The Parade Float Procession
The eleventh floor's structure, delivered by Chaco after the AI voluntold him into the job of Grand Master, and openly not understood by the man reading it out. Ninety minutes to build a float procession of any length and any number of floats, using anything in the garage, inventory or safe room; garages are merged so the twenty-three survivors form five groups, each handed one theme from Resolution, Decision, Betrayal, Destruction and Vengeance. The route runs three kilometres flanked by spectators who are barred from attacking, there is a narrative element, and any performance is meant to land at the judging stands near the end. The procession then empties into an arena the announcement says represents the crawl itself, restocked with the monsters the crawlers killed on the tenth floor or their stand-ins, plus a floor boss; killing the boss opens the stairwell. The System closes by instructing them to make it pretty, because this is a celebration. Chaco's microphone stays live long enough for the audience to hear him work out that he is going to die.
Book 8 appearances
- Chapter 88 — Chaco reads out the rules, the garages flash together, and Carl's group is assigned procession five with the theme Vengeance. Elle draws Betrayal in spot three, Florin Resolution in spot one, and the five themes turn out to be Resolution, Decision, Betrayal, Destruction and Vengeance.
- Chapter 89 — The mandatory-viewing countdown resolves into the route itself: a long straight yellow-brick street running through endless grass, with seventy-five minutes left on the clock.
- Chapter 90 — What the five groups actually built: Florin barely trying at Resolution, a literal giant menu for Decision, Elle and Imani's reworked Betrayal float after the warlord heads were reassigned to Carl's, an Abrams tank and a Fleetwood motorhome arriving weapons-out for Destruction, and Carl's flower-covered Vengeance procession of five vehicles and three mounts.
- Chapter 92 — Every team is called forward by number, presents on cue and is critiqued in real time — the Resolution float scores a C and its crew's legs are broken, the menu float is judged stupid but good, the television float is the AI's favourite, and the Destruction float is told to make it loud.
Related entries
- Chaco the Bard (Character)
- Carl (Character)
- Princess Donut (Character)
- Prepotente (Character)
- A Parade of Horribles (Floor 11) (Place)
- The System AI (Character)
Browse
- All System Notifications
- Everything debuting in Book 8, Chapter 88
- All of A Parade of Horribles