|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- IRREGULAR SHIRT--CUP 13--"IMPERSONATING A TEENAGER ON AN ALTERNATE WORLD" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Irregular Shirt  ||  -------> (Cup SRis013, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = As a Minor Occult Entity I've had to watch my step. It's all too easy to impress new friends with my powers, only to later discover that I gave a fellow supernaturaler a free peek into my set of abilities. So I try to feel people out and determine whether or not they're hiding anything. That is, the more powerful beings can usually hide their true nature without so much as a pinprick of slippage. But such is existence these days. I'm going to college now. I guess I must've gone to college a few times before, but I really can't remember. All I can say is that it seemed like a pleasant way to pass a few years. Y'know, find a cool reality, an intriguing period of history, a good campus. It would seem to be nonstop wargames, fiery sex with awesome and irresistible girls, intellectual debates, bastard drunken four day weekends, cool mysterious nightscapes, soothing train rides, dizzy walkings around, and all that. In truth, it's a pretty watered-down version of that. The folks are so young and confused and insecure. They don't know what they want to do. They're always worried about their classes. I guess I should look for a campus of vacationing Occult Entities posing as students to get what my original vision teased me with. But Thatterine College isn't so bad. Getting the college I.D. was particularly nasty here. They have computers on this world, and where you have computers you have databases. I had to do quite a little bit of work recreating myself for an official existence in the Area of Gullia Fair--that of Noaster Sitar--a name I chose from my past. But it's been two-and-a-half months so far, and I'm pretty much loving it. But I must say that I wasn't expecting to find such a high level of occult activity brewing below Thatterine's reassuring exterior. But what the hell should I expect, impersonating a teenager on an alternate world? I find myself settling into a routine here. I guess I'm emulating my roommate's behavior to a degree, since I'm not totally confident that I'm behaving in a normal manner at all times. Washington Loggats is a pleasant enough fellow, if a bit annoying. He seems fascinated with the notion of collegiate hedonism in much the way I have been. He too seems to be wondering just where the hedonists are to be found. There are certainly an interesting bunch here on Spoin Fifth. I feel quite at home with these normals. I have to wonder as to the nature of things when I find that folks with no powers barely out of their childhoods are like me in a majority of ways. How can it be that over the millennia of my existence I have not risen significantly above this level? I mean, if memory serves me, I was in college in a similarly technological world over 4,000 years ago. I try and fathom that span of time. How much memory do I really have? I mean, I can reconstruct an outline of what has happened based on key memories, but so much has either been lost or very deeply buried. I guess that I'm most comfortable with my fellow dormmates, being that they are the ones I spend the most time with. But I find an unusually high interest in occult matters among these people. How is it that out of all the colleges I could have chosen, and all the dorm floors I might have been assigned to, this college and floor are so occultishly attuned? That I cannot answer. These days I'm not so sure of what's happening. Every time I wake up I feel like I've lost a little more of myself. It was in the afternoon and I stared out the window at the autumn panorama of Thatterine College. My feet were up on our refrigerator, and I loosely held a magazine in my hands. "Comin' over to the library later, Noaster?" Washington asked. "Hmm?" I responded. "You know. That thing at the library." "Yeah. What about it." "You comin'?" "Tell me about it again." -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----