At a lake in the center of the park, Joanna S. receives the illumination that someone is approaching…
… from a different dimension altogether.
Later: Creeping along in Times Square traffic, ha.
Category Archives: **VIRTUAL OT
00470504
I stayed at the Roadway Inn in Big Water, Utah for the night. I knew this was the place to be when spotting these male and female cowboy silhouettes framing a red rock outside Room 605, 200 meters (or yards) effectively reduced to zero. Zeroing in, I took it.
The next day I set out for Bryce Canyon not far north of here. I intended to become one of those flying squirrels and survey the whole place by air. I succeeded, though not in the main task.
Eventually I found the actual Red Rock but it took a while. Bret helped. Said it’d been at least several years since he was up there with his ailments and all but we eventually stumbled upon the approx. 20 foot long stone at the top of a canyon cascade. Red Rock Rest, he joked about the name and suddenly became sad. I in contrast was overjoyed as hell.
Strangest thing. We saw a rabbit when walking around it for the first time which then hopped away, leaving what appeared to be its own shadow for a second. Then the “shadow” itself became animated and scurried away, being revealed as what seemed to be a large rat by its shape and motion. We saw no other wildlife while there besides birds. And these two seen were superimposed as one when first encountered. We took it as a sign. Only later did we find out the meaning.
Bret (and Sooki) soon gave me the nickname The Fly because of my prowess in the sky and it stuck like paper. Later when the newspaper articles stopped being published it changed to Airey for reasons unknown to me. In honor of someone I gathered but no one ever gave any details. A “nobody” is all they said about the person. Unlike me.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0504, Google Street View, New Mexico, Utah
from genesis to revelation
I started walking but I didn’t know where I was going. Turns out: the bottom. And, along the way, center, a place of rest called Red Rock about halfway up and halfway down. Red Rock West, as in the western states of our US of America. Or maybe I should change that to Red Rock Rest. Whatever… I’m on my way.
Lizard! I’m excited because in Nightsity which I kind of call home now — I guess – there are no wild animals left, just those rare and expensive ones in cages and tanks.
Snake! This is getting even better (!). Not a lot of wildlife but at least some. This is the only snake I saw, that’s the only lizard up there above it. Lots of birds, though. And I think I spotted a rabbit at one point but it hopped away quickly if so. Still… something!
Ahh. Red Rock West. Or Rest. Center of BD and also center of my up to down journey. It sticks out.
I later decided to ask long time resident Bret about it after reaching base camp. “Bret, I wonder while you’re mindless frying up more meat burgers that you could answer me a question.” I may not have put it *exactly* like that to the grizzled local legend but that’s the gist of it.
“Anything, Groundy,” I remember him saying as he scooped another big juicy patty off the grill and effortlessly slid it into a waiting, open bun already prepared with a big slice of tomato and a big leaf of lettuce. They started calling me Groundy after I told them I like to keep my 2 feet on the ground, as in I don’t like to participate in their unendingly practiced speed sports like skiing, skateboarding, mountain biking, and some others I’m probably forgetting. Hang gliding — yeah. And something, what was it, called suit flying… something. Like a flying squirrel they were.
Bret had seen a lot. Multiple champion of the Ryders Ridge Invitational in the early to mid 10’s — set all kinds of records, they say — but grounded himself now because of some bum part of his body — no one would tell me which one. Maybe multiple parts.
I said the name that popped into my head earlier. I was just testing him after all. Shouldn’t have expected so much.
“Red Rock West, lemme see lemme see.” He set the plate down for ski fanatic Arnold to dig into just before he hit the slopes for the 3rd time today. And it was only 2 in the afternoon. Yeah, there was snow here too. Obviously further up in the mountains but not too far. Improbably close, actually, given the warmth down here. Desert-like.
“Say you took a rest there,” he said when upright again.
“Yeah.”
“Then you’re talking about legendary Red Rock *Rest*. Yeah, *everyone’s* heard of *that*. Right Arnold?”
Chomping Arnold nodded up and down, knowing Bret was onto another whopper as he returned to his meat.
“Really?” I say innocently. He stared right through me from the grill. “Naaaaahhh. Just pulling your leg Groundy. There are 100s, maybe 1000s of red rocks around here and up in the mountains, choom.”
Choom? I think while turning red myself. Where’d he get *that* expression?
“Big, small, in-between,” he continued the chiding. “Describe where this particular red rock is and maybe it’ll jog my memory, designated name or not.”
“Up above the waterfall — or cascade I suppose. Above the canyon.”
“Any *balloons* around? Balloons identify the general region you’re in, Groundy. I take it you know that by now, though. You’ve been hiking all around here for a week now.”
A week? I think. Enough to acquire a nickname. And I recall they know I don’t like meat, like Bret’s ground beef here. So Groundy halfway comes from that too. And here I am, making myself a big fat juicy target next to meat parsing Bret. Might as well be shooting big red arrows at me like I was one of the local wildlife.
“I recall… something.” Someone waved in the distance outside the open kiosk window and I remembered. Thanks stranger!
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0047, 0503, New York, Utah
00470502
I saw the green soldier man lying dead outside the entrance to the Big Inside and my brain snapped. Little Big, my heart moaned. Little Big…
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0502, C2077, Kabusie
00470501
“So that’s it down there,” I said, rather unimpressed.
“Yeah,” she said. “I thought we better take a photo up here before we forget where we are. Kabusie — so complicated!”
“Yeah and you’ve lived here, what, 12 years?”
“After Major died…” We both became silent for a minute. Then: “Well, we better get down there and take a look. I need to get you back to the house before dark so you can play with your, ahem, BD’s, heh.”
Just that one night she caught me, I think here. I’ll never live it down. Moving on: “So I still can’t go out after dark here,” I started the now old complaint. “And me 21 1/2 years old?”
“You need to get a job — *day* job. Then you can spend nights at the apartment–”
“This place comes alive at night,” I countered. “What would I do in the day?”
My *point* is — if you’ll let me finish — you’ll be too wore out to do too much mucking about afterwards. Thennnn, when you’ve saved enough money and learned — a *lot* — more about the ins and outs of these mean streets — where to be safe, what places to avoid — *then* we can think about getting you your own place. Under *my* supervision.”
“Super*vision*?” I chafed again.
“Yeah, you know. In looking for an apartment. No, I don’t mean being with you all times of the night following you around or anything; we won’t be living together any more. Truly I want to let you grow up here before kicking you out of your new nest. Mother would kill me if I let anything happen to you. You know that… *baby* brother.” The emphasis on “baby” reinforced what our mother thought of me. Still a toddler in this world, still an infant. With monkey feet that you can’t put socks on. With a crib by the bed watching robots walk past then melt into wall corners. Ro-bots.
“Okay,” I tried to put an end to this worn out discussion. “What would I do in your mind? During the day?”
She readjusted her position on the rail we were looking over, as if preparing herself for a retaliatory blow. “Wellll, you could work at that factory that makes robots we talked about. Uncle Steve could help you get a position.”
Suddenly, with the synchronous conjouring of the word robot, I realized this was fate. I *had* to work at that factory. I breathed out. “I’ll think about it,” I decided to give her.
Lexi beamed while looking down. Her master plan might work out after all. “Okay, wonderful. Now let’s go take a closer look at *Crooked*.”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0047, 0501, C2077, Kabusie
00470413
“Why yes I’ll accept your goblet of wine almost naked and equally tall Colossus before me, ha ha ha.”
Shelley Johnston Struthers wakes up drooped over her laptop, realizes she’s got to finish the current photo-novel before August 31st or overdue. Hiding the tempting body evilly illuminated by the black hole sun behind her, she gets back to it.
—–
“It’s YOUR fault, you know. The death of Susan here. You killed her!”
“No, YOU killed her!”
“Did not!”
“Did so!”
“Did not!”
“Did so!”
—–
Oops. 7 o’clock already. Time for Newt to watch TV with Wheeler. Better say my goodbyes and head out. Maybe for the last time, PHEH.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0413, Bright Moon Cottage, Jeogeot, LSD, Nawt Vaya+, Newtonia, NVFS, Oooo, Vortexville
00470410
“And so that’s how the crash occurred, and for what reason. You should have figured this out long before. Blue Boy.”
Blue Boy? he thought. OH, she thinks I am…
—–
… a different person now, thought older and more mature Newt. I am no longer Pepi – Can – Kolya, he counts them off individually on his desk beside his steampunk computer, old like him but still quite functional for his needs. He likes the way the dimensions of the monitor seem ideal to display full screen versions of his blog pictures (for example).
“Sir? (pause) Sir?”
“Oh yes, young Fink,” he finally comes out of his daydreams and acknowledges the boy’s presence. “Heading home again?”
“No sir. Just arrived. It’s 4 o’clock.”
“Oh.” Newt looks at his watch; still not on his arm, though. 4 indeed. Not 7. Where didn’t the time fly? ha ha, he thinks with a laugh. “Heading upstairs, then?”
Yes sir,” said Fink. “With your permission of course.”
“Of course — our arrangement. You show up at 4, go upstairs and use my attic computer for 3 hours, come back down here and say goodbye at 7 along with a bit of a chat, and then you return to your treehouse home to do stuff with pal Jake while Wheeler and I enjoy our TV shows before my bedtime.”
Fink was thinking: he and Wheeler have different bedtimes? Interesting. But of course said nothing about this. Instead:
‘Yes sir.” And before he took his leave he decided to remind Newt that the mechanical contraption Bimbo from their native land of Oooooo will FINALLY be arriving tomorrow afternoon after a 4 month delay.
After a significant pause while Newt still stared at the screen before him, he said, “right, right,” and moved to shut the door on the young human. “You’ll excuse me, Fink. Sensitive material on the computer now. Not for young eyes. Goodbye. We’ll talk at 7.”
And then he went back to his desk to have a bit of a weepie. He’ll miss the fellow!
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0410, Bright Moon Cottage, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, Newtonia, NVFS
00470404 (another manifestation)
She had to take Ice Cube’s and, by default, Eraser’s spot in the contest since she effectively eliminated both at once in that scene with the crusher from several posts back (“Apple!, Orange!, Banana!,” SPLATT). But it took some time for her to wake up from this comfy red white and blue US of A tinted picnic blanket and remember all this, YAWN. The prepared Playboy magazine with the girl representing naked truth about to be revealed from beneath another blanket helped. Pure glinty, ruby red it was now. Like her. All she had to do was fully wake up and take a gander inside. Because this was actually her new paired teammate Bookie, here for the cause.
“WOW-za. That’s ME??” she says to him after opening to his Center. Then she unfolds to see even more….
Wheeler and Newt soon join them in the gawking, Alfred and Jim too after the latter stops fishing and fulfills the requirement for no rules breaking from a teammate. Our teams are forming. What other characters will be paired together in this here Town of Newt to continue the Battle, this Newt-Town: Newtown? Like New York except different, since that was Section 02 and this is Section 04. Harmonized none-the-less, I feel. Not planned, though. Just happened. I won’t say hmm again but it is implied.
(to be continued)
00470315
“So Ice Cube who also stands in for Eraser is dead,” observing Nauty said about the crushing of the vowel object-characters in this game of FILE. “Done in by Ruby Gem’s spell centered on All Orange. But let’s back up, examine what these fruits actually represent. Everyone has an Orange, but only females have generally recognized Apples and males have generally recognized Bananas, Big Apples and Big Bananas we can call them. Although all have spaces on their body that can be filled with such.”
“Everyone is actually All Orange with Apples and Bananas to fill around (an agreed upon) center,” I attempted.
“Big Orange, right. Or Old Orange,” he wheezed out.
—–
Thanks to the pills she manifested in her mouth, Original Phyllis returned on the ottoman on the 2nd floor of the Crooked building in Constantynople, now depossessed or unlinked from the harmful inner spirit known as All Orange, who some call Big or even Old instead. Like Myrtle Beech for the latter. Shame we can’t get into more of her story right now but there’s only so much you can do with a 24 hour day these days. Outdoor fun like watching a tired dump truck driver unload a Big Arm beside a Big Banana in Flathardt with the help of a handy elephant can only last so long, else you run out of time for other stuff. Plus there’s the rain, the seemingly daily mountain showers and thunderstorms to contend with, PHEH. Else who *knows* what could be achieved. There would be an outdoor center congruent with the inner. But back to original Phyllis in her original role.
“Red yellow green blue,” she begins. “NO orange, NO–” She pauses. Is it about the orange? she briefly contemplates. NO, it’s not about the orange. Nor the violet. “NO violet,” she starts again in her loud, confident manner, pills in full effect now. “NO nothing else. We HAVE — our 4…..”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0047, 0315, Constantynople, Flathardt, Goikyland, Haze County, Nautilus
00470313
“I always wanted to break down the 4th wall,” Alice responded when I asked her if she liked her new home in the woods. “Now I can speak directly to you, the observer! We have no barriers between us.”
“Ka,” exuded Ka to her left, also joyful. “Skwi,” squeaked Skwi in glee to her right. If Mistress Alice is okay with this then her pet cat and squirrel respectively are too. Let the Flathardt experience commence!
Oh. I guess I should explain where we are. It’s a bit difficult. Let’s just move around and see who else is here and I’m sure everything will become crystal clear as soon as possible.
“Where do you want the Big Arm,” issued Ted the dump truck driver, tired from a long journey across upper Woodlawndia to get here.
“Just over there. Beside the Big Banana,” said pointing Pinky, sort of a manager here I suppose and dependent on outside help until the village gets its own fleet of trucks and drivers. “Ellie, give him a, er, *hand* if you don’t mind.”
“Sure thing,” the elephant said after they all had a chuckle over the joke, even tired Ted, although he laughed the least. Still about 5 seconds.
Not really becoming clear yet… oh, here’s another group to investigate.
“This giant frog skin is soo smooth and colorful,” gushes Pantomime Penny to her father or perhaps her brother.
“Don’t touch it,” he says down to her. “Warts,” he summarizes. I was thinking poison and I believe by the look the lamb is giving him she did too.
Well, let’s just back up, zoom out. Out out out.
There we are. That grove of green pine trees, with undergrowth consisting only of rhododendron which you can’t really see from the air. And, most remarkable, despite this being the top of a hill, all land in this grove is completely and utterly flat. Hence the name Flathead, as in flat head of a hill. Plus that whole Montana thing we’ll get back to in a while.
The toy avatars that are already here debated whether to name their new community the same as the hill, Flathead, or instead go with Flatheart, meaning the heart of the hill since their community is much smaller than Flathead itself and in the basic center or “heart” of everything. At least in their eyes. They settled on a portmanteau of sorts: Flathardt, 1/2 head 1/2 heart (kind of). And one of the more vocal citizens at the meeting was a big Dale Earnhardt fan and owned a #8 toy race car in his honor (see right of frog above). So that probably played a role in the compromise name too.
What next for Flathardt? I’m guessing toy train tracks, since I’ll be the one hauling them up here and laying them down. I wanted to bring the tracks up today but I couldn’t find them in the junk heap that is our basement. So I settled for some other toys. Hopefully tomorrow, then. Weather should be okay again.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0047, 0313, Blue Mountain, Flathardt, Google Street View, Toy Avatars, Yards Mountain
Sunklands 