LMNO-PI

[East Coast Hustle]

forth'd.

[Gimoz]

Fifth'd

Law of five anyone?

[fluffy]

if you want fifths
go over to the open bar

[Irreverend Hugh, KSC]

if you want fifths
go over to the open bar

Seventhed. Or fcukened. Or something.

[LMNO]

8th'd.


...


::looks around::


Oh, that's me, isn't it.  Right.  I'll see what I can do.

[LMNO]

Erin cracked open the bottle, and took a swig.  She made a face.

,ÄúYuck.  This is awful.,Äù

,ÄúCould be worse, could be Jose Cuervo.,Äù

,ÄúUgh, never mind.  I,Äôm starting to get jittery.  Let me just drink.,Äù

,ÄúThat,Äôs some good thinking.  See if you can lean the seat back so you,Äôre just staring at the ceiling.,Äù

She was able to recline the seat to it,Äôs optimal horny-teenager-getting-it-on-in-Mom,Äôs-car position, took another slug, grimaced, and closed her eyes.  I tried to find something good on the radio, but all I could find was propaganda, and the latest Brittany Spears clone.  Man, when are they going to stop that shit?  She died in a plane crash 15 years ago, and each replica is just worse than before.  Surely her DNA has run out by now.

The shitheap of a car cleared the city limits, and as usual, I was struck with a wave of vertigo as the psychotecture came to a sudden end.  It was as if the entire landscape became a barren, emotional plain.  When you live with artificial manipulations of your nervous system 24/7, the sudden absence of the distorted empathic pressures makes you feel like your head is about to spin off your neck while a nest of snakes bursts out of your head.

I reached over to Erin & grabbed the bottle of tequila from her.  ,ÄúHey, she said weakly.  I was just,Äî,Äù

,ÄúKeep your pants on, I just need to clear my head,,Äù I said, taking a swig & handing it back.  An amber smokiness took a joyride down my throat as I felt my belly warm to the welcome intruder, and my vision start to return to normal.  I gripped the wheel more tightly and frowned at the road which, devoid of neurological manipulation, was just a road.  The mental silence was crushing, but I could see the muted green of the treeline,  skirting The Mountain, beckoning us.

The Mountain.  Geologists have spent entire careers trying to figure out how it got there.  Imagine everything around you being flat, and then an alp-like, craggy looming monstrosity juts up from the earth like out of some Lovecraftian wanna-be pulp thriller.  No volcanic activity, not on a fault line, it,Äôs just,Ķ there, like the granite tooth of some monstrous beast.  Throughout the generations, because of its lack of scientific explanation as to its presence, loony and whacked-out religious nuts have tried to set up shop in the craggy caves of The Mountain, only to return to civilization in a few months, perhaps a year, starving, freezing, and muttering of inexplicable, random events that no one could figure out.  Sometimes, they never did come back.

I suppose that,Äôs why The Mountain appealed to Noodle.  I mean, besides the fact that she was the smartest one of all of use for getting the hell out of The City when she had the chance, let,Äôs not forget that she is utterly and completely, an inexplicable, random event.  No one,Äôs sure when she showed up in our little group, she was just there one day, looking fresh off the bus, and wielding a field hockey stick.  She left the same way, too:  Silently, quickly, and without a trace.  It was only several months later that we heard about what was happening up on The Mountain.  Noodle had apparently taken over some pseudo-monk,Äôs cave and had quickly transformed it into a full-body-contact Zen sanctuary/dojo.  In no time flat, she had the hook up to all the best society has to offer, and none of the downfalls of The City.  Sound like paradise, right?  Well, the turnover rate is pretty high, not to mention the body count,Ķ  But it makes sense that she would be the one who would carry the Somax 2350.  Hell, a girl,Äôs gotta have some fun, right?

Erin had come to the end of the bottle.  She tossed it aside, and reached for the other.  ,ÄúWhoa, hold up there, darlin,Äô.  You,Äôre not supposed to pass out on me.,Äù

,ÄúShut up.  I can hear them screaming.,Äù  Erin,Äôs face was pale, and tight, like she was using her facial muscles to keep her brain from exploding out of her skull.  ,ÄúHow,Ķ how long until we get into the trees?,Äù

,ÄúWe,Äôre already there.  Relax, take a few minutes, I,Äôll let you know when you should start looking around.,Äù  With that, the first of the horrifically twisted trees began to pass by, and soon the base forest swallowed the car into its murky half-light.

[Irreverend Hugh, KSC]

Heh.

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

erotic?

[Eldora, Oracle of Alchemy]

This name change had an unintended consequence.  Or did it  

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

Once again: go away, nobody likes you.

[fluffy]

heh heh
erotic-pi

[The Doctor]

[LMNO]

Well, this makes the story a little more interesting...

[Cain]

,ÄúAre you erotic?,Äù
,ÄúSome call me that, yeah.,Äù
,ÄúI hear you,Äôre a dick. I need someone to be a dick for me.,Äù

,ÄúLook, erotic,ÄîWhat kind of name is that, anyway?,Äù
,ÄúMy parents were librarians. They liked keeping everything lined up.,Äù
,ÄúI,Ķ See.,Äù She gave me a look like she wasn,Äôt sure whether to believe me.

[LMNO]

Hey, that actually made more sense...