“Is that sup-pose to be… me? IS THAT… suppose… to be… MEEE? What’s going on here? Wh-wha–”
“Let me show you your future to explain,” I said back from beyond the 4th wall.
“Yeah okay yeah I guess I see your point I guess I see.” He shook his head. “Jack, eh?”
“Jack,” I said. And then I showed him where I took out (the) yellow.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0314, Big Woods, GTA, Hana Lei^^, Jeogeot
She was at the point of auditioning acts for the new bar. This one was a stand up comedian from Cork.
“What do you call a parade of rabbits hopping backwards?”
“Receding hare lines,” he answers himself after a beat. She finds that joke especially pertinent, since she copied a lot of this decor from a place named Rabbit Island.
Rabbit Island items: free to copy yourself!
“I don’t need to hear any more,” she spoke up. “You’re on the bill.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0313, Big Woods, GTA, Hana Lei^^, Jeogeot
The 12 prim “elegant tree” outside thrashed about like it was a storm all the time. He guessed he could get use to it. He contemplated again asking Baker Bloch to turn the building with his new apartment around, having it face east instead of west, over the similarly new Temple Aisle we’ll call it for now. The one controlled by Wheeler, along with her developing bar next door, just north of this building as the temple is directly east. Fascinating recent developments happening in town, he admitted. He’d moved (copied) most of his Cass City apartment decorations back over to here since nothing seemed to be going on in that Maebaleia continent city, however interesting the layout of the full sim burg remains to him, He was head of the city council over there and he’s probably the same over here on the Jeogeot continent in Aisle of Palms. He served as the same in Kangerootown, actually. Like many in our family of avatars, he gets around, serves useful purposes in a lot of places.
He gets up and stares through the far window of the room at the ghost in the cemetery the thrashy tree is positioned above, an old pirate he gathers. He wonders which one? Bluebird, he guesses solely because of the blue-ish glow about the apparition.
He remembers Wheeler asked him to bring some bar stools over to her developing establishment next door. Unable to concentrate on his letter to an old friend, he decides to head over and see how she’s doing — saw the green dot that represents her presence still lingering over there. He’ll check his inventory when he’s able to eyeball the situation but he’s sure he can help her out.
Thing is about this building is you have to make sure you close the doors behind you or they remain open — they don’t automatically close like most in Our Second Lyfe. And there are so many of them here. Newt dreads getting the 1st heating bill because he’s kind of an absentminded fellow, lost in deep thought most of the time. He’s left them open more than he remembers to shut. If only Wheeler was *here*, in this 2 room apartment with him, to help out instead of being over at the Blue Feather all the time. At least that’s where he thinks she is — another thing to ask her, actually. On his way…
… but not before staring out the hallway window toward the ocean, glittery in the moonlight. Okay, maybe he won’t ask Baker to turn the building around.
—–
“4 enough, Wheeler?”
“Yes but we’ll have to turn them around of course.”
“Oh, ahem. Sure.”
“And you’re sitting on some eggs I left over there in a frying pan. May want to clean yourself up afterwards.”
“Ahh, ha ha. I see.” Might as well have been on his face.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0312, Big Woods, Bright Moon Cottage, Jeogeot
In the middle of the night, I decided to fix the deletion issues of Aisle of Palms myself and keep it from Wheeler until later. No need to log in as her tonight too. I got rid of the damaged Temple of TILE after placing a new one atop it, moving the whole thing several yards to the south to hopefully take care of the property line issue. Planted two new palms at the pool beside it to replace the two that were deleted under similar circumstances, moving them a bit south as well. I chose not to restore the trailer on the back side of Fal Mouth Moon, and instead focused on creating a new living space in this very interesting building behind it, with the same creator as several other structures in town already (Herbert Gold and April Mae Flowers’ Gothic Deco House; police station; base of Fries with Cheese Church (the part not made of cheese)).
Interesting: only after setting it up did I realize it had a basement to go along with the other 3 floors, ha. So I had to dig one so that the rooms would be accessible. I can put the house toilet there, and maybe a washer and dryer. More details soon if needed.
And so the other consequence of this is that I’ve decided not to rent more land for Aisle of Palms but to keep things as is: cheap and still pretty large. Could change my mind but probably not. I’ll gauge Wheeler’s reaction tomorrow when I tell her the news. I don’t think she wants to rent it herself but I could be wrong. Hard to judge what is obviously my more earthy, feminine side.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0311, Big Woods, Bright Moon Cottage, Jeogeot, Temple of TILE
“We should really think about renting this 4096 parcel, Baker Bloch,” said Cheesehead Martha Lamb, really trying to help, really trying to further the cause of her hometown Aisle of Palms into the future. “I mean, look at the colors on the sign. TILE again, even.”
“Yess,” spoke a still unconvinced Baker, true owner of town since he was the Mr. Moneybags of the place. He’d have to pay the extra rent. He’d have to find ways to cut back in the real world to justify the cost. $50 artistic allowance each month. This would top it out. Maybe unsubscribe to a TV app…
“You can build a new and true TILE Temple. You can make a true aisle of palms leading up to it. The place is desecrated as it stands. Part of the temple destroyed, palms removed. Look over there (!).”
So Baker Bloch turned around with Martha Lamb (who was actually Wheeler playing a role) to stare at the missing parts of the temple, the missing palms, even Danny’s trailer on the side of Fal Mouth Moon gallery. Who will clean up the bathrooms there if Janitor Danny doesn’t have a place to live?
“2 months,” spoke Martha. “2 month trial. 30 bucks extra during that span. What could it really hurt?”
He (I) counted it up in his (my) head. Close to 16000 square meters, almost a 4th of a sim. Cooperative neighbors. It all seemed set up.
“Alright,” Baker said. “I’ll probably do it.”
“Fine. I’ll tell Stephan. *We’ll* help out with the money.”
Sure you will, thought Baker. Sure you will.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0310, Big Woods, Fal Mouth Moon, Jeogeot, Temple of TILE
“Look dear, I caught another one (!).”
“Hold on, Mary. Hold on. It’s Baker calling.”
“Baker? Hi!”
(reply)
“Yeah, we’re getting along great. A little cold of course but it is North–”
(reply)
“What was that? Hold on, let me take this darn Russian cap off with the ear flaps and all.”
—–
“Okay go ahead, sir.”
(reply)
“Yeah, I heard that now.” He covers the phone with his hand and whispers over to fishing Mary. “Baker says he needs to talk to us as soon as we get back to town.” He listens again…
(reply)
“Mary Ball, eh? Well that’s *one* of her names.”
(reply)
“George, right.” He removes the phone from his ear but doesn’t cover the face up this time while saying over to his wife in a louder voice: “He wants to know how you acquired the Killing Shack, you know, the one over in Epping Woods.”
“Why does he want to know that?” She was happy fishing right now. She didn’t want to be reminded of that horrendous past on her well deserved vacation. Calm, she said to herself. Caalllmm.
“I’ll ask him.” Phone to bare ear again. “Baker, what’s going on?”
(reply)
“Virginia neck country again, eh? Just like with—”
(reply)
“Dead ball era, huh? That’s *my* era, where I came from. Where the *ERA* was real low, he he. Get it? My era. My ER–”
(reply)
“Okay, thanks. See you when we get back.”
(reply)
“We will. Thanks.” And Baker Bloch hangs up on the other side.
—–
“Did you mention the antipoison?”
“No,” Baker responds to Hucka. “I thought he’d had enough to chew on today.”
“Agreed I suppose. So we’re on for next Tuesday?”
“8 o’clock sharp.”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0303, Big Woods, Hana Lei^^, Jeogeot, North Dakota
“I found this in the same county as White Stone, Hucka. Merry and Mary, just like in St. Merry’s (?) Church.”
“Follow up on that,” she requests. So I did. I talked to Pastor Ziegler about the weird conjunction.
—–
“That’s interesting it’s Mary Ball there as well.”
“As well?” I prompted.
“Yes. Mary Ball is the mother of George Washington. And it happens that it’s Pitch Darkly’s Mary’s maiden name too. Can’t be coincidence.”
“Again,” I replied.
“Especially since they also have a kid named George, come to think of it. Not sure how old the boy would be now. Maybe even a teenager?”
“He was growing up fast the last time I checked,” I agreed
“Anyway (*sigh*), this is certainly a mystery indeed. Another Virginia neck mystery.”
“First Susan and Shadow. Now this. Lively… variant names of both Pitch Penny and Catch Penny, inferring a battery in baseball. Balls are more lively than they use to be back in the dead ball era, before the death of Indian Ray Chapman via beaning and the cleaning up of (the ball and) the game, giving hitters the upper hand over pitchers (and catchers) from that day forward. Martyr, some say because of it.”
“I’m glad you are confiding all this to me,” spoke Pastor Stephan Ziegler of the 1st Church of St. Merry’s — yes, that’s the name — who seemed just happy to be part of the town story again. Aisle of Palms… stated he loves it in all its interesting twists and turns. I thought to myself that he’s probably just glad I didn’t instead go to Rev. Amos T. Sandman across the street at the rival Fries with Cheese Church with my insights — gives him the upper hand there as well. But of course Amos is rarely in the building because of the smell. Allergic to cheese of all things. And they built the church out of the material, as traditional states. No one can really stay there that long without wearing clothes pins on their noses, and so that became part of their traditional as well, part of ecclesiastical lore.
Fries with Cheese office manager Martha Lamb takes note of Baker’s exit from her second floor office window while getting ready to go home herself. She can free up the nostrils at last. Worst part of the job — everything else she loves, just like Stephan, who she perceives as a direct arch-rival, assuming that role for the mainly absent Reverend, she feels
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0302, Big Woods, Google Street View, Jeogeot, Virginia
He continues to puff as he stares at the Big E on the now shared table, a ritual of sorts. He doesn’t know quite what to make of it still except that it’s perfect in its own way, and a worthy additional the TILE family of absolute glyphs. He stares at the green green sim of Xilted, thinking back to his own experiences there, 0202 as well and exactly 3 novels back. More perfection.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0042, 0202, Big Woods, Constantynople, Jeogeot, Kidd Tower, Nautilus, Xilted
He’d left her alone to study further as he went back to Perch, but how much more was there to learn? She knew the VW was X-ed out for a purpose which then has something to do with this hidden office of his in Aisle of Palms’ so-called Cement Village, still being developed, still being filled in. The whole place was named for the event.
Things were getting fuzzy as the current novel recedes and the next novel begins to focus in. Like a right eye being closed and a left opened, we must shift from one to the other to keep having visions. My apologies to the reader for leaving so many questions unanswered but it’s all part of the game. 42 will answer EVERYTHING. I promise.
End of “Sunklands 2023-2024 Winter”!
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0041, 0707, Big Woods, Jeogeot
“The only Theft name of *any* kind in the US according to the old GNIS database was ‘West Central Texas Auto Theft Task Force’, a building in downtown Anson TX. The new database contains no listings with Theft. The old location, the whole *name*, was *stolen*, in effect: theft of Theft. I actually visited the site and found no Auto Theft Task Force office, much less a whole building devoted to the matter. I looked all around the supposed address, with only a bricked up side door and an unmarked back door fitting the Google Map directions. My theory is that it only existed in the first place as an indicator.”
Petty was furiously taking notes opposite yammering June Bug Johnston at his small office in the so-called Cement Village, hidden itself from the surrounding town of Aisle of Palms. The discovery of the 2 matching Dennis’ issued forth a torrent of words. She was *so* close to the answer (The End). The sun having rising about a 1/2 hour back now, he was late for his other job at the Perch Restaurant. But Manager Percy would understand. Overlaps sometimes happen with such a busy soul. Many a night he postponed sleuthing activities when a late dinner party arrived, or a bus full of tourists pulled up 5 minutes before closing. Too bad Percy doesn’t believe in phones or he’d ring him up. Mother’s exploded after she left it ringing too long one day; killed her and mortally wounded Aunt Gertrude who was playing strip poker with her at the time. Blew off a valuable piece of her body but she survived. His mother Wanda Bertaaa Doris’s naked parts were scattered about like a broken Humpty Dumpty. Speaking of which…
“… Humpty Dumpty sea ship modified into a space ship,” June Bug continued in sync with my own internal dialog. “Jim the Bastard Pirate–”
“Wait. *The* Bastard Pirate? Jim Randolph?”
“The same. Anyway he was *suppose* to pilot the ship all the way to the Red Dead planet but he crashed in the sea. Thing couldn’t take the pressure of the strange atmosphere and anyway, he took the wrong ship indicated by his pirate pal Black Pearl, wise in such matters.”
Chef-Inspector Petty, still an inspector despite being on the clock as a chef (and a waiter), thought back to his giant self peering out over tops of internal Cement Village buildings to the new ship parked out back, ready for space exploration according to all the rumors and gossip about town. The *correct* ship according to Black Pearl. Jim Randolph the Bastard Pirate had gotten the wrong vehicle from the right creator as we spoke about before.
Petty’s sharp ears then heard the ominous roar of a tour bus roll into town from the south. “*F -it,* June Bug,” he cussed, checking his nonexistent watch again. “We’ll have to resume all this in another post. Gotta get to the restaurant!”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0041, 0706, Big Woods, Google Street View, Jeogeot
Sunklands 