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Monthly Archives: June 2019
centering
We better get back to the ‘X’.
He was dreaming of that creature again who lived at the bottom of the Blue Feather Sea. Olivia. With aspects of Tracy but also different. Obviously a mermaid, yes, but something else as well. Whale? He can’t quite put his finger on it. But — different. Unique, even.
Something about the patterns.
—–
The Mermaid it’s been called for many long years now, son,” spoke Uncle Barnacles to Craighead Phillips later on. “It’s why, it’s why…” He couldn’t finish his sentence. But Craighead could translate: It’s why he can’t remember what year it is, let alone century. Craighead tested him later. “17th?” UB ventured.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0406, Blue Feather Sea^, Maebaleia/Satori, X-City^
back in Maebaleia…
“Ah ha. Finally found a use for that wearable pipe chair you gave me last Christmas.”
“Thanks for showing up Tracy. Like I said, I can’t find him anywhere. We were just scouting around the center of the continent, looking at places. We came here. I realized I had to go do something with the kid again and told him to just stay put till I got back. Then when I returned — and a long drive it was all the way from Pipersville — he’s not here. We talked about renting this house. Real cheap rent. In fact…”
“… it’s free,” finished his lover-on-the-side Tracy Austin. “I saw the sign outside. But this one is rented.”
“It’s in arrears,” he explains. “Just checking out the furniture.”
“Well I *hope* the real renter doesn’t come back.”
“He won’t. *They* won’t.” Second Life is so empty now, he thinks not for the first nor last time. Middle of continents — basically a wasteland.
“So dark in here,” complained Tracy Austin. “Can we get some light in this place? Will these blinds open?”
“Sure.” Craighead Phillips Option 01 touched the blinds to his side and back, automatically opening them.
Tracy Austin peered out. “What’s all this?”
Craighead Phillips Option 01 looked too. “I don’t know. Earth, I suppose.”
Interested, Tracy Austin moved toward the side window to take a closer look at something.
“2701 Bland Road,” she recited, then turned back toward Craighead. “This place got a computer?”
“No, but there’s one down at the office. I spotted it while trying to get out of this town the first time.”
“Do you have a key?” Both laughed at this.
—–
“Well. Is it there? Did you find it?”
“Just a moment,” Tracy Austin requested while still typing away. Then: “Ahh. *Bingo*.” She indicated the screen. “There it is. The same sign.
That’s where he is!”
Craighead Phillips Option 01 put hand to lip. “Jeepers I guess we’ll have to go in after him, then. I can’t exist, I don’t suppose, without Option 02.”
“*You’re* going in. I’m staying here with Katy. If something happens to you I’ll tell her you went away. To France.”
“Uh, I’m not going without a gun. I’ve heard stories…”
“Alright, Uncle Bob has a gun. We’ll go see him first. Then you’ll say goodbye to Katy. Hopefully not for the last time.”
“I know you’re joking…”
“I am?”
“Things use to be better between us.”
“Listen, Craighead. Craighead Phillips Option *01*. We gave you The Freedom, all you wanted. Blue Feather Sea, patterns. Astrologers around every corner. *Everyone* knows their sign. No chance involved in the playing of dice or cards. Freedom — Katy and I. Yet you still hang around with your other family.”
“My *actual* family,” Craighead Phillips corrected, not helping the situation.
“Alright.” Tracy Austin got up from the computer table. “Alright if it’s going to be like this I have a confession. I’ve been seeing someone else. A sailor of the Blue Feather Sea. Older man, admittedly, but I think it’s something real. We may even…”
“Get married?” Craighead was incredulous. “How old?”
“50, 55. Maybe 60. He’s *cool*. He has a good sense of humor. He’s built like a soldier and swears like a pilot. Katy’s met him, but she doesn’t know the circumstances. Yet.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t I?”
(to be continued?)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0405, Hills of Bill^, Maebaleia/Satori, West Virginia
greener pastures 03
Bland Street now, thinks Craighead Phillips Option 02 while walking past an auto repair shop. Not Bland Road any more. But what’s wrong with that sign? All squiggly and stuff. Melted somehow? Better keep walking and not linger, though. It is what it is. Crazy world over here.
I have no reflection! he suddenly realized. Not real in this realm. But somehow: still real. He keeps moving forward.
He decides to ask someone else to check the first source. “Excuse me, sir? Am I on the right street to get to the center of town?”
“Stay away from me,” the man getting in his car barked. “No cash. No cash!”
Craighead Phillips Option 02 wisely moves on without an answer.
—–
I’m not even going to ask this woman where I am, he thinks. I can tell by the look in her eyes she’s not going to help, pheh. Stupid world.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0404, Maebaleia/Satori, West Virginia
greener pastures 02
“Excuse me, sir? Sir?”
The Real Life man on the mower reluctantly halted his chores for a moment. “What is it, son?” he asked gruffly while the machine idled beneath him.
“I just came into town,” Craighead Phillips Option 02 decided to venture. “I’m looking for the center.”
“Center of town?” the man asked rhetorically. “Keep following this road.” He pointed down the street Craighead Phillips used to migrate realities. “Can’t miss it.” He then revved his mower up and commenced his chores. Only 1 hour before supper, he thought while moving away. And this Bozo threatened to make it even later!
—–
HONK HONK. Another mower. HONK. Traffic’s pretty heavy on this road. Better move over to the sidewalk, hmph.
The man said keep on going straight so I’ll keep on going straight.
This could take a while, though.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0403, Maebaleia/Satori, West Virginia
greener pastures
I’m tired of waiting, thought Option 02. I found a way out and I’m going to take it. Help out here, he groused. Chip in there. The kid be damned.
He stands up from the bench and starts walking. Inside.
Not as bright and colorful over here, is it Mr. Irresponsibility?
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0402, Hills of Bill^, Maebaleia/Satori, West Virginia
X marks
PIPERSVILLE (CHIP SHOT) and SINK X
MIDDLE GAME.
LONG DRIVE.
“It’s the only X the Linden roads make on Maebaleia,” I speak to my avatar who stands beside this very crossroads. Or at least a rendition thereof.
“Satori,” he calls up in a small voice.
“Right,” I boom down. “What I said. Anyway, it’s between the two X’s we’re calling Middle Game and Long Drive. These 2 smaller X’s…”
“Smaller,” echoes Baker Bloch down below.
“Yes,” I say in a bigger way. “They must be part of one larger X, then. Logical?” I query.
There was a pause. “What about Sink X?” he says in such a small voice that I didn’t hear him at first. He was looking in the distance.
“What’s that?” I boom down.
“Sink X!” he pipes up. “Pipersville! Chip Shot!!”
—–
“I was sitting right over there on that bench, Baker Bloch — my Gaseous Bench — when the (Tarsus) attack began. Poor Tealy.”
“But… he’s still alive,” a puzzled Baker responds, seeing the colorful raccoon just this morning.
“Oh yes. I rebuilt him. Just a mechanoid, see. Not a real raccoon. Hence the color, silly.”
“Good. I’m glad he’s still alive. But I was thinking…”
“Karoz?” Tillie guessed. Both were contemplating the common teal color now. Or blue-green. “That would make me…”
“The Other Baker, yes. The female.”
“But I’m…”
“I know who you are.” Pause. “Now.”
“Well.” She threw up her hands. “It’s a mystery, then. Another one.”
Baker emits air (as well?). “We better speak about Chip Shot; and Middle Game; Long Drive,” he finished, further away from the beginning of this sentence than ever.
“Pretty easy. Chip shot, even. Sink X is a green that’s also a sand dune or bunker. Paradox. Two opposite things in one. Two *bordering* things, but getting on the green, especially with a long drive, is good, while hitting a sand bunker…”
“Bad,” completes Baker Bloch. “Two neighboring opposites combining into one.”
“And Chip Shot just a chip away from either. Perched on the lip.”
“Chip Shot… Pipersville’s original name?”
“A variant, historical name,” Tillie offers, coming into synch with her fellow core avatar. Another 2n1.
—–
“What next? Will you leave Rubisea now, Tillie? You and Tealy? Perhaps go on a journey to find seed in Grasslands which is Toppsity? Passing Golden Sink on the way? Where it all ends according to both me (as Pitch) and, let’s see, I think it was Dave. Firesign’s Dave.”
“David Ossman,” Tillie recites. “Archer.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0401, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X^, Regaltown^, Rubisea, X-City^
inside (Long Drive 02)
“Mary, keep blocking the door.”
“Burster Dang?”
“Buster… DAMM.” Pitch Darkly repeated to the receptionist. “He must be in your database. He’s been writing me for going on 2 years now about this place, and his studies in Sinkology.”
“OH,” Annaliza Pageant exclaimed, looking Pitch over better. “You mean the *vampire*. A tiny, like his wife. Except she is a tween.”
“A tween?” Pitch was unfamiliar with the term.
“A tiny that can also be an un-tiny — normal, er, like you and me.” She studied the tall, bloodied vampire again. “I mean, like *me*.” She was thinking that Pitch might be another type of tweener, except between normal and giant this time.
“Sooo,” Pitch attempted, “Buster is just a plain ol’ tiny.”
“That’s right Pitch sir… darling. But he can turn even tinier. A bat, don’t you think? My English is still not polished, excuse me, even though I have also been here 2 years. Many, many people come through this place. Tinies are handy…”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Buster tells me all about it, how they specifically recruited him. It’s because you can see around them better when in flight. I mean, they can see around *themselves* better. Works well for the scouting.”
“That’s, um, right Sir Pitch.” She looked at Mary now. “But your wife — she is different too?” Mary hadn’t moved an inch since blocking the door a couple of minutes back. Hands on hips, per usual when standing in place.
Pitch glances over at her. “She can sit down too. And fish. Lord you should see that woman fish. She can really reel them in, can’t you Mary?”
“That’s right, Pitch,” Mary readily agreed in her normal, cheerful voice. “Perch is my specialty. But,” she quickly added, “perch is the specialty for the whole continent, er, whole *world*. I bet there’s some in that pond we passed on the back corner of this place. You know, inside the small Linden pine woods.”
“Yes,” the receptionist responded, “there is fish there that I assume. Perhaps your perches too.”
“Ahem,” Pitch urged, indicating the computer and the database pulled up on it. “Buster. Buster Damm, and that’s, D-A-M-M. Like an actual dam but with an extra ‘m’.”
“Oh, that’s funny.” The receptionist giggled briefly. “Like, er, DAMMastock.”
“What?”
“The sink: Finsteraahorn-Dammastock. To go alongside our Grossglockner-Schrekhorn.” The receptionist’s pronunciation was immaculate now. Pitch surmised that she might know German too. Japanese and German, hmmm. What were we dealing with here?
(to be continued?)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0316, Maebaleia/Satori, X-City^
Sink X
“It was a meeting of the Pipersville brain trust. Cindy A., Jim A., and Todd A. A different setting, certainly, than the Hole in the Wall the general public knew them from. The Tipsy Trio some call them, like Your Mama. She knows them all too well, she thought — back in the days they were best mates, her being a kind of unofficial 4th member of the club. Jim’s Club — ahh yes. That was the name. Because Jim was the ringleader; on the catbird seat. Now that Keith had fled the scene. Bower-Brown. Undercover. Famous, even infamous, but also not known atall. The sink did that to people, affected their minds. This was proven by the theorems they were working on at the time. The bank had 1 room where they could test subjects, but there were others. You could call it a time machine, but that wouldn’t be taking it far enough. Kind of a space machine as well. No, let’s call it an *Option* machine, both through space and time.”
Preston Weston was cutting the z’s by then. Craighead Phillips, the more moral Option, decided to call it quits for the night. Long journey back to Old Wagon Road or thereabouts to pick up where the other one left off.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0315, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X^
Sunklands 