She had come to see the band but they were away. Well, Jim A. was *permanently* away, replaced by this mysterious Jim B. who was 20 years younger. And what about herself? Also 20 years displaced. It was 20 years ago today (etc.).
The Band; a make-believe one inside a real one. But the make-believe one had come to overshadow the real, like a Virtual Reality within Reality Reality begins to take over and work its powers outside in as well as inside out. Glove.
Satan.
“Hell-o hell-o hell-o.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0505, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X
Curling up in a fetal position helped her cope with her fears. The sound of Preston Weston and the others eating some crunchy munchy cereal they requested comforted her as well. Here was her safe spot during breakfast, the clear place where she could think rationally about things. Like her weight problem (you’re *not* that overweight!); her drinking problem (3 glasses of wine a night for a woman my size is fine); her… other problem (having 3 lovers on the side is natural for a woman my… um, size? weight?).
She rolls onto her back and stares at the ceiling. Preston Weston is currently chatting up Robin about some comic book he’s reading disgustingly called “666 Satan”. Says he wants to date this Ruby who’s a star within. This gets her pondering about her own star, which seems to be sinking. Displaced by a — well, she shouldn’t think that but it’s true. A black woman. A black woman with *horns*. Satan seems to have come to town and taken up residence.
She then decides that today is the day. Colored TV has also come to town, perhaps connected, she ruminates. It’s time for the black and white Sylvania to go away. Zenith’s where it’s at now. After breakfast she and Preston will go into town again before the TV shop disappears along with the laundromat, massage parlor, kitchen shop, etc. etc. before it. Maybe Jim A. will come by later on. Then she realizes that Jim A. has been in a coma for 20 years, frozen in time. It was Jim *B.* that comes to visit her, 1/2 of the famous or infamous band known as The Basterds (“The B.’s”) along with her father Keith B. Ahh, the old team. He should have never given up the ol’ circle within circle drums. That’s when it all started: the slide.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0504, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X
“This Lena Horned is good, admittedly.” Older Keith B. looks over at the singer currently crooning “The Ballad of Stormy Daniel.” He then leans closer to Kate McCoy sitting beside him. “But she’s not as good as my little girl.”
A noncommittal Kate turns toward the dance floor. “Well… Zach and The Mann seem to be enjoying it enough.”
“And The Dogg too,” Keith B. laughingly adds.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0503, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X
“What’s back here, then?”
“Oh, nothing. Just an alley,” answered Domino, showing the tall, swarthy man around the gas station his uncle owned.
The stranger peers out. “Oh, I think it’s much more than an alley.”
“In its day, maybe. The Dark Days.” Satan Days, Domino thinks to himself, not wanting to say the word aloud.
The stranger knocks on the door, testing its solidity. “No eyes on this one as far as you can tell?”
“Nope,” clipped Domino, thinking how lucky they could limit themselves to one door for such a profitable establishment. Karma indeed.
“Listen, er, stranger.” Domino was trying to prompt for a name again. And failing again. “Um, my uncle won’t be back today. Like I said, *he’s* the owner. He’s the one you should be talking to. Not me.”
“That’s fine,” replied the dark man plainly, implying that he was okay with just talking to Domino now. Was Domino being played? Was he *in play*?
Marion Harding shuts the door, turns around, crosses his arms. “Tell your uncle that I’m interesting in buying this joint. Tell him — money is not an option.”
“Er… do you mean that money is not an issue? That’s great, er, but Uncle Zach, I’m sure, isn’t selling.” Then Domino realized he might be wrong. Why was the stranger here in the first place?
“I said what I said,” reinforced Marion. “Tell your Uncle Zach exactly what I just told you. Understand?”
“Sure, sure.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0502, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X
“*Now* can I enter Pipersville?”
“*Thank* – *you*.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0015, 0501, Maebaleia/Satori, Pipersville/Sink X
“It’s the only place we could go to get away from Cindy A. Everywhere else: planes and rockets okay. But not here.”
“Let’s go find Little Jimmy,” Marion Star Harding urged, still lugging the attache case around with the required money.
—–
“It’s the same car as at the gas station in Cassandra City, Tealy,” spoke Marion in his cool gangster style.
“I believe it might be.”
“It is,” reinforced Marion. “I have a photographic memory. This is the place.” He blew out air with this. Some things never change.
“Freebies!” Tealy then utters, pointing to a nearby pillar while waving his hand before his nose, a familiar gesture.
“No, it has to be that one car. Where I was born in the parallel lives. Patterns. Stick to patterns.”
“Okay.” They move on.
—–
“We’ve seen this bastard before too.”
“Toppsity,” declares Tealy down below. “Toppsity?” he then questions Marion.
“X-City,” corrects Marion, pointing to his eyes and head.
—–
So here it is, Tealy. The *real* bastard.”
“Little Jimmy,” states Tealy religiously. “So it is true.”
“Cradle to grave,” Marion Star Harding manages, crying again now. “A life well spent.” He changes.
“L$50000 well spent,” returns Tealy, still wishing they had tested out some freebies before purchasing such a golden egg. CHA-CHING. *Sit*.
Marion Tillie knew they now had a fighting chance against the machinations of the A.Team.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0516, Maebaleia/Satori
“Well it all just sounds so fascinating Tillie. Seraph Club. Dean Martin!”
“And James Dean the week before. We just missed him!”
Tealy turned to Tillie. “I’m sorry. I know. One of your heroes.”
“Marion, Indiana,” she spoke. “I was there when it happened.”
Tealy pats Tillie’s near hand. “I know.” Tears began falling from her face, splashing onto Tealy’s hand even. She changed.
“But looks like he’s back!” Tealy then encouraged.
“Marion, Ohio this time,” spoke a transformed Tillie, clutching the L$50,000 tight in her his lap.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0515, Cass City+, Maebaleia/Satori
It was as if the world turned upside down on her. Witchery in Cassandra City. She knew it had to come from Toppsity slightly north, where the elements were all f-ed up thanks to the battles. *She* was a witch. But what did it all mean? She couldn’t remember that crucial bit yet.
Triangle: the triangle must be signed and sealed. That’s where it all starts. One hand on top of another on top of another on top of another…
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0514, Cass City+, Maebaleia/Satori, Toppsity-
Yoko sometimes had this daydream of a vast underground behind the red doors across the street. She wondered where it all came from.
—–
She met with Cindy A., Jim A., and Todd A. in a secret Cassandra City niche on Wednesday. The A.Team they’d dubbed themselves, the seed of the surname erasures. “You sure you guys want to go through with this?” Yoko asked after the niceties had run their course. All nodded in tacit agreement. No one dare speak the deed aloud at this point.
Jim A. had worked and worked at the maths, making sure everything checked out. Now all they needed was a test. But where? Jim thought again of the forbidden sinks, particularly the 13th on this day, the so-called Super Bowl. Could it be possible — no — but: what if… what if… in ancient times…
—–
It was a combination of abilities. Jim A. had the maths, the brain, Todd A. was the genius in project management, and Cindy A. provided the technical expertise. Planes to rockets — not a big leap in her evolution. Professor Suckaluck should have seen it all those years back (“Maebaleia, pheh. *Satori*”); reported it to the Northern authorities. Because the A.Team — Cindy A., Jim A., Todd A. — were never really from the Pipersville area. They’d rehearsed the accents for years before the move.
Cassandra City, Queen jewel of the Deep South. They were home again.
—–
All looked around the table before leaving, realizing they had a Keith problem. Keith knew too much. Keith was in the middle, which, as we all know now, is unfortunately in the way. They had lured him (and themselves!) down here through trickery. Now the trick was to throw him under the bus. A Magic Bus.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0513, Cass City+, Maebaleia/Satori
The “East 4 x 4”, one of the two most intensely fought over areas of the Civil War, which includes looping, heavily bombed Route 8 to the southwest. In the center: Athlone Village. We must think long and hard about the synchronicity that this very village, with the very real portal leading to Bluefield, is at the basic center of it all, lying halfway between the disconnected portions of Route 8a in Aragonese (North) and Ellingson (South). This whole area use to be a beautiful patchwork of interconnected orchards. Now: mainly waste.
Check it out yourself. I’m not making the connection up.
But then we also have the complimentary “West 4 x 4” to its immediate, well, west, centered by the Hills of Bill, another battle laden hot spot.
Together: the “8 x 4”, essentially the continental band that separated North and South, running almost from east coast to west coast (coastlines not as involved in the war). For period of about 2 years it was called the Neutral Zone. Keep in mind that 1 Real Life year is equal to about 8 1/2 Second Lyfe years here, so a little under 3 months to us flesh and bone peoples. The war itself lasted about 3 1/2 days to us.
The exact middle of the 8×4? The very summit Marcus Fox Smartville stares at in this earlier post:
Turtle Hill some call it, because it is green and shaped like such in the past, before unnatural terraforming on one side took place. The Green Turtle to others. A logical candidate for the center of the continent itself, shared between North and South alike. And it was on this very hill the peace treaty was signed. Blue Feather Douglas himself came down for the ceremony. His Southern counterpart, Grey Scale Kimball, had the flu and could not make it.
(to be continued?)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0014, 0512, Hills of Bill, Maebaleia/Satori
Sunklands 