Blue

Xerxes II

Location conflict. Parsing from order of statement. You inspect the map EAST. You don't recognize any of these routes, they could be the London Underground for all you know. But judging from how far the light that might represent you, has moved along the green route, you've probably traveled a few hundred kilometers, and the entire map is probably scaled to about the size of Western Europe. You memorize it, assuming that the upper edge of the map is the geographic north. You walk to the controls NORTH to look at them. Most prominently are a large flap-like Lever about three-quarters tilted forwards, as well as a large red Switch and a yellow Toggle. You flick the toggle because yellow is your favorite color, and you see that the headlights have gone out in front of the train, through the windshield. You turn them back on. You push the lever forwards and feel the train dramatically accelerate, pushing you backwards in the cabin. Regaining your footing, you approach the console again and press the red Switch. The train stops immediately, thrusting you fully against the windshield. "Do you mind?" says a puzzled but friendly voice from above. Obvious exits have not changed. You now think the yellow toggle is the outside lights, lever is the throttle and the switch is the deadman's stop.

In case you hadn't noticed, it has somehow become uncool to sound like you know what you're talking about? Or believe strongly in what you're saying? Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences? Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know? Declarative sentences - so-called because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true as opposed to other things which were, like, not - have been infected by a totally hip and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know? Like, don't think I'm uncool just because I've noticed this; this is just like the word on the street, you know? It's like what I've heard? I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay? I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty? What has happened to our conviction? Where are the limbs out on which we once walked? Have they been, like, chopped down with the rest of the rain forest? Or do we have, like, nothing to say? Has society become so, like, totally . . . I mean absolutely . . . You know? That we've just gotten to the point where it's just, like . . . whatever! And so actually our disarticulation . . . ness is just a clever sort of . . . thing to disguise the fact that we've become the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since . . . you know, a long, long time ago! I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you, I challenge you: To speak with conviction. To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks the determination with which you believe it. Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker, it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. You have to speak with it, too. -Taylor Mali

Everyone is a winner.

Since there isn't any present danger, and you are kind of tired, you sit down and lie with your back against the map, facing towards the fuse box. Before you can get any more comfortable, you spit on the floor just to make sure that any sort of health hazard might be avoided due to materials that were in your mouth, even partially. It doesn't take long before the magnetic hum of the train lulls you to sleep. Somehow that reminds you of something to do with being told by a man in a crisp suit to do some kind of cleaning, and the man introduced you to someone... [Later] Checking your HUD watch, you've been asleep for about seven hours. Dreamless but deep and refreshing, your sleep was a satisfying one. Obvious exits have not changed.

You keep running while humming city escape, but after a while you get bored of that song and your adrenalin is starting to kick in, so you start humming chariots of fire instead. You almost trip when your heel is bumped by the wall thing, making you leap backwards and get pinned against the wall thing by the force of wind resistance. You climb up the wall thing using the lights as hand-holds, eventually climbing up and onto it, realizing this must be some variety of maglev train. What its doing down here and why it doesn't notice a person on the tracks, you have no idea. You clamber down a hatch into a console cabin, dimly lit in a vaguely bluish color. These must be the controls for the train, but there is no engineer or driver aboard. The floor is diamond-pattern steel plating and looks like it hasn't been tread on in a little while, at least not by shoes or feet that were dirty. NORTH is the console of the train. There are several controls, but there are no markings or indications on them. EAST looks like a route map with several color-coded track layouts, and a light that's probably where you are on a green route, near the upper-left corner of the map. WEST looks like some kind of fuse box. SOUTH is a small cubby with a latch, overlooking a ladder that drops down several feet. There is no one around, and the train appears to be well sound-proofed. More or less you've stopped caring about the anti-freeze taste in your mouth. You can probably worry about getting your stomach pumped later.

Yes, but I can't say how the judges will like the delay.

You start doing a crab walk with impunity because of the wonderous power of your legs. You begin to consider the possibility of getting on the floor or opening the door just so you could walk the dinosaur in context, but the hatch is now already quite a distance behind you. You look up and see what looks like a wall painted hazard stripe black and yellow with four large lights mounted vertically on the front moving towards you at an alarming rate. If this is some sort of underground train tunnel, it's the biggest loading gauge you've ever seen. Even running at a pretty stiff pace, it's still traveling faster than you are and will catch up pretty quickly. Coming up soon EAST is the little niche where the hatch you came out of was, but glancing backwards it looks like you might be able to jump on to the latch on the front, although you have no idea where this thing is headed, or even if it's a train. There might be enough room to squeeze underneath it between the tunnel bed and the bottom edge of this thing, or you could run a bit faster and see if you can outrun it to where-ever it's going. Shooting at it probably won't help.

I like history.

Before you can raise your arm, one of them lunges at you, hitting you in the ribs and knocking you into a cartwheel spin, making you inadvertently roundhouse kick the centipede into five pieces. "That's one way to say goodbye!" you exclaim to the other centipede as you rocket up the ladder, almost hitting your head again against the steel hatch. Pushing it open brings you into a large, quiet cavernous tunnel quite unlike the concrete one filled with antifreeze. It's made of a tough looking steely metal on all sides, with flat columns supporting a slightly arched ceiling. It is somewhat lit by ceiling lights that are quite far apart, but more than that is a large green lamp protruding from the floor quite near the hatch. You find a bit of metal that must weigh about 40 pounds even though it's the length of your arm, and rest it on the hatch to prevent the centipede from getting out. Here you notice that there is a little hood on the green lamp, so that its only pointing one direction. The middle of the tunnel floor has large blocks the size of squashed couches, lined in single file with gaps in between them only about an inch or less. You can travel SOUTH down the Tunnel or NORTH. A wind blowing from the NORTH to the SOUTH whistles through your hair.

Did you know that the same company that made most steam locomotives for West Germany after World War II also manufactured aircraft for the Luftwaffe? (Henschel & Sohns Metallfabrik) Did you know that MKV is a DVD container file?

Doom Shepard or BTGBullseye, your poster is due before tomorrow. If one is not accepted, your submission will automatically be zero points.

You stream down the pipe at incredible speed- your legs must be either super strong or super fast (or both). Either way you end up nearly jamming your head into a ladder at the opposite end of the pipe. Looking up you see where the ladder leads, another squarish opening, with a door that just closed as if you almost caught up to someone escaping. Somehow that reminds you of something to do with opening a door with your pistol trained down a hallway, with another figure following close behind... Below you, the ladder terminates in the concrete floor of the pipe. NORTH of the ladder is a small opening about the size of a basketball, and SOUTH is another very similar opening. Out of each opening have come a centipede. The two centipedes are about the size of large dogs and sound unnaturally alike a washing machine. They look like they can swim and may be able to use door knobs or flank those equipped with shotguns. If it's any consolation, you do not have a shotgun right now. The centipedes are EAST of you. NORTH and SOUTH are openings large enough to throw something inside but not large enough to climb into. The jowls on the centipedes almost looks like a smiley face.

Ingesting the antifreeze-marinated mouse gave you some kind of superpower in your legs because of the crystal you were carrying. You can feel that they're different, although they don't move or look any different, and you can still sense the passage of time as normal, so you probably aren't a device that needs to travel 88 miles per hour in order to function. Why the crystal didn't interact with the antifreeze earlier, we may never know. Also, the crystal caught fire, so you tossed it away in surprise. It would be a bad idea to try and get it back since it looks like it's hopping around on the antifreeze like potassium in water, and is liable to explode. Obvious exits are SOUTH to where you landed, NORTH to the Umbrella Man and WEST down the pipe. You are no longer hungry, but that mouse tasted less than tangy.

I like birthdays. They remind us of how far we've come, and how far we can still go.

I like lego.

You dive down and see a dead mouse. Upon surfacing you now remember that this liquid smells a lot like engine antifreeze.

"Here. I'll trade my glasses for my arm." "Fair trade. The practicality of good sight and also focusing lenses for one's arm. Done" You suddenly feel like a rugby captain punched you in the elbow and laughed because a jolt went up one side of your body with the proper accompanying sensations of pressure and violence. Looking down at your shoulder, it looks and feels as if you totally hadn't landed almost on your face from a 100 foot drop. However you've lost the ability to discern detail beyond about eight yards, which may hamper your ability to run in the future. Oh well, this is a cerebral game anyways. You look at your surroundings, now taking in how you will be perceiving the world for the time being, as if it were photographed by an art student who invested too much money in Depth-of-Field lenses. Someone is cackling at the far end of the pipe. Obvious exits have not changed. The moustachioed banknote appears to have changed, the figurehead looks either kind of worried, or Challenge Accepted guy.

You punctuate a polite "Hi." with the gesture of waving your functioning arm. Umbrella Man looks like he may be only tangentially interested in what's going on near or around him, let alone you. "Certainly there is something I can help you with?" He asks systematically, like a wheelbarrow running down a rut. "What is this place?" you ask. "This is the Nightmare. I'm your subconscious, to help you with anything if you need it." he said, reaching his hand behind the swimming goggles to adjust his monocle. "What was that tentacle monster?" you say, keeping eye contact on the Umbrella Man while pointing upwards. "The Initial. Most who enter aren't found capable enough to escape. Do you remember?" "I don't think I do." "Well I'm sure it will come back to you. Is there anything else I can help you with?" said the Umbrella Man, turning his attention to the umbrella and giving it a shake before returning it to an idle pose. "Can you help me remember?" "I cannot, it's not within the realm of my ability to assist. Is there anything else I can help you with?" "My arm maybe." "Anything from your POCKET that you would consider just as useful as your arm I could trade for its health. Is there anything else I can help you with?" Obvious exits have not changed.

No I didn't. That's quite interesting, and contributes to my fear of really deep water.

Exactly. I suck at putting ideas to words like this... lol Creation in this sense is one cod example to the limitations human beings are subject to that a God is not.

Doing a full butterfly swim washes off your head, getting rid of the gunk that was in your hair, thankfully. As you approach, you see that the human-like figure is a man in a tuxedo wearing hip-waders and a bowler hat, holding an umbrella with a strawberry pattern on it. Under the fluid he appears to be standing on an oil drum. "Checkpoint." he says dryly. Obvious exits are SOUTH to where you landed, WEST down the pipe, and DIVE to see if there's anything on the bottom of the pipe. You can also interact with the Umbrella Man. Your headache from earlier seems to have been aleviated, but your arm still gives sharp pains when you try to move it. Cut me some slack, man. I could potentially describe new locations more thoroughly or less thoroughly, whichever you prefer. What you saw is more of a medium level of detail.

Isn't it fascinating how "headshot" has become a verb in modern language?

To have nothing would be to have a space in which there is nothing that we know that exists, in it. No atoms, no quarks or bosons or leptons, no anti-matter, no light, no gravity, no neutrinos, nothing. As far as knowledge has carried the modern world thusfar, such a space could not exist. But we'll pretend, shall we? Imagine we have this fantastic wonder of modern achievement in science and physics that is a vacuum container in which there is absolutely nothing. Pray tell how by force of will and intention that in this container (in which there is nothing), we bring something into being. Not take matter that is outside the chamber and move it inside (by whatever means you're contriving, motion, magnetism, superposition etc). Have the abyss inside this chamber, and make something in it out of nothing. Like invent a new particle or generate a new element or have a beautiful new species of rabbit come into being-whatever, Something, anything, be created out of that infinite nothingness in the abyss chamber. That is what is meant by "create something from nothing" in the sense which I mentioned. I don't mean teleportation, I don't mean radioactive decay, I don't mean a big bang, I mean well and true creation. Such is a power we do not possess.