The Extant 2000 Mall: the way in
The mall stands behind the office building and the stadium. You reach it from the back of the plaza, through a gap in the hedge.
From the plaza to the doors
The hedge at the back of the plaza has one gap, at the same place the mall’s walk begins. The walk is 12 feet wide and runs straight back for 165 feet to the front doors. Beyond it is a parking lot with two rows of bays on each side of the walk, and about half the bays have a car in them. The same cars are parked every visit.
The building is 250 feet wide, 340 feet deep and two storeys tall. The entrance tower over the doors rises to 46 feet, and a canopy on two columns reaches out over the walk. EXTANT 2000 MALL is lit over the doors, with an hours board beside them.
On a desktop browser you will see shoppers on the way in. Eighteen of them have routes, some down the walk from the plaza and some from the parked cars. They walk to the doors, stay inside for a while, come out, and go again. The doors slide open when anyone walks up during opening hours.
The mall keeps street hours: 08:00 to 23:00 Eastern, every day. After 23:00 a Closed board goes across the doors, and the doors stop you at the glass ten feet short. The shoppers and the staff inside keep the same hours.
There are two shortcuts. The arrival card has a Mall button that puts you on the walk, 40 feet short of the doors. The B key opens the Go panel, which has a row for the mall. When the mall is open, that row puts you inside the atrium. When it is shut, you end up at the doors with the hours on screen.
Inside: two floors and an atrium
I laid the mall out as two floors with an atrium, a food court and room for about 30 stores. The plan has 30 units, 18 on floor 1 and 12 on floor 2. Sixteen are open. The other fourteen are behind a Coming soon hoarding that names the kind of shop planned for it, such as Apparel, Shoes or Kitchen.
Walk in through the glass doors and you are in the entrance court. Two cash machines stand against the east wall. A concourse runs back from here, 36 feet wide from glass to glass, between two rows of storefronts. Each storefront is 24 feet wide and 24 feet deep. Units are numbered by floor first, then odd on the west side and even on the east, counting from the front. Unit 101 is the first on the west, floor 1. Unit 112 is the last on the east in the front wing.
Along the concourse:
- A directory pylon stands on the centre line near the entrance. I put it in the middle of the hallway so it is easy to find. Floor 2 has another, in the middle of the bridge.
- The Hitt Fitness kiosk is a small stand in the middle of the hallway. Press E there for its panel.
- Planters with benches behind them sit along the sides of the walk. Litter bins stand by the benches.
- Every open store, apart from the diner, the bar and grill and the spa, has a promo A-frame on the concourse in front of its door.
About 170 feet in, the building opens into a two-storey atrium under a skylight 44 feet up. The fountain is in the east front corner. The information desk is in the west front corner, with a small credits plaque on its concourse side. Press E at the plaque to see who made the models, people and textures. Two escalators climb through the atrium’s void and a lift stands on its west side. Past the atrium is the back wing, with units 113 to 118, and then an end court with restrooms and three vending machines.
Floor 2 is balconies on both sides of a long void over the concourse, a ring around the atrium’s void, and a bridge across. The food court sits over the back wing.
Getting around
The controls are on the screen’s bottom line: WASD to walk, the mouse or arrow keys to look, click to capture the mouse, E to use whatever is in front of you, M for sound. Walk out through the front doors to leave.
The escalators are ramps you walk up and down. The up escalator is on the east side of the atrium and the down one on the west. In the lift, press E, or press 1 or 2 for the floor.
Inside the mall, the B key opens the Go panel on the mall’s own places first: the doors, the atrium, the food court, then the diner, the bar and grill and the spa, then each open store. Pick one and you are standing in front of it.
Where something answers E, a hint appears at the bottom of the screen. At a store counter it reads Press E at the counter. At a food counter it says the counter is display only and nothing is sold there. The restroom doors, a women’s, a men’s and an accessible room on each floor, swing open when you come within a few feet and close behind you.
If other visitors are in the mall, they show up as figures. On a desktop the shoppers, clerks and food staff are fully rigged people. On a phone they are simpler figures, 96 at most.
The food court
The food court fills the back of floor 2. Take the lift or an escalator up, cross by the bridge or around the ring, and walk to the end. Eight counters stand round its walls:
| Counter | What it sells on its board |
|---|---|
| Noodle Bar | ramen and dumplings |
| Slice House | pizza by the slice |
| Taqueria Sol | tacos and bowls |
| Grill Works | burgers and fries |
| Curry Corner | curries and rice |
| Green Bowl | salads and wraps |
| Pretzel Twist | pretzels and lemonade |
| Swirl | frozen yogurt and coffee |
The first four run along the back wall. Curry Corner and Green Bowl are on the west wall, Pretzel Twist and Swirl on the east. Each has its own colour and the equipment of its trade behind it: a wok line, a pizza oven, a griddle, a fryer, a steam table, a cold bar, a pretzel case and a frozen yogurt machine.
Over each counter is a backlit menu board, about 14 feet by 6, with readable items and prices. A chicken ramen is 11.50 and a cheese slice 3.75. The names and dishes are invented, and no chain’s name or dish is used. Each board ends with the line “Display menu: nothing is sold here”. Nothing in the mall takes an order or a payment.
Twenty-five tables fill the middle in a five by five grid: 11 four-tops, 7 two-tops, 3 high tables with stools and 4 booths. A condiment station and a tray return stand against the east wall. During opening hours there are staff at the counters and people eating at the tables. The restrooms for this floor are at the west end.