PAGES 1 thru 12
PAGE 01
OVERVIEW -- THE SHORT FORM
"WHEN HISTORY IS FINISHED -- WHEN THE WORLD HAS CEASED -- WHEN TIME HAS STOPPED… THEN, THE JOURNEY REALLY BEGINS."
FOREVER ENDEAVOR -- SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURE SERIES
for-ev-er -- adverb - 1. For everlasting time; eternally. 2. At all times; incessantly.
en-deav-or -- noun - A conscientious or concerted effort toward a given end; an earnest attempt.
"FOREVER ENDEAVOR" TEXT AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY GRAY L. LYDA
IN TWENTY WORDS OR LESS: AN ENIGMATIC MAN OF THE FAR FUTURE INVESTIGATES HUMAN HISTORY TO DECIDE MANKIND'S ULTIMATE FATE.
IN A NUTSHELL: THREE MILLION YEARS IN THE FUTURE, A DIVERSE GROUP OF CHARACTERS DEAL WITH THE END OF EARTH'S EXISTENCE AND THE MEANING OF HUMAN EVOLUTION.
IN A BIGGER NUTSHELL: AN ANACHRONISTIC COLLECTION OF INDIVIDUALS COMES TOGETHER THREE MILLION YEARS IN THE FUTURE WHEN THE EARTH IS BEING DESTROYED BY AN UNKNOWN FORCE. THEIR ONLY ESCAPE IS VIA A VAST ORBITING HOOP (FORMERLY THE MOON) ON WHICH IS RECORDED A SIMULATION OF HUMANKIND'S ENTIRE HISTORICAL CAREER. THEY MUST EXPLORE THE HOOP AND LOCATE THE SINGLE POINT THAT CAN CARRY THEM BEYOND THE RECORDING INTO THE SAFETY OF THE WORLD'S TRUE PAST. ONE OF THESE CHARACTERS HOLDS MAN'S FINAL DESTINY IN HIS HANDS. COSMOLOGICALLY SPEAKING, THIS DEVELOPS INTO AN ONTOLOGICAL THRILLER OF EPIC AND EPOCHAL SCOPE.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS
Our Solar System, three million years from now… A man of mysterious origins, a woman transplanted from the 21st Century, her hi-tech artificial guardian, and an intelligent insectoid plant escape a dying Earth. They crash land on the Lunar Ring -- a vast hoop created long ago from a disintegrated moon, encoded with a virtual-reality simulation of the entire span of human history.
Their collision with the hoop creates a temporal shock-wave that draws in a trio of para-military operatives from the 25th Century. The trio, now trapped in the doomed future, joins with the first group and together they explore hoop-history, searching for a single point through which they can return to the safety of the 25th Century.
The man of mysterious origins searches for something else: The meaning and value of human beings. His judgement will determine mankind's continuation -- or annihilation -- in the New Order that is unfolding in the Solar System.
BRIEF CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)
SHERMAN OBRECON AMES -- Seemingly an average human male, but his origins remain a mystery -- even to himself, apparently. His existence is crucial to mankind's destiny.
BUSTER BULB -- A friendly, sentient insectoid-vegetable. The only one of its kind, he represents the highest point in the evolution of Earth species in the post-human epoch.
BoB (Acronym for "Billions of Brains") -- A "Magic Box" computer conveyance created in the late 21st Century. Its functions are nearly unlimited and it is literally indestructible. He represents the highest point in the evolution of human quantum technology.
LANARA ALPHA -- A human female conceived in the late 21st Century, brought to life in this world by BoB, whose mission was to preserve a human fetus and then revive it in the distant future.
HOOP-HOPPERS -- A three-member team of para-military agents entrusted with maintaining and policing the orbiting ring-recording of the 25th Century.
PAGE 01 - Back
Life is, in fact, a battle...
Evil is insolent and strong;
Beauty enchanting but rare;
Goodness very apt to be weak;
Folly very apt to be defiant;
Wickedness to carry the day;
Imbeciles to be in great places;
People of sense in small;
And mankind generally, unhappy.
But the world as it stands
Is no illusion, no phantasm,
No evil dream of the night;
We wake up to it again
Forever and ever.
We can neither forget it
Nor deny it
Nor dispense with it.
-- Henry James, 1878
PAGE 02
"THE ULTIMATE FUTURE… HISTORY'S PENULTIMATE ADVENTURE."
FOREVER ENDEAVOR -- TIME TRAVELING EXTRAVAGANZA
ex-trav-a-gan-za -- noun - 1. A light orchestral composition marked by freedom and diversity of form, often with burlesque elements. 2. Any elaborate, spectacular entertainment.
burl-esque -- noun - 1. A literary or dramatic work that makes a subject appear ridiculous by treating it in an incongruous style, as by presenting a lofty subject with vulgarity, or the inconsequential with mock dignity. 2. Any ludicrous or mocking imitation; a travesty. 3. Vaudeville entertainment characterized by broad, ribald comedy, dancing, and display of nudity.
SECTION I -- THE SAGA BEGINS - The Solar System 3 million years from now
PART 1 - EARTH HABITAT -- Presentation of the Great Sphere, Earth Habitat, and the killer light shafts. Primary characters are introduced: SHERMAN AMES, LANARA, BUSTER, BoB
PART 2 - LUNAR HOOP -- Characters escape to Hoop and are stranded. Secondary characters are introduced: RaSa, DaRa, JaKa
SECTION II -- THE SAGA CONTINUES - Exploration of the Lunar Hoop
PARTS 1 THRU 10 -- Episodic adventures in Hoop-History, searching for the time-transfer portal to escape into Earth's real-time past. RaSa thwarts their success to allow for his superiors to locate and retrieve them.SECTION III -- THE SAGA CONCLUDES - Escape from 3 million A.D.
PART 1 - ESCAPE -- RaSa waits for retrieval probe while others defy him and opt for freedom via the portal, which RaSa had been concealing.
PART 2 - CAPTURE -- Their freedom is temporary. Twenty-fifth Century enforcers intercept the group and return to mission headquarters.
PART 3 - BREAK-OUT -- JaKa makes a stand and murders RaSa. The group achieves free-agency as outcasts and they explore the world of the 25th Century.
PART 4 - THE "MONITOR WIZARD" -- The group is led by the 'wizard' imprisoned at the South Pole, and the true condition of society is revealed.
PART 5 - TIME-SHIFT -- Their position is attacked, but BoB engineers an escape into the future with the assistance of his computer allies.
PART 6 - THE NEW ORDER -- AMES' purpose is realized and the New Order of the Solar System is initiated.
BRIEF INTRODUCTION:
The time is three million years in our future. A vast globe, created long ago by super-advanced humans, contains our planet in lonely orbit around the sun. The rest of the material in the Solar System has gone into the construction of the Great Sphere which shields Earth from deep space and retains all of the sun's energy within it.
Caught in this bubble of everlasting daylight, Earth is now a nearly barren world circled by a dark ring made up of the disintegrated remains of the moon.
The planet is lifeless except for a small bio-sphere that sustains all that is left of Earth's erratically evolving organic forms. This habitat is located in the center of what was once Antarctica. It is protected and maintained with mechanisms installed by humans who have long since abandoned their cradle.
This steady state of affairs is interrupted by the appearance of intense light beams flashing up from the ground, zapping animals and plants out of existence. This inexplicable development initiates a sequence of events that are chronicled in "Forever Endeavor."
PAGE 02 - Back
The planet has been through a lot worse than us.
Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles, hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages -- And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference?
The planet isn't going anywhere. WE ARE!
-- George Carlin, 1992
PAGE 03
OVERVIEW -- SECTION I OUTLINE
"THE DESTINATION OF HUMANKIND -- THE DESTINY OF TIME AND SPACE"FOREVER ENDEAVOR -- FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER and ever… and ever
e-ter-ni-ty -- noun - 1. The totality of time without beginning or end; infinite time. 2. The state or quality of being eternal; everlastingness. 3.a. The endless period of time following death. b. The afterlife; immortality. 4. A very long time.
time -- noun - 1. A nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future.
SECTION I -- THE SAGA BEGINS -- The Solar System, A.D. 3 Million
PART 1 - EARTH HABITAT
A - INTRO - Starting with view of galaxy, going into tighter closeups until we come to Earth
a - The Solar System is seen as an immense globe. This Great Sphere was constructed long ago by nearly god-like humans who fashioned all the matter in the system into a thin shell containing the sun and the earth.
b - Earth orbits within a bubble of eternal day, bathed in reflected sunlight, isolated from the darkness and dangers outside the Great Sphere.
c - The planet is circled by a dark ring that had once been its moon. The world is barren except for a biosphere in Antarctica that sustains what is left of Earth's evolving life forms.
B - SHERMAN AMES APPEARS - Drops into scene, disrupting wildlife
a - A human shape plops onto the shore of a quiet bay. The man sits in a shallow crater formed by his impact, blankly observing his surroundings.
b - He seems oblivious to the fact that animals slow their frenetic activity when they notice him -- then narrow shafts of brilliant light consume one or two of the motionless watchers, prompting the other curious creatures to flee.
c - The seated man idly adjusts his skin-tight covering, rolling up sleeves and cuffs while the cycle repeats: animals slow to watch him, beams strike a couple of observers who haven't moved for about a minute, and the jolted survivors bolt away.
C - BUSTER INTERVENES - Insectoid-plant gets the man moving
a - The man appears to be unaware that his inactivity is creating a disturbance. A voice calls to him, urging him to move.
b - BUSTER approaches, telling the man that his motionless presence is hypnotizing the animals, turning them into targets for the deadly shafts of light. BUSTER flashes simple symbols on his rotund surface, attempting to get the man's attention visually as well as verbally.
c - Finally the man understands and begins walking, accompanied by the relieved, talkative BUSTER.
D - BLOSSOMING BLOON BULBS - They watch bloon plants; AMES gets named
a - The man follows BUSTER to a colony of plants, listening to his chattering monolog, assimilating the sound of his language. They observe the blossoming vegetables, waiting to see if they'll fall victim to the beams during this crucial moment in their life cycle.
b - BUSTER asks the man his name. Confused, the man replies, "I'm sure my name's-" but his sentence is cut off by the blast of a light shaft. BUSTER says, "Greetings, SHERMAN AMES. I am BUSTER." The man tries to correct him: "I meant to say 'I'm sure my name's in my mind… but I can't remember it,' " but again his words are interrupted by a flurry of beam blasts. He lets the name stand.
[continued on Page 04]
PAGE 03 - Back
-- Kurt Vonnegut
The known is finite, the unknown infinite; Intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land.
-- T.H. Huxley, 1887
We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
-- T.S. Eliot
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-- Robert Heinlein
Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly; Man got to sit and wonder, “Why, why, why?”
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land; Man got to tell himself he understand.
-- Kurt Vonnegut
OVERVIEW -- SECTION I OUTLINE (Continued)
c - BUSTER mourns the total destruction of the Bloon Bulbs. He explains that he was born from plants like these -- they were the last of their kind, and now that they're gone they will never produce another specimen like himself. He creates a diagram on his surface to show AMES the unique Bloon life cycle.
-- Kurt Vonnegut
PAGE 04
c - BUSTER mourns the total destruction of the Bloon Bulbs. He explains that he was born from plants like these -- they were the last of their kind, and now that they're gone they will never produce another specimen like himself. He creates a diagram on his surface to show AMES the unique Bloon life cycle.
E - BUSTER DISCUSSES LANARA - BUSTER's meeting with LANARA is depicted
a - They leave the scene of devastation, and BUSTER tells AMES about LANARA and her assistance in his growth into a sentient being.
b - BUSTER demonstrates his ability to create lifelike pictures on his skin, and he produces images of LANARA from his eidetic memory.
c - BUSTER depicts his introduction to BoB, and scenes of schooling he received from LANARA and her guardian.
a - They leave the scene of devastation, and BUSTER tells AMES about LANARA and her assistance in his growth into a sentient being.
b - BUSTER demonstrates his ability to create lifelike pictures on his skin, and he produces images of LANARA from his eidetic memory.
c - BUSTER depicts his introduction to BoB, and scenes of schooling he received from LANARA and her guardian.
F - THE LANARA/BOB STORY - BUSTER narrates their life, and LANARA's fate
a - Using his self-created pictures, BUSTER describes LANARA's development and BoB's role.
b - He goes on to explain how this idyllic world was shattered when the killer light beams began to occur.
c - He tells how LANARA tried to let the beams take her life -- how BOB saved her and was damaged -- how she tried again and was abducted by mysterious spheres.
a - Using his self-created pictures, BUSTER describes LANARA's development and BoB's role.
b - He goes on to explain how this idyllic world was shattered when the killer light beams began to occur.
c - He tells how LANARA tried to let the beams take her life -- how BOB saved her and was damaged -- how she tried again and was abducted by mysterious spheres.
G - AMES AND BUSTER EXAMINE BOB - BoB still functions; LANARA returns
a - They arrive at the BoB-cone, and AMES suggests that BUSTER try to activate him.
b - BUSTER speaks to BoB and finds him still very much "alive."
c - BoB's reactivation permits LANARA (lost in hyperdimensionality) to locate them, and she returns to their focus in time and space.
H - LANARA's ARRIVAL PRECIPITATES DISASTER - Beams became cataclysmic
a - LANARA, BoB, and BUSTER are overcme by their unexpected reunion, unaware that their motionless discussion is entrancing hundreds of animals, numbing them to stillness.
b - AMES interrupts - LANARA, seeing him for the first time, is wary of the new character. AMES points out the multitude of rapt observers.
c - The beams strike in force, reaching 'critical duration' that touches off catastrophic destruction. BoB barks a command and they all leap into his cone. Fissioning his rim, BoB launches into the sky, removing them from the deadly light-beam saturation of the Habitat.
PART 2 - LUNAR HOOPa - They arrive at the BoB-cone, and AMES suggests that BUSTER try to activate him.
b - BUSTER speaks to BoB and finds him still very much "alive."
c - BoB's reactivation permits LANARA (lost in hyperdimensionality) to locate them, and she returns to their focus in time and space.
H - LANARA's ARRIVAL PRECIPITATES DISASTER - Beams became cataclysmic
a - LANARA, BoB, and BUSTER are overcme by their unexpected reunion, unaware that their motionless discussion is entrancing hundreds of animals, numbing them to stillness.
b - AMES interrupts - LANARA, seeing him for the first time, is wary of the new character. AMES points out the multitude of rapt observers.
c - The beams strike in force, reaching 'critical duration' that touches off catastrophic destruction. BoB barks a command and they all leap into his cone. Fissioning his rim, BoB launches into the sky, removing them from the deadly light-beam saturation of the Habitat.
A - ENROUTE TO THE HOOP
a - BoB attains escape velocity, dodging the intensifying beam bursts that are obliterating Earth's last remaining biosphere.
b - LANARA is antagonistic toward AMES and only BUSTER can persuade her not to hurl him out of the cone.
c - BoB is expending his substance as fissionable fuel, and LANARA orders him to cease propulsion before he loses a significant percentage of his mentality.
b - LANARA is antagonistic toward AMES and only BUSTER can persuade her not to hurl him out of the cone.
c - BoB is expending his substance as fissionable fuel, and LANARA orders him to cease propulsion before he loses a significant percentage of his mentality.
B - CRASH LANDING
a - BoB reluctantly complies with LANARA's command. Consequently, he loses attitude control and collides with the Lunar Hoop.
[continued on Page 05]
a - BoB reluctantly complies with LANARA's command. Consequently, he loses attitude control and collides with the Lunar Hoop.
[continued on Page 05]
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CHARACTERS TRAITS
LaNaRa: Lie-hating Truth warrior. Brilliant, innocent, daring, bold, stubborn, deadly, nurturing, Earth-loving Amazonian crusading vixen.
SHERMAN: Devoted to Ultimate Reality and Destiny. Detached, bemused, direct, omnipotent, restrained, single-minded.
BoB: Slave to LaNaRa's welfare. Omniscient, invulnerable, trammeled by La's whims and idiosyncrasies -- committed to filling in the gaps of his knowledge-base, continually searching for his counterparts amid the mystery of the Humanimal melodrama.
BUSTER: Object of objectivity. Gentle and concerned, credulous, faithful, disarming, charming, robust, loquacious, one-dimensional, simple.
HOOP-HOPPER TEAM
RaSa: Hardened "Game" player. Disillusioned and weary, searching for elusive solutions to monumental dilemmas -- he is the source of his own destruction.
DaRa: Seeker of Wisdom beyond measure. Realistic, sensitive to underlying Truths, tuned to the currents of intrigue, uneasy with the rules of the "Game."
JaKa: Naive adventurer. Self-important and idealistic, dangerous and extreme, foolhardy, bombastic, immature, thick-headed.
LaNaRa is derived from her Zygote classification:
L (La) = Left handed Zygote
R (Ra) = Right handed Zygote
L 'n' R = Left and Right handed
Hence: LNR = LaNaRa = Ambidextrous
She can also be called RaNaLa, RaLa, LaRa, ElEnAr, or ArEnEl
PAGE 05
OVERVIEW - SECTION I OUTLINE (Continued)
b - LANARA interrogates AMES. BoB, having lost a portion of his faculties, is unable to specifically identify AMES but provides a list of scenarios that could explain his existence.c - AMES, pleading amnesia, says his name was mistakenly invented by BUSTER. He now believes his true name is OBRECON, but he claims he doesn't know why he's called that, or exactly where he comes from. LANARA accuses him of being a demonic liar with a suspicious ulterior agenda.
C - COPING WITH THEIR SITUATION
a - AMES strolls outside onto the airless surface of the Hoop. LANARA follows him and they watch the final blasts that declare the end of the Habitat. Earth is now dead. It is a poignant moment and they arrive at an unspoken truce.
b - Returning to the cone, where BoB maintains a minimal atmosphere that permits acoustic communication, they discuss their predicament. They are stranded -- BoB doesn't have enough fuel to reach the inner surface of the Great Sphere, so there is really no place for them to go.
c - Having no alternatives, they stoically accept their situation. BUSTER is interested in LANARA's new appearance and wants to know what happened to her.
b - LANARA interrogates AMES. BoB, having lost a portion of his faculties, is unable to specifically identify AMES but provides a list of scenarios that could explain his existence.c - AMES, pleading amnesia, says his name was mistakenly invented by BUSTER. He now believes his true name is OBRECON, but he claims he doesn't know why he's called that, or exactly where he comes from. LANARA accuses him of being a demonic liar with a suspicious ulterior agenda.
C - COPING WITH THEIR SITUATION
a - AMES strolls outside onto the airless surface of the Hoop. LANARA follows him and they watch the final blasts that declare the end of the Habitat. Earth is now dead. It is a poignant moment and they arrive at an unspoken truce.
b - Returning to the cone, where BoB maintains a minimal atmosphere that permits acoustic communication, they discuss their predicament. They are stranded -- BoB doesn't have enough fuel to reach the inner surface of the Great Sphere, so there is really no place for them to go.
c - Having no alternatives, they stoically accept their situation. BUSTER is interested in LANARA's new appearance and wants to know what happened to her.
D - LANARA TELLS HER STORY
a - LANARA describes her capture by the hyperdimensional spheres and her communications with them. They are a phenomenon produced by the physics of the Great Sphere and are the cause of the light beams.
b - She was furious at them for interfering with the Habitat and insisted that they return her to it. They condensed a sphere-layer to envelop her body, forming a protective second skin. Then they tried to send her back to Earth but didn't manage to get her into the correct dimension.
c - LANARA, trapped in a primordial cosmic reality, met a fossil thought-form and brought it to life by coming into contact with it. She called the creature RIAH and it served her now as an animated, sentient hair piece. RIAH helped LANARA locate BoB to re-enter the correct dimension.
E - RIAH BONDS WITH BOB
a - BoB attempts communication with RIAH and they link minds, transcending human sensibilities.
b - RIAH returns to its perch on LANARA's head and BoB expresses his new hyper-cosmic awareness.
c - BoB's augmented senses detect humans approaching them from the Past, soon to materialize in the Present. LANARA instructs BoB to camouflage their position so they can inconspicuously observe the intruders.
F - AWAITING THE INTRUDERS
a - AMES, thinking about names, asks BoB about his own name. BoB says that LANARA named him. "I did not," LANARA snaps -- but BoB reminds her.
b - BoB relates how LANARA, as a young girl, wanted to call her guardian something besides "Teacher" and he was eventually prodded to suggest "BoB" as an acronym for "Billions of Brains." For awhile thereafter she called him "Billi-BoB," but he didn't much care for that.
c - AMES then inquires into LANARA's name, and she says BoB named her. "I did not," BoB says, explaining how his human creators called his precious cargo "LNR-Alpha," indicating that she was the first "Latent Neonatal Replevin." In the simplified alphabet employed in BoB's program, the letters were pronounced "La-Na-Ra."
a - LANARA describes her capture by the hyperdimensional spheres and her communications with them. They are a phenomenon produced by the physics of the Great Sphere and are the cause of the light beams.
b - She was furious at them for interfering with the Habitat and insisted that they return her to it. They condensed a sphere-layer to envelop her body, forming a protective second skin. Then they tried to send her back to Earth but didn't manage to get her into the correct dimension.
c - LANARA, trapped in a primordial cosmic reality, met a fossil thought-form and brought it to life by coming into contact with it. She called the creature RIAH and it served her now as an animated, sentient hair piece. RIAH helped LANARA locate BoB to re-enter the correct dimension.
E - RIAH BONDS WITH BOB
a - BoB attempts communication with RIAH and they link minds, transcending human sensibilities.
b - RIAH returns to its perch on LANARA's head and BoB expresses his new hyper-cosmic awareness.
c - BoB's augmented senses detect humans approaching them from the Past, soon to materialize in the Present. LANARA instructs BoB to camouflage their position so they can inconspicuously observe the intruders.
F - AWAITING THE INTRUDERS
a - AMES, thinking about names, asks BoB about his own name. BoB says that LANARA named him. "I did not," LANARA snaps -- but BoB reminds her.
b - BoB relates how LANARA, as a young girl, wanted to call her guardian something besides "Teacher" and he was eventually prodded to suggest "BoB" as an acronym for "Billions of Brains." For awhile thereafter she called him "Billi-BoB," but he didn't much care for that.
c - AMES then inquires into LANARA's name, and she says BoB named her. "I did not," BoB says, explaining how his human creators called his precious cargo "LNR-Alpha," indicating that she was the first "Latent Neonatal Replevin." In the simplified alphabet employed in BoB's program, the letters were pronounced "La-Na-Ra."
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TEXT - SECTION I, PART I (Continued)
E - BUSTER DISCUSSES LANARA
BUSTER MEETS LANARA
After release from my shell, I was a mere psuedo-sentient earth-protrusion for several years. While rooted in the comfortable ground, the inside surface of my bulb took on increasingly complex bio-chemical activities. In time, my ecto-cells developed light-differentiation and I acquired full visual capabilities. But, being a simple vegetable, I had no reference to judge the things I beheld and no interest in interpreting them.
Then there came a wondrous vision that snapped my latent mind to attention. Lanara. She was a miraculous spectacle of color, form and sound -- a hyper stimulus that dislodged my mental inertia. Her vivid presence served to focus my previously dormant powers of perception.
Lanara regarded me with brief interest, then began toying with a nest of fire-gems. She was searching through the gems to find one that would fit snugly into a cute little dimple in her belly. Soon, she would select her ornament. Then she would be gone again. I had to make contact before she was lost to me forever. My nascent intellect surged and flexed. My stems became arms. My leaves became fingers. My fingers plucked an eye-cell from my body. I offered it to her as a gift and a greeting.
"YOU CAN MOVE!" she yelped. "AND YOU CAN SEE! BoB WAS RIGHT ABOUT YOU." At the time I understood nothing. I was a blank slate with its first piece of chalk. But I remember everything. And now I can comprehend her words. Despite her astonishment, Lanara stepped closer. I gingerly inserted my eye into her abdominal niche.
She giggled with delight. "SO, YOU MOVE, YOU SEE, YOU THINK. CAN YOU HEAR, TOO?" Touching the eye I'd given her, she said, "IT TICKLES. YOU'RE SWEET, BUT ISN'T THIS ONE OF YOUR EYEBALLS? YOU MIGHT NEED IT." Before she could remove my offering, I snatched a fire gem from her hand. I stuck it into the space left by my missing eye. She chuckled again. "HEY! YOU'RE SOMETHING ELSE, BUSTER. YOU'VE GROWN BEYOND BoB's PROJECTIONS. 'PHENOMENAL AND PRODIGIOUS.' THAT'S WHAT HE'LL SAY WHEN HE SEES YOU."
Then she grasped my arms and tugged. I popped from the ground. I found that my roots were actually another set of limbs. "HOW MOBILE ARE YOU?" Lanara asked. "SHOULD I CARRY YOU? MAYBE NOT…" She started to pick me up. Then she changed her mind and walked away. I was appalled. She was leaving me. I flailed my arms in protest. My hands huffed and hooted and tooted pleadingly.
And there she was. Gesturing for me to follow. She imitated my sounds, hooting and tooting and laughing. "YOU MOVE, SEE, THINK, HEAR -- YOU CAN EVEN TALK! GET MOVING, BUSTER. WE'RE GOING PLACES."
Then she was gone. Devastated, I fixed my being upon a single purpose. My arms were forced into service. In a pitiful, awkward, bumpy tumble, I got moving. I had to pursue this radiant being. In a matter of minutes, she had transformed a comfortably inactive plant into a desperate, anxious, pathetic, tormented creature.
I was in love.
Next, see Text 2 of 3
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