This state-sanctioned, ceremonial dildo was held aloft in public by those who wished to indicate an availability for penetrative intercourse. Such dildos were often hollowed out and used to smuggle items and convey information by political rebels.

Nine years into the embargo, the children in Rilao’s District of Gray Eels are desperate to escape. They have begun attempting to leave the island, swimming towards an imagined other world, a longed-for brighter future. The only thing these children take on this journey are Rilao’s beloved and much-needed ceremonial dildos, called Vuls. The Vuls have Rilaoan secret information smuggled inside their fish bodies, which the children hope to use to barter, with whomever they meet at sea, for access to the above-described better life.

Needless to say, this situation makes the adults of Rilao irate. Not at the prospect of children leaving or potentially drowning at sea (the plague makes clear the perks of pre-emptive population control), but at the prospect of the disappearance of their Vuls. Without the Vuls, sex lives, and sexual pleasure, are in peril. To save sex they must save the Vuls. The punishment for children who attempt to leave Rilao with a Vul is jail.

To encourage parents to keep their children under control, and to save the Vuls, a coalition of concerned citizens tack up these posters all over the district.