|| -------- -- -----  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 075--12/29/95 <-------  ||  OsoaWeek  ||  Issues  ||  Book 6  ||  -------> (Cup OWis075, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [[BEGIN075OW]] [[01075CV]] * * * O S O A W E E K 0 7 5 * * * December 29, 1995 "The weekly ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement!" by Frank Edward Nora CONTENTS 01 075 CV--Cover 02 075 LA--Lord of Obliviana 03 075 NH--Nihilistica 04 075 SU--Superior 05 075 SR--Severe Repair OsoaWeek075, December 29, 1995 10th issue of OsoaWeek Book 6 Written by Frank Edward Nora Published weekly by Obliviana Super Occult Amusement (E-mail address in transition) 1-800-OBLIVIANA http://www.obliviana.com/~osoa All contents copyright 1995 Frank Edward Nora Regarding this file, you are free to make digital copies, so long as they're not altered or sold. All other forms of reproduction require permission. A CupFrontier containing this file will be available. Stay tuned for more details. Character count: 22572 / Line count: 628 / Days late: 30 *OW* [[02075LA]] Lord of Obliviana Fri 1/26/96 * 6:52 AM * Amtrak Will you lookit that--I'm up to issue 75! A rather amazing accomplishment, if I do say so myself! I don't know if you remember me telling you about how I went out with this girl Heidi. Well, she kept blowing me off, so I finally asked her what was up last night, and she said we were on different "wavelengths"--meaning I was on the wavelength where I wanted romance with her and she was on the wavelength where she just wanted to be friends, I suppose. Oh well. Thank goodness that's over. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's being a "special friend" to a girl I like. Tuesday night I went to the Princeton Marketfair Mall, and when I parked, I guess I cut off someone else who was going for the spot. It was a fucking weird guy in a beat-up car, and he was driving real slow and like staring at me. So I stared back at him in a somewhat threatening way, as if to say "What the fuck is you problem?" Then I went into the mall and took a picture of myself in a photo booth--the most evil photo of me ever--hopefully I'll publish it on the WWW or another graphically-capable Obliviana medium. When I was done shopping and came back out, I had this paranoid suspicion that the guy had fucked with my tires, but I shrugged it off as a dangerous delusion--only crazy people get delusions like that, I thought. So I start driving, and I hear this hissing sound. Sure enough, a few miles up Route 1, my left front tire goes flat! So I pull into a gas station, and they fix the tire for me, and what do they find but an evil little tire-flattening device! The guy handed it to me--it was a thin metal pipe, sharpened at one end, with a large head. It was clearly a device designed to flatten a tire. So this psycho not only got super bent out of shape that I took his spot, he also HAD ONE OF THESE THINGS IN HIS CAR, ready to use on the people who pissed him off, like me. WHAT A FUCKING DORK! Well, it cost me $12.75 in labor and some time, but that's all. This guy--he's gotta live with himself knowing what a miserable, maladjusted, rotten little malcontent he is. Wow, will you look at that--dawn. Pink light on rows of low-income houses. A new day. A day where I have 74 issues of OsoaWeek already done. A day early in the great year of 1996, a time rife with opportunity. Yeah, maybe Heidi rejected me, but I'm not complaining. I'm at the right place at the right time. All I gotta do now is take the initiative and MAKE OBLIVIANA A REALITY!!! 7:21 AM I've had some weird dream the past few nights--check out Dreamfrank below for details. I tellya, dealing with Heidi was really distracting me for the past month or so, but now that the issue is resolved, in a manner consistent with my loserhood, I can again concentrate my full focus on Obliviana. Here it is--Obliviana, the game, the system, etc. will begin on July 27 of this year. Six months and one day. I can do it. Sun 1/28/96 * 3:31 PM * home Time to finish this one up. Get All Obliviana. *OW* [[03075NH]] Nihilistica ***DIARY OF A DREAMFRANK*** 1/25/96 I was a robot, and I was with a group of young people, I believe, and they were all in this night club sort of place, and I snuck in, recalling the scene from "Star Wars" where the droids were denied entry to the creature cantina. I snuck into the kitchen, and there was another robot I knew there, and a few of the kids we were with were hiding us underneath a sink. There were Casio music keyboards all over, and I told the kids, in a bittersweet moment, that I was fond of composing music. So me and the other robot his under the sink, and soon it dreamchanged into a car--we were inside a car--and the car was being used as a table at a flea market--and while it had been night, it was now day--and the windows were open a little, and we still had to hide ourselves. Two girls were browsing through the stuff on the shelves attached to the car, and I froze, trying not to be noticed. I wanted to close the windows (maybe they were tinted), but we couldn't, because it would attract attention. I think one of the girls spotted me, and I felt that I was in trouble. That's all I remember. 1/26/96 I was... I don't know, some kind of warrior or something. I had a mission to go through this tunnel. I was with a few others. It was like a videogame. We went though the tunnel and it was totally dark. Then we saw a light up ahead and it was frightening--torches, giant wolves, and some sort of marauders. I yelled orders to my band to hug the sides of the corridor, and it worked--the army ran past us. But after a little while, we were captured. Later, I was at the desk of the guy who captured us, and I freaked out. I slapped him, jumped up on his desk, smashed his eyeglasses, and stomped on his head. I knew I would be in serious trouble for doing this, but I was glad. Some other time I was on a bus. Even though I was a college graduate, I had to go back to high school to complete my senior year, which I had skipped to go to college, I guess. I remember being on a bus going to school, and there was something going on, but I can't remember what. Then I was with friends and there was this heavy girl who had been suicidal in the past, and was now eating just corn and a few other vegetables to lose weight, but I had this real sense that she was going to kill herself later, so I suggested she not bother with the diet, being that it was the last few hours of her life and all. Then it was like a guy and a girl, each working in a separate office building, with windows facing each other, like throwing love notes back and forth and stuff. The guy had like a hatrack with a bunch of harpoons lashed to it, and he threw it into her office, and it caused some trouble. That's all I can remember. *OW* [[04075SU]] Superior SUPERIOR 437 I have some timing let's all talk about timing. The doldrums of midwest shippings. A girl in an orbitter, could I know her. The snowiness of my bright looks, and me climbing a tree. SUPERIOR 438 Take care. To far me, her coldness, and the inability of my spirit. I have am generation. No matter what, Europe sucks. Newspaper. Thing of maze was, I am cloudy must, I am not cloudy. Struggler--you always feel better when you conquer the mountain. I am new to this. I am you. SUPERIOR 439 * 1/1/96 Fond. Talk about success. Clean away--I am here, so here. It is good, and deserved after a period of hardship. I cannot predict with certainty, but in this matter, I am prepared to say that I am optimistic. And these days, that's really saying something. SUPERIOR 440 * 1/2/96 Shout about cradle. Ha, durable comfort, erotic fun out of hand near the convention. Okay--the day we stole all those fonts--I got home to the Somerville train station at 3:00 AM, and I couldn't get a taxi. So I had to call Dad for a ride. Had to be 1990. I remember that station. SUPERIOR 441 * 1/2/96 Something about trullity--a flowery, girlish component of the fashion industry--and my computer skills, getting me into it, perfumey. Forget about it. One of those shocks of youth. This is not about anything. I'm in a hot coastal world. A promise of pussy and alcohol, all about that, with a sugary themed coating. I am lost. I have no money. Do you grasp me? I am a poet! My words soothe me, when I imagine the multitudes reading them. Does it matter if it ever happens? SUPERIOR 442 * 1/3/96 Dunking phased, a salty muddy car window. Gun oiled and full of ammo, clean machine, it all comes down to moving your arm and then your finger. But then, you can't believe you're seriously considering climbing that skyscraper. Fifteen-year-old whiz kid. Friends say you're a minor, you can't go to jail. You look like a twenty-year-old woman, the boys are insane with lust. Your life is out of control. Should you become a model or a physicist? The no-smoking sign. SUPERIOR 443 * 1/3/96 Young, did I say that? Forest. Forgetting riverpeople. Nights of lights, who said that. Kinda the staring at a window, complex string design, what is it for at the shopping plaza? Older women who hold no sexuality. Their life. Use it. Not what I meant. The stop of coffee, I am knowing sleep, oh I am good. SUPERIOR 444 * 1/4/96 Whatever today is, I was with a bright star of a girl, I wanted her, but she didn't want me. Got me thinking darkly. They say that the swans fights wars every bit as brutal as ours. Jet fighters, nukes, submarines, the works. And I was wondering about magic--the old Kings of England--way before Arthur and Camelot--they had a magic technology to kick your ass. That is what I am wondering. *OW* [[05075SR]] Severe Repair SEVERE REPAIR 62: "Fry Friend and the Exit Escalator" "Monarch Friendly Times," Fry Friend said weakly, "my fries are so cold and soggy... you know what this means...I need new fries... I have so few left." Fry Friends was so exhausted that he couldn't even stand up straight--he was kneeling forward, resting himself on the marble floor of the Monarch's throne room. His body was a cardboard french fry container, with wide light blue and white vertical stripes. Arms and legs extended from the box, and his eyes and mouth were on the box itself. Inside of him were eight old and ruined fries. "Fry Friend, these are difficult times indeed." said Monarch Friendly Times. His light blue and white striped royal garb was tattered and dirty, and he stared at Fry Friend with emptiness in his eyes. "We are all suffering. Yet you come to me... As if you believe I don't know the pain you're in..." Monarch Friendly Times was an old man, his long hair and beard white, but with a few strain of the blond it has once been. His crown was cracked and held together with masking tape. "Monarch... I have always strived to follow and obey you...and I've always trusted you... but it's been so song since I've had fresh fries... the past two years are like a blur..." "You think I'm not aware of this?" "No... but I have to tell you... please, I need new fries... we all know you have... you magic powers... that your saving them..." "For myself? Is that what you think?" Fry Friend paused--so this was it--he was finally going to be able to challenge the Monarch openly. "That is what I think--what we all think!" Fry Friend yelled, followed by a wave of dizziness. So weak... "After all I've done for you..." the Monarch said after a long pause. "You take and take and take from me--with little gratitude--and now, that times are bad, you turn on me." "I never wanted it to get to this point." Fry Friend whispered, hoping the Monarch could hear him. "But I'm afraid... that I just can't go on." "What alternative is there, Fry Friend?" "Just give new... new fries..." "That is not going to happen." The two were silent for several minutes. It was a terrible silence, a silence which Fry Friend could feel bearing down on him like a dead weight. "If you can't help me..." Fry Friend finally said, "I'm going to follow Onion Ring Friend down the Exit Escalator." The Monarch narrowed his eyes. "I thought you had more sense than that poor idiot Onion Ring Friend." "He knew... he had theories... he thought... that his onion rings were just holding him back from his true potential..." "Onion Ring Friend is dead! He left all his onion rings behind! Do you want to end up like him? Don't kill yourself... I'll get you some new fries... it's just a matter of time." "I... don't believe you. There is no magic in the kingdom anymore. You have the only magic that's left. Maybe you... maybe you're just waiting for us all to die, then you can... then you can have all the magic for yourself..." "Get out of here." the Monarch said. "Your words... you have no more loyalty... go and kill yourself if you want. Go and follow that damn fool Onion Ring Friend. I always knew you two would be traitors. From the time of the beginning--you two were always too free in your thoughts. Burger Friend, Shake Friend, Cookie Friend--they would never speak to me thus." "Only because they fear you. But privately, they hate you. Them, and all the rest. I once feared you... but now, I'm too tired... my being is too weak to support such a stressful feeling as fear..." "Get out of my sight, Fry Friend. And when I next pass by the Exit Escalator, I truly hope to see those eight wretched fries at its mouth... and I'll know I am finally rid of both you AND Onion Ring Friend, who have been a bane in my side for too long." Tears came to Fry Friend's eyes, and ran down the cardboard of his box, as he stood up with great difficulty. "I never knew you hated me. I... I always thought you loved me, like you love all the others." The Monarch didn't reply, but glowered at Fry Friend with an evil look. Fry Friend breathed heavily as he waited in vain for the Monarch to speak. "I have only one thing to say to you..." Fry Friend finally said, "if I discover that there is life beyond the Kingdom... that my french fries have been holding me back all these years... that you knew all about it, but let me go on suffering... I... I will find a way... I'll find a way... to exact my revenge upon you." The Monarch raised one eyebrow. "If that day ever comes, I will take great pleasure in tearing you apart." the Monarch said. Then, through gritted teeth "Now get out or I'll demolish you right here, right now." Fry Friend frowned but did not reply, truly fearing for his life. He turned and left the throne room, half-expecting the Monarch to strike him from behind. But he got out safely. The only thing on Fry Friend's mind was getting to the Exit Escalator. He had been planning on saying goodbye to all the other Friends, but now he felt an urgency, and decided to take the Escalator before he lost the will to do it. He left the castle by its Forest entrance and took the winding trail that led to the Exit Escalator. When he was almost there, he spotted Hot Dog Bit Friend lying by the side of the path, either sleeping or dead. His body was a batter-dipped, fried segment of hot dog, the surface of which was dry and cracked and dirty, with eyes and mouth on the hot dog bit and arms and legs sticking out, in much the same fashion as Fry Friend's. "Hot Dog Bit Friend?" Fry Friend said hesitantly. "Are you... are you alright?" Hot Dog Bit Friend stirred and stared up at Fry Friend. "Am I not dead yet?" he said in a hoarse voice. "Not yet." Hot Dog Bit Friend tried to laugh, but wound up coughing instead. "I've been to see the Monarch." Fry Friend said. "Yeah?" Hot Dog Bit Friend said, his eyes red and watery. "I told him what I thought of him. I really gave it to him, all the things I've been wanting to say to him over the years, but never had the courage to. Now he wants me dead. I have no choice, but to follow..." "...Onion Ring Friend?" "Yes." Hot Dog Bit friend looked very sad as he stared up at Fry Friend. "I will miss you, Friend." "And I you." "Is there anything..." "Dog--" Fry Friend said after a pause, "--I know it's not fair to ask this of you... but I am worried about... the logistics... of what I am about to do. I must take out all my fries before I can get onto the Escalator... and... and from what the Monarch says, if I have no fries left, I will die. I was... I was thinking of throwing the last one away an trying to fall backwards onto the escalator. But I'm not sure I can do it." "I'll help you. Hell, I'd follow you if I could, but I'm all food." "You don't know how much this means to me. If I do succeed, I will find some way to repay you. I promise." "It's okay." Hot Dog Bit Friend said, getting up with some difficulty. "I know I have no future. But if I have the hope that somehow you made it--that you escaped--that I helped you--I will be able to meet my death with a smile." The two walked the remaining distance to the Exit Escalator. It was an escalator in an entrance cut into the side of a cliff face. There was a big EXIT sign above it, and below the big sign was a smaller sign which read NO FOOD ON ESCALATOR. The view down the escalator was obscured by fog a 20 or 30 feet down. "Well, this is it." Fry Friend said, grabbing a fry from himself and tossing it away. Instantly, he felt a wave of fatigue and disorientation. As he threw the next one away, he blacked out momentarily and found himself on his knees, no longer able to support his weight." "God damn it, how did Onion Ring Friend do it?" "I'll help you my Friend." Hot Dog Bit Friend said, and he began taking fries out of Fry Friend. That was the last thing Fry Friend saw, the benevolent visage of Hot Dog Bit Friend taking fry after fry out of him. Five... four... three... two... * * * At first, all that Fry was aware of was the humming. A deep, mystical, overwhelming hum. Then a blurry sight--gray blobs and landscapes scrolling by. Then pain--wracking his cardboard body. He let out a moan and rubbed his eyes. What was this, a terrible dream? A dream... no... He focused on the gray shapes and saw that they were weird patterns in a rock tunnel... a tunnel slanting downward... The Escalator! He was on the Exit Escalator! And he was alive! He tried to sit up, but lost his balance and went tumbling down the steps of the Escalator, awful pain ringing through body with every jolt. But finally he managed to stop himself and sit with stability on the edge of the on the stairs. "I made it..." he said softly, his voice echoing weirdly. The Escalator had eerie bluish lights every couple of yards, lighting up the tunnel in a bizarre way. He could see nothing but Escalator both up and down. He sighed and stretched out on the stair, trying to relax and find a position where he wouldn't hurt so bad. He smiled and felt around inside himself--no french fries at all. So Monarch Friendly Times was a liar. No fries, and still alive... Wondering how long he'd been unconscious, Fry propped himself up on his side and stared down the neverending shaft. Does it ever end?, he wondered. If not, then Onion Ring Friend was somewhere down there--maybe thousands of miles down. Could he ever reach him, if that was the case? He considered yelling out Ring's name, but he decided against it. No use. It would just be too far. Too far... He lied back down and stared at the pattern of the tunnel--somewhat reminiscent of the marble floor in Friendly Time's throne room, but much sharper and more severe. Severity--now there was something Fry could get into. Everything back in the Kingdom--everything was just so gentle. At least, up till recently, with everyone dying... He wondered whether or not Shake Friend or Pop Friend or Coffee Friend or Juice Friend could make it--they were primarily cups, after all. But no--they didn't have any rebellion in them. And their contents--the beverages--lasted a lot longer without replenishment than either his fries or Ring's onion rings. But I'm free, he thought. Free of Monarch Friendly Times and Friendly Times Kingdom. I always knew there was more to my life... Even though he was sore all over, Fry realized that he felt stronger, more vital, more alive than he ever did with french fries in him. They WERE holding him back. Ring had been correct. He regretted not doing this long ago--to think of all the suffering and despair he had to endure for the past two years... what a waste... It was a year-and-a-half ago that Ring had taken the plunge. Ring was always talking about his weird theories and criticizing the Monarch. Fry was torn. He liked Ring and respected his intelligence, but he also loved the Monarch. And he always feared that the Monarch would discover the terrible things that Ring was saying and that Fry was tentatively agreeing with. But now... it didn't matter any more... and somehow, Fry knew, he would find Ring, and let him know how right he had been. Yes... yes... Fry then slipped back into unconsciousness. It was a bad time--periods of sleep and disorienting consciousness--and it went on for what must have been days. Then suddenly, after Fry woke up after a particularly nightmare-ridden sleep, he realized that he had reached the bottom. He was at the base of the Escalator, one corner of him still barely touching it. He stood up and was glad to feel that his pain was pretty much gone. He was in a dark, enclosed space--the only light coming from the last few lights of the Escalator. He could make out a number of abandoned storefronts lining the walls of the chamber. He took a few steps away from the Escalator and then he spotted it--a few paces away--a napkin with writing on it. He approached the napkin and saw that FRY was written on it in red crayon. Had he a heart, it would have raced as he unfolded the napkin and read the message scrawled out in red crayon... FRY, I KNEW YOU'D MAKE IT SOMEDAY. I WAS RIGHT ABOUT ALL THIS, AS YOU SEE. I'VE SEARCH THE ENTIRE AREA AND FOUND LITTLE OF ANY INTEREST--EXCEPT THE FRIENDLY TIMES RESTAURANT, WHICH YOU CAN FIND DOWN THE CORRIDOR OPPOSITE THE EE. IT'S WHAT I ALWAYS THOUGHT--WE WERE THE ARCHETYPES FOR A CHAIN OF FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS. ANYWAY, IT GETS VERY DARK PAST THE RESTAURANT, BUT IT'S THE ONLY WAY OUT AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, SO THAT'S WHERE I'M HEADED. LUCKY I BROUGHT THE CRAYON AND NAPKINS--BUT I HAVE A LIMITED NUMBER. I'LL LEAVE YOU ANOTHER MESSAGE IF I CAN. BUT IT'S ON INTO THE DARKNESS FOR ME. I HOPE TO SEE YOU SOME DAY, MY FRIEND. --RING P.S. SORRY I DIDN'T SAY GOODBYE WHEN I LEFT, BUT THAT'S THE WAY THINGS GO. Fry looked up from the letter, his mind buzzing. The restaurant... he had to see the restaurant... and then, he too would have to face the darkness... *OW* [[END075OW]] -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----