He’d have to enter the building sometime. But at what time? All of Humanity hinged on (t)his decision.
Mermaid or Jellyfish? He’d soon find out.
Category Archives: Novels
two three 02
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0502, Google Street View, Maebaleia/Satori, West Virginia
two three
“So they began playing together, even touring together away from Pipersville, the home base. Daughter and father; Jenny and Keith they were called in the days. Well, Keith never changed his name. Jenny, of course, became Your Mama.”
“Of course,” I replied to Detective Biff Carter. Because he was an officer of the law no more. Not since Oakley. But who am I? Just an observer for now. Call me Smart. Like a Fox. Clever, even. Back to Biff…
“I was here when they played their first gig away from home. Sitting right at this bar listening in. Oh that woman, that *girl* at the time, could sing. And Keith. Well, he was adequate on drums. Never guess he’d eventually become a member of a major rock band, let’s say. And, as you can see, he’s still got the star on the drums; hadn’t got rid of that yet.”
I peered over at the illusion on the Cassandra City stage. Keith B., bank employee of Pipersville whose boss recently told him to keep daughter Jenny out of that room at all cost. So he went into the garage, found the drum kit buried under a heap of old moss. Pulled it out, dusted it off. Practiced. Here we are.
Biff Carter stared over at me. “I’m glad I found the Man About Time, even if it didn’t turn out the way I expected.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. I decided to test my new catchphrase. “There’s a Sucka born every half century.”
“Overlap,” he replied, nodding. “Good idea. Train the replacement.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0501, Cass City+, Maebaleia/Satori
THIS SIM 04
“Well this is just a fine pickle, Buster. Professor Suckaluck’s super interesting smart house is gone!”
Buster was checking the About Land options. “And although we can rebuild — kind of — we can’t run scripts here. We’ll have to look elsewhere. Good thing I’m scouting out the total area, huh?” Buster puts hands on hips, defiant.
Bettie wasn’t going to respond to this. Suckaluck’s house should be here (!). Stupid, mutable Our Second Life. But the hills are permanent, she then thinks to reassure herself. Not going anywhere as long as the whole continent is around.
—-
We’ll stay here at the peak tonight, Buster ruminates. Perhaps make love to rejuvenate ourselves but perhaps not. Increase our draw distances to the max. Enjoy the view over the Shallows this way…
… and the (rest of the) hills the other way. Those super interesting hills.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0417, Hills of Bill, Maebaleia/Satori
THIS SIM 07
“I thought you said I didn’t have a reflection, Bettie, and that I’m not real in this world.”
Bettie looks over. “It’s some kind of trick,” she replied after studying the situation while not moving from her own position. She’d been turning a lamp on and off while standing just outside its lighted circle. “You must have touched something and triggered it.”
“I must have sat on it.”
“There ya go.”
“Rowan is a strange sim,” Buster replied back to his fellow tiny wife. “There’s a man named Bean in the Real World who is also a Rowan — Atkinson I believe. A flattie version of him exists in Collagesity, um, *7 Stones*. Runs the library there. I should check out the 7 Stones library soon. See if anything is different from the Collagesity one.”
“You know we don’t have time for that. Between schooling and scouting there’s no room!”
“We can make room. The Room.”
“Hmm.”
“Let’s go (speaking of time). There’s a limit to how long prims will stay rezzed here anyway. This can’t be a base for studying the hills.”
“You already know where the base is,” Bettie replied. “Professor Suckaluck set it up all those years ago.”
“I know I know. I’m just scouting around the area to make sure. We *are* scouts these days.”
“For about 2 days more, yes. Then it’s return to Long Drive and create reports and then get back to studying studying studying. End of the 1st summer semester fast approaching. Soon June will slide into Juli and we’ll be eating hot dogs and groatcakes down at the 4th of Juli celebrations over in X-Town.”
Ever wonder what the X stood for? he wanted to reply, but realized they had no more time for dialog here.
Goodbye THIS SIM.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0416, Hills of Bill, Maebaleia/Satori
THIS SIM 03
But I knew where they were upon pondering/wandering only a bit further. Starting right next door.
Hills of Bill.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0415, Hills of Bill, Maebaleia/Satori
THIS SIM 02
“Always looking for connections, aren’t you?”
“Yup,” he admitted. “Catwoman I think. Half woman, half cat. Another type of underling.”
“Sooo. You’re the Cat(man), then. The Red Dwarf Cat. Always womanizing, or the door’s always open to it.”
“I think I’m irresistible,” he admitted. “But I have my limits. Nose piercings! And that tongue!”
“So you said.” You should maybe like the tongue, I was thinking but didn’t say aloud. But maybe it was pierced too. He doesn’t like piercings. But then again, they’re *shiny*. Cat loves shiny things! We better move on.
“Sooo. What brought you *here*?”
“It’s right next door. THIS SIM.”
“I see you still have your primmy rose. Are you looking for love in this sim as well.”
“Always!” He sticks out his own tongue a bit here, I observed. Pierced as well — should’ve known.
I didn’t want to delay any longer. “Let’s go see the sign, then.”
—–
“Flickering,” he stated. “Half and half again. If I wasn’t standing a certain way I would have never seen the address.” Another potential love! Marcus Fox Smartville muses. He couldn’t help himself.
“1 blocked,” I also observed. “Interesting. But from the house they were in…” We moved over to the house.
“… plain as day.”
“Where are they now?” he asked, making me puzzled. “I mean, if they weren’t me — us.” My face was still squinched up. “*Pretend*,” he requested firmly.
“I — I.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0414, Hills of Bill, Maebaleia/Satori
THIS SIM 01
There is no chance in this world, Marcus Fox Smartville thought wisely. That *could* be the girl of my dreams, the one to deserve the primmy rose.
She was waiting for my hug and I came. Let me take a closer look.
Eeh. Nose piercings! And that tongue! Not for me, sorry.
—–
Oh dear. The boyfriend. And my boat’s been derezzed. Challenge! Better amscray. Goodbye THIS SIM. Forever.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0413, Hills of Bill, Maebaleia/Satori
borrowing
We start to wrap up the continent, south to north. Continent’s Edge seems like a logical, next step. “Anything left here?” Officer Biff Carter might say to an underling (not pictured). “Well sir,” the underling could reply, “there’s the red door in the bar.” “Let’s go,” Carter might respond firmly. “Show the way,” he could add, not seeing the landmark in his own inventory, since he is, at the core, Bracket Jupiter. The underling (surface identity yet to be determined): Baker Bloch, the (core) guy with the prime landmarks. “Let’s go!” Carter could reiterate, seeing his underling spacing out again. “Go go go go go!” “Alright already!”
—–
“Okay, we checked that out. Standard vampire stuff. Or goth stuff.” Biff turns away from the door toward his underling. “And who are *you* suppose to be?”
“Raggy,” his underling admitted. “Lemme check some other outfits.”
“Make it pronto!”
—–
“You guys smell something burning? Okay, okay. Not too bad.” He keeps scanning the underling. “Not too *good* but could be worse. And who is… wait, lemme guess. *Your* assistant.”
“This is Wanda,” Kirk introduced.
Carter shook his head. “Nope nope. Already a Wanda in this story.”
“Then, er, how about Alice.”
“Nah. Try again.”
He puts finger to lips in thinking mode; begins talking more to himself. “Ritchie — not a girl’s name; Betty — again: taken.”
“Taken,” Carter reinforces, and moves to the bar, talking to the reader directly while Kirk keeps vocalizing options behind him. He selects champagne for a drink. “While we’re waiting, let’s check out *my* backstory. It’s a good one. Better than Kirk’s I’m sure.”
We drift back in time. Back back back to when Carter first took on the case of the Missing Man About Time.
“We were in Oakley, where Little Annie got her name from. I was about the same age as my underling now, and kind of looked like him. Sort of. And I had an assistant as well. Well, we spotted the palm tree hemmed mound in the distance and I said, ‘Looks like a good place for a hideout.’ We’d been stalking the Man About Time for about a month at this point, but what’s time when you’re looking for such a person. I checked my watch. 8:88. ‘9:28,’ my assistant clarified (more for the reader). I’d been substituting number time for clock time several years now, dating back to my time researching that mashup puncture in time and space called Dark Side of the Rainbow. 8:88 is 9:28, 8:98 is 9:38, but 9:48 is just that and nothing more. Can’t let those things get too complicated.
“We moved toward the mound but stopped at the entrance.
“‘Pirate,’ I cussed, spitting on the ground after realizing we’d been tracking the wrong crinimal. ‘I told you Wanda Ritchie Bettie Taylor Twiggy.’ ‘How dare you call me that,’ she interrupted, and slapped my face. ‘I told you never to call me that again.’ Okay, we still don’t have a name for the dame, but I’ll work on it and get back to you reader. And also find the proper hideout for this… MAN ABOUT TIME.”
(to be continued?)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0412, Continent's Edge, Hills of Bill, Maebaleia/Satori
Hello Jinn (leaves 02)
“Jethro Tull!”
The pot got too hot. I was away too long. Rooster.
I recall something about the Hills of Bill. Lindens. Agreement.
Yes.
I remember something about Polk. Jim Polk.
“Care-ful.”
“Who is that?”
“A friend.”
“Jinn?”
“Slow down.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0411, Blue Feather Sea+, Maebaleia/Satori, Toppsity-
leaves
“I believe there are witches in Toppsity, Hucka D., turning the elements upside down. Perhaps Marilyn herself, who, after all, caused a Niagara in the suburb of Ona to complete the 4.”
“Fiji,” Hucka D. *finally* speaks. “Heaven for the Red Dwarf’s Cat. It is good that the Truths are leaving town for greener grasses.”
“Start the seed business anew elsewhere,” agrees Baker B.
“Maybe,” Hucka D. attempts to add. “Maybe…”
“Yes?”
“In Sink X?”
“Golden,” probably corrects Baker B. Me, after all. I should know better than anyone. Me and Hucka.
“Say you got it from a man from the future, huh. Wish I had one of those back in the days.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0410, Maebaleia/Satori, Toppsity-
Sunklands 