“Big game’s coming up Sunday. Who’re you rooting for?”
“I can hear the sound of bees in my hand.”
Category Archives: 0003
Information
“Turns out Unch and The Librarian might be one and the same. Keat Owens The Librarian is, underneath it all, what’s called a giant besalisk, a 4 handed version. It’s the involved salamander lineage that doesn’t allow him to be burned, thus the perfect nemesis for firestarter Jerome T. Newton, who we also know now is another version of Wheeler. The ash grey marble hands were a prop.”
“This just gets stranger and stranger,” returns Old Mabel. “The Woods are too peculiar. They could easily drive one mad with their continual twisty-turny ways.”
“Yes,” states Baker, also noticing that Old Mabel didn’t mention anything about moving *away* from said woods. She was engaged for certain.
“I want to know everything about The Diagonal,” she then said.
—–
“Here, let me just clear off some of these beer cans. And: voila.”
“How long did you say you’ve had this?” asked Baker Bloch.
“It came with the place,” clarified Furry Karl the bartender. “Let’s see, that would be 2005. Old Kringles.” He chuckled, thinking of the good demon he bought the bar from while it was still over in Rubi. “Quite the character. Wore a cow bell around his neck at all times.”
“This must be from the original village. But I thought it was destroyed.”
“Nope,” states Karl plainly. “There it is. You can see it with your dead peepers right in front of you.”
“Could be a copy, a duplicate,” speculated Baker.
“Well, could a copy do *this*?” Karl touches the object and produces a shower of shamrocks.
“Maybe,” says Baker.
“No, this is the sign. *The* sign. The one turned over and thrown aside during the ’68 robolution. A turning point in our history and time.”
“You said robolution there, Furry Karl. Did you mean revolution?”
“It was what it was.”
—–
Old Mabel dug deeper into the mystery of the belalisk at the town library. Journal 2 contained some information, but she was determined to find more. A particular pattern in another part of the book also caught her attention this night of playing “stay awake as long as possible to avoid dreaming”. The book just fell open at the page while she was trying to push it away from her to lay her head on the table. A yawn quickly turned into a gasp. “The portal in my dreams?”
But it was too late. Already sound asleep, the monsters arrived quickly.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0403, Heterocera, Rubi
Fell a Victim
“But I don’t understand,” says Keat Owens The Librarian. “David Bowie seems like a good and decent guy. You are just *evil*.”
“David Bowie played with demons and you are what you eat,” explained Wheeler. “If you are a lemon and consume sugar cubes you turn into lemonade. It was inevitable. This is one path split in two. Just like you.”
“Curious. Do you have a copy of “Valis” in your library here? Or in the other library?”
“Why are you asking *me*?…”
“… Librarian,” they both said together. They even shared a smile for split second.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0402, Heterocera, Rubi
New Leaves
“It’s time to take off your mask, Librarian,” speaks a freshly arrived Wheeler. “I have learned information concerning you from an old witch named Mid Hazel over at New Island.”
“Alright,” he relented. “I know Mid Hazel and her ways. But when I reveal who I am you must change as well. We must do it in concert. Ready?…”
“Don’t play that one two three game with me,” demands Wheeler. “Just remove the mask.”
He did.
And she did.
“As people like us say,” the transmogrified Wheeler pronounces, “we meet again.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0401, Heterocera, New Island, Rubi
Of the Irish
Wanda the Lower Minoan approached perhaps the only one who knew what really happened to the village on March 17th, 1968, the day the trees began to die.
And he has a familiar face.
“I like your sandals,” says Wanda in a different dream.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0318, Heterocera, Rubi
Dreams Again
But dream she did. Old Mabel dreamt of a *second* village named Lucky, even closer to Unch than the destroyed original. In fact, the beltway of the town now ran through the very center of the walking tree.
Also different was the presence of giant letters spelling “LUCKY,” hogging up space in the village green. Old Mabel had the idea that Unch was behind their placement, and that the townspeople ultimately came to loathe them. Another change was the addition of a finer house on the northern end of town, the only structure lying outside its beltway. Old Mabel understood that a doll lived there. *She* lived there (as a privileged being), although she couldn’t understand how.
Old Mabel then knew this supposed second Lucky was actually the first, constructed during happier times when tree and village were still in harmony. But the seeds of dissent had already been sewn. Dollhouse.
Looking up into Unch.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0318, Heterocera, Rubi
Entrance
“For the life of me, Old Mabel, I can’t *see it*.”
“I’m saying: turn around please Baker Bloch. You’re looking the wrong way. Look at where *I’m* looking.”
“I *am* Old Mabel. “Nothing is there. Nothing at all.”
“Something is appearing inside,” said Old Mabel, peering down.
—–
“Then I woke up, Baker Bloch. Another dream about the forest. At the tree where Urch disappeared 2 nights before. 125/125.”
“The big eucalyptus tree, yeah. Big enough to hide a man the size of me inside.”
“That tree is a portal.”
“Maybe they all are,” responds Baker. “The eucalyptus, the brown cypress, the green cypress. All along that line. And then Unch himself (or herself) at 168/168. Still haven’t met Unch, er, face to face?”
“No.”
“How about now?” Baker offers. “It’s nighttime after all.”
“You guys aren’t talking about those woods again, are you?” asks Furry Karl, walking up with another Krings beer for Baker Bloch. “I still don’t like that kind of talk in my bar. I’m up here in SoSo Mall because of it. Just to get a *little* further away from those trees. So they can’t listen in. Careful with that wine glass, baby doll,” he then says to Old Mabel. “It’s been Spillsville around here.”
“I will,” she replies, and then looks at Baker Bloch again. A vision of a double headed Winfield flashes through her mind. Fused. Fire. So much fire.
“I suppose you heard Karoz is back,” says Karl, changing the subject. “Back from space. Still doing the bidding of that demon Wheeler.”
“Shhh,” reprimands Baker. “Don’t say that too loud.”
‘What… *demon*?” speaks Karl defiantly. “She’s over on that island of hers now. She can’t hear us. The *woods* might be able to hear us, but she can’t. I think we have bigger problems if people are starting to dream about that place. It’s 1968 all over again. Treestock.”
“You know so much about local history, Karl,” says Baker.
“I do,” responds Karl quickly.
“Someone should interview you,” completes Baker.
“I’ll do it,” volunteers Old Mabel, raising her hand. Baker wonders if she might be a little drunk tonight. She’s not use to drinking wine, but she purposely spurned her usual lemonade, saying she needed to lay off the sweets to see if it was affecting her dreams. Maybe she’s just trying to numb her brain into a good night’s sleep.
“Well, that’s awfully sweet of you deary.”
“I’m *serious*,” she emphasized. “I want to do it. Let’s set up a date now, while we’re talking about it. If we wait it might be too late.”
Baker thinks he sees Old Mabel sway a bit in her seat. “Maybe we better get you home,” he says, standing up.
Old Mabel shakes her head. “I’m not going back home. I’m not laying down on that couch. I’m not *dreaming* tonight. I don’t want to dream. I want to stay awake. Baker, please stay awake with me. Until sunrise. Then everything will be all right. It’s 2 o’clock now. Sunrise in 3, 4 hours. Stay with me. Hold me.” She falls from her stool and softly sprawls out on the floor. “I’m okay,” she declares, but can’t get up.
“Come on Mabel,” says Baker, offering a hand. “Let’s go home.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0317, Heterocera, Rubi
Spillville
“I’ll have what he’s having, Furry Karl.” Karl pours Karoz Blogger a glass of red house wine. “Add it to my tab,” Karoz then says, making the bartender sigh but nod.
“Pay up by the end of next month,” he warned. “And Tom’s rent is due as well. Where’ve you been? Galavanting around space still?”
“No,” says Karoz. “I’m done with that.”
“You mean *Wheeler* is done with that,” Furry Karl corrects.
“Yeah,” Karoz admitted. He took a sip of wine and looked down at his hands.
“Well… good to have you back still, I suppose. Just kidd’n. I missed you. A little.”
Karoz smiles. “I’ll pay you back, Furry Karl, I promise. You know I’m good for my word. I’m pulling some extra shifts at the Bodega Market to make up for lost time. And Wheeler granted me a stipend. I’m working for her, and I’m working for Tom.”
“How did Tom the Busker get ownership of that market again?” queries Karl, referring to the store directly across from his own establishment in SoSo Mall.
“Excuse me,” said the stranger also drinking wine to Karl. “Do you have a magnifying glass by chance? I can’t seem to read this one particular quote in lower type.”
Furry Karl looked annoyed. This stranger had been sitting at the bar for what seemed like a week to him. “No, I don’t have a magnifying glass. And this isn’t the library, by the way. That’s through the mall and down Old Cannon Road to your left. Maybe ol’ Bean will have a magnifying glass over there. Why don’t you try.”
“Oh, I think I can just make it out, thank you anyway,” says the stranger, eyes closer to his book now and either oblivious to Karl’s annoyance or just not caring if he does notice. He murmurs softly to himself now as he reads.
“Anyway,” Karl continues. “Spill the wine.”
Karoz tips over the wine glass.
“Not *literally*!”
“Sorry,” says Karoz. “So clumsy.”
“I’ll go get a rag from in back,” says an exasperated Karl.
The distraction worked. Karoz didn’t have to answer another question about Tom for almost a whole week. And by that time, he’d also figured out some more lies to tell about his job over at New Island. Polishing the silverware; yeah that’s it.
When Furry Karl returned, Karoz had already cleaned up the spill with a borrowed book. “Well, I suppose it’s time to get going,” the stranger said, making Karl’s frown turn upside down.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0316, Heterocera, New Island, Rubi
S x SW
“A gap in the south-southwest,” Baker thinks while within this circle of 8 rocks in the Slosser sim, only a couple hundred meters south-southwest (!) of Collagesity (as he found out a little later). The parcel is Lost Garden owned by the SL Public Land Preserve, dedicated to, “help keep SL spaces open,” according to the parcel description. Baker Bloch immediately joins the group for L$5.
Clicking the profile link of the rocks’ creator, Garvie Garzo, brings him quickly to a sim called New Moon. Here he uncovers a duplicate set of rocks on an island in a western archipelago. Cool. He now sees each of the 8 stones is penetrated by a individualized sword. Here are the attached names:
Mawrth Mageblade
Silverlight of Wranws
Longsword of Iau
Daear Diamond Sword
Neifion Lightbringer
Sadwrn’s Shadowsteel
Mercher Spellblade
Burning Sabre of Gwener
In their midst is this central lower rock containing sculptures of the sun and the moon with stylized human faces, the great opposition of masculine and feminine energies. And Baker Bloch keeps in mind that this is the New *Moon* sim, named for a monthly phenomenon where the Earth blocks the moon from receiving the sun’s enlightening rays.
Between the stylized sun and moon lies an object called the Mirror of Darkness, perhaps standing for the Earth itself. Then in front of this is a book with the description of “The Taika Altar”, which doesn’t sound like a title. Baker is checking…
Here it is (!): http://www.madpeagames.com/return-of-the-light-gacha-set/
So this is the “Book of Taika”. Baker has to purchase the set! But before running off to a store location provided by that link above, he looks over the rest of the archipelago. Not a lot there, but a twisting orange and pink “bridge” attempting to span a couple of the islands caught his eye above all else (name: “net bridge fail”).
“Orange, hmm,” Baker muses. He attempts to teleport to the store but disappointingly finds its location currently blocked. Baker tries to contact Wheeler for advice, but, as usual, she is “away”, perhaps bumming around that new island she’s been on about for a day or so. New Island — New Moon. “Hmm,” again.
Couple more shots from the New Moon archipelago:
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0315, Heterocera, New Island, Rubi
… jump.
Urch was daydreaming about logging when Old Mabel fell from the sky. She remembered her mission: emissary.
“No time follow me,” she said in a course voice as Old Mabel got up from the floor and dusted herself off. “Unch is waiting. 7:10, tick tock. Gravity Falls.”
Old Mabel had never met Urch before. She began to think the obvious.
Urch opened the seldom used front door of the Blue Feather, part of the original castle it was built around. “You think that you are dreaming, no? Test it on this lamp blocking the open door. If you are dreaming, the room will remain lit when you turn off the light. Go ahead — try it.”
Old Mabel turned off the light. The room remain lit. “Now you know,” Urch said, and walked out the door into the forest. She had no choice but to follow.
—–
Then she was at 97/97/97 with Urch. The two stand uncomfortably close to each other. “Unch lies along this line,” the child hobo said, pointing northeast.
“Unch is the orange you seek. He is the whole within the hole. Go within and you’ll see time itself split up into soapy bubbles. Alienatorooter.” Old Mabel then imagines 8 oranges sitting around The Table with a thick book in their midst. Not Floydodo but Floydada. A 9th appears to their south-southwest, quickly turning into a purple martin bird which then flies left into the woods. “9 not 8,” Old Mabel realizes. “The Table is incomplete still.”
“Unch will clarify. Nighttime in reality. Daytime in dreams. Walk with me.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0003, 0314, Heterocera, Rubi
Sunklands 