So, if I think about it, one of the worst things that can happen has already happened. A Fear got me. And now I'm fine. It's time to be overconfident now, so I can get myself killed! Except hell no. Still being careful, still hiding from the Panopticon. The good news on that front is that I've seen no sign of them near my house. The bad news is that their stupid flyers have started showing up on the student bulletin boards.
But that's something to worry about when classes get back in, for summer session. For now, let's talk about the City. Too many blogs end there, in surreal rambling. Sanity slippage and very little chance of escape puts us in a situation where almost nothing is known of the place. I want to change that. We can't fight if we're ignorant. Hell, we can't even run, if we don't know what we're running from.
A caveat, to begin. This is my personal experience, months ago, seen through the lens of mildly frayed sanity. Don't trust my information if you have anything better. Let's begin with the first mistake. You've gone through the wrong Door. Normal situation, you don't notice for awhile, or you notice immediately and panic. Do not panic. Especially do not run. Vitally important, DO NOT FUCKING TURN AROUND. Once the door has closed behind you, it won't take you home. Most doors in the City behave like this. Let them close, and they won't lead to the same place as before. Doors with windows, glass doors, that kind of thing, are a different story. Nothing in the City seems to change while it's being observed.
And that's the key that will get you out, if you're lucky. The better you are at keeping track of where you've been, and where you are, the less the City can shift on you. The City is a parasite on reality, and the first few places I found there had a lot in common with the place that I left. Most of the time. I live in a small town, and for the most part the City followed a similar theme when I was there...except for one door, which opened onto a subway station. Obviously, these doors just take you deeper into chaos. Avoid them, if you can. Stay to what you recognize.
When trapped anywhere, starvation is always an issue. Proxiehunter and any number of runners have great advice for living on the streets, and that probably applies in the City. There are a few abandoned shops, if you're willing to trust the food. Assuming the City's copy of the place contains food. I avoided eating it, the legends of consuming food offered in Faerie scared me off, at first. The city's not as empty as the name would have you believe. I heard pigeons, occasionally. Clubbed a crow to death with a lucky swing. And, of course, good old Rattus norvegicus has done what it does with all cities. I'm going to assume that's what I heard scuttling around, anyway.
I'm sorry, but I'll have to end it here. Whenever I try to think too hard about how I got out, I get a splitting headache. It's worse if I've been thinking about the city before then. Basic escape strategy...go to the places that are more like the real world. Home is usually the best target, but anywhere you can remember in near-photographic detail is the right idea. The right path puts more things back in their proper place, avoids letting the random drift of change in the City take you further away from reality.
That's about all I can offer. I never saw the Nightlanders. No shadows at all, actually. There's no easy way out, and I can't really communicate all the little clues I learned to notice. I have the sense that I only scratched the surface of that place, that thinking of it as a city only scratches the surface of what it is. When I slept there, I dreamed of what I'd find if I went deeper into the chaos, closer to the center of the City. I remember the idea of a vast abyss, deeper than the universe. Happily, I don't remember my dreams much at all, anymore, since I got out.
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