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|| -------- -- ----- 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 117--10/19/96 <------- || OsoaWeek || Issues || Book 9 || -------> (Cup OWis117, Created v1 (4/27/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = [[BEGIN117OW]] [[01171CV]] * * * O S O A W E E K 1 1 7 * * * October 19, 1996 "The weekly ezine of Obliviana Super Occult Amusement!" by Frank Edward Nora CONTENTS 01 117 CV--Cover 02 117 LA--Lord of Obliviana 03 117 LM--Life Mysteries 04 117 ZP--Zope 05 117 SU--Superior 06 117 SR--Severe Repair OsoaWeek117, October 19, 1996 Thirteenth and last issue of OsoaWeek Book Nine Written by Frank Edward Nora Published weekly by Obliviana Super Occult Amusement obliviana@aol.com http://www.obliviana.com/~osoa 1-800-OBLIVIANA All contents copyright 1996 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 from Frank Edward Nora. *OW* [[02117LA]] Lord of Obliviana ***WEEKLY RESULTS*** WEEK THIRTEEN, Sat 10/19/96 thru Fri 10/25/96 I am in obscurity, but I keep on moving. Look at me. For over a decade I've remained fully committed to My Core Endeavor, whether it was called Anything But Monday, or Halfevil Graphics, or Nomadi Entertainment, or Obliviana Software, or Obliviana Codingseed, or finally, Obliviana Super Occult Amusement. Ten years ago was 1986, the year where My Core Endeavor first fully bloomed in a great flame burst of industry on my part. The story of the following ten years is long and mysterious. But the single theme running throughout is that I remained enthusiastic and steadfast though never meeting with any real success. But I always thought true success was just around the corner. If the Frank Edward Nora of October 20, 1986 could see himself, me, ten years later, he would have been devastated. But having gone through those ten years myself, I am not devastated. See, after so much disappointment, after so many dead ends, I am still rock hard in my determination to bring my vision to fruition. Obliviana Primal was the latest focus of my efforts. It started off pretty well, but I was soon faced with the same old problem--that I didn't have enough resources to make the grand plan real. I am disorganized, and I have a full-time job, and these two factors work against me. But it's the disorganization more than the job, because I have had periods of unemployment where I had 24-hours-a-day to work on My Core Endeavor, and I didn't get much more done. But I HAVE gotten a lot done. Just look at OsoaWeek. Literally THOUSANDS of pages of writing, a good portion of which I believe is really great stuff. 800 or so pages of my "hypertext" novel, Severe Repair. And this whole Obliviana Primal thing, with the 209 Storm Pelters--amazing stuff. And there's so much more. My problem has been in bringing it all together. This element has eluded me. That is why I cannot present a clear enough idea to even get an audience over the Internet. I have all this great stuff, but no central, unifying concept. I have something here. Obliviana has real substance. The past few months have seen a breakdown of the development Obliviana, bringing me to where I am now. Things are so bad that the end of Obliviana is looming. Not for lack of desire, but for lack of production. Now, I have a chance to make a new beginning for Obliviana, or face the consequences of my inactivity and let Obliviana fall apart. Luckily, I have the solution, that which I need to make a new beginning. Developed over the past few weeks, the NEW Obliviana Primal will be the mechanism by which Obliviana will be reborn. Actually, the new Obliviana Primal is a metamorphosis of this incarnation, but it's a pretty massive transformation. Because of this, I have to declare that this manifestation of Obliviana Primal, after 13 weeks (the same timespan as Book Nine of OsoaWeek), is officially suspended, to be replaced by the NEW Obliviana Primal in another 13 weeks, on Saturday, January 25, 1997 (also the beginning of OsoaWeek Book 11). I would detail Obliviana Primal for you now, but I've seen too many grandiose plans laid out by enthusiastic losers which never get anywhere near reality. So just stay tuned, and you'll get the latest info on the new Obliviana Primal from this website. GET ALL OBLIVIANA! --Frank Edward Nora, Lord of Obliviana P.S. Weeks 11 and 12 were skipped and I generated the below results today, 10/20/96. Week Thirteen 10/19/96 to 10/25/96 Diggers: 3 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 186/TechnologyAdvances Fonostas Registered: Register yours now!!! Week Twelve 10/12/96 to 10/18/96 Diggers: 2 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 2 SP: 158/Scramble, 094/LegitimateGrape Fonostas Registered: None! Week Eleven 10/5/96 to 10/11/96 Diggers: 0 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 025/China Fonostas Registered: None! Week Ten 9/28/96 to 10/4/96 Diggers: 1 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 107/MisterTaco Fonostas Registered: None! Week Nine 9/21/96 to 9/27/96 Diggers: 0 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 4 SP: 148/RepoMan, 207/Wrench, 066/GreatSeal, 092/LastFloralHero Fonostas Registered: None! Week Eight 9/14/96 to 9/20/96 Diggers: 3 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 4 SP: 174/Spade, 195/UltimateOctober, 115/Occult, 202/Who Fonostas Registered: None! Week Seven 9/7/96 to 9/13/96 Diggers: 1 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 4 SP: 188/TheReflex, 019/BlueStar, 005/Alice, 123/Owl Fonostas Registered: None! Week Six 8/31/96 to 9/6/96 Diggers: 2 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 068/GreenArchery Fonostas Registered: None! Week Five 8/24/96 to 8/30/96 Diggers: 0 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 125/Panda Fonostas Registered: None! Week Four 8/17/96 to 8/23/96 Diggers: 1 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 067/GreenApple Fonostas Registered: None! Week Three 8/10/96 to 8/16/96 Diggers: 0 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 055/Foam Fonostas Registered: 0006 Samsara Week Two 8/3/96 to 8/9/96 Diggers: 1 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 2 SP: 156/Route22Day, 109/Morristown Fonostas Registered: 0005 Mandrake Week One 7/27/96 to 8/2/96 Diggers: 0 FC Drivers: 1 FC StormLustLuck!: 1 SP: 157/SaskatchewanRun Fonostas Registered: 0001 Lord, 0002 Phantasmagoria, 0003 Zoanthropy, 0004 Darkness *WR* 2/17/97 * 10:29 PM Struggle. Constant struggling. It seems that these days I am dividing my creativity between Obliviana in general and Severe Repair. Both of these are massively important to me. Today I finished putting SR into this Book Nine. But let me get back to Obliviana in general. Yesterday I realized that I myself had to start living an Obliviana life. And I realized that even I cannot do it, for I lack the tools to do it. So the creation of such tools is paramount. Talking about the aspects of Obliviana, it is the Fonosta/209 aspect, Aspect I, that must be established before anything else can expand. So what is the situation with Fonosta/209? The basic idea revolves around DOING things. Our lives are composed of doing things. But I have to expand this definition. We DO things, but then, things also HAPPEN to us. But the way in which we interpret things that happen is also a way of acting, of doing. So, for example, I take the bus to work every weekday. So the bus ride HAPPENS to me. But what I do on the bus, the way I perceive the bus ride, is an ACT. Therefore, I think I can state that DOING is what life is all about. But most people do not focus on DOING as a thing unto itself. Rather, people DO in order to GET certain results. For example, my bus ride is DONE in order to get me to work. I am focusing on the result, not the acts necessary to get that result. Here is an idea. We should focus on what we DO, rather than on the desired results. The reason for this is that the DESIRED RESULTS are a thing we have little leverage in. That is, the most difficult it is to achieve a result, the less likely we are to pursue it. So we are thrust into ruts which are easy to DO. This phenomenon is very natural. And I am treading on very complicated ground here. But one thing that comes to mind is that by basing our lives on DESIRED RESULTS, we are trapping ourselves in these ruts. And yes, if one expends enough energy, grander goals can be achieved. But we all have our limits, even if most of us live far below our potential. What I am saying is that by shifting our focus from the GOAL to the actual DOING of a thing, we find a virgin woodland. That is, people almost never exploit the possibilities inherent in the ways we do things. I know I am not being very clear on this, but bear with me. I am going somewhere with this idea. With so much effort expended every day, we see very little. Put in another way, we expend a lot of energy, most of which is wasted. Energy is put toward goals, but most of that energy is wasted. Like in an internal combustion engine, where so much energy is lost as heat. Such an engine produces a lot of energy, but only some of it goes toward motion--a lot of it is wasted as heat. So if we use this as an analog for our lives, we generate a lot of energy, and only some of it winds up getting us toward our goals. The rest is wasted, dissipated, lost. What I am proposing is a system by which we can trap that lost heat energy and use it for a useful purpose. The means by which this can be done is to establish a mechanism by which such efforts can be stored and utilized. This mechanism is Fonosta. The mechanism is that you create Cups, and then you fill them. The liquid that fills a Cup is an act. You DOING something fills a Cup. Each Cup is designed to be filled with a specific sort of ACT. So with Cups, we have a mechanism, a DEVICE, an construct, by which we can transform actions into something that is like an object. Your Fonosta Device is built out of Cups. The more Cups you have, the bigger your Fonosta is. And the better your Cups are, the better your Fonosta is. So I need a means to create Cups, to fill them, and to organize them to form a Fonosta. A Fonosta is made up of a number of types of Cups, each of which has a number of specific Cups, both empty and filled. So this defines the basic building blocks. Of course, the next level is to determine what sort of Cups are going to be involved. Yes. There must be a culture of Cups. That is, different sorts of Cups, such as "go somewhere you've never been before", must be established and shared. Yes. Maybe this will be the first of all Cups. "Go somewhere you've never been before." Ah. Progress. 2/25/97 * 1:23 AM For six days now I have been going somewhere I haven't been before. And I am beginning to feel transformed by doing this. I feel more REAL. I feel some WONDER in me. It's also starting to feel like I'm slowly starting to wake up from a dream. 2/26/97 * 12:04 AM Where is Obliviana at? I have been at LIVING Obliviana for seven days now, and it's been working quite well. I've just about decided to call the 11x19 grid "Forge of Wander". This Fonosta/209 level is the foundation of Obliviana. FOW has become even more important to Obliviana than I had thought. Everything happens on FOW. I have always been looking for a unifying force, and I think FOW is it. I mean, if FOW is NOT it, I'm in trouble! I have always wanted Obliviana to be a thing with a very simple basis which can have very complex permutations. FOW is such a thing. So I need to focus on FOW. It's a grid, 11 squares high and 19 wide, 209 squares in all. Squares can contain Cups, and Cups can contain Drink. So squares have four states: blank, empty Cup, partially-filled Cup, full Cup. A Fonosta has a number of FOWs, each of which with its own type of Cup. 2/27/97 * 1:15 AM Okay. I have been experiencing some events with some blatant meaning. The general idea of these events is that I might be in trouble if Obliviana starts to get successful and I'm still in the mode where I don't take seriously the possibility of Obliviana succeeding. Let me clarify. Last week or so I was counting some money in Port Authority Bus Terminal and two separate weirdoes like half-jokingly asked me for some of it. I took this to mean that people will be after Obliviana if it starts to succeed and I am unprepared. This morning while pulling out of my parking spot I scraped into the bumper of the car in front of me a little. It was very minor--not worth leaving a note or anything. But from this I took the meaning that in Obliviana I might very callously hurt people if I'm not careful and paying attention. Earlier in Port Authority me and my brother were hanging out by the subway entrance and a black guy with a guitar case came up to us and started a spiel about being stranded, etc. At first I was stone-faced and totally blowing him off. But as he weaved his tale I first gave him $1.50 for a token, and then another $5.00, after I rambled on with advice on how he might safely spend the night. Afterward I realized he was probably a conman. But he was putting on such a good act, I felt he deserved something. And on the small chance that he was legitimate, I was more than happy to help. But looking at it realistically, he was lying. His story was too expected. He had it down to an art, making the mark empathize with him and give him more money. He probably gets $10, $20, god knows how much out of people. Anyway, I take from this that I have to be very vigilant to avoid such a thing happening on a larger scale. Then a few weeks ago I went outside P.A. and smoked the remnants of a cigar and a black guy came up to me and talked to me about videogames and stuff, about how he was a mover and met and helped move the guy who invented Pac-Man. I expected him to ask me for money, but we had an interesting conversation. He told me to combine Donkey Kong with the third level pattern of Pac-Man or something. From this I take, partially, that Obliviana can be a good thing for people. That there are a lot of people out there that need something like this. One of my principles as been that I would never relinquish 100% control of Obliviana. On the bus before I was thinking, in kind of a daze, that I should let Obliviana utterly fall apart before selling even 1% of it to anyone. This is a principle that I must follow, even if it leads to disaster. So some pretty heavy stuff going on. Like suiting up for the coming trek into success. Eighth day of living Obliviana. Places I've never been before: 7th floor of Village Cinema, and a corner in P.A. by subways. Scary, almost didn't get anywhere new. I have been rethinking Obliviana constantly. Right now, I'm thinking about de-emphasizing people's involvement in it... or maybe... I don't know... I know I had the idea to let only certain people in, etc... But... 2:16 AM I am feeling more real and feeling like I am waking up. I believe that it is the stuff of Wonder. And I'm getting it by living Obliviana, specifically, going somewhere where I haven't been before every day, and making these "goings" into Cups on a FOW in my Fonosta. I am living Obliviana in a very limited way. I doing the bare minimum. What would the effect be of doing Obliviana much more? Let me think... More Wonder in you will change your life for the better. It seems that so many problems people have are self-created, in order to avoid the central truth that they lack something in their ability to live their lives properly. This could be explained by the idea that people lack Wonder. What I have felt of Wonder so far, it is really not good or bad, just like MORE. But I have to say, I do feel more REAL, that is the best way to put it. I have to go to bed soon, so let me cover one more topic. The Launch of Obliviana. What will Obliviana be like? Okay. I see Obliviana at Launch having the capacity to present the basic ideas of Obliviana to a great number of people, but not with the capacity to store information for people. I do need to write a book about all of this. Oh, another idea, a book called "Hadrian Fozzcolt", about the magic of videogames, but this could be part of the main book. So I have to write the book, "Forge of Wander", starring Balbi the Winter Squirrel and Sappenfield the Winter Parrot. Goodnight. 2/28/97 * 1:42 AM Went to the premiere of "Private Parts". Bought a ticket from a scalper for $70. Met Melrose Larry Green and Crackhead Bob, and "Uzo" sat right behind me. I was absolutely worth the money. Ninth day of living Obliviana. Found a used cookbook store on Greenwich St. This idea of going someplace new every day is changing my life. I waiting in P.A. after the movie, seeing if that guy would show up again, the supposed stranded traveller. And then I went to a porno shop! The significance of this is that I would never have into a store like that before. At all. With this new freedom, I went in, no problem. Like I said, it's changing my life. 3/1/97 * 1:44 PM I think the time has finally come to finish up Book Nine. First, I have to do the Zope in this issue. But before that, let me present to you this bunch of notes that has been below my Lord of Obliviana writing: ------------------- guy outside PA <glean> moprisnsh scrathe beyoond CebnathBcuip Bupset Reacetracks PK instead of PM, new time? APE--Association for the Production of Entertainment WILF 31% Radio Take Radio silumator 1: OBLIVIANA PRIMAL Raceway America WHEELS (7) driving 2: 209 Raceway Astronomy CUPS (7) gambling 3: SEVERE REPAIR Raceway Arctic SWORDS (5) fighting 4: ZOPE Raceway Aftermath HAMMERS (5) building 5: SUPERIOR Raceway Ancient ROCKETS (3) shooting 6: WELCOME TO THE WEASEL VILLAGE MALL Raceway Apparition SPOTS (3) gathering 7: FORGE OF WANDER Raceway Archery WANDS (1) dungeon 8: SUPER OBJECT Raceway Aqua GUITARS (1) become a rock star Ppari *[1] 209 [2] Competition [3] Entertainment *[4] Interface--Primitive [5] Culture [6] Archive [7] Wonder [8] Creative (???--same as Ent.?) [1] ASCII text [2] Formatted text/HTML [3] Picture [4] Sound [5] Movie [6] Data [7] Program/Java [8] 3-D models Competition SR/Zope/Superior ABM/TC&B [1] PRIMITIVE [2] FONOSTA [3] 209 Game Interface Culture Entertainment Wonder 1997 Mantra: "I Call for confidence." hypnagog 2/1/97 "...the Countenance of the Vial of the Garden." ------------------- Fonosta Primitive 209 Little World of Racetracks Severe Repair Zope Obliviana Radio OsoaWeek ----------- ------------------- Okay. So there's that. Now, what about the question of how I am going to do this? I have to think of Book Nine as a single entity. I'm not going to measure individual issues. Now I'll write the latest Zope, which is already begun, the "House Contest". 2:35 PM Let us begin with the ides that Obliviana can move in one of two different direction at this point. What I want to determine is what these two directions are, and decide which one to go with. Right now Obliviana is at its most defined, but it is also rather muddled, since I have been refining it at such a fast pace. I think a central issue is that of how people will be involved with Obliviana. But let me sketch for you where I see Obliviana right now. As you've been reading, I have finally begun to "live Obliviana", by going someplace where I haven't yet been every day and entering these goings into a FOW. This process defines the basic idea of Obliviana. My latest "set of eight", divided into four Aspects: I: Fonosta/209 II: Primitive/Little World of Racetracks III: Severe Repair/Zope IV: Obliviana Radio/OsoaWeek The stuff I've been doing, going to new places, is Aspect I. Obliviana could be JUST Aspect I, but I still have to present it to people. And this is where Aspect II comes in. With the Internet and digital networks in general as the most appropriate medium for me to present Obliviana in, I have to deal with the subject of media. In other words, because I am presenting Obliviana digitally, I will be doing to using media, and being that media can make or break something like this, I have to craft the media very carefully. Also, I do believe that the digital media of the future will be very harmful to humanity, so I want to do what I can to curb this trend. Wow. Very confusing paragraph. So, being that I have to present Obliviana is a certain way on the Internet, and being that I have a great deal of leeway regarding the specific nature of the presentation, and being that I have an interest in crafting GOOD digital media for the future, it is a perfect fit to use Obliviana as the content for the new medium I am developing. So Aspect II is at the service of Aspect I, but it also has its own content--a new, GOOD medium. Okay. Now, inherent in the I/II setup is the idea that folks who are forging their Fonostas and are also connected digitally to Obliviana will want to present their Fonostas to Obliviana and other Forgers through the digital network. To a person involved in Obliviana, the Fonostas of others will be very interesting. Aspect IV addresses this interest, and the content of Aspect IV is talking ABOUT Obliviana and the people who are involved in it. This sort of content will, I believe, be of interest to those "inside" Obliviana and ALSO those who are "outside" of Obliviana. Aspect III is MY Fonosta. I am the trailblazer here, and my Fonosta will be the template on which all others are based. So there's Obliviana in a nutshell. Now I have to figure out how there might be two directions Obliviana can go in. Here's a thought--the way people INITIALLY perceive Obliviana will forevermore define it. Inevitably, when trying to absorb something extremely alien, people try and pigeonhole the idea in with an idea they already understand. Therefore, the way I present Obliviana, and the INITIAL perception people have of it, will then irrevocably alter the way it develops, because once it starts to succeed, ie, become a part of people's lives and make money, I will have far less control over it than I have now. If I do not consciously decide on the familiar thing I want to link Obliviana with, it will still be linked, but I will have no control over the link, Therefore, I have to decide what the link is to be. And I surmise, that because I have a vision of sorts of Obliviana having two main direction, that there are two different familiar things that Obliviana can be linked with. Okay. Let me rattle off some ideas here. Religion/cult, role-playing game, online service, self-help program, revolutionary social movement, the occult. Perhaps the big ones are ONLINE GAME and CULT RELIGION. Music angle. Thinks tracks on a CD. 3:57 PM Okay I got something. People might latch onto Obliviana like they latch onto sci-fi or collecting or heavy metal or whatever, as a means to distract them from what is missing in their lives. But Obliviana brings true Wonder, the thing that IS missing from people's lives. So people might use Obliviana as a life raft when it's really solid ground. So the question becomes, how do I get this message across to people? 3/2/97 * 6:56 PM Went to Pre-Cana today. Slept a little before. Think I have the last piece of the puzzle. But I don't know what it is yet. Obliviana is a new angle in terms of living your life. You can incorporate Obliviana into your daily routine, and it will very much enhance your experience of life. It reveals a new sort of cause and effect. Doing Friction Enhancers, making them Cups in FOWs in your Fonosta, and sharing your Fonosta with others is the CAUSE. The EFFECT is a new awareness, a new sense of Wonder, the world shining which was once dull. The feeling that you're waking up from a dream. The challenge for me now is to fully define the Fonosta system. Haha, Book Nine is done. Get all Obliviana. *OW* [[03117LM]] Life Mysteries LIFE MYSTERY 26 "Interact With People" by John Nora I stare at this item on my list of 6 core things to do every day. It sure is the most problematic. I wish it said Interact With Cats. That would be a cinch. So many feelings to feel, so many thoughts to think, I often forget to even attempt to make time to interact with people. I try to keep in practice by talking to this guy or that guy, this girl or that girl, over the phone or lunch or in a car. But there will come a point in time, I know, when I will have to really interact with people that I do not know. People who I've never met before. Say the 2001 Monolith of a person. O of the unknown black steel crowd! I Eat and Exercise and Read and Sleep and Write apingly around the black-opaque base of that person! What will I say from the cobwebbed basement of my mouth? Hello how d'ya do? Do you want to eat lunch with me? Ever been fawned at by a cat that stands like a small castle of softness? Or like a cute-eyed, soft little battlezone? LIFE MYSTERY 27 "Homage to Flashdance with Young Lechers" by John Nora Throwing our caps at graduation, everyone else's went straight up like suspension cables, but mine arced like an evil-black-bat boomerang and I think struck someone's mom in the bleachers. She was clapping. It seems my gymclass-slapstick uncoordination had one more rimshot for us all before it packed up and went home. (Note: To this day I'm still the worst thrower I've ever seen. It wouldn't one bit surprise me if I tried throwing a tennis ball tomorrow and the thing did a god-damn loop-de-loop in mid-air and ended up on the ground twenty odd yards to the southwest of me! I could probably make a tennis ball think it was a rollercoaster.) It was late evening when we all got on the buses to go to the ski-lodge-kiddie-casino place for the graduation party. We were all cleaned up and in our civvies. The lighting in the school parking lot, which seemed doubly empty (with the end of the school year AND the end of high school altogether), was bad, and the dark green yellow school-bus seats seemed very, very, deeply, deeply black with night. It was like sitting in the shadow of the death of high school. There was a pretty, popular girl sitting right in front of me, and though we weren't conversing, I felt strangely like a nerd no more. (In my defense, if you can call it that, I was never more than a minor, forgettable nerd, with the personality of a blanket, etc.) There was an also-unwell-lit, highly unsafe and nightmarish obstacle-course playground at the ski-lodge. I will never quite forget this playground, and I almost think of it as a person with whom I had some kind of close, personal shave. There were all the beautiful girls of our class walking about the lodge grounds in bikinis, because there were swimming pools and hot-tubs, or whatnot. This kid named Chuck and I hung in a festooned cargo-net thirty feet over the play-area like hillbilly spiders dimly watching girls in bikinis. Chuck said they liked it, us watching them. Just the us-watching-them was good enough as far as I was concerned. But I took his meaning. The playground continued hungering for abrasions and banged bones, as gradually less and less tried its ball-pools and shutes and winches, and any of its other general smash-and-tear-your-body-when-there's-no-grown-ups-around-it's-fun-kiddies! apparatus. Now everyone was inside the lodge, having tried some deathwish-masochism, playing at fake roulette wheels, signing yearbooks, dancing, showing off washboard cheerleader abdomens (but of course!), eating, and not much else. I was feeling frisky and cut-up by weirdness, because it all seemed like some short, one-night-interval grace period between high school and whatever was post-high-school, but instead of a grace period it was a bizarre-nightmare-limbo-playland-of-the-ominous period. It was almost time to reboard the buses when my three-or-four-person group happened to walk into a closed-down (of course, shadowy) sort of beer-hall. Down in front of a stage, Jeanine Myers was doing a stripper-like dance for some high-ranking, blond, and curly-dumb jocks. Could there have been a spotlight on her as she kicked and serpentined? My memory says Yes, but my sense of realism says No. Anyway, you could SEE her. My group took to a table way back in the shadows like we were watching something in Hell. We were perfectly unseeable shades in the afterlife of Life. Jeanine was in tight yellow spandex and was too bad to be a cheerleader and had a body custom-made for high school Seeing and Sexuality. I suppose I don't really have to say that the group in the light and the group in the shadows just sat there and gawked until it was time to go home forever. *OW* [[04117ZP]] Zope ZOPE 044: "Zope's House Contest" In a large auditorium, ZOPE holds his wrist up to a microphone. KEN THE INVISIBLE WRISTWATCH Greetings everyone! I am Ken, Zope's famous invisible wristwatch, and I'd like to welcome you to the First Annual Halfevil House Contest, sponsored by none other than my great friend and companion, Zope! ZOPE nods. KEN THE INVISIBLE WRISTWATCH In case you're wondering, I am speaking through the same sort of device that crippled scientist Stephen Hawking uses, as you might have heard in a somewhat recent Pink Floyd song. ZOPE smiles and nods again. KEN THE INVISIBLE WRISTWATCH But enough about me. Let us waste no time in introducing the nominees! Our presenter this afternoon will be Rat 17, who technically does not have a house of his own, as he maintains an apartment in Master Joe's Volcano, which is a nominee. But enough of my ramble. Here is Rat 17! The audience applauds. RAT 17 takes the stage. RAT 17 Thanky... thanky... thank you all. Thank you very much. I just want to thank Zope for choosing me as the big presenter. Anyhoo... here are the nominees... A big screen TV flickers to life behind RAT 17, showing each contestant in front of his home. RAT 17 Zopekeep... home of Zope. This massive fortress is home to a lot of wild stuff! The audience goes wild. RAT 17 Ed Ape's World-O-Fun, home of Ed Ape! Halfevil's largest amusement park, home to many unique and innovative rides! The audience boos and hisses. RAT 17 Haha... a shoe-in, this Ed Ape... haha... Okay, next is Weasel's Flyin' Rock, home of Weasel the one-time barbarian! This enormous stone hovers all over the place and is awesome! The audience laughs a little. RAT 17 Okay... here is... okay... Worn Eagle Hills, the quaint and refined estate of none other than Tin Alley Rascal! Understated and charming, this country home is full of antiques and rare books! The audience is silent. RAT 17 Um... uh... okay, well here, next, we have Subaquatic Doghouse 54-H, home of everyone's favorite doggie, O'del! This cool undersea dwelling is really pretty nice, I've been there a few times. Unfortunately, O'del can't be with us today, because... well, is he ever with us? The audience laughs. RAT 17 Ahem... next up, Fombat's Anti-Treehouse, home of Fombat. This intentionally obscure dwelling, built on a platform on a radio tower, is clearly an attempt by Fombat to try and be cool like all the folks he idolizes here on Halfevil. FOMBAT stands up. FOMBAT Hey! Where do you get off saying that about me? RAT 17 Uh... s-sorry there... just... just reading what's on the cards... FOMBAT Big surprise! I mean, Zope put on this whole contest, and he's really mean to me! You know he's gonna rig the contest and win himself! RAT 17 Well now... let's not be hasty, man. You were nominated, after all. So SIT DOWN YOU LOSER! The audience roars with laughter. FOMBAT, red with embarrassment, sits down, looking miserable. RAT 17 And finally, we have Crummy Apartment, home of Atrov. This pathetic garden apartment is about a hundred friggin' years old, with nine-million coats of white paint on top of everything, and is kept in utter disarray by that old sour pickle, Atrov. The audience laughs. ATROV just smiles and nods. RAT 17 See Fombat? Atrov knows how to be a good sport. More laughter. RAT 17 Well folks, the time has come. I have the envelope right now, and... let me open this sucker... okay... and the winner is... Rat 17! Haha... no, only kidding folks... the winner is... ZOPEKEEP, home of Zope! The audience is filled with a mix of applause, jeers, and whistles. RAT 17 hands ZOPE the award, shaped like a little house. ZOPE Thank you... thanks... thank you... really... thanks... I just want to say, y'know, everyone nominated has a great house and my house is no better than all the rest and... ah, what am I saying! Haha! Fuck that! My house is head and shoulders above everyone else's house! So of course I won! And fuck you Fombat for implying that I rigged the contest. It's based on an impartial poll of 24,000 Halfevil residents, and the results are rock solid. So fuck you all and thank you very much! ZOPE holds his wrist to the microphone. KEN THE INVISIBLE WRISTWATCH I'd like to thank you all for coming to the First Annual Halfevil House Contest! All runners up will go home with a lifetime supply of Turtle Whacks, the premier tortoise porno mag! Bye-bye folks! *OW* [[05117SU]] Superior SUPERIOR 621 * 11/7/96 A chaotic treat for cool girl old gods. College Rumor, her band, I said with sound. Vanish of the thinker, main stage. Left blinker, haze of the deft. Mission is ungoing. SUPERIOR 622 * 11/7/96 Rock star tropical deal, magic wooden bird of prey. Whiskey sunstorm dorm, nightgowns electric. SUPERIOR 623 * 11/7/96 People who get carried away collecting things, they say it's to make up for something missing in their lives. Come on, missing like dancing on weekends? SUPERIOR 624 * 11/7/96 Durable shadow, get born, us all, as the boredom becomes painful. Lost among gas stations and technology, herbal sting of well-oiled freedom. Hill to shopping area. Something Oriental in a display case, give me a break. Formal introduction, the year when licorice turned red. *OW* [[06117SR]] Severe Repair $~GRD009 "Severe Repair" ~~SEVERE REPAIR: A Hypertext Novel by Frank Edward Nora Storyline "Get Real Daptin" Packet 009 00019 * 3.792K * New '96 * OW117 Copyright 1996 * All Rights Reserved~~ I looked at Bonnie and she had a weird blank expression and she said to me "I'm game if you are." I looked over at Abigail then back at Bonnie. I was in the middle of this. I could tell Bonnie was trying to be open and stuff, but that she totally thought I was in on the planning on this. I thought of a bunch of things I could say, but I realized that no matter what, I was gonna get fucking naked in this great bed with Abigail, Bonnie or no Bonnie, so I shrugged and said "Let's do it!" Remember, we were all pretty drunk at that point on wine, also, so that kind of explains it somewhat. We kept to the pretense that it was innocent as we got undressed but as soon as we were under the covers (which was gloriously comfortable, by the way), Abigail started touching me and stuff and I was just like, fuck it, and got on top of her and started kissing her with drunken passion, with Bonnie watching making it like a hundred times more awesome. Then I paused... just a brief pause, looking over at Bonnie, who was smiling and raising an eyebrow, showing approval or something, and I wondered what the fuck was going on--I come here to this world to have a normal life and now THIS is happening? THIS is not normal. THIS is fucking more fantastic than any of my adventures in the dimensions. But then I realized... maybe it wasn't gonna be so perfect... maybe Abigail and Bonnie weren't gonna do lesbian shit, and then it would be something of a letdown... not a total letdown, mind you, but something of a letdown... and more realistic... yeah... maybe it wasn't so perfect. But then Bonnie came over and I looked down and she was totally licking and sucking Abigail's tit, so there went that theory. I went for the other breast cuz it seemed like the thing to do. So what if I was making this happen and it wasn't officially mundane? Normal life sucks. What does not suck is sucking a pretty tit with your girlfriend sucking the other. Abigail let out a very alluring "ooooh!", and I thought about the orgy Sleap Drassy and Red Archer Booze had made the law of my Land, and I saw the parallel, and I wondered if Abigail Trouncer the Cot wasn't Sleap in disguise. Think about it... Sleap... Cot... Bed... "Wow, this is really some kind of severe repair!" I lifted my mouth from the nipple and looked up at Abigail. "Wh-what?" I stammered. She looked at me with a very satisfied face. "A real severe repair. You know? 'Repair' as in taking a break from your routine, going somewhere or doing something temporarily? And 'severe' as in something real difficult or out of the ordinary." I nodded and went back to what I was doing, and all through the night, the warmth and the sex under the covers and the chill night outside, this phrase 'severe repair' kept ringing in my head. We did it all, us three. And it all just... WORKED... so well. I don't know. I think it was as close to a perfect experience as a human being (or other entity) could have. Maybe I'll give you the details later. But I don't want to ruin the sense of absolute perfection I have of the experience by debasing it into a sequence of letters and words. Sorry, I know you might have been expecting a harsh pornographic portrait, but I just can't give that up right now. But I will tell you that later on, after we were all exhausted and in a state of great bliss, I began rambling on about my trip to Disney World to Abigail and Bonnie. I went there for a few days a few weeks ago, alone. Maybe it was just a subconscious attempt to inject a little innocence into the situation. I don't know. I finally fell asleep and dreamt of the mission I went on for the Caxopy sisters. It's weird to dream about Agoopish, because the place is so damn dreamlike in reality that a dream can't really do it justice. ~$GRD009 *OW* [[END117OW]] -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- ----- |