|| -------- -- -----  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 48--"DAPTIN'S LAND" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Goodbye Popcorn  ||  -------> (Cup SRgp048, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Granticaine came over to Daptin. "What is it?" he asked. Daptin showed him the doll. "Huh. That's strange. Not another of your party, is it Coabler?" Grant said. "We're all accounted for." Coabler said. "Maybe Millicent here had a friend?" "No, I was alone." Millicent said, biting her lip. "Recognize her?" Daptin said. "The one on the shirt." Granticaine stared intently. "Yes! Yes I do! Who could forget that hairdo. It's that waitress from the Tarby restaurant. Yes. But why?" Daptin coughed. "That's what I want to figure out. Something about this feels so... I don't know. I feel like I'm on the verge of realizing something." "Hey we should keep moving!" Fake said. "I don't want to get left behind here!" "Okay." Daptin said, and the group continued forward. And Daptin began to get light-headed. "People--keep moving. I think it may be coming." Daptin said, holding his hand to his head. "We're ready." Kesh said distantly. They continued for a few moments, and then Granticaine put his hand on Daptin's back. "Daptin--I have a confession. Back at that restaurant, that girl left a note for you," Granticaine said, taking his hand off Daptin's back and pulling the little business card from his sleeve, "and I kept it. At the time, I didn't fully trust you--and then, I just forgot about it." Daptin had a very confused and upset look on his face as he took the business card from Granticaine and read it. It read "Greenie--every Faprintarb, Copanck Center Basement NE, occult meeting--try it! Hope I see ya there--Sleap Drassy." Daptin's head was swimming. "Something's not right. It's happening." Daptin said, and he felt a chill and a surge of electricity all through his body. The image of the doll and the business card in his hands in front of him began receding. "Everyone--I'm sorry if this doesn't work. Please believe me." Daptin said. But already, he knew that it wasn't going to work. He felt himself--and all the rest of his cohorts--getting sucked faster and faster into a vacuum--into an empty space--into true nothingness. There were no weird images, no loss of consciousness, nothing like their previous cupslips. Then things happened very quickly, in the blink of an eye. Daptin could sense the others around him, and he was painfully aware of the acceleration of their flushing down the drain toward oblivion. He knew in an instant they would all cease to exist. He knew there wouldn't be any cute saves by ultrapowerful friends, no world of nothingness they could escape from. He knew they would be completely and utterly obliterated. There was the power of the Cup and the power of whatever the kemig call had caused. And in-between these two powers was a place where no one reigned. They were headed for a totally, irretrievably anonymous demise. So Daptin struck out. He struck out into the gaping, horrifying void and felt a wellspring of resource fill him. Time didn't matter anymore, all this was happening in a single instant. He struck out, images of his wonderful flight with Tracy down Canyon filling his mind. Yes--it was this sort of power and substance filling him. Primal. He struck out, and in wild release, Created. And in that single act, Daptin felt something more good than anything he had ever imagined. And he knew that things would never be the same, knowing that feeling. He Created, and Thirteen people stood at the threshold of a new Land. They stood at the gate, the first opening, and they saw. And none of them believed what they saw. For it was a thing that all of them had harbored deep in their souls, something glimpsed briefly only a few times in a lifetime, something you could maybe see a tiny glimmer of in one of those perfect days of youth. But here--here it just bluntly hit them all straight in the face. It was everywhere. It was unbelievable. It was Creation. And they saw Daptin in the distance, on a hilltop, arms raised. This was his doing--it all pointed to him. This was wonderful. This was impossible. This was Daptin's Land. Many of them wanted to speak, but they knew they couldn't. Daptin would speak the first words here. That was the way it had to be. And eventually, after what might have been a minute or a century, Daptin turned to the group and smiled. "This is my Land." he said. "And you were all here to witness its Creation. Welcome." They all smiled. Daptin approached each one of them in turn, clasping hands with them and smiling. When he got to Fake, she spoke. "I hope this doesn't make you think you're God or anything." she said, smiling. "I'm still the same old Daptin you knew." he said, then his expression turned more serious. "At least, part of me is." "This is the first time I've ever felt truly real." Bith said as Daptin clasped his massive hands. "Thank you." Daptin smiled and moved on to Coabler. "I've been to one of these before." the sawman said with a knowing glance. "Yours was better." Daptin let out a short laugh. "Thanks." -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----