"Close your eyes. Let my words wash over you. You are safe now. Welcome to Night Vale."
A protest against the removal of the Shape In Grove Park That No One Acknowledges Or Speaks About. Plus, changes to the school curriculum, a growing tarantula problem in town, and musical auditions!
Tropes present in The Shape in Grove Park include:
- Academy of Adventure: Subverted. Night Vale Elementary has replaced live ammo drills with textbook readings and traditional exams.
- Astral Projection: Teachers used to use these to teach, but now they must be physically present in the classroom during class periods.
- Blatant Lies: An angel tells Old Woman Josie that the woman she saw was Rita Hayworth; Hayworth died in 1987.
- Body Horror: Michael Sandero grows a second head, which everyone likes better than the original.
- Bread Milk Eggs Squick: The city council wants to remove the Shape to make way for a new swing set, picnic area, and bloodstone circle.
- Captain Obvious: "Research indicates that people are more likely to buy products when they are available and for sale".
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Astronomy classes in Night Vale now require all students to be blindfolded during stargazing sessions, to prevent them from experiencing this due to seeing the vast expanse of the void of space and contemplating their own insignificance.
- Hypocritical Humor: Cecil devotes a great deal of time to speaking about the Shape In Grove Park That No One Acknowledges Or Speaks About.
- Navel-Gazing: Cecil begins to question whether he might actually be alone in a completely imaginary universe.
- Pluto Is Expendable: In the new curriculum, Pluto has been declared imaginary.
- Red Shirt: Intern Leland, who was vaporized by a mysterious laser.
- Serious Business: Cecil warns anyone auditioning for the community theater's fall show not to sing anything from South Pacific.
- Shaped Like Itself: "That kind of work doesn't bring in a lot of money, unless it does."
- Shown Their Work: An angel identifies the woman at the gas station as Rita Hayworth, despite her being "moderately obese and considerably more Hispanic". Before her rise to fame, Hayworth's name was Margarita Carmen Cansino, and had to undergo a name change and some painful hair and skin treatments to be considered marketable for leading roles.
- The Unfavorite: Michael Sandero's mother likes his new second head better than the original and publicly displays her favoritism with a sign on her front lawn.
"Today’s Proverb: A million dollars isn't cool. You know what’s cool? A basilisk."
