Into the Steel City

Sometime in the near future…

The travel line zips through the industrial quarter on its way into the city. Automated factories forge steel in their fiery furnaces. Robots building robots…

As you look to the horizon, a molten orange sunset pierces through the vectorised vista of towering megastructures on the skyline ahead. The landscape stretches out before you, every axis and border pulses with a neon magenta trim.

Next stop, Old Town. Down on the ground it’s a different world. The streets are grimy and riddled with trash. Neon signs adorn every building; Coca-Cola, Sanyo, Atari. The sidewalk is packed with people bustling in and around the busy market stalls. Steam billows up from the sewers as you make your way through the crowd. This decaying urban nightmare isn’t a 2049 dystopian Los Angeles, it’s Sheffield, the Steel City.

There’s a bar up ahead and it’s time for a drink. Neon palm trees arch over the entrance. Inverted crosses and pentagrams are postered on the walls. Music diffuses out into the night, like a siren call welcoming you into a decaying neo-future paradise. You look up to the sign above the doorway…

Welcome to Steel City Synthwave.