Category Archives: 07

July 24, 2018 · 6:53 am

ending 01

“Don’t you guys watch anything but MTV?” complained Bill/Wheeler good-naturedly.

“I’m telling you Queen Bill.”

“Bill, please. Or The Bill. Whichever.”

“You were sitting *right* there when you told me we had to move our trailer here to Rubi. Well, not in that chair, but the chair I use to have over in Obscure.”

Bill tested the springs again a little. “Yeah, I’m really sorry about this furniture — we’ll get you a better chair. And the toilet in the living room!

Unacceptable. I’ll get Clyde the town fixit man out here as early as I can. He’s working on the pipes of the Oo’d Church this weekend. But we’ll get him out here asap.”

“The dining room set is nice,” states Angus Nuffin, attempting to paint a brighter picture of their situation than Bill.

“No, this is my responsibility. I’m early in my rulership. I’ll right the wrong.”

“Okay, that’s great Bill. We really appreciate it. Now… back to that night you visited me in Obscure…”

—–

“She just doesn’t remember it,” Angus complains to his daughter Ragdoll later on while sitting at the dining table. “And I don’t know how to jog her memory. She’s new at her job — *I’m* new at this. Indigo can *hypnotize* with the best, but unhypnotizing someone like Bill (he was going to say, “as stubborn as” but decided on “like” here) — not as easy as I, we, supposed.”

Ragdoll listened intently. “Then maybe The Diagonal itself should wake her up. Indigo could take her on a walk in the woods…” She paused, thinking of a better idea. “Or…”

“Obviously, Obscure is no good, since we moved the trailer from there because of the lowered energy.”

Ragdoll remained patient, knowing her beloved father was under a lot of pressure right now to bring back Bill’s memories. “What I was going to say,” she continued in her kind way, “is that we should take her to a particular place on The Diagonal. But not Obscure.”

“Right, right. Sorry I interrupted you there.” Distracted by a sound behind him, Angus looked at the clock. 2:01 in the morning. “We better get some sleep. Looks like Indigo is staying in the woods again tonight. Good for her! I couldn’t ask for 2 more dedicated daughters to the cause. Pot-D forever!”

“Pot-D forever!” echoed Ragdoll almost as enthusiastically.

“Before you turn in, sweetie, let’s take one more look at your brand new alternate self.”

“Okay, but only if you change in turn,” replied Ragdoll sweetly.

“Alright, Zero. On the count of 3, then. 1…2…”

“You look great, Ragdoll.”

“Shirley, please. When I’m in this form.”

“Of course.” Angus/Sid watched Ragdoll/Shirley scratch again. “But we have to give you something for those fleas, birthday girl.”

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September 30, 2017 · 8:58 am

Ring

They were waiting in Clownski’s for the start of filming tonight when Wheeler got the ring. Seeing who the caller was, she distanced herself from Rocky in case it was bad news.

“Uh huh,” she said, listening to Baker Bloch. “2, maybe 3 more months. Until Christmas.” She listened some more. “Uh huh.” She bit at a fingernail and spit on the floor. “Okay, I’ll tell Rocky.” The call ended.

Wheeler Wilson sat down again opposite Rocky in the booth. “Good news, Mr. Racco. Baker Bloch’s said the Bodega Supermarket and Deli can stay a while. You’re a store owner still… for now.”

Rocky rapidly clapped his hands together and jumped up and down a little, even. “What’d he say, what’d he say?”

“He said he’s going to try out a gallery upstairs. Said there was more stories to tell. I guess he meant second floor stories.” She smiled.

“Tealie,” began Rocky again. “Tealie, Tealie, Tealie.”

Wheeler stared at him blankly. “Anyway, he said filming is off tonight. His graphic novel may be completed. I was wondering how he was going to create a town set 50 years in the future full of robots. Seems he’s chickened out of all that.”

“As he should! Present is the point of power. Let’s go back and tell Terry!”

—–

“Because a futuristic town would have been way too much to pull off.”

“Sure would have, Wheeler.”

END OF “COLLAGESITY 2017 MIDDLE”!

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September 29, 2017 · 8:00 pm

“see title 02”

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September 29, 2017 · 9:06 am

finishes 04

Nancy leads Rocky around the transmogrified village, showing him various things that are different now.

This includes the Defiance Cemetery across the tracks, still tiny but with several additional graves and revamped tombstones to fit the future times, along with some artificial ground mist.

“Razielians we are now,” Nancy explains. She points to each grave in turn. “Still Richard, Danny, Linda at the top, but those little ones — our children. Star and Par, named after the two sims of the town. Young they were at death.” She stops here, being still unable to weep at the sight despite many years passing.

“Where is your grave?” Rocky asks, looking around.

“I am not buried with Danny according to the laws of our new religion. Advantages it has from the standpoint of appealing to the mechanoids, which began to outnumber us regular flesh and blood citizens starting in 2049. Or was it 2059? Anyway, that’s the main reason for the switch. Robots. Tronesisia became a high priestess herself. A popess or female pope, some claimed, although I processed all the paperwork of town, being the city clerk, and never saw an official decree to that regard. I would know.”

“What happened to Danny?”

Nancy sighed. “He never became a vampire and remained in his grave, looking for pipes and other plumbing to fix in the great beyond. I died a lonely spinster at the age of 72. But I am young again now in appearance. Don’t I look super for 72 years plus 1?”

“So Star and Par aren’t Danny’s children? I’m confused.”

“I was pregnant at the time of his death.” She stops again.

“Look,” says Rocky, pointing toward town. “Someone is over there.”

Wheeleria likewise turns around, knowing Rocky couldn’t see her.

But nothing is there except the side of the Razielian synagogue. *Can* he see her? It hasn’t happened in 50 or so years but maybe… maybe…

(to be continued)

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September 29, 2017 · 7:39 am

finishes 03

The Librarian walks through the door without opening it. Rocky sees no choice except to follow suit…

… but on the other side the figure is nowhere to be seen. Rocky stands alone.

He peers around at the cobweb filled room with its two huge spiders (Boris and Doris Webb)…

… and understands where he is. The Magill House. The Magill Hill House, the Hill House. The House on the Hill. The point is, it still stands in this reality he now inhabits; hasn’t fallen off the edge of town to be destroyed on the grassy plain 100 meters below thanks to Story Room’s thump thump thumping from the night before.

And it now has a ghost on the upstairs porch.

“Rooo-cky,” the spectre calls in the haunting way ghosts do. “Roo-cky,” she repeats. “Roooo-cky,” she wails again. He reaches her.

“Nancy??”

(to be continued)

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September 29, 2017 · 6:13 am

finishes 02

Rocky was walking around town just after 2am the next night, pondering over the hard choice he had to make, when he came upon it to his right. The structure most like the one he was renting in town, suddenly filled. Musaks was the name. He remembered the establishment use to be beside Baker Bloch’s rental in Tenement Square. Within still were a number of orchestrions and gramaphones, all powered up and producing a kind of spooky cacaphony in toto. And then in back, a steam calliope; he didn’t remember that from before.

But what is the lilting tune he automatically finds himself playing to add to those already thick in the air. Checking the object’s description, he sees it’s something called “Girls Just Require Amusement” by a C. Lauper, who he doesn’t know. He stands up.

The Librarian had just appeared out of nowhere at the lone desk of the room, reading a book as usual. Rocky decided just to stay calm and take the manifestation in stride.

“What are you reading — Librarian isn’t it?” The figure didn’t answer but just kept on studying the book in his hands. Rocky takes a look.

“Oh, it’s *my* book, hmmm. ‘Bible Truth.’ But I don’t remember a hardback edition being published yet. You must have one of the first copies.” Still nothing from The Librarian. “Is that the one where Nancy dies at the end?”

The Librarian closes the book and puts it on the desk while standing. He backs up a little bit and, hands together, begins to stare at the wall. Rocky gazes with him in silence.

A red door appears.

(to be continued)

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September 28, 2017 · 7:10 am

finishes 01

Story Room brought down the house last night at Rocky’s. Literally, because the MaGill home next door fell off the edge of town with the vibrations. Thump thump thump thump from 6 to 12. Everyone in Astarte loved it, though. Teebestia actually turned into a black woman for several minutes of “Fire Ants,” much to the surprise of accompanying Hoss. A minute after 12 he asked her out on a date. “Sure,” she said, doused in sweat and still wildly swaying to the music only in her head now. “Malone Central okay? They have a new Starbucks.” And so another couple was created in Olde Lapara Towne, adding to Nancy and Danny, Bettie and Buster, Tronesisia and Peter, Mary and Paul. Another happy ending. But what of Rocky? His piano eliminated from the stage due to lack of space, he sulked in the back. Even Terry had brought a date: Wanesa, the local butcher. He pondered his options while watching lead singer Improvio pretend-spitting into the crowd for the umpteenth time. Stay here in Olde Lapara Towne and go back to his crawlspace in the hotel, or head to Collagesity with Baker Bloch, Wheeler Wilson, and maybe a couple of others. Lamb had left the scene just before the concert began. Peter, Paul and Mary, each loaded down with as much weedy grass as their backpacks could hold, had used the sand dune/sand castle portal located directly beneath Rocky’s to transfer to Melancholy Island, with a change in disposition there surely to follow. They would never return to the town which had displaced pastoral folk music in their hearts with the sturm und drang of punk. Thanks to that cursed ring.

(to be continued)

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