|| -------- -- -----  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 30--"FINFORA" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Foreman Ittener Pier  ||  -------> (Cup SRfi030, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = "Wow. This sounds like one confused person." Lunather said. "He is. It's like, as Poale he likes girls, but as Finfora he likes guys. It's like--the longer he goes into the mission, the bigger the gap gets between his male and female halves. It gets to the point where he thinks he'll have to choose between them, but he can't. Once he loses his virginity as a female however--as Finfora--his whole thing falls apart. He can't switch sexes anymore, so he's stuck as Finfora forever. His supersenses and his other abilities are also shut down--she says--Finfora that is--says that it was like a huge, dark curtain fell all around her, as her pure state collapsed." "Huh." "So her and Bally now get further and further into the hedonism of Aleche. And the thing is, she finds out that FOFTH, which was basically in control of the entire world, sent her on the mission not to try and stamp out Aleche, but because her--Poale--whatever--was getting too powerful, and they wanted to get rid of the threat he/she posed. They knew that with all the constant shifting between male and female, and all the earthly temptations, that Poale would eventually succumb, and he did. As a she." "How'd... SHE find this out?" "Her FOFTH contact just came out and told her. Said there wasn't anything she could do to return to her former state of glory, and that now that she was harmless, FOFTH would help her any way they could. And she was just... she couldn't deal with what had happened to her, so she just got into Aleche more and more, corrupting and destroying Bally eventually, till she became pretty much the high priestess of Aleche, completing her fall from grace." "Wow." "Yeah. From a frolicking mountain demigod to a spacey, corrupt cult leader. And the thing is--the FOFTH plot was even more tangled--cuz with Finfora at the helm of Aleche, eventually, they had what was essentially a puppet government in the Aleche cult. So they got everything they wanted." "Wow. And this was the book you just randomly chose?" "Yeah, kinda. I mean, I heard stuff about it while I was on the Derolbam Team--there was a movie and stuff, but I never saw it. I know it was considered a classic, and that a lot of troubled young people loved to read it. I guess they saw a mirror of their own fall from the innocence of childhood in it." "Yeah..." Lunatether said distantly. "I never had one of those. A childhood..." Ferrajalt regarded the woman. "How far back do your memories go?" Lunatether frowned and squirmed a little. "I don't know. I remember when you activated my matter handler, but--I have the impression that I was conscious the whole time. Just sort of in a sleepy, dreamy state. And... there was some stuff before that, but I can't tell if it was real or dream, but it has to do with Injure Bodoni and Ann Saply creating Leitmotif out of the Warhome matter handler. Scary visions, unspeakable powers..." Ferrajalt put his arm around Lunatether. "So--where did... you know, where did your MIND come from, your... your CONSCIOUSNESS? I mean, as I understand it, the spirit enters the body at the moment of birth. But..." Lunatether turned to Ferrajalt and he could see tears in her eyes. "You're trying to say that I'm still just a machine, aren't you? That I could never animate this body like a real woman." Ferrajalt was taken aback. "N-no!" he said, pulling her to him. "Come on! The thought never crossed my mind! If anything, Hilltop was the one who acted like a machine. You, you're a warm, wonderful woman. I was just... I was just wondering. On a cosmic level. Come on." He kissed her and she grasped him hard, as if holding on for dear life. It only made him feel worse for the lies. He did feel she was still a machine, nowhere near being Hilltop. But he couldn't--he couldn't crush this poor machine's fragile grasp on happiness. Even though he knew that someday, he would. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----