Liora and the City That Could Only Be Walked

(Joyce, Greenaway, Total Play)

Liora reached a city whose map was infamous. Scholars argued endlessly about its structure, but no two maps ever agreed.

When she tried to view it from above, the city dissolved into noise. Streets folded back on themselves. Names multiplied. Every vantage point betrayed another.

So Liora did the only thing that worked: she walked.

Each street obeyed its own rules. Some demanded ritual, others excess. One required silence; another demanded song. None could be substituted for another, and none could be skipped.

She discovered that the city was not meant to be seen as a whole. It was meant to be inhabited sequentially, episode by episode, step by step — each walk altering the meaning of the last.

The city did not offer coherence as a gift.

It demanded participation as a condition.

Only those willing to walk without final mastery were allowed to remain.