{"id":5365,"date":"2022-03-09T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-09T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/?p=5365"},"modified":"2022-03-05T14:09:13","modified_gmt":"2022-03-05T14:09:13","slug":"the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-95","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/2022\/03\/09\/the-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa-part-95\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adventures of Maite and Kepa: Part 95"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The plaza was surrounded by massive buildings that reached up into the sky. Each was covered with plant life, some with green vines, others with flowering plants. Some had terraces that jutted out at odd angles with trees growing out of them while on others the plants cascaded down their sides like a waterfall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benches, or better said chairs, were scattered on the plaza seemingly at random, though they were different than anything Kepa had seen before. All were built with a back that was taller than a typical person, shaped almost like an egg shell. And they seemed to float above the stone. Kepa watched as a few people pushed some of the chairs around, rearranging them so that they faced one another in a circle before climbing in and engaging in conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Adventures of Maite and Kepa is a weekly serial. While it is a work of fiction, it has elements from both my own experiences and stories I’ve heard from various people. The characters, while in some cases inspired by real people, aren’t directly modeled on anyone in particular. I expect there will be inconsistencies and factual errors. I don’t know where it is going, and I’ll probably forget where it’s been. Why am I doing this? To give me an excuse and a deadline for some creative writing and because I thought people might enjoy it. Gozatu!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver there,\u201d said Kepa pointing to two isolated chairs. \u201cLet\u2019s sit for a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They walked across the plaza and turned the two floating chairs so that they were facing one another. As Kepa climbed into his, it automatically lowered to make sitting easier, and then rose again once he was nestled inside. He could feel warmth radiating from the surface, which also vibrated ever so slightly. He was about to surrender himself to sleep when Maite broke his meditation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOrain zer?\u201d asked Maite, nestled into her own egg. \u201cWhat now?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa shrugged, his eyes heavy from all of the excitement. \u201cI guess we need to find Marina?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite held up the dodecahedron that Marina had given her. \u201cI don\u2019t know what to do with this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know, it\u2019s funny,\u201d said Kepa. \u201cWhen we time jump, we automatically get these identities and backstories to help us fit in, but we don\u2019t get that much knowledge about the mundane things, like how things like that work.\u201d He shook his head. \u201cI don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite nodded. \u201cNeither do I. It\u2019s almost like someone or something is making all of this up on the fly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was an awkward pause as Maite and Kepa looked at each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite shook her head, as if to clear it. She held up the dodecahedron again, twirling it between her fingers, the points digging slightly into her fingertips. \u201cI\u2019ve tried squeezing it, rubbing the sides, looking for a seam, but I can\u2019t find anything. It almost seems like a solid piece of metal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaybe we have to put it in something? You know, to activate it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite shrugged. \u201cMaybe. But what?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you see those people disappearing in those flying eggs?\u201d asked Kepa. \u201cMaybe it tells those eggs where to go?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite looked over at the edge of the plaza where a transparent egg had materialized after another had taken off. She shuddered. \u201cThose things give me the creeps. Hurtling through the air in something that looks fragile as hell doesn\u2019t seem like a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey must be safe,\u201d said Kepa. \u201cOr people wouldn\u2019t use them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTrue, but I can\u2019t even begin to understand how they might work. And that creeps me out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the saying? \u2018Advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic?\u2019 And, to be fair, we\u2019ve seen real magic too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maite sighed. \u201cI guess. Just so much I don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa laughed. \u201cThat\u2019s how I feel most of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you get this post via email, the return-to address goes no where, so please write blas@buber.net<\/a> if you want to get in touch with me.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The plaza was surrounded by massive buildings that reached up into the sky. Each was covered with plant life, some with green vines, others with flowering plants. Some had terraces that jutted out at odd angles with trees growing out of them while on others the plants cascaded down their sides like a waterfall.  Benches, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2640,864],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventures-of-maite-and-kepa","category-bubers-basque-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/maite-and-kepa-v2-01.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2sYNu-1ox","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5366,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5365\/revisions\/5366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buber.net\/Basque\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}