Mr Hook's Big Black Box

«Perspectives»

"I guess that must have been pretty weird," Dwayne nodded sympathetically, "First proof that the world we live in is fantasy, not sci-fi."

"I don't know," Destinee shrugged, "I mean, sentient clockwork isn't beyond the realms of belief. Maybe with sufficiently advanced algorithms it would be possible to build an artificial heart out of gears. That's exactly the kind of thing that advanced science could do."

"It's a blurred line between fantasy and science," Kris pointed out, "But you shouldn't refer to this as fiction. You might end up like Martin Cheese, thinking that everything that happened was just a product of the hallucinogens they sprayed in the mist, and none of it really happened."

"How do we know it did?" Dwayne grinned, "I mean, we've got like five stories that weave together so neatly, but that could just be chance..." Then he saw that Destinee's expression was starting to descend from levity to seriousness, "Sorry, joking. I got a pretty good idea what's real and what isn't, though now we're going through it, I'm finding a lot of the story isn't quite what I thought."

"I know what you mean," Marco nodded, "It started out this weird little thing, a challenge to keep this Box closed, but every day it just got weirder and weirder. That Thursday, I was thinking I'd go back to college and stay around other people, so anyone chasing me to find if I've got the key would have a problem with security. My life was going to be mostly normal, and once that Box was safely squirreled away, everything would be the same as always."

"So what happened to start you running around like a headless chicken?" Ferrari asked the obvious question. Marco leaned back, his chair squeaking in protest at the change in posture, and began to speak.