|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- OFFICE COMPLEX--CUP 30--"PEPPER" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Office Complex  ||  -------> (Cup SRoc030, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Prince Ferrajalt and Treyess Arcomany walked down a deserted street, their footsteps echoing strangely. "Do you think we'll ever get out of this, Prince?" He looked over at Treyess. "I don't know. I hope so. I just--I'm just fed up with all this supernatural crap, y'know? My home life wasn't perfect, and I had a lot of pressures being royalty and all--but I never had to deal with reality collapses, and weird cat ladies, and giant hypermonsters or whatever the hell that guy was--you're lucky you didn't see him. And that--that jerk, that girl who was a time traveller, and that guy who was HER from the past--you didn't meet them either. But she came back in time to like--I don't know--like to have sex with herself or something." "Sounds like you had an eventful day." "Yeah, and then some. But I don't like it. I want normalcy. I want a world where things are the same every day, and people who you don't have to worry what kind of powers they have." "I know what you mean." They continued walking in silence. Soon, Treyess spoke up. "So where is this place? I thought you said it wasn't far?" "It's not that much farther. I thought we would have been there by now. I remembered it being much closer--otherwise I wouldn't have had Vike drop us off back there." "Well, I suppose that to an adventurer like me, this should all be pretty thrilling." "Is it?" "I don't know. I'm used to a different sort of adventure. Where you face the unknown, but the perils that assail you are at least understandable. But here--there are so many unanswered questions. I mean, what does it mean that reality COLLAPSED? We're still here, so it obviously didn't totally fall apart. And that little cat lady--I wish someone would tell me the story with her." "Haha. Yeah. I know. It's just like, everyone wants to be cool or something and not ask all these burning questions. I have no idea. I mean, she said this whole business," Ferrajalt said, waving his hand in an arc, "just sort of shook her out of the pepper shaker or something, as she said. But what does that mean? And then, she seemed to be familiar with the Hypergod and his kind, and the fact that she could send a kemig signal with just her mind--I mean, what the hell is going on?" "Yeah." They continued on, passing a building with a statue above its entrance. The sculpture portrayed a woman in the act of getting dressed, half naked. Treyess stopped. "Now look at that." she said, pointing toward the statue. "That's not some statue which collapsed or fell apart--it's a whole new statue, and look at it--look at the detail--it's exactly what a finely manufactured statue should look like--but the subject matter! No--I see some intelligence behind it all." "Maybe that was what someone was doing when it happened, and reality got her and the statue mixed up, like getting its wires crossed?" "Hmm! Well I don't know. It's just that, I feel like there's a lot more going on than we're being told. I just have a feeling that little Injure is holding something from us." "I don't know. Maybe. From what I understand, though, he said that reality is like a system, where certain events trigger other events, and the whole thing is just an ongoing chain reaction--with checks and balances keeping it on the right path. But here--it's just like things have ground to a halt. Nothing to prevent a statue like that from just existing over there. Nothing to prevent giant police cars from existing." "Yeah--speaking of them, I hope we get there soon. I feel naked out here in the open like this." Ferrajalt glanced at Treyess. "No, I think we should get there soon. See that bridge between those two buildings up there? I know I saw that right after I saw the yard." "Good." -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----