Part 13

: What in god's name is that thing?

: That is a representation of how good a job everyone thinks we are doing.

: We spent money on that? It's like a manifestation of my ego or something.

: Well, the ego manifestation was a donation; creating the mountain did take a little bit of money, however.

: And you're telling me I approved this?

: Yep. It's right here on this form.

He handed me the form. It was a standard city requisition form, but the item it listed was certainly far from "standard."



: Well, I certainly think I would have noticed this when it passed my desk. Maybe I should really start looking at all those things I sign closer.

: It certainly is imposing.

: Yeah, yeah. But really, is this location the best?

: Jim told me it would command respect amongst the dregs of our society.

: I'm thinking it's going to inspire some criminal to hunt me down just because he got sick of looking at me every single day.



: Maybe so. But honestly, when we were in High School, did you really think that someday you would see your statue looking out over a town?

: It's not looking out over the town, it's actually looking away from the town.

: Yeah, the engineers said something about soil composition mandating that it be built a certain way.

Sadly, the Mayor's statue will only face one way in the game. Even if you rotate the map around it will always be facing the south-east. As will most buildings. They were only drawn one way: the way you see now.

: Well, we had better hurry back or we will miss the festivities.



: It's nice to be loved and all, but I don't really see what I've done that would engender this kind of reaction.

: Hey, it's a parade, and there will be good food, I imagine. Just go with it.

And so we climbed into the car and headed for the parade site in New City Name.

: You mind if I flip on the radio? I want to hear how the Team Name's game went.

: Oh great. Sure, go nuts. _{Great, now I get to listen to beeping for the next fifteen minutes.}

Sure enough, with the radio on the car was filled with the sound of steady beeping and that accompanying hissing sound. The more I had listened to it the more that beeping seemed familiar. Or as familiar as beeping could. It reminded me of something, I just couldn't figure out what. What else beeped that I would have heard before? Trucks backing up? A microwave? Voices? A watch alarm? A...wait, what? Voices?

I shot bolt upright in my seat. Voices! I could distinctly hear people talking through the radio! I dived for the volume control and turned it up. They were faint, but I could hear them through the beeping and hissing. I listened intently, ignoring Deryl's questioning look. They were saying...nothing?

The words I heard were garbled. Not like they were speaking another language, but like they were speaking backwards and with the words out of order. But they were definitely people speaking! And the for some reason the voices...soothed me? No, that wasn't it exactly. But they didn't make me any more apprehensive, like I would have expected.

We pulled up to the stand from which I would be viewing the parade. I walked up the stairs contemplating this new development. And this was yet another "new" development. Things were changing in City Name. And I couldn't shake the feeling that they were headed somewhere. Somewhere specific. The questions that I added to the pile of questions I already had were: where was City Name heading? And what would happen when it got there?

A shorter post than usual tonight, because this was all I wanted to show off. In the next update, unless people have a specific thing they are dying to see be built, we'll just keep expanding. And now, stay tuned for some special thread-related issues, coming soon!