Category Archives: 0601
00470601 (The Hmm)
“I live in a very white house starting with a white roof you can clearly see from the air — why I made it that way.
“Um, white ceiling fans…
“… white power outlets.
“White paint all around. Every room, every piece of furniture, every piece of art even. I like white. And, hopefully, my family likes it *too*. They haven’t complained *so* far (laugh).”
“Soo, ahem, back to The Hmm.”
“Oh yeah (laugh). The Hmm. Well, we logically suspected the new gas compressor station across the rails — really white buildings over there and I respect that but, you know (laugh), I had to get to the bottom of this thing (!). So I went over there one day, complained that we were hearing that dad blasted hmm in my house over 400 yards away, and it seemed, well, it seemed to be affecting our health (!). And, you know, could they DO something about it? I was sure they were the culprit, the source of it all. And you know what they said, they blamed everything else. Electrical lines, the railroad, water pumps in a nearby pond, Interstate 84. Could be any of these… and more. But not *gas lines*. And they laughed right in my face! (laugh). And me a retired mechanical engineer. Heck, I probably knew how their operations worked better than 80% of them over there. Not as much difference between machines and chemicals as you’d think.”
“Understandable that you were irritated,” I tried to empathize. “Is that when you decided to move away? To someplace new?”
“Well, the wife and I thought, maybe we should try out a new town to get away from the sound. ‘New town’ we kept saying to each other when discussing it — over and over. And then it hit us: Newtown. The town right next door to us. We could start new; fresh. It seemed *fate*. I told her, honey, our house is just off the Newtown topo map, which I knew from my hmm research in the local area. But shortly I realized the gas compressor station was actually just *on* the Newtown map, which seemed to be a bad sign. No, the hoped for sanctuary turned out to be *much* much further away, not one but *several* oceans away. It all started that very next day, when I found the drawing of the woman running on the beach at a Newtown flea market while we were checking out the place. Giselle, ha, was actually a bit jealous of my obsession with the drawing, with *her*. It was the whiteness, you see.”
“We’re talking about New *Island* here, right?” I suppressed a joke about him skipping right over New York.
“Yeah. Our brief dream of living in Newtown only pointed to this actual new place where we could truly escape the problems with The Hmm. By being immersed in it!”
“You found the source.”
“Indeed we did (!!).”
“Not gas lines?”
“(Laugh) No, but that’s part of it too. It all came from that novel. By the girl.”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0601, Connecticut, Google Street View, New Island^
00460601
“Morro Bay??” Dreaming Frank Lynn was expecting a sign for Paleto Bay but got a surprise, Real Life location intruding in on Virtual here. He suddenly has another important piece of the puzzle. Now to find the Rock.
“There!” he said, seeing it coming into view in the distance after passing a large beach dune. Well… sort of, he thought. Not quite Morro Rock but pretty obviously the duplicate down here. And out there in the bay beyond it: the 4 islands with the, um, bodies. 2 apiece, he knew. A central mystery. 4 islands, 8 bodies. Infinity.
Carolin manifests back at the center.
888 Infinity Lane
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0046, 0601, California, GTA, Jeogeot, Juho, Nawt Vaya
00450601
He came back to Nawt Vaya and the Jeogeot continent of Our Second Lyfe a changed man. No more monkeying around again. He read in the red book up to the present. Retrieved the fire demon formerly named Calcifer but now called Gus from the netherworld known as The Netherlands, check. Walked out of Vijlen and toward the Vaalserberg mountain that is the highest of that realm and just winked out. Manifested here. Sitting in front of Gus, now trying to communicate with the little flamey guy. Happened once before. He puts down the book. “Didn’t it, pal?”
“Frank,” it squeaked in reply, which it’d said previously. And like before, Philip waited for more which never came. “Frank, eh?” he finally said. The fire demon seemed to nod a little to this with his burny head that was also his body but that’s all. No more words for a while.
“I know who he’s talking about,” spoke propped up Lexi from behind the counter, tired from a full day’s work and needing a break. Coffee’s run out anyway, so’s the food. Only cigarettes and other burny things left. Nada New Year also at the counter had to settle for spicy gum, which she was about to pop when I took the above photo. Later she added more spice to the picture.
“Well,” said Philip Strevor. “Speak your truths, woman… girl. Tell me who this Frank is, where he is. Is he fictional or fact? Does he dwell in a house or apartment like the rest of us or is his abode that of the mind and that alone.”
“Oh he’s real,” perked up Lexi. “Came here with him, this Juho.”
“Juho?” So Philip had a name for the place now. And perhaps a name for at least one of the residents. He wanted more.
“What’s *your* name?” So Lexi told him. “And that’s Nada over there chewing away at the only nutrition I could provide at this late hour,” she added. “I’m glad you yourself are enjoying your cigarette.”
“*Gus* is enjoying the cigarette,” said Philip. “Helps keep him lit. Isn’t that right Gus?” No answer. “But pray tell, putting the caboose back on the track, where do I find this Frank if he’s real? Does he also exist in this Juho you’ve illuminated the name for? Perhaps he even lives with you.”
“I’ll take you there,” said Lexi to this, shaking off the living together part. “Quitting time in, let’s see (she checks her watch not on her arm, actually relying on an internal clock), 15 minutes. Nada, you’ll have to take what’s left of your gum and clear out too.” Nada nods in understanding. But not before doing a dance called the Johana.
20 minutes later:
“We’ll pass through Juho proper on the way over to Frank’s. I assume you’re staying a while. Got a place to live yet?”
“Well… I…”
“Then it’s settled. You’ll stay with me. One more question. What are you reading? What’s in the red book that has you so fascinated?”
“Well… *this*.” They reach a playground on the outskirts of town which Philip remembered from section 04.
He couldn’t resist recreating history. “Here, take Gus for a minute if you don’t mind.”
00440601
“I brought you here to do an experiment, Billy. Sorry to pull you away from your original (Our Second Lyfe) home (in Zebrasil).”
“T’is okay,” he said mechanically, per his nature.
“But — as you can see — the waterfall, this Falls of 10,000 Lions as Mistress or Venus called it — can’t remember which one without checking, which is risky. Anyway, it’s at the corner of this Walk-On-Water Pool, a true feeder for the pond, you see.”
Billy was looking right at it, along with the accompanying Halloween Wither Tree seeming to embrace or almost embrace Fern at the pier. He couldn’t help but see. “Yes,” he said plainly. The gears in his head moved more rapidly and he came up with an important addition. “WOW,” he uttered.
“Yes,” said Fern, brains also working more rapidly than even normal now. “I *also* see.”
To recap: Billy is hanging off the pier at 147/147 in the Breakfast Aisle sim, right on its walkable Diagonal, then. When he attaches the waterfall carried over from his original Big Woods home without alteration of placement in respect to the avatar’s center, it becomes the feeder for the *WOW* Pond, making Billy exclaim the same. Fern realized the connection with Soos Ck., Washington and a lot of other stuff.
Auburn aka Slaughter is next?*
—–
* No. It turns out we follow this up with South Dakota. Same country, different state.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0601, Big Woods, Blue Feather Sea^, Jeogeot, Maebaleia/Satori
00430601 (going home…)
… before it’s too late.
She timed the exit perfectly. “Oh. Hi Shelley. Seems we’re going out at the same time.”
“Hi Lexi,” Shelley said while stopping her walk, letting her neighbor approach. “Where’re you heading?”
“You first.”
“I thought about shopping down at the mega-mall today. Boot sale at Fairies.”
“Hey, me too! What are the odds?”
Too odd, Shelley thought, but went along with it good-naturedly. She was use to attention like this, could handle the needed distance. She walked her own beat. In her own shoes. Keds, soon to be more she hoped.
But the boots didn’t suit her and she emerged from the Hooktip mega-mall still with Keds. Keds for the kids, she figured, to go along with the hair style she hadn’t changed since childhood. Lexi said she couldn’t find any boots to suit her as well, so retained her own shoes too, black cosplays I believe.
As they arrived back at their apartments, Lexi invites Shelley to help her unpack the big plywood cube from Montana that arrived yesterday’s day before (Saturday). “Get this,” she said. “There’s a robot dog in there just like from my childhood. Can’t *wait* to put it together.” But then Lexi remembered the likewise plywood colored pictures on her living room wall, the shells and, especially, the keyhole with the beautiful girl inside, Lexi’s representation of Shelley as Fern had already determined during her visit several posts back. “Uh, just remembered my apartment is a mess,” she backtracked. “Need to clean up. Maybe tomorrow, he he.”
Shelley stuck out her hand to shake. “It’s a date,” making Lexi actually blush a bit. She’d been waiting for this moment for so long. Date, but not what she hoped. Still the word was out there, ready to be molded into something different. She envisions a happy ending. And she’ll have that robot built by then and they can play fetch with it or something. It can be *their* pet. Together (sigh). She finally remembers to let go of Shelley’s hand.
“Laters,” Shelley says, using that same hand to wave brief parting in one, graceful motion, like a dancer, Lexi noted. Soon she will be dancing to a different beat, she hopes, watching her walk away.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0043, 0601, Heterocera, VHC City^
00420601 (Castle Town)
He often came here to rock and think about the battle of rock vs. paper vs. scissors, which for him was won by putting paper (1) before scissors (2) before rock (0). 102 if read left to right, with rock always in the center like the ground zero it is.
He hears a noise outside. It’s 3:25 in the morning — no one else up, he imagined. Except ghosts.
He stops rocking, gets up, leaving the maple leaf throw pillow behind and thoughts of Canadian Picturetown along with it. “Who goes there?”
The right Wendy walks through the door of the establishment…
… with her first words inside being: “This entrance has changed.”
It certainly has, thinks Barry De Boy, very happy at the sight. It certainly has. No demo over her head now; he was seemingly dealing with a real flesh and blood girl again. They can… well, you know. This is what boys think. Boys like De Boy.
“The gatekeeper said I’d find you down here. Said it was his last night to work, the last hour, the last minute. Said he was here for me and then he could go. He put a Help Wanted sign on the door as he locked up behind me. I turned around just in time to see him leave. Go figure. Guess I’ve found my work in town after all.”
“Wendy!” he exclaimed, not knowing how to follow it up. Shock!
“In the flesh.” She twirled around, showing him the different dress. “And blood I suppose, ha.” She approached him. Dare she kiss him this early? It’s been years after all. Instead: “Share a cup of coffee with me?” She tweaked him on the nose, a sign of things to come.
“Of course! Over there,” he pointed to a nearby table. “I’ll find the brew.” He started rummaging around the back of the counter. “As you can see, we’ve also turned the tables to the side.”
“We?”
“Yeah, Me and Grumpy. We run the place now. Or manage it — Stew’s still the owner. Technically I suppose.”
“So no jobs I suppose,” Wendy spouted as she took a seat. She so so didn’t want to be the new gatekeeper of the town. Boor-ing, she knew. She’d heard Devil Dave complain enough about it back in the day.
“No… sorry. Can’t can Grumpy, you see. He has a wife and two children now (!).”
“Who could have imagined.”
“I know.” He’d found the coffee. Now to make the concoctions. “Espresso alright? All I can find.”
“Yeah. Perfect, actually. Make mine a double. No… triple. What the heck, let’s go with 4.” Could be a long night, she knew. Lots of restaurant talk to get through, potentially. Lots of talk about success and then failure. Utter failure. All tests show 5% human DNA, PHEH. I’ll get that Okama Majo, she thought. If it’s the last thing I do.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0601, Canada, Canada/Picturetown, Castle Town, Omega^^
00400601
“A partnership?! That’s, frankly, something I didn’t expect from this meeting (!). Say Golden Goddess has already signed on to all this?”
“Yeah. Said she foresaw it in her cards.”
“Nas too?”
“Right. Start of a chain. Gang, I suppose.” Marsha “Pink” Krakow, the originator of all, slightly smiles, harking back to prison days and years. Doesn’t want to go back there. Thus: this.
“They’ll try to crack down on us,” professional dancer Bun Bun warns. “The men of this town. ‘How *dare* the women try to organize,’ and so on.”
“My mother can handle that,” came the reply. “She’s still the mayor of this here meat town after all.” Marsha knew she was negotiating a deal with Utah as they speak. Revisionist historian named Roy Coy who has a big brain about his head. He’ll need it!
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0040, 0601, Omega^^, Urbane Blue/Fishers Island^, Utah
00390601
“I’ve actually been watching him for days,” spoke the kid version of Shelley Struthers over to Marsha “Pink” Krakow on the opposite side of the giant spoon, apparently a native of the land who’s experience many changes down through the years she’s lived here. “He’s scared to go back into his hole. The cat scares him. I think the crocogator scared him before and now that he’s gone he’s got this new adversary.”
“You’ve spoke about the 1/2 alligator 1/2 crocodile being previously,” replied Marsha to all this, thinking: could this be my new 4th best friend? Leaping over sweets addicted Tammy? Could be. She’ll put some sticky ass cinnamon buns before her asap and see how she handles them. And her resulting sticky fingers.
“‘He has no name that we know,'” said the younger of the two, but she was just quoting another person on the subject of monsters. She can’t recall who.
“Sat on a duck, huh?” said Marsha, reviewing earlier info on the creature. “Hmmm. I *know* where the ducks are, but they’re in a tub way up high. I skinny dipped for the first time up there. Mountain Lake we jokingly call it because of the height, the elevation. And I guess because of the attached waterfall.” She thinks back to Ben, Levi, Arthur, Lelia, Kellyya and Tammy having such a good time that night, all 7 of them. All paired up except her. Then came Tom Banks. The photography/calligraphy teacher at Storybrook school. Best to veer away from memories by this point. She focuses back on Shelley, on the ducks, on the at least *manifestation* of a monster on them. This could be… no, she can’t go there. But…
“I felt his eyes on me, then they weren’t.”
Man… it could be, Marsha then concludes.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0039, 0601, River
Sunklands 