TILES & BIOMES

Somewhere is made up of an ever-shifting grid of tiles that depict different biomes and unique locations, and unless a tile is pinned into place by an anchor, it will randomly shuffle at a 24-hour mark. Somewhere Out There has been theorized to be infinite in scope, so there may be other biomes that we have yet to discover and log. Much like our own knowledge of the ocean's depths and what dwells within, there is still so much we don't know about Somewhere's geography and inhabitants, and so little we've truly explored.

The size of a tile is about 2,000 feet across, marked by harsh borders that delineate where one tile stops and another begins. Their held biomes consist of two unifying characteristics: the first is that the near-entirety of the Outvoid is in greyscale, only seldom dotted with splashes of color. Objects with these colorful properties lose their hue when brought into our world (as opposed to samples retrieved from KB, which maintain their pigment equivalent).

The second is that things within Somewhere are often, but not always, "wrong" in some way. It can be as small as a screw missing the indent on its head, unusual as the leaves of a tree being the wrong type for its perceived genus, or errors that scale all the way up to massive, unidentifiable objects that are practically incomprehensible to view.

Below are the currently-identified biomes, weather phenomena, and notes on the interiors that appear within Somewhere Out There.

(Accompanying images are artistic renderings; actual scenery experienced in-person may vary.)

BARREN

Barren biomes are flat expanses of land with a scattering of rocks and debris, hold little in terms of notable landmarks, and are usually devoid of innate life. Barren biomes are considered the safest of them all, and each tile outside of a facility's airlock is anchored to a barren one.

Expeditions have noted that when several barren tiles spawn adjacent to one another, the sky above tends to black out any star-dots or details, and the effect of gravity on the human body lessens to an extent. Expeditions have remarked it eliciting an uncanny feeling of walking on the moon.

PLAINS

Plains are large, sweeping fields of grass in both short and tall varieties. They tend to be dotted with small patches of wildflowers or large trees, the latter of which may be barren of leaves. Occasionally, dirt paths will cut through the grass, or man-made objects will lay strangely discarded about the field (ie: a dishwasher stuck in the ground at a 45-degree angle, a dining room set propped up against a tree, etc).

Plains with short grass (or visually speaking, ankle-high to calf-high grass) are perhaps the second-safest biome aside from barren ones, though entities may still be found within. Plains that spawn with tall grass (from waist-high to tall enough to obstruct one's view) should be avoided, as tall grass has been noted to have some sort of sentience, and is usually malicious in nature.

If there is a path already carved through the tall grass, it's safe to traverse the tile as long as you don't step off of the road. However, if one enters the tall grass itself, one should also be prepared to never step out of it again.

CITY

City biomes consist of multiple blocks of densely-packed buildings, ranging from towering skyscrapers to small bodegas, presented as destroyed ruble or pristine structures. Streets and sidewalks are present, even detailed with manholes, grates, signs, and the occasional litter. However, manholes open up to solid asphalt, and the text on signs, posters, etc are often smudged or nonsensical, or depict a language not found on Earth.

The insides of these buildings range from fully-furnished rooms to completely empty shells. Lights automatically turn on within buildings when the sky is dark, and off when it's light out. Things that mimic food and water sometimes materialize within, but they're made up of the same void matter as the rest of Somewhere, and consuming them hastens the effects of void radiation.

While excursions lasting longer than 12 hours into Somewhere are currently not recommended, cities are the best biomes to take shelter in should the need arise. Preliminary tests are being done in an anchored city to see if it can be cleared of radiation and used as a forward operating base for longer expeditions.

FOREST

Forest biomes can appear in either boreal, temperate, dead, or mixed varieties (tropical forests and jungles have yet to be seen). They can span from having dense growth and underbrush to being a generously spaced-out scattering of trees. Forests carry a moderate danger rating for the entities that appear within, and the general rule of thumb is that the darker the forest, the more dangerous it is.

Forests also have a unique hazard to them. Incidents of "spontaneous vanishing" have been reported in these biomes, in which an expedition member not in view of or in physical contact with any other person may suddenly vanish without a sound or trace. While a relatively rare occurrence, it's advisable for an expedition team to tether themselves together while passing through an unanchored forest.

Forests may also come with a light mist or fog, but its innate haze shouldn't be confused with the fog weather phenomena.

INDUSTRIAL

Industrial biomes are dominated by giant factories and steel structures. Chains, hooks, spikes, and twisting constructs of pipes and wires are prevalent, and though the grating noise of active machines echo through the biome, it's unclear what the purpose of these factories are, if there is any purpose at all.

These zones are exceptionally dangerous, as the entities within are almost exclusively hostile, and the interior buildings can quickly turn into confusing, dilapidated labyrinths of rust.

Industrial biomes should be avoided at all costs by normal expedition teams, and only senior-level expeditioners are authorized for industrial core-matter retrieval missions.

LIQUID

Liquid biomes are large bodies of void matter in its lowest-viscosity state (similar in appearance to processed void extract, but samples brought back to Earth will still return to its latent matter consistency). They can be surrounded by solid, beach-like ground, or the entire square can be completely fluid, as if a chunk from a larger source was lifted up and set down. Large groupings of liquid biomes may house mega-structures that jut out from the water and reach into the sky.

Outside of a handful of entities, not much is known about what lurks within these biomes, as the limitations of our current technology prevent any cameras from capturing images below the water [and the two test expeditions sent down on different occasions never resurfaced « maybe don’t include that fun little fact].

More in-depth, specialized missions into liquid biomes are currently being organized, but much like industrial biomes, they should be avoided for now.

A

[Placeholder for the snow/arctic biome until we get confirmation that its discovery wasn’t just a one-off wonder biome. Apparently the actual temperature dropped in that tile, as opposed to the weird…I don’t know how to describe it, not-temperature? That exists across Somewhere. Or doesn’t exist. It’s hard to describe the feeling of not feeling anything.

KB’s said she’s felt cold before, but any human sent in hasn’t experienced any temperature changes before this presumed discovery. Even when standing by things that look like fire, no heat is felt, but it does give off a strange static, almost painful feeling, like when your leg wakes up from falling asleep.]

B

[Placeholder for the swamp biome until we get confirmation of the bla bla bla who cares it’s not like anyone’s gonna read these notes besides us.

Anyways, this one sounds sick as hell I hope it’s a main biome because I want to see it for myself. Wish they had anchored the one they found in time.

Think liquid but absolutely choked with mangrove trees that look like they have seaweed for leaves and there’s a bunch of wooden piers and shacks all interconnected. Dark as hell besides the lanterns hanging around the place (and blinkies).

Apparently a bunch of hands came out of the water and tried to pull in one of the people that found the place lol. It sounds SO COOL though I wanna walk through it.]

[Yeah, sounds really cool until you’re the one who’s getting dragged down by your ankle to your death.]

[idk man, if I have to go out, I might as well go out fighting a multi-armed swamp demon lol]

WONDER

(shown with posterization phenomena)

Wonder biomes are defined by their mixed and nonsensical compositions. Unlike the others that can be roughly categorized and compared to biomes in our world, wonder biomes are composed of anything and everything haphazardly thrown together. Giant chess boards suspended in the air with miniature planets orbiting them, windchimes made from gnarled fish bones and vines, trees growing in spiral patterns with playing cards instead of leaves -- one expedition even reported a human skeleton the size of a mountain appearing in the middle of a large chain of wonders.

These can range from fantastic, Alice-In-Wonderland-type scenery, to grotesque perversions of our own perceived normality. Interestingly, Earthly items with achromatic or simple color schemes (dice, playing cards, pianos, alarm clocks, chess sets, etc) tend to pop up rather frequently.

Wonders are the most common type of biome to exist within Somewhere, and were theorized to be the only type of landscape for the first four A-launched expeditions, until the very first plains biome was discovered.

[Note: Higher ups made us rename chaos biomes to wonder biomes to sound "less sinister". Dumb as hell. Chaos sounds cooler and more accurately describe how insane they can get.]

Fog/Mist

  • - Fog can roll into any biome at any time, usually on short notice. At full saturation, the visibility within the fog shrinks to about an arm's-length in front of an individual. Expeditions should vacate to the closest adjacent tile to avoid getting lost and to avoid any entities that may materialize within. The fog will usually stop at the borders of the tile, but if it pushes past the boundary, one should move on to the next tile until it stops or dissipates.

Rain

  • - Rain comes in two variants: clear like water, or solid black. No matter how hard it rains, the falling liquid will dissipate within a few moments of touching a surface, theoretically being absorbed back into the environment. Rain brings no negative side effects to its surroundings, and as long as an employee is wearing a hazmat suit, it poses no threat to humans.

Shooting stars

  • - The skies of Somewhere have been observed to be either completely black, grey with overcast clouds, flat matte white, or dark and scattered with star-dots. Occasionally, what looks like a massive meteor shower will streak across the sky for ten to thirty minutes. One strange thing noted during this phenomena is that sometimes, star-dots will start from a completely stationary position, shoot across the sky, and then settle in another location.

Light motes

  • - Light motes are small, glowing orbs that will drift around in a gravity/wind that only affects them. They can float upwards from the ground, down from the sky, move around erratically, or stay more-or-less in place. If one walks through a light mote, it will vanish and then slowly reappear once the colliding body has moved past. They almost always glow white, except when in the presence of KB, in which they may attune themselves to her current color spectrum. Their individual glow strength is low, but a large mass of light motes can brighten up their surroundings surprisingly well.

WEATHER PHENOMENA

Posterization

  • - Not exactly a weather change per se, but an affecting phenomena nonetheless. At times, Somewhere Out There will seemingly have a filter put over it, in which, for lack of a better term, the "textures" of the world lose all finer details. These objects turn into stark black, grey, and white colors, and will gain outlines of the opposite color. Even the geometry of the land seems to simplify from its original construction. This effect can last for a few minutes to a few hours.

  • Whether this is a physical change to the environment or an intricate hallucination has yet to be determined.

(Late addition) Thunderstorms

  • - Thunderstorms have not been seen until recently. A thunderstorm has been swallowing up the skies of Somewhere Out There, with dark clouds rolling in and converging, thunder roaring at regular intervals, and lightning flashing in spontaneous bursts. The last few expeditions that went out during it say the Earthly smell of impending rain was strong, but rain has yet to fall (note: before this, there was no record of any scent experienced within the Outvoid).

  • Also, strange as it is, thunderstorms have been seen off of all 4 numbered facility tears (Main has not been affected yet). So, either several thunderstorms are happening all at once, or there is one unfathomably large storm system spreading at a rapid rate.

  • We don't yet know what this means or what consequences it will bring, but this growing storm (or storms) have sent the entities of SOT into a frenzy, all further expeditions have been halted, and we've been put on stand-by for a mass evacuation. I'll clean up this log's writing a little more when things have returned to normal.

I‍NTERIORS

While many of the biomes in Somewhere depict outside environments, the buildings that do exist will have interiors rather reflective of their Earthly counterparts. Houses, offices, stores, etc.

This, however, does not apply to structures within wonder biomes. These buildings can be a mashup of different architecture and/or have interiors that shouldn’t be able to physically exist. Some buildings are as small as hallways or single rooms, while others can form winding, maze-like constructions that take up an entire tile.

Take care when traversing these spaces, keep an eye out for shifting geometry, and consider using a tether marking system when delving deep into unfamiliar structures!

[Also this is just my own thought, delete this later or whatever, but thanks to the Center, we know that several different organizations in other realities have a version of this: places where things that look man-made aren’t put together quite right. Places where everything’s familiar, but wrong. Hell, even Somewhere’s shifting properties as a whole aren’t unique and have been seen multiple times in other dimensions and anomalous places.

Almost makes you wonder just how connected these giant, supernatural forces are. We’re all experiencing parallel branches of the same Earth, so maybe they all branch off of a shared place too. Maybe we even willed these things into existence with some sort of collective unconscious across timelines, and that’s why these forces share similar attributes and powers.]

[Buddy I don’t think it’s that deep and I think you should maybe take a break from working on this.]