Phase 01: West London
Pre-Phase 04: Japan
And this is where we came in…
00500204
Daisy spotted the problem right off. No Lag simply didn’t show up well against bar owner Bull’s chosen backdrop. And she knew he wouldn’t change it. Stubborn as a… well, you know. Daisy dared to voice the issue to No Lag; after all, who else was there to run the place. Bull was always “away”. Wheeler was she and she was Wheeler. So she felt she had no choice but to act.
“No Lag,” she said to her, approaching the stage from her usual behind-the-bar position. No customers right now. Rehearsals for No Lag’s band still. “You’ve got classical nailed, I admit.”
“‘Classical Gas!'” issued No Lag to Daisy about the last tune she played, which even contained the word in its name. Her hearing was worn out because of all the gigs down through the years; she can’t tell what level she speaks to people any more. So she usually just defaults to shouting.
“Good, nice.” Great, actually, thought Daisy. But she had to bring things down, *act* like she was kind of pleased but not super pleased about the music, the strumming. “You… the backdrop,” she got to the core of the situation.
And with this, No Lag just faded into it, her story no longer vital for the present photo-novel. Or at least the present section 02 of 06 or possibly even 07 (although a 7th hasn’t happened in a while, perhaps 3 or 4 back by now). Spotlight on lead singer Shelley instead. She simply took over… everything.
And new mesh feet ta boot! She decided to kick classically constrained No Lag to the side and take the band in a solid rock direction, changing the name from Silver Mosquitoes to just Mosquitoes. They became a steady buzz after that in the music industry. Not sure if keyboardist/DJ Okama Majo was kept but it’s a good possibility since he’s only partially obscured in the above photo. *Photo*-novel we’re in after all. 1/2 the story in theory, with one feeding off the other to make, hopefully, a new whole. It seems to be working (!). Getting back into it…
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0204, Bull's Bar, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS
00500203 (seven = silver)
“I think it’s painfully obvious that I’m Noodle in this scenario,” lead singer Shelley Johnston Struthers spoke over to band manager Biff Wendell Carter, out on a break from rehearsing, their third of the night. Lots of STOPS and GOS for this one, like in a heated game of Mille Bornes. Trouble. Friction. Inertia. No one could even decide which band members were present or not. Sometimes Sherwood was a kid and other times a fully functional adult, albeit a brilliant drummer at whatever age he appeared. Things were in FLUX.
“Okay, I agree,” said Biff, thinking of all the changes and shifts and sputterings too. “We’ll make that another concrete truth of the blog and attached photo-novel,” he said, but, again, that’s probably me talking through him. So let’s leave out that sentence and say Biff merely agrees with Shelley on her statement. She is Noodle. She’s also Pink tonight. He approves of both. Then he brings up a subject he knew he shouldn’t broach.
“Listen, Shelley. I’ve been doing some research. Staying a classical, so-called non-mesh avatar is fine. But it seems people who choose to follow that path with their outward appearance at least get new and improved mesh hands and feet. I wouldn’t touch the head, though.” He looks over at her head, thinks of the smile (not currently present upon it, though), that beautiful innocence. No, leave the head for sure.
Shelley looks down at her extremities.” I’m not changing *anything*.” She was stubborn about remaining classical. She also likes classical vegetation, builds. Helps reduce lag. What’s not to like? She’s been around long enough to remember the good old days and the excitement of Our Second Lyfe when it was relatively fresh and new… and *non-mesh*. That excitement is still there but in pockets instead of an overall vibe. You have to dig a bit more these days.
“I *do* like the pink,” says Biff, trying to smooth over his mistake. We can build up from that, he thinks. Whatever happens, I’m *not* going back to the restaurant business. TBC
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0203, Jeogeot, Rodentia 02
00500202 (SPLAT: all caps)
That’s weird, Newt thinks. Concrete again.
Wonder where it leads?
—–
“Excuse me, sir. Concrete. Know anything? About?”
Daniel turns. He hadn’t heard that name in a looong time. “Come with me,” he said after introductory banter. He had a lot to unburden to this stranger from the far off Nawt Vaya Sea over on the mainland continent of Jeogeot. A lot indeed.
—–
3 hours and 19 seconds later…
“So I’m an artist, you see. And not a waste management operations worker. ”
“I see.”
“I’m ready to leave this place, get a new job more in line with my goals.” Newt’s own gallery of Concrete sealed the deal for him. They must be connected (!).
“How… can I help?” How indeed. Howl.
“Take me back with you.” TBC?
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0202, Frank's Moving Castle, HANA LEI, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS
00500201 (photo-novel continues…)
She was in control of the BAND now, in the driver’s seat, this brilliant lead guitarist named Noodle from the Orient who had grown up before our very watching eyes. With the finishing of the game above this one called Grand Theft Auto version 5, she slowed down their high speed, way too high to be sustainable long term. Sloow (*brake*) slooow (brake brake brake). She checked the speedometer. Right at 50, just inside the limit defined by the Mille Bornes card laid down to end it all. Right where we are now.
But there were problems at the rear still, a stowaway from the beginning of their journey, a carryover from the Gorillaz video coming before this one. Pink Phantom. With the slowing down of the car the vaporous, negatively oriented creature was able to slip out and make her escape to the past, freedom reclaimed. Interesting time loop created if so; I’ll have to think about that one further. TBC
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0201, California, GTA
00500116 (eyes attached)
This is *wrong*. So wrong that I almost skipped over it. Frank’s Moving Castle. AI!
Let’s start over again, then…
Under The Silver Lake.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0116, C2077, California, City Center, Frank's Moving Castle, Google Street View, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, Nevada, NVFS, Ohio
00500115 (dark and light)
I keep pushing and pushing, outward and outward, but I may have reached a limit. The Abyss.
I’m seeing things in the wrong places. JAX again.
On the other hand, there’s the magnificent “Barkley’s Barnyard Critters” videos. Rudy!
I pick back up the cane and run with it.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0115, ADC, Critterville
00500114
“Okay, Father Fecked. Wake up. Time to go home.”
Father Fecked stirs from his slumber. “Hrmmmph,” he says, bottle still in hand. Always. Along with the cane in the other one.
“You’ve got to go, Fecked,” reiterates Daisy Flathead, running her bar again but underwater this time. Bull’s Bar. She’s just a manager this go around, with Bull aka “Yellow Jack” being the owner. But she’s okay with it. For now.
Father Fecked stretches, yawns. “Hrrrrrrrrrummmph.” Smacking of lips. He looks around, just realizing where he is. Oh yeah, had to crash here, he understands through the brain fog. Nowhere to stay. “I– have—”
“You haven’t got a place to go, yeah I know,” says Daisy. “Frank and I have solved that for you. You can return to the castle. You can have your old bedroom. Just—” Daisy stops here, decides not to mention the drinking, the night wandering around the castle. *Their* room that one time; Fecked and Philip *both*. And they can’t lock the door; have to keep it phantom so *they* can enter. Stupid, primitive castle, she sometimes laments. But it’s such a nifty vintage build. There are advantages to old too.
More smacking of lips. Finally he makes eye contact with her. “My… *bedroom*?”
“Yes, Fecked. You can go back. You can return… home.” Hard to say that word for her. *Their* home, ugh.
Smacking of lips, looking around, then eye contact again. “Home?”
“Yeah. I just need to clear you out of the bar tonight. No Lag’s playing in a couple of hours and the place should get pretty packed. *Hopefully*. Because, you know, I need the money. Sea Monster set me back you see.” She starts cleaning the beer glasses “Go on, now. Shooo.”
“No… Lag,” he manages in his gruff way, turning toward the stage.
“Yeah, the local genius guitarist. Haven’t heard her yet. But she’s popular. Drew in over 35 at The Burg last weekend, almost broke the sim. She’s a known commodity, as they say.”
Meanwhile…
“We’ve thrown in this bed — just like ours, guys. I think you’ll like some of the new moves, he he.”
Philip looks around. “But where will I take my wees?” Now that the castle’s big tongue is gone, is the unspoken part of his question. Philip loves to dangle his willy off its tip and pee into the landscape below.
“Grass,” Frank instructs while waving. “All around.”
Philip decided that would have to do, or Nada did for him, eagerly eyeing the bed. TBC
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0114, Bull's Bar, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS
00500113 (Crawford County, Arkansaw this time)
“Dancccce for me Old Swwweetback!
“You can’t get away frommm me! I have the RETAR–
STOP
GO
“And so that’s how Rudy got paired with Cane, as in Cain. Graphic.”
He’d made a good point about the 4th collage exhibited in the Concrete gallery, right on the side of his detective agency. Background source image to close, he said. We build up from there… in the past.
He went back in the afternoon that one time, just to see what would change. Investigation continues…
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0113, Arkansas, Critterville
00500112 (creating concrete truth on the banks of Nawt Vaya)
“It’s not 3 X’s in a row, Hucka. It’s 3 bunnies. Happy belated Easter btw!”
“Thank you. Are we ready to talk about Concrete?”
“The gallery, you mean. And not the WA town.”
“Correct. Should you start or me?”
—–
“Father Fecked was pointing with his possessed cane to end photo-novel 49. But he wasn’t really pointing at the Anton pin stuck in the Anson sim below Nautilus Island. He was pointing to the future, to ‘The Point of It All.’ Thus the name. We can recreate the scene in the present by looking head on at the wall separating the two and seeing both sides. See?”
“Interesting, Hucka D. Strong start for you. So… you mean he was, um, pointing to the side of the VWX Detective Agency building and not necessarily at what’s inside.”
“Both in one. But: correct again. Just on the other side of the wall from him. In the future, when the Concrete gallery was actually formed in 50 and the collage was hung there on the side of Petty’s detective agency. That’s why Petty stated he knew where to place the time machine. He was standing in it (!).
“We can even pull him directly forward through the (detective agency’s) wall, see where he’s position in respect to the collage. What’s he staring at now? A crime! Vandal, just like the policeman assigned to the town is distracted from by the passing pretty lady. Pretty can solve it, I mean, Petty. Petty crime too, perhaps. And that’s just one meaning. He *knew* where to place the time machine,” Hucka D. reinforces. “And as I’m sure you’ll notice, Petty is inside the collage too, magnifying glass in hand. He studies monsters.”
https://bakerbloch.com/2017/05/12/53217/
Baker’s turn.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0112, Cement Village, Cricket, Google Street View, Heterocera, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS, VHC City, Washington
Sunklands 