The end of Node War I and the founding of the Beaconspire marked the beginning of a great influx. People from every dimension came to the Gri’x, seeking safety, comfort, education, and a stable life. They began carving out places for themselves to live. Connected neighborhoods sprung up and the Kentwood Warrens grew like a crazy ant-farm.
The passageways of Kentwood wind through endless warrens of condos, blocks of flats, dormitories, bloated apartment buildings, duplexes, triplexes, quadruplexes, and so forth: an infinite network of interconnected interiors (complete with labyrinthine basements and sub-basements and attics that everyone had forgotten were there). Once inside any of these structures, one may travel from one end of the Realm to the other without ever going outside again, provided that one can navigate the maze.
There is an outside, though, and those venturing into the yards will find tiny gardens, lines of trees, manicured walkways, a playground here and there, and the ever-present dumpsters hidden in the corners of lots. (Does the Garbage Fairy really have to make so much noise every week at dawn? Do you dare ask him?)
Residents of Kentwood have raised communal living to an art: everyone has their own nooks and crannies within this nest. Some have claimed entire wings of buildings with grand balconies overlooking the courtyards below; others hole up in cozy holes in the walls. Some folks have quite a few bathrooms to their name (and they just keep going back and back and back, so be sure to knock each time). Some are content to dig themselves in behind shabby curtains beneath the basement stairs.
It has been suggested–an unproven hypothesis enthusiastically pursued by some armchair philosophers–that Kentwood is the physical manifestation of all the data recorded and stored DownTown: a plane where people can live in and among bits of information presenting itself as rooms and objects.
Residents are accustomed to passers-through, but may not appreciate being disturbed. It is recommended that casual travelers stick to the upper levels whenever possible.
INTERVIEW WITH LOTTIE MCNEEGAL, AGE 9
My name is Lottie McNeegal. I live at 145G Hamheaver Circle, Apartment 57F. I have two stupid brothers named Gorebiter and Bloodweaver, and an awesome puppy named Dumpling. It's easy to find my building but sometimes I get lost inside our apartment. Sometimes it makes extra rooms, and sometimes I end up in other peoples' apartments when I'm trying to get to my bedroom. Sometimes I find a new attic with all kinds of toys, some I've never seen, others I maybe lost a long time ago. I think that you don't ever really lose anything in Kentwood, it just goes to other rooms and waits for you to stop looking for it. Maybe stuff even comes here from other Realms, I don't know. Sometimes I find extra bathrooms behind our bathroom. And bathrooms behind those bathrooms. And more bathrooms behind those bathrooms. I always wonder if it's hard for the people whose bathrooms those are to use the bathroom without all kinds of people walking in on them. I would be so embarrassed. Sometimes it's hard to find any bathroom at all, or the ones I find are so yukky that I don't want to use them. And the rooms don't always lead just to other apartments. Some of them go into other Realms, like DownTown office buildings, or mansions in Denleighton, or a school locker room. You have to kind of keep thinking about where you want to go because if you don't concentrate you could come out really far away. I like the inside balconies. You can see down into all kinds of rooms from the balconies. I like to see how everyone else decorates their rooms. Some people have a lot of rooms, and some people only have one or two, but they're all connected, I think. My friend Devin's room is inside a little barn in his parents' living room. One time I was trying to get to a bathroom and I ended up in Devin's barn! His parents didn't know I was there, and we read comic books all day. The basement levels scare me though. It's kind of the same down there as up here, with all the rooms hooked up to each other, but it's dark and leaky in places and there's a lot of cobwebs sometimes. You can find a lot of lost things down here too, but they're often dirty and ruined. I found my old ballet slippers in a cubbyhole beneath a staircase once, and they were all slimy and stained and smelled bad. I was happy to have them back anyway.
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