1) The epic, (fancy (free) from introspection) / underlying dream, untouched by life / and all its constant sundry imperfection - / the voiceless note which sounds without a fife; / in flight profound, subconscious free from fear, / traversing and transcending crass, mundane / the artifacts and artifice of here; the avarice antagonist of pain / (a world which can contain it,) deathless, still / retreating from this world it isn't of. / A sculpted god can't know of friendship's thrill / and spill - it nothing knows the pull of love. / Of whim composed, perfection one can't feel / and can't give the rewards of something real. 2) The world you choose to live in - your selection / free to pick a system bursting rife / with forms with which you'll never know connection, / wounds you can't inflict with dreaming's knife; / Why choose a world refusing to appear? / With interaction thus, you'll go insane / with understimulation, whereby near / and all around a world is (granted, plain, / but simpleness won't make a man go ill / so long as he can dream of things above;) / a world of function, cool and without frill. / And yet our world contains both rose and dove - / these symbols links to world beyond ideal. / These cherished grains of sentiment we steal.

-- ansi by argon, lit by cthulu.  click here for the original ansi released in Epic #1 July 1999 --