Back to top 14th November, 2005

"Arlight, lets review what we learned today then Cogil. What was your view?"

"Well lets see. The speak-uh-ma-tron is user-friendly device for the well to do bureaucrat. It has all the features needed for a productive day of manipulating a population with their realizing it. Through the simple user interface a bureaucrat can simply push a few keys and world is but a reciever for ideal manipulation both over and covert..." Cogil seemed to remember a lot.

"Cogil, you memorized all that? What's up with this anyway?" Vincent was almost intrigued.

"Actually I just made all that up. I wasn't really paying attention. This'll be an easy job until something better comes along. I mean this whole concept of manipulating a whole populace is just morally reprehensible. Also this speak-uh-ma-tron thing is really easy to use so I can wing it most of the time."

"Well, that'd certianly be better than me. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to handle all this."

"Oh you'll be fine." Cogil said.

Ryan looked to be having a good time so Cogil and Vincent went back to the apartment. It was only a short walk down the road. The building they were was very generic looking but the inside was much different. The rooms of the other residence had been customized to fit whatever personal style. Cogil, Vincent and Ryan's apartment was already starting to look customzied. The inside consisted of three bedrooms, a living space and a kitchen area. There were already a few posters.

"So what time is it Cogil?" asked Vincent.

"It's about 11:00pm." He answered.

"So, what about the religion thing? Are such things really worth it?" asked Vincent.

"Well think about. At worst you spent you whole life being a good person and trying to be good to those around you. Isn't that a worth while worst case scenario?" said cogil.

"Well I'm not saying that's a bad point or anything, but it seems like if you're going to devote your whole life to something you should at least believe wholly in fully, not just be in for fear of something that may or may not happen when you die. Time and devotion should have something more than cover bases, right?" Asked Vincent.

"Yes, I see that point. Still, you're not saying you'd support a government shut down of churches, are you?" asked Cogil.

"No, I don't think so. I'd be sad to see them all go really. Ah home at last." Said Vincent.

The two of them went up stairs to the apartment. At long last it was time to rest up for work.

* * *

Ryan was still at the bar, having a great time. He wondered why Vincent and Cogil had left. And also wondered why the two of them would come to a bar and discuss the philosophical value of religion. But then he was writing a book.

Ryan picked up new concepts rather quickly and would handle any call thrown at him for the speak-uh-ma-tron at work, so he wasn't at all worried.

The bar was fairly large and had a lot of people in thanks to bringing all his co-workers. He was consuming phorp and dancing with a lot people on the dance floor.

Eventually he got bored and of this and started to wander home.

* * *

In the morning Cogil, Vincent and Ryan all walked to work for their first real day support the speak-uh-ma-tron for the various bureaucrats around the city.

Upon arriving each of them recieved instructions on where to sit. Cogil, Vincent and Ryan would be recievng calls on thier own speak-uh-ma-trons right away.

Ryan's first incident involved a bureaucrat who didn't have his speak-uh-ma-tron actually plugged in.

Vincent's first incident involved a bureaucrat whose speak-uh-ma-tron was plugged in but the power to the whole facility was out so it was not working.

And Cogil's first incident involed a failing speak-uh-ma-tron and an upset bureaucrat who only really thought he knew what he was talking about.

Cogil, Vincent and Ryan were starting to get comfortable with the whole when a wailing siren started to sound. Everyone around Cogil, Vincent and Ryan start to get up and move toward one particular exit on one side of the building. Cogil, Vincent and Ryan follow everyone as they go through the door way into a giant auditorium.

"What do you think is going on, Cogil?" Vincent asked.

"I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure that was an alarm though, right?" Cogil answered.

Another co-worker leaned over and said "No not an alarm, just the signal for the weekly meeting. You didn't hear?"

"No", Cogil said, "we are new here. No one told us."

As the room filled up with workers and Cogil, Vincent and Ryan came into the auditorium a large stage with podium became clear on the stage. Then the speaker came onto the stage.

"Is that a mister W.B. McGee?" asked Vincent.

"I think it is." Cogil said.

"Well I hope he has something entertaining to say. I mean between the bar last night and the waiting for the job to start I've been kind of bored. I have a feeling with this speech lots of exciting, unpredictable things with talking about will start to happen right away."

"There you go again, Vincent", Cogil said, "always the die-hard optimist, aren't you? This could be the start of something exciting or it could always be the turning point for a downward spiral."

"Hey, speaking of spirals, let me tell you about part of the book that I am writing..." Ryan started to say.

"Not now Ryan! We're going to McGee's speech. We'll talk about tonight. Just to shut you up!"

"Ok, fine. Tonight. It's good though." Said Ryan.

McGee was now approaching the podium. He looked much taller up on the stage then he did in person. Vincent wondered if McGee would talk about the trippy entrance for the manhole cover to the Subterranean Towz, though he knew it was probably doubtful.

After taking a few moments waiting for the crowd to quiet down McGee finally started to speak.

"My fellow Subterranean Towzians, how are you?" McGee started. "As you all know support of the speak-uh-ma-tron for our bureaucrats is as important as any task in all of Towz..."

The speech went on for nearly half in hour. It was a fairly good speech, somewhat informative but not very well written. This Cogil and Vincent would hear about from Ryan non-stop for the next week. When McGee was all done with this speech a new speaker came to the podium.

Ryan leaned over and asked a co-worker who this new man was. Turns out McGee's boss was going to make short speech. This was an unscheduled speech and even McGee seemed to be unaware of the plans for it.

As the new speaker approached the the podium he seemed like a much more sinister character than any Cogil, Vincent and Ryan had ever encountered before. This, of course, completely contradicted what the new speaker started to say.

"Hello support personnel! How are we doing today?" This man was wierd looking and sounded even wierder. "As you know it is that we keep our fellow bureaucrats happy and making using thier voice-uh-ma-tron 42ks at all times. For in the future this will not be nearly as necessary. But that doesn't mean we should let up. Oh no! For in the future there will be no robots. In fact there may not even be any robot-like people toiling away forever. For in the future, you see..."

The speech of the unnamed man went on for nearly an hour. He had very little of any substance to add but he certainly was addament about the robots.

"Boy, he certainly was addament about those robots." Cogil said. "I'm just glad that speech is over."

Cogil, Vincent and Ryan all went back to thier cubicles to try to help more bureaucrats. Mainly, the bureaucrats job was to change certain to details of the city of Towz to warp the minds of the populace. At least that was the running theory among the three of them. From what Vincent could gather every aspect of Towz could be manipulated from Subterranean Towz, from the weather to how fake paid protestors that virtually everyone knew were fraudulent could possibly make sense logicially. It was something out of a bad novel.

After work Cogil, Vincent and Ryan went back to their apartment, this time a much quieter evening.

Finally, Vincent asked Ryan about his book.

"Well I'm re-working it. Still plot involving lost hikers but now one of them has to have everything explained to him. It's a plot device to make things more obvious to the reader indirectly through dialog instead of long passages of stating the status of the fictional universe. Also one of them is real young. For some reason fictional or not if someone young says something really bizaare or off the wall or controversial it's munch more tolerated. Simply because the character is considered innocent and doesn't know any better." Ryan was way too enthused about this.

Of course all this seemed to simply annoy Cogil. Ryan was expecting this from the trip on the train.

"Ryan, why do you insist on using these really transparent plot devices. Isn't there some way to manipulate the reader into getting this information without resort to such devices?" Cogil asked.

"Well plot devices are just that, right? Like a nail to a hammer, plot devices hold together a whole story. Wouldn't that make sense?" Now Ryan was starting to make sense.

"Yes, I suppose that's one way to look at it. I still think there's a way to get the same things done but without such transparency."

"Oh", said Ryan, "That's not really necessary. Devices are there. If done right they'll simply move a plot along and do what all devices are supposed to do: hold different parts together. Like if use a hammer on a nail properly you won't notice it in the wall when the house is done. Or something."

"Ok, alright. I get it. It's your book, your creative process. So what was that speech all about anyway?"  ¶ 9:34 AM