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Ravus
Not an EggshellWalker


Registered: 07/18/03
Posts: 7,991
Loc: Cave of the Patriarchs
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Lovecraft Story
#3589831 - 01/06/05 04:58 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
I ate about 3:30 - if slipping these wretched food tablets through my mask can be called eating. Soon after that I noticed a decided change in the landscape - the bright, poisonous-looking flowers shifting in colour and getting wraith-like. The outlines of everything shimmered rhythmically, and bright points of light appeared and danced in the same slow, steady tempo. After that the temperature seemed to fluctuate in unison with a peculiar rhythmic drumming.
The whole universe seemed to be throbbing in deep, regular pulsations that filled every corner of space and flowed through my body and mind alike. I lost all sense of equilibrium and staggered dizzily, nor did it change things in the least when I shut my eyes and covered my ears with my hands. However, my mind was still clear, and in a very few minutes I realized what had happened.
I had encountered at last one of those curious mirage-plants about which so many of our men told stories. Anderson had warned me of them, and described their appearance very closely - the shaggy stalk, the spiky leaves, and the mottled blossoms whose gaseous, dream-breeding exhalations penetrate every existing make of mask.
Recalling what happened to Bailey three years ago, I fell into a momentary panic, and began to dash and stagger about in the crazy, chaotic world which the plant's exhalations had woven around me. Then good sense came back, and I realized all I need do was retreat from the dangerous blossoms - heading away from the source of the pulsations, and cutting a path blindly - regardless of what might seem to swirl around me - until safely out of the plant's effective radius.
Although everything was spinning perilously, I tried to start in the right direction and hack my way ahead. My route must have been far from straight, for it seemed hours before I was free of the mirage-plant's pervasive influence. Gradually the dancing lights began to disappear, and the shimmering spectral scenery began to assume the aspect of solidity. When I did get wholly clear I looked at my watch and was astonished to find that the time was only 4:20. Though eternities had seemed to pass, the whole experience could have consumed little more than a half-hour.
Read the whole story at http://sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu/~wcoburn/hpl/eryx.html
-------------------- So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.
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nonoman
ambassador


Registered: 06/25/04
Posts: 1,326
Loc: the wood
Last seen: 5 years, 9 months
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Re: Lovecraft Story [Re: Ravus]
#3590379 - 01/06/05 06:53 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Is that an excerpt from "The Color From Space?
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nonoman
ambassador


Registered: 06/25/04
Posts: 1,326
Loc: the wood
Last seen: 5 years, 9 months
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Re: Lovecraft Story [Re: nonoman]
#3590419 - 01/06/05 07:00 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Nope. Damn.
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Ravus
Not an EggshellWalker


Registered: 07/18/03
Posts: 7,991
Loc: Cave of the Patriarchs
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Re: Lovecraft Story [Re: nonoman]
#3590764 - 01/06/05 08:01 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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"Within the Walls of Eryx."
I noticed the 4:20 reference with a hallucinogenic spikey leaved plant in the News section, it's a good story also.
-------------------- So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.
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Le_Canard
The Duk Abides

Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 94,392
Loc: Earthfarm 1
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Re: Lovecraft Story [Re: Ravus]
#3590940 - 01/06/05 09:06 PM (19 years, 1 month ago) |
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Indeed it is a good story. I love all of his works, although "The Mountains of the Moon" is a particular favorite of mine....
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