In my dreams, I went back to our old homestead in the center left right upper lower portion of Nautilus, Lichen. It was in ruins but still standing. The land around it was barren; even fabled Mistletoe-Perch which resisted so much change before had faded and vanished. The homestead stood alone.
I went inside and found that barrel. We had some good times with that wine in that barrel, Lichen. Didn’t we?
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0045, 0507, Google Street View, Nautilus, Perch-Mistletoe, Upper Austra^
Even though it’s primitive in many ways compared to newer games like Cyberpunk 2077, Red Dead Redemption 02, and even the older Grand Theft Auto V from 2013, there’s still great beauty to be found in Our Second Lyfe.
I was not suppose to come here as the other one. I was suppose to come here as someone new, someone they didn’t recognize and perhaps could learn from. I was always positioned between the 2, I felt.
But Lexi kept thinking about Shelley — that’s why she was here. She was sent away to find the One.
She didn’t see the candy sentry until it was too late. “What do you want?” he rather boomed down at her. “We’ve had trouble around here recently. Creature named Lich. I’m lucky to still be standing.” Silence. Lexi was contemplating what to say to this being, obviously a transplant from an entirely different dimension, she sensed. “Had – TROUBLE,” he emphasized, still glowering down. She had to say something, so:
“Shelley Johnston Struthers. Or Johnson,” she cited the variable name for the middle. “Looking for her. Heard she passed through here.”
“*This* is the castle of the High Princess Pinky Gumm I’ll have you know. You will *not* come around here looking for another.”
“Hmm.” This guy was fronting a rather ordinary looking house as far as she could tell and not a castle. He’s mad as in crazy mad too? “Okay okay,” she relented. “I’ll bite. I’m actually here to see the Princess. Princess Gummy Pink.”
“Princess *Pinky Gumm*,” the candy sentry proudly corrected.
“Yeah, that one. She in?”
“Of course she’s in. She’s *ill*. She cannot leave her bed.”
“Oh. That’s too bad.” Lexi started worrying about communicable diseases more than finding Shelley, at least for the moment. But is this princess actually Shelley? Shelley’s royalty in her book but that’s just the hormones talking. And she’s kind of pink as well. “Catching?”
“Catching *what*?” he issued from above.
“Is whatever she has catching?” she rephrased, still staring up at his gummy ball machine head and wondering how all that worked for brains and all.
“Of course not. She’s *possessed*. By that Lich I mentioned before. You can’t catch possessed.”
“Soo… there’s something inside her? This Lich?”
“That is correct. Now — go along or I’ll have to alert the banana guards of your presence. They are positioned at the, ahem, basement doors just here… there… there… and there.” While speaking and whirling around in place, he points at what appears to be each side of the house behind him. He’d changed his mind about a visit. This person below him, this *cyberpunk* it appeared from the implants in her head, was simply too snoopy, too suspicious seeming. He decided to reveal that he was not alone in guarding the grounds; strength in numbers.
Lexi sees no signs of guards, knows that regular basements only have one door in and out. At least where she grew up in Horner’s Corners Kansas like the Mary Anne she is. Before it was flooded by the lake. That hellish, damned lake. More fantasy from this toy dude, she judged. Maybe the princess is made up too. She decides to question further.
“So the princess is actually not seeing people right now?”
“Not today. Not tomorrow. Maybe yesterday but that is too late for you. Check back in a month. No: make it 5. 5 years, 10 years to be totally safe.” He knew that, in all likelihood, Our Second Lyfe would not even be around after 10. Safe indeed.
“Couple more things and then I’ll go on my way. I’m sorry: the person I’m actually looking for must not be here,” she admitted. She wasn’t dead sure of this but she decided to say it anyway.
“She is *not*,” the candy sentry emphasized. “Only the High Princess Pinky Gumm from Candyland. We’re all from Candyland here. *You’re* not. You don’t belong here. *One* more question and be gone.”
“Alright.” Lexi knew this had to be a winner. “This Lich. Anything to do with Fern?”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0045, 0303, Nautilus, Oooo, Perch-Mistletoe
Trading her jumping jacks in for jack squats, Fern sensed (and felt and heard) a great disturbance in the force.
“Lichen!” she screamed, intuitively knowing what had caused the castle to suddenly shake as in a quake, her exercising over but her exorcising just begun.
But first there was a problem of revealing herself in a proper way to Fink, who was now grieving over the resulting possession of his beloved Princess Pinky Gumm after the attack, the invading spirit having found the correct body to inhabit. Right now, Fern was just a figment of his imagination stuck in the basement or dungeon, guarded by banana soldiers to the front back side and side. Princess hadn’t said anything; she wasn’t sure it was real herself yet; didn’t want to alarm others until she knew for sure. This story must remain PG’s and not reveal any unrestricted, naked truths. And now she’s paid the price. Lichen needed to contact Fern from the Great Beyond and she’s doing anything in her powers to make this so! Even if it means displacing the soul of another. With Fink (and Jack) in the middle.
“Princess,” calls Fink at the bedside. “Come back to us, PG.” He looked down again at her blue-not-pink face, those slime green pupils set in pitch black corneas, the clammy skin. And she didn’t smell the same either. Not all candy-like but — dare he even think it? — sort of like death. Or at least rotted trees.
“Must talk — to — *Ferrrrnn,*” the spirit hissed within the body.
“Fern?” says puzzled Fink, figuratively if not literally scratching his head at the princess’ utterance, a recurring gesture. “Who’s Fern?”
“Well… I’m guessing it may be you or an alternate version of you since Fink is close to Fern,” Jack chips in from the other side of the bed. “That’s what my dog instincts tell me. I don’t know, hmph. Prob’ly should just stick to licking my butt and other more regular dog stuff. Call it a wild hunch, then.” And he proceeds to get on the floor and lick his behind while he’s thinking about it.
“*Jack*,” reprimanded Fink at the action. “What did we talk about, huh? Not in front of the princess! Especially not *now*.” He looked down and got even more depressed and desperate.
No more words in the script for poor, possessed Pinky Gumm. Now was Fern’s chance.
“Fink,” tried Fern again in a vision over the large, sprawled out body of Susan. “It’s me. Your other half. Remember. Re-mem-ber.”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0045, 0301, Nautilus, Oooo, Perch-Mistletoe
“This would have probably been Fall 2015, or maybe even back to Spring 2015. But probably Fall 2015. Or even Winter 2015, or at least before the death of Bowie in Jan. 2016. This started several things. It, in a way, started the photo-novels themselves. Bowie *came* to Our Second Life and its Collagesity for a visit on his way to other destinations. This happened right after his death. He flirted with Baker Blinker, even propositioned her to go with him to the stars and leave Collagesity. This would have, of course, null and voided her relationship with Karoz Blogger (occurring just afterwards), so crucial not only to photo-novel 01 but all the photo-novels to come. They may *not* have come, you see.”
“I see.”
“Your double played a part in this. You synchronize further over the death of Bowie and the release of his last album, ‘Black Star’. Playing it right after Bowie’s death, you were amazed at its depth, how good the music was. You’d only known Bowie through his singles before this. Thus the can was opened to explore his oeuvre in a much more thorough way, which you did over the next several years. And your double went right along with you in a way, reliving his own appreciation of the Thin White Duke. After ‘Black Star’, you then moved to ‘The Next Day’, his previous album. As you told your double, there’s not a weak song on the album, which he agreed with. You also gave him a copy of ‘Black Star’ which he didn’t have. More synchronization. You were kind of moving as one. Or at least so you thought.”
“I thought?”
“Even at the start, you were not as synchronized as you thought at the time. You were a damaged soul by then. Your double represented a light in relative darkness, someone you connected to. You, in a way, in a strong way maybe, needed him more than he needed you. He had enough friends. Maybe he had *too* many friends, too many connections. You didn’t have enough, he had too many. And he had ambitions in the library, desired to be a major player there, which finally worked out for him by the time of your retirement in 3/1/22. The date is significant. It represents a place you separate from the double, are born *away* from him and back into your own sphere. You are on your own after that, just in terms of male friends. You thought you could continue that friendship beyond the library. But a wall was built at 3/1. (Photo-novel) 31 — remember that.”
“I will.”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0045, 0216, Nautilus, Upper Austra^
“So let’s start with the doppelganger, the green one.”
“Fern.”
“Welll.”
—–
“We first have to get to rhythm and pitch. Opposites. Remove pitch and you still have rhythm. Remove rhythm and you still have pitch. Keyboards (which I play) are pitch. Drums (which he plays) are rhythm.”
“Okay. Good start.”
“These are the musical differences, stark right up front. But then dig just a little deeper and you have similarities within these differences. The Kinks represented the first bonding point, before Bowie.”
“Right.”
“And we liked the same albums by The Kinks. Unlike the guy who worked for Norwegian.”
“Yes, he liked ‘Arthur’ and ‘Muswell Hillbillies.’ You liked ‘Village Green Preservation Society’ and ‘Lola Vs. Powerman’. These albums all line up 4 in a row from ’68 to ’71 (their ‘golden years’, along with ‘Face to Face’ from ’67), subtract the ’70 soundtrack ‘Percy,’ which was considered a more minor work.”
“Right. And my doppelganger also liked ‘Village’ and ‘Lola’. And he expressed difficulty getting into ‘Arthur’ without my prompting. *I* had difficulty getting into ‘Arthur.’ And as I recall we both really dug ‘Village.’ Hard to say they made a better album, although I perhaps like some of the individual songs more on ‘Lola’ than any on ‘Village.’ ‘Village’ is, in a way, a perfect rock album. Better than ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ I would venture.”
“Yes, so that was kind of an original link. Now you must ask: why? Why the mutual attraction to The Kinks and even the same albums, unlike that dude who worked for Norwegian?”
“The guy who worked for Norwegian represented a contrast. To instead show the similarities between my doppelganger and myself, and how it could be different. We *speak* very easily.”
“Yes, so we have a foothold. Now move to Bowie (and others).”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0045, 0215, Nautilus, Upper Austra^
Princess Pinky Gumm had turned her grilling attention now to Fink. “So when did you first meet Fern?” she asked, knowing this was the current crux of the problem. They were still in the basement of her, ahem, castle. She didn’t like to call it a dungeon, although she knew these 2 couldn’t leave until she got some satisfactory answers, banana guards posted at the back front side and side doors. She understood about the 5 and 5 times to make 10 — that added up. She needed to know about the other, the double.
“It was across the sprawling body of Susan,” he explained. “I just looked over the top and there he was. Like me! Except, er, he was a square, and I was a circle.”
“Faces,” clarified Jack for deeply pondering Fink.
“Yeah. And green of course. He came from the grassy sword I found early. That sword combined with my ordinary one to make…” He stopped. He couldn’t continue any longer. The transference had not been complete.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0045, 0214, Nautilus, Oooo, Perch-Mistletoe
Unexpectant, tree-house topping Fern was apparently consumed by the pink, the candy, massing up from below.
Flying mastermind Constance looks down at all the chaos, topped herself by a beanie of the 4 sacred colors looking very much like our Badlands and Tibetian umbrellas from earlier posts of this here photo-novel. Has she harnessed their vast combined powers for evil instead of good? Mighty good guess.
Similarly green, jumpjacking Fern in the basement of our new Nautilus “castle” digs emphasizes that she’s not *this* Fern and that she’s fine, then starts to have second thoughts as 9 turns into 10 as the exercising continues. Think about what could happen when she gets to 45!
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0045, 0213, Nautilus, Oooo, Perch-Mistletoe
“Warning warning. Destructive couple on the way from the west south north east central.”
Gotta get that internal compass fixed sometime, thinks Princess Pinky Gumm. But she knew it really didn’t matter. Here. “Okay, great candy sentry!” she shouts up. ” You continue to keep watch on the, er, *castle* while I try to meet them 1/2way!”
“No meeting those hell bent on destruction 1/2way,” booms down the sentry. “I sense… the death of candy. Split in two.” And here candy sentry splits himself in two for a brief moment to illustrate his point.
Princess Pinky didn’t explain that by 1/2 way she meant space not negotiating tactics. Candy sentry was rather simple that way. Fixed on things in a rather one dimensional manner. But the death of candy? What was going on here?
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0045, 0210, Nautilus, Oooo, Perch-Mistletoe
I may have found a home in upper lower right left central Nautilus, continent that is, search at least ended for now. It could be enough, despite being only a room and access to a “collective” basement called The Crypt, spookily enough. Maybe there’s a reason the rent was so cheap!
The candy sentry is still present from photo-novel 25 when the Mosses — Fern, Lichen and, ahem, Redd, the red one — lived here, still looking out for intruders on his land. My Candy Shoppe didn’t make it the last time, existing for only a couple of weeks before deletion. But I have a different plan this time. Maybe the sentry can’t see *in*, as in the house he looms outside of and stares away from. I join the appropriate group so that I can rez objects and set up in my room there, also placing my newly bought barrel in the cellar. Let’s go with wine. Superb; somewhat costly but not too costly, especially for the quality. Gotta start somewhere I figure, and middle is often the safest and wisest choice between upper and lower.
We’ll see if I can stay longer this time.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0045, 0114, Nautilus, Oooo, Perch-Mistletoe
“Your orange-ish hair… so pretty.” He couldn’t help but run his fingers through the semi-transparent ponytail to test its texture.
“Well thanks I guess Al Orange,” she replied, regretting that she sat so close to him now. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Before she realized this was just another one of those mannequins — they all were. No information here to retrieve. And she needed info. So she could get the heck out of Dodge.
“Yes, you’re so pretty overall,” spoke over Dafney Duck, a quack at the doctoring business. Two kneecap replacements just last week. And only none of them needed it. “Why don’t you put on a bathing suit and really, truly join in with us. I have an extra back in the boat, I believe.”
“I *don’t* *do* bathing suits,” she spoke firmly, leaning back and edging away from creepy Al, short for Alvin she assumed. “Not since…” She cut herself off. Couldn’t talk about Mountain Lake yet. Or her actual mother still mayor back in Meat City. But she certainly wasn’t ready to go back to prison. Thus: here.
The host of the party sitting directly behind her — Sandy Hook — then said something. Bitterly. “I wonder if *Edward*… would like to see you in one of those.” Who was this really? Marsha “Pink” Krakow still? Or…
“Coke is real,” uttered the last person at the hot tub, the 6th of 6. Friends? Not really. But the appellation still applied.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0040, 0511, Lower Austra^, Nautilus, Upper Austra^, Wild West
Sunklands 