|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- OSOAWEEK--ISSUE 047--6/15/95 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 4  ||  -------> (Cup OWis047, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [[BEGIN047OW]] [[01047CV]] * * * O S O A W E E K 0 4 7 * * * June 15, 1995 "The weekly ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement!" by Frank Edward Nora INSIDE THIS ISSUE! This issue represents a pivotal change in the history of Osoa! Check it out... 01 047 CV--Cover    !!!!!!!! Sheer insanity as usual! Ha ha ha ha! 02 047 IW--Into E-mber Forge of Wander    !!!!!!!! How the E-mber idea is going nowhere 03 047 HR--Hemisinister Review    !!!!!!!! LAS VEGAS: Luxor Hotel & Casino (the pyramid one) 04 047 TS--Trick Sojourn    !!!!!!!! Upwacafuzen! The Four Mailmen! Bad mall dream! 05 047 LA--Lord of Obliviana    !!!!!!!! Two weeks of trials and tribulation and revelation 06 047 SU--Superior    !!!!!!!! "I must be the winds of change, I am on a rampage." 07 047 IS--Into E-mber Severe Repair    !!!!!!!! Examining the next few years of history 08 047 SR--Severe Repair    !!!!!!!! "I Like Snoppy" DON'T YOU WANNA BE INTO OSOA BEFORE IT HITS BIG? INFORMATION: OsoaWeek047, June 15, 1995. Published weekly by Obliviana Super Occult Amusement, obliviana@aol.com, 1-800-OBLIVIANA. All contents copyright 1995 Frank Edward Nora. This release is Predatorware--you are free to make digital copies, so long as they're not altered or sold. All other forms of reproduction require permission. You're Prey unless you get a Predator Deed for this release. Contact us for more on this concept. Character count: 46457 / Line count: 1177 *OW* [[02047IF]] Into E-mber Forge of Wander [:[FOW008]:] FORGE OF WANDER E-mber 008, June 15, 1995 Okay, so what--this whole E-mber idea is going nowhere. I know my energies are better spent putting Obliviana on the World Wide Web. And yes, I also know that I haven't mailed out any E-mber to anyone at all. But come on!--it's still a good idea, no? I sure think so. I think it might go somewhere someday. For now, just read and bethrilled. INFORMATION: Forge of Wander E-mber 008, June 15, 1995. Published weekly by Obliviana Super Occult Amusement, obliviana@aol.com, 1-800-OBLIVIANA. All contents copyright 1995 Frank Edward Nora. This release is Predatorware--you are free to make digital copies, so long as they're not altered or sold. All other forms of reproduction require permission. You're Prey unless you get a Predator Deed for this release. Contact us for more on this concept. You can cancel or subscribe to this E-mber anytime, via E-mail. *OW* [[03047HR]] Hemisinister Review ***LAS VEGAS*** Yes folks, I'm back from three days of fun and amazement at the fastest-growing entertainment spot in America--heck, maybe even the world!--Las Vegas. It's a pretty crazy place--here are some reviews of its various aspects! LUXOR HOTEL & CASINO This is where I stayed. It's a 30-story, shiny black pyramid with a giant sphinx and obelisk in front. Inside is the world's largest atrium, like 29 million cubic feet or something. Inside this remarkable structures are some disappointments, but they're far outweighed by the total coolness of the place. See, there are these three movie-based "rides", which suck. Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid Trilogy I got the making-of video, and it was a whole lot more interesting than the attractions themselves. It's also kind of tragic. The whole thing revolves around Douglas Trumbull, SFX wizard behind CE3K, the obscure "Showscan" technology (which I actually saw in a Showtime Pizza Place or something in D.C. in the early- to mid-'80s--I saw a cool introductory movie to this superfast frame-rate technique--there was this huge close-up of a woman's face, and this guy who looked like he was behind the movie screen, and a coming attraction for a movie called "Big Ball" about a game where players drive dune buggies to get a big ball into a goal. Hey Mr. Trumbull--any way I could get a videotape of that stuff? If you know him please ask for me. Sorry I gave your Luxor stuff such a bad review.), and Universal Studio's "Back to the Future" ride. Here, Circus Circus (Luxor owner) gave Trumbull carte blanche to create the attractions. Unfortunately, it's yet another example of a person with great technical and craftsmanship skills who think they're a better writer than they really are. The first ride, whose name escapes me right now, is one of those damn things where you watch a movie while you sit on a shaking platform. I hate these kind of rides. Anyway, we're introduced to some awfully cliche archaeologists and an ever awfuller cliche villain, who meander aimlessly through a formula plot of uncovering an ancient civilization and finding --get this--a crystal obelisk. Jeez. The next ride is "Luxor Live", and I think it uses the Showscan technology to make it look like you're watching a real talk show. Then you get to see a 3-D movie with graphics painfully similar to the "Mind's Eye" video series. Quite unfortunate. The last part, "The Theater of Time", has a 70 foot high by maybe 30 feet wide screen. In the theater, there a totally stupid bar that comes down on your lap, trapping you in your seat. And nothing happens except the theater rumbles! Anyway, this is the most interesting of the three rides, but it's still pretty dumb. It's a time travel thing, with shifting visions of the future. The cool part is the ultra-detailed miniature sets of the future cities. The uncool part is the story and the acting. It might sound like the whole "Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid" is abysmal, but there's something that saves it--the theming. Each ride is extensively themed in a physical sense--big cliffs, signs, hieroglyphs, logos of evil societies, control rooms, etc. It doesn't save the rides (I wouldn't see them twice), but it keeps them from total disaster. Another ride is the Nile River Tour, where you get on a little "Pirates of the Caribbean" boat and sail the interior perimeter of Luxor. Unfortunately, the ride seems only partially realized. See, there are some cool Egyptian carvings and murals and stuff, but you go through these long, dark tunnels with nothing in them! I was expecting audio-animatronics, man! But this ride illustrates the essential supercoolness of Luxor--how all the stuff is interconnected. Hotel rooms, restaurants, the casino, the boat ride, the attractions--everything--coexists in this huge, multifaceted space. So from any given vantage point on any given level, you can see a multitude of cool views. With 2500 or so rooms, Luxor is the 11th largest hotel in the world. Its casino is vast and the Egyptian theme is well integrated. Below the casino is a showroom and a recreation of King Tut's tomb. They give you a Walkman to listen to when you go in, which I found kind of f*cking stupid. All the artifacts looked brand spanking new--which they were. But good theming means making old things look old. I have to say that overall, Luxor is my favorite Hotel Casino in all of Las Vegas. Oh yeah--I forgot to mention the "inclinators"--elevators that go diagonally up the sides of the pyramid. And the light! Multibillion candlepower--the brightest light on earth, pointing straight up, sometimes visible from Las Angeles and the space shuttle among other places. Luxor is truly amazing--built in only 18 months, too! Kinda shows. Check it out! Yo! MORE ON LAS VEGAS NEXT TIME! *OW* [[04047TS]] Trick Sojourn ***GET READY FOR UPWACAFUZEN!*** Upwacafuzen, The Collectible Trading String Game, will soon be available from Obliviana Super Occult Amusement, or not. Shamelessly derived from the "Magic: The Gathering" craze, Upwacafuzen is a game where each player has an armada of strings with which to do battle. Like all the Magic-derived games, you can get a starter pack with a lot of strings, or you can get a booster pack, with not so many strings. As for how the game is played, here's a little primer, off the top of my head. Basically, the strings are connected with binder clips, so that complex webworks of strings are formed. There are a wide variety of strings, with varying levels of rarity. Since it's hard to write on a string, the powers and properties of the various strings will be listed on a chart. Also, unless I can manufacture my own unique kind of string, it'll be kind of hard to verify the authenticity of an Upwacafuzen string, but I'll try to get my string from semi-obscure sources in the New York Metropolitan Area so that counterfeit string won't be such a problem. Haha! As if counterfeit string could become a problem! Haha! Don't laugh. This game could get big. People laughed at Boeing when it made the 747, but oh ho!--they aren't laughing anymore! Cool! I just got an idea! A bead in the middle of each string will make them a lot more distinctive! It'll also be a lot more work... Oh well, we'll see if Upwacafuzen goes anywhere. I just thought I better put my idea down before someone else thinks of it. I mean, hell--the "collectible" aspect of Magic could apply to just about any game--chess with rare super-pieces, Monopoly with hard-to-find Community Chest and Chance cards, Uno with cool numbers like pi a the square root of 2--you know--stuff like that. But Upwacafuzen could be... I don't know... so EASY to make... And it might be, I dunno, a BREEZE to scam all these game collectors to pay big bucks for a bag full of pieces of string... It could, for lack of a better term, be a totally undeserved PHENOMENON!!! Plus, it's got a great name. I mean, "Upwacafuzen", come on! You ever heard a name as cool as that! Come on, man! Check it out! ***THE FOUR MAILMEN COMETH*** Kenneth, Royal, Lincoln, and Hoax--The Four Mailmen--are comin' atcha! It's the story of four "Generation X" type losers who get into all sorts of pan-dimensional hijinks! Watch future issue of OsoaWeek for scripts. Or maybe--just maybe, by the time you read this, there'll be an Obliviana WWW site! And maybe, just maybe, the address will be http://www.obliviana.com/osoa.html. But don't take that as gospel child! It might not be right! ***DIARY OF A DREAMFRANK*** 7/9/95 Today I went to Atlantic City and tried to play blackjack, but it just wasn't working out. I got my chips (which were all disorganized, all shapes and sizes), but the dealer just kept stalling. Plus, the casino was closing for the night. I got pissed-off--in Las Vegas, the casinos never closed. I complained to the dealer, making unfavorable comparisons between AC and LV. Then my girlfriend came and told me her and my family had been waiting in the car 20 minutes for me already. We went outside and had to walk a seedy alley to get to the car... Then, I was in a big mall, and I had a store there which I ran with my former business partner, Mike. We sold all sorts of cool things, from telescopes to cigars. Anyway, right by our store was this big indoor amusement park, and there was a party going on in it with all these famous people. Well, me and Mike went, but through some misunderstanding, our store was left wide open with no one tending it--and to make matters worse--there were these piles of cash just sitting out in the open, totally unprotected. I think we checked on the store, and I grabbed a cigar and then went back to the party. But again, somehow, through a misunderstanding, the store was left unprotected. I went outside to smoke the cigar, but I got locked out. Then I was hanging around with these like high school kids, and trying to smoke the cigar, but it just wasn't working. I was screwing up--leaving the cap on, lighting the wrong end, whatever. At one point, the cigar went so far as to become a clear plastic tube filled with potpourri! Jeez! Then I panicked and tried to get back inside the mall. It was closing, and our store was still wide open. Eventually, my parents came by, and drove me to this weird alternate entrance. It was like an amusement stairway--and you looked in on scenes inspired by some Japanimation cartoon and stuff. Finally, I was back in the mall, and I got a security guard to help me, and there was this weird tram car system there, but it wasn't going. I got to the store and checked if anything was stolen. I couldn't tell. At first I thought a valuable telescope was missing, but I found it. Then I went awake. ***THE GOINGS-ON OF THREE BOOK THREE ONGOINGS*** Back in the Third Book of OsoaWeek, I embarked on several projects which eventually got sidetracked and indefinitely delayed. These are "Antebellum", "Beublin A. Richardson", and "Severe Repair Almanac". In "Antebellum", I only got 25 out of 118 character descriptions done, in OsoaWeeks 027 thru 031. For the transcriptions of "Beublin A. Richardson", I finished 5 out of 13 episodes, also in issues 027 thru 031. "Severe Repair Almanac" also ran in issues 027 thru 031, and managed to present synopses of Severe Repair chapters 1 thru 10 before stopping. What happened was that issue 32 was really late, and by issue 33, I'd declared "emergency mode" and used various strategies to keep OsoaWeek alive. And unfortunately, the three hard-to-write features above were shunted aside in the interest of ezine preservation. I really want to get back into doing these features, and finish them (except SR Almanac, which can't really be finished, just up-to-date). Only problem is, I'm in kind of an emergency right now. This Fourth Book is in terrible shape, and it'll take basically the sacrifice of Book Five to get things on the straight and narrow again. I believe I detail this plan in Lord of Obliviana, elsewhere in this issue. Anyway, let's just say I hope to pick up these three whenever I conceivably can. Just wanted to give you an update on what's happening with these great features while they're in suspended animation! ***SONG OF THE WEEK*** "Tomorrow" by Silverchair (off the Aussie teens' debut "Frogstomp") [:[END]:] *OW* [[05047LA]] Lord of Obliviana Well, I got last issue out on time--with 3 minutes to spare! Still at +20 days off schedule though. Including this one, I have 6 issues in which to get back on schedule. I guess this boils down to doing one issue every five days or so. Not gonna be easy. It's Wednesday now, by the way. The 28th of June, 1995. I just read that I might come home from Las Vegas to find New Jersey Transit on strike--meaning a nightmare getting to work on the 5th, and for god knows how many days after that. Yeah, judging from my luck these days, the strike'll happen. But then again... I AM going to Las Vegas... maybe my luck is receding now, just as the water of a coastline recedes before a tidal wave. Yeah--maybe I'm gonna have a tidal wave of luck and make out like a bandit! All right! Man, this issue has like almost nothing done. The way I work, I'll have the current issue and a few future issues open, and I'll work in one feature--Severe Repair, say--and do a lot, and let it flow into the future issues. So usually I have a bunch of stuff already done when I set forth on an issue. But this one--uh-uh. It's basically starting from scratch. And I gotta get it done in less than a week! And most of the coming week I'll be in Las Vegas! What the hell am I gonna do? Last issue, Superior 264. I tried to type with my eyes closed. It sucked. I was gonna replace it totally, but then I decided to just edit it. So I wrote "original" after the title, just to copy it to a backup file. But as I rushed to complete the issue, I forgot to take out that word "original". So it's still there. Funny, cuz it's NOT the original that's there, but rather, the revision. But I really like the first three words--"To watote wotaj"--pretty awesome, eh? I'm writing this as Superior 270, but I think I'll move it to Lord of Obliviana. I'm very happy with the Zope I did last issue--COBBLESTONE ZOPE. I did it in kind of a daze this morning, racing to get FOW above 11K so I could get the issue done. But it turned out pretty darn cool, if you ask me. So I've stopped drinking coffee totally, but I'm still feeling weird. I hope it's not any kind of a big health problem. It sucks--at the travel agent, they offered my insurance for $50 that would refund all the money if we couldn't go on the trip for a legitimate health reason. But I didn't get it. So now, if I can't go, I lose like $1000! So I don't wanna call the doctor till after the trip! Pretty messed-up situation, eh? Hopefully it's nothing big. But I don't know. Thursday, 6:47 PM I'll be taking off on the plane to Las Vegas in just 36 hours. Huh. The journey there will take about seven hours--gotta switch planes in St. Louis (it was the best flight they could find on short notice). Yow. Guess I'll be gettin' some shut-eye on the plane. Still, with the time difference and all, we'll get there around 10:30 am local time. Wednesday, July 5, 1995 F*ck. Got on the Amtrak, but there were no seats. So I got off at New Brunswick, and here I am. Guess the 20 minute wait for the next train will make up for the time standing and unable to work. So. I'm back from Las Vegas--it was pretty cool. I went to the doctor, and it doesn't seem like there's anything all that wrong with me. I think it's just a rapid heartbeat caused by stress--and since my vacation, I'm feeling much better. One big disappointment is that this issue will not be less late than the last one--there less than an hour and a half left, and there's no way. So in that way, I will fail to live up to my pledge. Oh well. The bigger concern is getting back on schedule by issue 52. And an even bigger concern is taking Obliviana to the next level. I'm taking a local train into NY--it'll give me more time to write, plus I got a seat. Anyway, yeah--taking Obliviana to the next level is one of my highest priorities right now. By this, I mean expanding it in a CD-ROM/WWW/Interactive/Multimedia direction. Las Vegas was kind of a revelation. There, reality seems to emulate cyberspace. Lots of indoor, controlled, comfortable, 24-hour environments. And the Disney World aspect, growing. But all based on gaming. I don't know. Maybe I should start my review of Las Vegas... Ah, I just don't have it in me. I'll have to try again later. What's wrong with me? I mean, why am I going through this dry spell? Eh... maybe I'm being too tough on myself. I mean, before my trip I was totally stressed-out. Now, I gotta give myself some time to recover. I'm still off caffeine--for maybe a week-and-a-half now. I definitely feel calmer, not so anxious. Maybe I can stride myself better now, I don't know. I have an idea, for a Thermos of Postum. I'll let you know how the idea's coming along. Here's something I wrote last week that I wanted to include in LOA... "New Jersey is like a comfortable bed to me." Later, wayhome. Right now, things don't look so hot for OsoaWeek. Hmmm. I'm beginning to think of a new direction for OsoaWeek in Book Five. The idea is to just have the real amount of work I did that week in OsoaWeek. If I did nothing, then it'll contain nothing. Yeah--but without motivation, what am I really gonna get done? I dunno. It's just... it seems a little crazy to be operating three weeks behind. I know that it really doesn't matter that the issues are coming out late--the creation of intellectual property is what's important. But... I don't know. I think that without solid minimums and deadlines, I'll lose my focus and my stride. So no--saying "whatever you do this week is what goes in" is bad. So I don't know. Is OsoaWeek too much for me? Nah. I just may have to tweak the minimums a little. But it has been hard recently. Too tired, lemme take a break, train's goin' too slow... July 6 Morning My girlfriend starts her new job today, and I start a week-and-a-half with the boss on vacation, which means I have to deal directly with the psychos. Great. Once again I feel lost. What's my problem? Man, is this GenX thing powerful or what? I mean, why are all us 20-somethings so lost? It's interesting. I mean, look at all I've accomplished so far in OsoaWeek. 46 issues done. Well over 500 pages of Severe Repair. Massive amounts of other stuff. With all this material under my belt, why do I still feel so directionless? I think it has something to do with the rapidly changing face of digital entertainment. So many branchings off the path, so many of them headed for dead ends. I look up and see someone reading a newspaper "CD-ROM magazines provide a periodical leap". It's USA Today. It's everywhere. I don't want to hit a dead end. I mean, my job is already a dead end--Macintosh prepress. It'll be GONE in the not-too-distant future. I gotta have something else, something that hopefully isn't a dead end. Back in the very first issue of OsoaWeek, I set out all these complex plans for my world of Obliviana. Yeah, looking back on OsoaWeek001, I see that I set forth a real clear direction there. But I lost sight of it. It's understandable, though--with no one really responding to me, the need to administer the game of Osoa was not stressed. Obliviana as game. That's what it's all about. 7/7/95 morning ANNOUNCEMENT After looking at the state of OsoaWeek, and also the state of myself, Lord of Obliviana, I have decided to make Book Five of OsoaWeek a "loose Book". What this means is that there will be no minimum size per issue (although the 100K maximum is still in effect). As well, individual issues will not be released weekly. Rather, the entire Book will be released once it is finished. The reason for this is because I had to accept the reality that I'm not going to finish Book Four on time at this point. I'd have to average about half an issue per day from now till July 20, in less than two weeks. And at this point, I'm really in no shape, mentally and creatively, to achieve that. With the loose Book Five, as soon as issue 52 is done, I can catch up by doing a bunch of really short issues. Thus, I'll get back on schedule. And then, I'll STAY on schedule, even if each issue only has a few paragraphs. Of course, I will do the Super Stats in issue 53, but other than that... nothing will be required. Not even juggernauts Superior and Severe Repair. I'm not happy about this, but I think it's necessary. Although... one Superior and a short SR each time... I don't know. I'll have to wait and see. So... another reason for the loose Book Five is that in that time I plan to develop my Obliviana WWW site--hopefully to be online by the start of Book Six with OsoaWeek066 on October 27, 1995. Aw crap. Book SIX starts with issue zero-SIX-SIX. That damn 666 again. Okay, so maybe I won't start the Web site on that day. Maybe I'll wait for the next day, like I did for the start of Halfevil Graphics, on June 7, 1986. But beyond this tedious numerological fear, what will Book Six hold? Well, once the Web site is up, I think that a lot of my effort will be going towards it. So OsoaWeek will be a "dump" of all the new material released that week on the WWW site. But there's a snag--at least to start with, the WWW site may very well be through a service provider, and I may not be able to update it on a weekly level. So OsoaWeek would still be the sole source of new material every week. It might look to you like OsoaWeek is falling apart. And indeed, if you look at the size of each issue, there is a big drop in Book Four, and most likely there'll be an even BIGGER drop in Book Five. But remember--the writer's block I've been experiencing lately is only a part of this downward trend--a much bigger part is the time I'm spending developing other things in Obliviana--especially the WWW site. Yeah, I think a year of doing OsoaWeek with little or no response is enough. This ezine is full of truly substantial content, and deserves more promotion than I've given it. With a year done, I think a change in direction is inevitable. 7/10/95 Last night around 12:30 I was asleep and there were these big explosions and flashes of light outside. I got up and looked out, and the sound followed the flash by only a split second, so it must have been nearby. I was too tired and/or scared to go investigate. Then I had a weird waking nightmare kind of thing. So this issue will, I believe, break all records for being late. Right now we're at... +25? Yeah. +26 is the record. So maybe it won't break the record. It's kind of depressing. I remember back in May of '94, when I was doing the last Get All Obliviana Packet, how I felt. It was the time when I realized that the format I was currently using (ie, physical printing, photocopying in my case) was obsolete--electronic publishing being the next horizon. Well that's kind of how I feel now. I know that the World Wide Web is the future, and it feels kind of forced to keep working on OsoaWeek as just a text file. But, of course, the material I'm producing can very easily be incorporated into my Web site. So what's the problem? I think it's something of a split between the technical and the creative. I'm starting to gear my mind toward the construction of the WWW site--and this technical state of mind often obscures the creative mind. Maybe something like that. But I am closer to realizing the Obliviana WWW site. I found a local Internet service provider which will mount a Web site for a basic fee of $20/month. That's quite affordable. I'm thinking of speeding up my WWW schedule to try and get my site up and running by Obliviana Day 1995, July 28. That's in 18 days. I think I can do it, depending on how often I'm able to update the site, and by what means I do that. 7/11/95 Huh. Wonder if there's a special sale or something at 7-11 today. Kinda sucks there aren't any around me any more--not in Plainsboro, not in Manhattan. So we're at +26 again, folks. That ties issue 40 as the latest issue ever. But I think this is as far as it goes--this issue gets done today! Um, I have basically the trainride back to do 9K of Severe Repair. I don't know man. I'm having a hard time with SR these days. But I have this cool theory. Like, if you've been reading SR, you know that several characters got themselves stuck in a massively unknowable realm called Gnoboslast. Well, it seems that as soon as my characters entered the lugubrious limbo of Gnoboslast, I myself started to feel its effects in terms of my writing. Weird, eh? Eh, may as well take a stab at it. I might just succeed. Nope. Didn't make it. This paragraph is being inserted in what I hoped was the completed Lord of Obliviana for this issue. But no luck. +27 and rising. I HOPE I can get it done today, but who knows. Three more days and I'll hit the month mark. I don't wanna be there. Let's hope there's not another paragraph below this one, except for the "Get all Obliviana" line. Get all Obliviana. *OW* [[06047SU]] Superior SUPERIOR 265 Yet the yunnow trails in woods ignite my passion, and the girls of Wevjoare, and the artworking of mica. Freetend of jonap was, and I cornersay the dawjank. What's the formula. Cannopt say. Doors of think, said in humid afternoon, was screaming. The jonap connection? SUPERIOR 266 We've a fine tastle in Maharen. Guzu trips and we're highblame. Damsel am swink--of diddor smalket. To say a way is to surge, and it's my way. Not about the blue carpet I think. Going away, are you really going away? We got a lot. Prepare. Fine tastle, she is of the enemy, but it'll be hard to think so. I would say at city night, trust the guide I send. SUPERIOR 267 Form, we look at it and say. From a supernatural point of view, might looks be more than skin deep? Might the beautiful be better? Hard theory to defend, look at the facts. Often the comely are stupid idiots. Nothing good about being a moron. But I think, look at the great people, and they might not be gorgeous, but they have a certain nobility, and certain charm. I don't know. So much of our lives are devoted to looking at other people. But, I guess, what else is there? A lot. Maybe we obsess on people to avoid facing what's really out there. SUPERIOR 268 I was in a record store yesterday, and it brought back flashes of, I don't know, a bright time in the early '80s. Punk and youth and an alternative way, so innocent then compared of today. I guess it's young people free, no permanent jobs or relationships, the dawn of the home computer, a rich musical near-past to rebel against, all that. Erin was in that scene I think. She liked Adam Ant and Killing Joke and Art of Noise and Lene Lovich and stuff. I look back--I was nowhere near there. Now I'd like to time travel back and be there. Just think. I can't put the feeling I'm getting into words. But I guess I'm trying. SUPERIOR 269 I could go to the Princeton Market Fair mall on the way home, but why? I'd go to the Barnes & Noble Superstore, browse the magazines and CD-ROMs. Go to Collector's World, browse the Magic cards and comic books. Go to Software, Etc. for CD-ROMs and magazines and Magic cards. I don't play Magic but I'm still interested in it. Why go there? Kerri is waiting for me. No reason to go. I know I could fabricate one, but why. I'm just shopping for a little infostimualtional thrill, to mask out my deeper concerns. But not totally--the info I glean from all the stuff I absorb is certainly worthwhile, and helps make me who I am. You gotta see what's out there if you wanna compete. SUPERIOR 270 Off coffee. The darap of snow enscuils you, I am atennery. Forslonk in daycastling, of the construction of Umbefab. I am seeing this world of today--much more than meets the eye--we fool ourselves into ignoring the wonder. This is in lieu of capacity, and I wonder. I must be the winds of change, I am on a rampage. SUPERIOR 271 I think the American Indian languages are bursting with flavor, infostimulationally. Hah, a new youth craze, learning to speak a Native American tongue, I can see it. I saw a font once called Cherokee Caslon--I read about the invention of a written form of Cherokee in the 1800s. I'm talking about words, names. A treasure trove there for the plunder. Maybe I'll undetake that venture soon, there's always the library. SUPERIOR 272 Just. We commomber telepathy and I am on the stage. It is sensual and stim, but like a maze I am fortifying myself in lostness. Growing. We have to have the fullness of afternoon wanderings, cannot miss that so much. I am wearing a Green Lantern T-shirt and I am on the Northeast Corridor. I wonder about doing poetry readings, I guess for the girls. *OW* [[07047IS]] Into E-mber Severe Repair [:[SVR008]:] SEVERE REPAIR E-MBER 008 by Frank Edward Nora What's goin' on there man. Uh-huh. So this is number eight. Great. I used to go on adventures, now occasionally. Big thunderstorm last night, pretty cool. 1996, coming soon. Summer Olympics in Atlanta and a Republican President Elect. Then 1997, Hong Kong is returned to China. Gotta be some major world trouble in '97. Then 1998, the year that's equal to 666 x 3. 1999. Huh. 666 upside-down. No wonder folks mistakenly believe the world is gonna end around '99. But it won't--we'll get to 2000. God damn--imagine all the hoopla--DAWN OF THE THIRD MILLENNIUM. It doesn't really begin till 2001, but that's just a technicality. New Year's Eve 1999 will be the crux of all the hype. What do you call that decade? The zeros? Huh. Anyway, enjoy the story. INFORMATION: Severe Repair E-mber 008, June 15, 1995. Published weekly by Obliviana Super Occult Amusement, obliviana@aol.com, 1-800-OBLIVIANA. All contents copyright 1995 Frank Edward Nora. This release is Predatorware--you are free to make digital copies, so long as they're not altered or sold. All other forms of reproduction require permission. You're Prey unless you get a Predator Deed for this release. Contact us for more on this concept. You can cancel or subscribe to this E-mber anytime, via E-mail. *OW* [[08047SR]] Severe Repair SEVERE REPAIR 47: "I Like Snoppy" Forget about the trip to Orange Universe, it took forever, cuz now Courier Arbhay, Lemon, Granticaine Chug Perion, and Zoipin Jurple Jupter all stood on a platform, slowly taking in the majesty of the place. Orange plastic pipes, shiny, is what it was all made of. And in the background, a dark blue-gray color. Fifty cyan, fifty black, you might call it. As the four stood and waited, they spied a little monkey scrambling toward them at great speed. Soon they heard his excited screeching. He continued barreling toward them along a rail, and when he was almost upon them, he stopped abruptly and instantly held up a sign attached to a stick, reading "I'M FOXXO". "Looks like we have our first contact." Granticaine said. "I don't think that's the one we were talking to, though." Zoipin said. "Hello there!" Lemon said, approaching the monkey. "So your name is Foxxo?" The monkey looked at Lemon and made a few monkey smiles. Then he put the sign behind his back, and with his other hand, produced another sign, also from behind his back, this one reading. "THAT'S ME! HOW ABOUT YOU?" Lemon furrowed her brow in puzzlement. "My name is Lemon. How do you do that with the signs?" Again, Foxxo put the one sign away and produced another one with his other hand. It read "DO WHAT?" "Hm!" Lemon uttered. "Uh, Foxxo..." Granticaine said, getting the monkey's attention. "My name is Granticaine Chug Perion. I had a brief conversation with someone called America. Do you know of this person?" The monkey produced another sign: "SURE! BOLT CUTTER AMERICA! SHE'S TOPS!" "Could you take us to her?" Zoipin asked. "NO PROBLEM." Foxxo displayed. Then he put the sign away and started scampering back the way he came, looking back frequently to see if the others were following, which they were. "This is some place." Arbhay said to Lemon as he looked around, marveling. "It sure is. Kind of reminds me of the fourteenth veil of Hell." Arbhay gave her an inquisitive/humorous look and Lemon laughed. And indeed, it was a remarkable sight. Like some sort of hallunatory plumber's nightmare. From where they were, they could see a vast city of pipes below them, with plains, walkways, stairways, buildings, ladders, statues of sea lions and drafting tools--even an enormous crater in the distance. "I like this place much better than Butterscotch Hold." Lemon said. "Yeah, me too. It's also better than that damn Whissing Hoard of Tense Situations at our Enter-Gnoboslast!" "That's an understatement." the devil girl replied. They followed Foxxo along the walkway for a ways, then up a huge flight of stairs. At the top, they saw someone. She wore a red, white, and blue outfit--white stars on blue fields, juxtaposing areas of red and white stripes. It was a flowing, loose-fitting costume. On her head was a top hat with the same color scheme, and in her left hand she held a large bolt cutter, also red, white, and blue. "Ho Foxxo, I see our mystery callers have arrived." the woman said. The monkey held up a sign, but since the four were behind him, they couldn't read it. The woman smiled. She had long, full-bodied blond hair, and a sturdy build. She looked like she'd be a good wife, a good mother, a good lover. "Hello!" Granticaine hailed, striding up the stairs with ease. "Are you the one--" He paused as he almost tripped over an oddly-shaped step on the staircase, but he managed to quickly get his poise back. "--the one we spoke to?" "Yes." the woman said. "America?" Granticaine asked, as he finished the stairs and approached her. "That's me." the woman said. "Bolt Cutter America to be formal." She motioned toward the bolt cutter she held with a kind of embarrassed smile. Granticaine liked her. The first sexual feelings of any kind he'd had so far in his long stay in Gnoboslast. The two met eyes and stared at each other for longer than would normally be appropriate. Granticaine felt he was sharing some kind of subtle telepathic communication with her. Then he started to get some kind of vision--inside an abandoned factory--still, sunny day. There was an expectation, an excitement. But he caught the others approaching him out of the corner of his eye and lost contact with whatever it was. "We got somewhere in Gnoboslast." Zoipin said sarcastically. "Isn't that a rare treat." America smiled. "3." she said. "What's that?" Zoipin said wearily. "3. 3 times I remember people going somewhere in Gnoboslast. Me and my friends getting here. My lover Snoppy leaving here. And you guys coming here." "Your lover?" Granticaine asked, scratching a nasty itch on the back of his neck. "Yes. He came here with us, but he insisted on exploring. He disappeared, ages ago. But I guess that was the way it had to be. He couldn't wait for Orange Universe to turn." "Turn?" Zoipin asked. "Yes." America said, as Foxxo climbed up her and sat on her shoulder, no sign in sight. "There's a cycle to Orange Universe. May be opportunities to get back to existence later. That was what we were all waiting for. I was..." She looked down. "What is it?" Granticaine said, wanting to put his hand on her shoulder, but not being able to because there was a monkey there. She again locked eyes with Granticaine. "I was just... curious if you might have encountered Snoppy or someone similar out there..." "We encountered no one except our friends here." Granticaine said with a steely expression. "Except at Whissing." Zoipin said. "There appeared to be others there." "I don't know." Lemon chimed in. "Were they people are were they just part of the situation environment?" "It's hard to say." Zoipin said. "Don't bother yourselves over it." America said. "He would have gotten SOMEWHERE with a phone center by now. He must have just gotten lost." "How long ago was this?" Arbhay asked. "Huh? Oh, I don't know. Years. Decades. Months? I have no sense of time here. When I sleep, I never know for how long. I do miss him though. I hope he'll return, but I fear we may have to leave this place before he does, losing him forever." Foxxo whipped up a sign: "I LIKE SNOPPY." America craned her neck to read it, and laughed a little when she did. She appeared close to tears, but she never quite got there. "I feel like I should really want to get out of this place." she said. "And it bothers me that I just don't care." Then they all heard a small voice from a distance. "Maybe we were never meant to be here." the voice said. They all turned and saw a little girl in the distance, dressed all in red and silver. America smiled. "Hi Baroness! Look who finally arrived! The mystery call people!" "I see!" the little girl yelled back, as she began to approach. "That's Baroness of the Stretchy Afternoon. With her, you've met three out of the four of us. Hayfriend is awfully shy--you have to give him time." Baroness walked up to the group and smiled. "Hello all of you." she said in kind of a strange way. The four greeted her. "Shall we have introductions?" Baroness said. "Uh... okay." Granticaine said. "I'm Granticaine Chug Perion. And uh..." He motion to Zoipin. "I'm Zoipin." he said. "Jurple Jupter, too." "I'm Lemon. Pleased to meet you." Lemon then motioned to Arbhay. "Uh... I'm Courier Arbhay, until recently of Deer Express." Baroness smiled. "I am Baroness of the Stretchy Afternoon. Five times honored. I am pleased to make your acquaintance." The others mumbled the likes of "yeah, us too". America clapped her hands. "Shall we head for Gampling Retreat? It contains non-pipe amenities, the only such as I know of. There you can meet Hayfriend also--if he can find the courage to show himself! He's been fretting so since your call. You must be gentle with him--he's petrified of people." "He says Gnoboslast is the perfect place for him." Baroness said with a smile. "No people, except for two very gentle, very familiar ladies." Foxxo screeched excitedly. Baroness laughed. "And ONE onerous monkey who make's the poor bear's life miserable." Foxxo screeched again and held up a sign: "I PREFER 'STIMULATING"" America and Baroness laughed, and the other four did too, a little. "Well, to Gampling." America said with a great deal of enthusiasm--something quite rare in Gnoboslast. They all followed her. * * * Walt was having a nightmare about terrible things. Monsters that rip you apart and eat you. Houses where you get lost and never find your way out. The pain of the masses of the dead. The process of regaining consciousness was slow. He was aware mostly of numbness. Then of height--he was way up in the air. His arms--above his head and bearing his weight. Below--hundreds of feet to the ground. One sneaker on and one foot bare and bloody. His belt undone, pants unbuttoned, zipper halfway down, pants starting to fall off. He couldn't believe it, and the jolt of adrenaline is waking up shot through him wracked him with pain. He couldn't believe it--he was hanging from a brick smokestack. A really, really tall brick smokestack. He looked up to see if there was any smoke coming of it the stack, but he couldn't really do it. He wanted to know, cuz he was concerned that if this was one of the abandoned factories of the area, there might not be anyone around to see him. What happened--THE MILDRED CORK!--he had tossed it into the ocean at Mav Saptax. Then... he was attacked by something... a massive dark shape... like a grim porter from mythology... with those burning light blue eyes... It had beaten the sh*t out of him. Now he felt lost. Crying as best he could, Walt faced the gaping void of air in front of him as if it were the first hill of a roller coaster, right after a long, slow, clickety-clack rise to the top. He didn't feel like himself--he felt like he was somewhere else, looking down at a miserable, wounded human being shackled to a smokestack. What was it that happened the other day? Everything went haywire. Walt thought it was him going crazy, so many little things turned blatantly different, everything feeling so... alien. He thought about this for a little while, and then realized it was helping him keep his mind off the pain. But of course, as soon as he realized this, the soothing effect was erased. He spent several minutes in extreme discomfort, trying fruitlessly to determine just what sort of bonds were holding him up. He couldn't really feel his wrists or upper arms--it felt like his arms were inanimate straps of leather holding him up. Also, the situation being as it was, he wasn't too keen on the idea of breaking free, being that he'd plummet to his death. After a little while more, Walt lost consciousness for an indeterminate period of time. Then he thought he woke up, and he couldn't tell if it was a dream or a hallucination, but he saw something really cool. It was on the horizon--a Devil and a God--each of them miles tall. The devil horned and red like you might think, the God white robed and bearded like you might think. The two were fairly near each other, limbering up and preparing, Walt knew, for their fight that would settle things once and for all, but also destroy the world in the process. And they were so sure. So confident. Taking their positions. But then, this hot girl dressed in denim bursts out of the sky like lightning, landing between the two, and ruining the plan of the primal forces. The Devil and the God looked at the landscape around them in horror--knowing what will happen if they can't destroy it. But as the bizarre future starts to take shape, the hot girl just keeps laughing her head off, and eventually, the God and the Devil shuffle off their separate ways, dejected. And the landscape kept turning weirder and weirder... Then Walt recovered his senses with a start. Damn. Still hanging from a smokestack and in excruciating pain. Why couldn't that have been part of the hallucination, too? Mildred. Would she come and save him? Was it... was it the next day, or the day after? If it was the day after, then Mildred should be fully-formed--should have the night before, at dusk... No. It was the next day. He hadn't been out for 36 hours, it felt more like 12. So Mildred wouldn't be born for another 12 hours or so. Walt closed his eyes. Okay. It wouldn't be so bad. Just think of having a Mildred--it's worth a day of torture. It'd be worth more than a day of torture--a lot more. So he'd wait. He'd wait for Mildred to come and save him. Hopefully, before whatever put him here came back. So Walt felt a little sense of relief that he'd put his near-future in order. It was a feeling that lasted about forty seconds. Cuz whatever it was that was holding him was failing. He moved down--just a little at first, but then more and more. Until... He broke free of his bonds and started his fatal fall to the ground below. [:[END]:] *OW* [[END047OW]] -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----