Day 20
Wow, that's two-thirds of November done! That's amazing... And weird. Very weird. Quote from work: "I dropped a barcode." Love it! Wow, and I got a lot done here. That's unusual... A quiet Friday at the library. Who would have known?
Note to self: write notes on second visit. AKA improvise. But tomorrow.
And do laundry. In the morning.
"She did! She did lay out more of that colorful cloth!" Jackie reported with excitement.
"It has more of a shape now," Dan noted. "It's not like a cylinder. There's an hourglass shape to it, but it's disproportionately large at the bottom. That's not very aesthetically pleasing," he added with a disapproving tone.
"The rest of the stuff had less of a shape," Arthur said, referring to the other pieces of cloth that had been lain out.
"They seem to cover themselves up," Jackie said. "I'm not quite sure why."
"I wonder if they're very scary underneath that cloth," Rob said.
"Underneath their clothes," Jackie corrected with a grin.
He narrowed his eyes. "Oh, aren't you clever now? Remember, I am the one who is supremely gifted."
"Supremely irritating is more like it," Jackie said quietly.
"No, I don't think so," Dan said mildly.
"Aww, I didn't know that you liked me so much. Thanks!" Rob said enthusiastically.
"What?" He shook his head emphatically. "No, I was answering the first question." He was met by blank faces. He sighed. "No, I don't think they look scary underneath those cloths, or under their clothes, however you want to say that."
"That doesn't sound like your paranoid brand of caution," Rob said, having lost his good mood.
"We call that logic; now hush and pay attention to them," Jackie urged.
"Oh, right! No, they're not talking right now," Rob assured them. After a bit of fiddling, Hilda started to leave the room.
"Let's see where she leads us," Rob said eagerly, beginning the climb down the large legs of the large chair. It was easy to think of them as the legs of a chair, because their chairs very rarely had these legs. The bases that you sat on were always firmly on the ground.
"That's very risky!" Arthur said, wringing his hands just a little bit.
"We'll stay well back," Rob said. A bit reluctantly, the other members of the group began to follow him. "Anyway, I'll know what she says. We don't know if I can understand all of the creatures, but I can definitely understand her."
"Only because the other one doesn't seem to be showing any signs of movements, and we can't even get a proper full view of her," Dan said practically.
Hilda was passing through the gate, so they increased their pace. At a light run, they were actually able to keep up with her. Arthur and Dan were huffing just a little bit, but in the short term, it wasn't an impossible task.
"Hey, Margie!" Hilda said with a gesture that looked like a wave as she passed by a junction in the road.
Eager for a distraction, the group stopped underneath the shadows of the wall, trying to get a good look at whatever was approaching.
"Oooh, Hilda!" the creature cried. "I have a story for you. Stop by later!"
"Sure," Hilda replied, disappearing around the next junction.
The other creature, which was possibly called Margie, seemed the be a lot larger around the middle. Behind the strange protrusion, she seemed to be covered in the same yellow cloth that Hilda was concealed behind.
Rob relayed what had been said. "Let's see what she's up to."
Jackie resisted calling him "flighty" as they waited for her to get ahead of them. As she got nearer to them, it became obvious that the strange bulge was not actually a part of her body. In her arms, she was carrying a basket, but its contents were still a mystery to the group.
They traveled in a completely straight path for a considerably long time. However, Margie moved slower than Hilda, so they could move at their regular pace without having to worry about losing track of her, or worse, risking being seen because they were in too much of a hurry to conceal themselves properly.
As they got closer to their goal, however, they started to notice that the light was getting brighter. They didn't hold out for very long before they were fumbling with their bags to retrieve their visors to protect their eyes. It was clearly a significant amount of light, as even Arthur, who was exposed to these sorts of conditions on a daily basis, had to put on his visor.
Finally, they reached a gate that was just completely unnaturally large, that seem to lead to an even more well-lit area. It was so overwhelming that they hesitated the pass through the gates. They let Margie get far away from them as they stood a little way away from the gates, staring.
They were at the wrong angle to actually see what was beyond the gates, other than massive amounts of light. Still, they saw enough to know that this was an important step in their journey. The gates were very ornate, decorated with what seemed to be elaborate carvings. They were grand and welcoming, clearly meant to make an impression. They seemed to simply exude power and prominence.
"Am I the only one that's a little bit intimidated?" Rob asked, keeping his voice low for no real reason.
"No," Jackie said, her voice very high, even for a female.
"No," Arthur and Dan agreed, Arthur shook his head as well, perhaps to prevent his whole body from shaking.
"Are we going to move forward, then?" Dan asked.
"Eventually," Jackie said, cocking her head to one side in bewilderment. She was still staring at the light.
In fact, everyone was staring at the light. The staring was enchanting them, sucking them in. After a fairly robust workout following around these creatures to try to learn something new, they were more than content to stay still for a little while. It wasn't just a physical rest. It was a profoundly deep mental rest as well. After a sufficient amount of time had passed for all of them to reflect, they started to shuffle.
"Right; it's time to face that gate," Robert said decisively.
They approached slowly, holding hands up to shield their eyes from the brunt of the light. It was a bright yellow-white light, much like the kind that streamed through strange openings in the walls. They took their time, finally standing at the gate, able to see what was beyond.
It didn't look anything like the rest of the outside. Instead of an overwhelming scheme of gray, this place had an impossible amount of colors. The roads did not continue, though it did look like there were several paths that were particularly well-traveled.
The green and brown and blue just existed in tremendous amounts. The ground was predominantly green out here. Looking closely, it actually consisted of long flattened tubes of green that were taller than any of them poking out of a squishy and crumbly brown substance. It was fairly easy to walk on, as soon as they adjusted to the idea that their feet should sink into the ground.
There were also more colorful things poking out of the ground. These objects were scattered all through the land, though certain sections did seem to have considerably higher concentrations of them. There were also much larger protrusions that consisted of colorful spheres and ovals on top of thick brown cylinders. These objects were in the distance, but were clearly impossibly large. They were even bigger than the gates that they had just passed through.
There seemed to be paths, colored brown and gray, which looked like they were made of different materials. There were more of the creatures out here, following these paths and undertaking seemingly ordinary tasks. They could even spot Margie in the distance, hanging some things on invisible supports. There was a constant sensation of being blown on all over, but it was gentle and refreshing. The air even seemed fresher and more fragrant.
Above, there was no top to be seen. The vertical limit seemed to have disappeared. All above, there was a tint of blue. It even seemed to be possible to identify a far-away source of light that was too bright to look at directly, even with visors. The rays from this mysterious source of light were warm and comforting, inviting them to just keep looking.
There was just one overwhelming sensation, however. It was an odd sensation, one that they had believed they felt when they first left their colony. As it had turned, they had not even begun to really feel that feeling. It was a feeling of being in an impossible large space. It was a feeling of having absolutely unlimited destinations to dream about. And it was a feeling of being small. And at that moment, every one of them felt absolutely minuscule in comparison to what they had just stumbled upon. This was no nook.
"Where are we?" Arthur asked weakly.
For quite a while, silence was his only answer. "I have no idea, but we're certainly not being enclosed now," Dan said finally.
"I'm not sure that I'm actually awake right now, actually," Jackie said. "I must still be asleep. And the lack of rest has clearly driven my imagination into overdrive." She paused to swallow loudly. "It doesn't make any sense at all."
"It's a paradise," Rob declared. "It's an impossible paradise."
Everyone was scared to move, as though that might cause the vision to fade away into their minds and leave them looking at another gray set of walls.
"All that we did was pass through a gate," Dan said, narrating as though this wasn't actually happening to him in that very moment.
Doubt settled over the group. There hadn't been anything more to it, but that doesn't be right, could it?
"I need to compare," Rob said suddenly, walking back to the gates. The others were terrified, but they couldn't express their feelings in any way. He was out of sight for a moment of high tension, but then he appeared again. "It still looks the same."
"We came from that, to this," Arthur confirmed. "This, this," he stammered, "this space. This colorful, wonderful, freeing space!"
"We've gone about as far from home as possible," Dan said.
Jackie grinned wildly. "Just look how far we have come!" She laughed delightedly as the group continued to take in the glorious sights.
"Oh, I like that we have two months to stay away from the colony. I like that fact very, very much," Dan said.
"Imagine everything we can learn; everything we can see," Arthur said. "Just imagine all the things that could be out here."
"I think we should see what we've just left," Jackie suggested.
"You mean?" Rob started, pointing back through the gate.
She nodded. "Yeah. Let's go further out so we can get a good look at the whole thing."
Arthur and Dan looked at one another. They had been suppressing large grins that they now released. They started the trek out from their former place of imprisonment. The group was more than sufficiently concealed among the green, flexible, stringy poles. The could even run and skip and prance around a bit.
When they felt they had traveled sufficiently far, they all stopped, so that they could turn around at the same time to face their past. When they did, they were blown away. They were face a tremendous gray structure that was enclosed behind huge walls. There were several visible towers that were topped with spikes and dotted with small openings. There were other, smaller gates to be seen as well as more holes in the walls.
It was a structure made for protection and for prominence. It seemed truly majestic.
Note to self: write notes on second visit. AKA improvise. But tomorrow.
And do laundry. In the morning.
"She did! She did lay out more of that colorful cloth!" Jackie reported with excitement.
"It has more of a shape now," Dan noted. "It's not like a cylinder. There's an hourglass shape to it, but it's disproportionately large at the bottom. That's not very aesthetically pleasing," he added with a disapproving tone.
"The rest of the stuff had less of a shape," Arthur said, referring to the other pieces of cloth that had been lain out.
"They seem to cover themselves up," Jackie said. "I'm not quite sure why."
"I wonder if they're very scary underneath that cloth," Rob said.
"Underneath their clothes," Jackie corrected with a grin.
He narrowed his eyes. "Oh, aren't you clever now? Remember, I am the one who is supremely gifted."
"Supremely irritating is more like it," Jackie said quietly.
"No, I don't think so," Dan said mildly.
"Aww, I didn't know that you liked me so much. Thanks!" Rob said enthusiastically.
"What?" He shook his head emphatically. "No, I was answering the first question." He was met by blank faces. He sighed. "No, I don't think they look scary underneath those cloths, or under their clothes, however you want to say that."
"That doesn't sound like your paranoid brand of caution," Rob said, having lost his good mood.
"We call that logic; now hush and pay attention to them," Jackie urged.
"Oh, right! No, they're not talking right now," Rob assured them. After a bit of fiddling, Hilda started to leave the room.
"Let's see where she leads us," Rob said eagerly, beginning the climb down the large legs of the large chair. It was easy to think of them as the legs of a chair, because their chairs very rarely had these legs. The bases that you sat on were always firmly on the ground.
"That's very risky!" Arthur said, wringing his hands just a little bit.
"We'll stay well back," Rob said. A bit reluctantly, the other members of the group began to follow him. "Anyway, I'll know what she says. We don't know if I can understand all of the creatures, but I can definitely understand her."
"Only because the other one doesn't seem to be showing any signs of movements, and we can't even get a proper full view of her," Dan said practically.
Hilda was passing through the gate, so they increased their pace. At a light run, they were actually able to keep up with her. Arthur and Dan were huffing just a little bit, but in the short term, it wasn't an impossible task.
"Hey, Margie!" Hilda said with a gesture that looked like a wave as she passed by a junction in the road.
Eager for a distraction, the group stopped underneath the shadows of the wall, trying to get a good look at whatever was approaching.
"Oooh, Hilda!" the creature cried. "I have a story for you. Stop by later!"
"Sure," Hilda replied, disappearing around the next junction.
The other creature, which was possibly called Margie, seemed the be a lot larger around the middle. Behind the strange protrusion, she seemed to be covered in the same yellow cloth that Hilda was concealed behind.
Rob relayed what had been said. "Let's see what she's up to."
Jackie resisted calling him "flighty" as they waited for her to get ahead of them. As she got nearer to them, it became obvious that the strange bulge was not actually a part of her body. In her arms, she was carrying a basket, but its contents were still a mystery to the group.
They traveled in a completely straight path for a considerably long time. However, Margie moved slower than Hilda, so they could move at their regular pace without having to worry about losing track of her, or worse, risking being seen because they were in too much of a hurry to conceal themselves properly.
As they got closer to their goal, however, they started to notice that the light was getting brighter. They didn't hold out for very long before they were fumbling with their bags to retrieve their visors to protect their eyes. It was clearly a significant amount of light, as even Arthur, who was exposed to these sorts of conditions on a daily basis, had to put on his visor.
Finally, they reached a gate that was just completely unnaturally large, that seem to lead to an even more well-lit area. It was so overwhelming that they hesitated the pass through the gates. They let Margie get far away from them as they stood a little way away from the gates, staring.
They were at the wrong angle to actually see what was beyond the gates, other than massive amounts of light. Still, they saw enough to know that this was an important step in their journey. The gates were very ornate, decorated with what seemed to be elaborate carvings. They were grand and welcoming, clearly meant to make an impression. They seemed to simply exude power and prominence.
"Am I the only one that's a little bit intimidated?" Rob asked, keeping his voice low for no real reason.
"No," Jackie said, her voice very high, even for a female.
"No," Arthur and Dan agreed, Arthur shook his head as well, perhaps to prevent his whole body from shaking.
"Are we going to move forward, then?" Dan asked.
"Eventually," Jackie said, cocking her head to one side in bewilderment. She was still staring at the light.
In fact, everyone was staring at the light. The staring was enchanting them, sucking them in. After a fairly robust workout following around these creatures to try to learn something new, they were more than content to stay still for a little while. It wasn't just a physical rest. It was a profoundly deep mental rest as well. After a sufficient amount of time had passed for all of them to reflect, they started to shuffle.
"Right; it's time to face that gate," Robert said decisively.
They approached slowly, holding hands up to shield their eyes from the brunt of the light. It was a bright yellow-white light, much like the kind that streamed through strange openings in the walls. They took their time, finally standing at the gate, able to see what was beyond.
It didn't look anything like the rest of the outside. Instead of an overwhelming scheme of gray, this place had an impossible amount of colors. The roads did not continue, though it did look like there were several paths that were particularly well-traveled.
The green and brown and blue just existed in tremendous amounts. The ground was predominantly green out here. Looking closely, it actually consisted of long flattened tubes of green that were taller than any of them poking out of a squishy and crumbly brown substance. It was fairly easy to walk on, as soon as they adjusted to the idea that their feet should sink into the ground.
There were also more colorful things poking out of the ground. These objects were scattered all through the land, though certain sections did seem to have considerably higher concentrations of them. There were also much larger protrusions that consisted of colorful spheres and ovals on top of thick brown cylinders. These objects were in the distance, but were clearly impossibly large. They were even bigger than the gates that they had just passed through.
There seemed to be paths, colored brown and gray, which looked like they were made of different materials. There were more of the creatures out here, following these paths and undertaking seemingly ordinary tasks. They could even spot Margie in the distance, hanging some things on invisible supports. There was a constant sensation of being blown on all over, but it was gentle and refreshing. The air even seemed fresher and more fragrant.
Above, there was no top to be seen. The vertical limit seemed to have disappeared. All above, there was a tint of blue. It even seemed to be possible to identify a far-away source of light that was too bright to look at directly, even with visors. The rays from this mysterious source of light were warm and comforting, inviting them to just keep looking.
There was just one overwhelming sensation, however. It was an odd sensation, one that they had believed they felt when they first left their colony. As it had turned, they had not even begun to really feel that feeling. It was a feeling of being in an impossible large space. It was a feeling of having absolutely unlimited destinations to dream about. And it was a feeling of being small. And at that moment, every one of them felt absolutely minuscule in comparison to what they had just stumbled upon. This was no nook.
"Where are we?" Arthur asked weakly.
For quite a while, silence was his only answer. "I have no idea, but we're certainly not being enclosed now," Dan said finally.
"I'm not sure that I'm actually awake right now, actually," Jackie said. "I must still be asleep. And the lack of rest has clearly driven my imagination into overdrive." She paused to swallow loudly. "It doesn't make any sense at all."
"It's a paradise," Rob declared. "It's an impossible paradise."
Everyone was scared to move, as though that might cause the vision to fade away into their minds and leave them looking at another gray set of walls.
"All that we did was pass through a gate," Dan said, narrating as though this wasn't actually happening to him in that very moment.
Doubt settled over the group. There hadn't been anything more to it, but that doesn't be right, could it?
"I need to compare," Rob said suddenly, walking back to the gates. The others were terrified, but they couldn't express their feelings in any way. He was out of sight for a moment of high tension, but then he appeared again. "It still looks the same."
"We came from that, to this," Arthur confirmed. "This, this," he stammered, "this space. This colorful, wonderful, freeing space!"
"We've gone about as far from home as possible," Dan said.
Jackie grinned wildly. "Just look how far we have come!" She laughed delightedly as the group continued to take in the glorious sights.
"Oh, I like that we have two months to stay away from the colony. I like that fact very, very much," Dan said.
"Imagine everything we can learn; everything we can see," Arthur said. "Just imagine all the things that could be out here."
"I think we should see what we've just left," Jackie suggested.
"You mean?" Rob started, pointing back through the gate.
She nodded. "Yeah. Let's go further out so we can get a good look at the whole thing."
Arthur and Dan looked at one another. They had been suppressing large grins that they now released. They started the trek out from their former place of imprisonment. The group was more than sufficiently concealed among the green, flexible, stringy poles. The could even run and skip and prance around a bit.
When they felt they had traveled sufficiently far, they all stopped, so that they could turn around at the same time to face their past. When they did, they were blown away. They were face a tremendous gray structure that was enclosed behind huge walls. There were several visible towers that were topped with spikes and dotted with small openings. There were other, smaller gates to be seen as well as more holes in the walls.
It was a structure made for protection and for prominence. It seemed truly majestic.