Category Archives: Novels

00390203

In a cage underneath the bed he waits his turn as reality shifts back into fantasy, virtual playstuff and all. It was always going to be this way. Once they returned to the top. “How’s your novel going?” he said over, blue rose decorated suit back on. “I’m really sinking into this one,” she admitted to her hubby who was still gone a lot of the time, acting in Europe, Asia and Africa currently, Shakespeare being a world-wide phenomenon. “Sinking as… how?” “You know, really getting into character,” she replied. He rolled over, stared upward. If he’d kept rolling he would be looking right at the answer. “So you’re Jennifer Lane, the writer who *writes* Shelley. But to me you’re still Shelley, since I’m not in your books.” “Oh, you’re in them alright,” she said, which was truth. Just not the whole. 2-4 percent, like incomplete milk for a half baked, choco chip cookie. And so, on the 5th day… “Explain,” he ventured, pressing further tonight, kind of hearing the muffled cries of help from beneath him but still kind of not. He could sense an actor in peril.

So she gave him permission to come back into her life, to live in this place with them as well. Her lovely Edward, fresh from a dog park over in Pickle 02. Someone else was under the bed now. He stared at the answer. “Jem, is that you Jem?” He rolled over, all the way. “Oh it’s *you*.”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0039, 0203, Constantynople, Jeogeot, Kidd Tower, Middleton, Nautilus, Rank & File, Xilted

00390202

Mr. Babyface is now downstairs in Kidd, having yielded the top 2 floors representing his old penthouse apt. to the new couple in town, the *owners* as it were (Arthur and Shelley). He’s also agreed to share the dining table of his upper floor with them, since their own upper floor is basically taken up with a bed. That’s fair, that’s fair, he ponders, puffing on Red Dragon this morning. Out of Blue Pennant, his favorite. Have to run up to West Virginie for a restock soon. But how to get there? Last time he had to go through Hana Lei, holding his nose all the time. Fairy poop, yeck! The worst kind, and they leave it all over the place, not believing in civilization and modern conveniences such as flush toilets and pressure showers. Thus the body odor added in to the rest of the smells, the poop, the pee. He *hates* going there. And yet… I suppose the band Lamb is still in all that mess somewhere. High as the sky; not figuring a way out yet. They have likely been totally assimilated, he reckons. Poor Paul, poor Peter and Mary. He may never see them again. His poor poor nephew (*sigh*). *Anyway*…

He continues to puff as he stares at the Big E on the now shared table, a ritual of sorts. He doesn’t know quite what to make of it still except that it’s perfect in its own way, and a worthy additional the TILE family of absolute glyphs. He stares at the green green sim of Xilted, thinking back to his own experiences there, 0202 as well and exactly 3 novels back. More perfection.

He met a soldier specifically named Chet, a veteran of the Trojan-Durexian War. He can’t recall the names of the other soldiers that were there at the outpost with him and then lover Greg (or Gregg) but he remembers Chet. “Grass, the usual,” Chet always use to say to him whenever he asks the ever pointing, gun toting soldier what he’s aiming at today from his lookout post. And Mr. Babyface would always pause in his activities of the day and stare out with him a bit here — into the green green hills of Xilted (now with grass!). Maybe they could be considered even… friends? What else did they talk about? The cow loving, fellow Trojan warrior now living in the Northern Hills of the original Bellissaria continent? Certainly a possibility, I’m guessing, although they could have become chums after this assignment was over given the whole perpetual war thing, but certainly before his own untimely, well, death. Chet died at the hands of a machete wielding enemy with more blood lust in his spirit. Kill or be killed, he learned too late. But perhaps he was right in doing so; rewards in heaven and so on. Mr. Babyface didn’t know about Chet’s death, I’m supposing. He’d only learn that later in this here photo-novel, 39 in a series of a lot. Maybe from Groover.

And how appropriate his table is now 3 floors down from the top of Kidd and thus displaying the Xilted sim on its side wall as well. At the top — his former upper floor again — Shelley has (XY*Z*) Zebrasil, very close to a volcano that had just gone off. Can he recover enough to go at it again the next day? You betcha! Yet another perfection and directly related. Little e to Big E, you see. TILE talk.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0039, 0202, Constantynople, Jeogeot, Kidd Tower, Middleton, Nautilus, Rank & File, West Virginia, Xilted

00390201

Weird she can see the lower tip of Beatrice from here, she thinks. Where she, in fact, comes from (novel 38; on a white horse). She checks the distance on the inworld map in her, um, mind. Over 200 meters away still, and her draw distance used here is only 64 to reduce lag in an urban area. She thinks again of Constantinople, the *real* thing, and her graphically talented, er, doppelganger. Here incarnated as Myrtle Beech out on the southern tip of *this* island. Another 200 meters or so in the opposite direction.

She moves to the opposite window of the upper floor of her new (!) apartment, important furniture purchase finished. It all revolves around, well, the central affair which is not an affair atall. She smiles at the irony. She can continue with her romance novel 39 and keep the marriage to Arthur intact. She can have her cake and eat it too. She came here, in effect, in 2 boats at once. But what really was this island she now exists on with her others? Constants? Close enough.

Arthur will be home soon from job hunting. Better get back to the interwebs and do some more research before he arrives (she decides). Hogs the whole living room with his applications and such. Great views, but — drawback — small apt. Barely room for the bed upstairs. And what about a kitchen? She’s *not* sharing an oven and a fridge with that big headed dude downstairs (!).

Strange, she think while staring from the couch now (*not* new). The entire Smipsons family shows up at the bottom of the store’s page but no sign of Al or Sarah’s avatar, hmm. Oh, she realizes. No adult content here; she’s not signed in to the Marketplace. And Al and Sarah are certainly adults now after what happened at the Homeless Union last night, away from Cowboy’s still drunk presence. Who cares if he chokes on his own vomit, Sarah thinks while packing her duffle bag for an overnight stay, looking down on him writhing about on the stained bed, murmuring something about Wanda and Gloria giving him 2 rides between snores and incoherent utterances. I bet they did, she thinks with vile, harking back to that afternoon and the beach and the lateness of his appearance and his *appearance* when he arrives. Drunk off his tits. “I bet they did,” she hisses aloud before stomping out, thinking this is at *least* a 2 night absence now. Maybe forever; probably so.

Back to the family…

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0039, 0201, Ashton Village, Bellisaria, Constantynople, Kidd Tower, Nautilus, Rank & File

00390117

The actual seance in Ruby’s Bellissaria home in Ashton Village, or “reading” as the invitation called it, was kind of anticlimactic to what just happened outside. Psychic Olive Olystick knew instantly upon seeing green clad Al and blue clad Sarah sit down opposite each other at the prepared table that they were destined for each other, *made* for each other in effect (manufactured). Groover filled in the needed 6th spot for absent, sick Cowboy, taking the “yellow” seat opposite Olive’s red. “We have our 6,” she said in the introduction, amended up from 4 to include mutual friends Gloria and Wanda from down on the beach. But Olive knew they didn’t really count. There was still only red, green, yellow and blue around the table. A true TILE, yes, modified for the moment. She had manufactured Groover as much as Al had manufactured Sarah, and visa versa as well. Round and round and round.

Al, of course, asked about Bart and the renegade treatises, both his and Lisa’s, although the boy’s higher channeling effort took top priority in his mind. The reason for him being here in the 1st place. Olive looked deep into her mind, produced an image of a cow that was also a human. “Someone lives on this continent who has your answers. Not the 2nd continent (of Bellissaria), not the 3rd, nor 4th, nor 5th. Here. Not far away to the north — Northern Hills, I’m seeing. Groover knows a person involved.” All eyes at the table turned to the Trojan-Durexian war vet, who just sat there was his mouth agape per usual, like he was as surprised about this information as anyone else. He wasn’t. “Grooover,” urged still-in-trance Olive, seeing that gleam in his eyes.  “You *know* something. Spill.”

“This must be about Chet,” he replied in his goofy, high voice, knowing he couldn’t hide anything from Olive.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0039, 0117, Ashton Village, Bellisaria, Northern Hills

Ashton

As fate would have it, they met at the front door of the place. “After you,” Sarah spoke to green clad Al opposite her. “No, after *you*,” he returned, like the gentleman he is, unlike a certain other person in her life we won’t speak about just yet for fear of him show… oh darn. There he is. Straight from the beach and drunk off his tits.


“Ah, *there* you are, *hiccup* love of my liffe, appfle of *burrp* myyyy…” He falls down. Sarah doesn’t move toward him to help. Al picks up on the worst. She turns toward the sober man here again. “Let’s go inside together,” and she holds his hand while they walk within. She feels warm, Al thinks. She feels… good.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0039, 0116, Ashton Village, Bellisaria

Village

She manifested two pills in her mouth and swallowed, one red and one blue. That way her size stayed the same. Phyllis began to speak.

“Red yellow green blue. NO purple. NO orange. NO nothing else. We have our 4. I am Phyllis. Let’s begin.”

This was a test run with her old pal and sometimes comfy pillow Groover but she was taking it very seriously. She wanted to make sure she hadn’t forgotten how to do this, and that Phyllis would still come through clear and strong. Strong enough to answer questions. Ruby had taught her well.

Meanwhile, just next door…

“Tarnation, woman. You’re not really thinking about *going* to this thing, are you?”

“You can come too,” she offered only 1/2 heartedly at best. She could also feel the future, telling it didn’t include her Cowboy, the thought-to-be love of her life. But that was long ago. Before the 1st lassoing.

“I’ll hogtie you I will,” he continued in that fashion. “I’ll *make* you stay one way or another.”

“I’m going,” she said firmly from the couch that was the same color as her dress. She was one with it. Cowboy had to get up and leave. “Well then tarnation galdarnit I am too!” he said in a huff before slamming the front door, intending to head to the beach for a Blue William or three or five. Boat Bar’s Gloria and Wanda would listen to him there, especially Wanda. But that would give him a lot of trouble later, perhaps the final nail in the coffin that had become their relationship.


“I wish Sarah was as good a listener as you… Wanda.”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0039, 0115, Ashton Village, Bellisaria

Happy 4th!

A letter was slid under the door while he was watching TV with the dogs. *Squirrel!*, they all thought as one passed by on the highlighted limb, all tails at alert for a moment. Al might take it for a sign but a squirrel was entering the picture every 10 seconds or so. Too frequent to be useful for synchronicity studies. He moves toward the door, picks up the envelope on the floor. Addressed to Resident. Well, *he’s* a resident of the Homeless Union. At least currently: day to day, night to night he’s taking it. Not meeting anyone here since Groover passed through a couple of days back, another “traveler”, he picks up and opens the thing. “Madame Ruby: Psychic ” he reads aloud, perhaps to the dogs but most likely only to himself. “Hmm,” he says while spotting the meat of the missive beneath the card with the 3rd eye underneath the lettering.

—–

Just down the block, Sarah reads her own slid-under-the-door invitation aloud and then her beau/husband reacts. “Tarnation, woman. A *reading*?! What the blue william is a *reading*!?”

—–

He was talking to Gloria and Wanda a little later who came up from the beach for a visit when the door opened and she walked right in, instantly making herself at home on the remaining seat in the room. “Is Groover here yet?” she uttered. Then: “I usually sleep on the car couch. Where’s the car couch? Did they move it upstairs? Is Groover upstairs? Taking a leak? He’s always taking a leak. Must come with being so blue and all. Vet of the Trojan-Durexian War he is. Never takes off his helmet.” She stops with this, perhaps to catch her breath. Al stares over, thinking: so this is the infamous Olive Olystick Groover mentioned, seeing the scowl, feeling the powerful psychic presence all the way over from his own seat. Gloria and Wanda stopped chatting, as if frozen in place. Olive was only talking to Al. They had a mutual friend.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0039, 0114, Ashton Village, Bellisaria

00390113

He listened over as best he could while pretending to stare at the pickle holding couple in front of him. Was this a gay couple instead? He’d just been with his own “chum” (as they were talking about), but that was different. A 3rd was involved. How about here?

Ant-man, he heard. Man of Ant. And the other: one of Sand; Sandman. Like one pickle is sandy colored and one pickle is the more normal green colored. Combine them and you have a green, sandy mess. He gathered all this from their talk. The Pickles, 01 and 02, were like themselves. But something had happened, something had gone wrong. They *contemplated* a gay relationship, or at least the Sandman did. He talked about different tongues…

—–

As kind of planned, he was now under the bone at the entrance to the Verdant Falls Dog Park, the exact same coordinates on Pickle 02 as the Squishy Pickle bench he’d just been on was for Pickle 01. He spotted a couple sitting on the exact same kind of bench, even down to the green and blue pillows. A merger had failed because of something that had happened before with Ant-man and Sandman. The Mann had separated from Ant, and was now interacting with Wo-mann.

“Come on boy!” he heard The Mann call. “And… boy!”

But there was only one dog from Edward’s angle. More mergers. We can move on.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0039, 0113, Bellisaria, Pickle 01, Pickle 02

Permaglow

She went back the next day to meet him. She knew to sit far apart and she also wore a mask for extra protection. Many said he didn’t exist but she knew better. She felt the chills of reality pass through her almost daily.

“I can’t… stop glowing,” he said to her across the patio holding the 3 Meter Monument. “I *can’t*… stop *glowing*.”

But what to do for him? Marg was dead. Homer had lost his head. Lisa, yes. She must contact the sister, the author of the other, lesser treatise on the controversial “perhaps sentence”. Not the channeler/psychic Bart was but still the only hope, she knew. And, chance has it, they had a mutual friend, even though she still didn’t know that fact.

Back home:

“Tarnation, woman! TV dinners again?! Where you been all day girl!?” She, of course, couldn’t tell him, except that she’d been walking per usual. Cowboys never see the other side. “I’m going to stake you down with a rope,” he warned. “Just like a big, fat cow I am.” He was close to her face now, rage in his eyes, nose, mouth, everything. Her window of opportunity to help the boy was closing. She’d need allies, at least one. And he was very close as fortune would have it. Now to somehow bring them together, hmm.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0039, 0112, Ashton Village, Bellisaria, Pennsylvania, Pickle 02

eleven

“… closed for installation,” she reads just outside the property lines. And she was so looking forward to viewing art in one of the few “original” Bellissaria galleries left. She checks parcel details. Owned by Emerald, an alt of Diamond, so still the same as before. The avatar also owns property in Blung, oddly enough, which could be a past verb of bling if it were such, as in jewelry, as in, often, diamonds. You have to pay attention to synchy stuff like this, especially in synch friendly Our Second Lyfe. She remembers first visiting this gallery in July 2019 when it was presenting an exhibition celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11’s moon landing.

https://modemworld.me/2019/07/16/celebrating-apollo-11-in-second-life-and-sansar/

Prism decides to explore around the area a bit since she’s here, hating to waste such a long trip, and automatically heads toward the mountains instead of the coast, as is her wont. Let’s follow her there…

Cool! she thinks, going further in and up. Bucolic!

Winding around, she doesn’t want to go back to pavement and thus turns right on this ridge that eventually leads her to a mountain where a man called Tom. We’ve been here before.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0039, 0111, Bellisaria, Western Hills