Category Archives: 03

May 19, 2017 · 7:39 am

busting in

Using his universal pass-through, the littler vampire entered the house. “Buster Damm as I live and breathe, ha ha.” Pitch was use to his free comings and goings.

“Morning wine, Pitch?” Intervention Buster queried, looking at the bottle and full glass in front of him.

“Oh, this is just left over from last night,” Pitch explained. “You know how I am about cleaning up.”

“Who was the dame?” Jealous Buster asked with an edge, taking a seat opposite his bestest friend in the world. “Not that laconic bee woman again? I thought you two were Spitsville.”

“It’s Splitsville,” Pitch corrected. “But, no, it was Wheeler. You know, the lively one who bought the Key Store from Chuckles outside. Not a beaner. However she doesn’t own the shop any more. A wooden man bought it from her. Toys in VHC City, Buster. What’s next? Elves?”

“Hmm. What did you two guys talk about?” Had Jealous Buster skipped over a line? Didn’t matter. Pitch was a super duper pal and would play fair instead of foul if so.

Pitch hurled his morning spitball. “Sister.” He paused.

“Sister?” asked Stifled Buster back.

“Sister. Everything you see around you.” He waved his arm, indicating the house and its windows to the outer world. “There’s a place we should visit on the edge. Let’s call it that. The Edge. Won’t take long at all. A baseball field away at best.”

Nosey Buster had started scanning Pitch’s latest jottings, attempting to understand better. He reads aloud now. “‘The future fisher lives on the edge. Chuckles knows identity but won’t spill. Got that he owns a slavebot who is bent up inside. Coins. Squid and whale.'” Shaking his head, Thursty Buster reaches over and grasps Pitch’s glass of viscous wine, downing it in one take. “Let’s hit the trail,” he said, wiping his tiny mouth with his little black cape. No stain remained.

—–

“No one home, Buster,” Pitch says after calling. Curious Buster wouldn’t be denied. He deployed the universal pass-through again.

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May 19, 2017 · 6:43 am

dead and alive

But Summerhill Nova certainly had her own issues apart from all this new stuff. An estranged sister front and foremost. “Why did you have to go away?” she asked while staring over at her ghost in Eastside Park. They had played here often as children. Baseball was the game then. Dead ball era. She always took the role of pitcher Baby Ruth. Her sister was Butterfingers, an ironic name because she was best at catching. Always hanging around home.

Across the tracks, Pitch Darkly became lively again.

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May 18, 2017 · 7:04 am

Going all nova.

She had a right to know. She *created* all this. Who is this Baker Bloch upstart? Vampires, pheh. There are no vampires in VHC City. [Work] like this could give her town a bad name. Best not to confront him directly yet. She decides to instead track down The Musician. Not hard — he had fallen asleep on the couch of his Ear Bar, exhausted from playing pinball all evening. He was at the green wall. Sikul Himatk. Summerhill roused him from his dreams. “What’s all this about,” she immediately started. “Vampires? Black holes? How do you know Baker? Who’s this Wheeler you run around with? Answers, please.”

The Musician understood who this was after his head cleared, but could give no really satisfactory replies. They were just existing in VHC City as best they could, he explained — just getting by. He and Wheeler now lived in Allen Martin’s vacated apartment. Summerhill also knew about Allen Martin. “Well, what happened to him?” she asked, thinking back to the supposed murder or death (something) at another place she knew well. “Heart attack is all I know,” The Musician attempted to explain. “Wheeler was with him at the end. She said it was fate that he passed through the gate there. Something about seeing a monster blasting through a wall. Didn’t say much more about it. (She’s) clearly upset.”

“Is Wheeler still at the apartment?” Summerhill continued grilling. The Musician nodded. “Let’s go see her. Maybe she has the answers.”

—–

So tonight was when Summerhill Nova learned about Pitch Darkly. It was actually this: Pitch Darkly *pretending* to be Baker Bloch pretending to be Pitch Darkly, as Wheeler explained while they shared a pot of coffee. She had just gained the knowledge herself. The vampire was very real. He had existed in what later would become VHC City for a very long time. Hundreds of years. Maybe over a thousand. This from the mouth of Pitch Darkly himself, now living on the other side of the tracks. Chuckles Greentop partially backed up the story, what she remembered about it. Pitch Black was his property. “And he was also friends with Sikul Himatk,” Wheeler then said.

“I think I know that name,” The Musician piped up on the couch opposite them, becoming fully awake again.

“Well of course you do,” replied Wheeler.

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May 18, 2017 · 5:15 am

Sibling Sims

Wheeler was tiring of the chit chat. “You said you had something important to tell me.”

“More ‘Winesap?'”

Wheeler looked down at Baker’s Pitch Darkly’s extended hand. “If you mean wine, I’m good. So spill.”

“It was such a good name I couldn’t wait. Hope I didn’t interrupt anything over at… where did you say you were?”

“I didn’t.”

“Oh all right.” He put his hands behind his head and made the announcement. “It’s Silver. I’m sorry (!): Sister.”

“What is?” Wheeler asked.

“The sim. The name of the sim we, I, couldn’t determine before. It’s really clever. Want to hear my logic?”

“Oh sure. I’m here. Drinking suspiciously viscous wine with you.”

“Well, first off, the sim in question is kind of the sister to Bemberg. Together they hold about 80, maybe 90 percent of VHC City. The town’s kind of split between them. Brother and sister, maybe.”

“Ok, that’s understandable I suppose.”

He removed his hands from his neck and leaned forward. “Now here’s where it gets really clever. Take the last six letters of the actual name, rearrange them — not adding or subtracting any letters — and you, voila, get Sister. Go ahead and try it.”

Wheeler worked the problem out in her head; took her a moment. “Okay, that’s kind of cool, admittedly — starting to make more sense.”

“And there’s more. Has Chuckles told you about the Seven Sisters yet?” He nodded his head in the direction of the perpetually reeling fisherwoman outside.

“I don’t think so,” Wheeler said without turning around to look as well. “What are they?”

They’re pools in the sim I’m rather insisting we now call Sister. You have to go through the blue door. The Musician may have already found them. Anyway, you pass through that door and soon you are upon an inundating, grassy plain dotted with these small pools. Trouble is, there are only six pools out of seven present now. The seventh is gone. The seventh *sister* is missing. Where is it? is what I’m asking. What is it? Can you guess?”

Wheeler scrunched her mouth up, indicating she couldn’t.

“Black horse. Oh, drat, sorry again, black *hole*. I’ll quote to you from a famous music song directly related to all this. Let me make sure I have it right — wrote it down in preparation.” Pitch Darkly pulls out a piece of paper from his ragged black coat and reads:

In the constellation of Cygnus
There lurks a mysterious, invisible force
The Black Hole of Cygnus X-1
Six stars of the northern cross
In mourning for their sister’s loss
In a final flash of glory
Nevermore to grace the night

Pitch Darkly then stabs the paper on the table several times with his forefinger. “The Oracle indicated this.”

—–

Meanwhile, The Musician had moved through the pools called Seven Sisters and up a sewer ladder giving access to a green wall marking the southern line of the property formerly known as Pitch Black. “What was hidden by Harrison Head before is now exposed,” he said in a confident voice, looking at this similarly green picture at its east end and thinking back to the new collage called “The Point of It All” he had seen earlier in Bemberg’s Clown Central.

“The monster swallowing its own tail; perpetual. Cardboard Derek Jones was right all along (about Greenup).”

—–

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May 16, 2017 · 5:38 am

Around Town

Baker Bloch marveled at the constantly changing furniture in a VHC City store called Prim Possible.

Wheeler mulled over multiple realities surrounding the death of Allen Martin while sipping expresso at News and Views across from the famous hotel.

Snowmanster kept spinning around and around in his CB Dylan Dresser at Bemberg Towers Apt. #6, unable to enter this dimension.

Across the tracks in a tiny two story house, a fly got stuck in Pitch Darkly’s wine red nightcap.

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February 1, 2017 · 7:38 am

Of the Irish

Wanda the Lower Minoan approached perhaps the only one who knew what really happened to the village on March 17th, 1968, the day the trees began to die.

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And he has a familiar face.

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“I like your sandals,” says Wanda in a different dream.

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February 1, 2017 · 6:17 am

Dreams Again

But dream she did. Old Mabel dreamt of a *second* village named Lucky, even closer to Unch than the destroyed original. In fact, the beltway of the town now ran through the very center of the walking tree.

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Also different was the presence of giant letters spelling “LUCKY,” hogging up space in the village green. Old Mabel had the idea that Unch was behind their placement, and that the townspeople ultimately came to loathe them. Another change was the addition of a finer house on the northern end of town, the only structure lying outside its beltway. Old Mabel understood that a doll lived there. *She* lived there (as a privileged being), although she couldn’t understand how.

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Old Mabel then knew this supposed second Lucky was actually the first, constructed during happier times when tree and village were still in harmony. But the seeds of dissent had already been sewn. Dollhouse.

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Looking up into Unch.

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January 31, 2017 · 6:39 am

Entrance

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“For the life of me, Old Mabel, I can’t *see it*.”

“I’m saying: turn around please Baker Bloch. You’re looking the wrong way. Look at where *I’m* looking.”

“I *am* Old Mabel. “Nothing is there. Nothing at all.”

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“Something is appearing inside,” said Old Mabel, peering down.

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—–

“Then I woke up, Baker Bloch. Another dream about the forest. At the tree where Urch disappeared 2 nights before. 125/125.”

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“The big eucalyptus tree, yeah. Big enough to hide a man the size of me inside.”

“That tree is a portal.”

“Maybe they all are,” responds Baker. “The eucalyptus, the brown cypress, the green cypress. All along that line. And then Unch himself (or herself) at 168/168. Still haven’t met Unch, er, face to face?”

“No.”

“How about now?” Baker offers. “It’s nighttime after all.”

“You guys aren’t talking about those woods again, are you?” asks Furry Karl, walking up with another Krings beer for Baker Bloch. “I still don’t like that kind of talk in my bar. I’m up here in SoSo Mall because of it. Just to get a *little* further away from those trees. So they can’t listen in. Careful with that wine glass, baby doll,” he then says to Old Mabel. “It’s been Spillsville around here.”

“I will,” she replies, and then looks at Baker Bloch again. A vision of a double headed Winfield flashes through her mind. Fused. Fire. So much fire.

“I suppose you heard Karoz is back,” says Karl, changing the subject. “Back from space. Still doing the bidding of that demon Wheeler.”

“Shhh,” reprimands Baker. “Don’t say that too loud.”

‘What… *demon*?” speaks Karl defiantly. “She’s over on that island of hers now. She can’t hear us. The *woods* might be able to hear us, but she can’t. I think we have bigger problems if people are starting to dream about that place. It’s 1968 all over again. Treestock.”

“You know so much about local history, Karl,” says Baker.

“I do,” responds Karl quickly.

“Someone should interview you,” completes Baker.

“I’ll do it,” volunteers Old Mabel, raising her hand. Baker wonders if she might be a little drunk tonight. She’s not use to drinking wine, but she purposely spurned her usual lemonade, saying she needed to lay off the sweets to see if it was affecting her dreams. Maybe she’s just trying to numb her brain into a good night’s sleep.

“Well, that’s awfully sweet of you deary.”

“I’m *serious*,” she emphasized. “I want to do it. Let’s set up a date now, while we’re talking about it. If we wait it might be too late.”

Baker thinks he sees Old Mabel sway a bit in her seat. “Maybe we better get you home,” he says, standing up.

Old Mabel shakes her head. “I’m not going back home. I’m not laying down on that couch. I’m not *dreaming* tonight. I don’t want to dream. I want to stay awake. Baker, please stay awake with me. Until sunrise. Then everything will be all right. It’s 2 o’clock now. Sunrise in 3, 4 hours. Stay with me. Hold me.” She falls from her stool and softly sprawls out on the floor. “I’m okay,” she declares, but can’t get up.

“Come on Mabel,” says Baker, offering a hand. “Let’s go home.”

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January 30, 2017 · 1:18 pm

Spillville

“I’ll have what he’s having, Furry Karl.” Karl pours Karoz Blogger a glass of red house wine. “Add it to my tab,” Karoz then says, making the bartender sigh but nod.

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“Pay up by the end of next month,” he warned. “And Tom’s rent is due as well. Where’ve you been? Galavanting around space still?”

“No,” says Karoz. “I’m done with that.”

“You mean *Wheeler* is done with that,” Furry Karl corrects.

“Yeah,” Karoz admitted. He took a sip of wine and looked down at his hands.

“Well… good to have you back still, I suppose. Just kidd’n. I missed you. A little.”

Karoz smiles. “I’ll pay you back, Furry Karl, I promise. You know I’m good for my word. I’m pulling some extra shifts at the Bodega Market to make up for lost time. And Wheeler granted me a stipend. I’m working for her, and I’m working for Tom.”

“How did Tom the Busker get ownership of that market again?” queries Karl, referring to the store directly across from his own establishment in SoSo Mall.

“Excuse me,” said the stranger also drinking wine to Karl. “Do you have a magnifying glass by chance? I can’t seem to read this one particular quote in lower type.”

Furry Karl looked annoyed. This stranger had been sitting at the bar for what seemed like a week to him. “No, I don’t have a magnifying glass. And this isn’t the library, by the way. That’s through the mall and down Old Cannon Road to your left. Maybe ol’ Bean will have a magnifying glass over there. Why don’t you try.”

“Oh, I think I can just make it out, thank you anyway,” says the stranger, eyes closer to his book now and either oblivious to Karl’s annoyance or just not caring if he does notice. He murmurs softly to himself now as he reads.

“Anyway,” Karl continues. “Spill the wine.”

Karoz tips over the wine glass.

“Not *literally*!”

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“Sorry,” says Karoz. “So clumsy.”

“I’ll go get a rag from in back,” says an exasperated Karl.

The distraction worked. Karoz didn’t have to answer another question about Tom for almost a whole week. And by that time, he’d also figured out some more lies to tell about his job over at New Island. Polishing the silverware; yeah that’s it.

When Furry Karl returned, Karoz had already cleaned up the spill with a borrowed book. “Well, I suppose it’s time to get going,” the stranger said, making Karl’s frown turn upside down.

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January 30, 2017 · 9:46 am

S x SW

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“A gap in the south-southwest,” Baker thinks while within this circle of 8 rocks in the Slosser sim, only a couple hundred meters south-southwest (!) of Collagesity (as he found out a little later). The parcel is Lost Garden owned by the SL Public Land Preserve, dedicated to, “help keep SL spaces open,” according to the parcel description. Baker Bloch immediately joins the group for L$5.

Clicking the profile link of the rocks’ creator, Garvie Garzo, brings him quickly to a sim called New Moon. Here he uncovers a duplicate set of rocks on an island in a western archipelago. Cool. He now sees each of the 8 stones is penetrated by a individualized sword. Here are the attached names:

Mawrth Mageblade
Silverlight of Wranws
Longsword of Iau
Daear Diamond Sword
Neifion Lightbringer
Sadwrn’s Shadowsteel
Mercher Spellblade
Burning Sabre of Gwener

In their midst is this central lower rock containing sculptures of the sun and the moon with stylized human faces, the great opposition of masculine and feminine energies. And Baker Bloch keeps in mind that this is the New *Moon* sim, named for a monthly phenomenon where the Earth blocks the moon from receiving the sun’s enlightening rays.

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Between the stylized sun and moon lies an object called the Mirror of Darkness, perhaps standing for the Earth itself. Then in front of this is a book with the description of “The Taika Altar”, which doesn’t sound like a title. Baker is checking…

Here it is (!): http://www.madpeagames.com/return-of-the-light-gacha-set/

So this is the “Book of Taika”. Baker has to purchase the set! But before running off to a store location provided by that link above, he looks over the rest of the archipelago. Not a lot there, but a twisting orange and pink “bridge” attempting to span a couple of the islands caught his eye above all else (name: “net bridge fail”).

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“Orange, hmm,” Baker muses. He attempts to teleport to the store but disappointingly finds its location currently blocked. Baker tries to contact Wheeler for advice, but, as usual, she is “away”, perhaps bumming around that new island she’s been on about for a day or so. New Island — New Moon. “Hmm,” again.

Couple more shots from the New Moon archipelago:

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