Category Archives: Estate

little runaway

“You can come out now, Wheeler and Musician.” Morris called from outside the cave, holding his own fox still. “The lights aren’t flickering any longer. All clear signal.”

But when they emerged from the cave, Morris became flabbergasted. “*Why* do you have two foxes, Wheeler? What happened?”

“I don’t know. They both liked me. They didn’t take to The Musician. It just happened, Morris. Why does it matter? We both made it through.” She looks around. “Ooh nice. Everything has opened up.”

“Look,” says a pointing Musician. “There’s the caravan, all safe and sound.”

His point moves to the left.

“And there’s the building we only saw the top of before, now apparently in full view. Let’s go take a look Wheeler… Morris.”

“Giant tree here as well,” adds Wheeler. “Nice job Morris.”

“I didn’t do any of this,” responds Morris. “I just figured out how to get here. Yes, everything is exposed now. This is Muff-Bermingham in full.”

For some reason, that sentence didn’t sound quite right to Wheeler but she let it go.

“There’s more,” continues Morris. “But first: the issue of the foxes.”

“What do we do?” Wheeler asks the red alien. “Just set them down on the ground and let them run back into the cave?”

“Yes,” answers Morris. “Except we were suppose to have one apiece.” Just then, the second fox that jumped into Wheeler’s arms began to fight with the first. What ended up happening is that the second squirmed out of her grasp and fell onto the ground, running off in the direction of the caravan in a panic.

“Great,” exclaims Morris. “Just great.”

“I’ll go get him back,” offers an animal free Musician. He begins running in the same direction as the fox.

“Scotty,” pouts Morris, holding his own fox even tighter. “Should’ve seen it coming.”

“The Musician is pretty nimble. Maybe he’ll be successful in catching him.”

“Maybe,” says Morris to Wheeler. “But I sense our plan has run afoul of something. We’ve been sabotaged.”

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double the fun

“Aww, look Musician. It just hopped up right in my arms. Who’s a good foxie?” The fox Wheeler holds yelps softly while she pets its head.

The second fox was more warey. He or she eyed the Musician suspiciously. “I don’t think *mine* likes me as much,” he says while staring back.

“Oh go on. Pick it up. This one’s so *friendly*. Don’t be a scardy cat.”

“I mean, why are we here playing with foxes anyway? Where’s Morris?”

“Oh Moriss Smorris,” counters Wheeler. “We have foxes! Adorable, lovable foxes. Go ahead. Pick it up,” she repeats. She just knew that The Musician *had* to hold that fox. The desire was overwhelming. “Go ahead. Call it to you. Say: ‘Here foxie foxie. Jump in my arms. Who’s a good doggie?'”

But her urging created the wrong effect. Suddenly she had *two* foxes in her arms.

“Oh dear, hee hee.”

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knoll and hole

The Musician woke up Wheeler the next day to the tune of “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes, played on a gothic violin purchased in a VHC City music store several days back. He’d been saving up for months. And he’s already dubbed the steep hillock he plays upon in the above picture Fiddler’s Knoll, a natural perch for such creativity. As fine as the musician is playing, and as interesting a song as he’s covering, Wheeler still awakens upset. She had no water to bathe with the night before. All the scrounging around the various corners of their compound — nay, their *prison* — had produced basically nothing of interest. And they were unable to scale the walls to see what was outside. No flying here as well. Trapped. But today was another day and perhaps Morris would return and give them more information.

Wheeler yawns and stretches her arms as she exits the caravan. The Musician halts his playing and looks down on her. “Past 10 now,” he explained. “Waited long enough to practice.” He then begins another song, which he introduces with the title and composer. “‘My Sweet Lord’; George Harrison,” he says, and immediately leaps into it.

Wheeler walks over and sits on one of the logs at the still brightly burning fire in the compound’s center. “This place stinks,” she says.

The Musician halts his playing again. “What’s that dear?”

“I said, this place *stinks*! Did you hear that?”

Sensing the mood, he gives up trying to practice for now and rather stumbles down the knob’s slope while cradling the violin in his arms, meeting Wheeler at the fire. “I don’t think it’s too bad,” he says, sitting down on a log beside her own. “I have my knoll now, my practice perch. I’m pretty happy here.”

Wheeler simmers a second before responding. “No… I meant this place *smells*… smells bad. And what’s that beside the fire? Looks like a bit of colored shoe.”

Just then a hole opens up in the cliff wall opposite the direction of their caravan with only a slight, brief rumble. Morris emerges.

“Ahh, I actually found you here. Good you’re up. I hope you slept well, or as well as possible. I heard there was trouble locating water.” He then stood unusually close to the fire, shuffling and kicking his feet around on the ground in front of it. Again, Wheeler and The Musician missed the hints.

“No water, yeah,” Wheeler said. “Tougher for a girl.” She glared over at The Musician, who moved his violin to the opposite side.

“Well, no fear in that now. I found a portal to the outside. It was those darn foxes all along. One for each of us. I’ll go first, just to make sure it’s safe and it works again. Give me above 5 minutes before heading in yourself.” He moves around the fire and leaves just as quickly as he came, exiting through the hole again.

Wheeler only waits about 30 seconds tops and then bounded off the log and toward the opening. “Come on Musician,” she beckons with a wave. “I want to see what he’s up to if we can.”

Inside they found the cutest little things possible.

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there and here

“The sky looks like Mars,” Wheeler opined. “I think this is Mars.”

“No,” countered Morris, who had been explaining what his home was for about half an hour now. “This is truly the legendary Muff-Bermingham planet you’ve heard so much about. Muff-Bermingham may have been a *conduit* to Mars, I’ll admit. I don’t have your experience in that realm. I only showed up day before yesterday. I’m a newbie, as they say down here. Or up here.”

“What’s that was over there?” The Musician asked, indicating with a head tilt the projecting spires of a structure beyond the rimming brown rock cliffs of this habitat.

“That’s something in the works, let’s say. Things are a bit plasticine here still — melting plastic.” Morris took a deep, satisfying breath through his nostrils. Wheeler and The Musician had suspected nothing in that direction; just thought it was a different planet smell of some sort. “I have few land resources to work with,” he continued, staring into the fire. “Already, the SoSo gallery had to be stolen from Collagesity below us to create an effect I desired. *We* desired.”

“Who’s ‘we’?” Wheeler asked.

“I think his name is Lou.” Morris paused, uncrossing his legs. “Or her. Anyway, we’re still working on that as well. I do know that one is red and one is green. Stop and go. Like Muff and Bermingham. I’m sorry Osborne Well couldn’t show up in person to greet you as well but… land resources again. Collagesity may have to make additional sacrifices. But at least your Spongeberg the Destroyer has been put to bay. Is that the expression I’m looking for?”

“If you mean that Spongeberg didn’t effect the destruction of Collagesity between (the two halves of this novel) you seem to be correct,” Wheeler offers. “Instead of VHC City we are here, in Collagesity but not in Collagesity. Like the legendary Moon and its own (Moon of) Moon.”

“Like Mars,” The Musician says to Wheeler. “You’ve told me quite a lot about it. Sounds fascinating.”

“I’m projecting you’ll learn to love Muff-Bermingham just as much,” Morris pipes up. “This is just a foothold, a start. In several hours spotless day will return into splochy night. I will leave you to your own devices now to explore, gather, prepare.”

With this he simply fades from view in front of them.

—–

Back in VHC City, Mary/Chuckles ungrasps Pitch’s cold white hand extended across the table and stares into the dark corner of the room behind him.

“Um, your Timmy Osborne Well is fading out again, my love,” she states with only mild surprise. “It’s as if he’s trying to reach somewhere else, maybe a place he can become lively again. Wonder where?”

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Dike van Dyck

“I think we’re ready.”

“Check.”

—–

The Musician woke up with a hot head. I don’t mean he woke up angry. His head was *hot* ow ow!! He jumped up from the bed and screamed downward. “What the f—!?!?”

Wheeler rolled over on her couch at the far end of the caravan and took in the spectacle. Smoke was billowing up from the floor at the upper corner of The Musician’s hobo mattress, right where his head is usually positioned. Outside through the door: fire itself. This place where they had been “living” for several days appeared not to be in the secret Muff-Bermingham Room of VHC City any longer. And they weren’t clowns — and with no other clowns passed out from the night before strewn about the place as per usual. The smell of scorched plastic was in the air.

Wheeler and The Musician stood together. “Something is different,” he says as the pain in his forehead begins to subside.

“Du-uh.”

Just beyond their view from the inside, Morris waits paitently for them to come out and discover his presence. “Boy these clowns sure burn good,” he exclaims while watching the fire grow even brighter. “12 prims saved right there.”

Welcome to Muff-Bermingham, Musician and Wheeler.

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Invite

“Sorry to get you up Musician, but I thought you might like to see this. I ran across it purely by accident.”

“Really?” returns The Musician. “How?”

“Looking for a faces in the holes prop for the next scene. Looks like you have, eh, 30 minutes to complete the hunt.”*

“Not enough time,” says The Musician. “It’s a complex sim, believe me.”

“Well, while you’re up… shall we?”

—–

But The Musician was too tired for posing…

… so Wheeler sent him packing and had a go at it alone.

Does she know? Has she guessed?


“Where is she?”

—–

* Turns out it was *12* 1/2 hours to complete the hunt, but The Musician, being very tired, still slept through the event, pheh.

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Two Cities

Back in Collagesity, The Musician persuades Wheeler (a.k.a. The Painter) to watch a longer Youtube film by SL resident Zarrakan about the LEA 11 “Glass Jars” installation. To Wheeler’s mild irritation, he then creates a running dialog with the film, stating how the two examinations of the sim differ and how he did things better overall. Afterwards, Wheeler wishes to watch another suggested Zarrakan film about wrestling, one of her numerous physical passions, right up there with dance and exercise. The Musician waves this off, however, saying at one and 1/2 hours that particular video is too long, and states they should instead view a short animation that acted as partial inspiration for “Glass Jars” entitled “The House of Small Cubes”. Wheeler relents (my how she’s softened because of the most recent Assimilation!). She understands that continued development of The Musician is very important. Besides… well, never mind that right now.

—–

Back in VHC Town, The Musician gives “The Painter” back her time.

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Say cheese

—–

“You really missed quite a lot at LEA11, Musician. Blackout Poetry… *music/sound*. You and your aural sensitivity. Such an odd condition for one who *makes* sound all the time.”

“I found a lot. I found enough. I had to get back to my music.”

Wheeler thought of the Harrison cutout but didn’t query about progress. “Where’s Art?” she asks instead. “Will she be joining us?”

“No, it’s not Art. Just an artist. Painter.” The Musician pauses. “Like you.”

Wheeler scratches her head. “Where’s our coffee? Service here is as bad as over at Perch.”

The Musician checks his watch, taps his fingers nervously on the round table. “Should be any moment.”

—–

“I hate to say it, but I’m just not a big fan of Second Life images in virtual art. People especially for some reason. Landscape’s better.”

“You just don’t like people period, Wheeler.”

“Suppose not.”

—–

“Should we go back?”

“Nah, she’s not going to show up.”

“Can I be The Painter instead?” Wheeler looked over at the slanted Musician.

He breathes out, relenting. “Oh all right.”

She sat silent for a moment, then: “What was her name?”

“Chuckey,” came the reply. “Yeller feller.”

“Hmm. So she’s you too.”

“Seems that way Wheeler.”

“It’s you trapped in that Ear Canyon. Camping at the top. Assimilation — full swing. I’m not who I thought I was.”

Well… we’re in this together and that’s a trap. Fact, I mean.”

—–

“I made it. So this is the spot.”

“97, 97,” says The Musician. “The poisonous violet-black building in plain sight. Towering over us at this point if I remember correctly. Yes, this is the point. And now… this picture. I don’t remember it before from this gallery, which has expanded into the territory formerly its back yard. What’s the name?”

“Um, ‘A Precarious Geisha’.”

“No,” replies The Musician. “The name of the gallery, not the picture. Hold on…”

“‘Finely Torn Id’, Wheeler,” The Musician says after remotely finding and then taking a snapshot of the gallery’s entrance.

“2015 for the painting’s date. This must be The Painter.”

“No,” says The Musician. “It was suppose to be someone else. Chuckey. Yellow. Head like Charlie Brown. Assimilation. Pineal. Pine cone. Fred Cone. Pineapple.”

“Hmm,” states Wheeler. “This (picture) must contain a code. I like the colors. It’s close to a picture of the other side of the wall. Where I landed when you tried to teleport me directly into this spot. We were on opposite sides of the wall.”

“Are you a geisha, Wheeler?”

“Why is it precarious?” asks Wheeler back, dodging The Musician’s question.

—–

“Look, Musician. A piano over there. Why don’t you disengage yourself from the wall and play us a tune. You said you had hundreds of thousands.”

“Hundreds,” came a muffled voice from inside the wall behind her. “Or maybe thousands.”

“Well play me something, then. How about that ‘Fire Ants’ you go on about when you’ve had a few too many. The one that literally blew the roof off Barney Rubleboro in West Virginia that summer. Coal *everywhere*.”

“Hold on…,” the muffled voice said once again.

—–

“Hmm. Wall again. And I had just turned yellow.”

The piano would have to wait.

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LEA11 13

(continued from)

Up up up he climbs, a distance of over 30 meters, before he enters the next room with weary arms. Certainly a different kind of flooring here, more like a wall with those dripping windows just climbed past.

And then the flowing hair child again positioned above it (Visionary, Lucid, imaginary friend, et al), upward turned head halfway out of the water again. Elongated like the beanbag version encountered previously in a southern room. Or perhaps not a child in this case. A woman.

Here some background about The Artist is handy, perhaps even necessary. A review by blogger Kate Bergdorf of Oluja’s 2015 Metamorfaces exhibit provides the best story I found online. Obviously this life altering event fueled the creative impulse of that exhibit, which carries over into the present. Faces — many emerging from the water like the one before him — abound in “Glass Jars”. The Musician can’t imagine.

He climbs one last set of stairs, emerging above-water at a small platform with colorful pillows. He takes a seat and elects to drink a proferred coffee, which he finds satisfying.

He stares over at the ghost or soul of what he’s sure is a representation of The Artist now, rising above the duplicate one “trapped” in the water just beneath. Emitted or projected spirit double again. He feels he has absorbed all he can from the LEA11 water sim now, and must move on to newer, different concerns armed with this gleaned information. He’s in an individuation process, a journey of self discovery. He is The Musician, true, but now knows or remembers another half, larger but with lighter atomic weight. A different element. He is oxygen, he is hydrogen. But what is he as a whole? He thinks back to Ear and camping out on its upper ledge. The talk with Wheeler at the bar…

The Musician was going to return to the canyon with the glass jars chronicled in the LEA11 01 post from almost two weeks back to explore more, but thinks he understands what is going on there as well now. No need for a revisit. This is The Artist again, creating an archive of messages in glass bottles or perhaps The Artchivist in the future separating the messages from the bottles for further study. Another 2-n-1. Time does not have a strong gravity here. The gestalt is understood through repetition of images — lietmotif. An attempt to grok the whole through the parts, like the proverbial elephant in the room. But this is as far as he can go with it currently.

Before taking his leave, The Musician did have one other place he wanted to revisit: LEA11’s purest, whitest room tucked away in its northwest corner. His now elongated, white body half out of the water, he assumes a heavenward position.

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LEA11 12

(continued from)

Ah yes, I think it all may start to come together in this series of rooms. The girl again… lots going on here. Let’s take a look around…

Definitions hanging on the wall: onism and ambedo. The Musician pauses to absorb.

The Musician has trouble identifying with the onism definition, which, summarizing, is the frustration caused by being trapped in one body in one particular space/time moment. He *likes* compartmentalization. He doesn’t want to be in multiple places at once, like this particular sim’s inhabitant sometimes named Visionary or Lucid is. *She* is multiple. I am one,” he says to himself. “I am The Musician,” he states again, asserting his identity.

Ambedo is a difficult definition for him again. He’s a thinker, head in the clouds. The act of experiencing vivid sensory details in the environment is rare. He dwells in the cathedral of his thoughts. But (for the author), there’s always (Real Life) Bigfoot…

Another one on the next wall: occhiolism. A mouthful!

Again, he has trouble identifying with the definition of him being very small, insignificant — a sample size of one. He doesn’t have these problems (!). Yet maybe he should. He tries harder to identify. He thinks back to the idea of art extending beyond itself, backwards and forwards in time, even sideways (into parallel dimensions), to encompass not only itself but the whole universe. Everything is part of everything else. That’s what he thinks. He is as much within John Lennon as Lennon is within himself. The 4 Beatles knew the idea of (nested) shared experiences. That is his mantra. That is his holy grail Greek island of Patmos The Beatles sought for at their absolute peak but missed out on. They were looking outside, when they should have been looking within. But maybe the two, outer and inner, could have become one at that moment. He thinks of a name: Patmos John. He remembers being old and young at once. Lidsville — he must remove the lid (again).

Even though he is different from The Artist (maybe they should compare Briggs Meyers personality test results), he can learn from the differences. *That* is expanding beyond his sample size. Satisfied for now with his thoughts, he observes more…

The crux of the room… and another definition on the wall: exulansis. He begins there.

Trouble once more. Is there a particular experience which he couldn’t communicate with others, or felt like they let him down with the inability to understand and grok? Creativity itself, he supposes. The idea of putting pen to paper and pick to guitar. How many songs has he written over his lifetime? Hundreds? Thousands? He’s chosen a path long long ago. Yet he has compatriots: Lennon, Harrison, the Beatles as a whole. But not Dylan, oddly (Bob or Thomas). He’s read much but not enough he feels. How did it feel as Joyce wrote “Ulysses” and “Finnegan’s Wake” for an uncaring mass. The bulk of Charles Ives’ music was composed at night in total secrecy as he worked a high end New York insurance job during the day. Creativity… that is the experience for him that he cannot share with others. Union with the muse. Yet he can look around and see others of his type, his “ilk”, hehe. He knows he is not alone. It’s just out there there are teachers, parents, athletes, businessmen, laborers, many with dreams, yes, but all working on a different plane from him. Even the differences of being an Artist and a Musician, he realizes. He studies the tableau closer…

The child — named “imaginary friend” in this case; a new twist! — now holds George the teddy bear in both hands and stares at him lovingly, we assume. Building blocks of monochromatic color lie around her, some animated and moving about the floor and even air as if possessed. Other childhood objects lie strewn about: a pogo pony; what’s called a “rabbicorn doll”; a tiny balloon in a *glass jar* complete with miniature clouds and flying birds; a moon with a face, perhaps a pillow.

And then, lo and behold, on the rug next to this: models of the LEA11 rooms. Microcosm! So this is definitely the work of The Artist.

And what is this? The seed matroshka. He’ll keep this in mind.

Onward/upward!

(continued in)

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