“This blue panther on the western edge of Crisp Sea,” he spoke in a surprisingly regular voice for such a cartoony figure. “Is that the same as Paul?” He was helping. He really was.
“I don’t know. I’ll send Wheeler over there to take the plunge.” Plunge was code for “going (further) inworld”, at least between us new buds. How lucky I was to find him as a relative freebie on the marketplace, this pin cushiony little fellow!
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0030, 0613, Collagesity Fordham, Crisp Sea, Lower Austra^, Nautilus, Wild West
Grassy Noll had shifted one chair down to make room for Nauty, but he said that wasn’t what it sounded like. It was just short for Nautilus (continent) — he wasn’t some kind of sex toy doll, he reinforced. “Or was he?” he then joked, and repositioned the pin near his navel in a most inappropriate way, getting a laugh from Wheeler at least.
“So you can help with our pin cushion problem,” said Baker, staying serious because he had a big problem. The Nautilus map behind Nauty had been itself overrun with red pins, marking locations already featured in the blog and with more to come. He needed organization, he needed categorization. What is the true relationship of Lower and Upper Austra? How is the North, deemed non-Austran, really different? And what of the Wild West, the Mild East, the *Southwest*, where he’d just been with Man About Time? And then: Collagesity. Between Highways 13 and 14 that stood for M and N. Soo much there already.
“Yes,” answered Nauty, and then said he had a Rubber Soul. Baker thought about this for a moment and realized it meant he was beyond Help (!). If it kept progressing in this direction he’d need a Revolver to end it all.
“You mean *I* have a Rubber Soul,” he said to Nauty.
“Yes.”
Across from him, Opp or Tropp (True Opp) had also shifted one chair over to make room for another newcomer, this Al guy we’ve already mentioned several posts back, the last one set in Paper-Soap in my new rental there, the one in front of Soap Beach but in the Paper sim, the place where the dead wash up in banded groups, ready to be sudsed and bubbled for rebirthing purposes. Wash away the sins type of deal. More newcomers. Perhaps, secretly, Al with his multiple faces was one of ’em. Also: Nauty. Maybe Jinx Doll as well. Seems too coincidental they’re here.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0030, 0612, Lower Austra^, Nautilus, NORTH, Paper, Paper Soap, Rim Isles, Rooster's Peninsula, Slaashsides, Southwestern, Upper Austra^, Wild West, Yd Island^
“Oh yeah, um, hi Baker Bloch (waves vaguely).
“I’m here to, um, check out the Rock, uh, is that it?” Man About Time points toward what is indeed The Rock. Marty was perched on top of it last month, listening to rock (music): himself, singing about listening to what the Mann said. Would he (did he)? Can he sing a Christmas song now up there? A day too late I would think. Then *Perch* emerged from beneath the mossy veil a couple of weeks ago — ever so briefly, because he is gone now. And frost has appeared on the veil…
“I’m going over there now,” he called to Baker in his unfocused way. But Baker couldn’t hear him because he really wasn’t there. Like Perch himself . Due to the eye/face’s disappearance, the door has been open for a return to Collagesity — *finally*. I suppose that’s where he could be pointing to but probably not. The odds are against us.
Nope (I checked). Better get back to Paper-Soap.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0030, 0611, Nautilus, Southwestern
Baker Bloch couldn’t help himself. “Hold on,” he said, delaying the meeting even further. “Lemme get another beer out of the fridge.
“Everybody good?” he calls to the assembled cast and crew while fishing out a Krings from its depths, including new gal Jinx Doll. Who invited *her*? he thought when she arrived at 15 til 8, 20 minutes before anyone else. “I’ll take one,” said Wheeler directly across from him, who wandered in at 8:35, the last to show up. Immediately before her at 8:25 came Opp, her true love. And then, before that (8:15), Grassy Noll, the most famous of all Mmmmmm’s, a species formerly inhabiting the Great Lake area of Herman Park. No longer. Now friend Wheeler originally questioned him about selling out his kind, but he denies it, despite being the only true Mmmmmm left after successfully transferring over to virtual reality using his massive wealth and status as bargaining chips to the Great God of the Great Lake in ’64, just after the JFK debacle he was also responsible for, a warm-up act some called it. Like Wheeler, although she was only echoing what she’d heard at the time. “He took a *shot* for you,” she grilled beyond cooking and into simply burning to a crisp. Crisp Lake crisp. Grassy was use to the heat, though, and took Wheeler’s best (return) shot in stride, deflecting it a little bit up and to the right like he was good at — he was *fractally* good at, in fact, able to whirl it down into a vortex hole if needed, out of sight and also out of mind to those swirling all around, still trying and failing to become a singularity like that. Bay City was renamed John Fitzgerald Kennedy City because of it but that was only Alaska. Things happen differently it’s so cold up there, far away from the heat of the grilling and burning. It was a displacement, you see. And because of it “America the Beautiful” became the national anthem instead of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” But no one remembered, no one knew, Marilyn (Lichen Roosevelt) least of all because she was so close to the subject, a tree for forest deal-i-o.
Baker slid a Krings over to Wheeler past the face of Al, the second to arrive after Jinx Doll at 8:05 and the last member of the Table to be brought up in this here post. He has 3 faces, actually. That’s the story we must go into next.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0030, 0610, Paper, Paper Soap
Back in Whippersnapper, Baker waited outside for a new Christmas shipment of antique art (and pottery) to the Blue Baron’s.
“Monolith…?” he questioned when it finally arrived from ports unknown. “Let me check,” offered Chuck Wakdins the delivery man, and looked down his inventory list. “Which one,” he finally said, “Ansel Adams or, let me see, Greg Ogden? New guy apparently.”
Suc-cess!
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0030, 0609, Hana Lei^^
“That’s not a bird,” old man Fred said, standing uncomfortably close to me, creepily close even. “That’s a *caricature* of a bird, like a cartoon.” He leans down and speaks to the cartoon directly. “Aren’t you Blackey!” as if the bird perched on my shoulder was hard of hearing. Quite the opposite! He’s scolded me many a time for talking too loud to him when he’s right there, not 6 inches from my mouth at any moment. What would he do to Fred now? Peck his eyes out? Finally fly away and never come back? What a fine mess that would put me in, because I’d have to go out and find a *proper* looking bird to take his spot. Because I doubt that such cartoon birds were still available — on the marketplace or anywhere else. Just like my dear old pops Spaced Ghost, the outfit of which was retired long ago. So: 1/2 of me. And probably the other half — originally Linden Boy Next Door in some version — as well. We’re all antiquated. Maybe we should *all* fly away somewhere over the rainbow or something. Wait: tried that already. Hucka D.’s White Place in De Skies; the equivalent. Yet here we are again, talking to Fred, listening to his criticisms of Blackey’s looks, and, by extension, mine. Yes, Blackey and me will never part ways. I’ll see to that. And Hucka’s back too, but more woman and less bee than ever. No antennae now, even.
And Tulsa is waiting on us, not Omaha. “How’d we get over here, Hucka?” I ask her across the way.
“Define ‘here’,” she replied, and ordered a salad with no lettuce and extra ketchup.
“You sir?”
“Just nuts,” I complained, and then they brought an assortment. Tasty! But it still didn’t answer my question. Hucka D. spooned a big bite of red looking salad into her mouth. STOP
GO Creepy Fred was gone. Hucka D. spooned a big heap of green salad into her mouth to my left. Omaha spilled coffee in my lap after I politely asked for it, ow ow ow! Point made. There was a reason we were there instead of here, I get it.
“I get it,” I said aloud to Hucka, still holding my groin.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0030, 0608, Lower Austra^, Nautilus
First: The MastHead sim directly above The Measure, with only Heaven’s Sense between. Baker Bloch teleports into the center and discovers an interesting triangle of avatars which he is the apex of in the below photo. Then he essentially becomes a white star of this triangle as another, still irresolved avatar beams in…
… who turns out to have very exaggerated or distorted (naked) features. I am reminded here of a double star *barely* resolvable with a naked eye, say.
Interesting that Hucka D. spied a mysterious triangle of white stars inside a translucent blue cube in the sky back in novel 15. Hucka D. with DOTS again, just like in that last post here.
Now: The Measure. Yes all its peculiar, angular patternings found in pre photo-novel days are still present and seemingly locked in, including the Double Dots? Checking… We can see so much more if we get rid of the water, drying the sim out.
https://bakerbloch.com/2015/06/22/nautilus-seas-02/
“The M’s, two squares (at the bottom of the above snapshot) with a void square between them: obviously The Measure and The Masthead. The shapes around them must represent the Nautilus continent or archipelago in some form.”
“In some fashion,” Baker Bloch rewords, just like in olden days. Hucka is back!
https://bakerbloch.com/2015/06/23/more-glyphs-of-the-measure/
Detail of Double Squares. They’re not exact duplicates of each other. Lisa V. speculates they might stand for Second Life sims.
Cool. Smart Lisa!
Yes, the Double Dots are still there.
—–
“To continue, here’s another peculiarity, Hucka D. The square *representing* the sim The Measure — within The Measure — lies at 214, 107, 1, which means it’s 214 meters from the top of the sim and 107 from the (left) side (and 1 up from the bottom of the sea floor). 214 is double 107.
“The ‘dot’ here is at 228/114, along the same line across the sim, then, where the height within the sim is double the length within the sim. This is the last bit of dark surface you encounter when walking this line in an eastern direction.
“To the west, you find this larger dark place encompassing 200, 100, 1. Whaddaya think? 200-214-228, all highlighted by dark places in a row.
“And then at 186/93: more darkness encountered. But then that’s it for that pattern within the sim. Again: we are measuring in The Measure based upon a square representing The Measure. Feels like it means *something*.
“Pointillistically, it’s all aligned on that dot.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0030, 0607, Nautilus, Yd Island^
“I’m *here* (snicker). Where are you?”
(reply)
“No, *I’m* here.” He smiles broadly at John across from him, who grins back a bit. Becky looks away, lost in thoughts of some kind.
(reply)
“Yeah, yeah I already told you that. *I’m* here. But where does that leave *you*?” (more snickers)
—–
Julius hangs up, tired of the running gag. It had run its course, which was a needless mini-marathon, he felt. Time to get back to work anyway. He makes a mental note not to call him again until he truly does figure out where he’s at. Because he forgets all the time. Now… where does he work here?
—–
The waiter comes over, Bob I believe. “A phone call for you, Mr. Nance. It’s Mr. Nance.”
“Oh… thanks.” Receiver in hand again. Bob cleans up for the people who just left. Big smile, preparing for the best but expecting the worst. His twin had been missing for hours, days, weeks.
“Where are you, bro?”
—–
Baker Bloch looks on, pretending to eat grapes but just spitting them out into his napkin when the waitress has turned away. Omaha, I think. But from Oklahoma, or comes from within such. Not Nebraska, although some people just won’t get it out of their head it’s at least Kansas, a compromise she’s come to live with. Dorothy, others call her. Dot.
Hucka Doobie joins him; turns away from Omaha so she won’t accidentally spill coffee in her lap. “Stop spitting, my love,” she requested, like a mongoose.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0030, 0606, Lower Austra^, Nautilus, Squared Root City
That girl over there, Priscilla Persley thought. How can she stand it? I mean, she’s got *coffee* at least, but: jees.
Claudia Curve turned her back on the “spectacle” as well, instead staring at another pretty Christmas tree and trying to pretend the world was going to be okay.
Rose Schultz stood at attention, knowing this was going to be a busy night for hot beverages. She was armed and ready. Despite the uptick, two should still do the job just fine. If only she’d wore her long sleeve uniform but it was in the wash, brrr. But that wasn’t the spectacle, that wasn’t the one. She couldn’t see it from her angle. Not yet.
Thank Gods the pigs have arrived, thought carver George Wash, tired of trying not to look. More people should arrive soon. Time to get her outta here.
“One Adam One, over.”
“Go ahead Eve Two, over.”
“We have a situation down at the frozen food court. Lady not cooperating with the, ahem, elements… over.”
A pause. “Should we send reinforcements? A coat? Over?”
“Copy that, er, she’s heading… she’s heading over to the hot beverage stand to refill her mug. Everything is going to be okay.”
—–
Upon a tip from Rose, her defense was it was all in the wash. All of it. The pig carver was arrested on the spot.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0030, 0604, Lower Austra^, Nautilus
Sunklands 