mr Soual, part 2

For my part, I must suspect mr Soual's purpose to be associated with recent rumors about the final purpose of the City's cradle. This suspicion comes from acknowledging that while some survivors of the cataclysm simply pared down their lives and became basically nomadic (as we for the most part have in the desert) others reconstituted the broken cities around the globe and found ways the render those cities immune to further tectonic and environmental distress. Autopia's answer was to anchor itself to a flexible, super-redundant grid of electromagnetic sensors, capacitors, and actuators which respond dynamically to changes in weather and to changes in position.

We have seen that the continents recorded on the very rare antique maps which survived were broken in the event or perhaps even swallowed whole, and while Autopia's cradle would not survive the most catastrophic event, it is certainly strong enough to resist all but the most powerful disasters.

However, while Autopia finds itself powered by the gravimetric forces harnessed by this grid, it likewise remains tethered, and therefore mortal in a manner unbecoming of a City with such a self-image as the one the Inner City portrays. What remedy could there possibly be for such a situation?

Floating cities have been reported, but no one seems to believe this is a long-term solution. They either rely on an earthbound power source which perpetuates the very weakness that they sought to escape while fabricating the illusion of true independence. Or, in some cases, the power source is onboard, self-sustaining, perhaps through fission or fusion reactors, but these likewise have failed during rapid fluctuations of the planet's magnetic core, which was previously assumed to be stable between slow phases of alteration (taking thousands of years, which could easily be compensated for by even rudimentary algorithms).

Thus while Autopia is not a true floating city, its footprint is suspended, in some places by mere millimeters, by the rejection and redirection of the natural forces which act upon its great heights. (And its heights are great indeed - stories of life within the Inner City include views of a vast networks of blues power lines, not lines which contain and channel energy but lines of energy itself, streaming between buildings so tall that from one side of the city the lights of the structures are mistaken for stars)

What middle way might Autopia be searching for? Will it compromise our existence in the desert? If the gravity wells of the nullfilms and the cradle are related to shockrot, will the alteration of these forces diminish or exacerbate the disease?

I feel it is imperative I redirect my exploration of this City to the inner portion, though to remain here for longer a continuous foothold must remain in the Outer City. Some of the stories I have heard of the Inner City sound to me as bizarre as the stories we tell those who are new to us in the desert, about the nagarene and other subdimensionals, the stories the prophetics tell about that which is called vastness...

The account I gave previously of mr Soual was incomplete. The teleospheres within the city are used more to transmit a general sense of character and intention than to illustrate dispassionately, as ours are frequently required to do. So perhaps I will go walking, to see what I can find on foot.

It may be some time before I can return.