|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- DEER EXPRESS--CUP 17--"ORANGE UNIVERSE" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Deer Express  ||  -------> (Cup SRde017, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 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!" Arbhay said. "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. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----