Night Terrace (houses)

**Night Terrace** was a row of four or more terrace houses in Melbourne, purchased (and renamed) by Auguste Night during her trip to Australia in the 1950s. She used them in her quantum foam experiments, coating the interior walls in quantum paint. The houses acquired a strange relationship to spacetime and eventually disappeared one by one, the last vanishing in 2014. They seemingly generated an Einstein-Rosen bridge and travelled vast distances through space, as well as backward and forward in time and even to other realities outside the normal universe. This effect could not be controlled: the destination was seemingly random, though Auguste theorised that at least some of the other houses would seek to join hers in her unstable pocket dimension. Some houses only travelled to other times and places on Earth. (*NT* One: "Home") (*NT* One: "Moving House")

The houses also exerted unusual effects on humans who live in them, including allowing them to understand other intelligent creatures even without a common language. Auguste theorised this was due to a quantum tunnelling effect making a connection between the minds involved. (*NT* One: "The Last Hunt") (*NT* One: "Home")

The D.E.P.A.R.T.M.E.N.T. became aware of the houses at some point, probably after Horatio Gray moved into one, and began monitoring them. When Anastasia Black retired, they manipulated her into buying the last remaining Night Terrace house and hid devices inside that would leave data spores behind any time it appeared on Earth if it should start travelling, so they could trace its movements. (*NT* One: "Home") (*NT* Two: "The Edification of Anastasia Black") (*NT* Two: "The Retirement of Horatio Gray")

Each house retained a connection to its origin point in Melbourne via a "tether". Though all the houses were mysteriously connected to power, water and other amenities, each was particularly associated with one of these things. Using devices connected to these utilities like taps, light switches or "stirred up" the house's connection to home, causing it to be pulled towards home into an Einstein-Rosen bridge, but emerging at random. (*NT* Two: "Things That Go Bump in the Night Terrace")

The houses were connected together; when Horatio's house was sent billions of years back in time, it stretched the tethers to near breaking point, causing the houses to spring back along their path of travel and collide. This created a new pocket reality containing hundreds of copies of four of the houses and their long-term occupants: Anastasia Black, Horatio Gray, Darren and Auguste Night. (*NT* Two: "Home Again")

## Known Night Terrace houses

* Anastasia's Night Terrace - the last to leave. Occupied by Anastasia Black, Eddie Jones and Susan Denholm. Left Melbourne in 2014 and travelled throughout the universe and to other realities. Travel instigated by using the taps.
* Auguste's Night Terrace - the first to leave. Occupied by Auguste Night. Eventually travelled outside the known universe, creating an unstable pocket dimension. Presumed destroyed.
* The Night Terrace aboard the *SSS Implausible*. Found unoccupied. Harnessed by Amelia Grant to power the ship and its steam-powered clockwork first officer, Aubrey. Possibly a future version of Anastasia's or Darren's Night Terrace.
* The Night Terrace on an unnamed feudal world. Found as the foundation of the Queen's castle, it had been dormant and empty for centuries. Possibly a future version of Anastasia's or Darren's Night Terrace.
* Darren's Night Terrace - left in the early 1980s. Occupied by Darren. Travelled only to times and places in Earth's history before the date of its original departure. Travel instigated by using the light switches.
* Horatio's Night Terrace - left before Anastasia's. Occupied by Horatio Gray. Travelled only to times and places in Earth's history before the date of its original departure. Travel instigated by making a telephone call. Destroyed when forming the core of the planet Earth.

 *SSS Implausible Night Terrace* · *Castle Night Terrace*