Streampath

The streampath is the most common means of travel through the cities of Dadauar's onirarchies. Streampaths appear like long, thick, branching ribbons of shifting color, arcing around and between the buildings of the city, multitudinous pastel hues speeding perpetually along them in both directions. These colors are in fact the temporarily transformed forms of the people using the path; an empty streampath appears colorless and nearly invisible, but the onirarchies' cities are busy enough that any streampath is rarely empty.

The network of streampaths in a particular city is dense and complicated, with streampaths constantly branching and rejoining in an intricate web. In very urbanized nations, this density may hold up throughout the country, but in more recently settled areas or other places where there are urbanized centers surrounded by less developed land, a much thinner net of streampaths connects the dense population centers. Streampaths even connect different countries, although the onirarchs no doubt have careful ways of tracking border crossings.

Description

A typical streampath is between one and three meters wide, depending on its expected level of use, though broader and narrower examples do exist in particularly high- and low-traffic areas. A streampath is generally about fifteen centimeters thick. Streampaths are made of pure dreamstuff, and feel smooth and hard to the touch, with a texture somewhere between glass and concrete. They have no visible support, remaining suspended in place as part of their enchantment.

The density of a streampath is approximately 3500 kg/m³.

Use

Entering or exiting a streampath is only possible (without special magical techniques) at stream terminals, dead-end spurs off the streampath generally positioned at street corners, building entrances, and other likely destinations or points of origin for travelers. By simply pressing against a terminal, a person is reduced to component colors and drawn inside, moving through the streampath as a stream of color. Despite his unusual form, the traveler remains fully conscious, and is able to choose his direction at intersections. On arriving at another stream terminal, the traveler will emerge from the terminal and regain his former shape. The speed of travel in a streampath varies by the width of the path and by how occupied it is, but travelers in a moderately busy average sized path will move at about eighteen meters per second (forty miles per hour).

While in a streampath, a person does not need to eat, drink, or sleep and does not grow or age—though the time spent in a streampath is rarely long enough for that to matter.

Senses in a streampath

The sensation of entering a streampath through a stream terminal is one of sudden transformation, of different parts of one's body lurching in different directions and then of all seeming to melt together into a uniform, formless entity. While it isn't painful, it's very disconcerting at first, and there are those who still find it unpleasant even after repeated experience. Returning to one's normal form on exiting the path feels like an opposite process of differentiation, one's organs rapidly but separately coming into existence, and one's body regaining a solidity that, for the first few moments, may seem limiting and confining.

While in a streampath, a person is aware of the path's surroundings, able to see them in a distorted form in a sort of all-round vision. To someone unaccustomed to taking streampaths, this unusual sensory experience can be very disorienting, but on gaining more familiarity with streampaths most travelers do manage to make sense of it and are able with practice to make out their surroundings quite well. Other than this altered form of vision, those in a streampath have no normal sensory input; travelers in a streampath have no sense of hearing, smell, or taste. They do have a sense of motion, however, feeling a lurch as they go around a sharp turn. There is also a sensation when two travelers touch in a streampath, which on a crowded path happens very frequently. Not only is there a sensation that for lack of a better term might be called a tingling, but the immaterial colors slightly overlap, and each person briefly loses part of his own sense of identity but gains some sense of the identity of the other, some small feeling of what it is like to be him. This feeling is rarely strong enough or well enough defined to gain any useful information about the other person, but it is an aspect of streampath travel that some travelers abhor and others enjoy.

Inanimate Objects

Inanimate objects can be taken inside streampaths, or placed inside streampaths by pushing them against the terminal, but they of course have no volition to choose a path, and on reaching an intersection will go in a random direction. The same is true of unconscious creatures, or even of conscious travelers who make no decision at a particular intersection—it isn't possible to slow down or stop in the middle of a streampath, so someone who takes too long to choose a path will have one chosen for him. (It is, however, possible to turn around, so taking the wrong path isn't an irreversible disaster.)

Inanimate objects which are on one's person when one enters the streampath—that is, being either worn or held—will remain with one during one's journey, unless one wishes otherwise. It is possible to "release" any object in one's possession while in the streampath, letting it continue separately from its former possessor. This is true even if the object is one of which would normally be difficult to divest oneself. Someone tied up tightly with rope, if he managed to get to a terminal and enter a streampath, could then choose to release the rope while inside, and could emerge at another terminal unbound.

In many nations, there are laws against putting loose inanimate objects into streampaths, or releasing objects while inside them, since it clutters the streampaths and slows traffic for no good purpose.

Finding the way

The network of streampaths in and between cities is dense enough that once one is used to the distorted vision of the outside and is able to judge one's surroundings, it's rarely too difficult to find one's way around familiar neighborhoods. First-time travelers along streampaths, however, or travelers through unfamiliar areas, may need help determining which way to go at each intersection in order to reach their desired destination.

One way of learning a route through the streampaths is by accompanying someone who has been there before. Just as an inanimate object remains with its possessor through the streampath, so two people who are in contact when they enter the streampath will remain together as long as they both wish it, even if only one of them is actually choosing the path and the other is passively letting himself be brought along. It isn't necessary for them to actually hold hands; just one person placing his hand on the other's shoulder, for example, would be sufficient. More commonly, the two people who wish to travel together simply tie themselves to each other with a guide ribbon. In any case, after one has traveled along a route once, it's easier to remember which turns to take than one might expect.

For those without access to such a guide, and who don't want to resort to blindly trying to find the route on their own, publications called streamcharts provide maps and guidelines on getting between popular locations.

Damage to streampaths

Streampaths are durable, but not completely indestructible. They are impervious to most acids and chemicals, but can be shattered with sufficient force. A small crack in a streampath will not seriously impede its function, save to slightly slow travel through it, but if a piece of a streampath is completely severed, that's another matter, and will render that portion of the path impassible.

If a piece is severed at both ends so to completely detach it from the rest of the path, the consequences are more severe still. If the piece is too small, less than about ten kilograms in mass, the enchantments that hold it in the air will fail to apply to it and it will plummet to the ground, possibly endangering people passing below, or buildings or other streampaths that may happen to be positioned there. Furthermore, anyone inside the severed piece of the streampath, unless it happens to include a terminal, will be trapped there until and unless the streampath segment is reattached to allow them egress.

The worst fate is that of any unfortunates who might have happened to be passing through the broken part at the very moment of breakage, so that after the streampath's severing they are split into two parts. This isn't fatal, and they can remain alive indefinitely as streaks of color within the path, but, while both parts can move independently, they will be unable to leave the streampath, even at terminals, until they are reunited.

Alternatives

While streampaths are the most common means of long-distance travel in developed cities, there are some people who have reason to avoid them. There are those who prefer not to take the streampaths simply because they don't like the sensation of traveling along them, but some have other reasons for seeking different methods of travel. Many resistance members dislike taking the streampaths because they feel that it makes them too vulnerable to capture by the onirarchs. There is some justification for this feeling; there are devices called diverters that can be used to funnel travelers off of streampaths and potentially into traps or prison cells, and rebels have been caught that way in the past. Eschewing the streampaths can also be dangerous, however, since the aversion of the resistance to the streampaths can lead the onirarchs to suspect that anyone who avoids the streampaths might be a rebel. For this reason, many undercover resistance members do take the streampaths despite the risk, reasoning that the risk of giving themselves away by avoiding them is greater.

Because the streampaths have become such a routine part of life in developed nations, however, there are few alternatives for rapid transportation. Certainly walking is an option—and some people choose to walk atop the streampaths, using them as ordinary walkways; while this isn't what the streampaths were designed for, they're more than sturdy enough to bear it—but it's much slower than the streampaths' zippy speed. Vehicles such as autocars and flitterboards may be options, but are expensive, and it can be inconvenient to figure out what to do with them at one's destination. All in all, despite a few people's reluctance to use them, the streampaths seem likely to remain for some time the most popular means of travel in the onirarchal cities.