Page 204 - Chronicles of Darkness

case, leading into other magical realism-inspired Tales like Perhaps they take their show on the road, seeking out
Wake the Dead (p. 214). Or maybe the characters become other twin cities all over the world to plunder them for
unstuck from time, leading to Tales like A Journey Into Time adventure, or else stop catastrophic collisions from Rome
(p. 228) or Do-Over (p. 226). to Dubai. This could naturally lead into Urban Wandering
Or, maybe they can only stabilize things, and instead of (p. 235). If the God-Machine decides that these characters
a chase, their relationship with the Polis Men becomes more are troublemakers, though, it might lead them into such
like a series of heists as the characters live in both cities, slip- dangerous Tales as Proposition 279 (p. 223) or What Is It
ping from one side to the other for their own benefit and to Good For (p. 233).
the frustration of the God-Machine and its agents.

THE SQUARES

OF THE CITY

Starting one night at midnight, a series of buildings all The Truth: The tracks that allow the city blocks to move
across the city begins to move in impossible ways for a short (described below) are logistical Infrastructure. The streets over
period of time. At the end of this movement, the last building them, and the general culture of the area that keeps most
to move vanishes. Only a few people notice these movements people off the streets late at night, are a longstanding form
or the fact that later buildings are in different locations and of concealment Infrastructure. Editing the buildings out of
some have vanished. existence, of course, is elimination Infrastructure.
Infrastructure Interchangeable Parts

This tale takes place in a medium-sized or large city located The characters in this tale should all be somewhat outside
anywhere in the world. Every night a dozen or more buildings of the normal ebb and flow of existence in this city. One
in a single neighborhood of the city move and rearrange them- may be a new arrival who is looking for work or taking time
selves. This movement begins at midnight, but every night off to write a novel. Another could be a temp worker who
it begins one minute later, beginning at12:01 the next night works a wide variety of jobs in different locations and has few
and at 12:05 five nights later. Although it looks impossible, lasting connections, and a third might be homeless. All that
each building moves as a separate unit, while the streets and is necessary is that these people not have stable jobs and be
sidewalks curve and bend to keep up. The buildings move on inclined to occasionally stay up past midnight.
pairs of parallel sliding tracks that open up in the fabric of the
streets and they travel at the speed of a fast walk. Anyone who Blueprints
is outside when this happens can see what is happening quite
clearly, and also notices that almost no one within around Every night, another building vanishes, and most of these
half a mile of the affected area is outside while the buildings buildings are inhabited. No one remembers the vanished people
move or for the five minutes before or after. except for the few people who have been unable to get inside at
This movement is never simply linear. It looks like move- midnight and some people with serious mental illnesses. All of
ments of a complex two-dimensional puzzle, where one build- these people remember that both an office building and a large
ing moves south three blocks, then another near it moves west apartment building have vanished, along with several smaller build-
two blocks, allowing a third building to move north for three ings. Several hundred people have already been edited out of reality.
blocks, taking the first building’s place. This movement takes The people who can see and hear the buildings move grow
approximately 10 minutes to complete and at the end of it, increasingly out of sync with everyone around them because
the building the makes the last move vanishes. This building they remember a growing number of people, businesses,
and anyone inside of it are edited out of reality. Numbers in restaurants, and shops that no one else does. Sometimes, the
telephone books and cell phone contact lists vanish, business first clue a person has to the fact that a particular building
licenses and records disappear, people’s medical, bank, and has vanished is that they mention a previously well-known
tax records all vanish. No one remembers that anything is shop or restaurant and everyone around them looks at
different, except that a few people who had a loved one van- them strangely. These comments cause everyone to look at
ish may be inexplicably sad and lonely for several weeks. The the characters oddly and to be increasingly distant. If the
only people who notice that a building and the people in it characters are unable to prevent the building from moving,
have vanished are the people who see the buildings moving. after several weeks they find that most of their close friends
have become somewhat distant acquaintances.

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The Squares of the City