The junkies of the apartment took a drug so deep, so powerful, that they forgot to wash themselves much less the dishes. They couldn’t even take off their shoes before crawling into bed. 15 minutes till the sink overflows.
Fern Stalin wonders if the white horse has any chance in the matter *snap*.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0043, 0105, Bellisaria, Continent 05, Omega, Urbane Blue/Fishers Island
He looked at the paper that had fallen to the floor from the bookcases in back. He quickly phoned Fern.
“Listen, I have news.”
Fern thought at first: Barry’s back from his sabbatical, But, no, it was another list, printed on Asylum Inc. letterhead again.
“How?” Fern responded to this. “We were just there. We looked *everywhere*.” The thought passed through her mind now that Drew “Grumpy” Cleveland, a nudist originally from rough Grandpa Cliffs across the channel, was playing an elaborate prank on them. She pondered this more as Grumpy explained he was cleaning up, getting ready to lock up, just dusting the bookshelves as he does at the end of every working day, when the thing simply fell out, about at the location of the “Around the World in *1000* Pictures” book (not 2000, as we’ve already explained). He thought he’d just dusted the book but couldn’t be sure. Anyway, he had it spread out in front of him on the bar counter. He described what he saw to Fern.
“It looks very similar,” he said. “26 words again, just like with the first one. Looks like a whole new set of words, though. And alphabetized again.”
“All the letters of the alphabet?” queried Fern.
Grumpy checked once more. “No, looks like some are missing this time.”
“So we have groupings of words starting with the same letter,” Fern said. “I’ll be down in a minute.”
—–
“So here they are. I took the first and placed it next to the new one so you could compare. Whaddaya think?”
Fern eyed the new set of 26 words with hoax firmly in her mind now. Grumpy playing games with her, just to try to show off what he thought was his own intellect too and put her in her place? But the words would tell her, the patterns they make.
“Diablo and Draco — did you see, Grumpy?”
“Umm, see what?”
“They’re reversed in the alphalist. Only two ‘D’s, swapped with each other. She eyed him now, looking for signs of feigned surprise. The surprised expression coming from the big, nude man in front of her seemed genuine, though. He’d simply passed over the reversing in his scan of the list.
“And, look here, Greengrow and Grayback — same thing if you spell Gray as Grey, like if we were English instead of American.” UK and US united as one, she thought here, lovely red-headed, pinkish skinned Wendy a vision in her mind. Or maybe UK and France is a better match, Fern quickly amended, considering the bar’s name they were in and the Churchill that had to be involved. “But, see,” she refocused on the colors green and gray instead, poking the printed words with her index finger, “this has something to do with war. This has something to do with *the* war. Green-Gray, sometimes colored Green-White for reasons I can’t quite remember right now.” She waved off the attempt. “Never mind that: Asylum is involved in the war. This Asylum Inc.,” she summarized, “is maybe a weapons manufacturer, or maybe something to do with military training.” Brainwashing, she realized. They’re brainwashing men to become soldiers. Just like…
—–
“Describe ‘hole’,” she asked the bartender in the city of Mars where Old Mabel disappeared from.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0043, 0104, Castle Town+, MARS, Omega
“Those books in back aren’t for the general public,” spoke nudist and co-manager of the Yalta Bar and Grill Drew “Grumpy” Cleveland to Fern and Lichen later on. “I only let friends back there, people I know, people I can trust who won’t sully the pages and so on. And I know all the books as well. I had ‘Around the World in 1000 Pictures’ not ‘2000’. That’s a later, expanded version I didn’t purchase. And I don’t take donations — not directly. I buy books. I *know* books.”
“Pure enough,” said Fern to this, still scanning the list before her on the counter. 26 words for 26 letters in order from A to Z. But Asylum isn’t among them — didn’t start it off. Instead: company letterhead at the top. She’d done a little research before confronting Grumpy with the list they’d found. Asylum Inc. was started by one Wayne Bruce in 1972 in Nightsity, California. Thing is, Nightsity doesn’t exist. Not in *this* reality. In 1988 it supposedly moved to Jasper County GA near Atlanta, apparently another lie.
Here’s a Google Street View of the address from the letterhead. Nothing.
The most confounding thing of all: When Fern and Lichen returned to the bookshelves around back to check for additional evidence, “Around the World in 2000 Pictures” was no longer there. Instead, a copy of “Around the World in 1000 Pictures”, brown colored instead of blue for the former, was present in the exact same spot, just like Grumpy said he bought. Even ultra-sharp Fern couldn’t figure this out in the moment. Not yet. It would take the closing of one eye and the opening of another to accomplish.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0043, 0103, C2077, Castle Town+, Georgia, Google Street View, NIGHTSITY, Omega
“Where *is* he?” expressed not-so-patient Lichen Roosevelt to her dinner partner Fern Stalin, the brains of the group, the Scarecrow to Lichen’s Lion to Wendy’s Tinman and Dorothy in one, as if the UK and US united into a single country, not quite like that but close. They were, then, a trio and thus had to look out for each other. And Wendy was now nowhere to look out for. Missing. Barry was the logical path forward. Talk to the jilted boyfriend, get Wendy’s last thoughts, and then move on from there. One thing they knew: she was *not* in Kangarootown. Not yet anyway.
“He should be rocking,” blonde Lichen continued to complain to brunette Fern. “Right over there.”
She pointed to the chair with the maple leaf throw pillow seen toward the end of the last photo-novel, still as a quill. No yarn to spin here from De Boy. Lichen sucked nervously at the straw in her mouth, seemingly a perpetual oral fixation these days. Fern was just glad it wasn’t chewing tobacco or something even worse. A straw is a straw — harmless outside the constant twirling and whirling and the occasional slurring of the words emitting from her distorted mouth. But, true, it adds to her overall humor, augments the vibe she’s trying to put out there to the world. She likes to play the role of a dumb blonde, kind of like a Daisy Mae from Dogpatch, Arkansaw. A Capp caricature of a woman, a throwback to more primitive days. Daisy days.
Fern’s brains were spinning per usual. “Not rocking, eh? Maybe classical is the direction we should look toward. I sense — lemme look deeper — I sense… Liszt. Don’t ask me how. Just Liszt.”
“List?” Lichen said back, not understanding the word. But her word turned out to be even better in the moment.
“Yes!” exclaimed Fern to this. They had to find a list. If they had to tear this place apart, like pages from a book. Book! she thought to herself. There are books around back. They knew this from their time before in this place, this Castle Town in the Deep South of the Omega continent, an oasis in a desert of shame.
“Travel!” she said when they arrived at the 3 bookcases we also saw Barry sitting before in the last novel. She was basically straight-channeling the future by this point. Oases have peculiar energy, perhaps because of the condensing of energies within. Lends itself to palm trees and desert life. Lends itself to psychic impressions and deeper. Wellsource.
I suppose that’s what attracted them to Castle Town in the first place, that and all the offered games here at Yalta’s Bar and Grill, backgammon, chess, cards, so forth. And, of course, its name.
It was right in the center of the 3, right before their eyes. When she saw it she couldn’t look away.
And right in the center of the book: a list.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0043, 0102, Castle Town+, Omega
Here I sit and think about my outstanding pinkness.
How did it come about? Well, it was *stolen*. From Baker Blinker. Way back in the day. Model 1.0 you could call it. Now I am considered to be a savior of some sort. The white horse leads, the black horse steers.
I came here…
… in a boat.
But not that one.
Maybe here I can get away from testers Fern and Lichen. Be my own body in my own person. That’s the hope.
Mama T. and calf will help me.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0043, 0101, HANA LEI
She didn’t go with him to the heart of the park on the edge of Castle Town as he had planned, hidden in back behind its many walls and terraces. Instead she said she’d done what she’d come to do, gave him another quick tweak on the nose (a sign of things *not* to come), and exited back through the tunnel, leaving Barry to ascend the stairs running alongside the beautiful cascade to the place alone, “going steady” ring of amethyst inlaid in silver still in pocket, not burning a hole in it any longer.
Slapped in the worst way possible — call it a gut punch — he briefly contemplated jumping from a high rock on its far edge but quickly put this dark dark thought out of his mind. He had too much to do with his life moving forward, he understood, staring out at the steep green slopes of Castle Gorge below, beautifully lit in the late morning sky. Too much to do indeed. But for the first time a long long while, he was at a loss for words over events that happened.
One step at a time, he knew, thinking back to that oh so painful first step up to the top here and away from Wendy. Attaching the needed objects, he puts down the figurative pen and picks up the literal brush to begin.
END OF “SUNKLANDS 2024 EARLY”! (finally!)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0617, Castle Town+, Omega
“It’s simply beautiful here, Barry. But –”
“Why did I wait so long to show you this?”
“Well… *yes*.” It could have help swayed my judgement, she thinks. She could still change her mind, but… a contract was signed. Wendy’s Hot Dog Restaurant is a go! Except switch hot dogs with hamburgers and meat byproducts to just pure beef. Okama talked her into it, just as he talked himself into giving up the dream of taking over the Dream Emulator band and kicking everyone else out except maybe classically trained guitarist No Lag V, which they usually just shorten to No Lag. He’d assume the mayor’s position of Kangarootown instead, recently vacated by disgraced Golden Jim, fired because he’d called the wrong person the wrong name, it seems. Anyway, Okama = Mayor, Okama invites Wendy to open her restaurant in his former K-Town store (basically just a store for mouse traps, he said, waiving off the inconvenience), and then giving her a 25 year month lease on the place for 500 lindens a month. That’s the contract signed; too good of a deal to pass on; had to act fast, she felt, lest he or she changed his or her mind. And her affections returned to Bastard — wherever he is up there on the Red Dead planet. St. Dennis, she’d heard for a possible location. She hadn’t given up hope that he not only lives but thrives, and is just waiting for the right time to invite her up too. Hmm, but she’s locked into a lease now. She better think about a second in command just in case.
“I was waiting for the right time,” Barry finally answered, allowing Wendy’s internal monologue to unfurl in a proper manner. “I thought–”
“We could go steady?”
“Well…”
“Barry. I still have Bastard — you know, Jim Randolph the Bastard Pirate.”
“But… he’s dead,” answers Barry to this.
“No, I refuse to believe that.”
“But… they found his *skeleton*, the Red Dead crew did. They *buried* him… out to sea.”
“No. Not true. I *sense* he exists still. I’m just not sure how.”
“All those rumors about him surviving and living in St. Dennis are just that. Fiction — fable. The skeleton in the boat was *his*. There was even his trusty sword to go along with it. Wendy — face it.” He makes her face him. “He’s gone.”
She was tempted to slap him for the stubbornness. But after all, as Okama Majo also pointed out, *he* has Hucka Doobie now. She substituted the slap with that harsh declaration.
Barry quickly looked away, almost as if he’d been slapped anyway. “She’s with someone else, I’ve heard. A Marion Star Harding. Never met the guy. But he predates me, even. Last I heard he’s in Gaston. Do you know of Gaston? I had to learn about it. I learned it from–” He stops. He realizes the irony, the *synchronicity* of the matter.
He recalls piecing together a document about the place. From wadded up papers strewn about his shed near the Pink Motel. Home.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0616, Castle Town+, Gaston+, Omega, RDR2
He’d been having dreams of Pansy Mouse again and going in a classical direction instead of rocking the day away like he had been. Wendy was showing him the way. He was less scared now of the ghostly spectre.
In one dream, Pansy handed him a list procured from behind the counter. On it: 52 single column words, including Asylum. Featuring Asylum, perhaps. Headliner. He must not run away from it. He needs to put it back in the file in Filetown.
—–
She came back in the wrong dress. He knew their time was limited, wanted to spend it in the best manner possible. “Walk with me,” he said. Reaching the balcony outside the bar and grill, he suddenly took her hand and flung them both over the rail…
… but they were okay — only 12 feet down. “Warn me the next time you do that!” complained winded Wendy, even though she landed rather gently as did he. Much harder to hurt yourself in Our Second Lyfe than up in reality. Barry learned that the hard way.
Onward through the construction warning signs. Barry knew this tunnel starting below the balcony would be safe as well; would take them to where it all ended. Heaven of sorts.
Midge looked on, unseen by Barry behind the dumpster. But not Wendy. Just by her look she knew they had found the file.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0615, Castle Town+, Omega
He briefly though of slamming the door on her face and leaving her out on the lawn but he took in the different dress and the removal of Alpha and changed his mind. After all, he’d changed a bit too since their last meeting in section 02 with the whole Aisle of Palms band experience.
“Come in I suppose,” he said as he held the door open for her.
—–
After settling in on his comfy couch, she made it clear up front that she wasn’t interested in his building ideally located in the heart of town any longer. Red topped like her; she noted in sitting down that the place was plainly visible through the bay window behind the couch (see above). She told him of the recent dream down in Castle Town where he was made up completely of edible vegetables. This made her change her diet that very night. “Salad and a *little* fish,” she said about the supper we’ve seen her eating previously in this here blog and attached photo-novel, 8 posts back by now. “Barry — that’s my new boyfriend down there; anyway, Barry insists that the blood stains will be gone soon.” She indicated her Carolina blue dress again and the newly introduced element besides the removal of Alpha. The subtraction of the latter seems to depend on the addition of the former, if only temporarily. Or at least that’s what Barry told her. And he was certainly enjoying the absence of Alpha and all the benefits derived thereof. He could live with the blood for a while.
“This… *Barry*,” started Okama Majo again, truly curious about more details.
“Barry DeBoy, yes,” said Wendy in the gap (Wendy Gap). “Like Barry the Boy except with a De instead of a The.”
“Very interesting, yes,” spoke Okama with only a little sarcasm. He decided he couldn’t just blurt out what was in his mind. He would simply assume they had a proper relationship; he’d heard rumors in K-town when she was here. “Has no parts down there as well as up here,” whispered one of the concerned citizens while indicating the appropriate places on her body, an ally for Okama and desiring the town remain a hot dog free zone against the wishes of *then* mayor Golden Jim. For his position had changed too. And now a good chunk of residents are pushing for Okama himself to assume the job; fill the vacancy. So there was a political element in the way Okama treated Wendy. He had to leave the door open for *that* possibility as well. If the band thing didn’t pan out long-term.
But he also had the opposite dream: completely take over the Dream Emulators, kick out, right at the start of the coup, the SUUEEEY! calling kid named Don and probably animated singer Shelley as well, leaving only No Lag. For he kind of wished to steer it in a classical direction away from rock too. He had his Dream Emulator dream and it sort of looked like this. He would become Sato, in essence, channel the higher being from the North.
So: two pulls here. How Wendy answered the next question could be the tipping point.
“Wendy, I hate to bring this up, but there’s Bastard to think of. And Barry already has Hucka. Have you conveniently forgotten these plot factors? Or are you a rogue actor now? I’ll say it again: Are – you – rogue?”
For if she was, maybe he could be too.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0614, Kangerootown+, Omega
“I get it now Wheeler. There’s a boat here on the mountain. Hence: Boat Mountain.”
“Also known as Mountain of Boat or Mount Boat,” added Wheeler for Newt, perhaps a hubby, perhaps not.
“Okay, cool. So that’s done.”
“It is.”
Newt looks around. “Nice view up here. Let’s go sit on that bench we passed and enjoy the mountain air for a while.”
“Okay. But we have to get back home before Indie Cartoon Night. Starting at 7.” They begin walking toward the bench just over the top.
“Amazing Digital Circus, Episode 2. I’ve heard,” he speaks while being careful about the rocks.
“I’ve previewed it for us. Don’t expect it to be the same as the first. I *know* you’ll be disappointed. I just know it.”
“Maybe not — but thanks for preparing me anyway.” Reaching the bench they sit down.
“What’s this one about?” he asks. “Abstracting again?”
“In part,” answers Wheeler, not wanting to give away too much. “More action — I know you like action in your animation,” she jokes. Newt dislikes most action scenes; thinks they’re superfluous to a character driven plot.
“Aah, I see.”
“And there’s some backroom stuff,” she countered, knowing that would please him. “And that’s *all* I’m going to say.” She pats him on the knee after checking the time on her phone. “6:25 now. Better head back, actually.”
Newt takes one last look around. “I was hoping we could see Millbank from this vantage point. Maybe a little too far away here.”
“There,” points Wheeler. “I think those black trees sticking up may be part of it.”
“Amazing the Halloween village is still there. Last year it was taken down in maybe November or something.”
“Just for you my dear.” She pats his knee again. “To keep you happy.”
—–
They had just settled into the comfy couch after turning on the TV when the doorbell rang. But it was all part of the plan, the act.
“M & M Lawn Care here!” the taller of the two shouted through the door. “Lawn maintenance at your service!”
—–
put to work
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0613, ADC, Ashton Village, Back Rooms, Bellisaria
Sunklands 