City Series:Volume7a Chapter5

Chapter 5: Perspective

2001 spring

Page 1

• Gadget Box

[Sarah looks through a box]

In the US, the pre-spring season of dust and pollen arrives in SF first.

The Health Department is always dealing with the weird, suspicious, and indescribable things people bring in and we also work outside of the office a lot, so the place tends to end up a mess. That’s why we need to clean it all up from time to time.

We do this big cleaning job every three months.

I pull a variety of things from the cardboard box under my desk and line them up on the floor.

Oh, a 16-bit console.

Before you know it, my friends and I are trading stuff.

In the distance, I see Singlehorn getting after someone who was rocking out with a broom guitar. A common enough sight. I just don’t want to get caught in the crossfire.

Page 2

• You Nuisance!!

I had let Beretta roam free, but he returned in the afternoon.

He has a lump on his head.

While I wonder what happened, he tries to grab a broom and head back out.

Sorry, but that’s too heavy for you, buddy.

I hold up a paintbrush I hope can make a decent replacement.

[Sarah in an apron and holding a broom looks down on bandaged and weeping Beretta]

Beretta skillfully grabs it and swings it around.

Is it a weapon? I really don’t know what’s going on here.

He falls over while swinging around the brush. He sheds tears as wide as his eyes, but then he starts pushing at my feet.

He wants me to go somewhere.

Page 3

• Walk for Thunderbird

Fine. I leave the cleaning to a friend and tie the brush to Beretta’s back.

I follow him through City Hall.

People are cleaning everywhere. I wonder if he’s headed to the cafeteria, but apparently not.

He takes me to the storehouse outside. That’s also an entrance to some underground ruins.

Below City Hall is a layer of the city’s accumulated memories. Dragon bones and such are excavated there on a daily basis. The manager of that section is a shaman known as Grand Mam who worships the dragon bones like they’re a god’s bones.

[Beretta, with paintbrush on his back, leads Sarah with a map of the City Hall as a background]

And Beretta has an enemy: the Thunderbird, a lightning god incarnation that Grand Mam keeps as a pet.

[Thunderbird has a very simplistic and cartoony design]

Page 4

• No Guard

I’ll admit its art style is silly, but a three-tailed fox shouldn’t be picking a fight with a divine incarnation.

But Beretta is ready to go.

[Sarah watches as Beretta and the Thunderbird glare at each other]

• Acho!!!!!

He warms up with the brush in one hand.

He’s all ready for round 2.

Go get that bird!

[Sarah cheers Beretta on while he throws a bunch of punches with his tiny arm]

• You Lost

Another loss.

[Sarah sweats while the Thunderbird pecks Beretta into the ground]

Page 5

• Underground

I place weeping Beretta on my head and go underground.

Grand Mam appears to me.

“Oh, Sarah. You don’t visit often.”

“Just taking a peek. Got any more pictures?”

“Plenty more. But more than that, I feel that god must have guided you here. I have so many great things to show you. Come with me.”

[Grand Mam and Sarah head own dark stairs by torchlight]

Don’t know what she’s talking about, but I follow her down the stairs while looking at the sketchy wall painting.

SF’s memories are down here.

Whenever things happen, they become a part of the city’s memories and seep into the ley lines.

Oh, wow. Beretta’s tears are flowing down my neck. How much water does this bastard have inside him?

[Close up of Grand Mam and of Sarah protesting all the tears flowing from Beretta on her head]

Page 6

• …Who?

We reach an area where the walls are covered by fragments of memories instead of wall painting.

If you scrape away at the stone, you can see all sorts of truths.

[Sarah points toward the wall]

• Strike Molester 1937

[A young woman breaks a bottle over a man’s head]

“Hey, is the good-looking woman in this memory you, Grand Mam?”

“What is she doing?”

“Hitting a drunk with a bottle at a bar.”

“No, that wouldn’t be me.”

I silently call her a liar while we walk deeper in.

Page 7

• Realizing Thunderbird?

I see all sorts of things.

That has to be Grand Mam healing this big bird’s wound.

The man next to her is probably her husband or someone.

[Sarah views an image of a big bird on the wall while Grand Mam keeps walking]

Grand Mam calls back to me.

“What are you looking at?”

“Probably a boring old memory. For the person who made it, anyway.”

“Then ignore it.”

“Probably for the best,” I reply before wiping off the wall memory and following after her.

Then I see dragon bones.

Page 8

• Near

[Sarah and Beretta look over at a dragon skeleton in the wall]

This floor is set up so the dragon skeleton looks no larger than a framed painting at first glance.

• Far

[Sarah is now standing in front of the skeleton, looking tiny in comparison]

“Look, Beretta. It’s the magic of perspective!”

I’m delighted, but Grand Mam’s tone is calm.

“Then get to cleaning that from whatever distance makes it a workable size for you. Dig it out and you’ll see the dragon’s memories instead of the bones. The memories of it soaring through the sky.”

I see. So that’s how it works, huh?

Page 9-10

• Blooming Ancient Sky

I use perspective to clean the large dragon skeleton at a reduced size.

I don’t have Halifax with me, so I use a smaller portable Device to scrape away at it.

I can’t make the perspective work if I focus too much on it, so it’s surprisingly tricky.

I have to convince myself that the illusion of its smaller size is in fact real and then I start using the brush Beretta brought to really get to work.

I know the dragon must be soaring in the sky on the other side of this bone and rock surface.

[Thunderbird watches as Sarah carves away the surface of the skeleton, revealing a more complete image below]

I carve it out as a painting!

Page 11

• Ho~

[Grand Mam watches Sarah sigh in satisfaction]

That was a great experience.

Maybe Grand Mam was right about heaven guiding me here.

• Yo~?

[Grand Mam notices an angry Singlehorn approaching behind Sarah]

While I laugh over the drink Grand Mam gave me, guidance from the opposite of heaven creeps up on me.

• Heee~!

[Grand Mam leaves as Sarah and Beretta weep with Singlehorn behind them.

“Why aren’t you cleaning, Sarah?”

Page 12

• Work Overtime

The “guidance” I received to the head was a lot heavier than Beretta and I’m stuck cleaning all alone after everyone else went home.

Darn, where did that friend I asked to clean for me go?

[Bendaughter carries in a wrapped bento, Sarah cleans the floor with a lump on her head, and Beretta weeps with a lump on his head]

“You don’t get anyone’s help.”

Oh, is that how it’s going to be?

But Bendaughter gave me a Japanese box lunch through the window.

That may have been my first bit of happiness all year. Anyway, that’s all for now.

The end of image.

Finish

Kawa-Commentary

Chapter 5: Perspective

• General

This ends the first half, so I’ve more or less shown all of SF’s techniques and characters now.

Overall, you could maybe call the rest the Earth Dragon Arc.

• Page 1

That’s the contents of the cardboard box I mentioned in Chapter 3. Nothing worthwhile in there…

• Page 2

Her desk has changed to one with a built-in drawer. To be economical with space and allow in as many workers as possible, they put their personal belongings in the lockers you can see behind her. But that takes up space by the window and allows dust to build up…

The whiteboard in the background mentions where to receive wax and such. You might be able to make out on the bottom left that Sarah was designated team leader starting at 3 PM.

• Page 3

On the City Hall map, Main Street is located at the top. Past that (not pictured here) is the annex Sarah’s group works in and the storehouse seen in Chapter 3.

The storehouse they visit this chapter is at the bottom, but it’s location right next to the City Hall means it was there all the way back when the City Hall was first built. The underground ruins were there first, so when the City Hall was built, they built a storehouse and pavilion to preserve the things that came from the ruins. Then they built the annex as the city developed and grew.

• Page 4

I don’t think I have anything to say. I think panel 2 was originally him making practice swings.

• Page 5

That’s more like graffiti than a wall painting. The indigenous people of SF have an old history and a lot of their culture still remains. The wall paintings take the form of the city’s memories and prophecies, but those ones you can see at the top are a…prophecy (I guess?) of the Showa Series mentioned before. You can’t see them all, but there are four lined up there.

• Page 6

A lot of women hitting people with dangerous weapons in 1937…

• Page 7

It’s hard to see behind Sarah, but the Thunderbird art has a woman covering her face and a man fallen onto his rear.

This Thunderbird form gathers the wind in his wings after taking flight and explosively releases the wind to launch himself long distances like an artillery shell. His white feathers are for attitude control when he does that and he also has canard wings. You could call him an avian dragon since he can freely summon lightning, but he finds his life in his current form easier. He might prefer to be with the people than worshiped by them. He’s a god of the people.

• Page 8

The circle on the frame is the center and the dragon is actually drawn further to the right, but it wouldn’t fit in the panel and was trimmed to this position.

• Pages 9-10

The dragon being carved out here is an ancient fossil, not the Earth Dragon that appears later.

Later on, Grand Mam goes further in and sees wall art drawn by the ley lines that tells her the time for the dragon’s activation is nigh.

• Page 11

If the title of each frame felt just right to you, I’m guessing you’re an Ultima fan.

• Page 12

Benny’s bento here is a prototype for Chapter 6.

The cloth wrapper’s pattern and the size should be enough to know she eats Japanese food.

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