“I’m just wondering if you can help a man out who ran out of gas.”
Just down the road.”
Category Archives: 0405
presents
Dawn. March 8th, 2020. She wakes up in that bed again, Barry X.’s arms wrapped around her “tip jars”. Life is good. She remembers to set her watch ahead an hour. Fall back spring forward, she recites in her mind. Best to put the coffee on; surprise Barry X. with a fresh brew. That’s a woman’s duty: to rise before the man and get his day off to a good start. Not so-so, not even great perhaps. But good at the very least.
She reviewed events of the night before. Barry read her the first few pages of his new novel he’d written that day while she was at work, his GAN he called it. She was tired and probably didn’t appreciate it as much as she should. Thus another reason for the coffee, the breakfast. Let’s see, she thinks to herself while rummaging around his refrigerator purchased the day before that, along with a proper writing desk. No more writing his GAN on the kitchen table! he demanded. “All right, all right,” she tried to calm. “Don’t get your panties all in a wad.” It was an expression her mother use to use with her all the time, and now she throws it around indiscriminately to men and women alike. “Don’t get your panties all in a wad,” she said to Gadfly the cook that day when he demanded she pick his dishes up from the counter faster so the customers wouldn’t be served cold food. “Don’t get your panties in a wad!” she shouted at Horace the dog out back, incessantly barking during her only break of the day, a 15 minuter which turned into a 1/2 hour one when she then stepped into one of his special presents beside the door. “Arrrrgh!” she screamed. “ARRRGH!” she exclaimed even louder, then took off the soiled, high heel shoe and wobblingly made her way down the bank to the stream below, washing and washing it until the present was removed and the shiny black gloss of the void revealed again. Putting it back on at the top, she fumingly pointed at Horace all the way to the door, deftly avoiding what remained of the present. “Tumblestone!” she called to the busboy when re-entering the bar. “Clean up outside the back door. And *watch* where you step!” She then glared at Gadfly, at Jake the bartender, daring them to say anything about her break running over. They’d seen her in these moods before. Best to not have a dumpster fire again. Or worse.
She removes eggs from the refrigerator and looks around for a frying pan.
(to be continued?)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0018, 0405, Corsica, Urqhart
more rooms
X City’s Blurmaid and Horns of Hatton’s Cry Cat (65 & 66).
These are the capital cities of Maebaelia/Satori’s North and South respectively. And here they are again. Attempting to negotiate?
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0017, 0405, 100 Story Building-, Kowloon+
paint it
“There is some hope here in the upper part of Black Dragon.”
“Black Drake,” she corrected.
“Right. But, see? More black than green here, black equaling rented or ‘in use’.”
“Especially around Black Drake Square,” she offered, taking a better gander.
“Black Dragon,” I corrected in turn.
“Sure. So. You’re saying this is one of those neighborhoods that could work for further stories.”
“Well, we have Rock Ramby and partner Vain and Artery Boy in the neighborhood already. He goes by Gill Alex now, in honor of his red and blue splitness.”
“I get that,” she responded. “No one else will, but I get it.”
“Like the RR (in Wazob).”
“Got it.”
“And then, let’s see, there’s the Red Umbrella of course, then Spunky’s, a local, popular eating and drinking joint.”
“Popular, local drinking and eating establishment,” she agrees.
“Then another gallery across the way from the Red Umbrella. And then, as we speak, there’s a dude over there who’s rented the place next door to it. And then, as soon as I rented the building for *our* gallery, someone almost immediately rented the building next door. See, Hucka Doobie? It’s infectious. Everything happens in clusters.”
“Like a gumball machine. The black is clustering together amongst the green. In Black.”
“And *then*, there’s Apple’s Orchard.”
“Applewood, yes.”
A new Black Dragon record store with gunn(s).
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0016, 0405, Black Ice, Jeogeot, NWES Island
back in Maebaleia…
“Ah ha. Finally found a use for that wearable pipe chair you gave me last Christmas.”
“Thanks for showing up Tracy. Like I said, I can’t find him anywhere. We were just scouting around the center of the continent, looking at places. We came here. I realized I had to go do something with the kid again and told him to just stay put till I got back. Then when I returned — and a long drive it was all the way from Pipersville — he’s not here. We talked about renting this house. Real cheap rent. In fact…”
“… it’s free,” finished his lover-on-the-side Tracy Austin. “I saw the sign outside. But this one is rented.”
“It’s in arrears,” he explains. “Just checking out the furniture.”
“Well I *hope* the real renter doesn’t come back.”
“He won’t. *They* won’t.” Second Life is so empty now, he thinks not for the first nor last time. Middle of continents — basically a wasteland.
“So dark in here,” complained Tracy Austin. “Can we get some light in this place? Will these blinds open?”
“Sure.” Craighead Phillips Option 01 touched the blinds to his side and back, automatically opening them.
Tracy Austin peered out. “What’s all this?”
Craighead Phillips Option 01 looked too. “I don’t know. Earth, I suppose.”
Interested, Tracy Austin moved toward the side window to take a closer look at something.
“2701 Bland Road,” she recited, then turned back toward Craighead. “This place got a computer?”
“No, but there’s one down at the office. I spotted it while trying to get out of this town the first time.”
“Do you have a key?” Both laughed at this.
—–
“Well. Is it there? Did you find it?”
“Just a moment,” Tracy Austin requested while still typing away. Then: “Ahh. *Bingo*.” She indicated the screen. “There it is. The same sign.
That’s where he is!”
Craighead Phillips Option 01 put hand to lip. “Jeepers I guess we’ll have to go in after him, then. I can’t exist, I don’t suppose, without Option 02.”
“*You’re* going in. I’m staying here with Katy. If something happens to you I’ll tell her you went away. To France.”
“Uh, I’m not going without a gun. I’ve heard stories…”
“Alright, Uncle Bob has a gun. We’ll go see him first. Then you’ll say goodbye to Katy. Hopefully not for the last time.”
“I know you’re joking…”
“I am?”
“Things use to be better between us.”
“Listen, Craighead. Craighead Phillips Option *01*. We gave you The Freedom, all you wanted. Blue Feather Sea, patterns. Astrologers around every corner. *Everyone* knows their sign. No chance involved in the playing of dice or cards. Freedom — Katy and I. Yet you still hang around with your other family.”
“My *actual* family,” Craighead Phillips corrected, not helping the situation.
“Alright.” Tracy Austin got up from the computer table. “Alright if it’s going to be like this I have a confession. I’ve been seeing someone else. A sailor of the Blue Feather Sea. Older man, admittedly, but I think it’s something real. We may even…”
“Get married?” Craighead was incredulous. “How old?”
“50, 55. Maybe 60. He’s *cool*. He has a good sense of humor. He’s built like a soldier and swears like a pilot. Katy’s met him, but she doesn’t know the circumstances. Yet.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Wouldn’t I?”
(to be continued?)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0405, Google Street View, Hills of Bill, Maebaleia/Satori, West Virginia
redtop
“So tell me about this Treelor of yours,” Allen Y. requested, a bit of bitterness mixed in with his phrasing.
“He’s nice,” Jennifer M. Friend responded with her usual, confident voice. “He’s innocent. He’s… Tropp, actually. I always forget that too. *I’m* Treelor.” She pauses a beat. “In another life.”
Silence for a spell. They look over at the pirate ship, looming huge before the horizon. The glare of Allen’s facelight was bothering Jennifer. She politely asked him to turn it off. Or down.
“I don’t know how to turn it down. I’ll just detach it.” Now he can’t see her beautiful face as clearly, he thought. Oh well, the setting sun casts it in a different, if less visible light. All angles and shades are good for her. I believe I’m falling in love. He was preparing to give her flowers. One of a line of gifts stretching into the future he has in mind. Leading to…
“Tropp’s great, really,” spoke Jennifer again, breaking the spell.
Tropp, sulked Allen Y. He must be eliminated. But they seem to have quite a long history together now.
He’s heard of… assimilations. Maybe that will be the ticket.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0013, 0404, 0405, Misty Mo+
no chance upon
Compare with here from July of last year:
Then the other way…
Present:
July 14, 2018:
Here’s the part that confused me most about the orientation. The building in the immediate background of the last two pictures is basically the same, but has been turned *90 degrees clockwise* relative to its July 2018 position. We’re looking west here. Let’s take a gander north toward the same structure in the present and compare…
See what I mean? The “Have You Seen Me?” graffiti on the building has been switched over to a “Razor Bird Short and Sharp” one. Obviously the same “bird” represented, though.
We’re going inside…
Oh yes, this is where Hannah Montana decked up Mabel and her similarly “limed” robo pal Robert Drake Johns sat in the follow-up post from last July (“absorption”). Again, this has been turned sideways from before.
February 1, 2019
July 14, 2018
I believe I know who should still be here now.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0405, The Waste+
cloudy with a chance of pain
“So here we are. But it’s Hidden Village, with the two l’s like the others. And also: Hilltop Road.”
“Interesting. Let’s see how far down this road we can go.”
—–
“Proper. The green journey ends here, where (inferior) red takes over (once more). See the mushroom cloud? Literally. This is what happens at the end of a world.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0011, 0405, Colorado, Google Street View, The Straight
Billies
“I’d like to hire you for a job Detective Strevor. I’m looking for my brother. Billy.”
What a peculiar thing, thinks Philip Strevor before answering. *I’m* looking for a Billy.
“I’ll take the case.”
—–
“Got a job today, Marion. Looking for *Billy*.”
Marion Harding stared at the tv screen a bit. Then: “*Our* Billy?”
“Dunno.” Philip Strevor shifted his weight on the couch. “Go ahead and hit unpause. Just wanted to tell you that before we got into the whole atomic bomb thing.”
“Have to think about that one.”
“Yep. Sure will. Find out soon enough, I suppose. If I can find him.”
“Her,” Marion Harding corrected. He picked up the remote.
“Yup.”
The explosion continued.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0010, 0405, New Mexico, Twin Peaks, Wallytown/Fishers Island
Sunklands 