This post is part of the June 2011 Blog Chain at Absolute Write. This month’s challenge is a simple descriptive setting.
It was raining in Heden. This was evident in the way its citizens scuttled to and fro in the few open spaces, avoiding the heavy droplets as best they could.
It always rained in Heden. There was a faint shimmer to the bright, bizarre fabrics worn by the people that indicated waterproofing, and each person shed a wake of droplets that collected near thousands of drainage grates.
It would always rain in Heden. There was no way to be sure of this, but the water-worn and rusted surfaces of the Towers suggested it. Looming up into the ever-dark sky, they seemed resigned to an eternal pelting from the neverending storm.
The original design of Heden had called for six of the great Towers, forming the simple hexagon shape found on many of the great neon billboards and television screens that dotted each Tower much as lichens dotted the occasional real rock. The Towers had grown together, fused into one great shapeless mass by centuries of construction, destruction, rust, and rainwater. The simple glass walkways that had connected them had been long shorn of their panes, and hundreds of homegrown, rickety, winding paths of iron and steel had appeared to supplant them.
A monitor was suspended above one such improvised walkway, placed to ambush passersby with its message. Its bright, flashing image wasn’t an ad. Ad Boards were hard to afford, anymore; people who wanted to advertise just added more crumpled paper or laminate fliers to the mass that coated every surface reachable by human hands. This screen was an Info Board.
Info Boards were there to ‘illuminate possible interpretations of information for the purpose of educating the people’ according to the Boards themselves. This particular Board was playing the ‘History of Heden’, and everyone passing beneath had seen it before.
Check out this month’s other bloggers, all of whom have posted or will post their own responses:
juniper
LadyMage
dolores haze
jkellerford
Ralph Pines
TheMindKiller
AuburnAssassin
pezie
WildScribe
Inkstrokes
Irissel
Guardian
Lyra Jean
egoodlett
cwachob
Excerpts From Nonexistent Books 
June 5, 2011 at 10:44 pm
Old rusted and in decay, with the crushing mas of undefined humanity going about its business.
Great job!
June 6, 2011 at 12:13 am
“Info Boards were there to ‘illuminate possible interpretations of information for the purpose of educating the people’ according to the Boards themselves.”
The whole scene is creepy, impersonal, institutional almost, but this sentence really sealed the coffin for me. A grim setting for sure.
June 6, 2011 at 7:44 am
Sounds like a very grim and depressing place to live. Like Kat Juniper I love your description of the Info Boards.
June 6, 2011 at 10:18 am
Have you ever been to Seattle? Cause that’s what this place sounds like! It always rains in Seattle. Even on nice days. Although Heden sounds a little more depressing 😉
June 6, 2011 at 10:26 pm
Very grim indeed. I also like the info boards. And I got a sort of desperate sense when you described the ads, “people who wanted to advertise just added more crumpled paper or laminate fliers to the mass that coated every surface reachable by human hands.” I just get the vision of trying to secure yet another flier to the wall, searching for a spot that might stick out. Nice job.
June 7, 2011 at 5:59 am
I hate this place. *laughs* Seriously, the description conveys this sense of heavy atmosphere and sad people. A world of gray and routine where the only hint of color is doctrine. *shudders* I wouldn’t fit there at all.
June 14, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Thank you! I do think, though, that you’d be surprised at the actual doctrine espoused by the city’s founders and how exactly it’s been corrupted 🙂
June 7, 2011 at 12:23 pm
The way you described this place made me want to avoid this place at all costs. It is so depressing, you wouldn’t pay me a million dollars to live there.
June 7, 2011 at 1:45 pm
“It was raining in Heden”
I love simple starts like this. I makes me want to read more.
You painted a great picture with lots of texture and feeling.
June 8, 2011 at 3:06 am
You do a great job of painting the picture of dreary city that is past its prime. I love it!
June 8, 2011 at 7:02 am
What an oppressive place. I think my favorite passage was where you describe the towers merging together: “The Towers had grown together, fused into one great shapeless mass by centuries of construction, destruction, rust, and rainwater. The simple glass walkways that had connected them had been long shorn of their panes, and hundreds of homegrown, rickety, winding paths of iron and steel had appeared to supplant them.”
Beautifully painted in my mind. Good job.
June 8, 2011 at 11:10 am
great descriptions! the rain is perfect for the gloomy setting, and I love how the ad boards and info boards give you an immediate sense of what this world is like — very controlling…
June 14, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Thanks! It is indeed controlling…but probably not in the way you think!
June 8, 2011 at 9:56 pm
I love the image of the homegrown, rickety winding paths. This is a very evocative description of a civilization in decay. Nicely done!
June 11, 2011 at 11:04 am
This is very good. I get impressions of Bladerunner and LeGuin’s The Lathe of Heaven–oppressive in once sense but in another you see how well its citizens have adapted and adjusted or simply learned to tune it out. It’s like my home here in WA state. LOL