|| -------- -- -----  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 47--"STROLLING" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Goodbye Popcorn  ||  -------> (Cup SRgp047, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Daptin glared at the crowd he was trudging forward with. Thirteen people walking--one hovering in midair. He felt contempt for the others--to him, it seemed they were strolling happily, blindly into utter disaster. A horrible feeling of suspended panic was a heavy weight on Daptin's spirit. The green sky--the kemig call--all wrong. The group was now treading a relatively clear area, and it had been several hours since Millicent had appeared out of nowhere. It almost seemed that they were approaching the outer perimeter of the slay balloon blast. An awfully powerful weapon, those balloons, Daptin thought. The size of the group made Daptin nervous. He felt that he was leading them all to slaughter or something, that as soon as the coffee in his veins kicked in and transported them back toward the Cup, something terrible would happen. And he didn't like the feeling of responsibility. He thought back to Fox and The Tracy Taciturn and that lost day--something had gone wrong then, too. There seemed to be a lot of things going wrong in the universe. What a fighting force this gang would be, Daptin mused. Cup's Club with it's ultrapowerful members. Coabler the Sawman, Classic of Logic, Kesh the Vector, Pattern Integrity, Bith the Silly Train, Demolish All, and the one they told him about--the one who had been transformed into a little plastic toy version of himself--Tickle the Monster. Daptin did like the sense of otherness he got from these folks. They truly did seem to be from far-off, whacked-out worlds. Unlike the unsettling sense of familiarity he always got in Agoopish and Aconck. And there was Granticaine and his Provocation Team D--three awfully nice, but also awfully weird people. Iterator of Rail Avenue, Pantry Lurkin, and Wreckage Mallie. Mallie was especially strange--Injure Bodoni had been doing some weird experiment at Greatwall, and he called Granticaine over and asked him if there was anybody he'd like to bring back to life. It was supposed to power some sort of situation field, but instead Mallie--who had been killed in the war--came into being. Bodoni had juryrigged the system and of course, just like him, couldn't remember exactly what he had done. Daptin was sure it still bothered the scientist. And Daptin thought back to the Caxopys--that goddamn Cursive and her smirking sister Elaine--sending them on this suicide mission or whatever it was meant to be. Fake was such a nice girl, and she so loved the excitement of Agoopish. Now he wondered if they'd ever get back there, let alone anywhere coherent. And the still-unconscious Jerald from Fiestarkoon. Daptin never trusted the guy, and was even a little disappointed to find out he was still alive. He was sure the little jerk knew more than he was letting on. He had to. Then there was Millicent--appearing out of nowhere, claiming she had just succeeded in "stepping into the movie"--a "Cup's Club" movie, from what she told them. Daptin looked at the girl and felt like crying when he felt her innocence, her freshness. He stared at her and felt very low, very heavy, as if he were responsible for crushing this beautiful person's most cherished dreams. As he continued to stare at Millicent, she slowed down a little, and looked around nervously. Daptin thought it was her detecting his glare, but then she looked down and pulled her hand out of her pocket. There was something in it. "What's this?" Millicent said, examining the thing. Daptin knew it was something important. He could feel it. It's importance was like a knife stabbing at him. And he moved behind Millicent to get a better look. "This isn't mine." Millicent said slowly, softly. And Daptin saw what she was holding--it was a little plastic doll. "Okay." Daptin said, and Millicent turned to face him. "Look at it!" she said. "I never put it in there! Things are getting stranger and stranger." The others all turned toward Daptin and Millicent, and the group quickly ground to a halt. "Let me see." Daptin said, holding his hand out. Millicent gingerly gave him the doll. And Daptin looked at it. It was a doll of a young woman with long brown hair. He knew immediately that it was Tavmatey Numblem. But this isn't what gave Daptin such a wrenching feeling in his gut. The doll had a T-shirt on, a T-shirt with a face on it. And he recognized the face. It was the waitress he and Granticaine had at the Hello Tarby. It was Sleap. It was her face. Her smiling face. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----