Terminal City

A storybook of the daily cycle · 19 chapters · 80 → 170 BPM

Terminal City is a parallel city. It shares every street, wire, rooftop and shoreline with Vancouver, and most people only ever see Vancouver. Underneath, Terminal City keeps the music, the art and the strange ideas moving so that the city never falls silent. The two worlds are not meant to cross, except in one direction: through the outputs. A soundtrack that adjusts itself on the wires. A piece of street art a citizen happens to see. A late-night door that turns out to be the right one. Those are the only places Terminal City is allowed to touch ordinary life, and nobody who is touched by it is supposed to know. Nobody rules it. It is not finished, and it never will be. Every day it is inspected, repaired, handed over and rebuilt, and every morning it starts again at Trout Lake. These are its nineteen parts.

Maintenance is not the point of the city. Maintenance exists so people can eventually stop working.

THE CITY MUST NOT FALL SILENT.

The Terminal City map, ink on paper, with its 19 stations.The Morning Meeting1Morning Mist2The Wire Choir7The Clock4The Probes5The Old Line3The Repair People6Crows8Sunset9The Sixth Hour11The Nocturnals10Terminal Fog15Eternal Night13The Outer Circuit12Green StaticThe Endless StairThe BeyondFar ShoreThe 3:17 Freight14
  1. 01The Morning Meeting80 BPM · processing
  2. 02Morning Mistinput
  3. 03The Wire Choir90 BPM · output
  4. 04The Clock100 BPM · processing
  5. 05The Probesinput
  6. 06The Old Lineinput
  7. 07The Repair People110 BPM · output
  8. 08Crows120 BPM · processing
  9. 09Sunset130 BPM · processing
  10. 10The Sixth Hour140 BPM · processing
  11. 11The Nocturnals150 BPM · output
  12. 12Terminal Fog160 BPM · processing
  13. 13Eternal Night170 BPM · input
  14. 14The Outer Circuitinput
  15. 15Green Staticprocessing
  16. 16The Endless Stairinput
  17. 17The Beyondinput
  18. 18Far Shoreprocessing
  19. 19The 3:17 Freightprocessing
  1. 01The Morning Meetingpre-dawn, Trout Lake
  2. 02Morning Mistdawn
  3. 03The Old Linemorning, wet pavement
  4. 04The Clockthe day's grid, from the first commute
  5. 05The Probesday, the port
  6. 06The Repair Peopleday
  7. 07The Wire Choirall day, strongest toward dusk
  8. 08Crowsevening commute, end of the inspection shift
  9. 09Sunset
  10. 10The Nocturnalsearly night
  11. 11The Sixth Hourdeep night
  12. 12The Outer Circuitthe sleepless hours
  13. 13Eternal Nightthe hours nobody is looking
  14. 14The 3:17 Freight
  15. 15Terminal Fogbefore dawn

Off the clock

  1. ·Green Staticoff the clock
  2. ·The Endless Stairoff the clock
  3. ·The Beyondoff the clock
  4. ·Far Shoreoff the clock

Terminal City · Storybook v0.8.3 · built 2026-09-11
Terminal City is an original fictional mythology inspired by Vancouver’s geography, weather, wildlife, infrastructure, art, and electronic music. It makes no claim to historical, Indigenous, or religious tradition. Real places are used as settings; the operating system layered on them is invented.

Made by Steve Hiehn, a software developer and electronic musician based in Vancouver, Canada. All music was created using a custom DAW, Signals & Sorcery.