UNDERWANDERERField archive
Case file P-004PhenomenaLevel 0Very high

Chunk Displacement

Every chunk has its own countdown and, when it runs out, the place is rewritten. Anyone who doesn't anchor their shelter loses everything with it.

Testimony

“The floor you stand on today isn't the same tomorrow and nobody warns you. You come back and the corridor isn't yours anymore.”

Displacement is the rule beneath all the others. Every chunk in Level 0 carries a countdown nobody can see. When it runs out, the place is rewritten and the survivor only finds out afterward, on noticing the spot is no longer the same. Wanderers say you are tearing stable territory out of a moving labyrinth.

The three states of a chunk

  • Unstable. It will shift when its time comes, and everything you left inside goes with it.
  • Stabilized. An action of yours halts the countdown. See Stabilization by tiers. It doesn't make you immune, because when the counter reaches zero, 95 times out of 100 it resets and 5 times the chunk shifts anyway.
  • Anchored. The chunk never shifts. It is the only ground where you can sleep easy.

What happens when it runs out

Each chunk's countdown lasts between 120 and 600 seconds, that is, two to ten minutes, and ticks down one second per second. At zero the chunk jumps up to thirty chunks away, and what was in it is rerolled: creatures and objects on the floor show up in different places. Chunks outside Level 0 and connectors are not affected.

How you notice

There is no warning on screen and no flash. Displacement happens while you look the other way, and only the trace of what was rewritten remains.

  • A piece of paper stuck up slightly crooked.
  • A carpet seam that doesn't line up.
  • A baseboard that changes height halfway along the wall.

All of that is seen afterward, never before.

How to survive

Every shelter must be stabilized. An unstable chunk drains more sanity (0.2 per second extra compared with a stabilized one), so standing still on unanchored ground tires your head as well as putting what you carry at risk. Leaving things “for a while” on unstable ground is a gamble, because the minimum window is two minutes. Bases, beds and shelters and pieces of the Fastenings need stable ground.

Time in three rings

Wanderers count their time on three scales. There is the minute, how long a chunk lasts; the expedition, 45 to 90 minutes underground; and the persistent count, that of the anchored base, which doesn't move and remembers the greatest depth you have reached. See The loop: the three rings.

What people report

  • Those who have lived through one swear that a few seconds before a Displacement the hum of the fluorescents changes pitch.
  • It is said the labyrinth is rewritten instead of moving, and that anyone who stays inside ends up embedded in the previous version. Hence the half-sunken furniture in the wall seen in Level 0.0 and in the Generation Error Vestibule.
  • A floor note repeated in several zones says: “this wasn't here yesterday,” next to a patch of new wall.
  • Nobody agrees on whether the walls really change or whether only what's inside gets rearranged.

Mentioned in

S-010 · SublevelsLevel 0.0: out of boundsThe seam of the Displacement: terrain that Level 0 never finished loading, or loaded halfway. You cross it without knowing.P-013 · PhenomenaStabilizationMetal, circuits and batteries on a workbench so a piece of the labyrinth stops moving. Only the anchor pins it down completely.P-017 · PhenomenaThe Wanderer’s GlossaryThe words wanderers repeat until they stop explaining them, with the entry where each one is told.P-002 · PhenomenaA Day Down ThereExplore, loot, stabilize and return: the routine of anyone surviving in a labyrinth that moves. Tear off a piece of it and make it yours.O-006 · ObjectsBeds and SheltersA nook with a bed, tape and a can. Sleeping in it sets where you wake when you die, and building it is the closest thing to a home.O-022 · ObjectsFound TextsNotes on the carpet, signs, graffiti and notices, what others left written before the corridor took them.O-017 · ObjectsFloor NotesPapers on the carpet, sometimes pinned. A sentence from someone who had time to write before disappearing.P-001 · PhenomenaLevel 0 AnomaliesFour construction defects no architect would have signed off on. A doorframe with no door, a ceiling that steps down, a room that was copied.O-019 · ObjectsGraffitiSpray paint and marker on wall and carpet: crossed-out arrows, an eye, a tally that never ends, an empty chalk circle.O-023 · ObjectsThe Fastenings: Screws, Nails and Cable TiesScrews, nails, cable ties and tape: the small things that keep a shelter standing, and the only thing that is truly scarce.S-007 · SublevelsGreen HotelA wide old-hotel corridor in the middle of the offices. Well kept, quiet, and unsettling for exactly that reason.O-018 · ObjectsScrap PilesMetal isn't everywhere. It gathers in heaps of six pieces, in corners of warehouses and service areas, and without it you can't put up a single wall.