Neon Mesh — Lore Wiki

Not everywhere in the city is meshed. The Disconnected Zones are neighbourhoods where the mesh nodes have been systematically destroyed, jammed, or never installed. These areas exist in analogue silence, and they are deeply unsettling to most city residents who have never experienced the absence of constant data.

The Neon Mesh is not a single network but a self-organizing swarm of independent communication nodes embedded in every surface of the city. Street signs, building facades, clothing fibres, and even tattoo ink contain mesh-compatible nanomaterials. Walking down a street means being immersed in layered data: restaurant reviews floating above doorways, personal status updates trailing pedestrians, and security alerts flickering across walls.

When a mesh user dies without properly deactivating their nodes, their data footprint can persist as a Data Phantom: a semi-autonomous echo of their digital self that continues to interact with the mesh. Data Phantoms send messages, update social feeds, and even hold conversations using predictive algorithms trained on the deceased user's communication history.