Monthly Archives: February 2016

Peter

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Peter stood in the front of the window with everyone gathered around now. Bendy was still confused about the explanation Lily was providing. “So Soso is good.”

“Soso is *grrr-reat*!” exclaimed Lily, imitating their mutual friend Tony Tiger. All chuckle except Peter, who winced. “Oh, sorry Peter. His ears are still new. Well, *everything* is new.”

“So,” he replied in a squeak. “So so. So.”

“Aww, he’s so *cute*.” Lily gently pinches him on his still forming cheek. “He’s the first Peter to truly be resurrected because he’s the best. And Peter Gabriel embodies Soso to perfection with the unnamed albums, all leading up to ‘So.’ And *so* I think that’s who’s trying to form before us: Peter Gabriel.” She shrugs her shoulders quickly. “It’s just *so* exciting!”

“Ahem, you need to stop with the “so”s,” Jack requested, but with a laugh.

“So so,” repeated Peter. “So so so so.”

Prissy was nervously scratching her fins. “”But why is he a merboy?” she asked. “Like I’m a mergirl?”

“Because he is your brother, Prissy,” Lily explained. “You are only a bit older than he. How old are you now?”

“13,” came the answer. “13 weeks,” she elaborated.

“13 weeks and 2 and a 1/2 days, yes. You were born at noon. Peter here has just manifested at midnight. You are the day and night twins.” Lily then turns to Bendy. “How old are you Bendy?”

“I’m going to go with 13 as well because I don’t really the heck know.”

“Oh, that’s not true Bendy,” Jack spoke. “You know I completed you on the same day as the whale and squid fiasco. That’s why you’re so *bent* up inside; that awful thing was one of the first things you saw with your shiny new metallic beamers. And Bendy became your name because everyone knew you would become truly warped after that. And *so* it came to be… sorry Lily.”

“So so,” Peter gurgles. “So… *lo*.”

Lily claps again. Peter winces again. “Oh, so sorry Peter once more. But you’ve said your first variant word. Solo!” She tried not to be so loud this time but she felt like shouting it from the rooftop. Peter Gabriel!

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Peter Gabriel?

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Tapping

Just at that moment, there came a gentle tapping from the direction of the only window in the cottage. All looked around, and Lily clapped her hands in excitement. “Peter’s here,” she spoke just above a whisper.

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Meanwhile, skateboarding Bart had slipped off this side of the moon, already in West Pole. Soon Peter and friends would follow.

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Lemonade

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Soon all were gathered in the cottage sipping on delicious ice cold lemonade. By this time in the evening, the group had broken into two pairs, Prissy and Bendy to the left, and Lily and Jack on the right. Bendy’s head was afire with passionate thoughts. He spoke to Prissy about now staying on the moon.

“What’s the use in going back?” he asked the mergirl. “I have everything I need here. Good friends like you and Jack and Lily. Good food and drink. And — wait for it — good food and drink! Ha ha ha.”

Prissy chuckled with Bendy. She thought him a very funny person. But what does our future hold? she wondered again. “A mergirl and a robot,” she said aloud. “What strange bedfellows,” and then instantly began to blush. “I mean, not bedfellows,” she furthered, attempting to cover her tracks.

“It’s okay, doll. I think we’d be just fine the sack he he.” He nudged her knowingly and she giggled like a school girl. “Ooo you’re such a tease,” she exclaimed amidst the laughter.

Meanwhile Lily and Jack were talking more earnestly about the appearance of the lemon tree.

“You say you can’t remember the tree being there until you came back from the labyrinth, Lily. But then where *did* it come from?”

“It must have something to do with Bart,” she said in her husky female voice, perhaps an octave higher in register than Jack’s. “Are you sure you won’t have any more lemonade sweety?”

“Nah, I’m fine. Should we even be *drinking* this stuff since we don’t know where it came from? Could be poison for all we know.”

Lily shakes her horned head. “My honed intuition tells me that isn’t so. It’s lemonade plain and simple. From a perfectly ordinary lemon tree — except it totally shouldn’t be here.”

“Totally,” agreed Jack. He looked over at the flirting Prissy and Bendy. “So… do you think they’ll make it together.”

“Who, Prissy and Bendy?” Lily asked innocently, glancing over her shoulder at the still giggling couple. “They’re simply made for each other. Can’t you tell?” She wanted to add, “Just like you and me,” but held her tongue.

“We get along so well with them around. Why can’t it be that way all the time?” Jack looked at Lily with sadness in his eyes.

“You’re head is too much in the sky, in the stars, Jack,” Lily replied, looking into her glass of lemonade. “You can’t feel the ground beneath you until you start navigating the moon, prompted by your good friend over there. And you can’t wait to be alone again so you can climb up on that roof and study the hole you can’t see from your pole.” She wanted to add more, but stopped again. If they had been alone, this would most likely have been a gateway into an argument, following the familiar path of Lily claiming Jack only came here for that hole and not herself. She takes another drink of lemonade and tries to hide the tears forming in her eyes.

“Now now, you know that’s not true.” But it was true he couldn’t commit to Lily and say the feelings he felt for her. He *did* love her. By the way she acted all the time, he figured she must love him too. They were destined to get together in all likelihood. But how? He had his pole. She had her pole on the opposite side of the moon. They were both settled in, she in her cottage and he in his work shed.

Jack wondered again if it would be possible to haul that shed to a different side of the moon through the drift, perhaps *through* a different side to a different pole altogether, if you catch my drift. It would take a whole posse of people. But everyone loved Lily and Jack. It wouldn’t be difficult at all to mustard up a team of willing volunteers for an, albeit, most likely impossible task.

Jack then said something to Lily that had been on his mind for a spell (if you get my meaning again). “What happens if we flip the poles?”

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Prissy

Jack and Bendy emerge from the drift into South Park South Pole.

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“Hellooo! Anybody home? Oh there’s Polly over there beside the cottage, Bendy,” says Jack, pointing in the appropriate direction.

“You mean Prissy?”

“Oh, right. Prissy Pollypants, correct.”

“Don’t say it backwards again, jeez. She’s very fussy about her name.”

“I know. I remember.” Jack calls Prissy’s name directly from below but she still doesn’t answer. The mergirl’s attention is fixed by something on the side of the house. Jack and Bendy walk up and stare with her. It’s Bart again, with a number of fish balloons attached to his skateboard now.

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Prissy shakes her head as if just awakening from a dream. “What? Oh it’s you Jack. Hello! And hi, Bendy. It’s been a while.”

“Yeah, since the whale and squid thing.” He thinks back again to that awful day and shakes his own head. The whole moon must have been there to witness the event. “You are looking good today,” he says, studying her now. “Very good.” Too good, Bendy thinks further. What just happened to him?

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“Thank you.” Prissy’s cheeks blush slightly as she returns her stare to the chimney. “He just wafted in. After the light in the sky. I couldn’t stop staring at him jiggling back and forth on that skateboard. I guess I fell into a trance.”

“That’s okay, Prissy,” Jack reassures her. “You’re okay now. We’re here with you. But where is Lily? Out on another grave finding expedition perhaps?”

Prissy glances away from the house to the west. “No she made herself small and is walking the labyrinth. She’s up to 3 times a day. I guess that’s a good thing. But one might call her…,” and here, Prissy cupped her hand to her mouth and reduced her voice to a loud whisper: “… obsessed.” Then she leaned away and then back, repeating the hand to mouth motion: “… possessed,” she says this time to Jack and Bendy. Then she repeats it once more and follows with: “… demons. The dead, you know.”

“Well, that’s a long standing project, Prissy. We all have obsessions. Me and my sky mapping, Bendy and his constant thoughts of food…”

“I never!” Bendy defended himself, truly embarrassed.

“Ah, simmer down, Bendy,” Jack said, peering over at Prissy who was hiding a giggle. “I was just joking. And then, for example, Bart with his skateboarding. But I’ve not a clue how he got from East Pole to South Pole so quickly. We were just there, Prissy, you understand. *Just* there. Came through the drift of course.”

“Yes. Of course.” Prissy looks down and shuffles her fins. “But I am being such a rude host. Why don’t you come into the cottage and we’ll have some juice.”

“Juice?” the shocked Jack and Bendy say in unison.

“Yes, from the lemons on our lemon tree. Freshly picked this morning. It’s right around the corner. There.” She pointed to it.

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Bendy felt like rushing over and kissing Prissy full on the lips. Food on the moon! His dream had come true.

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Pespective (East to South)

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Meanwhile…

… back on the *fake* moon, Karoz Blogger has taken to sleeping on its edge and away from the creepy John Lockfry/Dr. Mulholland pairing at the Collagesity Diner. His favorite spot is pictured below, where he has that great vantage point for look at the rapidly spinning *real* moon Jack and Bendy are circumnavigating at the same time. Mind you, Karoz cannot monitor their progress from his viewpoint. The moon is but a blur for him. But still he finds comfort in knowing that, in all likelihood, Bendy is still there, and is visiting a homeland. It gives him hope that he too can find a way home.

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On this particular morning, simulataneous with Jack and Bendy completing half of the journey around True Moon as they transition from East Pole to South Pole, Karoz awakens to find new Collagesity elements appearing on Fake Moon. A railroad track now seems to completely surround the diner, cutting it off from the rest of the surface. Karoz later understands it is actually an exact semi-circle, also 50 percent complete but still performing the essential separation. Karoz would never see the John Lockfry/Dr. Mulholland duo again.

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To his left he spots a ghost image in the sky hovering directly above an illuminated cactus. He recognizes it as the Boos gallery sign.

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Karoz correctly wonders if a gateway is forming back to Collagesity. He might be able to go home soon! Back to Baker Blinker and the others. For now the prickly cactus still bars, though. It’s up to Jack and Bendy to do the rest.

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East Pole

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They emerged from the drift in front of the famous spool table containing the Minoan Radio. A tinny version of “Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day” by Jethro Tull was playing — nothing really unusual there — but the recording was stuck on the “skating away” lyrics of the chorus, which repeated over and over as in a broken record. Corresponding to this, skateboarding Bart Simpson was himself stuck atop the iris opening implanted in East Pole’s epicenter.

Jack pointed toward the figure. “Look Bendy. Both stuck. Bart is usually darting back and forth and all around this side of the moon when we come here.”

“Yeah, I always half expect to get clobbered by him when I arrive,” adds Bendy. “Skateboarders, pheh.” As they contemplate the meaning of all this, another figure emerges from the drift to their right. It’s Tilie the multi-colored, morally responsible moon maintenance robot. He passes the broken radio without nary a glance and heads straight to Bart. He begins to repeatedly touch the figure with an extended arm. Each time he does, his body changes colors.

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He stops when his body only shows 2 colors instead of 3. He mutters a curse. It is only then he sees the still mostly submerged Jack and Bendy on the edge of East Pole. “Oh, beg your pardon sirs,” he says, and then bows in greeting. “I will erase my curse from time and space.”

“It’s no problem, Tilie,” responds Jack, waving the moral mistake off while moving toward the figure and likewise fully emerging from the edge drift. Bendy follows suit. “How is everything? How’s the wife? Ounita isn’t it?”

“Correct,” replies Tilie, wiping his red brow. “She’s fully functional, yes. Recently polished. I can’t even eyeball her in the sun. Blind. How are you fine gents? Bendy, it’s been quite some sidereal time. Maybe since the whale and squid debauchery at West Pole?”

“Yup, I believe that may be it,” Bendy replies, thinking back on that awful day. That’s the last live eating he hoped he would ever witness. And so large and up front!

“The wife Eldwithel didn’t like Jim the Eel whisking him off to Mars on a daggle hunting trip without her consent, ha ha ha. First she sucked his eyeballs away and then took her tongue and… but I can tell from the charged expressions on your face that I’m going too much into fine detail for good senses once more. The woof and warp of a maintenance bot’s lives, eh?”

They all sit around the spool table facing the radio and catchup with each other. All goes well until Tilie attempts to explain what’s wrong with this pole. “It’s the sun and his shiny cache of roman’s numerals, two and seven and seven and two. It’s the lemon, sweeter than normals with pits for eyes that make you jump back and screech ow without complaint. Sky lumber jacks mustard into thin air. The lady sings fatly.”

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Jack stares at him. “So that means we can’t stay here for any length of time.”

“No bleeping still life way you can’t! Hamlin Garland realism in a cussword genie bottle. Apologies once more!”

“It’s no problem again, Tilie.” Jack turns to Bendy. “Well, that looks like it.” Jack stands up from the spool table and motions Bendy to do the same. “Tilie, we bid you farewell, then, and wish you luck on your repairs.” Tilie rises and bows in parting without speaking further.

“What was *that* all about?” Bendy queries after they reach a certain distance and begin to enter the drift again. “Mustard,” Jack responds, holding steady to the seam. “Mean and mad.”

Both are safely within the drift and aimed toward South Pole when Bart’s yellow head blows up like a fish.

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Goodbyes

The next morning Tony bade Jack, Bendy and Molly farewell as he continued his (to them) sideways journey around the moon, soon to be over, he claimed, as he circled back to the portal to his home world located in the next section called Farside. After watching him disappear into the drift that makes up the edges of any particular moon side, they moved toward the Cardinal Tree again and stood in front of it at an angle perpendicular to that of Tony’s exit. Both knew the time for dawdling was over.

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Molly the parrot spoke up. “You will contact me, Jack, after you reach the next side. Tell me how Bart is. Tell me if Lily’s eucalyptuses are still visible just over the next edge at the South Pole. Tell me what is found on Minoan Radio. Yell and I will hear you. We may not be quite able to see each other but we will hear each other. If we speak loudly enough.”

“I will,” promised Jack. Molly had become what is called a “fixture” element, unable or unwilling to move beyond the side they had settled upon. Molly and Cardinal Tree: perhaps united forever now on the North Pole of the moon as an animal-plant composite. On the opposite side of this pole, across the divide of Big Crease, Jack was and still is in danger of becoming the same with his work shed, his celestial globe, his skynoculars. Animal elements attach to inertial plant and mineral elements through imprinting archetypes. Jack’s particular Achilles heel is the passionate pursuit of star mapping above all else. He cannot see a small part of the sky situated above the south pole on the opposite side of the moon and that is his saving grace. This would be directly above Lily’s residence; this drives him on. Once in motion around the sides of the moon you cannot stop until you circle back to the beginning, as in the Ouroboros. And Jack must always move in one direction and one direction only. North to east to south to west. Going against the grain of the moon’s built in physics leads to inevitable danger and extinction. Nectar, Ginger and others had learned that the hard way.

Jack and Bendy nod at each other and then walk forward in tandem. Molly watches them as their legs, torsos and finally heads disappear below the ground before they reach Cardinal Tree. “Goodbye Jack,” she says as tears drop from her eyes into the sand below. “Circle back as soon as possible.”

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Tony

The next day brought a visit from their good friend Tony Tiger, who travels the moon from side to side instead of up and down, like Jack and Bendy. These so-called “Sidewinders” have numbered only 3 as far as Jack could determine. There’s Tony, Jim The Eel, and, um, Nectar, who no one likes to talk about because of that terrible day they all had to watch him float off into space, never to be heard from again. Trampolines were never seen on the moon after that day as well, as Jack ripped apart the only known one piece by piece with his bare hands.

Among the two groups of moon travelers — horizontal and vertical — Bendy and Tony were especially close. Both were pets, for one thing, although Tony liked his master while Bendy did not (if you count both John Lockfry and Dr. Mulholland as one master, as Bendy started doing a while back when speaking to Tony and others). Tony talked endlessly about Lisa, and Bendy listened in rapt amazement. “She’s offered to send me to to college next year since my grades were so high among my class,” said Tony to Bendy this time in a new wrinkle. “Ringling Brothers school in the Earth state of Florida. But I had to turn her down. I’d miss *you guys* too much. And Lily. All the things I love about the moon.” Despite the differences in treatment, Tony, like Bendy, craved freedom in his heart, and escaped from his own master-pet existence back to the moon when possible. He entered through a portal and not a leap, however.

The below snapshot finds Tony and Bendy playing chase while number crunching Jack keeps a watchful eye on them from his shed to make sure things don’t get too roughhouse.

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Afterwards, Tony gives Bendy more tips on his golf swing while Molly and Jack look on. Bendy dreams about turning the whole moon into a 6 hole golf course. Now all they need are some clubs, and a ball that won’t fly off the low gravity world when you hit it any sort of distance.

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Jack gives it a swing.

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Tony, who has the ability to turn anthropomorphic when needed, shows them how it’s done.

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Wait

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“We’re going to have to move off this tree sometime. Might as well be now.” He was examining the bends of his legs.

“Now is when it might as well be.” said Jack in reply to Bendy’s suggestion. It was a game they liked playing. Rearranging the words of what the other says to mean the same thing. They had quite a number of such games.

“Wait until daylight,” Molly the parrot wisely advised. And so they did.

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