We stuck around to hear Julee Cruise since, you know, when would we get the opportunity again? Since she was dead and all. Oft-times hubby Newt and I had polished off a couple of beers by then. I checked the watch now on my arm. 2:41 AM. Time to head home, though, I suppose. While we could make our way.
She sang one last time about the Tennessee dog and bird and we were away.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0048, 0110, Dokken Hollow, Jeogeot, Tennessee, Twin Peaks, Washington
“Saaayyy. You’re sweet on her too, Sheriff. Aren’t you?”
The moment rock throwing and all around Mayberry troublemaker Ernest T. realized Andy and he like the same woman. Teacher of Opie, Andy’s son, but also, now, teacher of himself (!). One of the two of ’em would have to go, he decided then and there. And he’s hoping it wouldn’t be him of course. So that meant, let me see (he thought, narrowing the options), it had to be *Andy*.
—–
“Barry? Barry?!”
“BARRY!!!”
—–
“There there, what’s the problem? Why are you crying?”
“I-I’ve lost my car key! (sob!) I don’t know how I’ll ever get back to my apartment without walking through a dangerous stretch (sniff) of town. My AAA membership has just run out,” she explained further. “Aa-and the taxi strike.”
“Calm down,” I say. “Tell me what happened.”
She pointed over the rail. “Down there. In the water (sob sob!). I was just reaching into my pocket for my phone… I shouldn’t have had my key out. I don’t know what I was doing! (sniff sniff sniff)”
“Okay, just relax. I’ll go get it.”
—–
—–
“Oh thank you SOO much! You’re a life saver… literally. I could have been murdered going home through those streets. And worse!
“Here. Let me give you something.”
“Just the bright smile on your face is reward enough, thanks,” I say to this.
“I insist. 500 eddies okay?”
—–
You’re a middle person, I think while walking up and checking the time on a fresh video (BD). Like the Gimp before. Like the Wellsprings monks more recently. “Hi,” I say to her. “Remember me?”
She turned to face me squarely. “Get away from me you creep,” she exuded with some venom, then returned to her phone. NPC, I think. Memories don’t continue from video to video, perhaps from within the same video.
“Down at the end of the pier. Remember?” I tried again, making her start tapping rapidly on her phone.
“Calling the police. NOW.”
“Okay, okay.” And I walked away. Back toward the pier, peering over it to see if I can catch another glimpse of that rock island. Something very important about it. Ghost.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0046, 0110, C2077, Heyworth
“Had to leave my clan too,” I say in response to her own angst. I could certainly identify.
“Ah yes, I remember. The Baker Family right?”
“Then I came to Nightsity, saw my chance to escape.”
“Second Lyfe?”
“*Their* Second Lyfe. Not *My* Second Lyfe. Not any more.”
“Lets… talk about something else, humm,” she said, depressed about clan chatter, the lack of Home. She downed the rest of her second beer in one huge gulp. I started seriously wondering if we were going to sleep together tonight — in the same bed. 10 o’clock at the Sunset but morning, not night. Lincoln wouldn’t be arriving for 12 more hours. 10 was waiting for him.
—–
Panama and I slept in separate beds that night, got up the next morning, knocked out power to the entire town of Rocky Boy attracting the Raffin Shiv renegade nomads that Panama sought revenge on for stealing her valuable wheels that day in April’s May 6 or 7 months ago, killed 17 of their gang there without so much as getting a scratch on us, buried their bodies in makeshift graves, even had time because of our efficiency for 17 makeshift, very quick services involving a lot of spitting on graves to rub the death part in, yada yada yada. All in a day’s work for good ol’ Samaritan mercenary V(al) here. But while we did this, the other part of our deal, the reciprocal act, was instead enacted by a party coming out of left field: the stealing of the Kang Tau AV and, most importantly, the goods within. Good news: they wanted to negotiate a price for it. Bad news: well…
—–
“There they are,” said Panama, indicating what lies behind her. “Annnnnd I’m outta here.”
Aw, *f-ck*. The Why quadruplets, I thought as Panama moved out of the scene, Act 1 of 2 of her Cyberpunk 2077 story completed. Why why why? WHY? I said to myself, counting them off. Oh well. I’ll deal with Doris and Dolores first, split up the burden; maybe I’ll make it through that way.
“Morning ladies,” I tried to say as brightly as possible, approaching the nearest pair. “Hear you have a package for me, all tied up with a bow or something, ha.”
“You”ll have to talk to Diedra over there about ties,” spat out demonic Doris. “And Debra next to her is the bow person of the group,” hissed devilish Dolores to her side. They stared coldly toward me, no emotion in their faces except maybe stark raving rage. Or nothing at all — hard to tell.
“Looking for something else,” I quickly recouped, my skin crawling from their voices, their stares. “Information. What’s inside the package.”
“Better,” gurgled Doris and Dolores at once; ahh, synchronized hell. What’s worse than this? Quadruple hell that’s what. Good I split them up into pairs. “We’re interior,” these 2 continued in their foul way. “*They’re* exterior. Whattaya want?” Would they ever become unsynchronized, dammit? Can’t stand much more!
The asking price — so ironic — was Panama’s just won back Thornton Mackinaw “Warhorse” vehicle — go figure. All that slaughter and risk for nothing. Should have focused on the Kang Tau AV first. Hindsight is golden of course. And I got to know Panama better for all this. We’re pals, we’re a pair. We’ll probably even sleep together given enough time. Is this… why I left *Their* Second Lyfe? Unconsciously, of course. Couldn’t have known about Panama and her bewitching ways ahead of time. Act 2 of 2 will tell!
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0045, 0110, Badlands, C2077
“I now make my home in a gym over on Corsica,” she told her friends down at the diner. “I’ve gone over to the Dark Side, ha.”
“The… opposite side of the cube,” said one.
“But not the 7th,” said the other.
“Yes, Gaeta is truly the dark one still without meaningful internet access,” responds Fern to this. Everyone at the table understood this was the 7th continent formed after the original 6. Even if it was never finished — it was finished. 15 years ago now since the development stalled, ancient history in video game time. “But a cube, you know, only has 6,” she continued. “Corsica slides over into Gaeta, true. That is one problem. How to combine 7 with 6.” She logically thought of Sepisexton here, the abstracting.
Time to see who her dinner companions at this Maebaleia location are, formerly called Gregson in our photo-novels — probably still is.
Thought so.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0110, Comma Islands^, Corsica, Gregson^, Maebaleia/Satori
“Oh, before I forget, Lexi, I want you to do me a favor.” He pulled out a small gold disk from his black jean pants and handed it to her. “I want you to help me analyze this thing.”
“A brain-daze? What happened, boss, the girlfriend get up and leave you all of a sudden, ha?”
“No no not that kind of brain-daze. Surveillance. Stalking actually, as it turned out. Blue haired dame. May even know her. That pop star Blue Moon Kentucky. Last seen near the dam… remember?”
“Of course I know BM Kentucky.” She eyed it more keenly. “W-where’d you get it?”
“Never mind you that,” replied the boss.
“Oh but it’s important. Could be a virus.”
“It’s from a reputable source, (then). Guy named Daydreamer Gaming.”
“Mhm hmm, I’ve heard of him. Creates tours of Nightsity for visitors who don’t have powerful enough computers to visit in person. Didn’t know he worked with stalkers.”
“I don’t think he knew he was. Accident, we’ll say. The dam is an odd place. People claim it can warp space-time, make you see things that aren’t really there. Maybe someone happened to get inside a glitch?”
“Who tipped you off?”
Should Edward say, “Blue Moon herself”? Too early, he deemed. “A fan,” he said instead. “Someone who wants to see justice done.”
Lexi wondered: Blue Moon fan or UK Cracks? knowing she went solo about 5 years ago. But decided it was irrelevant. Could be both of course. Later, she wished she’d asked this very thing. Turned out to be relevant as all get out. Because the “stalker” was now a fan of only one album, one song really, and it was indeed from her solo period. Single named “Keep on Shining.” The one that brought her back to life.
—–
“Okay, just lay back and relax and study everything you see. Okay, not *that* laid back. Sit up a bit.
“I’ll turn on the machine from my end. Ready? Sit up a bit more please, boss (which he does). Okay, here goes…”
—–
“WHOA, get me out of here, Lexi, get me out of here! It’s *him*, it’s HIM.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0043, 0110, C2077, Hana Lei^^, Nightsity, Rancho C
“Up here Superduper. I think we’ve found it.”
So The Penguin has set up a sinister Back Room location in Antarctica? Wouldn’t be the first.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0110, Back Rooms, Google Street View
“Well he obviously crashed it into that lamp post and then stumbled off somewhere, probably drunk on his expensive wine he claims he can’t taste/doesn’t touch. Probably off in the middle of the woods where no one can find him, no one goes for fear of being lost.”
“Or,” offered Marsha “Pink” Krakow as a alternative, “he was *taken*.”
“Taken??” responded Pamela, then was gone. Marsha woke up on the wrong side of the bed in what was initially a strange, unknown place. Then she recalled what happened. The finding of the formerly hidden bedroom.
She knew what she had to do. She walked outside. “Alright I’m ready to talk to you, you stinky old man. About the *truth*.”
Did — he just shoot me a bird?? Marsha then noticed his legs weren’t buried in the soil any longer. Would actual fit her new theory well. Things were being changed, things were being altered. Right under her cute-as-a-button nose.
“You’re from North Carolina I see,” he started after a pause, looking over at the VW Bug still parked on the road near his sitting bench. He also knew the town, the street, the house. Just by looking at the plate.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0041, 0110, Teepot^^
She’d been here once before and didn’t quite manage to enjoy all of it, I knew, so I bought her a golden ticket again because she got me over the finish line. The Last Boss, now without encasing giant blueberry. Good for her! She’s tempered the critical tongue that I didn’t see but others have now told me about. We all have flaws. Thing is, we must see ourselves in others in order to advance; understand we created all these situations jointly. She seems to represent All Bosses. Let’s look in at what she’s doing now…
Reading this blog and attached photo-novel (!). Let’s see what she’s doing now.
Same thing!
Let’s look in at what she’s doing now.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0040, 0110, Bellisaria, Sandfly
She had walked much further today than normal, all the way to Permaglow on Pickle 02 to see the famous 3 eyed fish.
And then she spotted the forgotten nuclear fuel rods at the bottom of it all, obvious source of this aberration. Springfeld came to mind, the home of the boy. Stuff of legends. Also: skateboarder from Tull, but last she heard he was surfing.
After counting them, one two three, same as the eyes, same as the rods, she felt a chill pass through her and looked around. She’d felt this before. Something had happened. Parallel world.
Later, when she returned home and was hanging out the wash, she just missed him passing by on the street on his way back to the Homeless Union, mission in the western mountains scuttled, at least for now. Both had information the other needed. And much much more.
But first there was the little matter of Cowboy. “Are my chaps dry yet!?” he called from the house. “I need my chaps! Woman.”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0039, 0110, Ashton Village, Bellisaria, Pickle 02, Springfeld
Sunklands 