Limbo (Part one of two)

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 10:09 pm

His head was throbbing, feeling much the same way as it would if he were waking up with a hangover. Perhaps it was a hangover. That was the funny thing about his passion for drinking, he could never tell what caused him to pass out the night before, or what motivated him to wake up the next morning. Elliot Blanch lifted his head up a few inches, blinking, trying to clear the sleep sand out of his eyes. He pushed himself to a sitting postion, and rubbed both hands in his eyes, speeding up the sand removal. As he lowered his hands, he blinked a few times, allowing his eyes to adjust to the light. His head seemed to hurt more after doing this. In the back of his head, he could hear the soft sound of music, sort've a soft jazz, but not as fast as jazz should be. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of the cobwebs that seemed to take it over as he slept. As his eyes finally opened, and Elliot got the first glance of where he was, his body seized up, and he scrambled backwards. He thought he had been laying in his bed, under the soft, warm covers, as he usually endded up doing after a night of drinking. Instead, he was sitting on a black and white checkered floor. Around him, blocks with similar patterns were scattered. He staggered to his feet, his head darting left and right, trying to figure what was going on. He turned to one of the blocks, and noticed a peculiar object on it. He slowly walked to over to the object. As he got closer, he recognized it as a bright red lava lamp, but with one difference. Inside of it, a small frog was flowing with the mixture, swiming from surface to surface. He blinked to make sure he wasn't seeing things, and sure enough, it was still there. The music seemed to be getting louder.

He stumbled backwards a few feet, almost tripping over something in the process. As he adjusted himself to keep his balance, he turned and looked to what he almost fell on top of. He saw the small haunched over form of a child, or at least thats what he thought it was. The small child looked up at him, and smiled with a the mouth of a mouse. It then jumped up, and scampered off, running like a child would. Elliot stood dumbfounded. What was this place, he wondered. He looked at his clothing, and for the first time, noticed they were different. The tween jacket, blue shirt and jeans he had been wearing the night before was now replaced with a black suit. To the left of him, and where he had woken up, was a black bowler, with a large white circle, and the number "eight" on it. He looked to his suit jacket, and saw the same symbol.

"Whats going on here!" He called out, not to anyone imparticular, even if someone was there. He looked around the room. It seemed to be expanding as he looked.

He spun around, trying to get a fix on what was happening, the music got louder. When he turned in a complete circle, he came face to face with a nozzle. He knew it hadn't been there before. The head of it was shaped like that of a sunflower, but it retained the cold metallic look of it's material. The centre was dotted with pin-prick holes. As he examined it, the music got even louder, and he began to hear a slight hissing noise. Suddenly, a wash of pink gas erupted from the nozzle. Elliot, though reluctantly, inhaled the gas. He began to feel his eyes droop, and his body go numb. the music was now getting quieter. He was alseep before he hit the floor.

When he awoke again, he had the same feeling as before, one of a hangover. At least he knew what caused it this time. He opened his eyes, and looked at the ground, expecting to see the white checker board pattern. Instead, he found himself to be lying on grass. He could still hear the music, but it was faint. He pushed himself up to his feet, and looked around. He was outside, and surrounded by all manour of creatures. He watched as a Koala playfully ran along the grass, one of it's hands was holding the sort of mask one would wear to a masquerade party. It seemed to be chasing something. It was a turtle. The turtle, though, was running on it's flippers, and seemed to be moving with some speed. It's shell, though, was the most amazing aspect. It seemed to swirl and shift with colour, sort of like a tie-dye shirt from the sixties, only in motion. Elliot looked over his shoulder, and sighed in relief.

He turned his body towards the pair of people who were sitting down on a pair of lawn chairs, with an ornate table between the two of them, casually enjoying a cup of tea. Both seemed to be wearing the same attire as Elliot, though one had the number "three" on his suit, and the other, a woman, had the number "fifteen". Both seemed oblivious to the game of tag the Koala and Turtle seemed to be playing. Elliot walked over to the two. Instinctivly, he reached for his own bowler, which had appeared on his head somehow. Taking it off, he held in one hand.

"Excuse me." He began, stammering slightly. The pair set their tea cups down, and glanced at the newcomer. "But, can you tell me whats going on?"

"He's new" said the man, the woman just nodded her head. "Well, this is what we call 'Limbo'." the man explained, again the woman nodded.

Elliot took a look at the woman. Fairly attractive, he thought to himself. She seemed to scowl as he thought though, which raised one of his eyebrows. Shaking his head clear of the thought's, he continued his questioning. "Why am I here?"

"Because you know something." The man said, and again the woman nodded. "You see, we are all here because we 'know' something. It doesn't matter what." He turned to the side and pointed. elliot followed the direction, but saw nothing. "You see, those three men over there discovered how to defy age."

"What three men?" questioned Elliot, looking back ot the man. The woman seemed to shake her head.

"Those three, can't you seem them?"

Elliot looked again, and was shocked to see three old germen men discussing amongst themselves. He looked back to the man, a look of shock on his face. "Where did they come from?"

"Why, they were always there." replied the man casually, pausing to take a sip of his tea. "Anyway, moving on. I'm hear because of my equition of the universe. She's here because she produced a non-pollutant fuel source." The woman nodded again.

The woman then turned to Elliot. "So, what are you here for?" she asked, in a dry British accent.

"I... I don't know." Elliot stumbled with the words. He had tried to find out why he was here from these people, that seemed to be a dead end.

"Well," the woman continued, "what do you do?"

"I'm a writer... Why?"

"Then you must've written something, or exposed something that was not meant to be exposed." She stated coolly, then returned to her tea.

Elliot was taken aback. He had no clue what he had written to have put in this 'Limbo'! He wasn't even sure if he was really here! This may've all just been dream to him, caused by the night of drinking his sorrows away. He seemed to panic, and stumble backwards, his legs becoming wobbily. As he steadied himself, he turned and broke in a dead run. He had to find someone, or something that could get contact to someone he knew, anyone he knew! He ran around an odd shaped tree, and nearly collided with a large, red, London-style telephone booth, like the ones he always saw on television and in movies. He didn't care where it came from. He rushed in, and picked up the receiver. As he was about to dial, he heard a hissing noise. the music grew louder again. Another pink jet of gas exploded out of the receiver, and again Elliot fell to the ground, deep asleep...

Obsidian · Post by **Obsidian** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 10:26 pm

Sorry, but I just have to say this.

Very, very interesting. Despite my dislike of the main characters name, I think you've managed to create an interesting universe, with a lot of room for expansion of characters and setting.
Kind of like a Orwell in it's 1984 ish ness. And something else, a bit of sci fi asimov style. Pretty good. I like it!

Aragorn Returns · Post by **Aragorn Returns** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 10:40 pm

you saw that simpson's episode last week didn't you? where homer was making stuff up and then he accidently guessed correctly that a secret orginazation was taking over the world through flu shots, and then they took him to a random island where many people who all had numbers instead of names were who all knew something, like the person who could turn water to gasoline, and the person who invented the bottomless bag of peanuts. i have a feeling i know how the second part of this story is going to go....

speaking of the simpsons did you hear about how brazil is suing fox because of a simpsons episode where they were bashing rio de janiero? i think that's stupid, i mean, they make fun of canadians all the time and canada does nothing!

fable · Post by **fable** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 11:28 pm

Originally posted by Aragorn Returns
speaking of the simpsons did you hear about how brazil is suing fox because of a simpsons episode where they were bashing rio de janiero? i think that's stupid, i mean, they make fun of canadians all the time and canada does nothing!

http://www.standonguard.com/index2.html

Morlock · Post by **Morlock** » Tue Apr 09, 2002 11:49 pm

@AR: did you notice who the voice of Number six was?
It was Patrick McGoohan- who played King Edward I (Longshanks) in "Braveheart", Judge Omar Noose in "A Time To Kill", Phantom's dad in "The Phantom" and the director/co- star/Writer/producer of a number of the "Columbo" movies.

Number 6: "Homer, whats your number?"
Homer: "I am not a number! I am a man! and my name is (looks down to his shirt, sees a pin that says 5 on it) Oh, I'm number five".

@Fable: besides the reference to Canada, whats the point of your link? I didn't find a reference to The Simpsons.

Precedent: The Seinfeld episode "Puorto Rico day parade" was banned from TV because of the (supposidly) offensive content against Puorto Ricans.

Locke Da'averan · Post by **Locke Da'averan** » Wed Apr 10, 2002 1:59 am

referring to the flu shot episode, im sure it was a parody of some old series... and what was with that koala(sp)? with the mask???

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Wed Apr 10, 2002 2:57 am

@ fable.

You know better than to be encouraging Aegis and his fellow Canadians with that sort of propaganda.

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Wed Apr 10, 2002 5:41 am

Well, just to set it striaght, no have no seen that Simpsons. I actually haven't watched that show for about 3 months.

Also, Fable posting that site here is not news to me. I've been checking that place out for about a month now.

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » Wed Apr 10, 2002 4:01 pm

Originally posted by Tamerlane
@ fable.

You know better than to be encouraging Aegis and his fellow Canadians with that sort of propaganda.

Propaganda? Oh no, my friend, you must be mistaken...

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Wed Apr 10, 2002 4:45 pm

Originally posted by Morlock
@AR: did you notice who the voice of Number six was?
It was Patrick McGoohan- who played King Edward I (Longshanks) in "Braveheart", Judge Omar Noose in "A Time To Kill", Phantom's dad in "The Phantom" and the director/co- star/Writer/producer of a number of the "Columbo" movies.

... and star of cult 60s TV show The Prisoner, in which he played Number 6...

@Aegis interesting

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Wed Apr 10, 2002 4:46 pm

McGoohan, also the star of Ice Station Zebra. I really want one of those jackets...

Aragorn Returns · Post by **Aragorn Returns** » Wed Apr 10, 2002 6:45 pm

for you that watched the simpsons episode, didn't it seem exactly the same??
oh ya, i forgot, they don't have electricity in canada.