The Commonwealth of Paradise (USNW): March 27: A (late) Most Heartfelt Thanks

[DCMetro34 577]

Pretty nice signs, they look very realistic.

-DC

[Follarch 327]

Nice signs! You inspired me to just go make signs for my highways too.

[§haÅ--Ñ€ §hÅŽo 370]

Those signs are great. Realistic and all.

[kj3400 178]

DCMetro34: Thank you!

Archean: Well, I'm glad I could inspire someone.

Sirron Kcuhc: Thanks.

Time for another update! Today, we focus on Paradise City, again. The accessibility to downtown is frustrating most commuters, so the city's department of Transportation has decided to build two subway lines, as GLR lines would be actually more expensive due to costly demolition and bridge construction.

The two lines, the Blue Line and the Green Line, start at the same location, just west of the Ring Road. It isn't certain if the existing Red Line will connect to the station, or if it will stay as it is above ground.

From there, the two lines will head east to the next station. After City Center North, the two lines will split, the Blue line continuing south, while the Green line heads east. The Blue Line will have another station on the other side of the I-1/10, City Center West, and the Green Line will head under the I-1/10 and stop at Paradise Rail Station with transfers available to the Yellow Line, a GLR line. Here's a pic of the plan.

The station entrance could be at either one of these spots.

The Green Line would continue east with a station east of the central rail station, City Center East.

It would then curve north along Waterfront Blvd. and stop at the AFDES Complex. Finally, it would make way to its and the Yellow Line's terminus at North Ring Road.

The Blue Line meanwhile, would head past the city's convention center with a station of the same name at said point. It would also have a transfer station with the Yellow Line at Central Park South.

It would head east and stop at city hall, then head south to its (for now) terminus.

Here's an overview of both routes.

And as a bonus, I have here a map of the full GLR/elevated/subway transit system, somewhat to scale.

Next time we continue the story.

Cheers!

Fixed the double image post for yah there kj. ~Archey

[Follarch 327]

Great layout for transit development! I assume most of it is Subway? Either that, or there's gonna be some major redevelopment of the city to fit those lines.

Here's to a continuously better city!

[Schulmanator 5,815]

Looks like a sounds plan. And you have a very nice subway map too.

[§haÅ--Ñ€ §hÅŽo 370]

Wow nice

[Blazerhawk 162]

Looks like a good plan. That should be a good subway line.

[kj3400 178]

Archean: The two lines being built are subway.

Schulmanator: Why thank you.

Sirron Kcuhc: Thanks.

crushedcar: Thank you.

Alright, I confess. I just wanteed to show more signs. But I do have an important announcement. I'm sure you've noticed that I've been alternating between story and regional updates. However, the next 3 updates will be solely story updates because it's been going pretty slow and I have to start something that will go beyond this CJ. Where? Well, you'll just have to be here.

Enjoy!

[SounderBruce 173]

Very nice signs, kj!

(Btw, I'm baaack!)

[Schulmanator 5,815]

Great signs

[Dumanios 35]

I just read the whole CJ!

[Follarch 327]

Yay for stories! You've also go great signs, makes it a lot easier to know where to go on your highways.

I'm excited for this announcement to take effect!

[§haÅ--Ñ€ §hÅŽo 370]

What program do you use to make the signs? I want some signs. >.

[kj3400 178]

ComputerGuy890100:  Thank you...

Schulmanator: Thanks

Dumanios: Well I must say I am flattered, and hope you stick around...

Archean: Thank you. Too bad I'm taking so long with the updates....

Sirron Kcuhc:  I use a combo of Inkscape, and GIMP which can be downloaded for free at their respsective websites. Just google them.

I suppose I've been gone for enough time. I know this is completely unacceptable for a CJ that has been dormant for a month, but please bear with me here....

More on this later!

[Follarch 327]

Whoa! I see a coastline region!

Is this part of the Commonwealth? And glad you're back up to speed.

[kj3400 178]

Archean: If I told you it wouldn't be a teaser, now would it?

Now to business. Two months and I'm finally coming up with an update. About time, huh?

First a newspaper to show you the Sun is still alive....

Now Chapter 6 for you!

Chapter 6: The No-Show

Before the light turned red, he went into the intersection, and continued heading toward the coffee shop and Michelle. He was sure whatever Chris Teniga, the head of the Secret Service that protected him, had to say could wait an hour. He would merely tell Michelle that he couldn’t stay and reschedule. Then he would head up to the capital. It sounded logical.

(Note: pics shown are of his trip from west to east)

As he arrived at the coffee shop, he wondered if she would be angry at him. He hoped not. When he walked in and started looking around, he noticed almost no one in the shop recognized him as the president. This was good; he hated attracting crowds everywhere he went. The tactics he had put into place were working, he thought, and almost went reminiscing about the day he started to do something about the magnetic effect he seemed to have with people, but realized this wasn’t the time. It took him ten seconds to realize Michelle wasn’t there. A little crestfallen, he checked his watch and realized it was only 12:50 pm. She was probably one of those people who liked to be on time rather than early…..

1:15pm…..maybe she was caught in traffic, Kenneth thought, nibbling on a donut he had purchased with some orange juice(he hated coffee, so he thought it ironic Michelle wanted to meet in this kind of place), even though that idea was highly unlikely—it was the middle of the day on a Saturday, and even if it was rush hour the region’s traffic rarely if ever backed up significantly outside major cities, or so his Department of Transportation head, Zack Laird, told him in a recent meeting.

                1:30 pm….She must have gotten into an accident, he thought as the cars drove by…..again unlikely, he knew, as without traffic, there could be little chance for an accident.

It was 1:45 pm when Kenneth was forced to acknowledge that Michelle was not coming. He was about to leave when a male barista behind the counter spotted him. He came out and tapped Kenneth, who turned around.

                “Are you the president?” he asked in a low voice.

                “Yes, I am, why?” he asked. While he hated attracting attention, he didn’t mind one or two people recognizing him. It made him proud to know someone had a sharp eye and still knew who he was.

                “A woman by the name of Michelle came by earlier,” he muttered. “Said something about not being able to make it. She said she had to fly to DC, or something, and told me to tell you she was sorry and would reschedule.”

                “Thank you. I really appreciate it.” He gave the man a hundred AFD bill. “Your tip.”

                “This is a bit much, don’t you think? I just passed on a message,” the barista said. The Commonwealth used US dollars and AFDES issued money, called Astras, currency. Everyone knew Astras were worth more than a US dollar, and rumors were going around that the US dollar in the Commonwealth would soon be replaced by it.

                “Just in a good mood,” Kenneth said, and left the coffee shop, as the barista marveled at his good fortune.

                As he drove off to the capital, another person, a female, the only other person who had recognized the president, stepped out of the shop. She looked a bit suspicious, wrapped up a little warmer than the day called for. Pulling out a cell phone, she made a call.

                “Does he suspect?” The person on the other side of the line wasted no time with formal greetings.

                “Not at all,” she replied.

                “Good. We commence step two of the plan.”

                “Understood.” She got in her car and drove off….

Till next time...

Cheers!

[Follarch 327]

Oh my! Now paradise is becoming quite the dramatic, edge-of-your-seat story! Someone wearing "too much" clothing? Uh oh...

And this Michell girl had to go to D.C. of all places? This is getting good.

[Schulmanator 5,815]

Awesome! Glad to see you back with a cool update

[Benedict 3,119]

Great to see your CJ updated.

[kj3400 178]

Archean: Well I try. Thanks.

Schulmanator: Thank you.

Benedict: Thanks.

Update soon. Not sure exactly when. It will definitely come before the end of the month. That is all.

[dfnva 34]

This looks nice with the newer NAM goodies!!

-Dan

[lucky7 73]

Oh, a new twist... well, looking forward to the next update,

lucky7

[psander5 198]

I love your coverage of the transit plans in update 19.  The new subway lines look well planned out.  Nice map too!   

[kj3400 178]

dfnva: Thanks, I'm trying to update the Commonwealth with the bigger networks.

lucky7: Thank you.

psander5: Thank you. I need to do more, I think. Also, welcome back Paul.

Today is my 3 year anniversary on ST....so I figured I needed to do something........andI realized I didn't really need any pictures, so.....here's update 21.

For some reason I couldn't find my capitol pic....Note to self: need stock photo.

Chapter 7: The Expansion

          Back within the capital city limits, Kenneth began to wonder if he would ever get a break. He pushed that thought away, thinking, if I didn’t want the work, I shouldn’t have taken the job. Arriving at the Congress Building, he rushed to his office, where he met a slightly annoyed Chris Teniga.

            “Where have you been Mr. President?”

            “I was caught in traffic?”

            “It’s Sunday, and there are only 300 thousand in this country, you couldn’t have possibly been in a jam. It only takes 20 minutes to get here from your home in the worse of conditions.”

            “Does it really matter where I was? Now what’s the situation?”

            “Well the Capitol in Franklin County was bombed not too long ago. 24 Congressmen were killed. The Executive and other important officials survived however. ”

            “Have we promised them our support?”

            “What little we can muster at this point. After all it’s hard trying to gather troops from a population as small as ours. But that’s not the main reason I called you here, Mr. President. It seems we have a problem of our own.”

            “What do you mean? Shouldn’t someone in my cabinet be telling me this?”

            “Well Ms. Ladehoff ‘s in DC to talk to the US about defense matters, and no one else is really qualified to tell you, so the job fell upon me.”

Kenneth thought about that for a minute. “I see.”

“Anyway, we have discovered what might be the largest deposit of Paradite on this island. Problem is, it’s not within our borders as of yet.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, unofficially the whole island is under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth, but that has yet to be formally established. And if we want to keep our Paradite discovery for ourselves, we need to take that land for the Commonwealth.”

“Sounds like manifest destiny to me. Didn’t we learn our lesson 400 years ago?”

“Yes, but the difference is that this island hasn’t been inhabited for at least 100 years, since World War II. So we’re not hurting anyone.”

“Hmmmm……well, let me think about it.”

“We don’t have much-” Just then the phone rang.

“Wait,” Chris said. “You’re not supposed to get incoming calls on that, are you?”

“No,” Kenneth replied. “In fact the only time I ever have was…” A feeling of dread came over him.

“Pick it up,” Chris urged. “That phone’s monitored now, so we should be able to pinpoint where the call came from.”

Kenneth picked it up, fearing a repeat of November’s events….

“Hello?”

Til next time....

[Schulmanator 5,815]

Happy Anniversary!

[dehyan309 3]

Oh, there's no time skip. These events are a bit lagging behind Franklin's, however that's not a bad thing! There's still so much suspense and drama! The phone which shouldn't ring is ringing, again! At least its monitored. But the last time the phone rang, a disaster happened shortly after...

This is a GOOD story.

[kj3400 178]

Schulmanator: Thanks!

dehyan309 (Archean incognito): I wrote this just after said event, but obviously am just getting to it. I pride myself on not trying to speed the story up, and sticking to what I wrote. Oh, and thanks for the compliment *takes bow*

Now I realized that if this is to be a country, one needs facts about the government and country itself. So, next time I'll post miniupdates about the country itself to flesh it out  and give the Commonwealth some substance (in any case, until I can finsih the next chapter). Until then...

May the light of Aether.....wait, wrong sending off (incidentally does anyone know where that's from?)

Cheers!

[kj3400 178]

An all text update....oh noes!

Don't worry, the next update will be all pics, trust me!

But for now Chapter 8.

Enjoy!

Chapter 8: Happier Days

In a grassy clearing near a lake, there appeared three people enjoying themselves. Two of them, young boys, were playing with toys. The other one, a woman who appeared to be in her 30s, sat admiring the two as they did what little boys do. It appeared they would sit there forever in the warm afternoon, with the sun gently beaming down on them, and the water of the lake lapping at the shore. Suddenly the woman got up. The older of the two boys looked up wondering where she was going. “Mommy?” the boy questioned, as she made her way to the lake. She did not appear to have heard him, and if she did, she did not answer him. At that moment, the sky began to grow cloudy, and storm clouds gathered. The lake water turned a shade of blue not unlike the night sky. As the woman drew ever closer to the water, which was showing signs of a rough ocean during a storm, the boy spoke again. “Mommy, where are you going?” She put one foot in the water. “Are you going swimming?” She put the other foot in. “Mommy, what are you doing?” As she slowly started walked out to the middle of the lake, the boy got up, the younger boy blissfully unaware of the situation. He started to go after her, all the while the woman was sinking deeper and deeper into the lake, the waves becoming higher and higher. “Mommy!” the boy called out in vain as she continued inexorably toward to the middle of the lake. He ran and ran but it seemed he was getting no closer than when he had started. By the time he made it to the lake, she had slipped beneath the water. The boy looked toward the heavens and screamed.

                  President Kenneth Johnson woke up with a start, covered in a cold sweat. He swallowed hard. It happened again, he noted. The nightmare he’d had since he was 11. The nightmare that got worse every night he dreamt it. The one where….she… He rolled over and looked at his clock, which showed the date and time. 2:38 am, Oct 3. He straightened up the covers that had become tangled with his tossing and turning, and tried to go back to sleep. As he drifted off back to sleep one thought lingered in his mind. Happy birthday Mom.

           

                The next morning Kenneth got up and drove to work. As he drove he thought about what happened so many years ago. Is that what happened? But why would I be dreaming that if it didn’t happen? So many questions and not enough answers… Arriving at the underground garage, he got out of his car and greeted the entourage of guards that greeted him. It was a new precaution after what happened that day almost 3 months ago.

“Hello?” Kenneth made the greeting almost afraid the phone would explode in his hands

                        “Mr. President, why so scared? We’re not going to blow anything up…..this time.”

                        “Who are you? What do you want?”

            “Once again, worrying about things that you need not worry about. I assure you, if you had a clue why I was calling or what I wanted, your eyes would probably roll up in the back of your head. I just wanted to tell you that you should go ahead and annex the area to the west.

            “How do you….”

            “I’m not answering that question. There’d be no fun in you knowing…Anyway, just know that if you don’t sign the papers before I call back….well, let’s just say bad things will happen.”

            “I won’t stand for any threats.”

            “Hard to back up that claim when you have no clue who I am, who I might or might not work for, who might or might work for me, or most importantly what I want. But that just makes the game more fun, doesn’t it?

            “I’ll be waiting, Mr. President.”

Just like that he hung up. During the call Chris had snuck out to contact the Federal Agency of Criminal and Terrorist Suppression, or the FACTS as Kenneth called them (under the Department of Justice), who raced to the address, somewhere south of Barton Valley, but to no avail. No one was there when they arrived. So for 3 months he left the papers laying on his desk, the ones that would authorize a recon team to go scout out what was now being termed the Western Province, and to start mining operations on the west side of the Barton mountain range. He did not know what to do, so he put off making the decision. What did these people want, and what did it have to do with annexing the Western Province?

“Mr. President!”

“What Chris?”

“You remembered my name; something must really be going on if you remembered it today.”

“I don’t forget your name that much….do I?”

Chris looked at him as if he had gone mad. “Yes…yes, you do. Anyways, have you come to a decision yet?”

“I don’t know. Why a three month wait? Why the western province?”

“All questions I can’t answer right now, Mr. President. But if you don’t sign those papers the country could be in danger.”

“Why though? Why are we bowing to these lowlifes who don’t even show their faces to us? What happened to ‘all’s fair in love and war’?”

“I thought you would have learned from the US when they tried to fight in Iraq. There are no rules in war. You do what you need to to get your desired results. And that’s what these people are doing. Look, I can’t tell you how to do your job, but if you don’t do this, innocent lives could be at stake here.”

Kenneth sighed. The person said they would call at the same time….With 5 minutes to go, he put his pen to the papers and said, “Prepare the ships.”

 

 

Meanwhile, just outside his office, a woman wandering around heard the statement. She pulled out her cell phone and made a call.

“He’s signed them.”

“Good. Good. Very well.”

She made her way to the exit.

[dehyan309 3]

Wait, the guy who blew up part of a building is now telling him to annex a territory for Paradise? Well, even if its not officially claimed, could be viewed as sudden aggressive expansionism. Not so much aggressive but yeah.

Very nice story, although why no supporting images this time? Problem with your host account?