|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- GOODBYE POPCORN--CUP 33--"FAPRINTARB" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Goodbye Popcorn  ||  -------> (Cup SRgp033, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Daptin looked down for his wristwatch, only to find he wasn't wearing it. "Need the time?" Granticaine asked. "Yeah." Granticaine flipped up a portion of his collar to reveal a clock which appeared to be embroidered into the fabric. "It's a little after 3:30." "That thing actually works?" "Yeah. I know it seems unlikely, but the underlying mechanism is actually quite simple." "Hm. Well, I guess that if I include a lag time for the popcorn, like say two hours, and the time since I got back, I'd say it's been something like four or five hours since I left Fake in that weird place." "I see. But I'm curious, why didn't you let the girl escape before you?" "Well, I dunno. She was like, I mean it was a real tense situation. It was like a split second thing. If I had offered her the popcorn, she might not have taken it. I mean, I took a real risk doing that, and I almost got erased. So I mean, like, it didn't even cross my mind. I thought I could get the Cup of Coffee away from the situation and hope things had, y'know, improved when I got back." "I see. And what makes you think this gang hasn't slain your friend by now? Or captured her and taken her back to their base of operations?" "I don't know. Obfuser seemed to think it'd be pretty easy to get her back." "Well, from my perspective, we're walking into a very unsure situation. I would like more time to prepare, but unfortunately, from what you've described, time is our enemy. I think I'll call Mallie and have the team assemble in a set location. Do you need to get anything from Greatwall Base?" "Yeah! I have a lot of stuff there. And like, I mean, I have to keep the Cup of Coffee in my apartment, and after I drink it we have to go though a bridge right away. So I mean--" "--I can't afford to build a bridge unannounced at the base. We have to be far away, as they'll monitor it. And they might follow after if they don't like what they see." "But after I drink the Coffee, we might fall out off this world at any time." "Then what does the bridge have to do with it, Daptin?" "Well I guess--I mean, he said that it was too loose here to fall out normally, I mean..." "So what is it? Does the bridge do it or not?" "Yeah! But we can't cross so much space, or it might start right then." "So? If it starts, fine! The purpose of the bridge is to transport us to this world, right? I assume the Coffee will alter the nature of the bridge." "No, it's not quite like that, Grant. It's like, he said, Obfuser said that one travels cupward, whatever that means. He implied that the state of reality, I think like the ratio of situation-to-reality, has to be tight to travel this way. On a regular Earth it's too loose. In Avert, it's so tight it's almost instant. And apparently, the act of bridging creates a tight ratio. So I don't think it even matters where the bridge is to, not that there are so many options along the Wall." "I see. But I maintain that we must bridge in an area as far from the base as possible. Do you think the Coffee will last a trip to, say, Goal?" "I guess so, but it's just so, I dunno. It seems like almost a waste of time. If we're totally gone, they can't follow us anyway." "Daptin, humor me on this one. If we start to travel before we get to Goal, then all the better. Okay?" "Alright. And I mean, I'm not trying to be difficult, it's just that, like, I wanna do this right." "We will do it right, Daptin. We will." After finishing the meal, Granticaine paid the bill and as they were leaving the Hello Tarby, Granticaine found a little business card attached to the receipt with a note scrawled on the back, reading "Greenie--every Faprintarb, Copanck Center Basement NE, occult meeting--try it! Hope I see ya there--Sleap Drassy." Granticaine looked over and saw that Daptin had not seen the card, so he carefully placed it in a little pocket on his sleeve. At first glance, he thought the note was for him, but upon seeing the reference to "Greenie", he realized it was to Daptin. There was something special about this Sleap Drassy, and he definitely wanted to keep the key to getting to know her better. Besides, his mind was racing trying to cover all the angles on what Daptin's motivation might be for telling him all these things and recruiting him for this mission. Was Daptin telling the truth, or was it a scam of some sort? Was he being manipulated? Granticaine continued to ponder this issue, as well as when the hell Faprintarb was. Another of Toal Tarby's gifts to this Earth was a cute scheme of giving each of the 42 four-hour segments of time in a week a specific name. Faprintarb was one of these, but he'd have to look it up. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----