The mail room, the coffee counter and the church
The back of the lobby has two corners the first post only named: the coffee counter on the east side and the mail room on the west. Below the lobby is a church that anyone can walk into.
Lobby Grounds
The coffee counter sits against the back wall, east of the lift. That corner was the one stretch of the hall nothing else used. The guard stands on the west side, the janitor and the directory are in front of the step, and the floor behind the lift shaft was a dead end. A coffee shop fits there without blocking anything.
The counter is 10.7 feet long. Behind it the barista works between the counter and a back bar. An espresso machine and a grinder stand on the counter facing her, with cups stacked beside them and two ready to hand over. At the east end is a glass pastry case with two lit shelves. On a desktop the case holds a carrot cake, a chocolate cake and four croissants, all scanned models. Three bar stools stand along the front.
Three small round tables stand in a row in front of the counter, two chairs at each, with a pendant lamp over every table and three over the counter. A plant fills the corner.
Some of the people are there too. The barista steps along the counter to the steam wand and back to hand a cup over. One customer waits at the till, one sits at the west table with a laptop, and on a desktop two more sit talking at the middle table and one reads at the east one. They are scenery. None of them answers when you press E.
Stand in front of the counter and the line at the bottom of the screen reads “Lobby Grounds, press E for the menu”. The menu board hangs on the wall over the back bar, and the panel reads from the same list as the board, so the two can’t disagree about a price. The drinks are:
| Drink | Price |
|---|---|
| Espresso | 2.50 |
| Macchiato | 2.90 |
| Cortado | 3.20 |
| Flat white | 3.60 |
| Cappuccino | 3.60 |
| Latte | 3.90 |
| Mocha | 4.20 |
| Filter coffee | 2.20 |
| Pot of tea | 2.40 |
| Hot chocolate | 3.40 |
From the case there is a croissant at 3.10, a blueberry muffin, a cinnamon roll and an oat cookie. The prices are made up, for reading. Nothing here takes an order or a payment. The panel has a close button, and Escape closes it too.
The mail room
The mail room is the coffee shop’s mirror, in the back-west corner. Two walls close it off: one across the front, with a doorway 4 feet wide, and one down the east side. A 4 foot lane runs between the room and the lift shaft, so the walk round the back stays open. The name is over the door, read from the lobby.
Inside, a wall of pigeonholes covers the west side. There is one hole for each office, in four rows, with the office’s name on a label strip under each row. The cabinet runs from a plinth to above head height, so a hole on the top row is within reach and one on the bottom row is clear of the floor.
The rest is what a post room has. A sorting table carries a letter scale, a wire tray and a banker’s lamp with a green glass shade, and a shelf under it holds twine and boxes of labels. A canvas mail cart stands by the door, and a franking machine stands on a stand against the east wall. On a desktop there is also a parcel shelf and a hand truck. A clerk stands at the back of the room, behind the table. The lamp lights the room warm.
A line at the bottom of the screen follows your look. Stand in front of the holes and it says “Pigeonholes”. The post belongs to the owner, and the line says so: it tells a visitor to press L to sign in. A visitor has the room to walk round and look at.
The church
Level 0 is the church, under the lobby. The lift opens into a narthex at the back, and the floor is open to anyone.
The nave is 16 feet high. Stone walls and a timber roof with tie beams every eight feet carry it. Eleven rows of pews stand on each side of a centre aisle, and a red runner goes up the aisle to a step 6 inches high and across it. Four tall windows of stained glass stand in each side wall, two more beside the cross, and a round one over it. Each window is a pattern of diamonds, circles and bands in jewel colours behind lead lines, seeded by its position. There is no picture or figure in any of them, and nothing is copied from a real window. A church this far down has no daylight, so the glass is drawn lit, like a lightbox.
Past the step is the sanctuary: an altar with a cross on the wall behind it, a pulpit on the west side, and a candle stand either side of the altar. On a desktop the church also has an organ against the west wall, a lectern across from the pulpit, a font at the back of the east aisle, a votive rack and hymn boards. Every candle flame flickers.
The back of the church has three rooms. A side chapel in the east corner has a votive stand against the back wall and a kneeler in front of it. The church office in the west corner has a desk, shelves and a noticeboard on its east wall. A wooden confessional stands against the west wall of the nave, a booth with a grille in the partition. The penitent’s side is open and you can walk into it. The priest’s side is shut.
A priest stands at the altar, a few people sit in the pews, one kneels at the candles and one waits by the confessional. They are scenery too.
Four spots in the church open a panel. Each panel talks to the church’s own site on Shepherd. When Shepherd isn’t connected, the panel says so and the building stays walkable.
- The offering box, on a post just up the step, opens a link to the church’s own giving page, in a new tab. The gift goes to the church through its own Stripe account, and this building never sees a card.
- The chapel, prompt “Light a candle”, takes a prayer request. Your name is optional. The church reviews each request before it appears on its prayer wall, and the panel says plainly that prayer requests are not encrypted.
- The confessional takes a confession. The panel says it is end to end encrypted, that only the church’s pastor can read it, and that Shepherd cannot. No name, email or address goes with it. If you ask for a reply, you get a pickup code shown once and kept nowhere, and you read the pastor’s reply by entering it.
- The noticeboard in the church office lists the church’s next events, up to five, each with a date and a title.
While a panel is open, the keys that move you and the lift keys do nothing behind it. Escape or the close button gives them back.
Next in the series is the street and the plaza outside.