Detouria

    Ok, but what if you don’t follow those arrows? What if you just keep going, skirting around the NO THRU TRAFFIC sign, picking your way around the giant gaping crevasses in the pavement and the big honking, blasting, growling machines on either side, and the workers with their jolly yellow vests as they yell at you to get back on the road?   Why, you might just arrive in Detouria.   And if that’s the case, then you were never THRU TRAFFIC anyway, were you? Because no one gets thru Detouria...at least, not without stopping to say hello.  

HISTORY

The conduits of Line One aren’t always smooth, especially if they consist of physical material like dirt, gravel, pavement, or any other substance that tends to break down with time and use. (The Spring Festival of Potholes, for example, draws a yearly influx of tourmites and other sight-seers to the roads.)   During one prolonged bout of street repair that coincided with the construction of a new DownTown office complex for GulliCo Inc., a small Wezzyde neighborhood on the border between those two Realms was block-locked for months. No one could get in or out via the streets, as the workers had not only torn them up, but removed them completely—the entire stuff and substance of the conduits had been disconnected from the local reality and trucked off to “The Shop” for extensive repairs, leaving a gaping, untraversable grid of nothingness.   Those who could fly did all right, but not everyone is so blessed. Most of the residents had to make do by tossing long planks and whatever else they could scrounge across the gaps to form make-shift bridges.   And where better to acquire these materials than from the construction workers’ supplies?   Before long, they weren’t just taking necessary building materials. Yards were festooned with big yellow cautionary signs and orange blinkies. Gardeners and landscapers collected decorative cones and signal lights. If a worker left a neon safety vest or hardhat lying around, it was sure to get snatched up by one of the neighborhood kids, who had adapted them as both a fashion statement and a badge of pride: “That’s right, I live in the Construction Zone.”   Eventually the construction came to a close: not because the project was finished, or because of the residents’ behavior (they were all getting along pretty well with the construction workers by then, some of whom had even decided to move in, as it made the commute easier)—but because the head of GulliCo’s HR Department had decided they’d rather work in Santa Pez, where their corner office would have an Oseen view.   Of course, the mysterious “Shop” had buried the missing conduit segments so far behind several other, higher-priority, storage projects that it was deemed to be too much of a hassle to replace them.   Remarkably, all of the residents seemed to be just fine with this—in fact, most have adapted enthusiastically to the nature of their new surroundings. With varying degrees of skills, they’ve cobbled together so many new paths to bridge the chasms between the blocks that at some time toward the end of the construction process, the neighborhood’s overall frequency changed and shifted from Wezzyde into Line One.   They held a big pot-luck celebration, dubbed their new village “Detouria,” and carried on with their lives.

DETOURIA TODAY

Construction and endless property improvements—however one defines that—is the theme here now. Detouria is dimensionally adjacent to all construction zones that involve road closures, and can appear within any area demarcated by the familiar orange signs. (It’s not uncommon for the entire town to appear in the middle of 28th Street, a busy conduit which is never without at least one construction project at some point along its lengthy path.)   The residents have access to supplies wherever Detouria happens to manifest, so they’re never without basic necessities or new ideas and materials for the town’s architecture. However, they tend to venture into the Common Grounds only during longer-term projects, as the town can be difficult to find if it shifts again while they’re gone.   Should you ever find yourself stuck in traffic due to roadwork, you might be able to visit Detouria by staying the course and not obeying the arrows or the wildly gesticulating road workers trying to direct you toward the alternate route. Be sure to watch the road, though; a sure sign that you’ve reached the village is its absence. Pull over at the border, and use the sidewalk and the bridges from there.