Monthly Archives: March 2022

March 31, 2022 · 10:06 am

no comet

Dickie had solved the mystery. A man, walking in a cycle, runs into him if he stands in front of Jim’s counter and pushes him to the corner, where he then leaves him and dashes diagonally across the road.

About 2 minutes later he’s back, pattern repeated. Again and again this happens. Did Jim set this up on purpose so customers wouldn’t loiter? he thinks.

The morning light was increasing. He had to find Joey Avatar to talk to her about the shoes and some other important things. Like their prospective date tonight. He doesn’t think he’s up for it. Besides, that apple juice he just bought from Jim was not quite agreeing with his stomach. Perfect excuse for backing out. “I’m sick, babe,” he rehearsed in his head. “Jim?” he imagined her saying, because he was responsible for the bulk of things bad in town. He may even be the person behind the transmutation of Black Bart himself, Dickie realized in this created scenario. He then imagines going back to Jim, confronting him. Oops, there’s that guy pushing him to the corner again. Yes: convenient.

Jim L. Brown, he recalled. He makes a mental note to check what the L. stands for sometime, because he’s heard of another Jim Brown and doesn’t want to confuse the two in his continued investigation. A., he also remembers about the other. Jim A. Brown, with the A. standing for nothing, he recalls, even turning into B. at the drop of a dime, for no rhyme or reason. Maybe L. is just a progression of this, and stands for nothing itself.

Here comes the dasher again. “Merry f-cking Christmas to you too!” he called in turn, stepping aside this time. Dasher yes, hmmm.

He checks his wallet but it’s okay. The guy appears to be a pusher but not a taker. Hmm, again.

(to be continued)

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March 31, 2022 · 9:44 am

city interior

“Hey, weren’t you just here 10 seconds ago,” Jim joked from behind the counter.

“Yeah… I was,” responded Dickie, confused in the moment. As I type this he may have moved back to the street corner about 10 yards away. Twice this has happened already.

“Lovecraft stuff, that’s what it is. Like with Black Bart. How’s the old creature doing anyway?”

Dickie thought back to his assignment. Rent an apartment in the underground, keep an eye on Black Bart downstairs. How’s that part of it going? he thinks sarcastically.

“Check your viewer again,” gruffed Jim Brown, poised to sell his first customer of the morning some 3 day old apple juice. Got one day more on that stuff, Jim thought. Then I’ll have to drink it myself. Jim knew he could dispose of anything — internally. That’s why he didn’t buy any garbage cans or bags when he rented the stall oh, about 3 years ago I guess. Brown comes from a long line of renters, not buyers.

“See what I mean!” he shouted to Dickie at the the corner, observing what happened all the time but not able or not willing to share the information right now. “You just stay right there!” he called again. “I’ll bring you a nice glass of apple juice to soothe your nerves!”

(to be continued)

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March 30, 2022 · 10:15 am

Ontario

Archibald woke up on top of trash. Typical. But this time his shoes were gone. He rises up and dangles the bare tootsies over the grate to the underground. Where he stayed, he remembered, either in Apt 1 or Apt 2. The only 2 down there, not counting Black Bart’s old place, which was unfit to live in at the moment. They must have dropped down through the grate while I was stirring in my sleep, he rationalizes, but then realized someone could have taken them, maybe the other from the underground. Black Bart? Nah, he’s gone; the rumors couldn’t be wrong what with all that happened before to the poor, pitiful dude. Joey his neighbor? Could be for a prank. They were kind of seeing each other and kind of not. It was one of those “it’s complicated” relationships. He recalls, in his hangover-ish grogginess, that she keeps seeing things bleed through from the other side. Like that yellow marker the other day that *wasn’t* a yellow marker. Like, well, *me*, he then thought, dusting the dust off his pants and standing. Portals — yes. The dream comes back. A girl went through who specializes in burger, then he emerges in this burg so he becomes her burger. Strange thought. He opens the grate and moves down the ladder, ready to confront Joey with the theft, careful not to step on anything sharp or slippery. Difficult, because there’s so many things like that about the place. The underground, pheh, he ruminates as his socked feet touch the bottom. And people thought that was only confined to the dreams man made.  Man-made dreams.

He walks up the stairs to the viable apartments, not hearing anything behind Black Bart’s old one downstairs for a change. But he hasn’t much hope the silence will last.

(to be continued)

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March 30, 2022 · 8:53 am

00320307

Face stitched up as best as possible, rescuers gone, Wendy finds the portal to neighboring Ontario through a void sim thanks to the help of Dickie and some indicating, howling wolves. Delight! Maybe there’s hope for the chesskers situation after all.

“Iowa,” she spoke back to Dickie while feeling the cold wind of reality blow on her wounded face, stinging it a bit. Close!

The library can finally be left behind. Dickie waves goodbye as the darkness envelops her, wolves silent with their task done.

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March 30, 2022 · 8:04 am

colors

“This board must be broken Debbie. I can’t get black to move first.”

It was over in 13. White (Dickie (Archibald)) had no more to say. Sister Debbie retreated back up the cave tunnel from the meeting in the underground game room to her Hobbit Hill rental, pondering what just happened and the true nature of reality. *Why* can’t black start? Who goes first, what goes second? She doesn’t know; can’t figure it out currently. There must be a game of chesskers where the rules are reversed, she ascertains later, but only after the mission is done.

—–

“We’ve just got the one piece left,” Rescue John responded to Rescue Joe’s question about the face. “But it’s a crucial one. Looks like, let’s see, we’ve got a green eye instead of a blue to match the other. Asymmetry: can’t have it.”

“Boss wouldn’t be please,” Joe said back weakly, and looked into the distance from the top of the Gap toward the Hobbit Hill rental, toward Jer and Jem’s Ragged Rocks abode, toward Tar and Jey’s watermill home, and toward the cottage on the perch currently housing interns (Devil) Dave and Karoz straight from fabled academic mecca Crabwoo after their final exams were done and over with. He knows the answer lies out there somewhere. But here… they can only insert the wrong piece for now; no other way. He says this to John, who agrees to “finish” the process with a big sigh. “Green it is,” and crams it in despite the ill fitting nature of the thing.

Wheeler can see again.

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March 29, 2022 · 11:04 am

twirly things

“The library, as a castle-like monolith, stands against you; wouldn’t allow you back in beyond the moat, the safety net that, admittedly, also cast out others.” Hucka D. paused again, reflected. “Only One, actually. The One that stands in front of the Two (and unites them). But marriage would have to be involved. It won’t be pretty. You’d… have to get her to accept the whole of Wendy.” Pause again. “The entire body of work, as they like to say down here there.

“See it as protection instead of the obvious.”

They found some of the outfits left behind, I realized. I had been sloppy in my goings back and forth between here and there, confusing the two with each other.

—–

Reinforcements came. Like Humpty Dumpty they were able to piece her back together. Except for the face, which remained a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, missing black and white pieces still to the sides.

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March 29, 2022 · 9:37 am

You Tar. Me?

Jey looked at Tar doing some work around the house finally. Glad to see him away from his desk writing that novel about death and destruction — bring him back to the land of the living. “How’s the plot going on the new one, dearest?” she asked to pass the time. “32, right?” she guessed the number. She wasn’t sure but she thinks that what he’s up to, along with some other stuff.

“Right, right,” he said, continuing to toss the salad after chopping the baby carrots, cucumbers, and onions with his power dagger, slice-slice-slice-slice-slice. Green must be evenly mixed with all — just like with him. “Actually the latest scenes are set much in a place like this.” STOP

START “Much like Ontario.”

“Oh,” she said, surprised at this. “The place next door?”

—–

Joey, with an extra letter this time, thought someone dropped a yellow marker off the whiteboard into the floor to leave only red green blue but it turned out to be a bleed-through from another reality next door. Wendy.

(to be continued)

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March 28, 2022 · 8:33 am

Wendy

“Tell me about Dub?”

It was an odd question from the former Bottle Cruncher star. 5’5″ Jer Ronamy, who also went by the name of Chuck Laser back in the days, an athletic moniker. Laser sharp were his passes and few lost their arms as a result, even though they played at the bottom of one (Starfish Lake arm). Plus they would just grow back; many smaller guards of his kind used this regeneration process to their advantage; fitted it into their overall game plan and strategy. Not brown clad Chuck, except when he masqueraded as purple garbed Joel Maser that one year he went undercover to play for a rival team so that they could face each other in the championship. Zircon vs. Amethyst, just like it was suppose to be; battle of the Titans. Never spotted, although the name should have been a giveaway. Just short enough to fly below the radar. It was tricky playing both sides in the finals but he explains it all in his book, “Going Both Ways,” disguised as outlining his prowess on both the offensive and defensive ends. Read between the lines and it’s all there: never was any defense when he was on offense and visa versa. I mean, you can read about it in this way but it’s still hard to believe. He planted a double, a lookalike. Similar name, yeah. A bit taller so as not to be *too* suspicious. And, oh yeah, that magical charm around the whole thing enacted by Morgan the Hagg. People hated him when they eventually found out. A lot of money was lost the day he hoisted the trophy as high as possible over his 5’5″ frame on a pedestal built by those that worshiped him.

“Dub?” responded Devil Dave back in the present, thinking back to receiving the ill wind from that Maebaleia cave in the sky. Does he also know about the jungle and all that goes on there, the wildness (in the wilderness)?

We need to bring in a female to balance out the whole and make a 4orrin1. Jem should do the trick, a simulacrum who thinks she is real and the only type who would stand Jer for any length of time, like seconds. Here she is with the rest.

So pretty.

(to be continued)

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March 28, 2022 · 6:27 am

00320302

“There have been other libraries in other places. Like Crabwoo.

“Right, Karoz?” he prompted after turning.

“Are you going to answer my question about the Abyss or not?” Dave’s blue-green roommate for the exciting semester replies while applying the last bit of mascara to his face. Wendy! In all its glory. They finally made it after a long, hard stretch of work. Reward!

—–

In a different part of the dream, Karoz looks up to see a whale sized blimp pass over a backwards blue E, otherwise known as a schwa. Red seems to be a theme for tonight but it’s not Devil Dave this time. Instead, a car, and a particular car at that. One plucked from the Iowan hypercube they knew so well now.

“Your burger, sir,” Wendy offered from the side… with a side (fries), prying him away from the aerial spectacle. Perhaps he should get back in the car to receive.

(to be continued)

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March 26, 2022 · 9:39 pm

00320301

On a windy day in Windy Wendy, before the castle library, wedding gown bedecked and alpha constricted Wendy jumps into the Gap, unable to decide between Axis and Tropp.

“GERONIMOOOOOO!” *SPLAT*

“Don’t look at her head, don’t look at her *head*!” the first to arrive at the cliff and peer down commands to the other. Taking the brunt of the fall, it was a plain and simple checkerboard catastrophe.

“BLEH!”

Down below: Axis first now to take turns and give still unwell Tropp a break. They couldn’t get to the body. The gap was too narrow. Reinforcements would have to be called in.

Axis’ turn now, “BLEH!”

Wheeler wakes up.

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