, and there aren’t even any signs telling you to be careful or anything. Well, it's not like it's some toxic waste dump, is it? It's just a junk yard. That stuff has to go somewhere. Go poke around in there yourself and see what you can find. Neat.   Except...like most places in the Gri’x, the Junk Yard is somewhat larger than you might expect. From the train, it looks like it may cover a city block or two, but if you were to open that rattley old gate and step inside, you’d soon discover that the edges make a few interesting twists and turns. Keep pressing your way through the heaps and mounds, and you’ll eventually be treated to a spectacular view: an entire countryside covered in cast-off refuse from one horizon to the other. Literal mountains of rotting rubbish rising toward the sky. Fields, forests, lakes and rivers--somewhat sludgy, but respectable waterways just the same.   Strictly speaking, it’s not all garbage (though, to be honest, yes, most if it is garbage). On a good day, you can wander through fields made up entirely of weeds that were pulled out and thrown aside: casualties of efficient gardeners who thought they were growing in the wrong place...well, no one's coming to yank them up now, are they? And the forests--miles and miles of perfectly good trees rejected by landscapers, as well as countless inconvenient houseplants that once found themselves in dumpsters.   Plenty of items that have simply been lost or forgotten end up here, too. Most are ruined from exposure, but now and then you can find something salvageable: building scraps, excess construction materials, misplaced inventory overstock. Take what you need, and treat it kindly. It's been through a lot.   People? Sure. Hoboes, vagabonds, and “missing persons” for whom no one ever bothered to search will find themselves welcome in the Junk Yard. There's plenty of room for everyone.   The Junk Yard’s populations aren’t all cast-aways. There are some native species for whom this is the perfect habitat, such as a particularly large and cunning flock of Junkdaws (otherwise known as Spiky Crested Trash Chickens). They're not great company, but if you get lonely, there’s always the rats. They’ve read all the books that people have thrown away, and will gladly make room for guests at their weekly book club meetings.