|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- CARNE'S MOISTURE DETECTION FRIEND--CUP 7--"WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Carne's Moisture Detection Friend  ||  -------> (Cup SRcm007, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = -T- CARNE: Today marks the third day that my Moisture Detection Friend is spending in an alternate reality with a bunch of kids who have a secret hideout in a quarry, under a big pile of rocks. PACER: How'd he get over there? CARNE: It's easier than you might think. Alternate realities are all over the place. You can walk to them, anytime. Just, normally your mind won't allow you to even consider going to the right places. PACER: Yeah? So how do you actually go about doing it, then, my friend? CARNE: Well, he's good friends with two fairies, and they lead him around. But I'm sure there'd have to be some other way of doing it. I mean, most people lose the ability to see fairies at about age six. And the memories are cloudy. Kids have a natural antagonism toward fairies, as evidenced by how few are led off to permanent lostness by them. PACER: You're talking about fairies as if they're real. Why, man? CARNE: Because they are! PACER: And you, do you also have this ability to talk to fairies? CARNE: I try to. And I think I've had some communication. But it's never very lucid or concrete. PACER: They say that fairies and aliens are the same thing. Back in the old days, people felt they came from Fairyland, cuz that made sense back then. Now, the only uncharted territory people can conceive of is outer space. So they think the little fuckers are from outer space. People are dumb, man. CARNE: Yeah, I know. But not all the fairies have flying saucers. The techno-fairies and the trad-fairies split a long time ago. And there a lot of other splits in the fairy world. I think, all-in-all, we're lucky not to have to deal with the fairies and all their problems. We have enough problems of our own. -U- CARNE: My Moisture Detection Friend had an idea for a story with an entertainment building with a dark ride that you go through on your own personal vehicle, going to all these different themed areas, and then stopping for views, dining, resting, etc. Like you control these vehicles somewhat, deciding where to go next, and hotels in there, and you can stay there for days and days. And also, in comparison, like this park, kind of like Washington Square Park in the sixties, with all these people, like at night in the summer, and exploring the idea of the promise that such a situation holds--but instead of the promise giving way to diappointment, you know, like it just keeps getting better and better? Like not the dark side, but that initial sense of the cool stuff that might happen, and then it does? That's what he's talking about. PACER: Cool. -V- CARNE: You know that painful feeling of nostalgia, equal parts pain and pleasure? My Moisture Detection Friend loves that feeling. He tries to cultivate that feeling, but it's not so easy all the time. The past is so alluring because it's out of reach. Just like that toy you had as a kid, that you search garage sales for. That toy is an object of worship! But once you get it, it's just not the same. You see what I mean? PACER: Yeah. But still, if I could time travel to a Toys'R'Us in 1975 or something, I think I'd have a wicked time. A totally wild, insane, wicked fuckin' time. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----