Category Archives: Arizona

00490509 (Violet)

She got tired of waiting for her alternate self to grow up — understandably, because it could take *decades*. She decides to do some investigating on her own about the subject. Shamon. From the inn. Place of thorns. Not much of an inn aspect left to the place — no beds as far as she could tell. More a museum for the lower floors, she supposed. And then she found the letter in the middle of an antique book just chosen at random from a first floor bookcase. Hmm, she thought, separating the 2 pieces of paper from each other and laying them side by side. What’s this? She started reading. Plain it was at first to her. Mundane, run of the mill, no special qualities at all. A journal entry by someone named June about a trip across the western part of our US of A. Then she read it again. And again. And again, starting to put the 2 sides together to make 1; actually, let’s make that she simply eliminated the second to make one. Here’s what she had left…

Dear Dairy,

We’re finally in Missouri! Almost home! Bryan was so exhausted with today’s drive that we decided to have a sleepover at a cheap motel off Route 66. Madry Wise it’s called and the owners Martha and Theodore are just adorable! They welcomed us with open arms and invited us for dinner so we can share our Route 66 road trip experience with them. Bryan is just having a little nap and we’ll go once he wakes up.

I can’t believe how lucky I am. It’s been the best summer ever!!! Two weeks ago we started the journey from Santa Monica, CA and went through several states through Barstow, Kingman, Sedona, Winslow, Monument Valley, Durango, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Roswell, Amarillo, Oklahoma City until now Missouri.

So that’s all of page 1. She checked all the mentioned locations from its last sentence on a map. Santa Monica, Barstow, Kingman, Sedona, Winslow: yes, everything to this point was on Route 66 or, in Sedona’s case, quite close, only about 25 miles away. But June and her boyfriend Bryan start to veer away from that famous highway after Winslow AZ and only clearly pick it up again at Amarillo TX. In other words, June may not have even used 66 through the whole of New Mexico, going from Durango CO down to Santa Fe then Albuquerque then Roswell to its south before heading back up to Texas. *Crossing* 66 in Albuquerque but not necessarily travelling along it. While pondering this, Shelley Johnston Struthers realized, if so, that another motel might have been visited on the journey between Albuquerque and Roswell. Was this what was being implied all along?? Fictional Madry Wise Motel actually standing in for the most haunted hotel in America?

They should have never left some of the swastikas on the building because photos can be flipped and time reversed along with it. 1923: not that far away, then, not far atall.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0049, 0509, Arizona, California, Jeogeot, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Xilted

00480101 (new month, new photo-novel)

“Who are you? And what are you doing here??”

——

“He said he was this guy. I’m telling you Frank. These walls are haunted!”

“Simmer down, Philip. Say he *gave* this to you?”

“Yeah; just dropped it into my inventory and then vanished. Said he lived here. He’s lived here for a long time. Behind the fireplace; in the walls. Watching. This is a colored version of him where I saw a white one. But I know they’re the same. And… sorry about saying the word colored,” he apologized while looking over at his black friend, who took the mention in stride. “Like black-and-white and colored TVs I suppose,” Philip needlessly continued the apology. “No harm meant.”

“Watching, huh. Creepy.” Frank didn’t believe Philip’s story but was just going along for the ride.

“Like I said, Pierrot’s the name. Edward Pierrot. Said he died here or something, then mentioned Alabama. But now he’s back, he said. Like the Alabama Phoenix, whatever that means.”

“But… Phoenix is in Arizona. Dawg,” he added to make it more authentically him.

“I don’t know. But I, um, might not be coming up as much, Frank, to be honest with you. He’s *watching*. How can I play pinball in peace and escape all the stress of the world if I know *that*.”

“Truly an issue. Well, tell you what, Philip. I’ll dig into it, maybe hire some kind of exorcist, you know.”

“Really?” exuded Philip, still not catching on that Frank doesn’t believe anything he’s saying. “That would be *great*, bud.” And he punched him on the shoulder to show his gratitude and then excused himself, saying he’s late for dinner with Lexi down at the sea. He still didn’t like Frank to call Nawt Vaya a lake but Frank doesn’t do that much anymore. He’s caught on too. He likes it here! No dead fish smell, etc. Much better than the Alamo where it/they came from. “Remember the Alamo,” Philip likes to say. “And then forget all about it,” he adds the punchline, the joke of it all. Alamo > Nawt Vaya. Fate, they’ve determined. Lexi too in her own special way and special place manner.

After he went home, Frank continued to stare at the painting Philip left behind. Frank can’t return it immediately or Philip will see it show up in his lost and found folder and maybe get wise to his little game. So he just moves the thing up into the ceiling so he won’t have to look at it all the time. He’d have to talk to Lexi about Philip’s new issues first chance he gets. Maybe an extension of the ones we’ve seen him saddled with in photo-novel 47 — just completed in the nick of time for its end of August deadline, yay!

https://bakerbloch.com/virtual/sunklands-2025-middle/


Another Edward Pierrot from a land far removed now (Mythopolis).

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0048, 0101, Alabama, Arizona, Frank's Moving Castle, Jeogeot, Mythopolis, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS, Wazob

00450702

Don’t get me wrong. Lexi and he were still pals. Here we see them staring out from her many windowed house after breakfast one morning toward the long if not especially wide expanse of Nawt Vaya, Jeogeot’s largest inland sea and probably the only inland body of water of that virtual continent to qualify as such. And there’s some heated debate in certain Juho social circles even over that, which we’ll get to later. Or not. Not Vaya? Variant name for sure, sea or no. Along with Alamo, which is of particular relevance to Philip’s case. Here’s the actual, Real Life source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nawt_Vaya,_Arizona

Nawt Vaya is a populated place situated on the Tohono O’odham Nation in Pima County, Arizona, United States.[2] Historically, it has also been known as Agua Lavaria, Agua la Vara, Agua la Varia, Alamo, and Not Vaya, before Nawt Vaya became the official name following a decision by the Board on Geographic Names in 1941. The name means pampas grass well in the O’odham language.

And it’s pretty near the only US population place with a primary or variant name starting with Jeo like the continent, reinforcing the relationship.

Anyway, Philip is still testing out the 3 candidates Wheeler provided for a potential girlfriend as reward for delivering Gus to her, even though he’s leaning heavily toward Nada New Year, seen in the above photo also leaning heavily on him. Lexi sitting on the floor beside them was just glad they were past the constant kissing phase of their relationship. Andie and Sally waited patiently at the table behind them like the 3d dummies they are — just in case. Philip was instead in questioning mode. He never asked Nada — or the others — as if she/they had only one purpose in his life and that alone. It was always Lexi. Another reason he probably kept hanging around, she rationalized. But she really didn’t mind. The girls were pretty and also pretty interesting to speak to. At least Nada. Being a native of the land, she helped fill in Lexi’s gaps of local knowledge. What a sweetheart! If Philip wasn’t around… but she can’t think of that now. Wheeler (and Shelley!) would be so upset!

“Who owns that lighthouse over there, Lexi?” he started, which she knew would lead to more.

“Oh, I don’t know. Just met them once. Darkstar I believe is the name.”

“Cool. Who owns that house with the palm tree just in front of us, then?”

“I don’t know, Philip. They’re just some neighbors. I’ve only seen them from a distance ho-ing in their garden,” which made Lexi wonder again if prostitution was actually legal in this region of Our Second Lyfe.

“Nice. When is Wheeler’s Starbuccaneers gonna open over there to our right, Lexi? Do you know? Huh?” He turns his head toward her. “HUH?”

“*Philip*…” But then she stifled the urge to tell him to be quiet for a while. Because that might mean the kissing resumes. And she’d rather hear his questions than all those smooching sounds. “Starbuccaneers, eh?” she considers. “I’ve heard…” Nada flashes a peace sign in her direction; thanks Nada! “… in about 2 days.” Nada then makes a widening motion with two hands this time behind his head. “Oh, did I say days? I meant weeks.” Thumbs up sign from Nada.

“Nifty. And, let’s see, those people on that grassy field yonder. Who are they? What are they doing?”

Lexi could actually field this field question on her own, which took her back to shortstop days with the local Horners Corners High Jills, no error between her legs at the time. “That’s Greg. As in Greg Ogden. And that’s his models he’s painting for his new and improved Juho studio.” She knew all this from Wheeler. It was kind of the talk of town in certain social circles (or not). Former model Peter Melanchton had graduated Summa cum laude from Nawt Vaya State and moved away. He needed new blood to fill his shoes. That image was actually in the ad he made, which he hoped would seem artistically trendy to a model wannabe.

And, as the ad stated, he was aiming for girls this time — an upgrade. Just like Philip, he had several candidates lined up. Although he was heavily leaning toward the non-red of the group who had just walked into the picture below, as he hoped she would be doing soon on him. Parallel lives.

However, the woman turned out to only be Peter Melanchton’s sister, there to retrieve a leather jacket he left behind. Redd it is.

(to be continued)

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0045, 0702, Arizona, Jeogeot, Juho, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS

not-so-charming host

“Is this the one with my father in it?”

“Just keep watching,” Hucka Doobie requested to her sometimes lover, all times friend Barry DeBoy, secretly, way down deep, our own blog core leader Baker Bloch again. Thus the question… and the confusion. Only Hucka Doobie can see this through.

—–

“Is that the Vampire Planet?”

“Close,” answered Hucka Doobie. “Very close.” And it was upon them.

—–

“What’s all those Shakespeare quotes at the bottom of the screen about?” continued DeBoy with the questions after they arrived at the studio.

Hucka Doobie sighs. “That’s what we have to get to the bottom of.”

Pause. “Oh.”

“Shakespear Club.”

“Yes. Of course.” He continues to study as this line fades and the next one appears. “Antony and Cleopatra,” he believes. Although it’s been a long time. Something about indecision…

Spaced Ghost receives his first guest.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0037, 0115, Arizona, Jeogeot, New Mexico, Towerboro

new Diagonal 02

200 200: another threshold.

180 180.

But Hucka must *really* get over to Harrison’s before the night is done. Daylight in a little over an hour. Magic opening closed!

144 144. Maybe I better call Baker over here instead.

145 145 and 144 144 respectively.

“I was just going to tell you that The Boy was not at Stranger Creek. That’s all.”

“Good enough. Let’s see what else we’ve got on this Diagonal. Maybe it is all planned.” Both laugh.

203 203: “Let me help you out here old timer.”

“You’re axed.”

204 204: Mo guest. Missouri? Mizzou?


Mount Lemmon, Arizona

203 203: “We’re just missing the mark now, Hucka Doobie. Can you hear me?”

239 239, 240 240:

240 240, 242 242: Uh oh. Something’s going on. “How can you be in 2 places at once?” I exclaimed, flipping back and forth between Baker Bloch’s and Hucka Doobie’s viewers.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0021, 0317, Arizona, Teepot+