Monthly Archives: July 2017

July 13, 2017 · 8:20 am

L$1101110

“There she is, George. Just like I predicted.”

“Who is she?”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Duncan replied. “How long did you say you’ve been here now?”

“What’s time here? But 50 as of last Wednesday. *You* were there at the celebration.”

“Ever hear of mothersightings?”

“Of course,” said the younger boy in appearance. “But… *oh*, you don’t mean…?”

—–

“That’s when we first saw her. Together. I’ve been spotting her fishing in various places for a while. We determined later it was the same ghost that haunted the village’s 3rd cottage — Osborne Well’s house back then, before he moved up the hill. He probably summoned her through the monster tome, we reasoned. That’s what we had nicknamed his heavy book of spells. And now she couldn’t escape this realm. But what was the spell? That’s what we had to find out next. Well… Mr. Well always took a morning walk down in the lowlands: Path of the Circle River. That was our window. Literally. We entered his house through a window and not a door. George had just received a universal pass-through for his 50th death day, but we still dare not come in from the front. Very expensive in those days.”

“Doors?” Baker Bloch ventured.

“Pass-throughs,” Duncan corrected. “Buster Damm can tell you all about them. When he gets here.”

“Which should be soon,” Pitch Darkly said.

“Yes. The book was just laying open on the table, which should have been clear indication of a trap for us. It wasn’t. We were so proud that we’d found a way to enter the house in the first place. Vanity.” He shook his head. “The next thing we knew we were the same. I was him, I mean. Just by reading the passage in front of me. Rule 110.”

“Well, what did it say?” Hucka Doobie had been studying magic for years and was very curious about all this.

“We couldn’t remember. Neither of us.” Duncan kept something hidden here. “But that was the day we found out we had the same mother. And the same father. Osborne Well. Lucky us, eh? Osborne Well was our father.”


Mothersighting.

“Not Pitch?” exclaimed Baker Bloch.

“Nope,” Duncan replied tersely. “At least not until *now*. That’s why I’m apparently here. A summoning. Three days ago I was returned to my former self. Spell broken.” He wiped his forehead with his hand. “Thank the Lord God Almighty.”

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July 12, 2017 · 8:15 am

Inside

This is perhaps the only seal left in Collagesity now outside of collages, Hucka Doobie. Is this what Falmouth 59 was pointing to? This sealed off part of the train tracks?”

“I don’t know Baker Bloch. 4 posts to end. 3 if you count this. Sealsity — sorry, Sealston — will be reactivated one last time. Someone will have to go up again — rectify things.”

“Mary,” suggests Baker Bloch.

“Has to be.”

“Then ‘Floydodo’ is somehow another portal animal? Or subbing for one?”

“Can we squeeze more information out of Osborne Well before she heads up?” asks Hucka Doobie in return.

Baker follows with yet another question. “Are we not going to go through this picture into the sealed off area?”

“Are we never going to stop asking questions to each other without answer?” Hucka Doobie smiles. “Just kidd’n. Let’s go through the picture here. Won’t hurt.”

“After you.”

“No, you.”

—–

“What are we looking for, Hucka Doobie?”

“Not sure. What’s behind *this* wall?”

Baker checks. “Just the outside of Castle Jack. In front of Carrcassonee’s gazebo.”

“Hmm. Let’s return to collage 59. Maybe we missed something.”

Baker huffs, knowing this will take several more minutes of remote viewing to find. “Alright,” he relents.

—–

Instead they then find themselves seated with The Librarian at the lime table, still inside the sealed zone. Baker Bloch stares at him, wishing he would speak. Hucka Doobie strains to look around the blocking 1150 Quatrains Pillar at the picture of Roostre on the wall.

“Did I tell you I saw Earl Dinkins at the Chelsea about a month back, Hucka? He hadn’t changed one lick.”

“That was suppose to be my line but I don’t think it matters at this point.”

“I wonder if the answer is in his quatrains? Happened before. LINK”

“Maybe if we sit here long enough,” Hucka Doobie offered, “the right answer will come along. But I still think collage 59 holds more info. Or perhaps Osborne Well. Can we summon him here?”

“Tell you what. Let’s go by Pitch’s place and see if we can talk to him there, and then head up into the Fal Mouth Moon. My neck hurts from all this remote viewing tonight. Darkly Manor is right on the way.”

—–

Instead, another figure takes the place of The Librarian. Duncan Avocado. “I believe I was summoned?” he queries.

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July 11, 2017 · 5:15 am

Studies

Baker Bloch has determined that The Millers of Castle Knight (so named because they’re always milling about the place) are actually Knights as well, one black and the other white. Unlike chess pieces, you can’t tell them apart by appearances, only by what color square they’ve landed on at any given time through predetermined rules. Both hail from Soso, but not Collagesity’s SoSo Mall (just unsealed and reopened!), although they might claim to be so. This one instead. Their common ancestor: Newton Knight, leader of the Free State of Jones who was buried in Jasper County Mississippi with its Ted (and Turnerville) and Baxter also. Right hand man when carving out his Unionist knightdom in the middle of the Deep South was also named Jasper (Collins). Newt’s story seems to have deep significance. Hole to another dimension.

Baker is also still studying the Nancy archetype, and has determined that the 3 US Robertson Counties play a role. Ridgetop, above Bakers in Robertson County Tennessee, was formerly called Nancy (post office name). On other side of this county — northwest corner — is an Adams, famous for a particular, bad witch. In the north*east* corner of Robertson County Kentucky we have an Abigail. East and West: 2 bad witches, he’s decided, just like with Baum’s Oz. Matched up and read together, Abigail Adams is the wife of the second US president and the mother of the 6th president. Mary Ball needs to study this early champion of women’s rights. Future son and original president George doesn’t learn a New York lesson and gets outflanked at the Battle of Brandywine. Political career scuttled. Own grandpa Osborne Well perched on a high hill, master of all British Bermingham. American Muff sealed off and compartmentalized.

And then the 3rd and last Robertston County in Texas: Seale, Headsville, Bald Prairie.

We are on the home stretch…

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July 10, 2017 · 9:53 am

“Seal”

They had to bring in Woody Woodmanson to translate. He slowly slid the “Necronomicon” upwards out of Osborne Well’s clutching hands and replaced it with “Floydodo.”

“Well?” Pitch Darkly demanded after a 1 minute wait. “Anything?”

“Shhh,” Woody said. “He’s still reading, still absorbing. Nothing like the ‘Necronomicon,’ you see. He’s having difficulty.”

2 more minutes passed by. “Well I’m going to get some milk out of the refrigerator. Anybody else want anything?”

“I’ll take a coke,” requested Wheeler. Mary gave her a dirty look and she changed it over to milk as well.

“Milk all around, then?” asked Pitch. “Everyone mumbled agreement. “Okay, I’ll be right back.”

1/2 hour later: “This is getting ridiculous, Woody,” Pitch declares. “Maybe the moon is in the wrong phase or something.”

“No, I’m getting a, er, reading now. Something about black and white, up and down. Red all over.”

“Um, that’s a newspaper, Woody. What we have here is a book.” Pitch pauses. “Isn’t it?”

Woody suddenly locks into gear:

At 1pm, Bland spots a British patrol near Osborne Hill, and reports back to General Washington, “I have discovered the enemy on the heights just on the right of two Widow Davis’ who live close together on the Road called [can’t read that] about half a mile to the right of the Meeting House. There is a higher hill on their front.” Panicked by Bland’s report, Washington quickly orders Alexander Stirling and Adam Stephen to Birmingham Hill three miles north to defend the vulnerable Continental right flank.

Woody ends as abruptly as he began. Looks all around. “Osborne Hill?” Pitch exclaims. “Bermingham?”

What they then found on the next page sealed the deal.

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July 10, 2017 · 8:52 am

3 presents

Morris scolds Bendy for getting drunk in the corner of the room and missing Tronesisia pass through the portal outside into Bermingham.

Lou admonishes Tronesisia about being so proud of herself for figuring out the portal animal situation and forgetting to check the sealed Muff building indicated by Woody.

For Osborne Well, everything was going exactly as planned.

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July 9, 2017 · 9:25 am

no perch

“Whoa Nelly, Wheeler!” Mary exclaimed. “Got another one, phew!”

“Coolie,” said Wheeler, still thinking about the events of the day. “So… Tronesisia figured out that Aspinwall, the snake pet that came with (Allen Martin’s) gas station, was the portal animal needed to cross over because of Woody’s clue. Because it had grown larger recently. She had to move it from a matchbox to a cigar box about a week back?”

“I think so. (That’s) what Baker Bloch told me.”

“Snakes and dogs,” she continues. “Wonder what other animals could be used?”

“Birds, I’ve heard. But you have to get a walking one. Like, say, an emu.”

“Or a dodo,” Wheeler offers, but then remembers that particular species is extinct, with the walking aspect actually helping to do them in.

“No dodos,” Mary replies.

“Yeah, I recall now.”

Mary suddenly gasps. “Or *is* there?” She turns toward Wheeler with something different on the end of her line. Not a perch this time.

Wheeler was still thinking of possible portal animals. “I wonder if you could, say, just stick a perch in your pocket.”

“Look!” Mary commanded.

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July 9, 2017 · 7:43 am

Another 02b

It was also Woody who discovered what was, in effect, the keyhole of the cypher city. One of its buildings stood out from the rest, being isolated inside its own small square of surrounding road. The wooden man figured that if you unlinked the berg and then, in turn, touched or sat upon this building, the surrounding force field would be removed and you could reach the portal. But only one person should be up here when this happened, because you couldn’t just stand/un-sit and get back to Collagesity afterwards. Tronesisia was the one.

And if Woody’s theory was wrong? Tronesisia would be stuck here until Karoz could get his rocket ship launched for a rescue. After speaking with Baker Bloch on the matter, the robot lady decided it was well worth the risk, a quicker and, in all likelihood, safer way into Bermingham. Baker confided to Tronesisia that Woody is probably the one who set all this up in the first place, and then just conveniently forgot he did so. “How did it just show up one day outside his front door?” he rationalized to her. “How does Woody seem to know how it works so well? No, this was another aspect of his split nature, like how he regularly brings inanimate objects such as Snowy and others to life. He goes *into* them. Just like he has already gone into this world, this Bermingham. He’s merely forgotten; it’s what he does by nature,” Baker reinforced. Tronesisia nodded, remembering how Snowy use to sit static beside Woody’s house when she first arrived in town.

But there was an additional problem to tackle: the issue of the portal animal needed to actually pass through the gateway. Wheeler stated to Baker Bloch that The Musician held a fox to effect the transition (but which we later find out is really a dingo resembling a fox — still a portal dog). And then a bit later in our story we learned that snakes such as Old Colin Hiss could be used for the same. Woody asked his key about the matter and received an answer. “Such an animal has already been given to you by one no longer with us,” he says to Tronesisia. She goes back to Baker Blinker’s Gloomy Gus to ponder on this, and then received the Eureka moment about 3am in the morning. “Aspinwall!” she cried.

The next day Tronesisia phoned up Baker Bloch and Woody and declared that she was ready. They meet at the smaller version of the sealed city outside Woody’s house. Snowy doesn’t join them this time. “What’s in the cigar box?” asked Baker Bloch, but then realized what it had to be. He looks at Woody who gives him a wink back. “She’s figured it out, my main man. She’s figured it out.”


Tronesisia unlinks.


Tronesisia touches.


Tronesisia passes through.

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July 8, 2017 · 12:13 pm

Another 02

Woody had justed booted up his computer when he saw it outside. “Hmm, I don’t remember that being there before.” He went out to check.”

—–

“Come over here Snowy Snowmanson. See what you can make of this.” The recently animated snowman complied.

“Another key world, you say? Just what *I* was thinking. It says ‘sit to enter’ in the text on the top. Shall we?”

“Whoa, Snowy. Where are we *now*??” Woody looks around at the landscape between the buildings. “Is this *Mars*?”

—–

Woody next took Baker Bloch up. “No, it isn’t Mars,” he expresses. “I think it might be Muff. Wheeler has given me some graphic details about the place she and The Musician were trapped in for a while last month. This looks like what she was talking about. Sealston, eh? Maybe another world within a world.”

“Snowy thinks a key is here. We have an opinion.”

Baker Bloch glances over at the snowman, taking its recent animation in stride. Woody has powers, yes. “Please share.”

Woody begins. “The central avenue — not boulevard — of the sealed sity heads directly to the big cave mouth, yes?” Baker didn’t know this, but agreed anyway. “Yet you cannot reach the mouth because of the force field surrounding us. Sealston is named for a reason. And there’s another, different building next to the cave, gray as well. You cannot reach it either. We are inside. They are outside. But if you look closely — here, better walk over and I’ll show you. Snowy, you stay here next to the entrance point and alert us if anyone else comes up.”

—–

“See, this avenue –2nd Avenue Snowy and I are calling it — ends at the outside building. The next one over, 1st or Main or Central — Snowy desires Central or Main, I say First…”

“Go on,” encourages Baker.

“… is the one that leads directly to the cave. But this building is sealed up as well. If you look closely, the rocks around the cave seem to block up its only entrance. So what does that mean?”

Baker didn’t know. But he did understand that this “cave” could be the portal back to Bermingham, as Wheeler also described. Tronesisia might not need that rocket ship to find Bendy after all. Better break the news gently to Karoz. He’s worked so hard on it the past week.

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July 7, 2017 · 5:28 am

one, the

Tronesisia was thrilled that Mary had taken to Collagesity so quickly, but she had her own mission to deal with now. She and Baker Bloch dropped Mary off at Darkly Manor to a waiting Pitch and then proceeded straight into the heart of the village. House of Truth.

“Bendy was standing about here when he disappeared from my side and went into the stomach of the rocket ship. Stomach? Why did I say stomach? You know what I mean.”

“I do,” returns Baker Bloch, staring up at the tip of the rocket launcher as well. “I too stood beside someone who disappeared into the ship. Karoz Blogger. The mad scripting genius.” He checks his watch. “It’s early in the morning. We need to get you settled in somewhere. Baker Blinker and I have come up with just the place.”

—

“This is Baker Blinker’s home, but she’s decided to stay with Karoz at his Bodega market apartment until we can get you up to Muff-Bermingham. Karoz says he needs to triple check everything connected with the ship and launcher, and then triple check them all over again. He says 2 or 3 days will still do it. Grumbled something about a key calibration being off by one when he got here. He called it the Baby Monster, a tiny but huge step at the same time. Don’t get what it means, but apparently that was the opening he needed.”

“Interesting,” said Tronesisia. “We’ll talk about it further tomorrow. I don’t want to keep you any longer. But where are you living since we’re back?”

Baker didn’t know. He ended up sleeping inside a tree.

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July 7, 2017 · 3:56 am

Huskers

Tronesisia and Mary pulled in about midnight on the 6th. Baker Bloch was there to greet them in front of Darkly Manor, Mary’s hopefully new home. He couldn’t wait to show them around town.

But what immediately caught Mary’s eye as she got out of the pink mini was this portrait of Ted in the middle of Castle Knight. “I know that man,” she said, continuing to stare. “He use to work for me.”

She turns right. “And that *woman.* What is this place?”

“Castle Knight,” explains Baker Bloch, walking up. “It’s one of Wheeler’s projects mainly, although we’re helping — the rest of us. Nancy’s involved.”

“Who’s Nancy?” asks Mary.

“We’re not quite sure yet,” admits Baker Bloch. “All this stuff, or most of it, use to be in the Muff-Bermingham Room of the VHC City Underground.”

She turns left. “And, oh my God, there’s *Chuckles*. My namesake. I’m remembering. I’m remembering a lot.”

Mary was coming out of her shell.

—–

Later that night, after she and Pitch had, er, reunited in Darkly Manor, Mary lay in bed dreaming.

A boy approached. “Hello future mother. My name is George. I’m glad you’ve come to Collagesity, our home. It’s time for me to enter your stomach. It’s time. It’s time.”

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