The Strange and Wonderful House: Difference between revisions

Its internal organisation was paradoxical, including such rooms as a “[[#3rd floor basement|3rd floor basement]]”. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)|Our Strange and Wonderful House]]'': ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Chapter 11: Every House Needs One|Every House Needs One]]'') Most rooms' actual relative positions within the House were “fluid”, with the exception of [[the Stationery Room]] which was always located at the exact halfway point between [[the Master Bedroom]] and [[the Gatehouse]]. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)|Our Strange and Wonderful House]]'': ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Chapter 20: The Stationery Room|The Stationery Room]]'') Some rooms were incalculably larger on the inside than normal, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)|Our Strange and Wonderful House]]'': ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Chapter 7: The Coat Room|The Coat Room]]'') sometimes containing entire biomes, ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)|Our Strange and Wonderful House]]'': ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Chapter 4: The Catamaran Loos of Oceania|The Catamaran Loos of Oceania]]'') and some changed appearance based on the observer. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)|Our Strange and Wonderful House]]'': ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Chapter 7: The Coat Room|The Coat Room]]'', ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Chapter 12: The Dining Room|The Dining Room]]'') Time was also malleable within the House, with it being possible to move back and forth in time when one moved between rooms; for example, when nipping out of a party in the aforementioned 3rd floor basement to go to the men's rooms, [[Rennik]] described the party as being held “last Thursday”. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)|Our Strange and Wonderful House]]'': ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Chapter 11: Every House Needs One|Every House Needs One]]'')

The House was sentient, with a definite personality of its own. It enjoyed having its residents upgrade its interior, and had the ability to manipulate its own interior to a degree to facilitate their work. For example, when the [[lawn gnome]]s began work to graft [[the Great Glass Elevator]] into the House to supplement [[#The Stairwell|the Stairwell]], it began to make various doorways throughout the House open into as-yet-empty elevator shafts. “Buzzing with excitement and creaking with worry, lurching, stretching, and then settling”, the House's active mood was noticed by the residents, who were forced to hold a “continuous seance” on [[#The 7th floor|the 7th floor]] in order to “keep [[spirit]]s and [[demon]]s out of closets and cupboards”. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)|Our Strange and Wonderful House]]'': ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Chapter 21: Elevator|Elevator]]'') The House sometimes made specific requests of its inhabitants, but it quickly learned that asking the [[Artifector]]s anything was pointless: “requests were fastidiously ignored and trying to guide the artifectors was akin to shearing a flock of cats”. ([[PROSE]]: ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)|Our Strange and Wonderful House]]'': ''[[Our Strange and Wonderful House (novel)#Appendix 27-IV: The Lab: The Perpetual Motion Machine (Part 1)|The Lab: The Perpetual Motion Machine (Part 1)]]'')