Episode 4: Danada Day

Chapter 18: Advanced Economics of Aviation 101

<=Chapter 17 {Table of Contents} Chapter 19=> 

Having secured the proper permits and votes of approval, the would-be farmers created the airport on floor two dozen eleven.
They used power tools to cut a floor in the floor/celing between 2ᘔ & 2Ɛ, and had constructed a large ramp in order to drive the farm equipment up to the airport floor. Finally, one of the windows on the airport floor had been removed in order for planes to be able to fly out. These proceedings had taken them the majority of the morning. 

“This seems like a lot of work just to make a farm,” said Megan, who had decided to join the farmers today because it seemed interesting. She was wearing a loose-fitting green dress which complimented her blonde hair nicely. She also wore a straw hat, because she had felt that that would be appropriate.

“Well yeah,” said Josephine. “But we need to eat sometime... the food from the tower won't last forever. Sooner or later we're going to run out of floors. She was wearing a slightly more practical outfit for the work at hand; jeans and a purple tank top. The purple seemed like it would clash with her dark skin tone but oddly it didn't. She was driving a planting machine thingy up the ramp that they had built, up to the airport. Megan followed her up.

“Alright, we've opened the cargo door,” said Charles. “Once you get the equipment in then Benny will be able to fly it down.” Benny had been practicing in the flight simulator room that they had made as part of the airport floor. Although most of the floor was taken up by various aircraft, a clear runway existed slightly to the west of the middle of the room (so that it wasn't blocked by the elevator shaft). Charles was overseeing the operation; He wore black pants and a white button-up shirt, as well as a bowler hat, for some reason.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” said Megan

* * *

“Alright, so it is resolved that the Government of Danada shall commission Silverfish to write and perform the Danadian national anthem for Danada Day,” said Nathan. He was wearing white robes with teal trim, which, presumably, he thought looked presidential. He had a hat that looked more like the pope hat than anything though, but not quite as elaborate, and the hat did not agree with his hair, which was starting to curl a bit.

“Don't forget my amendment,” said Jeffery. He was less elaborately-dressed by comparison, but felt a tuxedo kind of outfit was right for his position as vice-president. He had a blue tie.

“Right, right, it's in there,” said Nathan.

A bowling ball fell down past the window, making a loud thump noise and sending up a cloud of dirt and dust.

“Speaking of... absolutely nothing related to it whatsoever,” said Fredrick, who was wearing dark blue jeans and a black short-sleeve button-down shirt. “It's now 6 o'clock, AKA noon, shouldn't it be time for the midday votes?”

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, one of the resolutions that was passed the previous evening was that there would be votes twice a day every weekday; one at noon and sundown, also known as 6 and 9.

“I can't get the hang of this new time system,” said Zach, who was wearing khaki shorts and a tie-dye t-shirt because screw formality. “ And anyway, I still think there shouldn't have even been parliament today, it being a national holiday and everything,”

“Yeah, but sadly that vote didn't pass,” said Zandria, who was wearing a fairly revealing red bikini top and a grass skirt. She had a jeweled necklace with a large ruby, as well as several other bits of jewelery. She wore a fancy headdress as well. “At least we have the weekends off, and it starts tomorrow,”

Another bowling ball fell, near where the last one was, making a crater in the ground.

“I imagine people will get here soon,” said Jeffery. “And some of them might have forgot.”

“True,” said Frederick as another bowling ball dropped down outside. “Okay what is with those bowling balls?”

Nobody there had any idea.

A couple minutes later, 7ollion came out of the elevator. 7ollion dressed in an anachronistic manner, with a few layers of jackets with patches and mismatched color schemes that seemed to be cobbled together haphazardly, although from a distance his outfit seemed brown and grey, mostly.

“Sorry I'm late for the meeting,” said 7ollion. “Lost track of time, and then I had to finish my experiment.”

“That's alright,” said Nathan. “You're the only one here so far,”

“What about all of those guys?” 7ollion said, gesturing to everyone seated at the table.

“First non-government-type-person,” Nathan clarified.

“Civilian?” suggested 7ollion.

“No that really implies non-military person,” said Nathan.

“Wait, so those bowling balls were your experiment?” said Fredrick, raising an eyebrow and glancing at the window.

“Yeah, I was measuring the strength of gravity on Danada,” said 7ollion. “Timed how long it took the bowling balls to fall.”

“I think the word you were looking for was citizen,” said Kyle.

“Members of governments are still citizens,” said Jeffery. “And anyway, this is a direct democracy, technically everyone is a member of the government.”

The band members of Silverfish; Anthony, Tessa, Mackenzie, Bethany, Michael, and Kimberly (in no particular order) came down the stairs. All of the members of the band were wearing extremely flashy outfits appropriate to their chosen vocation (think 1970s glam rock. I'm not going to describe them all) “Sorry we're late,” said Mackenzie. “We had to finish working on the new song we were working on. Anyway what did we miss?”

“Nothing yet,” said Nathan. “Altho we have some other business that concernes you guys: we'd like you to write a Danadian national anthem and perform it in a concert tonight to celebrate Danada Day.”

“Done,” said Tessa.

“...that isn't a parody of the Canadian national anthem,” said Jeffery.

“Alright,” said Tessa, slightly dejected.

“What will you pay us?” asked Mackenzie.

“Wait, we still didn't get paid for our last commission,” said Michael.

“We still don't have currency” pointed out Fredrick. 

“Anyway, the point is, Toaster-Man still owes us one pizza for the song we wrote for his campaign,” said Tessa.

In an astonishing coincidence (okay not really, I wrote it that way), Jessica entered the area at that same moment. “By the way, did you ever find Toaster-Man?” Nathan asked of her.

“Yeah, umm... no, honestly we didn't find him,” said Jessica in what would be the most transparent lie ever if anyone had been paying enough attention or suspecting anything.

“We gave up after a while,” said 7ollion, much more coolly.

“Okay, for the song, well, we'll give you...” Nathan looked around, confused. “Well, what do you need?”

“Honestly not much,” said Anthony.

“So just do it for free then,” said Jeffery. “Problem solved.”

“No, it's the principle of the matter,” said Kimberly. “We have other songs we could be writing.”

“Honestly this would be a lot easier if we had actual currency,” said Fredrick.

“Yeah I agree,” said Tessa. “Easier than some kind of IOU a favour.”

“We don't need currency!” said Zandria. “We've got along fine without it so far. Money is the root of all evil. So let's not plant the root.”

“I think Zandria may have a point, actually,” said Jeffery. “We hardly have a scarcity of resources when we can make whatever we need with the tower. What good will money even serve?”

“It could settle disputes like this one, for one thing,” said Kristina, who was there the whole time, but I had honestly forgotten about her. I guess she was daydreaming. She wore a sky-blue long-sleeve shirt and white pants, and a necklace that was tucked into her shirt at the moment.

“Well it can be a proposal for the noon council,” said Nathan. “It doesn't look like anyone else is showing up, so we may as well get it st-”

At that moment all of the people who had been working on the airport showed up. “Sorry we're late,” said Josephine. “We just wanted to get the final preparations finished so we can fly the transport plane after the meeting.”

“I'm going to fly it!” said Benny. “It's going to be epic!” He was wearing aviator goggles, a blue cape, and a brown leather suit, that seemed a bit too big for him, even though he presumably created it with his own subconscious.

“Anyway,” said Kristina. “The question is, currency: yay or nay?”

“Kind of a complex issue to boil down into a simple question like that, don't you think?” said Jeffery.

“CURRENCYYAYORNAY!” said Kristina defiantly yet playfully.

“Anyway, maybe we should wait to see if more people show up first,” said Nathan. “At least until like, 6.3.” 

So they waited for a bit less point 3 (one quarter) of a Danadian hour, which is the same as half a standard hour. Conversations took place but I'm not going to write them all. At 6.2Ɛ Allison came down. “I realize I'm late, but I was finishing my half of mine and Megan's awesome mansion. I figured I'll just vote on whatever proposals that you have left.” 

“Actually, we haven't started yet,” said Fredrick.

“Wow, leave it to the government to not do anything,” said Allison. Oh yeah, allison was wearing. Umm... a dress? I dunno whatever. It was red. Also red stockings.

“Anyway, we were going to vote on whether to make currency, and possibly use one of the floors for a bank for it. Probably the next unassigned floor, which would be floor three-dozen. Everyone seems to be here, except for Richard, Kyle, and Pudding. Oh, and of course Toaster-Man. But nobody knows where he is.”

Of course, Jessica and 7ollion did know where he was, which was obsessively working on his ministry of Toast. Which happened to be on floor three-dozen. They shared a worried glance.

“Oh, a bank?” asked Benny. “I've already made one!”

“You've already made one??” Jeffery said incredulously. “When? And where?”

“On my personal floor of course. Floor ten. The Bank of Benny.”

“And you never thought to mention that during this whole conversation about money?” asked Allison.

“A good opening never came up,” Benny shrugged.

“Well we may as well legalize currency then, if we already have a bank,” said Jessica. People in general seemed to agree.

“Alright, as Prime Minister,” I call a vote, said Nathan.

“I thought you were president,” said Fredrick.

“Oh yeah, I forgot,” said Nathan. Anyway. “Currency: yay or nay? All those for yay:”

The motion passed quite handily, although there were a few holdouts.

“Excellent,” said Benny. “I will show you the bank, and then after you shall all witness my daring feat of aviation!”

“You're just landing a plane,” said Charles.

“Yeah, but there's no runway, that's gotta count for something,” said Benny.

Everybody headed into the elevator to floor ten. Soon the elevator dinged, and they got out. “Welcome,” said Benny “To the Bank of Benny” 

<=Chapter 17 {Table of Contents} Chapter 19=>