Officially known as the North Seattle Refuse Center, this area is a huge, open-air garbage dump several kilometers wide, just north of the Snoqualmie River near the edge of Salish-Shidhe territory. The dump is home to nearly a thousand squatters, who live in ramshackle huts and tents on the mountains of garbage. Some make a living picking through the trash and salvaging anything usable for themselves or for sale. The dump is infested with rats, devil rats and other scavengers, which frequently come to the aid of local Rat shamans.
>>>>>[The trash-rats (or gomi-nezumi, as the yakuza call them) find the most fragging amazing things sometimes. It’s incredible what people throw away—the squatters have salvaged a fair amount of tech, weapons, clothing, building materials and other treasures from the drek. Word has it they even pieced together a couple of working vehicles from spare parts and wrecks. The rats embody the motto “waste not, want not.”]<<<<<
-Des
>>>>>[Sometimes the rats find more than they bargained for.
A couple of years ago, a pocket secretary with some particularly valuable data on it ended up in a corporate exec’s trash and found its way to the Rat’s Nest. It took some persuading to get the trash-rats to part with the thing, and the yakuza who were looking for the files nearly tore the place apart. The rats fought back so hard that the yaks were forced to give up, but not until after they’d
killed a few dozen squatters. Thank Rat for the aid of his little brothers and for guiding us.]<<<<<
-Whiskers