"Ohh tell me a little more about the setting of Li and punk guys and co's story/universe? ovo"

— jacobin

The setting is 100-200 years into the future. Many countries have assimilated into one large area, and regions (states, provinces…) have basically been merged into one. The reason being that natural resources are slowly starting to dwindle and desertification, earthquakes and massive flooding have taken out a lot of areas. So people have come together in large urban areas where everything is highly concentrated. Technology has plateaued again after going over the hurdle of perfecting genetic engineering and intelligent robotics. Economy has slowed down significantly after that tech-boom because people are hesitant of the next step, which is space travel and looking for planets that can sustain life. A lot more crime and illegal activity happens now because of the densely populated areas and black markets are a huge thing (organs, robotics, genetics, designer drugs etc).

As for how the cities look… they are built upwards to save space and that means a lot of flying transportation and raised tube-ways for public transit. Because of upward growth the lower levels have become near slums and the buildings really show their age the lower you get. It also naturally gets darker the lower you are and it’s generally unsafe and stupid to walk on the ground without being armed in some way. Living spaces are cramped at any level except for the very top.

I guess I’ll mention the music/entertainment scene, since that’s where the majority of stories take place. Feel Music, is big, using special equipment and programming music is created through computers to produce tangible feelings in humans. The best feel programmers can orchestrate an the feelings of a soap opera, warfare, harlequin romance into a single song. Lounges are outfitted exclusively for this and they are extremely popular.

It’s too bad the music Li’s band produces is so dated, technology that is hundreds of years old, refurbished and ready to go. He pursues it because he mostly loves old things, but also appreciates the sound of music and thinks it provides feeling without having to artificially stimulate it. Sadly he makes no money and neither do any of his band mates. They live on the low middle levels.

Harrison and Kim are a lot tougher than Li and Amber. Kim  lives with his dad still because he is actually really young (I was thinking like… 18), so he doesn’t have it very bad. Harrison has been everywhere, squatted in a  few places, made the runs around ground level and has the experience to back-up most of his tough-guy claims. (he is like 20/21).

I’M GOING TO STOP NOW, THIS IS REALLY LONG.

(also: There isn’t really any plot, but a lot of events and back stories that are tied together)