The World We Make

Padmini approaches job offer day at her workplace, which she refers to as “Evilcorp,” with some amount of confidence. She feels some gratitude for the job, which has given her financial stability, allowed her to help her family, and built up her experience. She particularly needs the company to support her H-1B specialty worker visa application, which allows her to stay in the United States. She knows she is talented, but she also recognizes that she doesn’t fit in with the other interns, many of whom are from more privileged backgrounds and in the process of achieving terminal degrees (Padmini is in a master’s program).

Padmini’s supervisor, Joe, tells her that they will not be offering her a job since there were some concerns about how she would fit in. Padmini objects, noting how she puts in twice as many hours as her internship allows, takes time and energy to correct her teammates’ mistakes, and looks the other way when other employees mistreat her. Padmini cries as security escorts her out with only a small box containing various accouterments that she kept in the office, including a “Welcome to New York!” snow globe.

Worried about finding another company to hire her and support her visa, Padmini breaks down in earnest on the subway. Three different individuals from Queens offer her consolation and comfort, making her briefly feel better before she is abruptly shifted into another reality. In this other reality, she sees something she has never seen before but recognizes: the metaversal tree. It is a place where Padmini can see every universe in relation to the others, “where one can witness the dynamism of the entire multiverse in an exponential cauliflower-cluster fractal spread of possibility” (27). At the base of the tree, everything disappears into bright white light, beyond which Padmini can’t see anything else. She gets the sense that she is being watched and suddenly snaps back to her human reality with the sense that something is wrong.

Exiting the subway, Padmini realizes that Queens (the city) is no longer alive in the way that it was. The enemy has not killed it, but the vitality and awareness that she previously embodied is gone, and she has returned to a normal human state of being. She walks home in a daze until a man on the street calls her a racial slur. When she ignores him, the man claims that she’s a foreigner who is spreading viruses and stealing jobs.

Padmini responds with anger, telling him to leave her alone, and people in the vicinity laugh and cheer her on. As she turns to leave there is a crack, and a long tendril comes curling from the sky. At the end is an appendage, like flower petals, that attaches itself to the neck of the man who insulted her. The man begins to distort, the color seeping out of him and his body growing extra limbs and bulging in unnatural ways. Without any powers to defend herself, Padmini turns to run, but the man hits her in the back of the head, and she falls. Others come to Padmini’s defense, one woman whacking him with a newspaper and others yelling at him to leave her alone. The energy generated by these individuals restores Queens to life, and Padmini’s city-power returns. Padmini picks up her snow globe and hits the distorted man-creature with it, driving out the tendril and returning the man to his natural human form. Padmini tells the others not to hurt the man and goes home.

Manny is unsure of who he is or what he wants, including whether he should stay in his graduate program. Though he’s doing well, he doesn’t know if his duties as the avatar of Manhattan make his degree pointless. Furthermore, he doesn’t fully know what his past life was like (he forgot everything upon becoming Manhattan’s avatar), although he has discovered he’s well-off, with multiple streams of income hidden within “a complex layer of incorporations, offshore accounts, and accounting complexities that seem designed to do nothing but provide layers of obfuscation” (38). Manny is hesitant to dig too deep, instead enjoying his influence over Manhattan, which brings him a deep sense of fulfillment. He feels the borough needs him, as it has had a difficult time with the loss of residents to gentrification and the collapse of the Williamsburg Bridge (the bridge sustained damage during the initial conflict between Neek and R’lyeh in The City We Became). Like Padmini, Manny feels a sense of being watched and wants to take proactive measures to protect his city.

Entering his avatar state, he follows city transportation lines to traverse the city using the concept of “hurrying home” and thus travels to Brooklyn’s house, where the avatars of New York City are meeting. Padmini reveals that she lost her job and was briefly destabilized as the avatar of Queens. The others point out that the job might not have been in her best interest, which would explain why the city didn’t secure it for her. Neek says that her description of the tendril and what it did to the man resembles what attacked him on the day New York City was born, thus confirming that R’lyeh must have orchestrated the attack. Bronca notes that Padmini’s experience is unprecedented, and they consider whether Panfilo might be part of R’lyeh’s new scheme. Brooklyn remarks, “Panfilo is a threat because of his ‘us versus them’ framing, which suggests that only certain kinds of people really belong in New York” (50), and they consider how he might manipulate stereotypes of and fears about the city. This could affect enough change to destabilize the situation and allow R’lyeh to attack. Before they can continue strategizing, the avatars hear a commotion outside and rush to investigate.

Brooklyn approaches the commotion, where a honking caravan of vehicles on Nostrand Avenue blocks traffic, displaying the Confederate flag, the Thin Blue Line flag, Nazi swastikas, and pro-Panfilo signage. She suspects this caravan is targeting this neighborhood because it is home to many ethnic minorities and micro-communities. The demonstrators trade insults back and forth with people on the street until one man escalates by pulling out a paintball gun. He opens fire on the crowd, causing chaos. Brooklyn notes with horror that there are real wounds being inflicted and blood everywhere. Manny says that the paintballs are frozen. Other demonstrators pull out more paintball guns and pepper spray, and the scene becomes increasingly violent. Brooklyn notices two cops watching from the safety of their vehicle, not intervening.

Angered, Brooklyn uses a construct to silence the entire street. The police order everyone to disperse, but Brooklyn starts up Biggie’s “Can’t You See” on a nearby speaker and begins to eject the cops as well as the demonstrators’ vehicles and flags from the scene. She tells the remaining demonstrators to leave, and they do, shaken by what happened. As everyone disperses, Brooklyn discovers that a paintball has hit and badly injured her daughter, JoJo.

At the hospital, Brooklyn runs into a renowned reporter, Mariam Dabby from NY1, who asks her if she’d like to make a statement about the incident. Overcome with anger, both in her human self and city self, Brooklyn tells Mariam that people like the attackers claim New York’s history and status for their own but then try to change it. She gives a speech about how New York will overcome the outsiders, calling out Panfilo in the process, and ends by declaring her candidacy for mayor of New York City.

Japanese celebrities, to convince her to call a Summit of all the city avatars. She dismisses him, telling him that New York City’s peril does not concern her and that, as she is not an elder city, she cannot call a Summit anyway. Manhattan points out that R’lyeh is funding her company’s biggest rival, the Kansei group. He produces a photo of the chairwoman of the Kansei Group: It is the Woman in White. He tells Tokyo that the TMW corporation has a subsidiary in Tokyo known as Municipal Improvement Holdings, which is trying to influence housing policies in several Japanese cities and has a lot of movement in Kyoto. After Manhattan leaves, Tokyo throws the file that he gave her away, noting his youth and immaturity. However, his comment about Kyoto concerns her since she felt that city would soon be reborn. She calls another city to begin her own investigation.

Padmini wakes up mid-morning after spending most of the evening at the hospital with Brooklyn and JoJo. She enjoys some time with her family, including her niece Vadhana; she eats some of her favorite foods, and her aunt encourages her to believe in herself and her future. She also suggests to Padmini that she marry to solve her visa issue, but Padmini resists this, suggesting she’s aromantic and potentially asexual.

As she settles in to study for her classes, the family’s door buzzer sounds. When Padmini asks the person who they are, a garbled and unintelligible voice replies. Then they begin beating on the door and identify themselves as the NYPD. Aishwarya, Padmini’s aunt, denies them entry and speaks to them through the door. Aishwarya uncovers that they’re actually ICE, here because of a report that Padmini has been illegally working out-of-status. Her aunt insists that they check with her school to verify that she is still in status. Padmini texts the other city avatars to see if Panfilo is anti-immigration, and the others quickly reply in the affirmative, noting that “lately he’s praised ICE harassing legal immigrants too, especially ones from non-white countries” (75). The ICE officers leave after saying they will be watching the household. Worried for the safety of her family, Padmini moves into the extra room at Manny’s apartment.