Welcome to Night Vale 135 - The Mudstone Abyss Part 1
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Oct 1, 2018 A cheerful desert community plans a colossal sacred monument called the Mudstone Abyss. A smiling civic leader rallies townsfolk into construction and persuades dissenters that happiness is mandatory. Newcomers and a contemplative theologist arrive as the town balances spectacle, parades, and oddly organized civic life.
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Desert Bluffs Is A Cult Of Perpetual Sunshine
- Desert Bluffs presents itself as a perpetually cheerful, surveilled town built around a benevolent but consuming sun.
- Kevin R. Free describes the sun as a fixed, watching father and frames civic life (church, services) as devotion to that consuming warmth.
Ryan Walked Out Of Alabama Into The Desert
- Kevin recounts newcomers and displaced residents integrating into Desert Bluffs, illustrating the town's porous, surreal borders.
- He tells Ryan Nichols' story: stepping out of a fraternity house in Alabama and finding the desert with the door gone.
Civic Projects Bend To Local Religious Influence
- Mayor Lauren Mallard initially proposes a public library but quickly shifts to a religious monument after influence from Kevin and his circle.
- Kevin texts alternative ideas and successfully persuades the mayor to replace the library with a monument to the Smiling God.