But we know about them already (Baker Blinker, Karoz Blogger, Hucka Doobie).
“Next!”
Monthly Archives: March 2019
and the rest
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0013, 0102, Rubi
the 2 biggies and 5 more
There is no fairer than thee
Collagesity
So I will return
To have more of my fun
—–
“Look Baker Bloch. I’m Edward Swift. From Ruby.”
“Nice one, Wheeler. Soooo… you’re still the head honcho around here I’m taking it. Or so you claim.”
“I *am*.”
“But me too.”
“Right. We must clarify *core*. There’s only 8 chairs around this Table, but there are 10 cores.”
“Maybe we can discard two. As was done before… over in Nascera.”
“Maybe. So let’s start. Let’s bring them all in here.”
“Alright.”
——
“Sitting by my side now is Tropp, formerly Opp formerly Campbell Opine.” She takes a gander at him. “My my, you’re looking good today in your birthday hat Mr. Tropp.”
“Thank you.”
“Care to tell us about yourself… for the reader or readers?”
“I was born Campbell Opine, an Mmmmmm (blue). But I grew beyond my toyhood beginnings. That’s about it.”
“Speaking of which, let’s bring in the next core. Grassy Noll. Now this isn’t Grassy Noll — nor Salad Bar Jack for that matter — but we’re going to call him that. Like I am Wheeler but not Wheeler, see?”
Tropp nods. Baker replies: “But not me.”
“Again, yes.”
—–
So here’s Grassy. That’s your cousin, Tropp.”
“I know. Hi Grassy.”
“Hi cuz. My you’ve grown since I last saw you!”
“Thanks.”
“So Grassy. My good friend who I bummed around Iris with last year. Tell us about yourself. What you’ve been up to?”
“Still in Iris, Wheeler. I wrote you. You never wrote back.” Grassy makes a pouty face.
“Yes, sorry about that. I’ve been running around here and there. Trying to keep up with Baker.”
“That’s alright. I know you’re busy, Wheeler… Bill. But I want you to come see me (!).”
“I will Grassy. Very soon. And thanks for remaining such a good friend.”
“You’re welcome. And Tropp or Campbell or whatever you go by now… you come as well.”
“Oh I will. Thanks as well.”
“Goodbye Grassy,” spoke Wheeler in parting. “We’ll be seeing you soon.”
“Yes, goodbye my cousin,” added Tropp. “I have grown beyond you and toydom in general but that’s still my roots, and you are my anchor there.”
“Good to know,” answered Grassy, not quite knowing how to take that. Nevertheless, a tear forms in his eye. It is time for him to return to Iris, understanding that friend and family haven’t forgotten about him. He will catch up with them soon. He’s been busy as well!
—-
“Next we have Spongeberg. Spongeberg the Destroyer,” Wheeler enlarged. “Hi Spongeberg.”
“Hello. I never mentioned, to you or others, that my home of Mystenopolis over on the Nautilus continent has been erased. One section remains though… and I checked tonight real quick since I’m not inworld very much at all any more. Thanks for rezzing me and inviting me back to the Table.”
“You’re welcome. Sorry about Mystenopolis. I suppose I didn’t know. And the giant Jesus statue?”
“Erased.”
“How about the duplicate? The giant faun… opposite in nature. The great duality.”
“I’m not sure.”
“Well, I’ll pop over there myself sometime soon and see for myself, since you’ve so kindly reminded me of it.”
“Goodbye, Wheeler. Nice to see you again. Nice to meet you Tropp. You two guys have fun in Collagesity. It’s a great place and I’m glad I didn’t destroy it several years back. But, just to warn, I leave open that option, and there’s not a darn tooten thing you can do about it.”
Tropp laughed at this, but Spongeberg kept a straight face. Wheeler stared at him. In ways Spongeberg’s power goes beyond hers. If he desires to destroy Collagesity, indeed he can. She must keep him on her good side. “Anything to add here?” Wheeler calls over to the silent Baker Bloch.”
“Nah. Good to see you as well, Spongeberg.”
“So long,” he said to all.
—-
“Let’s see,” started Wheeler again. “Next I suppose we should bring in Roger Pine Ridge. He has elevated himself through hard work to become a core member of our Table.
—–
“Welcome Roger Pine Ridge.”
“Happy to be here.”
“Tell us about yourself.”
“I started out as rough and gruff Biker Mann, consort to Cyberpaperdoll. We lived here right in Collagesity in one of the SoSo Mall apartments. Great view down Old Cannon Road into the woods. Many a night I’ve stared down into the trees smoking my special cigarettes and seeing various creatures emerge from them… or imagined they did. Giants, dwarfs, robots, elves, candy people, holiday figures… you name it.”
“Bandits?” asked Wheeler sneakily.
“Um.”
“Never mind that. Bad joke. So Cyberpaperdoll left you for another man. Tell us about that.”
“I think you just did. Bandit Boy.”
“Right. So I did. And, let’s see, you yourself are a bandit. Stole something very important from Collagesity a while back. Care to tell us about *that*?” She meant the Rainbow Sphere.
“Nah, probably should go.” Roger Pine Ridge understood this invitation to be a trap now. “Tata,” he said in parting.
—–
“We have one more for tonight, Baker Bloch and Tropp. Looks like Lockfry Resident. But who is *he* — at the core? Let’s see.”
—–
“I don’t think we’ve met you before sir… ma’am.”
“No,” the ambiguous being replies. “I don’t know who I am.”
—–
Remembering.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0013, 0101, Rubi, The Cross
End
But Ruby (Fantasie) had already left the Borderlands and entered Rosehaven proper with the true coming of spring. She has emerged from between the tigers’ tails which are actually Tiger Tail. This was the true meaning of Eraserhead Man’s vision of the Tigrett in Vineyard Cafe, for they are one and the same, tiger tales both now.
The Borderlands Oracle, the *Mother*, is currently stuck on the figure of Morgaine, an ambivalent character from Arthurian legend who can take on both negative and positive roles. Red and blue if you will. Surrounded by 12 rounded rocks, this border also signals the end of our yarn or weaving, or as far as we can take it currently. Our 12th Collagesity novel.
Borderlands has greenly homogenized with Rosehaven as a whole. There’s no need for a tale now within. We are done with it. Same with Fruity Islands, End of Time, The Waste. All put away in the creative closet, perhaps pulled out later for further play.
The Brachiosaurus which doubles as a sea monster here seems to be telling Baker B(loch) goodbye.
But what of Mssr. Gold and wife April Mae Flowers of Snowlands? Herbert Gold will keep dreaming of these lands for certain — he is stuck as well. April Mae will keep seeing the gardener Steve on the side and visiting her ex’s grave over on the Omega continent. The mysterious Bauerbridge dune will remain an obstacle in her way.
Despite the end of perhaps a cycle of Collagesity novels, Collagesity itself also goes onward, up and away and beyond the effects of any storyline. For this is home. The anchor. From here I can enter any world I dare to penetrate with a certain style of wizardry: Stonethwaite, Tugaske, Avebury. All the “satellite” realms. But one has to have a center to return to.
So I, Baker B., Baker Blinker and Baker Bloch both, will say goodbye to you my loyal reader while sitting at home sipping on my Starbucks 4 shot latte and enjoying the relative warmth of an early spring night.
END OF “COLLAGESITY 2018-2019 WINTER”!
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0618, Mountain Lake, Rose Heaven-, Rubi
rounding it out
Eraserhead Man re-created the scene. “The drawbridge will CLOSE! The delegation from CALEDONIA — not CALEDON mind you — will move across with the Prince to meet the ones from ROSEHAVEN on the other side! The closing of the BRIDGE represents the closing of the GAP between the two QUEENDOMS. KINGDOMS… whatever!”
Hearing aids, thinks Sandy Beech opposite him at the Vineyard Cafe table. He’s forgotten them again. Where’s that Ruby woman when she’s needed — he never shouts around her, aids or no aids. A magical relationship. He then has an idea.
“Where’s the actor playing Ruby now? Is she still up in Borderlands?”
“What’s that?!”
“The ACTOR playing RUBY. Where is she?!” Sandy Beech forgot his own aids — the blue, calming pills.
“OH: BORDERLANDS.”
It took a few minutes, but Sandy finally got the idea in his director’s head that they should go visit her… check the scene out that may end the current production. The oracle and such. “That sphere over there,” and he indicates with his head a table across from them in the cafe without looking, “is only a terminal! We need to find where the MOTHER oracle is!”
“I see a TIGRETT over there, Sandy!” Eraserhead Man then declared, fingers nervously pattering against the table. “What do YOU see?!”
Sandy turned.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0617, Caledonia, Rose Heaven-
double down
From the famed Nepenthe Gate at the southern edge of Rosehaven, Princess Merry Gouldbusk stared out at the void separating her almost-queedom and Caledon Caledonia. She thought about the rising water that would result in the re-merger. Tomorrow! “2 meters, Sandy. What harm could be done? I can re-terraform the little coastline that might be flooded.”
“None atall, my dear,” spoke Herbert Dune behind her, ignoring the botched name again. I’m still under contract! the actor screamed in his mind, however. *Herbert*. Herbert Dune. Dummkopf.
The actor playing Merry Gouldbusk realized her gaff. “Oh, let me start again on that.” She turned toward the camera. “Can I just start again?” Her face was turning red.
“Well. I guess we’ll *have* to now,” groused Sandy, thinking the name could have been voiced over in post-production later on, along with a good number of other mistakes made by his co-star only in the last several days. But not now. And time was short… the snow was almost gone! But he must *affect* love again. Because Herbert Dune truly loves his soon-to-be Queen. The actor playing Herbert Dune despises the actor playing Merry Gouldbusk, though: one Lilly Frame, fresh off the bus from Ontario. That was a little disguised fact.
Director Eraserhead Man sets the scene again.
Cameraman Blinky was ready to roll. “And… action!”
“2 meters, Sandy… oops!”
“Oh GOD!!”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0616, Caledonia, Rose Heaven-
arrival 03
It took them half a day to reach another of those clear spaces where they could make enough sense to each other for more of the story.
“A railroad oval. An engine runs into a caboose. Tale before the tiger,” Marion explained. “A race between beginning and end, she said. Tale wins.”
“Maybe tails win,” Billy Jean King said while sitting on a small bed in the corner of the otherwise almost unfurnished and undecorated cabin. “As in a coin. Flipping a coin — heads and tails.”
“Maybe.”
“What else?”
“She said to always pay attention to the blue roses. They always indicate something. We looked west now. Two thrones — blue roses to side. She said these were the Prince and Princess of Rosehaven, but only when Caledon is Caledonia.”
“See?” BJK nudged Philip sitting beside her in the ribs. “I *told* you it was Caledon. Maybe we were in the wrong place to start with.”
“No,” insisted Marion. “We were definitely in the right place. Caledonia. And then — get this — they removed their, er, masks. Actually the Prince had on some rainbow swirly globe or something — over his head. The princess just shed her golden skin, like a snake. ‘Let the waters rise,’ they said in unison, then. I looked around but didn’t see any water, let alone water rising. But something had changed. I could feel it.”
I also noticed there was a tiny bit missing from the Prince’s fin-foot, like it was bitten a little bit.”
“A little *bite*,” BJK insisted. She turned toward Philip knowingly. Philip just stared back blankly.
“The Princess’ shoe was right there.”
“Achilles heel?” BJK offered, visualizing it backwards in her mind.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0615, Caledonia, Rose Heaven-
arrival 02
“Philip! Come here!”
—–
“She said her name was Edwardston. I figured that was code for something.” Billy Jean Kidd had an opinion but bit her tongue for a change. “She said she was waiting for spring to arrive in Rosehaven before properly returning. I told her the snow’s melting, melting, melting as we speak — shouldn’t be long. She said she had to wait until it was good and gone because she didn’t like snow one bite. ‘One bite’, she said. Not ‘one bit’.”
“A byte is 8 bits,” offered Philip to one side. “I learned that in my computer science class.”
“The one you failed. Speeding through your assignments all the time and not paying attention to what you were doing.”
“How about you?” Philip countered to his old school chum Marion. “Always high. Always slow… to learn.”
“Admittedly it was a blur. The whole school thing… but — anyway — getting back on subject, Edwardston said she knew all about the Oracle.” He paused here.
“Well?” urged Billy Jean Kidd on the other side, finally showing her impatience again. They had a 15 minute window here at the Vineyard cafe to talk about something serious, very serious, in as clear a way as possible. And it was 5:36 now. They were 6 minutes in — almost halfway into this theoretical space. Rainbow space. BJK indicated their time limit to the others.
“Aww, that’s just something you made up,” insisted Philip to her left. “It’s not like at 5:45 I’m going to get up, go to one corner, pull out my dime bag of cocaine, line it up neatly on the table, and then take a straw and sniff, sniff, sniff — very quickly.” Philip imagined how pleasant this would be, and the resulting state.
“Yes you will,” states Marion plainly. “You always do. 15 minutes after sweets. Always the same story.”
“5:39 now,” issues BJK, pointing to the watch still not on her wrist.
“Anyway,” continues Marion. “She said the tiger pictures were placed at the end of the tale on purpose. And then — get this — she said she came from *between* the two of them.”
“What’s that mean?” inquired BJK.
“I asked the same thing to Edwardston and she didn’t respond. Instead she got up: ‘Walk with me,’ she said. There was another part to explore. The large balcony was just the beginning of the end, she said. ‘Walk with me,’ she repeated.”
“5:42, now,” implored BJK, sneaking a glance at Philip. His forehead had begun to perspire. So little time left!
“We rounded a corner of the large room and entered another one, with a window facing the opposite direction — toward the north instead of the south, I believe. A man named Pat sat on a couch surrounded by cats.”
Philip gets up from the table.
“Time’s up,” BJK declared, throwing her hands in the air.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0614, Rose Heaven-
Sunklands 