The World We Make

Istanbul walks the streets and thinks about how he is a city of cats: “People in Istanbul like cats; Istanbul’s avatar becomes obsessed with cats; this feeds the city’s liking for cats” (90). He muses on his history and the many changes throughout the decades that he has been a city. He stops at a tea seller and then a fishmonger before realizing that he’s being followed by Manhattan. He invites Manny to join him on the walk. Manny is still trying to convince the other cities that R’lyeh is a threat to all of them and that they need to call a Summit. Istanbul observes that it can be challenging to communicate with cities from other cultures. He feeds the street cats fish he bought at the fishmonger, but when he throws a fish outside of the city boundary, neither the cats nor the gulls will go there. Beyond the boundary are several cats and a gull, all of whom seem dazed and are covered in small white tendrils. Manny expresses concern about R’lyeh, and they discuss the possibility that she may just be the weapon of some larger force that threatens them. Istanbul tells Manny he has already called for a Summit and recommends that he not approach any more of the elder cities since they’re unlikely to listen. Istanbul uses a tea concoction of his own making and pours it over the infected cats and gull, causing the tendrils to shrivel and the creatures to return to their natural state.

Bronca has a pending date with a woman named Marina. She debates canceling since she has been so preoccupied with city business, and Marina is unaware of Bronca’s status as an avatar of the city. She regrets that “city stuff” takes priority over her personal life.

After Brooklyn declares her mayoral candidacy, Bronca visits her campaign headquarters to show her support. Brooklyn talks about her troubles generating funds, and Bronca challenges her to push harder. She reminds Brooklyn that she is a city avatar and a campaign is a construct, so she can use it to generate the help she needs. Brooklyn calls an online meeting to brainstorm with the other NYC avatars, and they all agree to help her in whatever roles they can best fill. Only Neek is unable to join, as he is busy observing the city and tending it through metaphysical means.

Suddenly, the chat in the online meeting room is interrupted by a long, nonsensical message from R’lyeh. She appears onscreen, and Brooklyn immediately tries to shut Zoom down; however, her laptop bubbles and sparks, preventing her from touching it. Bronca sprays the laptop with an extinguisher while R’lyeh makes her case for negotiation. She reminds the avatars that when a city is born, it destroys all the alternate versions of itself. She tells them that she can ensure they don’t die when their cities return to their former state; her people will just reset the avatars back to their original human form. Manny guesses that there’s a catch, and R’lyeh admits that one of them will have to remain the embodiment of the concept of a living city and be taken away to Ur and isolated there. However, she claims she has the power to reset reality, making it so that humans never gathered in cities to begin with. This would allow the rest of them to live out their lives.

Bronca protests this idea, noting that if humans never gathered in cities, their social bonding and collaboration would have never evolved as it did; they would lack the intelligence and creativity of human beings and would be more like other animals. R’lyeh says that “human-style creativity” is causing the spin-off and subsequent destruction of universes. When Manny asks her why the Ur haven’t already removed that element from humans, she responds that they have tried: isolating branches of the multiverse, attempting to reeducate human children, and manipulating humans’ histories and myths. Bronca says that they can never compromise with R’lyeh because she and her people are convinced of their superiority and unwilling to treat human beings as equals.

The Woman in White changes to a blaze of white light flickering on the screen. The avatars try to look away or block their screens, but they feel R’lyeh pressuring them to look as she shifts into her real form. Bronca tries to come up with a construct unique to the Bronx and impulsively recites Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” which he wrote while staying in the Bronx. This shuts down all the electricity in the city, severing R’lyeh’s connection.

A month passes and Manny continues assisting Brooklyn’s campaign and visiting younger cities to encourage them to call a Summit. Manny still struggles with his feelings for Neek but finally decides to act on them by making him breakfast in bed. Manny worries about Neek, who seemingly has no other family or friends to care for him. In Neek’s room, he muses about the stacks of books and the mural Neek is painting on one wall. Neek proposes that they have sex since they are both attracted to one another, but Manny admits he wants more than that. Neek expresses his concerns that love is unreliable and that neither of them really knows who Manny is yet.

When Manny arrives at Brooklyn’s headquarters for work, he encounters Peter Milam, head of the Police Protection Association, with two other men in the lobby. Milam is visiting to offer Brooklyn an endorsement, but he also notes that he will be keeping an eye on Neek, whom Brooklyn has added to the staff as a consultant. Milam knows was Neek was formerly unhoused. Feeling defensive, Manny comments on Milam’s son’s known misconduct as Milam departs.

Manny and Brooklyn discuss how to deal with the NYPD, noting that their only option may be to bribe them. Brooklyn says that she is running low on campaign funds, which makes Manny realize that to help Brooklyn and continue protecting Neek, he may have to face his past. After letting off some steam, he finds his mother’s contact information in his phone and calls her to arrange a meeting.

Padmini begins to develop equations that she uses to travel, referred to as “macrostepping,” so that she can visit new cities and even other realities. The process proves unpredictable. She uses yoga and meditation to guide her travels to more specific destinations and ends up at a mysterious empty island where nothing ever changes and the sea and sky blend together with no visible horizon. She returns to this place again and again, feeling peaceful and at ease there. On one trip she runs into Paulo (i.e., São Paulo, introduced in the first novel), whom the other cities have asked to tell her to stop frequenting this place since it is a city that was formerly alive. He tells her that R’lyeh caused Atlantis to move from its place on the multiversal tree by manipulating records and writings and changing the way outsiders thought of the city. Padmini realizes that New York City could also be damaged in this way; they already know that outsiders’ opinions of the city can impact them. However, at the end of his visit, Paulo encourages Padmini to continue returning to this place so that the other cities will have to call a Summit to deal with the threat R’lyeh poses.

Concerned by these revelations, Padmini returns to the place where she can see the entire multiverse as a tree. There she makes the discovery that the coordinates to New York City have changed: “[T]he city is falling, toward the tree’s trunk and the unbearable brightness of its roots” (138). She immediately alerts the others to her discovery and their impending doom.

While in Hoboken on business, Veneza gets the sense that it is also on the verge of awakening. After returning to their shared apartment, Veneza expresses concern over this to Neek, fearing the disruption more changes and additions to New York City could cause. Neek responds, “New York is change” and notes that he is still upset they don’t have Staten Island on board (141). Veneza decides to act and makes a graphic that reads, “SIXTH BOROUGHS FOR NYC.” She also reaches out to Staten Island through social media to arrange a meeting the next day.

Veneza meets Aislyn on a Staten Island ferry. Aislyn expresses her fears, saying that bad things happen in New York City and she feels safer on Staten Island. Veneza tells her, “Don’t act like you’re better than the rest of us when you aren’t” (148). Aislyn expresses her concerns over how R’lyeh is manipulating and changing Staten Island, but the conversation is interrupted when a large white tentacle rises from the water. Unable to hit the ferry, which is protected by the city, the tentacle creates a disturbance in the water to try and capsize it. Veneza creates a construct of oysters in the water that begins overtaking the tentacle until it is suddenly struck down by a barge.

Although Veneza tries to convince Aislyn to come with her, Aislyn returns to Staten Island. She claims R’lyeh is her friend and that she feels loyal to her. Veneza returns home to find that her graphic has gone viral.