Flutish

However, I actually think that personifications of American cities is much more interesting, especially if you combine it with some of the other ideas I've had where founding a town requires a blood-soaked pact with forces beyond your ken. I love the idea that Chicago might have existed, but wasn't a city until 1893 when they finally forced found a woman willing to wear a burning crown. Or that in 1846, Solomon Juneau carefully negotiated the sacrifice of the Juneautown, Kilbourntown, and Walker's Point goddesses, and by spilling their blood on the Milwaukee bridge he created a Milwaukee goddess---though she woke up the next morning and went to work at a bottling plant, same as always. New York already had its Knickerbocker (not Herman Knickerbocker, but one of his sons) and Pennsylvania had William Penn (not related to Penn at all, just a member of the congregation who looked right) but after a few decades of not aging, not growing, the personifications might tentatively reach out to one another, ask, are you a thing like me? Did you know? Have you guessed?

In this sideways world, there are plenty of towns that have never contemplated sacrifice, and would never. I mean, sure, Cincinnati has had a goddess for a couple hundred years (she worked in a pork processing plant, now she's a VP for Procter & Gamble) but it's a waste of resources to sacrifice someone for Kenton County, Kentucky. How far does your ritual sacrifice extend? If you slaughter someone in Minneapolis, can you grandfather in St. Paul? And how do you replace him or her, when your city has moved beyond that---Birmingham, Alabama, has moved beyond steel, such that their Vulcan should be wearing a suit; even Chicago is a little bit embarrassed by the stocky HR manager who represents us; other Midwestern cities have fumed since the start, etc.

But I think part of the reason that I didn't like The City We Became as much is because I once read a similar-style short story in Hebrew, about the different personalities of the cities. And there were some absolutely lovely touches going into the unique cultures of different cities, and I particularly remember the way Jerusalem's personification very much reflects "I've seen it all, kid", in having that ancient wisdom (versus younger, more recent cities).

“He shook hands with Margaret. He knew it was the first time their hands had met, though she was perfectly unconscious of the fact.”

Something seems to be troubling you, Mary

Mary's style evolving and becoming brighter as she evolves while living in London! THE OTHER BENNET SISTER (2026)

I cannot offer you great wealth or Italy but I can offer you my love, and my devotion, and my hope to build a family one day.