I spotted the cacti I spotted the cops.
Then all became blinded.
Category Archives: 05
00320507
It was chilly up on this ridge above Kings Bishop, near the lower end of Route 13 on the western side of Lower Austra. Not as chilly as Collagesity would be this night, Man About Time ruminates, glad for a little break from all the building and shuffling about in his home town just up in the mountains a little more. Town, hmmm. Man About Town —
Anyway, the relative cold makes him think about the distance formed between creators — artists — inworld and beyond, each in their own sphere of influence and interest. He needs to let go; he needs to forgive. He’s gone very far, the 32 being the latest number reached if not finished. He’s working on it, as always.
He usually calls in Wheeler to help him, in this instance because he’s simply too lazy to rise up from his comfy sleeping bag and look around. She may come as Miss Ouri tonight, or maybe not — someone else. Once she was Alysha. He sighs, thinking of his former girlfriend, like if Thelma Lou left Barney for Sherriff Andy Taylor, attracted to the shine of the bigger badge. Another King over Bishop (or Rook) situation, then. Or a King’s Bishop anyhoot.
—–
He hears the manifestation. 10 minutes — not bad for Wheeler. He looks out to see Miss Ouri, his latest crush, sitting on the chair outside along with that creepy prick doll of hers, the cactus creature. A mascot she calls it. For the library they’re building together as a whole. He thinks of the King. He thinks of the Bishop, the Rook at best. King’s Bishop (or Rook); that’s what he is now. He’s been adopted it seems. The black and white swan urged him forward instead of back, trying to escape her own shadow self. “See down there in the library’s floor,” she said to him as Ted one night, working late on his novel instead of his dissertation which he should have been doing, pheh. But Ukraine and the Delta needed him, another camper in another camping spot. “That’s *me*.” The white swan, out of her element in special collections, could not pass through the door to the library proper without causing a shadow. It’s an old story with a familiar ending. Entrapment, much like he can’t be bothered to get out of this tent and go speak to Wheeler. He summoned her after all.
Here goes nothing, he thinks.
“Nice morning, huh?”
“If you’re going to climb out of your tent, why did you need *me*?” She’d been busy doing other things. She had a lot on her plate: grapes, kiwis, bananas, oranges and apples from the looks of it. Kactus was hungry and requested permission to dive in, which was granted.
I could stomp on it and put an end to the thing, Man About Time thought, looming above. But what would be the consequences? He decided quickly he didn’t want to find out. Wrath of Ouri might not look as pretty.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0032, 0507, Lower Austra, Nautilus
Queen
He continues to talk to his boss even though he isn’t with him any more.
“That boat over there in that bay, Jeffrey,” speaks Man About Time mildly. “Lower Austra. But just beyond, just beyond the bay: Wild West. That’s how they slipped away from Miss Ouri, Jeffrey. They outsmarted her, which is difficult to do. Someone must know the whole map to do this. It’s like they have the entire knowledge of Nautilus itself.”
“Think,” he could hear Jeffrey Phillips in his head now, which he often does.
“That’s right, Jeffrey. (The) Thinktank (sim) is just beyond the bay. The Wild West.”
“No. *Think*.” Jeffrey often emphasized words for Man About Time in his head because he misunderstands what he’s actually trying to convey. Because Jeffrey Phillips is still around, just not physically.
“Oh okay. Think, huh?”
“Think,” he finished.
—–
“We went out on the same date. March 1, 2022. Yet he was a King and I was a Bishop at best, a Knight.”
“9 to 5, yes,” stated Wheeler Wilson to Baker Bloch at The Table, which had moved from the Blue Feather up to the Castle in De Skies, although not out of Collagesity itself. It was a conundrum because (the castle) sat in 2 completely different places on the continent at once: Lower Austra’s Collagesity and North’s Rooster’s Peninsula, with the ultimate link being glowing MOA down in the basement of each. *They* sat in these 2 positions. “I think you underestimate *your* position, though,” she continued. “Rook… you were a rook; a minor rook but a rook still. And people around you didn’t like it because you had no ambition to further your place in life. You were happy as is, just riding everything out until The End. You were stuck on a 5 which was much closer to 5 than 6 and you were satisfied. That was the basic issue. That caused the distancing.”
“I started out as a Pawn.”
“We all do,” explained Wheeler. “We all do.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0032, 0506, Crisp Sea, Lower Austra, Nautilus, Wild West
statement of fact
This boat remains landlocked.
I have them now.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0032, 0505, Crisp Sea, Lower Austra, Nautilus, Wild West
Frenscent
The white block shoes were not ideal for walking on rocks but she had to find something on this beach, perhaps a discarded *Can*.
There!
But how to kill that man who found it first and then dispose of the body? Issues. Always issues.
Pincushioned Nauty hid behind a nearby tuft of grass ready to run interference on this beachcombing chump if needed. He’d found MOA and that called for protection. Because *everyone* still in their right mind was looking for it, good or evil. Miss Ouri: probably evil since she’s emphasizing kill over kiss, death over love.
Whatever you seek with focused intent, there it is. Fear (tentacle emphasis) can bring you to this point as well.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0032, 0504, Crisp Sea, Lower Austra, Nautilus, Wild West
00320503
“It sits on grass — solid ground — instead of floor. There is a rainbow sphere like a giant illuminated marble in the middle, surrounded by frozen swarming tentacles. Rest vs. work, yin vs. yang.”
“Man About Time?” I speculated, knowing he waved at this thing like he did to himself before. Continuation.
“That and more,” agreed the other, yet to be determined. Maybe Wheeler with her green and blue asymmetrical eyes. Miss Ouri perhaps if they are matching instead. Feminine anyway. Female.
We should also determine if we are dreaming or awake. Could be difficult.
MORE SOON.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0032, 0503, Collagesity Fordham-, Lower Austra, Nautilus, NORTH, Rooster's Peninsula
00320502
Listening through the walls and the coke machine is over. It’s time to find out who’s in the basement. Is it Rooster?
I think it must be Rooster. Smells like Rooster, even from this distance. We’ll see.
“Halt! (wheeze)”
It wasn’t Rooster. He backtracks a bit; forgets about the end of the tunnel for now.
“Who are you?” he asks mildly.
Squeaky voice, like a inflatable toy full of little holes: “I am (wheeze) the answer you seek.”
Significant pause as he takes the creature in. “Where’s Rooster?”
“He is (wheeze) not here yet.”
Smaller pause. “Will he ever be?”
“(wheeze) No.” Slowly and skillfully the seated small being then moves a chest pin down to emphasize his pricked nature.
“Funny,” is all MAT could think of to say.
“Is (wheeze) it?”
Voodoo doll, Man About Time mulled over. Obviously related to Kactus back in the library — up in the library, just above him in fact. He tries to see through the ceiling toward it. Doesn’t work.
“Ponder (wheeze wheeze) the nature of the peninsula, another (wheeze) sticky outy thing (wheeze wheeze). I am (wheeze) running out of (wheeze) air (WHEEEEeeeeezzzee).”
The final prick did him in. He shouldn’t have done it, MAT realized. Like Conception Concepción Conception, he’d made an error between his legs.
He moves on beyond the deflated being, encountering himself in the first of two cells off the passage.
“Hi me,” he said nonchalantly to himself.
Should he wave back? Or is that how you become trapped in the first place? Acknowledge that you’re here already? MAT decides to ignore him(self) and walks down to the final cell, the end of the journey that has become this post. Is he ready? After seeing himself down here, what choice does he have? No going back.
“What is it?” he asked, out of his cell and sneaking up from behind.”
“How–?”
“I think you should go back where you came,” the other requested, pointing down the passage over his shoulder while he finds himself waving at *it* for some reason. MOA he knew, but that was just another puzzle inside a riddle inside a cypher. The foul smell was starting to become overwhelming; not Rooster indeed. “Let me handle this now. I’ve been waiting for you after all.” STOP
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0032, 0502, Collagesity Fordham-, Lower Austra, Nautilus, NORTH, Rooster's Peninsula
on Dasher
“Rooster,” he mutters, seeing the weather vane atop the barn on his peninsula. “I must think about this further.”
Full perms on the property here.
I wonder if Rooster could be related to Santa Claus?
What are you Nautilus?
Why are we here?
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0032, 0501, Iowa, Nautilus, NORTH, Rooster's Peninsula
retirement
It’s time to lay under the blue and white umbrella again.
Ahh. This is the life!
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0031, 0517, Nautilus, Retirement Islands, Wild West
Alysha
She’d transformed, just like he did earlier. “Okay, you can open your eyes,” she bids.
He sees the stunning blueness of the thing. He sees the roses. He knows what’s going on. “But… *I’m* the Blue Rose,” he sputters, sitting up more in an effort to directly confront the thing. “That’s *my* angle.”
“Not any more,” she shot back. Indeed once a thing has been done and done successfully, it’s hard to walk back. Besides, we need to double up the Blue Power in order to keep West Virginia viable as a northern balance to Virginia. It’s just that damn important.
Time to unwrap the present, as she promised earlier. Jeffrey Phillips will come around, probably sooner than later. She just needs to pick a time to tell him about MAT. The new relationship is real enough, despite it also being a dream.
Later she showed him 5 more transformations directly related to the first. It was a revealing night.
“And *this* is how we had the black child,” she explained at the beginning of the 4th.
By the time of the 5th, Jeffrey Phillips had determined he would definitely be the Blue Thorn from now on and give up the Rose part. He didn’t deserve this woman. But she definitely deserved him and considerably more, she might think here on her own behalf.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0031, 0516, Lands End, Nautilus
Sunklands 