Red, yellow, then green
The colors many live by
And fools die from it
Description
Far below the hustle and bustle of the city, life finds a way to function. Level 11.6 is an example of such activity. Hiding in the various tunnels and alleyways, Traffic Lights, as it's called, serves often as a safe space for wanderers who wish to avoid the chaos of liminality. The winding passageways remain shielded by the level above, with natural sources of life impossible to find.
Traffic System
This stability operates under a three stage system, which indicates to wanderers and the environment how a section will behave when traveling through it. These stages are green, yellow, and red. No lights in Level 11.6 have a standard interval system, but no change seems to last for more than one hour. These differences vary in their severity and effectiveness, displaying similarities to the normal three light system on roads. The placement of these lights match to common light fixtures found in urban environments, with lampposts and florescent beams being the most common style.
Green light zones will be completely devoid of entities. These are the safest to travel through and some have seen useful objects appear as well. These, conversely also have a greater chance to be victims of Shifting Geometry, as new corridors and hallways will open and close at random. These shifts seem to only appear en masse when the area is green, making entrapment rare, but possible.
Yellow light zones have noticeably less environmental shifts than green light zones, with additional passageways opening and closing less frequently. Neutral entities are more likely to appear in these zones. This may include Cadejos, Manekinetics, among many others. There appears to be a link between yellow light and an inherent sense of caution or paranoia in wanderers. Heightened signs of fear and unease have been reported when wanderers travel through these sections. While it isn't crippling, the difference poses enough significance to suggest a cognitohazardous presence in Level 11.6, one which seems exclusive to yellow light zones.
Red light zones host a sufficient entity population. These entities are standard to the ones across the Backrooms, with no noticeable differences among them. Items in red light zones are rare, with some being replaced with more "dangerous" versions of itself. This can include cases of Almond Water being replaced with Carpet Fluid. These changes do not happen if the wanderer is already in possession of the object, and what possession entails in regards to Level 11.6 remains unclear. No extra passageways will open up during this time, and the already open means of travel will not close until the light changes to either yellow or green.
Habitation
In regards to recent affairs among the residents, there is no official hub in the level. Multiple bases do exist, but they are often of small population and largely temporary for anyone looking to travel through. While groups have established residencies, their size and lack of consistent population also lead them to be unimportant.
Log 03/06/1991 No one is happy here anymore, and it's not hard to find out why. A responsible and intelligent leader was replaced with an egotisitcal c███. I've heard that when he joined the residency, the area was cast under a red light. I'm not sure if it's true, but it makes sense. The siren alarms played but we didn't pay attention to them, for we were used to them. The colored lights became tolerable. Soon they were only an afterthought. Oh how stupid we were.
Log 06/06/1991 He's started pushing away new inhabitants and trade oppritunities, despite the rest of us wanting otherwise. Stupid is an understatement. He's damn mental, and we all try to reason but it's not worth it. I'm planning to leave soon as well. There are no other options.
Log 08/06/1991 As I kept preparing, I've looked to those injured who reside in Blue Light. My soul aches for them, but I also don't know if I care all that much about it. The Backrooms isn't fair anyway, right? I'm not a bad person for leaving them to possibly die. They were going to get eaten up anyway, I couldn't save them.
Maybe someone else can swoop in and save the day. But I know for sure it will not be me. I'm sorry.
Log 09/06/1991 Victor has started getting aggressive, very aggressive. As I stepped towards the exit, I could hear him shouting at one of the many disabled people. He's blaming them for everyone leaving. I'm going to try and get an audio recording.
I think you're just too r██████ to understand this Morrison, so let me say it again. We. Are. Losing. Residents.
I'm not fucking stupid. You're the idiot scaring everyone away. Nobody wants to deal with your tantrums.
Who? Who has said that? Clearly none of the well adjusted wanderers. Only people complaining are you and your league of c███████ who can't figure out that you all are bringing everyone else down!
Why are you so mad about our existence? You blame us for everything. Look inside yourself Victor, you're the damn problem.
I've spoken to many residents here, they always tell me that they hate taking care of all the disabled people. All of them do, and yet you think I'm the problem?
Yes. Yes I do.
Log 11/06/1991 I've left. I am a bit worried for those who remain, but I'm sure Victor will leave to. They can make it work, Morrison is a smart guy.
Indicdent Log 14/08/1991 The corpses of 72 people were found in the Level 11.6 base, Blue Light. All of those found seemed to have some sort of physical disability as a result of various entity encounters. Further in these injuries, many seem to have been consumed by the various monsters roaming the sublevel. Testing has shown that they were forced to take paralytic substences, either through ingestion or blood insertion. These paralytics will be taken back to Level-███ to test how they work and how it was possibly applied.
Through minimal information, the leader of this mass murder is one Victor ██████, the leader of the base before this event. The whereabout of Victor are currently unknown. Information about him or where he's been should be sent to the Backrooms Investigation Foundation base on Level-███. Any survivors of the event have yet to be found, and if any exist, they should be redirect to the same base for debriefing and accumulating a testimony. The events that unfolded in the Blue Light outpost lead to mass amounts of requests to hunt down Victor ██████ after it was shared on Backrooms Today.
- BIF Spokesperson Catherine Shaw
Passage
Exits out of Level 11.6 function similarly. Many involve walking towards bodies of natural light, as none exist in the sublevel. The lights often link back to Level 11, providing a way out of the underground residency. These rarely may be caused by hostile Lighters, so caution should be exercised. Additionally, finding ladders going into seemingly nothing will let wanders clip through and get back in Level 11. Other exits such as going through specific doorways, and entering buildings have also shown likelihood of escaping.
While entrance to and from Level 11.11 is possible, the nature of the sublevel has made collecting information on it difficult. Supposedly, emergency exits will take wanderers from the sublevel to Level 11.6, or swimming through pools with specifically colored lights may also taking wanderers to the sublevel. These entrances are not consistent enough to be verified, however. Exits to Level 11.11 are also hard to confirm, but many include interacting with certain bodies of water that may be found in Level 11.6 to reach it.
A Continuum
Three hues dictate our patterns
Safety over speed
Author and Licensing Information
Author: PortulTrademark
Crits: 20Tom07 & Snowy
The first image comes from Tapei apartment complexes, though the closest match I could find was this art piece by Analogous Colors.
The second image comes from Photoshelter.
The third image comes from Patrick on Flickr.