I stared at the blue screen at the center of it all, knowing what came before, what came after. The Game.
The Creator.
“Are you he?” I again confront Zebra also at the center, forwards facing white still in front here and backwards facing black still in back yacking on his phone. I had a right to know, not be left behind.
Lips still zipped? Maybe he told me what was going on without speaking. To be continued?
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0052, 0213, C2077, Heyworth, Indigo Parallel, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, Newtonia, NVFS
“Huh. 1st you’re at Dandelion’s over in Vista Del Rey and then downstairs here at the Port Cafe just a minute ago (35:45) and now here (41:15). What gives?”
“Get away from me. *Right*…*now*.”
Center between his two Port Cafe manifestations (38:30), highlighting Key Woman.
Actual center of 1:16:36 video (38:18) featuring the same gal. “Get away from me you creep,” she says similarly to, um, White Dude just a little later on. White Zebra?
And we’ve seen that other guy before too directly staring at the camera, associated with a center from yet another video. Huh indeed.
We called him Madison then. Madison Perez. Is this correct? Potential future mayor of Night City?
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0052, 0210, C2077, City Center, Heyworth
—–
“I was told to meet you at the center. So here I am. White on one side, black on the other. I’ve checked twice.”
“Hmm,” he said, turning away from me and facing forward again. “Let me think about it.” And that’s all there was to it. This Zebra both black and white, yin and yang, had said his part, information *sealed*… back up. Zipped (lips).
I didn’t interact with black directly, i.e., make eye contact with him like the others, but I could tell he was also keeping tabs by the drink in one hand and the phone most likely connected to the powers that be in the other. About the same distance on the other side of the zipped and sealed Zebra as white was at the front. Same solid colored suit and fedora hat. How I figured out they were united.
Where we were (center).
“I fled through many worlds, many times… They came very close to catching me once. It was then that Avallac’h appeared, out of nowhere. He found a portal and took us to a world where Eredin couldn’t find us for… oh, perhaps half a year…”
“The world where Eredin couldn’t find you. What was that like?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
“People there had metal in their heads, waged war from a distance, using things similar to megascopes. And there were no horses, everyone had their own flying ship instead.”
“Siri, stop fooling around.”
“Told you you wouldn’t believe me.
“Ah, we should’ve stayed there.”
—–
“And so *that*, dear lady, is how we all came here, you, me, Gerald, others. One by one by one, we all got sucked into the portal, with Siri on the other side, desiring us to join her after she returned to this strange but hopefully safe land — safe from the Wild Hunt of course. And I’ve… adapted. As you can see.” He waves his arm around the small but busy cocktails bar he runs with Zoltar, another that came through the portal. His old tavern partner who had become his new bar partner.
Merry Gouldbusk’s brain gears were spinning fast with excitement. “So… Siri is here as well?”
“Of course,” answered the colorful, dandy Dandelion with confidence. “She’s at the center of it all. A game within a game. Trapped. But for a reason. Found her in a drawer in my office out back. ‘Hmph,’ I say at the time. ‘Wonder how someone who looks like Siri got on the cover of that magazine?’ Later I learned that *was* Siri. Literally. Siri and the game had become one.”
“Fascinating,” is all dumbfounded Merry Gouldbusk could think of saying. Portals, she ponders. She’s beginning to understand why Gerald hates them so. Trapped! Just like all the rest. What would she do here? Streetwalker? Would it get that bad? Surely it wouldn’t get that bad.
“So… Dandelion.”
“Yes, my lady?”
“Do you, ahem, need a dishwasher here by chance?” she only 1/2 joked.
“I… have something better. Siri has been preparing for this moment. Come with me. Back to my office. Another part of the magic of this world. A talking book. Just as Siri linked up with me, I was suppose to link up with you. Gerald… not really sure about yet,” he admits with a shake of his head. “We’ll cross that bridge later. Here… come.”
And they get up and go to his office out back for further instructions from Center Control.
(to be continued)
“Interesting place you have here, Dandelion.” She’d caught up with the owner of the cocktails bar. Indeed a dandy, a playboy, but of the loyalest kind. “But… I must ask, of course. How did *you* get here?”
“Interesting question in turn, my lady, interesting indeed. And the crux of the issue — you’re good at getting to those as I’m recalling. Our many adventures.” He shakes his head with the flood of memories, takes a second to absorb and then recalibrate the discussion. In truth, he didn’t think his great great friend Gerald, the former witcher recently retired to the Touisant vineyard he inherited after killing that, well… red headed *monster*, would choose Merry here over Jennifer. He considers the red head before him, looming large and bright. That must be it. Gerald was always a sucker for bright colors. Like those painters who only paint red yellow blue all over Beauchamp. Abstracters, they’re sometimes called. His other great great friend Princess Anna of Lea who ruled that land had explained it all. Abstraction’s the rage of Beauchamp, she said while pointing an artist out, busy away at it on one of the many town terraces. If you paint or draw realistically you are considered mundane, run of the mill; *anyone* can do realism, she said at the time, which he thought was odd. He preferred landscape paintings himself. And portraits, especially of himself. Which gets him to the point.
“It all had to do with a painting, Merry. A painting of me.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0046, 0503, C2077, Heyworth, Maebaleia/Satori, Witcher, X-City
I know, I’ll ask that pedestrian up ahead for directions, she thinks.
“Dandelion!?” she shouted over the cycle’s roar while pulling up beside him and slowing to his pace. “Know where to find!?”
But he kept on trudging along in his stumbly bumbly way, not answering. “Well *fine*!” she said and motored on, only to encounter him *again* just ahead. NPC, she realized. Not real. And no dialog assigned to it apparently since she got the same non-response from the second one. Meet him in another district of town and he could be a Chatty Kathy, though, she theorized while pulling away once more.
“Dandelion?!” they said after she finally flagged down someone real about 3 blocks away, a native to Night City named Dave. “Different part of town!” he answered over her still raging motor. “You’re in Watson! You *need* Heywood, Vista Del Rey to be specific…!”
“… Dandelion to exactly pinpoint!” she finished for him. And he told her.
But when she arrived at the indicated location, she finds that she *herself* is already there. As another Redd. She gets up off the bench to its side and heads within…
“Hey motherf-cker. Long time no see!”
No, You’re not who I’m looking for this go around I don’t think. I can return here if needed, though. Thanks!
Nor you, Redd from GTA V among other places, although there’s a seat opposite you I could certainly plop my behind down in where we could catch up with each other if needed. Again, saved a timestamp.
Fish in the ceiling at the Advocet Hotel bar is certainly interesting but there’s no one around that I know atall here. Another time marker.
Then exactly halfway in my journey through Vista Del Rey via this BD video that continued the first, I find the Dandelion Cocktails bar. And Redd there sitting on the side of it (!). Must be Redd I’m looking for after all. I approach her — again.
Dandelion Cocktails is a Witcher 3 easter egg in Cyberpunk 2077, by the way. Referencing this poetic dude.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0046, 0413, C2077, Heyworth
“Hey,” I said while approaching, noticing he was looking across the road at it. “Know anything about it?”
“Wellsprings?” he said, with head now cocked sideways in a listening position. Could just as easily have been Welles, hmph. But, directly: Hey. Thus my opening. Did he get it? I urged him to continue.
“Yeah, Wellsprings will do.”
“I can do Welles too,” he said back cryptically. Another me! I recognized.
“How about Hey?” I said, splitting the difference. “As in, let’s say, Heywood.”
“Overarching.” And with this word he moved on down the street further into The Glen, seemingly concerned with other matters now. My matters took me to Vista Del Rey less than a minute walk from here. All part of Heywood, though. Including Wellsprings.
On the other side of town in Watson, Mysti tries to resurrect dead boyfriend Welles in her Small China esoterica shop through various channels and potions and stuff. Will she succeed? Another: we’ll see.
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0046, 0408, C2077, Heyworth, Small China
“You’re remembering.”
—–
“Thanks! I was ready to move on.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0046, 0203, C2077, Heyworth
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxrWLOlTnZnis3DL3vcrjY0yIbOfFMHBA
The 1st Lettuce Walk video of this Cyberpunk 2007 Ultimate Ambience playlist establishes HOME (Kabusie; entered immediately after lightning strike at 12:21).
The 2nd Lettuce Walk video of this playlist establishes CENTER (holographic fish of Corpo Plaza — side note: Wheeler also states that she’s this center as well with her own two red and blue fish (more soon?)).
3rd Lettuce Walk video in the playlist reinforces CENTER by pairing it with another (word) to make CITY CENTER.
https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/City_Center_(2077)
4th Lettuce Walk video here establishes first move away from CITY CENTER, where center, with small letters this time, becomes internal to the video itself (3 monks at bamboo wall).
And this is where we are now. WELLSPRINGS remains super important.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0046, 0202, C2077, City Center, Heyworth, Kabusie
