Monthly Archives: August 2018

explorers tree

It was awful. The parcel Tin Tin declared they could cross safely to get to what he called the Linden passage to Glinda was blocked most of the way across. And when they finally did get access, the gap in the wall in back that Tin Tin also remembered didn’t exist any longer. “Virtual reality is so mutable!” he declared, making Ruby snort. They tried to fly across an intervening parcel, but — banned land. No luck. So they had to backtrack and go up the sidewalk north anyway and turn left down another main road. Ruby indeed saw things she wished she hadn’t in their short but intense walk there. Finally they reach the Linden passage with the characteristic trees — cypresses all, but of several different hues and sizes. Wonderful, she thought. She’d not seen trees like this on her New Island, which was very sandy in comparison to the green terrain of this place.

She looks down the hill they were perched upon into the meat of the town while Tin Tin played in the grass behind her, feeling the freedom. She’ll not go into that mess if at all possible, she decided. Country to the east of her empire, *future* empire she reminded herself. She’ll take that direction to explore after they finish up this adventure. But this turned out only to be partially true.

“Follow the rail,” Tin Tin declared. “Easy. 200 more meters tops.” So they did.

“Glinda,” he indicated as they passed through a more intense cluster of cypresses. “Here, but moreso across the river. *The* river. I was named for this river. I never told you that before. I’ve waited until right this moment.”

Ruby was curious about what Tin Tin was babbling on about *now*, but could see nothing of interest across the water. Until she turned up her draw distance to the max and viewed remotely.

Glinda.

Nice. Very nice indeed.

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explorers too

“Alright you talked me into it, Mr. Tin Tin,” spoke Ruby, tired of her texture laden house for now. “Take me to this Glinda you go on about.”

Tin Tin clapped his hands in glee. “You won’t regret it.” He too was frustrated with things not rezzing in correctly when they were together in the house. “Just follow the Linden land as best we can there and it shouldn’t be a problem. BUT… once you step off this sim — your empire after all.”

“In the future,” Ruby amended. “Not quite yet.”

“But, anyway, once you step off you have to be CAREFUL. Siren lures everywhere. Or in your case — what’s the opposite of sirens? You know, the men sirens or something.”

“I don’t know,” she stated plainly. “I’m rather plain looking. I doubt if anyone out there will find me that attractive.”

“*I* find you attractive.”

Ruby blushed a little, but then composed herself, flattening out the front of her skirt. “You don’t count. You are my housemate by mistake and perhaps deception and that’s all. We share a house — for now. Madame Silver and I are working on a long term solution. She’s apologized again and again.”

“Not as much to me,” Tin Tin spoke, winking the left eye of his two toned face. Could she ever get use to it? Rather shocked at herself, she suddenly understood she perhaps could. He was becoming ever so *slightly* attractive to her, despite the inherent split nature. And she’s taught him how to eat with his mouth closed, at least *most* of the time. That helps.

Looking around at the beautiful but flawed textures again, Ruby vibrates her lips together in exasperation. Talk of the duplicate contract — another wacky combo, I suppose — could wait until later. “Okay, so where do we start?”

—–

“Scale the wall? And stop knocking into me all the time!”

“I’m just *joking*.”

Turning and staring, Ruby then swatted him hard on the shoulder. “You just wanted to see me climb it… see if I would do it.”

“Yeah, okay, I’m *sorry*. He points southward. “The wall ends a little bit over there. We can cross the road — no problem. Just remember to look left, look right, look left again. This is an urban area, not the hick island you stayed at before.”

“Which had some similar problems to the ones you’re describing. I’m not totally oblivious to the big, fantastic fantasy world out there.”

“Alright,” Tin Tin relented, shuffling his feet. “I get it.” He thrust his hands into his pockets, starts swaying back and forth. He decides to just blurt it out. “Sooo… you’ve had a boyfriend before?”

“*Before*?” She swatted him again, but then ultimately didn’t answer his question.

——

“So here we are,” declared Tin Tin. He points. “Just through that gap over there. With the Linden trees.”

“Are you *sure* you know what you’re doing Tin Tin?”

“No,” he admits with uncharacteristic seriousness. “No I do not.”

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explorer

Full Moon rising over Full Moon.

Welcome to Part 2!

—–

Policewoman Mary says: “No tree beings in the alleyway. Move along.” Gliph or Glyph complies.

Glyph wonders what Gliph is looking at here (and visa versa).

Time for Gliph or Glyph to go home.

Or is it?

“No trees allowed here!” cries the pointing manager to studying Glyph or Gliph. “Get back in The Wall with the others where you belong! NOW!”


“Pheh.”

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naming (it begins)

“You know, Bendy. I suppose it’s really time we talked about how we got here.”

“*Much* better than Mabel’s house, I’ll tell you that. Lots to do in this town. Bar around every corner if we ever tire of Bar Lemon. Which I haven’t.”

“I didn’t ask you how you liked it here… in comparison to New Island. I’m asking you about how we got here.”

“Dunno that part,” his robot companion returned. “Just woke up one day and here I was.”

“It can’t be that easy,” Fisher gruffed, shaking his head. “I personally think I remember something else — don’t think it was just a dream.”

“Well?” prompted Bendy. “Spill it.”

—–

“It started that day we went over to the park to play and then spotted Mr. Yellow in the distance: looking different. We went up to him and saw that weird-y combo thing, looking like it was pissing on the ground. Red liquid instead of the usual yellow, but not blood I don’t think.”

“Soda,” offered Bendy. “I tested it when you turned your back to the camera.” Fisher winced toward him, making Bendy shrug. “Couldn’t resist.”

“Anyway, I went back to Bar Lemon down the wall — that’s when you decided to visit the beach scene — but as soon as I sat down at the bar and started watching Molly warm up, things started happening. Mustered and Catchup were on break…”

“When *aren’t* they,” groused Bendy. “At least when Natsu Lemon isn’t around — the boss.”

“Which is becoming more frequent; that could be part of it as well.” He put his hands behind his head. “But it was something about the dance that… awoken me. Part of me that was, er, dormant before.”

“Sex?” Bendy joked. “You’ve never had any problem there.”

“‘Course not,” Fisher reinforced to his sometimes erotic pal — just every once in a while. “Something else. The dance told a story. The *music* told a tale. I believe the song was called ‘OTR.'”

“‘On the Run’? responds Bendy quickly. “Over the Rainbow’? I have both of them in my database. If you wish, I could even sing both at once.”

“No. No more wacky combos for a while.” But then Fisher realized Bendy was totally on to something in his prescient manner. It *was* a combo of those songs. *Another* wacky combo, two in one day. And perhaps intimately connected. Yes, it had to be so. He blew out a large puff of air. A chill also passed through his body.

“So anyway,” he began again after the reflective pause, “I started remembering stuff about the spaceship. About the regeneration. Dr. I.C. Yourinsides.”

“She prefers Dr. Ice Cream lately,” corrects Bendy. “But: spaceship?”

“Yes. We were taken away from New Island and then placed here. This *new* New Island.”

“That’s a horrible name. Why don’t you just name it after yourself.”

“Why don’t *you*?”

“OK,” acquiesced Bendy. “Lord Bendington the Third’s Island it is.”

Fisher shakes his head again. “No, let’s just use your original suggestion. Name it Fishers Island. Or maybe just Fisher Island. Either one… 1/2 and 1/2. Like a fisherman or several fishermen live here, or were seen here. Fishing or something, I suppose.”

Bendy splashes around water in his pool. “Alright.”

“Now about the spaceship…”

(to be continued)

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higherarchy

Poor, pitiful creature, Dr. I C. Yourinsides thought, returned to life from the ice cream truck catastrophe like the others. Only *one* eye.

Didn’t she read about a town over in the Atoll Continent that was ruled by such a being, though? She’ll have to look it up later on at her personal console.

—–

Ah yes, here ’tis. Collagesity. Class 2 population place, which is more like a village. The continent also contains a class 3 pp named Olde Lapara Towne — logically: a town, then. And, wow, even a class 4 city (!), just a notch below the Linden controlled class 5 superburgs of Bay, Nautilus, Kama. VHC City it’s called here in this Baker Blinker Blog. But it’s, hmm, bakerbloch.com. Two Bakers.

Wristband monitor alert warned that her energy was running low again. Only 3 hours since the last regeneration. Continuing effects of the New Island catastrophe radiation seem to be worsening lately for unknown reasons. Unable to go groundside until the situation stabilizes. Wouldn’t make it.


Two of those who didn’t make it.

But it’s not New Island below us now, she considers. It’s Fishers Island. She needed to study up more on the differences between the two, and what the consequences are for the SHIFT from one to the other. Given the shituation, this could obviously be bad news, at least for her as a strangely organed alien.

Another class 4 pp immediately below. Multi-sim. Dr. I.C. is manipulating the space as best she can remotely. Red and green banners indicating the continued presence of New Island witch Mid Hazel there. Bar Lemon, a link between past and present. Mr. Yellows too. Wrongful combination. Different kind of pp. A Moon rising against a far Wall, full of caged creatures as well. IT IS FULL. All of that last part due to the last true wizard possessing the Rainbow Sphere now.

—–

Roger Pine Ridge finally found a place in Wallytown where he felt safe to manifest the sphere. Cul-de-sac; no interior to the surrounding buildings. He burned a hole through the fabric of time-space with his cigarette and prepared to look inside again.

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Wall, The

He was disguising himself as a chatty alien to this town. Lucytown it could be called. We’ll see. Maybe Walltown. Or just: Wall. Wallytown.

“How did this Wall come about, Peggy? I prefer Moon myself. Better music, maybe better lyrics even. Did you know there is a Moon on the opposite side of Wall in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania? And Pennington County, South Dakota for that matter. And now: here. This proves that our — *my* music will live on in time. Past the 21st Century. Past more, hopefully. Moon is permanent, and maybe it can drag the interior Wall along with it.” He shakes his head, playfully adjusts his mouth, laughing. “Inferior I meant there, although a Wall certainly does have an interior… and an exterior. Inner and Outer. Do you know why they hang green and red banners along the exterior of the Wall instead of, say, yellow and blue? I saw a blue car parked beside them today, in the middle of the road. Got towed — I called it in. Do you like chocolate, Peggy? How about lemonade? How about rustling me up a freshly squeezed glass of lemonade? Or do I have to go to Bar Lemon for that? I will, you know. Just down the Wall and through the tunnel and hang a right.”

It was only then that Roger Pine Ridge realized he was talking to a mannikin all along. The other Peggy at the bar — Peggy 02: same story. Only Natali was real here, and she wasn’t in the mood for conversation. A day off is me-time for her. Talk to the hand all day today. In costume, she was, of course, our Molly Lustrous, a dancer at Bar Lemon Roger just mentioned, and a constant ride provider for Fisher, another town newcomer. That crazy robot friend of his, she thinks with a slight grin. And that yellow colored girl he keeps yammering on about all the time and getting in trouble because of it. He doesn’t even know about the secret stash of ammunition in Drugstore Orange just below that could blow up a, well, a town about this size.

“You have to click the keg at the end of the bar,” she finally managed. The still drink-less Roger followed her point. Soon he had a cranberry martini in hand, complete with lemon slice.

“Ah yes. Thank you, stranger. My name is Albert. Albert Halsey. I’m from Oregan, Earth, USA. I’m on the run; out of breath. You know: Time. Constraints that drive one mad and induce Brain Damage, Money not the least of them. Do you know about Money? Time, Money, Brain Damage? It will all survive the test of time. Well beyond the 21st Century. Maybe even up to the *31st* Century.”

Natali was thinking: how to ease out of this bar scene as gracefully as possible. After all, there were about a dozen bars in Wall Wallytown she could visit by her estimation, and that may still be selling the burg short. Around every single blasted turn there seemed to be another one. Bar Lemon does a fairly steady business but it use to be different back in the old days. The days before the coming of the blimey Lindens. For this use to be a Lemony town through and through, Bar Lemon a link to that lustrous past. And herself as well. She could open up to this alien man sitting next to her and blow his freak’n mind. Give him a ride all over town and show him the sights, tell him where this and that use to exist and how it was mainly replaced by *inferior* structures and objects. Mr. Yellow knew too. Both of ’em. The town has certainly been pissed on by the Lindens. Yes, she could give him a total ear-full of info.

But it was her day off.

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other side

“If you asked me, it’s a witch that did this, Fisher. The Wall… everything.”

“Where did you park the car again Bendy?”

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allover

“Yeah, you’re right Bendy. That *is* wrong. But what does it mean?”

“Something’s tampering with something, that’s what it means. I can feel it deep down in my metal bones.”

“2 realities combined into one?” Fisher offers. “Someone’s pissing on us?” he tries again, looking down at the red spill.

Bendy couldn’t help it. “What a mess,” he exclaims to the camera.

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tit for tat

“You better hurry up with your pie, Ruby. We’ve got a whole shake to get at (!).”

“Well… you hurry too,” Ruby commanded to her new acquaintance Tin Tin. “You’ve got a whole piece of pie to go as well.”

“Fork’s a little dirty,” he said, turning it round and round. “Maybe I should ask the waitress for a new one.”

“You can’t ask the waitress for a new fork every time you take a couple of bites (!). Just clean it off with your mouth, dufus. Your lips or tongue or something.”

“Hey, don’t call me stupid.”

“I didn’t,” Ruby returned measuredly. “I called you dufus.”

He stared at her, then just waved it off and took another bite. She did as well.

“Can we *please* stop talking about food all the time and get to why we came here?”

“We came for the talk,” Tin Tin returned. “*And* the food.” He started eating with his mouth open again.

Ruby couldn’t wait much longer. The water and the fish across the room seemed to be closing in on her. Maybe she has agoraphobia she didn’t know about before. Or maybe it’s simply the company crushing her down.

“I don’t think this pie is getting smaller, Ruby,” proclaims Tin Tin, looking down at it. He glanced over. “Neither is yours. Do you *feel* like you’re getting any fuller?”

“Yes,” she replied quickly, staring at his queerly two-toned face. Yes, she thought to herself. I’m certainly getting my fill of all this.

—–

Yesterday, across the sim:

Hearing approaching footsteps, Tin Tin rolled over on his sleeping sofa.

“What are *you* doing here?”

“Well… what are *you* doing here?”

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establishing

The deal was signed. She had even picked out a house, she thought. Place of safety, place of calm, Madame Silver reinforced while the ink was still wet. Contract pretty much laid out everything plain and simple. Don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do that. And we’re done. “Go ahead and choose one of the dwelling units on the northern edge of the property,” Madame Silver then suggested. “If one is already occupied, the door will be locked. I have other business interests to take care of now. I’ll see you at the sim-wide meeting, Young Ruby!” And then she was gone: vanished in a poof.

She didn’t want to be greedy. This smaller dwelling spot she was also attracted to would have served perfectly well for her home. But the door was locked. Later Ruby found out a girl almost exactly her age lived here. Interesting. The other houses around it were basically one floor units. She wanted multiple floors. She always wanted to live in a high rise, the narrower the better. And her new house pretty much filled the bill on this.

Here it is. An oversized treehouse, right beside the smaller unit that we just took a gander at. It was the huge, multi-paneled window that totally sold her. But the place was not without its drawbacks. Oh no. As Ruby quickly found out, physics is a little wonky all over the property, but especially in close spaces with a lot of textures, which this house was filled with. Let’s go inside and see what we have.

A calico cat with two, black kittens! She always wanted a cat. Apparently she’ll have at least 3 now. Unless she decides to give one or both of the small ones away. But how could she!

Up the stairs we must go. But already Ruby has a bit of trouble getting off the vintage pouf the cats are on. Oh well… she can get use to the physics here. Yes, surely she can.

Ahh, what is perhaps the living room.

A nice desk for writing and drawing and such.

Ruby’s throat is getting a little sore. Must be all the climate changes switching between New Island and Collagesity and here, she rationalizes. Instantly she decides to cut down on her bouncing around. She’ll stay here for a while; explore the neighborhood and whatnot. As long as she abides by the contract, she’ll be fine. This will be her base. Permanent one? We’ll see how it develops. Day by day, month by month, she thinks. But upwards we must continue!

Beautiful. She will entertain many new friends in this space, she feels.

From this 3rd floor, Ruby finds she has to go outside and traverse a corner porch to continue exploring the house. She pauses to take a look at the view. “This is all mine,” she utters, as if reinforcing the reality of what seems a dream.

Suddenly she didn’t care what the upper floor or floors from here looked like. This was her home for certain, and nothing else she could see would change that.

She opens what turns out to be the final door.

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