Category Archives: 02

00500203 (seven = silver)

“I think it’s painfully obvious that I’m Noodle in this scenario,” lead singer Shelley Johnston Struthers spoke over to band manager Wendell Biff Carter, out on a break from rehearsing, their third of the night. Lots of STOPS and GOS for this one, like in a heated game of Mille Bornes. Trouble. Friction. Inertia. No one could even decide which band members were present or not. Sometimes Sherwood was a kid and other times a fully functional adult, albeit a brilliant drummer at whatever age he appeared. Things were in FLUX.

“Okay, I agree,” said Biff, thinking of all the changes and shifts and sputterings too. “We’ll make that another concrete truth of the blog and attached photo-novel,” he said, but, again, that’s probably me talking through him. So let’s leave out that sentence and say Biff merely agrees with Shelley on her statement. She is Noodle. She’s also Pink tonight. He approves of both. Then he brings up a subject he knew he shouldn’t broach.

“Listen, Shelley. I’ve been doing some research. Staying a classical, so-called non-mesh avatar is fine. But it seems people who choose to follow that path with their outward appearance at least get new and improved mesh hands and feet. I wouldn’t touch the head, though.” He looks over at her head, thinks of the smile (not currently present upon it, though), that beautiful innocence. No, leave the head for sure.

Shelley looks down at her extremities. “I’m not changing *anything*.” She was stubborn about remaining classical. She also likes classical vegetation, builds. Helps reduce lag. What’s not to like? She’s been around long enough to remember the good old days and the excitement of Our Second Lyfe when it was relatively fresh and new… and *non-mesh*. That excitement is still there but in pockets instead of an overall vibe. You have to dig a bit more these days.

“I *do* like the pink,” says Biff, trying to smooth over his mistake. We can build up from that, he thinks. Whatever happens, I’m *not* going back to the restaurant business. TBC

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0203, Jeogeot, Rodentia 02

00500202 (SPLAT: all caps)

That’s weird, Newt thinks. Concrete again.

Wonder where it leads?

—–

“Excuse me, sir. Concrete. Know anything? About?”

Daniel turns. He hadn’t heard that name in a looong time. “Come with me,” he said after introductory banter. He had a lot to unburden to this stranger from the far off Nawt Vaya Sea over on the mainland continent of Jeogeot. A lot indeed.

—–

3 hours and 19 seconds later…

“So I’m an artist, you see. And not a waste management operations worker.”

“I see.”

“I’m ready to leave this place, get a new job more in line with my goals.” Newt’s own gallery of Concrete sealed the deal for him. They must be connected (!).

“How… can I help?” How indeed. Howl.

“Take me back with you.” TBC?

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0202, Cedar Ck, Frank's Moving Castle, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS

00500201 (photo-novel continues…)

She was in control of the BAND now, in the driver’s seat, this brilliant lead guitarist named Noodle from the Orient who had grown up before our very watchful eyes. With the finishing of the game above this one called Grand Theft Auto version 5, she slowed down their high speed, way too high to be sustainable long term. Sloow (*brake*) slooow (brake brake brake). She checked the speedometer. Right at 50, just inside the limit defined by the Mille Bornes card laid down to end it all. Right where we are now.

But there were problems at the rear still, a stowaway from the beginning of their journey, a carryover from the Gorillaz video coming before this one. Pink Phantom. With the slowing down of the car the vaporous, negatively oriented creature was able to slip out and make her escape to the past, freedom reclaimed. Interesting time loop created if so; I’ll have to think about that one further. TBC

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0050, 0201, California, GTA

00490216 (machinery)

Tom went through the door to the left. It was the door into his office. But something was different. The light in his room was a different color, and his computer screen was blue, with the text, ‘Press any key to begin.’ Tom pressed a key on the computer screen and a weird face appeared on it.

“Michael,” Tom managed to whisper between the words of The Machine. But *how*? “Morning, Tom,” he imagined the glowing face whispering back behind raised fingers. Imagined??

Then Tom remembered one important thing. That he was playing a game. Not just any game but he was playing the Indigo Parallel, so of course a weird face would appear on his computer screen. Tom also realized that if he is playing a game, then his actions have no Real World consequences. Tom can do what he wants, without any repercussions, because this is a simulation after all. After a heated conversation with Daisy, Tom picked up a knife…

Newt quickly shuts down the game. No more Indigo Parallel for a while! Or LSD…

… LSD Dream Emulator that is, a direct influence for IP and perhaps an even weirder game despite being almost 30 years old now. What faces would he see in that one after this shocker?? Simulation indeed!

Maybe just remove the 2nd computer from the attic altogether. Perhaps the whole place is cursed. TBC

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0049, 0216, Back Rooms, Bright Moon Cottage, Jeogeot, LSD, Nawt Vaya+, Newtonia, NVFS

00490215

“Tom.”

—–

“That’s the name you said in my dream.. right before or *when* I woke up just then. I heard it in my dream but also in reality. Both in one.”

“Tom,” she repeated to Frank Lynn after a pause, her lover now and maybe soon, sometime soon, to be more. She feared pregnancy yesterday but that too was just a dream.

“Yes,” he reaffirmed. “Not Frank.”

“Hmm.”

He rolled over toward her. He stared into her face, noted the hair. Always the hair. Would she ever change from her flattop style? But of course he loved her despite this. Perhaps even *because* of this, something deeper he couldn’t see logically but felt. Or visa versa I suppose. Something else came into his mind (no, not *that*… again).

“I want to talk to you about something, Daisy. That thing we had an argument over the other day. I’ve had some thoughts about it in the meantime.”

“Oh.” She knew the topic but didn’t say it out loud. She wanted him to bring it up and keep going.

“Yes. Artificial intelligence. The *Machine*.” TBC

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0049, 0215, Back Rooms, Frank's Moving Castle, Jeogeot, LSD, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS

00490214 (“End of Real” revisited)

We were in Puerto Rico now, wondering about the difference between Real and Anon by way of Georgia and its own Anon along with a similarly named Rayle also nearby. Which I think might stand in for Real via its phonetically identical Rael, as in the lead character from the ultra-classic Genesis 1974 double rock opera album called “The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway,” a dysfunctional, graffiti artist proto-punk from the mean streets of New York City at the time. Peter Oesso would probably know. If he’s who I think he really is deep down, i.e., former Genesis front-man and primary story penner Peter Gabriel. Can he find his way out of the machinery again and drop the crowd pleasing mask act? Wherever Peter went the “Lamb” was sure to follow unless he left the group, a change heralded by the 1977 classic single “Solsbury Hill” from his first solo album, the original track recorded as an artist beyond Genesis. “Lamb,” a cumulative effort for the band, was just that huge and overwhelming. He had to move on…


“Pageturner”, 2017

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0049, 0214, Bogota, Bogota Proper, collages 2d, New York, Puerto Rico, Silverton

00490213 (Show Me, Peach)

He came into the room holding a top secret file and spoke directly into the 2 way mirror connecting our 5 and our 6. “You need to look toward Franklin,” he said after removing his disguise and showing his true face which mirrored the ones on the 100 dollar bills littering the floor. “Franklinn,” he emphasized.

—–

“FrankLYNN!!!”

“Oh god what is it this time?”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0049, 0213, Frank's Moving Castle, Georgia, Heartsdale+, Jeogeot, Missouri, Nawt Vaya+, NVFS

00490212

“Tell you what, Bardie. I want you to write me something, get me out of this pickle I’m in here in this Missouri motel renamed for the misery it caused. John over there is not my lover, I have that much.”

10 seconds later, Bardie says “much,” which wasn’t much given the gravity of the situation.

“I know someone ordered us to remain here au naturale. Just in case.”

“Case,” he echoed about 5 seconds later, quicker this time because he was on to something. This *was* a case. June’s diary.

And more. UFO?? (TBC)

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0049, 0212, Heartsdale+, Missouri

00490211

We’ll return to the theme of all encompassing, all absorbing toilets soon, but first we must introduce yet another location into this here photo-novel 49 blog story, and, yes, I can hear the reader groan and/or sigh here from the weariness of keeping track of them, ha. Place called Heartsdale which is no stranger to the photo-novels as a whole, having already appeared in (as I’m checking) 03, 08, 13, 19, 23, and especially 20 of the run. 20 is also where Paperville has been most prominently featured, but that might be what we could call an “accident”. Let’s say that for now. Anyhoot, Heartsdale seems pertinent because of this Missouri based motel within the 1 sim urban area named “Mad Misery” due to a sign malfunction. Actual name before the breaking: Madry Wise. Scene of not one but several tragedies according to the attached story.


from photo-novel 20

1-2-3-4-5 the rooms are numbered along a north-south line within the sim…

… just like with the Wilson City-Wyatt fused town seen in section 01 of the current photo-novel also found in Missouri. Pretty sure they’re, let’s call it, synchromystically connected. Another TILE.

But let’s start in the “beyond the game” 6th room where we can secretly peer into at least the 5th. Wilson. (TBC)

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0049, 0211, Heartsdale+, Missouri, Paperville+, Weird-o Islands+

00490210 (all encompassing toilet (Schrodinger’s Man too?))

That’s it, she thinks. I’m going in to check on him, single room bathroom or not, this so-called water closet of the Paperback Pixels Cafe of the town of Paperville alternately called Pageville. I’ve tried at the “door” once. Curtain… whatever. Said he’d be only a minute and that he only needed to do a number 1. 15 minutes to drink a 4 shot latte and then 20 minutes to pee it back out? Didn’t make sense. One more time with the call.

“Rodentius? You all right in there? I — I’m starting to get worried. I’m… coming in. On the count of three — get ready! One….. two…..” TBC?

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0049, 0210, Paperville+, Schrodinger III, Starfield, Weird-o Islands+