“Thaaat’s betterr.”
“Hold still Mr. Middle Slaughter, tee hee. Say cheese.”
“Cheeeeeese.”
“Perfect.” Snap.
Category Archives: Arroyo
00440413 (Arroyo)
“Chop!” I said, looking into the Dewdrop Inn room I’d force-opened and recognizing my dog at last. Well. At least the *map* of my dog. Martha’s Vineyard. Always wondering what it meant and why the feet were there. And the head with the two Chop names, East and West, like paired lips or ears or sumtin. Well that head is *this* head, those feet — clearly — are *these* feet.
My dog is a robot. And a sexy one at that it appears, at least to those of its kind. But maybe Chop is instead the robot in the chair — watching. Maybe the map is that of his true love, something he wants to *eat* — chomp away at. Like breakfast, hmm. Rose, I remembered. Better get back and finish my meal.
“Never mind me,” I wanted to say to the robots in parting. “Wrong room.” But I knew they couldn’t hear me. This was a spectacle, something only to be observed and that alone. Same as, er, Chop is doing here. I’m engrossed, he’s engrossed. Seems to fit, yeah. I shut what remained of the door and leave the motel and head next door again.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0413, Arroyo, Blue Feather Sea^, C2077, Maebaleia/Satori, Massachusetts, Witcher
00430413 (The End?)
“Arroyo is a dead end,” Fern said to me through her dreams last night. “You’re going to have to swing back and forth wildly across Nightsity like a wobbly pendulum in order to approach the issue from all angles. Only then can you understand the city, but it will not be solved in this one photo-novel. Our Second Lyfe is dead.” That’s what she said. There’s no going back. She told me where to swing next. Lightning strike while crossing into Kabuki. But I can’t call it that, I suppose. Got in trouble with Arroyo from the locals. Fern already has a place there, a business, but won’t tell me specifics. Her gal pal Lichen is probably around too. And I was indicated they still have the list. Both of ’em, which are actually one of ’em. Black and White together. Here’s the strike. Took a bit of effort to catch the quick thing.
Fern is an ascended master for sure, beyond me in most ways except comedy. That part belongs to Lichen. And perhaps there we can find the spark that might kindle back my love of Our Second Lyfe. Because it’s certainly still there. Through Wendy, the third. But for now, in this post, we must acknowledge the death on some level; move on. Fern has fused with [Certain Death] on the search for the All Seeing Eye. Both share the golden gun that guides them through dream after dream after dream, like entering rooms in an endless mansion. For him, though, it started in a different game, on a highly neglected “third” summit called Gordon. Lighting strike again. We’ve seen this before.
Back to entering, err, *Kabusie*.
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0043, 0413, Arroyo, C2077, GTA, Kabusie, Nightsity, Washington
00430412 (Edward D.)
She called in her big brother for intimidation and I knew I had to stop, Hustle kids both. I didn’t follow her this time as she walked away. I decided then and there to switch these kind of activities from night to day, and from women to men. So the next day, Thursday I believe, Edward fairly quickly came into my scope as he passed the V that represented me. Which brings us to the present, I suppose.
—–
It took me 27 minutes and 19 seconds into this more ambient video to turn the game location Red Dirt into the blog location Red Dust, pheh. But I got it. Edward was nowhere to be found — I thought I’d try this out first since it’s the last location we’ve seen him in time-wise, staring at that Mars guitar of all things. He *knows*. Anyway, I must move on… the 45 minute video’s over.
We’ll call him Edward Doofus per V’s nickname to differentiate him from Edward Daigle seen in earlier sections of this here novel. But underneath the different game exteriors they seem to be one and the same. That’s another twist. Now: to figure out how it happened. We last saw Edward *Daigle* on a ship 1 after 909 heading to Mars, sitting a couple of rows behind super smart Fern Stalin going to same. But — hold on — maybe Mars is Arroyo. Maybe Red Dirt *is* Red Dust. Someone decides to hold out a knife to test the theory on a particular rusty and dusty day. *Brnng*, it rings, as he unsheathes it while a Red Dust cowboy videotapes the whole thing, hoping to fully form in this reality. Another Youtuber?
Results inconclusive. But we appear to be on the right track! Back into Arroyo it is.
00430410 (All Blue)
In the bathroom of the bar, he prepares to swallow the bitter blue pill. Will he ever be able to get back? Or is this *it*?
“Have fun,” V says to Silverhhand standing next to him, ready to take over. Down down down it goes. He feels the big thing all the way to the bottom of the esophagus, riding the walls. Then: gone.
—–
After the last gig, Silverhhand took out the same colored pill and, listening to Cary [Ronson] play the first chords on his gifted guitar beside him, swallows. The snake has properly eaten its own tail. V returns.
00430409
I logged out, came back the next day and played the same mission. Edward this time doing the eyeing! The exact same one I’d been stalking earlier for a body transfer. Let’s back up…
—–
Q: What is Arroyo?
A: It’s a district in Nightsity. More on the industrial side (of things).
Q: Why is it spelled the same as in reality? And Nightsity (actually Night City) isn’t?
A: I suppose because it’s more important in its own, smaller way. Or more off the radar maybe. Harder to detect.
Q: (checks notes) Says here to ask about Grandpa Cliffs.
A: The same.*
Q: Soo (checking notes still)… Red Dust (within). Again the name change.**
—–
Red dust fell from the roof in the room in front of me as the TV announcer mentioned the red planet. I knew where to head next.
—–
*Castle Town character Drew “Grumpy” Cleveland from section 01 of this here photo-novel, aka Grandpa Cliffs, says his original name came from the rough town just across the channel, just as Arroyo is mentioned as being a rough town accessible across a channel/canal.
**Red Dust bar is actually Red Dirt bar in the game, where NC’s most famous rock act Sunamai and its lead man Jonny Silverhhand*** played both their first and last gig, swallowing complete.
***Sunamai is actually Samurai; Jonny Silverhhand is obviously Johnny Silverhand with a shifted h.
00430408 (Mars bar)
I ate the chicken but decided to dump the fries before traversing the canal. Or was it channel? Anyway, couldn’t take a chance on something so long, narrow and numerous. Many more places for bugs to hide inside. Now I felt better about crossing over to more dangerous Arroyo. Too late for that Independence Day bash under the 77 overpass with the Parisian Quadruplets, also sharing birthdays with the holiday as luck goes. Nothing more French than a foursome I suppose. One day, I think, still staring at the spilled fries and trying to spot movement within. No go. Oh well; kind of stale anyway what I sampled, I thought in my sour grapes state of mind. Into Arroyo it is.
Just past Arroyo on the other side, ran into this guy just blubbering and blubbering about what to me looked like nothing much more than a fender bender to his precious macho truck, but I’m not a mechanic. So funny. I bet he goes to sleep at night with a teddy truck or something clutched tightly to his broad, muscular bosom.
Oh, about Arroyo itself. Something happened there. Something I’ll have to keep for later. Because I’d seen this same orange garbed crybaby at the Red Dust. Eyeing the guitar.
00430406 (Mt. Gordon Mysteries)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YzgnITHBHA
I’m in.
—–
In other news:
Found a rare 4-some in C2077! Hardest to see is weeing on the truck more in the background. The other 3 identical red white and blue punks are dancing up a storm in front of it with a couple of others. Happy Independence Day again I suppose!
00430404
After their last show together as Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in July ’73, David Bowie (Ziggy) entrusts Spiders’ lead guitarist Mick Ronson with his guitar in a world inverted from ours through more than just colors. It has been proven that *our* Bowie knew of such worlds in music videos like “Loving the Alien” from his much maligned “Tonight” album released in the mid-80s, a time when mainstream rock music in general was going through a rough patch of banality. An inverted universe is front and center when we enter the video with a blue (opposite of skin color) Bowie praying with clinched teeth to an unlistening and perhaps unreal deity.
Then it becomes starkly obvious when Bowie sits in front of a mirror and is forced to watch it flip into this “negative” self by a restraining nun figure.
With the lyrics’ emphasis on Christianity against Islam, and organized religion vs. heathenism and nonbelievers as a whole, Bowie warns that we often get history backwards through the lens of Western Civilization, justifying mass killings in crusades ancient and new in the name of a supposed one true God — *our* God. Turn to the aliens for a higher and more correct perspective on the situation, he seems to say. Love the aliens… in ourselves.
Back to Bowie and Ronson and the handing over of the guitar, this didn’t happen in our world. The Mars Guitar was destroyed that summer night in London along with the backing Spiders band, never to be played with again. But through Jonny Silverhhand and Cyberpunk 2077, a role David Bowie was slated to play until his untimely death in 2016, alternate paths can be explored. No regrets, Bowie confronts his own reflection after the Black Star incident. The guitar plays on.
Sunklands 