Archive - Downwarp - Rookery

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Rookery (Looking from the Forest)

This building is a moderately-sized skyscaper, about 50 stories tall, originally a boringly-blocky edifice of blue-mirrored glass.  The inevitable ad hoc spirit of Downwarp has transformed it, though; about halfway up the stained, grimy, shattered glass gives way to a bloom of improvised building from within.  Wires and hammocks and pylons line the surface for several stories, with some constructions hanging out dozens of feet over the glassy cliff.  On the more dimly-lit sides of the building (it's never very bright in this area,) a riot of development and activity can be seen inside, enough for what looks like an entire town built inside a few stories of the 'scraper.

Rookery Atrium

  For all the development higher up in the building, the entrance area of the tower is essentially uninhabited, at least as far as permanent dwellings are concerned.  Instead, it seems to be a cross between gallery, social space, and reception area.  Music thumps from several pockets of dancing in the big room, sounds and crowds mixing together.  A few ramshackle booths proudly proclaim 'information', claiming to be able to lead a tour, locate an inhabitant, or help find a space to build in within the inhabited areas above.  These cluster especially thickly near the elevator tower in the middle of the large expanse, where other denizens have also scrawled impromptu directories and purported maps on the walls and the insides of the elevators themselves.

  Above it all, strung through the scraggly trees that once filled the atrium with verdant foliage, some seem to have taken the traditional name of the building to heart, populating the branches with a menagerie of avian forms, mostly made out of dark-colored scrap metal.  If one looks long enough, some of the crows and ravens and rooks even seem to move and call to each other, despite their clearly constructed appearance... are they programmed animatronics, or something more?

[ Exits: <O>ut, <E>levator]

Rookery Terraces

  Remnants of some of the old higher floor still jut from the dingy blue-tinted glass walls in places, and some inhabitants have taken advantage of the building space and remaining utility hookups.  The homes here are mostly individual, the spread out vertical space making it easy to get privacy. many settlers have even opened (or broken open) the exterior windows, sometimes to make a balcony, sometimes to continue building out on the outside of the building as well. 

A few communal dwellings can still be found here, mostly taking advantage of larger stacked areas of clinging floor, developing between them to make ad-hoc apartment buildings like modern cliff dwellings.

[ Exits: <O>ut, Up to the <Lofts>, Down to the <Alleys>]