Characters, Paged.

 characters, paged.  dot dot.

their pagers went off, all simultaneously, and they looked down, from across the world and onto their wrists.  dot.

the screens blinked a bit, the three of them paused and waited for it to clear.

Aria was sitting in a coffee shop outside of Geneva.  'again, she thought'  her pinkish golden watch chimed as selected when it was time for a time away and this was it.

Q was in the middle of bussing some papers down the street towards and away from things as usual, left coat pocket and the like

and Meranda was just up at sunrise at the Pacific rim this time, no joke.. she traveled overnight and had packed just a bit for a conference meetup for the book convention scheduled last may from the township. 

Aria sipped her orange juice and tapped the screen.

'you in there Q?'  what's the dinging about.. we're all about with our business and the proceedings are proceeding with process and nessess. as needed,' Aria thought he might here it but she tapped the screen once just to highlight her notion of notioning.

Meranda tapped back.  'yep, he's got his paperwork about and I believe he believes he's heading upward to the never ending story folks.. they seem on about a tre-qual and you know how he can fly time and the like, and so . .

silence.

Q was not normally in this much sun, from this time of day.. more of a night owl and black cars and the odd slipping in at the right moments and such.. but jeez.. 101 pages on this one, and several copies for the crew, and still 3 hours until the next . . . 'shoot'  he dropped the papers.  'about time something happened, he paused and looked towards the ground, as they were slightly in between the shimmering embedded sparkly sidewalk and a bit of slick towards and in the gutter'..  his watch chimed and the haptics hit up Aria's beat.

tap tap.

'so this is what you get onto when you're not getting onto. . . eh Q?'  Aria quipped and sipped again at her orange juice, with now a splash of soda, and a straw she keeps with her, so as to be ecological.

'yes, Aria.. the onto is onto the floor and chores like this haven't made it up the staircase to the case I need to get to, spiral bound and booked up like a top shelf, for this pack of loose papers now, a bit dirty and .. well'

'not in yourself, I can see that.. is that a pocket protector?'

'no its a packet of gum.... its for the .. fresh.. anyway how's your end?'

Aria's end was just fine and sitting, just and there and she adjusted slightly at the thought and thought about telling him about the....

'oh, surprise!' Q blurted out.. and bent over to pick up a quarter on the street.  'damn its a regular one..'  he'd hope for a 1964 silver or. .. 'but anyway.. the story is carrying on, and its just I'm not carrying it anymore, its toppled into the streets and somebody forgot to number the pages. so it'll be up to you guys to piece it together once I get over.. I'll scan it and you can run it through a quick OCR or something.. or.. I can . . wait'  he picked up a cup of coffee and dropped it directly downward onto the ground, and the cup hit square bottom and the coffee jumped out and bits all over the papers.  he took a quick photo, shuffled them together, and straighted his back up a bit.'  'oh, I think I got the ordering now.. we have the cover bound by main splash and the spill into the street by the spray that's come off it.  we're good for ordering, now, I'll just get on and cross splash check it from the place.  '

Meranda too now was on the call, as she sipped her coffee. .  'you know I would have bought you one when you arrive, I hope it wasn't a creamy one... anyway.. nice idea..  I'll explain the coffee to the crew, but why didn't you try that old card trick?  pick a page any page?'  

hmmm was a simultaneous chagrin from the crew.

blip.  Meranda's power was out, and just shrugged and put her watch on the charger.

its this sort and sorted chronicle of chronicled forgetfulness wherein their malaise was being re-triggered.  maybe it was the planetary offset, or maybe our characters needed to be reminded of themselves once again.. it had been 3 weeks since the, shoot, and more so since the.. oh yes.. and there was always a place to whisker off to and never stick, and sticking was like this..

Q jabbed a stick of gum into his mouth and hummed up the street.  he found the iron doorway near chinatown, tho slightly uptown, where he was to deliver the papers.    he then jabbed all 6 buttons on the door and waited for a buzzing.  buzzzzzzt.

he walked inside at a slightly dim fluorescent entryway, and some wooden doors towards the left and right, but walked straight up center.. to the elevator..  black rounded keys with embedded white lettering, and the floor he was to go to was . . . he glanced.. the worn out one which was slightly sticky from mad tong and his bubble gum fingers..  he grinned and snapped a bubble and proceeded into the lift.

one he was onto the floor, he found the small office lit up brightly with a large window showing into the hallway, and motioned to the secretary as she waved at him and got up to greet him.

black hair that had to have been done up recently, and a white starched blouse and a black chain, elegant and simple.  and cuff links.

she didn't have an accent, and he didn't expect one.. global never does when they're not expecting expecting company, and he placed the papers gently down by her table.

'101, she said.. and a coffee.. i heard about it.. ' she stated in a slate grey tone of chagrin and looked over the papers.  'well its time and a half to type these up, so typed they are but out of order, so that'll be. . .  ' she punched a calculator in her head, or as if . . 'and that'll be alright if the coffee trick works out.. and maybe we'll make it into a time travel series, you know. with the pages and all... you know what happened with.

TRON.  they both said it, but her mouth was only motioning.  her mouth remained open and she smiled.   how did she do that?  she turned and her shoulders motioned him into a room directly behind, and he paused and proceeded towards it, with her behind him.'  he looked back a bit and motioned a question towards the brass doorknob.  she nodded and they both proceeded into the room, which again was lit well, and, well.. a bit of a thick wall... and,, tap tap.. his watch was out.. shielded.

the door closed and she hit a button on her watch, and the lights dimmed to a sort of reddish fluorescent and there was hum.  secondaries, her voice flatted a little..  'keep your voice at this tone so that its in line with the active RF chokes we have going around the place..  the papers.. and the coffee. and the gum.. good job and I hope you picked up everything we left, yes?  the. . .

Q found it impossible not to beam, and look around at the place.. 'it only takes one word to get into this place, eh?'  he joked.. of course it took several months and a year and plus before that, but he was here.  and hear?  well.. heard anyway.. he maintained and took out his pen, and pulled a paper up from the desk and began to write a few words.  

the women looked on a bit begruzzled, as her face noted the word and she said nothing.  then he clicked the pen and the word lit up in a sort of iridescence, and as he moved his light across the word, the patterns moved, and continued and moved as long as the light was on them, pausing only when he took away the light, and using those last bits of light to orient themselves into.

STASIS.  was the word.

he explained, although he didn't need to, for her, he still felt a bit like mr wizard with this thing, and as he kept his voice at a dim glimmer, and she continued to eye the ink on paper, as it had now been transfixed for several minutes and the beauty of the alignment of the... 'what was it again?'

electro-gluta-silicate.. he said as plainly as the red light on her cuff links.. and he blinked at her.  she looked over the pen and took off her cuff links and they did indeed match...

'same guy, I can see.. incredible taste in.. what was it again?  ' everything. came the response.. the form the follows function at its ultimate and timely and literally time and specificity of genetics in a package designed and for and with and.. well this is where planet earth finds a use for its silicon, and silicon finds a purpose for its ordered numbering..

in truth, there were no numbers.. this was pure life, on whatever surface and surfaced, and still, and still enough to travel and.

'it likes light'  she said and smiled to him as she played with the pen across the paper.  

'well, it doesn't just like light, it likes to sleep as well.. the orientation is a learning experience for these sili-guys and gals, on paper anyway.. they spend their time solving their own problems, which in turn, when applied solves your problem, if you know what you're doing.. and I hope you do.. because we can't lose these.. its that simple. and they'll carry on and work their way out of your own problem if you have the right one which works for life, and that is why these are going places.. because we needed an ethics on chip and this is gestalt breakfast better than any possibility we'd imagined.. you know how they were discovered?'

'I thought you were going to say asteroid'  she noticed she was becoming interestingly excited and had to dim her voice a bit more

'sort of like that.. it was a smashed glass from a satellite, onto a flight carrier that had its little science experiment exposed to refracting light and electricity for 11 and a half minutes until they were crushed into dust by a jet landed onto them..  strange circumstance.. the material from the jet and the glass, electrical and radio, and these little mite guys who were meant to survive in space, survived into a flattened surface of goo on the tarmac.  funny thing it was noticed right away, because the little guys camo'd themselves into a landing stripe sign the guys had never seen before.. it was like a cross between a danger do not land signal, and a tangent on where they all wanted to exit..  when he walked away to tell all the guys, the stuff stuck to his feet and began tapping morse code into his boot.. good thing he passed the test, because they tapped this very word into his shoe, and so they brought them to us.

the cuff links look good on Q.. classed him up a bit.. 'so this is trial J on this one, and those papers up front.. you can feed it to these guys if they're hungry.. I've got to get on and about to the other 3 about it and you need to'

'write these events up.. I know'  she picked up the pen.. 'well you came at the right time, and you know we're into a crunch.. what's the protocol for these guys in public?  

'just don't leave the paper behind... they get all cross when they lose their mates, and it confuses the eff out of baristas who try to claim their outrageous tips.. it seems these fellas have a bit of a wit towards the ladies and .. well anyway.. keep 'em happy and they'll keep you happy'

happy.  we're all happy.

and that's the point.. dot.  anybody using that?  he pointed to the hat on the hat rack, didn't wait for a response and picked it up and headed towards the door, correcting his coat up a bit as he got out of the room.    she smiled and let him back to the front and clicked her clacker at him and looked up as she sat down at the desk again and stated 'one hundred and one'

he nodded towards the door and out

...

the hat, he liked.  it was like odd job's top rounded, but without the.. he looked.. and replaced it to his head.. yes without the chop chop part.. he was back into his part, a bit more like himself and thinking of Aria.

'well that didn't take long, how about a light traveled air walk down where I'm headed and then afterwards..' .

it was dark.  the mist was starting to hit mid waist level and the two had been walking for about 2 hours talking about the project, and its specifics and integrations and making sure everybody involved had gotten what they needed.

'and us..' Q tapped the cuff links, and they continued walking...

it wasn't a bad day you know.. it was better than yesterday, and that kind of reminds me.. you know. .. he pointed down to her.. those bits..

'ah yes, perhaps if we had more time yesterday, but we're here in the now.. ya know..  and our stop is just ahead.. do you want to take a seat?'

Q paused and thought for a second.. the mist was certainly coming up around him and the cuff links were a sort of see-through now, with the water vapor, and he thought to himself.  

'well, now is a time, he raised his arm a tapped his two fingers across both anode and diodes of the cuff links and there was an incredible and warble just around them, like an egg.  the light hitting them was fizzing around like little swimmy things, and the water vapor was just dots, completely solid and not moving a spec.  

Aria did look surprised, and looked at his jacket cuff and up at his grinning smile.  the light from her warbled a bit too and they just stood there for a second, watching all of everything pass through them, as they became. . .' non-entities in a separation of light from matters and facts of spacial reasoning... ' said Q in his dimmed slated voice.  and they carried forward'

I see.. was Aria's gentle response and she took his hand and they continued walking forward towards a pier on the ocean

'they don't'  as they passed some non-passer bys.. who didn't look up nor at all, and their speech was not an echo in thought as it was normally, and they could justly hear them and know they were not heard.. 'they didn't see the click, or thought it was a mirage. and now we're here.. light, aren't they?'  he jiggled his cuff links at the non weight and continued walking and smiling about it

'the light powers these things and the water is static and so is our material, and so.

'and soooo......' Aria motioned up to the stars and they both looked up.. 'and we are light too, I can feel it.'  it felt as if they had no weight, and indeed felt as if they could walk forever on these two feet and never need a rest or a place to stop'

that was right.. with only light and non-matter, it didn't.. matter.. he said to himself.. and the light was just that part of the wording that helped it make sense and the egg was... well that was just a little joke, and in fact the form again, and they talked about the joke..

'of course we did'  she joked later in the conversation, and also of course referring to the punchline.. 'and we always will..'  and will they ever, and so they carried on a bit about it, and talked about the marriage of these technologies and of course what they were really good for, which again by design was the design of life, and life itself was... well.. they both nodded on in times like this when even things became a bit heady and they had done their jobs to get this here and that there,  and the magnificence was.. oh.. well it was and

Q took out a second pen from his pocket.. 'I got you a gift, of course.. and they go together.'

Oh.. this ones's a different color.. I see.. I like it.. metallic.. would be good for some drawing, you know.. if we can get our hands on Meranda's notebook..  you know the one I mean.

He did.. 'what did she call it?  spacial casebook' 'she did... we should call her tomorrow, or is she already on?  is that you?'  a gentle ping came from her watch.. 'yes its me and me, you know the footage is done.. developed and such for the film.. you didn't tell her about.. . . did you?'

'of course not.. theatres took me up on the prints and the showings will be on and on about midnight'  'the EGS will be lit up and we'll be on time..

'that is to be seen' she grinned.

'well quite.. it should have quite an effect.. '

'the one you're looking for, I hope' 

'with the right audience..  was his responsive response and they carried on a bit about it, and imagined for a bit what the new beginning would be like, and hoped they'd make it on time, and they joked some more about that.

well.. and just at that moment, an asteroid came about the horizon and blitzed them all around, as the ocean burst up into a wash and stuck to the bubble they were now pausing and positively amazed and.. amazingly.. they just stood there, and the matter passed through them, and it was as if they'd seen a million years of star experience in that instance and they were now quite definitely above ground, as the crater was now beneath them and water began to flow into it and yet they hovered'

'oh side effect,' said Q.. and he stepped up a bit.. and  Aria smiled.. and they began walking on the water pinholes and they were prickly but easy to balance on..  and the mist was still around, and as they walked onto it and walked up the sky opened up and it began to rain, each time dropping pins around them and each time they walk up and up and up.. and completely stable, and in the rain they walked up towards a cloud and it began to murble an electrical murble and they paused and thought abut it.. and it thought about them.. and they could hear a slight whisper.. and they hadn't heard that kind of voice before.. and it was the water.. and the water was just gently carrying on a conversation with itself, about its direction and about the presence of presents to be delivered on so and so, and it was in plain language, as they now heard it at its pause, and the light continued to swim around like water, and the water, inside still spun a bit to orient, and they looked closer, and closer at the individual droplets of water on their bipedal egg.. and Q brought up Aria's hand where she held the pen, and clicked the light onto the water..  and.. 

'tiny people!'  gasped Aria like a bit of a shock she might have gotten from that pen or something.. and yes.. dozens of highly recognizable people were chattering away, and away they were, miles and miles in fact.. and that's the direction they faced.. towards themselves, if they needed the water, and away and about in fact if they were chattering with other water warble bits about their bits and just what to do with themselves.

'and I'd stay in tonight, ya know.. if the easterly is going to kick off. and that bit of muck on isle 5 has got to get a clearing, and a salty one'  they joked with each other.

some of the water just stood around and seemed confused about the light.. and they looked at Aria and Q standing there watching them.

'Oh'  said one bit of water.. so you found us out, eh?  you're not going to tell anybody about us, are you?  I mean with this thing and all..  we haven't seen this thing turned on in.. well a couple of years and it was pretty fine back then... we'd love to stay and chatter about it, but our fellas have to get on with several light years worth of time and materials which you lot think is just a freak asteroid and a simple storm, eh?  I bet that's what you think.. like the cloud didn't see that thing years ago and we haven't been chattering about it up until this point.. I mean.. an oceans worth of.. what do you keep calling it?  Van der Waal.. oh that's right.. well its us.. Hello!'  the water droplet chirped at Q.. 'yes I'm this bit of electron here, and that's my mate and we're headed in that direction for the big one, ya know.. if we can swing it..'

Q clicked off the pen.. he knew.. 'well we'd better get to the show, and the show must go on, he stated to Aria and they began walking a bit towards the theatre.

I'd like a bit more of that, she said to him, and they were grasping each others hands now.. 'I mean you couldn't asked him a bit more about the weather, eh?'

'Well they've got their lot and we've got ours tonight.. and I'm sure we'll all be alright if the lights don't go out.'  

she shuddered.. 'oh yes.. well the generator is handy but we weren't planning for a long outage.. we'd have to move the show if it goes out and long.. but we'll see

. . .

they just hit the theatre at 11, and front row Meranda was there with her notebook as Aria sat on one side and Q on the other, with some goobers for the show he'd picked up in the front.

. . .

lights dimmed except the beams coming from the rear towards the screen, and Meranda took out her notebook expectantly.  she motioned the pen from Aria, who gave it to her and she began to draw.

. . .

the film was an art film.. well.. the three knew it wasn't a film at all, but a continuous loop of 2 and 1/2 feet of cellulose with our little friends running around in the light, charging and orienting to the eyeballs on them in the audience.  and the audience was amused.. at very first by the geometric primitive shapes in 2D, then 3D, then color, and as the color was painted onto the 3D objects they began to spin and form more complex shapes, and color themselves and the lines from the shapes would become evident and the lines would change color, as gradients, and move into as other lines, also in 3D and starting making real pictures that one could readily see as animals and people and plants and small critters.. and then created was a backdrop which moved independently, although some of the material critters or EGS would switch between front and background as needed, and instantly adjust its coloring to match the presentation which was the orientation of the rest of them, and us.

the pictures began to tell a story, a story about the audience, about how they had traveled there, they're day, perhaps the day before, and what was on their mind..

'Quite the little mind readers, aren't they?  he turned and smiled past Meranda and onto Aria as Meranda began to draw in her notebook'  

and the pictures were then very much about the present.. about this moment.. and in fact began to draw the audience as seated.. and it was very much like a mirror, except the patterns were evident which thoughts were coming off which people in the audience, and Meranda was at the center.. and more cently centered, the pen.. metallic, in which she continued to draw into the notebook.  and the paper glimmered and she was drawing primitive shapes like triangles and circles and the pen was a thick metallic and all sorts of language flowed inside the metal as a communication of what she was drawing, thinking, and the light coming off the screen and its messaging.

the screen now began, as if again, stopping abruptly and showing a countdown as a film starting might do.. and it was a bit now into the future..  kind of like Christmas past in fact, and began showing the storm outside and all the materials it had come to know about with contact with water and explained in pictures what the water wanted and why they were water in the first place, and to expound on it would just make literal sense, because they were in this place and the people and events were soo specific to those moments, and ever changing, that it was simply understood, and if you were watching it, you altered it and understood it as it altered you, and so forth and all the time.

and Meranda drew a square into her notebook and scribbled into it a little poem, and the metallic seemed to like the poem and hurried around it, and the light from the theatre shone on it a bit more, until the lights went out, and the film stopped, and the place was completely out now, sans the final metallic glow on the paper as they rushed to orient onto the poem, and the dimness became static.

onus in soft peat

for wit to each

ponder stitch

'neat.' said Q.. and Meranda and Aria just paused a bit.. 'we've got the program..'

'for now' Meranda gave the pen to Aria and closed her notebook.. 'these guys will stick tight, but we have a bit more for them to do at the next showing..'  'what should we do until then?'

More of the same, I guess, guessed Q, right, and tapped his cuffs again at the two women and they got up and walked with him, to his left and continued on, and Aria grappled at Meranda's rear and motioned them along.. and as motion goes, it was a pretty good one, and they carried on and carried each other in light conversation as the tryst met in a spacial hazy ooo which they stepped into and around and their rear view mirrors were reveled in and beveled shades of hues and trickles of water popped in to say hello, and the skies night was a deep blue and heady ideas of a continuation of their prior episodic adventure carried themselves into the night, and eventually into the padded bed they adored, and with each other took some bliss and a time and a half to say hello too, to all their bits from forward and behind, and in and about, and onwards and upwards, etc.  and they smiled and at a very early morning, or later later evening, Meranda opened up her notebook from the bedside above, and opened to the poem, and the light from her eyes reflected onto the page, and the poem winked back at her, and carried on with the paper for a second glimmer at Aria and the Q, and inside the poem, became a fractal of text, at first mirroring the poem, and they simply spelling out a series of images and text, a language meant for her.. it was her laundry list in fact, and she laughed.

'how did you know about my knickers?' she laughed and slapped the notebook closed and wrapped it neatly with a red string and placed it by her side.  

Q looked up with one eye, then closed it and put his hand on her buttock..  Aria curled inwards and spooned Meranda from the left, and Meranda continued to smile at the thoughts going through Aria's and Q's minds.. 

'Geneva is always good a 2nd time'  and she clacked the lights out and turned and they just spent some time with each others juicier bits for a time, and time again as they do, and imagined and positions their bodies as it pleased them and each other, and the leisure of pleasure carried them and their evenings, like tonight, and with hope every night, and the sparkier bits were sparked and the water bits washed over them, and it was time and again, they took pause, and drifted off to a warm sleep for the tryst of them to trust and read over the day on a new day like tomorrow was promising to be.

. . .

the proceeding has been a mild delve into the adventure some and others for the non-crudity of credulous cred-abilities and the ongoing saga of our friends and their living forms of grandulus grandurocity the EGS, and penned as in mightier and might be later for our pals. . . in a later episode.. and forthwith is the side of nackers on a side trolly up the west side of high ways and means for all who now and in the future, tense as in to say it backwards from the future, or in facts and fiction. full stop.  for the now -  aqua q