Category Archives: Estate

00450604

I never left The Sphere.

I’m still in Holland!

Philip wakes up.

—–

“I have a surprise for you today, Philip,” spoke Lexi at the breakfast table set up between their two bedrooms on the upper level of her Nawt Vaya house. “I think you’ll like it.”

—–

“Holland?”

“Yeah, you said you missed Amsterdam. So: here we are (!).”

“I said I *missed* Amsterdam. As in bypassed it, or at least skirted it. I think.”

“Well… now you have a kind of second chance. A Second Lyfe second chance. We’ll start at the northwest corner here and make our way across. Just like old times.”

“Hmmm.”

“You… don’t like it?”

Yeah. Why not, he thinks. And they head toward the center of the mocked up, 2 sim city where Lexi has another bright idea.

“Let’s get bikes, Philip (!). Like that guy over there.”

—–

Riiing riiing. “Out of our way! LOSERS.”

(to be continued)

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0045, 0604, Europe, HANA LEI, Holland, Jeogeot, Nawt Vaya+, Nevada, NVFS

00440616

“Well Wheeler. Here we are at the end.”

“So… you’re admitting I’m Wheeler,” spoke Shelley to his side, also watching the water rise on the scene below.

“You’re Wheeler, yes. You’re my *daughter* Wheeler. I also have a wife Wheeler. And probably a mother Wheeler and also a dog Wheeler.”

“Down there,” she spoke, pointing to the robot dog still positioned in the middle of the bar, likewise water walking Fern Stalin studying it, wondering what makes it tick or if it could have ticks or fleas, but especially where it’s taking humanity as a whole. Obviously a lot of people will die as a result of this — flood. But the ones who survive will have a cleansed world to repopulate, free of the former dirt and smut and filth. Led at least in part by Fern, the chosen one. The one with the WOW factor.

“What about Billy?” asked Wheeler-Shelley, seeing the water submerge his small 3-4 foot robot body completely now.”

“Waterproof,” Newt spoke.

“Oh, of course. From novel 34.”

“Well,” said Newt. “Close enough.” He raises his glass of high alcohol purple snog beer from the counter. “So should we toast to the end? Another successful photo-novel?”

“Not quite,” Wheeler-Shelley said, keeping her beer on the counter and knowing more was to come.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0616, C2077, Kabusie, NIGHTSITY

00440615

“Why is this lady dancing up a storm?” Billy logically asked.

“I don’t know, but she better be *careful*,” Fern returned. “She better remember Edward — out in the desert.” But then she turned away from frenzied bartender Lexi to stare at Edward in a nearby booth with the owner of the night club, this Tin Lizzy she knew pretty well now. She’d brought him here just for this very reason, she then understood. To prove that the other Edward, the other Edward D. even, is separate from this one, who is still alive and well thank you very much and living in Our Second Lyfe where he belongs. Not up there in the real (virtual) world of Cyberpunk 2077.

That explains the black and white photo on one side of the bar; she also obviously set that up as part of the message (“Crybaby”)…

… along with the other b&w on its opposite side. So if one side of the bar is a foot, she thought, then the other side is also also a foot?

“Got it!” she shouted again in a Eureka moment, common for the brilliant, ever-thinking woman. She could see now what was really going on. In the middle of the bar, Lexi changed into a dog which spoke to Billy in a language only robots could understand. “End this,” it said to him.

The perpetual waterfall, Billy remembered. The final attachment. He and Lexi were waterproof — they’d be fine, ha ha ha ha. Ho ho ho ho ho.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0615, C2077, Kabusie, Massachusetts, NIGHTSITY

00440614

“Can I ax a question?”

“Uh HUH. Clever. But go ahead.” She was closely studying the act happening in front of us which didn’t interest him — me. Wrong body type. I wondered why. Gay? But maybe she’s just studying the girl’s moves for some kind of future reference. I popped it.

“Why?”

“Why?” she said back. I knew she knew what I meant. And she knew I knew. So I let the question stand as is. I thought of Dr. Why coming out of left field in Fern’s hospital scene to join Who, What and Idontknow in a makeshift team of physicians that didn’t care about answers in the end. Maybe Lizzy doesn’t care either. She decided to extend an olive branch.

“Let’s go back to Oklahoma and not Texas to see how much you remember. Sepisexton — Olive to Oklahoma. The Abstraction, 7 to 6. Gaeta, the 7th (continent), suddenly went dark. That affected everything that runs Our Second Lyfe behind the scenes. A change was made. The Flesh Pit was exposed for what it is, mystery no more. There’s even a bit of it poking through the supposedly vacant lot behind Aisle of Palms now, threatening its very existence if you didn’t know about that already.”

“I’ve already determined I’m going to give that up,” I said through Edward, handy in the moment.

“You have no *choice* now, though. If you’d taken that 4096 when it came up for rent. Or just bought it — maybe all this could have been avoided.”

“Who?” Pause. “What?” More standalone questions. Our fields of energy were becoming one. She was changing back. But not yet — hold off.

“I am the Ten that can turn into One,” she answered the first. “Ten is more important that Gold here. Do you have to ask?”

“Lincoln.”

“Correct. Lincoln is an alchemist.”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0614, C2077, Kabusie, NIGHTSITY

00440613 (plywood blocks)

He had some time to kill before he was needed again, so Edward D. decided to explore a bit more of this re-creation of Cyberpunk 2007’s Night City occurring out in the Estate sims, beyond just his involvement with Shelley Emily. At the core of this re-creation: Lizzy’s HoloCore nightclub, run by our own, chrome plated Tin Lizzy. Or at least tin. That’s one of the things I want to discuss when I catch up with her next through one character or another, perhaps Edward D. but perhaps not — perhaps here but perhaps not here as well. Why the switch from gold to tin in the conversion of Night City to Nightsity? And since this is Our Second Lyfe, I suppose this is Nightsity too, so she’ll be that dulled silver color again when we meet up with her in person, like we’ve seen at least once before in this here photo-novel, 44 in a series. I’m guessing it had something to do with a humbling and coming back down to earth, since tin in alchemy is often described as a base metal leading to gold, where you start the whole process from. Along with the more commonly named lead in this role. Here we can turn to Texas for more information, specifically one county in the longhorn state named Coleman. What’s going on here? Cornering the gold market?

Anyhoot, back to Edward and the present. He reads more about this particular brand of Nightsity in the floating text at the entrance:

Hmm. Corners again.

And peeking around the corner or edge of Lizzy’s nightclub in the still-being-built city: that damn, bright red apple tree popping up again, sometimes called cherry. But we know better.

(to be continued)

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0613, C2077, Kabusie, NIGHTSITY, Texas

00440302

Arasaka has a presence here, thought Fern while happening upon their tell tale logo on the back of a hotel in exploring more of the town, this Aisle of Breakfast and Aisle of Dairy at once. Blood red like a tempting apple.

She thinks back to the first time she saw the cursed thing while riding the magnetic levitation (maglev) rail train into Nightsity, obligatory “apple tree” prominent above the name in that case instead of to the side (put in quotes because that’s Fern’s personal name for the emblem due to the tempting aspect and not a colloquial term). Across the river but the distinct cherry red made it pop out again. And immediately afterwards, her destination for tonight, the No Tell Motel. Another hotel/motel, hmm, she ponders. Could one be the same as the other (again)?

She gets off at the next stop and makes her way back to the Kabusie motel.

They indeed fuse as she walks through the front door, past becoming present. But it took a while to match the outfit admittedly, ha.

“I’m here to see Tin,” she said to the front desk receptionist, hoping she didn’t under-dress. But this was, after all, the seedier side of town, past still mirroring present.

“Last name, please,” he said, staring at the outfit but not looking too shocked, she didn’t think. Had to blend in, she consoled herself again. She *is* at least wearing her black swimming suit under the semi-transparent shirt. All she could think of in the moment. Lichen wasn’t there to help her choose clothing, fashion buff that she is, despite the hick look she promotes with the jeans and mouth straw and all. Poor Lichen, she bemoans again. But I’ll find her. “Don’t have one,” she answers. “It’s a number not a name,” she said, even though she knew it was both, phonetically speaking. “Tin (Ten) — only gave me her room.”

“Right, okay, so… 2nd floor, last door to the right,” he says. Good luck, he thinks. That one looked pure chrome and so most likely a cyberpsycho. Probably won’t live through the night.

—–

Well. Here goes nothing *knock knock knock*.

“Come in! It’s not locked!” Ordinary female voice, phew!

Fern draws her gun and opens the door…

She turns.

“You!”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0302, Blue Feather Sea+, C2077, Kabusie, Maebaleia/Satori, NIGHTSITY, X-City

00440215 (Tin)

“Of course I knew Cary, of course I knew Madison,” she says more to her audience beyond the 4th wall than the actual person in the room with her. “One was the former sidekick of world famous musician Jonny Silverhhand of Sunamai, now fronting his own almost as famous band. One was the future mayor of the whole of frigg’n Nightsity itself. But how do they fuse… here in Kabusie?” She turns back to the window, staring at it as if she can see through the blinds — not blinded. “What secrets are you holding in your narrow alleys, your… canals and notwhat? Channels, something.” She blows out cigarette smoke toward it, as if trying to obscure the secrets even more.

“Well. I’m glad we cleared *that* up,” I said, watching the smoke dissipate into the blinds and the light between them.

“Yees. But you’re here for your assignment of course. Wondering when we’d ever get around to it.”

“Well…”

(to be continued)

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0215, Blue Feather Sea+, C2077, Kabusie, Maebaleia/Satori, NIGHTSITY, X-City

00440214 (Kabusie secrets)

Mr. Middle.

And then, just beyond…

“Cary?”

No, that must not have been Cary, I think, now looking at his sparkly back as I circled around. He didn’t answer me. *Surely* he would remember who I was. Didn’t even look up to meet my eyes. But… maybe he didn’t see me. Maybe he didn’t hear me. “*Cary*,” I tried more levelly and with more volume. He turned.

“See here’s where it gets *really* interesting, Lichen,” said observing Fern at their new home near the pit. “Because it’s about to happen again.”

“Mm, mhm, mhmmm,” says Lichen, since her mouth is full of popcorn but she’s still so eager to speak.

“What’s that, dearest?”

*Swallow*. “Ier ssaied, whferef’s Mfr. Middlfe?” Swallow again.

“He’s not in this one. Just watch.”

I was walking up to him again. How was this *possible*?

“Madison?”

(to be continued)

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0214, C2077, Kabusie, Maebaleia/Satori, NIGHTSITY, X-City

00440111 (Sisyphus)

“I decided to log into Our Second Lyfe away from my new home ‘at random’ and immediately stumbled across this turtle at Mont Saint Michel, shocking me.

“It tried to run away and hide under a chair, but I’d teleported in just at the right time and place to catch. Much like Turtle Butte before it. Not planned; had other things in mind to do that night. Same situation.

“But then I looked around at the bar, the books, the tables, the maps, the balcony, and figured this might be a new home for Lichen and me, replacing Castle Town from the previous novel (43). 2nd home, along with the also newly found gym in this here photo-novel of 44. Axxion is the name, exercising is the game. Like I did when I got back…

“… and then found the connection between turtle and cow as I unlocked a special aspect of one of their seemingly mundane machines, I to T to E to L becoming I to E to T to L — crucial reversing there in the middle, you’ll notice. Suddenly, *I* found myself in the position of a turtle which was also a cow. The *turtle* — butte (but she pronounced it as butt?) must have sent the cow suit. One and the same here. Wish I had a photo to share.”

But we do.

Exercising at another, better lighted spot.

And yet another.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0111, Comma Islands, Corsica, HANA LEI

00430612 (The Letter)

Gerald realizes there’s only 1 bush and not 2. Not 2 S’s in other words. He is a former witcher true, but his name is Gerald, not Geralt. And the “monster” he slayed in Tousaint — 1 s again — is Redd not Rhenawedd, exposed for the double face she is. The immediate giveaway is that she couldn’t be painted, thus artist Greg Ogden’s highly abstracted depiction of her appearing on his canvas much to his chagrin initially. Later he got use to the style, eventually descending further further further into this new art until only pure mathematics and pure chance were left, 2 faces of one thing themselves. You are what you paint.

Harking back to the Oracle there is a historic village named Tousaint in Ohio along the Toussaint River, the lone example of that town name in our country of the US of A. And in the same county of Sandusky with Clyde and Fremont.

Oops. Wrong map. 🙂

We recall that Mikie’s therapist was named Clyde, soon to be changed to Fremont as June-July-August inevitably slides into Fall and beyond. A larger community for higher ideas and ideals. And this returns us to Mars through the backdoor, Asylum bartender Teebestia with a mask herself waiting on Anderson, Norris and Hayes at once, as if she had 3 heads to match each of theirs. Triumvirate.

“I’ll open up the Table to questions.”

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Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0043, 0612, Google Street View, Iowa, MARS, Minnesota, Ohio, Witcher