h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't get it. What were the numbers? What was the joke? What was that Galactic 4 stuff?
*feeling especially dense*

It's probably like that Monty Python sketch-within-a-sketch in which a guy is called on to be the guy who answers the door to see a door-to-door salesman, but they forgot to tell him the punch line, and the salesman looks at the script and says, "Yeah ... yeah, it was definitely a good punch line."

#563 refers to the posting of that number in this thread. And I'm glad I'm not the only one that doesn't get some of the stuff going on.


Oh, look! That's one of our teacups! The other salonistas have been here.

*Picks up the teacup and places it in her totebag.*

*Affy enters and reads the plaque*


The thing about the joke was Affy's reaction to re-hearing what Lil wrote at that particular post. When Affy first heard it, he couldn't tell if it was Lil speaking or an alien sitcom. He eventually chose sitcom, and apparently still thinks that it *was* a sitcom, thus his repeated laughing when he hears the words again (apparently he "gets" the joke now).

Affy remains dense, in other words.

*the rat-ants have given up on Affy, having decided that he is yer typical dense scientist*

*they stand in the middle of the room, sniffing carefully*

*one rat-ant throws himself at a stretch of wall and bounces back*
*the other ratants point and laugh*

*Affy assumes that the rat-ants believe he has a reading disorder or something, as they began laughing as soon as he tried to read the plaque. Not letting the constant, hurtful, cruel laughter of the rat-ants be a hindrance to his self esteem, Affy proudly presses onwards, sure that he will get the plaque read by the "omniscient" narrator's next posting*

*Rolls her eyes and turns back to reviewing her pda.*


Something about a gate, or seeing a gate, or not seeing a gate. These aren't gates, they are doors. And a set of stairs.


*Starts walking the perimeter of the room, examining the walls and doors.*

*Affy notes what was said on the plaque and has his watch take a picture of it so that he won't forget what he read on it. He walks up to a patch of wall between two of the rooms exits and leans against it*

Kinda reminds me of that old Juman Riddle. "Try as you might to fight your fate, you can't escape the gateless gate." You would be in a chamber with two similar exits on opposite sides, both showing your home. But when you try to walk through the gate, you just walk out of the other one and wind up back where you started.

Well, the solution to the riddle was that the riddle could not be solved. So the only way to properly leave the room was to give up and realize that you couldn't leave.

The Jumans never did play by fair.

Could you fake it, or did you really /need/ to give up?

*the rat-ant ignores the jeers, picks himself up, rearranges his armor, throws himself against the opposite wall -- and disappears*

You really needed to give up. One person was trapped in the Juman desert for over forty years, making an effort to kidnap every other person in the desert so that they could try to solve the puzzle for him. Eventually when one group not only gave up on his riddle but also tracked the guy down, the poor guy just broke into tears, lost all hope, and vanished from sight.

Woah, big symlpost.


*Affy blinks at the missing rat-ant*

But that rat-ant....OH!

*Slaps his forhead*

It's like that joke from Thaltarian Downs! Cousin Thorbala had to break through a wall because the doors weren't working!

*Affy walks up to the section of wall where the rat-ant dissapeared, and experimentally tries to go through*

*the rest of the rat-ants line up to follow Affy, and go through one by one*

*Affy falls through*

*so do the rest of the rat-ants*

*Witty gets behind the last rat-ant and waits her turn.*

Come on, Titania, here we go!

*Steps throught the portal.*

*follows*