Kidneyland

Frankie wordlessly showed her pass to the man at the front of the line. More focused on trying not to make eye contact, and, more pressingly, peeking into the park just ahead (as her sister was also) she did not see the employee’s glowing eyes photoscan the image after a mere blink.

“You’re clear.” He issued professionally. 

But before the sisters could enter the park, he grabbed Frankie’s shoulder.

“Oh. Excuse me.”

The guilty girl was terrified, turning to him. Before she could imagine what could possibly be wrong, however, he stuck out his hand- in his palm, there laid four moon-shaped badges.

The girls instinctively took them, two for each of the adventurers.

“As you know, the game ends in five days. Have as many of those as you can by the end of that time.” He recited.

Frankie nodded, still staring at the shiny little things. Katie was looking out the entrance again.

“Oh, and have fun.” He added.

The sisters were finally allowed into the park, nervous steps driven forward by sheer excitement.

No matter where you looked, it felt like the image you saw had been curated with every artistic principle in the book. The entry area, aptly dubbed Kidneyland Road, was simple in geography but rich with detail. They didn’t even notice they’d began to move as they inched forward more and more to get better views of the different shops in the distance that lined the street. Each one of them had the style of something straight out of 130 BNG. They couldn’t believe how quaint it felt, even with all the tourists there.

Due to the park’s incredible size, it only felt marginally more crowded than Venge City, despite its record-shattering attendance. Even Frankie felt like she had been catered to, in some small way.

The park’s biggest asset, clear just from the first second of stepping inside its prefatorial zone, was that, for lack of a better word, it felt almost real.

Throughout Frankie’s life, she was always keenly conscious of the plastic artificiality this world so often reeked of. Even without knowing a different time, she could see it- the Earth as it stood was nothing like the one inside her old books, or the one she’d dream of existing. Every square foot of it was designed for profit, every road just another paved path through more businesses and paid experiences.

Here, standing on a straight line paved with overpriced storefronts on both sides, surrounded by the herded sheep that were its patrons-

Frankie didn’t have that feeling.

Through its apparent history… through its very design, this place felt “real.”

Katie grabbed her hand.

“No money to waste on the shops, right? Well, come on! Let’s go see the theater!”

She hadn’t even seen the thing, even though it was right in front of her- the only building this road led to. A gargantuan movie theater, somehow not seeming so fantastical when she approached it. Even though it looked larger than most castles, Frankie was completely convinced that this building was more than some attraction. In her mind, it was a monument as old as time, and she was taken under its spell.

Dragged through its gaping open doorways by her equally transfixed sister, Frankie understood it- this place was where the fantasy that never worked on her finally bled into reality, as it was always intended to do. Ever park she’d ever been to, every thing she’d ever seen…

All it was- everything it had was only a cheap imitation of this incomparable city.