soaking it all in…
Category Archives: 06
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The company put Jackson Bloch up in a shack over in Hambone, just across the sim line from Nevermore. Handy for work, but he had to live with rental furniture and decorations, which he usually hated. However, this place was different. All the decor that should have remained alien to him began becoming more familiar instead. Slowly, surely, he felt like this was home, not only the shack, but, perhaps even moreso, Hambone itself.
He’d heard of a local man named Pat who disappeared in the past that some say looked and acted like him. They didn’t say “slow” or “ugly” or “unkempt” to his face, but that’s the essence of what they meant. Maxine Cornbread, Howard Johnstone, and the rest. The Gossipers, they called themselves, and met at The Last Drop every Wednesday afternoon, sand storm or shine. Jackson Bloch was now part of their outer, extended circle. So was a new dude named Walt: Walter Westinghouse. Philip Tongue as well. The Tongue — fits right in with that nickname. Anyway, the similarity between Jackson and Pat — our Patrick Starr of course — has been brought up several times now by that group. Slowly, surely, the story of the Nevermore abductions will intertwined with those of Pat and Jackson. 1 plus 1 begins to add up to 3. As in an unexpected baby. If he hadn’t died in that killer shark attack 15 years back, imagine the relief Zoidboro would have experienced learning who the true father was. Aliens! “Should have known,” I can hear him say from the grave.
With his mind, Jackson removes several posters from the wall he suddenly finds unwanted and unnecessary.
He’s been doing such things all his life. That’s how he became involved in the ruin construction business. No one puts up ruins faster than him. Or tears them down if the reverse is needed. No one.
Jackson is indeed very blessed and very special.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0610, The Waste+
breakfast of champions
“Don’t kill me sir!” the puppet man pleaded vigorously in his high, wavering voice. “I’m an innocent! I haven’t done nothing wrong, done no one no harm!”
Charlie stares into the eyes of innocence, lowers the knife. He can’t do it. Charlie Banana begins untying Freedom Puppet.
“Get up. Here. Take the knife.”
—–
“That trick was easier than I thought,” Freedom Puppet said while quickly cutting a circle around the center of Charlie Banana. “Eat your heart out Gene Kelly.”
—–
At her Fruity Island house boat, Parasol goes to check the morning mail. “Ahh. A real heart instead of a puppet one.” Parasol sighs. “Poor Charlie Banana. We had a good run, though.”
“Looks like blue might win out after all.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0609, Fruity Islands, Rubi
Ruby Fantasie: savior
“It’s so beautiful Zoidboro. Just like you said. The trees would grow, the water would go. I’m ready to name my baby.”
“Jackson, then?” guessed Zoidboro, steeling himself for disappointment.
“No, a compromise. If our son is very special — say, can do 6 butterflies in a row…”
“What’s a butterfly?” queried his cephalopodic partner while watching yet another shooting star cross the sky.
“That’s right. You never went to dance school like me — sorry. It’s a cartwheel where your hands never touch the ground. Anyway if he can do 6 of those as opposed to, say, 4 or even 5, we will call him Jackson. Otherwise: Daniel. Danny will be a good boy, I’m sure, but not special. Jackson is reserved for Special.”
“Like Jack’s son.”
“Yes. I wish 100 times over that he is special, but we must love him equally either way.”
“Agreed,” Zoidboro quickly returned.
Patrick turned away from the sky and toward his partner, his ally. “And now, it’s time, to go, inside.”
—–
“I have found them! In the heart of the Pineapple Island. My intuitions are correct!”
“And across the street: another tiny car! This must be the controller.”
“I’ll go inside.”
—–
“Ahh. Should have guessed. Tessa.”
“Who are you??”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0608, End of Time+, Google Street View, Hawaii
It’s a boy!
—–
Martha was both polite and curious. “Have you thought of a name yet, Mr. Zoidboro?”
“I’m thinking about Daniel. Or Danny.”
“Excellent. Like ‘The Shining’.”
“Oh… yeah.”
—–
“Danny, huh,” utters an exhausted Patrick, fresh from the Jacobian Hospital. The only hospital on this Pineapple Island, with over 100 beds. “I was thinking about Jack. Or Jackson.”
“Jack’s son?”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0607, End of Time+
Murdock Island Too
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanai
Lānaʻi (/ləˈnaɪ, lɑːˈnɑːi/;[1] Hawaiian: [laːˈnɐʔi, naː-]) is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain.[2] It is colloquially known as Pineapple Island[citation needed] because of its past as an island-wide pineapple plantation….
In 1921, Charles Gay planted the first pineapple on Lānaʻi. The population had again decreased to 150, most of whom were the descendants of the traditional families of the island.[14] A year later, James Dole, the president of Hawaiian Pineapple Company (later renamed Dole Food Company), bought the island and developed a large portion of it into the world’s largest pineapple plantation….
In 1985, Lānaʻi passed into the control of David H. Murdock, as a result of his purchase of Castle & Cooke, then owner of Dole….
In June 2012, Larry Ellison, then CEO of Oracle Corporation, purchased Castle & Cooke’s 98 percent share of the island for $300 million. The state owns the remaining 2 percent.[15]
“I have gone too far down Murdock Cherry. Collagewold influence lessening. The green A Team from Pineapple has murdered — even lasered down with their red beam — the blue Bees. Shivering commences again. Porch sitting Homer and Lady La La talk about knife fights and poisoning. The saucy eyed saucer spits out aberrant things.”
“I must return back to The Islands.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0606, Google Street View, Hawaii, Middletown
Jacob
“It’s perfect Patrick. We can raise our child here on retro Pineapple Island. We don’t need Eotia Village any longer. It’s just me and you, babe. I got you and all that.”
“What about the Oracle?” spoke Patrick, wiser than ever. The baby was coming!
“Oh, that thing. Discard it. Let it go. Tigers can be found anywhere. In the jungle. In the snow. Even in the desert or wasteland. We have our baby to think about now.”
—–
“Something’s not right, Zoidboro. There shouldn’t be a lake here. And the trees should be taller.”
“Nothing to worry about. Everything will adjust. Dog Island, the new one, is right over there.” Zoidboro indicates behind them, through the feed store and across the bay. “This is the new Murdock’s Island. Pineapple. The highway ends here.”
—–
“I think the trees *are* getting taller now.”
“And the water is beginning to evaporate. See? Everything will be fine.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0605, End of Time+
inn (Eotia Village)
“Amazing, Patrick my man. Man *wo*man. All I had to do was volunteer to preach at the local Broken Clock Church twice a week and we get wined and dined all we desire. Room and board too.”
“No – more – cave!” expressed Patrick, who hated to shiver. Doc said his baby was due any day. “Another glass of rosé?”
“Don’t mind if I do, sir. Don’t mind if I do.”
—–
“I don’t understand, Magnus Ellen. The observing truck is gone here at Crow Island. How do we keep up with the progression of Zoidboro and boy gal Patrick?”
“Something must have changed,” opined the wise Buddhist to his understudy. “Strands (of time) must have been altered.”
Sidechick Corea paced nervously on the wooden swing bridge. “What… now, then?”
“Back to Rosehaven. Back to the cave. There *must* be a portal, for we’ve seen Zoidboro also preaching in Rosehaven Serenity.”
“How many places *is* he preaching, sire?”
“Maybe he can’t stop saying, ‘Don’t mind if I do, sir. Don’t mind if I do.'”
Camouflage knows.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0604, End of Time+
Fruity Islands > Rosehaven > Collagesity
—–
“So *you* were the Prince all along. This Ingo. Should’ve known by the name. Ingo… Ingor, your drummer.”
“And you have been the witch Hazel all along,” declared Col. Flagstaff from his log. “My ancient nemesis.”
“Perhaps not any more. Maybe moving forward from this centre spot we can be allies instead of axis. Depends if I can choose blue over red. It will be hard.”
“You should ditch Banana Boy to begin. Your yellow lover.”
“I need him still,” countered Parasol.
“Alright. Suit yourself.” Both knew this was a mistake, though.
Parasol looked at Col. Flagstaff. “You’ll have to remove the sphere to make a final decision. You can’t take that thing with you.”
“Sure about that?”
—–
“Say they — we — were trying to get rid of you, huh?”
“Yeah. Implied I was a liability.”
“And you saw this in the cave.”
“Yeah. I was the fire in the center of it all. The observing fire.”
“Interesting.”
Charlie Banana knew that if he didn’t kill the puppet man soon Parasol would need his heart instead. Better move into action.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0603, Fruity Islands, Rose Heaven-, Rubi
Serenity
If she sits in her compression chair too much longer, she may never get up.
So tightly wound around. Like a Mummy.
Only Monsieur’s visits brings her out of herself. Where *is* he??
—–
“I’ve been waiting and waiting for you, Herbert Glenn Gold.”
The full name, he thinks. She *was* upset. “I’m sorry. I’ve been busy with the king. And then with the doll houses. We found Carrcassonnee inside. The one eyed entity that use to rule Collagesity. HF showed us.”
“But you were both Gold and Platinum inside Murdock’s Castle. Time was all mixed up. *Is* mixed up. You came too close to the truth.”
“Now I know. Fingerprince. I just had to find the second dollhouse to confirm it. And the second HF.”
“Are you going inside? Forever and ever and ever?”
“I’m not sure. What would you advise?”
She paused. “Maybe we should go to the Serenity Church. Perhaps the Reverend can help us.”
—–
“He’s *here*. Zoidboro is here.” Monsieur Gold was incredulous.
“Yes,” spoke Parasol below the tone of Zoidboro’s preaching. “It’s because of the Gold and Platinum mix-up. Zoidboro’s been here for years now. Yet he has just arrived. And then: he isn’t here yet. Some realities he was never born, never had a child by that strange mutant gal-guy Patrick Starr.”
“The drummer?”
“No, that’s Ingor.”
“Ingo?”
“No. *He’s* different.”
“My head hurts. I need to sit down.”
—–
So they sat down opposite Sally Spark O Naut — who had dutifully followed Zoidboro through the eyeball cave portal — and listened to the remainder of a beautiful sermon about the dangers of shark attacks. Afterwards, Herbert Gold’s head hurt considerably more.
In fact, I think he died there. Again.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0012, 0602, Rose Heaven-
Sunklands 