I’m not sure what day we’re on in Edwardston Resident’s existence in His Second Lyfe, but it was another momentous one for sure. Because on this day… this night of this day… Edwardston met Baker Bloch, who he knew from a number of pictures found in his inventory. He spied his gray-ish figure from in front of the Power Tower Gowlery and approached. As with most Second Lyfe avatars, Baker Bloch’s name appeared as text above his head, ready identification if Edwardston hadn’t already known who he was.
Baker Bloch’s clothes were grayed out, and all that retained their true colors on his being were certain accessories (red armbands, black hat, black shoulder bird). Edwardston got one good look at him before he disappeared, quick as a wink. But he had met Baker Bloch! Perhaps a father or father figure, but certainly one who owned most of the objects in VWX Town, and was also obviously helping Edwardston to adjust to this new world. In truth, it is a true miracle that they were able to meet in any way in this world, for both are the avatars of one user — me, baker b. They are like brothers, except closer. And one shouldn’t be in the world while the other is there… that’s just not how it works. But somehow they were, albeit for a brief moment. Thank God they didn’t speak to each other; that would have been *way* too strange!
This is the real story of how it happened: I was working on the Home o’ Fibs through Baker Bloch when I decided to log out that avatar and log on Edwardston Resident. Yet, amazements of amazements, when I logged Edwardston Resident on to the grid and he materialized in this world, Baker Bloch was still there in front of the Home o’ Fibs (!). I would have been even more shocked if this hadn’t happened once before. Several years back, I had similarly logged off Hucka Doobie, and quickly logged on Baker Bloch in the same spot, and Hucka Doobie was still there. I have a picture to mark the event, but am unable to find it right now despite some considerable digging in the Baker Blinker Blog. I’ll try again later, perhaps.
The Home o’ Fibs has been considerably altered: impinging trees deleted, wallpapers changed, askew doors removed. Edwardston knew for certain that Baker Bloch was behind all the changes now. What Edwardston didn’t understand still is that he and Baker Bloch have the one and same user. I’m not sure even Baker Bloch understands what this means fully, but certainly he’s closer to understanding the true situation than young’n Edwardston Resident.
Edwardston decides to decorate the place with objects from his inventory, which takes some time.
It was only during a break from rezzing and positioning that he noticed the new skyscraper in town from the second floor balcony. A strange one indeed! He felt this could be Baker Bloch’s creation as well.
Edwardston Resident rezzes a teleporter from his inventory. Dare he use it?
After some thought he takes the plunge, and selects “Falmouth series”. He teleports inside this 4-part artwork that goes all the way around him. He doesn’t know that he’s in the Power Tower Gowlery just next door, but figures he’s still in VWX Town, since the objects around him are still owned by Baker Bloch. He notices the red haired being centering one of the 4 pictures around him. “Is this yet another representation of himself?” he wonders.
In attempting to get back to the Home o’ Fibs, he accidentally teleports to another location he didn’t intent to: the top floor of that new, lean-y building he saw from his window not long back. Again he wasn’t sure exactly where he was in VWX Town because of the shock…
…but when he returned back to his Home o’ Fibs (thankfully choosing the right teleport on the next selection!), Edwardston realized where he’d been.
Edwardston tried to go to sleep shortly afterwards, but the excitement of the evening was too great.
Soon he was up and in the side yard, manifesting new objects from his inventory. He found a map of what he thought was Pietmond, fooled by the object title (“Pietmond map”). But it was actually a texture map of Philudoria’s VWX Town placed on an old prim and not retitled. Nevertheless, Edwardston understood that this “Pietmond” was some kind of parallel or twin town to VWX Town, and mistakenly thought it was still intact. He recognized a number of shared buildings between the two towns, including the Power Tower Gowlery.
He was about to attempt sleeping once more when he spotted out a window what he thought was a figure, a man, in the distance, beyond Carrcassonne’s new pool and silouetted against what I’ve chosen to call Confluence Place between palm fronds, backed turned away from him. After some staring, he decided it wasn’t a figure but an optical illusion, but the seed had been planted.
Edwardston was soon to go beyond his cactus choked block on Rezz Hill and proceed into the Confluence Place, just below this manifested illusion. The figure is a trace of himself in the future and also a trace of Baker Bloch in the past. One and the same.
Sunklands 