|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- PECULIAR LATHER--CUP 9--"GULLIA FAIR VERODARE" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  Peculiar Lather  ||  -------> (Cup SRpl009, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Fluffy shrugged and entered the lobby and walked over to Cudworth, who was talking to a fat maintenance guy. "Hey Cuds--look what I found." Fluffy said, holding the Marv Metuchen the book up. "Huh? Uh?" Cudworth said, looking back and forth from the maintenance guy to Fluffy. "Oh--Fluffy! You found it! Bless you!" "No problem. I hope you like it. Personally, I'm not too big on Metuchen, but I can see the appeal. Apparently he's gotten much more popular recently. I like the title on this one, though." "Oh yes. Yes. 'Blankets Don't Generate Heat--People Generate Heat'. I almost remembered it right. Can't wait to read it." Cudworth said, admiring the cover of the book. "Oh, Fluffy--how much do I owe you?" "Don't worry about it Cudworth--this one's on the house." "Oh really--" "--no, I insist. Just remember this next time I get stuck in the elevator." "With these elevators? Forget it. Never happen. These new elevators are infallible and perfect. But thank you very much." "Famous last words. About the elevators I mean, not the thanks." Just then, Fluffy looked over toward the elevator bay and saw a guy walking around in circles and mumbling to himself. She stared at him, and Cudworth took notice. "He just came storming in here--says Janine wrote a banner outside breaking a date with him. Says he just got to Agoopish. Now he's trying to summon Janine. I tried to talk him out of it, but he's pretty far gone. I figure Janine'll straighten him out." "Yeah, one way or another." Fluffy said. "Summoning? Who ever heard of that anymore? Well excuse me--I don't want to miss this." "Check." Cudworth said. Fluffy moved over to a column near one side of the elevator bay and nonchalantly leaned against it, glancing over at the fellow who she assumed was the Tanner Loblolly from the banner. Tanner was tall, over six feet, and had messy dark brown hair down to his shoulders, and a thick unkempt beard, but no mustache. He wore a pair of brown rugged-pants, a gray sweater, a pair of shitty moccasins, and a lightweight black jacket with the words GULLIA FAIR VERODARE on the back in big yellow letters. His messy hair and general disorder instantly appealed to Fluffy. And the fact that he was trying to summon Janine Engineen, of all things, was highly amusing. Tanner continued meandering around, and muttering "Janine" over and over again. Then, all of a sudden, Janine disappeared in, hovering, with her back to the wall. Fluffy noted that the maps on Janine's shirt were writhing and animated to an unusually active degree--a sign that she was pretty pissed-off. She heard Tanner blurt out "Hey what's going on, huh? With that sign outside and stuff? If you didn't wanna go with me, why not just tell me? Why broadcast it all over the City? I wanted to go to a dance or something to get acquainted with some, y'know, some people on this world. What's the problem? What--what's YOUR problem? You were nice before in the theater." Janine had a smug look on her face, but Fluffy could tell she was holding her anger in. Then Janine looked up and saw Fluffy, and pointed toward her. "Ask her." Janine said simply. Then Janine disappeared out and was gone. Tanner turned toward Fluffy, and his eyes lit up. He stared at her with a naive and innocent sort of wondrous lust. Obviously this kid is totally lost and deluded, Fluffy thought. I'll be nice to him and help him since he seems to be a mortal and he's kinda cute with that hair and all. Tanner continued to stare. "Uh, hello there." Fluffy said. "Er, hello." Tanner responded, approaching hesitantly. "What was that all about?" "Well uh--this Janine uh--goddess--we just had a little--uh--a little disagreement." "Huh. You're lucky it was just a little one." "She said to ask you about it." "I heard her." "Oh." "You can ask me about it if you want, but I can't guarantee an answer." "I don't even know what the question is anymore." "That's not too helpful." "I know." Fluffy leaned back against the column. "So," she said "You the Tanner Loblolly mentioned on the banner outside?" Tanner looked away. "Yeah, that's me. Real nice of her to broadcast my name everywhere like that." "You know a lot of people here in Agoopish?" "No. I mean, just a few people. I've only been here a couple of hours." "Keep telling people that and you're likely to get taken advantage of. Don't you know deception's the name of the game around here? Always pretend to know even if you haven't the foggiest." "Sort of like college." he said. "I suppose so." Fluffy was gleeful at having found something amusing to do. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----