|| -------- -- -----  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 40--"HUGE TIN CLOCK" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Goodbye Popcorn  ||  -------> (Cup SRgp040, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Reaching around in his pockets, Daptin asked "You don't have a pen, do you?" "No, why?" Granticaine responded. Daptin got out the geometric weight marker and sighed. "See, you had one." Grant continued. "I know but it's not a good pen." "Why not?" "Okay, shit, what the fuck." Daptin said as he carefully uncapped the magic marker and wrote the words "80-A CLARITY" across the face of the clock. He then carefully resealed the pen. "Wish me luck." he said, then louder, "Super!" He hurled the clock with all superstrong his might far off into the distance. It grew quickly until it hung several miles away up in the air, its pendulum swinging evenly, and it's hugeness appalling. The words Daptin had scrawled were blown up to immense proportions across the face, readable by everyone for miles around. "Cool trick." Grant said. "So what now?" Soon a group of people came out onto the platform where Grant and Daptin stood, gawking in awe and horror at the huge tin clock in the distance. "Okay, who put what in the water?" they heard someone in the crowd say. Soon Iterator of Rail Avenue (with Pantry Lurkin sitting on her shoulders) and Wreckage Mallie came out with the others. Daptin and Grant went over to them. "Say it!" Grant said. "Eighty-A Clarity." Iterator of Rail Avenue said, then immediately, "Wow, I see what you mean." "What is it? Oh yeah, Eighty-A Clarity." Mallie said, then after a few moments, "Okay, now I understand about the job and the mission and stuff, but what the hell does that have to do with a UFO disguised as a clock?" "Eighty-A, Eighty-A, Eighty-A Clarity! Eighty-A, Eighty-A, Eighty-A Clarity!" Pantry Lurkin chanted. "Yahoo, I'm a pretty smart boy!" "Daptin doesn't have the hang," Grant said, "so we'll have to help him along. But right now, we have to cross a physical distance of some length to get us out of here, okay? Let's go down the ladder and off down that road, hey? Okay?" That's just what they did, and they were ten minutes into their walk when they heard a massive explosion as the clock fell to the ground. "Damn pen." Daptin said, and just as he said it, they cupslipped again. This time they heard a deep voice saying "Swish.", and an image like colorful paint dripping into a whirlpool, along with a flowery scent. When it was over, they were sitting in something like a bathhouse or swimming pool, on turquoise-tiled benches, except there was no water around. There were, however, a number of naked people nearby, some of whom were performing sex acts on one another. Granticaine looked around and sighed. "Give me one of those grenades, won't you, Daptin." Without a word, Daptin handed Grant a situation grenade. Immediately, Grant pulled the pin and looked dumbly down at it. About ten seconds later, it exploded. The five experienced a silent shimmering around them, and their benches were transformed into tree trunks without any of the group changing position. The sex palace was transformed into a hilly gray wasteland. In the distance, a huge tin clock could be seen wobbling wildly. "Why'd you do that?" Pantry said. "I saw some sex I'm sure I did! I saw it more, but not today! Why escape such lovely peeking, deeny?" "Look--" Iterator of Rail Avenue said, "--over there--the clock. But I thought it fell." "Yes, falling can be done well by a good clock! I fall too! I fall too!" Pantry said in a hyper manner. "It's not the same." Daptin observed. "It doesn't have the writing on it. And this place looks awfully familiar." "Could this be some... " Mallie began. "...I don't know, some alteration of the world we were just in? I mean, a clock like that, I mean, you don't find one just--" "--I'd say we've arrived at our destination. Hey Daptin? Your comrade has those clocks, doesn't she?" Grant said. "Yeah she does." Daptin said. "That could well be one of hers. And I'm just about sure this was the place, though one devastated landscape looks the same as another, I guess." "Yeah--and notice," Grant said. "there isn't any overtly incongruous situation here, as we had in the last two worlds we were in." "Ug! Don't remind me of that last one!" Iterator of Rail Avenue said. "I'm glad you set off that bomb--cuz that was just... so perverted." "Mmm Hmm." Pantry said, looking up at Iterator of Rail Avenue with a deviant smile. "So we just, I guess, should head over that way and, uh, rescue my friend, uh, I--" Daptin said. "--that would seem the best course of action, but we should be prepared for combat." Grant said. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----