|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- FOREMAN ITTENER PIER--CUP 4--"AGAIN CYLINDER" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Foreman Ittener Pier  ||  -------> (Cup SRfi004, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = "What do ya figger happened anyway?" Hilltop said as I continued playing with the map. "That Leitmotif thingy was above the Bay when we all got onto it. So what happened? They cross Daptin's Bridge with all of us still on board?" "Yeah, it's funny--I was talking to Zoipin right before it happened--y'know--before we all fell asleep. He was saying how they were planning on doing it tomorrow and stuff--and I asked him if they were just gonna bring us all through--as a joke, y'know? But I mean--it looks like that's what they did. Bastards! Did you see Injure or Ann among the sleeping?" "No sir." "Yeah. I'm beginning to get the picture. And that goddamn Daptin split the scene right before it all happened." "Maybe our friend wasn't satisfied with the populace, and decided to start again from scratch?" "That's a wonderful thought. But I mean--you have to wonder. Did he make a pact with Injure and Ann to get rid of us all? To dump us in some rotten place like this?" "You'd kinda hope not." I looked back at Hilltop and saw she had another of those grass stalks in her mouth. "Where do you get those things?" I asked. "From home. I have a few in a little again cylinder." "A WHAT?" "An again cylinder. Spanking New Sarah gave it to me. I told her I was upset 'cause of how I only had a few stalks left from home. So she gave me this little feller..." She reached down and produced a little blue cylinder with a white cap. "...see now Ferrajalt--she had a BIGGER cylinder which all it did was make copies of these little ones. It had a little tab on the top--so I put the stalks in and broke the tab off--now, whenever I shut the cap, it'll recreate whatever was in there when it--y'know--when the tab was broken off. So--let me show you." She opened the cap, and dumped about half a dozen grass stalks on her console. "See?" she continued. "Empty. Now let me put the cap back on here, and..." She shut the cap, then opened it again, and darn if there wasn't another handful of stalks in there, exactly the same as the others. "Here," she said, handing me two of the stalks, "these are two that are the same." I took the two stalks and compared them--indeed, they were identical, down to the smallest detail. "Fascinating." I said. "But now--didn't you guys have some sort of object copier on the Urbander when you went through all that shit to get here, or rather, to Daptin's?" "Well yeah--but it was like--one of our machines malfunctioned in the state of reality that existed, and BECAME that way. A little time warp to be specific. You could just keep reaching back in time and grabbing the same thing over and over again. Maybe the cylinder uses the same principal." "Yeah." I said, starting to giver her back the stalks, then taking one and motioning it toward my mouth. "You mind?" "'Course not, silly. Got an infinite supply of 'em, after all!" "Thanks." I stuck the stalk in my mouth and began chewing at it nervously--we were going awful goddamn fast, and the terrain was still in a loop. I frowned and started to think. Zoipin had told me and Baw that someone spotted another Land from Daptin's Bridge. Like a little island in space, in the darkness. And I got to thinking--if this were indeed that place--that little island, then it was reacting to our motion by presenting a seamless repetition of the same land. But--what if we weren't moving? Might it have some features which couldn't be so seamlessly welded together in repetition? So I began to slow down. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----