“Yeah, you’re right Bendy. That *is* wrong. But what does it mean?”
“Something’s tampering with something, that’s what it means. I can feel it deep down in my metal bones.”
“2 realities combined into one?” Fisher offers. “Someone’s pissing on us?” he tries again, looking down at the red spill.
Bendy couldn’t help it. “What a mess,” he exclaims to the camera.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0010, 0112, Wallytown/Fishers Island
“You better hurry up with your pie, Ruby. We’ve got a whole shake to get at (!).”
“Well… you hurry too,” Ruby commanded to her new acquaintance Tin Tin. “You’ve got a whole piece of pie to go as well.”
“Fork’s a little dirty,” he said, turning it round and round. “Maybe I should ask the waitress for a new one.”
“You can’t ask the waitress for a new fork every time you take a couple of bites (!). Just clean it off with your mouth, dufus. Your lips or tongue or something.”
“Hey, don’t call me stupid.”
“I didn’t,” Ruby returned measuredly. “I called you dufus.”
He stared at her, then just waved it off and took another bite. She did as well.
“Can we *please* stop talking about food all the time and get to why we came here?”
“We came for the talk,” Tin Tin returned. “*And* the food.” He started eating with his mouth open again.
Ruby couldn’t wait much longer. The water and the fish across the room seemed to be closing in on her. Maybe she has agoraphobia she didn’t know about before. Or maybe it’s simply the company crushing her down.
“I don’t think this pie is getting smaller, Ruby,” proclaims Tin Tin, looking down at it. He glanced over. “Neither is yours. Do you *feel* like you’re getting any fuller?”
“Yes,” she replied quickly, staring at his queerly two-toned face. Yes, she thought to herself. I’m certainly getting my fill of all this.
—–
Yesterday, across the sim:
Hearing approaching footsteps, Tin Tin rolled over on his sleeping sofa.
“What are *you* doing here?”
“Well… what are *you* doing here?”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0010, 0111, Ruby's Empire/Fishers Island
The deal was signed. She had even picked out a house, she thought. Place of safety, place of calm, Madame Silver reinforced while the ink was still wet. Contract pretty much laid out everything plain and simple. Don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t do that. And we’re done. “Go ahead and choose one of the dwelling units on the northern edge of the property,” Madame Silver then suggested. “If one is already occupied, the door will be locked. I have other business interests to take care of now. I’ll see you at the sim-wide meeting, Young Ruby!” And then she was gone: vanished in a poof.
She didn’t want to be greedy. This smaller dwelling spot she was also attracted to would have served perfectly well for her home. But the door was locked. Later Ruby found out a girl almost exactly her age lived here. Interesting. The other houses around it were basically one floor units. She wanted multiple floors. She always wanted to live in a high rise, the narrower the better. And her new house pretty much filled the bill on this.
Here it is. An oversized treehouse, right beside the smaller unit that we just took a gander at. It was the huge, multi-paneled window that totally sold her. But the place was not without its drawbacks. Oh no. As Ruby quickly found out, physics is a little wonky all over the property, but especially in close spaces with a lot of textures, which this house was filled with. Let’s go inside and see what we have.
A calico cat with two, black kittens! She always wanted a cat. Apparently she’ll have at least 3 now. Unless she decides to give one or both of the small ones away. But how could she!
Up the stairs we must go. But already Ruby has a bit of trouble getting off the vintage pouf the cats are on. Oh well… she can get use to the physics here. Yes, surely she can.
Ahh, what is perhaps the living room.
A nice desk for writing and drawing and such.
Ruby’s throat is getting a little sore. Must be all the climate changes switching between New Island and Collagesity and here, she rationalizes. Instantly she decides to cut down on her bouncing around. She’ll stay here for a while; explore the neighborhood and whatnot. As long as she abides by the contract, she’ll be fine. This will be her base. Permanent one? We’ll see how it develops. Day by day, month by month, she thinks. But upwards we must continue!
Beautiful. She will entertain many new friends in this space, she feels.
From this 3rd floor, Ruby finds she has to go outside and traverse a corner porch to continue exploring the house. She pauses to take a look at the view. “This is all mine,” she utters, as if reinforcing the reality of what seems a dream.
Suddenly she didn’t care what the upper floor or floors from here looked like. This was her home for certain, and nothing else she could see would change that.
She opens what turns out to be the final door.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0010, 0110, Ruby's Empire/Fishers Island
“You know something. Don’t you?
Now spill it.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0010, 0109, Ruby's Empire/Fishers Island
From the first time she saw it in the northeast corner of the sim, Young Ruby knew this was her church. Somehow it wasn’t the Maxites per se that caught on in Collagesity. It was more connected to the Cult of Oo’d then, obviously. But the only way the true story would unfold is if she signed the contract. She’d met Madame Silver yesterday and understood the basic terms. Fishers Island progressed from New Island; Tronesisia as art-clay centerpoint brought back to life. Eels. Right now it was Silver’s empire to rule, but she was the understudy, destined to be top dog soon enough. She asked how long she had to make a decision. She wanted to explore the other river islands more to make sure she was picking the correct reality to manifest. Other islands represented other array points (!). Fishers Island had to be named carefully and with much consideration and deliberation. Quality over quantity this time around, Ruby thought, face unwincing. Sucklands to Sunklands. Time capsule castle opened.
—–
“Well, looks like radiation levels are finally low enough where we can return to the ground and feel safe, Ruby.”
Axis looks around the table, the room, as if waking from a dream.
“Ruby? Young Ruby?
Hmm. Not here.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0010, 0108, New Island, Ruby's Empire/Fishers Island
“Molly, Fisher says he’s drunk again and needs a ride.”
“Missus Lemon, boss, sweetie. I’m on break right now. That side of the room — active. This side: zero; nothing going on. I’d say, talk to the hand, but I can’t even be bothered to lift one.”
“Catchup and Mustered are back on the counter and working, and you should be too. 15 minutes break time here at my bar and that’s all, I’ll remind you.”
Still grumbling Molly Lustrous mentally prepares to rise up from her violet latex sofa and give Orange Boy Fisher yet another ride, pheh.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0010, 0107, Wallytown/Fishers Island
Fisher stared at the red and yellow condiment containers of the Deep Fried fast food stand, understanding that he had seen them before — alive. Obviously in a dream, he thought at the time.
But no. It was reality. The *stand* was a dream.
—-
“Looks like Orange Boy is finally coming around.”
“Oh goody. More fun!”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0010, 0106, Asha, Corsica, Wallytown/Fishers Island
“Red green yellow blue, Indy. We better retreat back to whence we came. This goes beyond square into cube!”
“No saving her,” his daughter agreed, and changed back into Indigo. Mission aborted.
—–
Returning to their Rubi trailer, Angus (Sid) and Indigo broke the sad news to Ragdoll, who then secretly smiled a little inside while thinking back to their heated confrontation in front of Max, etc. But Martha Lamb’s story within our new Collagesity novel is perhaps not done.
—–
“Yellow. Yellow yellow yellow. I’ll say it til I die.”
“That – can – be – arranged.”
—–
Alright, maybe it is now.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0010, 0105, Asha, Corsica, Rubi, Wallytown/Fishers Island
They were about to enter Gringotts, the famed goblin bank at the opposite end of Diagonal Alley where Harry Potter briefly kept the Philosopher’s Stone (among other adventures), when loitering Business Man, wannabe Wizard of Wall Street, indicated back in the direction they had come, and that they’d missed something.
“Oh no, daddy. You don’t think she’s strayed into Horizontal Lane by chance?”
Business Man taps his index finger several times against the tip of his nose.
“Oh *no* daddy.”
“Hi Mistress Martha! Master Jim!”
Okay, just *be* that way.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0010, 0104, Asha, Corsica, Wallytown/Fishers Island
“Waitress, some fresh wine over here please.”
It’s like Sid has completely forgotten who I am, Martha Lamb ruminated. Might as well fall off the face of the Earth.
“Finished with your salad sir?”
Wait, she thought twistedly, eyeing cheese colored Golden Jim across two tables. I already did.
—–
Well, Indy. Our Corsican contact was correct. Looks like Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley changes over to *Diagonal* Alley beyond this point. She’s in there all right.”
“Shall we?”
“Better change over now before going through the wall. Muggle,” Sid added playfully, making his older daughter giggle.
“Okay.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0010, 0103, Asha, Corsica, Wallytown/Fishers Island
Sunklands 