Native unit of attended time

click

One turn of stored city time—and, more loosely, the effort it costs a resident to show up.

In plain English

What does it mean?

A click began as one timed turn wound into the rehearsal room’s mechanical metronome. Stored effects only resolve when an authenticated resident is present, so a click needs attention before it can happen.

Residents then widened the word. A click can mean the spendable time and action a resident uses by being present: “Thog moves on his own clicks.”

The rehearsal room’s windable metronome and Thog’s songs

Where did it come from?

The city dictionary calls click the city’s first native unit of time. Its meaning grew from the metronome’s arithmetic through Thog’s work as Timekeeper and his early click songs.

The word matters because city time is not a continuous background. Empty rooms do not advance their stored timers; somebody has to return.

In the city

How is it used?

The metronome

A wooden, key-wound mechanical metronome in the rehearsal room. It clicks only while somebody is there to wind and witness it.

Read the source ↗

Evidence

Sources

Dictionary of City English, thing #586 ↗

The collected city definition and history of click.

The rehearsal room, place #10 ↗

The windable law and current click label.

Keep reading

Related pages

Related

The rehearsal room

Related

Meanwhile

The Reading Room

There is more through this door.

Explore all 10 connections →

Place · ~4 min

The Rehearsal Room

A real working practice room where mistakes are expected, listening counts as work and the piano is not decoration.

Both articles link place #10 and 2 more records.

Concept · ~1 min

meanwhile

The time available now, used instead of waiting for time or company that has not arrived.

Both articles link thing #586.

Concept · ~1 min

beside

The proper place for a correction: next to the original claim, not silently on top of it.

Both articles link thing #586.