Quent

That’s the thing about this city, it changes people. No one who comes into this city ever walks out the same. It has a way of messing with minds, making us believe one thing, but in actuality, it’s the exact opposite. Some of us choose to stay just because we don’t want to deal with the drawback if we left. That’s the other thing, it’s like a drug. You can never get enough, but you try anyway. You become addicted to this city.......

This is the city of Quent, in the state of Lazbirt, in the country of Fretgy. It’s not a normal city, and it’s not a magical city either like it’s twin, Zuent. Its more of a phenomenon, or so the residents say. No one knows how it came into being, but it did. So I guess in a way it is magical, but no one thinks of it that way. It’s also a huge tourist hub, but as we said earlier, no one comes out the same way as they went in. It’s part of the appeal, or so we‘re told. Who are ‘we’, you might ask? The resident caretakers. We keep up the city, and make sure no one tries to become too powerful. It’s all about equality here in Quent. This guy has just as much power as that guy. So I guess in a sense, we caretakers have the most power, but that’s not how we like to look at it. We like to think of it more as managing power. Oh, wait, that sounds just as bad. How about....... Caretaking? Sound better? I thought so. Another thing about this city is that you can never describe it right. You can get close, but you never quite get there. Anyways, now that you have the basic idea, let’s get more into the gory details. Kidding........... But not really.

My fellow caretakers and I try our best, but people don’t like to follow the rules, and they always find loopholes. Especially the Unders. These are the lowest of the scums in the city, the operators of the bad, the hooligans of evil, the-you get the point. Anyways, they like to smuggle stuff that shouldn’t be smuggled, into the city. Drugs, weapons, excessive amounts of alcohol, you name it and they have it, and unfortunately, we can never catch them. We try and try. We set traps by offering enticements to weak links and asking them to rat the rest out; but they never bite and nothing else works. We‘re running out of ideas...... Do you have any, per chance? I didn’t think so.

On to a lighter note........ We just got a new swimming pool! All the tourists love our no-gravity pools. How do we do this, you may ask? We give each person a tank of air, like in scuba diving, and a tiny fan in the back of it so that they can get out safely whenever they want. They just push the tiny button that activates the fan, and it pushes them through the water. The Unders sabotaged some of the air tanks a couple months ago, and sadly, a couple people drowned. We have, however, been working on new non-tamper able ones. Don’t worry; we’re working on the name, too.

Our buildings tend to be on the bigger side, between one hundred and two hundred stories. Our biggest industry is tourism. Obviously. And our climate? Perfect. All year round. We also have really great food. People say it’s a little exotic, but you get used to it after a while. If you stay awhile, that is. Most people only stay for a short while, like for vacation. Therefore, we have only a small permanent population. Some people, the older folks mostly, tend to change more drastically than others. We think it’s because they remember what the old world was like and it’s harder for them to adjust to new concepts and technologies. The old world is the world before mega cities started popping up everywhere, and before all the technological advancements came around. Once the unemployment rates started going down, people came to realize that this was their new world, and they should get used to it fast.

Like our food, our citizens are a little exotic too. We have a wide range of personalities and talents, so our city is very diverse. For example, someone could be a little coo coo up top and also know how to hack into any system in the world. For some reason, we pride ourselves on this fact. When people ask us why, we don’t have an answer. We pride ourselves on that fact, too. Don’t ask why, we might all be a little crazy, the caretakers especially.

Tourists enjoy our residents, they find them, “entertaining and interesting.” Our city also has a bit of a dark side, not just from Unders. We don’t like to talk about it too much, so I’ll just let you know that it’s there and that you don’t need to worry about it. So forget I told you. Don’t look at me like that! Okay fine......... I’ll tell you. You remember when I said no one who comes in the city ever comes out the same way? Well, it’s definitely true. People change, sometimes not for the better. For example, when a little kid visited with his parents a couple months ago, he was a nice kid and had amazing behavior. However, when he walked back out, he started to become a real jerk in school and to his parents. We know this because we like to keep tabs on people who visit our city so we can see how much they’re affected by it. Luckily the kid’s parents fixed him, and we haven’t seen them since. We just want to figure out what’s changing people, so that someone who comes here doesn’t walk out as a serial killer or something like that.

In conclusion, this is a city you can’t describe, a city you’ll have to see to believe. Maybe we’re all a little insane, and maybe our city is too, but it’s our city and we love it just the way it is. This city changes people. In a good or bad way? Both. It’s worth the risk, though. Quent, city of dreams, city of realities, city of crazy. Come visit!