SYNOPSIS:

Among a selection of fantastical characters, Jimmy, a road-sign, confesses his feelings of purposelessness to Frank, a hedge, moments before Frank is violently murdered by a cutter creature, in a cafe. Elsewhere in the cafe, Jareth, Crayon and Thinker use an elaborate device to break into the building’s safe and steal the coins within it. Grietch, meanwhile, a character whom Crayon earlier trapped with a net, is still trapped and witnesses a bird called a Flocte attempting to free him, but he takes a photo of it mid-rescue, which explodes its head. Away in the desert, Jennifer is walking down the road, covered in blood. It starts raining, then a hole opens in the ground and out from it comes a vintage Holden Cortina, which drives away. She has confronter her father while armed with a machte, but accidentally killed someone else. A stranger in a theatre then proceeds to tell Jimmy’s story, establishing himself as the narrator. He was a junkie, but his friend died of an overdose, so he left town to hide out as a priest. He later opened his own small playhouse but he began abducting and murdering teenagers. He details how Jimmy is a road sign with only the word ‘Jimmy’ on it. Unhelpful and merely baffling to those who come across it, Jimmy’s existence lacks meaning or purpose. The story goes on to chronicle Jimmy’s meeting with Frank the hedge in the cafe and Frank’s unfortunate death (here by garden shears), which came just after he announced he had an idea of how to solve Jimmy’s problem. Alas, Jimmy never found out what Frank’s idea was. In another desert, Gary puts baby reptiles down a pole into a hole he dug, before offering Rita, who is there to mourn a dead body (that of her newlywed husband) over the road, a cup of tea. She accepts, then Gary leaves to catch and kill an escaped reptile baby. He then uses the substance from one of its organs to seal the hole, before a poodle approaches him, barking, and he accidentally kills it with his drill. Gary must now dig another grave. Later, he has a pulled-together meal with Rita, then watches as someone cuts Jaimee’s body in half. Gary approaches the corpse and notices the name tag, before burying it beneath Jimmy the sign. He then tweaks the sign to read ‘Jaimmy’ and act as a grave marker. Jimmy now has a purpose. Gary and Rita tell everyone. Amon, a man on Earth, is then introduced. He visits an antique store in New York where the girl he fancies, Bernice, works, and steals a tin from the place but when he gets out on the road he finds an imp inside, called Jink. On another planet, Lirasq writes a note at her desk, before going for a bath. She is startled to see Shamkah, an ancient alien and descendent of the Wise One, watching her, and even when she prevents him from doing so, he speaks to her and seems to magically embrace her. Alec, Lirasq’s boyfriend, then chats with Amon in a pub back on Earth. They discuss a note Alec received from Lirasq, suggesting that he is in danger. Amon promises he has his back, but thinks it is unlikely anything will happen there. Alec then tells of Lirasq’s planet: situated in the true centre of the universe, it is being destroyed by corruption and war. Alec then leaves the pub, only to be assassinated by two men outside. His friend, Fly (a fly), is devastated and recalls how the pair first met. He then flies away, to a wreck of a building, where he comes across oCeAN, an elderly man. He observes oCeAN as he lies motionless, before getting out of bed and the walls and ceiling collapsing around him. oCeAN saves a black dot on the windowsill which seems to have life in it (which turns out to be the fly.) Amon then wakes up to the knocks of a policeman on the table he's fallen asleep at. The cop breaks the news about Alec to him and takes him to identify the body, which he does. Amon must then go to Lirasq's planet and home to tell her about the tragedy, but first he and Jink takes drugs and get high. Fly, meanwhile, befriends oCeAN, who finally speaks to him, and they go out to a pub. Here, oCeAN is taken aback as Fly is so broken up by Alec's death that he commits suicide in his drink. Back to Amon, and he and Jink return to the antique store and Jink steals a stone while Amon chats with Bernice, who works there and whom he fancies. The pair then travel to the other zone, where Lirasq lives. They enter her apartment block, walking over a corpse as they do so, and she lets them into her place. Here, Amon tells her about Alec’s murder and Lirasq warns him about the stone he took — it’s a famous item and the crack that appeared in it is due to it being obtained sinfully. This could be serious… oCeAN is the introduction character for the world of All Zones where the "Destined for Perfection" novel is set. oCeAN is one of the four most powerful creatures in the Multiverse of the seven Zones. His spirit form can be summoned into the physical world by a talented sorcerer. This version of oCeAN is a giant with relentless power. oCeAN is immortal. In human form his body can be destroyed, but he cannot die. He can rematerialise a new body from the broken pieces or from any meat at hand. Jaimee Elgin is a poet who is barely making ends meet, trading poems for food and clothing. She applies to a pencil manufacturer for a real job. But accidentally falls through a gateway (the living portal) to another dimension. While there, she thinks she is hallucinating but is still trying to apply for the job, ends up successfully applying for the position as Dream Writer, working for God aka Hitshus. The first God (Hitshus' father), Henry, is born in the Other Zone. The roadsign, Jimmy intimidates God into working for him as God of Chaos. And so when Jimmy and Henry are at the cafe, God releases an aura of chaos which causes a number of terrible things to happen - the gulls rob the cafe, the garden shears kill Frank the hedge, and Grietch the birdwatcher is trapped in a net. Jaimee the dream writer arrives at the road where Jimmy's lack of purpose has caused a terrible culmination of traffic accidents. Out of frustation, she attacks the roadsign, Ralph comes to Jimmy's defence and kills Jaimee. The road worker finds the body and because of the similarity between her name tag - Jaimee and the road sign - Jimmy. He makes a slight change to the road sign and buries the body under it. Jimmy, now Jaimmy is a grave marker. So he has purpose. Amon Fente and his new friend Jink, the stoner Imp travel to the Other Zone (while Amon is tripping) to visit Lirasq and break the news that Amon's friend, Lirasq's boyfriend a hobo called Alec Skint has been killed. Meanwhile oCeAN and his new friend, a talking suicidal bluebottle fly who was Alec's best friend linger around New York. Amon and Jink steal a gemstone from an antique store as a gift for Lirasq. Because it was stolen, it cracks, releasing the ancient prison that has kept the Devil trapped in Hell under ice in the Fourth Zone – the realm of the ethereal, for millions of years. In Book Two, while Amon is being told of what has happened by Lirasq, Jink is unwillingly sent on a quest by a wise alien, (descendant of The Wise One, another of the four most powerful forces in All Zones) to find the predesignated hero to defeat and recapture the Devil. Unknowingly of all this, Amon, at Lirasq's behest goes off into the forest (the safer region of this planet) to try and find comrades to attempt to resolve the damage he and Jink have caused. While off on this redundant mission he gets caught up in a rebellion with his new friends the Bogals (alien midgets obsessed with 90's bogan Earth culture) against the Fahk – the corporate combined with government fascist control structure, that is taking over this Universe and leaving many innocent species to starve or be captured, forced into war or simply killed. Shamkah the wise alien teams up with Amon (letting him know that the Devil situation is being handled, but he is needed here) to summon oCeAN to destroy the Fahk kingdoms at the end of the war. Jink finds the couch, and is told that the couch is the hero. The couch fights and recaptures the Devil and sends him back to Hell, the pit sealed over with a shard of the gemstone.