56 lines
2.8 KiB
Plaintext
56 lines
2.8 KiB
Plaintext
A tiny Mr Swarm crept across the wall and was trying to reach Mr
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Swarm's doorknob, stealthily making running leaps, scattering up
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the door, and sliding down again. Hex and I tried to keep from
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snickering, but finally he gained enough purchase to pull the
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handle and swiftly slid into the room.
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I'd been trying to convince Super Hex to let us use her tarot to
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play poker without making any progress, something about "the
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spirits not being a game" and "respecting traditions." So I began
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an inventory of the contents of my pockets.
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* the dusty remnants of some sort of cracker
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* two rubber bands, one broken
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* five smoke bombs
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* one of Commodore Bob's miniature communicators (even connected to
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the ship it received nothing but static, with the distorted
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refrains of "Big Hunk o' Love" from Elvis "live via satellite")
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* a button that doesn't match anything I'm wearing
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* one silver dollar, of unknown origin, date 1967
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Mr Swarm came out, acknowledged us and knocked on Cranium's door.
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It opened a crack, he had his towel around his waist, they mumbled
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to each other a bit, then Swarm joined us. A few lingering
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miniature Mr Swarms joined him as he explained what his spy found.
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Largely, nothing. The place was abandoned, but there were a few
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locked doors he couldn't circumvent.
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Commander Cranium walked out of his room waggling his pinkie in his
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ear. "Cleanliness brings purity of mind, What have we discovered?"
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Hex spoke her piece and told us about her readings. Mr Swarm,
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having split and experienced all seven histories at once, had no
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useful elaborations on her story except for his spy's reports. He
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regaled us with the discoveries and advances in medicine and other
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science, and lamented the lack of concise instructions. He touched
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on a few major philosophers and their debates on the nature of
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being and becoming, then becoming something else entirely. Stories
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of monsters and gods. Religions worshiped the first invasion as
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the return of the ur-creator or vindication for years of recounting
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dozens of prophecies, others dreamed of the new knowledge they would
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acquire would appease their ancestors curiosity through their eyes.
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But they were soon subjugated, they had never considered their
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gods would be so demanding, many said they were monsters - until
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the resistance ships came, first with defenses, then with the cure,
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a biological weapon of some sort. New gods had offered new
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creations to fight the old gods.
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While Swarm was delving into new mysteries, Cranium had learned
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that the stone floor got too slippery to properly bathe in the sink
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and there weren't enough towels. I found that none of them seemed
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worried enough about mysterious beings dragging us out of space to
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their dead planet.
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"There isn't anything else to discuss, is there?" Cranium asked.
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No sooner than I opened my mouth, he pushed the button.
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