The City of Reality

by Howl (Chase Gunderud)

1. In Reality, bordering the western wastes and the carpet wilderness, is a monorail. The monorail is one block long and can bring you anywhere.

Anyone can be riding the monorail at any time, and there’s no telling when it will get to your stop. I once was going to Emma’s Rolling Carpet House, which could be on any street, and we passed it three times before I was in the right time-zone and place. I also passed by Emma on one trip, and she waved. She was two at the time.

It is said that Isaac’s Fish once swallowed it, and spat it out, giving it it’s current station, where it always is. That’s where the chief architect said it should never be, but only a fool argues with a fish-house.

2. Carpet is an unpredictable, but stable material. It takes on one form, any form, but it stays that way and spreads it’s form to the neighboring carpet pieces. In Reality there is a wilderness, a plains, a sea, and an apartment complex made entirely of carpet. All carpet areas have their respective carpet plants and carpet animals, which are made mostly of carpet.

They’re a lot like pictures, but require more caution. See, you know where a picture is going to bring you, but a carpet could be anything. Carpet always looks the same, with the exception of the carpet-life. Animals are good tellers on whether or not you should step on a carpet.

Thankfully the carpet inside the city is tame, and signs indicate what they are – to keep the townsfolk safe. Long ago the chief architect had to remove some carpet that took on a quicksand form. That’s what happened to the houses of ex-short storians, if you were wondering.