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“I’m going to walk this labyrinth every day.” Baker Blinker smirked at her husband. “*Almost* every day.”

“Let’s head over to Perch and grab some lunch, Karoz,” Baker Blinker then suggested. “Wheeler said she’d be meeting us there. It will be tough because none of us are interchangeable with each other. All three are unique monads.”

“We’ll have to reduce windows, eliminate trees, grass — the usual. Nothing beyond the capabilities of our user.”

“We’ll see,” Baker Blinker replied. She hadn’t been practicing these tricks as much as Karoz recently.

—–

“Where is she?” asks Karoz in his usual impatient ways. “New Island, pheh.”

“Why don’t you tell me about Baker Bloch’s ideas for you being a novelist while we wait, Karoz.” Baker Blinker had done some yoga in preparation for this meeting and was pretty relaxed, despite the circumstances. Maybe she can be the voice of reason tonight.

—–

But no time. Wheeler manifested behind them and took a seat. Karoz knew she’d like the one next to the wall. And next to him. “Better narrow those windows further now, Baker Blinker,” he requested. Because Wheeler certainly isn’t going to reduce hers, he thought.

—–

“Where *is* that chef Owens with our menus?” barks Wheeler. “Must be, what, 5 minutes since I arrived?” A word had hardly passed between the three since she showed up.

“It’s 3 o’clock in the morning, Wheeler,” explained Baker Blinker, already with an edge. “Skeleton crew in the middle of the night here at Perch. Your chef has transformed into a detective. Maybe out trying to solve one of the crimes you committed, haha.”

“That’s no good,” Wheeler replied, nonplussed by the female Baker’s sarcasm. “This is *my* restaurant, *my* town.” She looked at both Baker Blinker and Karoz Blogger and drew back. “Isn’t it?”

Baker Blinker was direct. “Tell us what happened in Snowlands, Wheeler, um, Wilson.”

—–

Wheeler’s secret table room had been found out by the real owner of the Way Station parcel. Objects returned to owner (i.e., Wheeler). She had to come back to Collagesity. She may have the opportunity to rent more in the middle of Inferialist, but, in truth, a disconnect of sorts has occurred between the extended Baker family and Snowlands. For now at least. Baker Bloch (playing the role of Snowmanster) also felt it wise to delete his newly rezzed home next to Woody’s on the east side of Purden Forest. So none of the family have secret dwellings in Sansara’s Snowlands region now. Oh… except one perhaps. Karoz. Perhaps this is the night Baker Blinker found out about the deep dank DARK power of Mid Hazel. This is the subject of Karoz’s projected first novel. In the future.

—–

“Alright, spill the wine Karoz and Wheeler,” she requested. “We’re all in this together. We all need to be on the same page so we can face the threat collectively. Don’t you think, *Karoz*?” Her yoga induced relaxation was wearing off, muscles tensing up once more. She was spouting reason but not in the calm manner she was hoping. Tension — why do people create it when interacting? And why do we need it *fictionally*?

—–

“‘Deep Dank… DARK'”, Wheeler states firmly. “That will be the name of the book. It will be published March 17, 2018. The day the trees died over in Rubi. The day Master Purden died between the green and the white (trees) in Snowlands. Diagonal. It will be based on The Diagonal.” She reorients her hands under her chin. “This is the only way we can be saved.”

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White?

There was a tapping at the window. Karoz awoke. “Stars,” he quickly determined, looking over at the wire decoration. “Only stars.” But then his name came in the wind. “Ka-roz.” It chilled him to the bone. He stood up on the bed.

He then saw the person — or being — outside. Under the stars. Near the ground but still floating above it. A conical hat topped being on a cross but also holding a cross, a larger one. Was this the legendary Bigfoot he had heard about stalking the area? The rogue one? He must protect himself if so! But he had no weapons he knew of, no sword, gun, nothing. One of Baker Blinker’s frying pans? Where was Baker Blinker? Karoz sensed she was missing. Downstairs cooking in an eerie, even hideous light… but still missing.

Karoz awoke with a startle, also waking up Baker Blinker in the bed beside him. “Squidmares again?” she half joked while turning toward him.

—–

2 hours later:

“Is she still there Doria? Doria??”

“Oh. No.”

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A novel idea.

Baker Bloch’s discordant piano playing continued past Karoz’s veiled request for cessation. Message not received. Baker’s got all day to play the piano, explore old, forgotten forests, and so on, Karoz thinks. *He* has a religion to jumpstart, a wife to consider, and more. Yes, more. He must be more forthright.

On cue, Baker abruptly halted his production, mid-jangle. “You know what you need to do Karoz,” he spoke while pivoting toward the moss being, obviously somehow inspired by the cantankerous music. “Write about Chilbo. Write about how you’re different from me, Baker Blinker, Hucka Doobie even. You come after us. You come from Chilbo or at least the area. Jeogeot itself. That’s where we (separated) from [delete name] and his off-mainland roleplaying. Contact Maggie. Maybe she’ll have some ideas.”

“Novel writer?” Karoz protests, but Baker had started his infernal clanking again and didn’t hear the question. As if I don’t have enough on my plate, he then thinks, and begins to plot his escape again.

But he ended up being just that.

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B>D, D>B

The Abomination LINK in Brilliant? But wait: it’s actually on a 16 square meter parcel tucked in the southwest corner of DaBoom to the northwest of Brilliant. DaBoom — Second Life’s first sim. From the *Linden* Lab direction. Owner of the parcel is JRL Industries headed by Robison Argonaut, a very old Second Life avatar indeed dating from 2003. The house fronting it is owned by Marcus Reisman, another oldbie but not so much (2006). Here was a possible (mythological) foothold into the heart of the matter. The only parcel in DaBoom currently for sale is a 256m2 going for $150000. Yes that’s a 15 followed by 4 zeros.

—–

“DaBoom was kind of a bust I heard, Baker Bloch.” Karoz was polishing off his third piece of Perch perch for the night, and again spoke with his mouth full. Disgusting, Baker thought, but didn’t say this aloud. He merely took steps to get away from Karoz until he finished eating… and, later on, talk to Baker Blinker about correcting some of what he considered Karoz’s ill manners. “Gotta run to the bathroom Karoz — sorry. You keep on eating however. I’ll be back in a minute and we’ll talk more of Sansara and DaBoom and such. You keep on eating.”

—–

“But you did meet Dot,” Karoz stated later while they were sipping on after dinner coffees.

“I did indeed. She prefers Doflia Doria, actually. Another writer.”

“But not of horror,” Karoz added.

“Oh no.” Baker thought back to the appropriate parcel in the Ohno sim of Sansara’s Snowlands. Hopping with bunnies.

“Witchcraft, though,” Karoz finishes. “Dessert?”

Baker cringes.

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We finish off…

… in Rodeo:

“The winter island,” states Baker Bloch, looking sideways from where Karoz blogger is still staring. “Maybe answers will be there. We’re on the eastern edge of Stinson now, Karoz. The line with Rodeo, let’s see, seems to run right through that peninsula. Curious — didn’t know Stinson projected over this far into the forest.

“Well let’s get off this slope,” responds Karoz. “(I’m) getting dizzy!”

—–

“Hmm, so we try to teleport directly into the winter isle or peninsula or whatever, Karoz, and we come back here. On this bridge where we were day before yesterday. Teleporting route.”

“Let’s fly over there,” Karoz suggested. But in checking, they remembered no flying was allowed on this land. Only walking and running. So they run.

—–

Karoz pauses to look at what he considers a rather dirty snowman…

… while Baker Bloch stares forward at what he knows could be the beating heart of the forest’s mysteries.

Crossing the bridge, he pretends to Karoz that he’s never been here before.

—–


Baker Bloch confesses to Karoz Blogger that they’re in a portal.

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We start off…

… just east of the centerpoint of Stinson:

“You know what it reminds me of, Karoz?”

“Haven’t the foggiest,” replied the moss being standing near Baker Bloch.

“The contraption. You know, the object that kept showing up again and again in our user’s collages.”

“*Your* user. I’m trying to stay out of all that. Baker Blinker is my focus now.”

“Right.” The male Baker points to one of the revolving circular panels. “And look at the time… oh well, I guess that’s not too odd at all since it’s the actual time.”

“Right. Can we go now?” Karoz had already eaten before Baker Bloch dragged him back to the Forest of Kahruvel for more investigating, but he still had much work to do in the newly set up Temple of TILE. Building inspectors coming next week, just to name one thing. Will he be marked down for using too many prims?

“Might as well bum around a bit more while we’re here, don’t you think? You have a full stomach this time — no irritatingly loud rumblings, hehe.”

“No… leftover squid. Baker Blinker wanted me to finish it off before it went bad. Refrigeration’s never been one of her strong points.”

Baker Bloch then remembered he hadn’t told Karoz Blogger about the “Baaad Santa” over in Nautilus City. When to spring all that information on him?

“Well…” Karoz said. “Where to next?”

Baker points south. “How about up there.”

—–

“I must admit it’s a nice view up here, Baker Bloch. What’s that behind you?”

Baker checks. “It says ‘VAA Haiku Speed Build 2008/08/28’ for the name. In the description, let’s see: ‘A hundred mountains/echoed in the jeweled eyes/of a dragonfly’. Hmm.”

“Maybe it represents a sim… or a map in general,” Karoz offers. “We’re in a mountainous area, after all.”

“Maybe. Let’s check a couple more places.”

—–

“It says, ‘Stinson Bar and Pier’ in the land description, Karoz, but nothing really here. Rez time set at 180 minutes. Could be a place for a later scene.”

“(Collagesity) Book IV, yeah. How’s that going? Any new developments?”

Baker Bloch thinks of the Nautilus City Santa again. “Kind of. Hey, Karoz, do you still have to go over to New Island sometimes? I mean, does — your job — entail going over there.”

“One of my jobs,” Karoz corrects. “I also work for Tom (“The Busker”) Wilmot still. I have a story about that now.”

“Well go ahead. Do that first.”

—-

“That’s the way I feel when I wake up in the morning,” Karoz says thirty minutes later to Baker Bloch while staring at the almost sideways goat on the slope.

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Baker’s island.

At least every blue moon, an avatar has to return to the place of their virtual birth. So it is here with Baker Bloch on the Isle of Baker. It’s been over 9 years ago since he was first rezzed by me, his user baker b., on this island, awaiting the original assignment from creepy Mr. Low who has since reappeared in the “Collagesity 2015-2016 Winter” document. He looks over the waters to the northwest, thinking back to when the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog in that direction. Nothing left of Mr. Low’s underwater ruins, unsurprisingly. But didn’t Old Mabel visit the submerged ruins of a *Doctor* Low recently? Octopus again.

I can’t recall where the slightly earlier created Baker Blinker first appeared inworld. My blogs do not cover my first month of Second Life experiences, including numerous forays into the Forest of Kahruvel featured in that last series of posts. I remember her hanging around Cowell’s seaside village; Salazar Jack loomed big for me at the starting point. But I decided to take the blog in a different, new direction, and away from that already established mythology. SJ’s friend and collaborator Headburro Antfarm was at least an equally large influence at the beginning. I need to dig back through his blog.

Energy is a precious commodity.

Isle of Baker remains basically the same as it was way back then in terms of terraforming. The corresponding Isle of Not-Baker over in Rodeo has not. No sign of the 5 differently colored and shaped peas in a pod, no sign of the gray bench here. But Baker Bloch thinks this island, this Isle of Baker, has an interesting story to tell down through the years now. Southwest corner of the Baker sim as opposed to the northeast corner of the Rodeo sim. Something remains important about this.

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Rodeo 02

Then they were at the sod house, local lights switched on. Looking around, Baker Bloch became concerned that he had advertised the wrong place to Karoz. But then he discovered the Nautilus City map tucked around a corner. Relief!

—–

“The pin,” Karoz said, not being able to hide his impatience now. “Where does it take us? Don’t *go* there — just tell me where it leads.”

“Quito,” Baker said back. “That’s another thing I wanted to tell you. You land on the lawn just opposite his front doors. And you know what I found within earlier today?”

Karoz threw up his arms, indicating he didn’t know. “And I’m not playing one of your guessing games either,” he tacks on. “Just tell me. Then we’ll head home. Actually you can tell me back home. Time’s up.” Karoz taps his wrist like he’s wearing a watch there.

—–

Baker decided not to tell Karoz what was inside the house. There’s certain doors that seem to want to remain locked. Their choice. But Karoz did spill wine all over his portion of Baker Blinker’s squid the same night.

Missing elf.

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Rodeo 01

“I’m telling you Karoz. There was an elf or something sitting on that bench there when I bought this particular picture for free over at Rodeo.”

Karoz looks up at the appropriate photograph. He was nervous about resetting up his TILE college in Collagesity. Baker Bloch had brought back a number of what he called mysterious objects from over at the remnants of the old Kahruvel Forest. He felt he didn’t have time to deal with this. “Hmmm,” is all he responded to Baker’s observation.

“Sure you don’t want to pop over to Rodeo and check this out with me? There’s the Nautilus City map as well. Maybe this is the *real* secret society.”

Karoz forgot about the map. “Okay, he said. But I must get back before supper. Baker Blinker’s cooking squid.” He rubs his tummy and emits a pleasurable sound.

Baker Bloch waits for an invite which never comes. “Alright, alright,” he then says after the awkward pause. “One hour. Then we’re back.”

“Nifty,” returns Karoz. “And un-check your high-res snapshot option before we get there so you won’t forget again.”

“Good idea. But you take some pictures too if you like.”

“I will.” But Karoz was thinking he wouldn’t take any. He tries to put worries about the college out of his mind.

—–

“Sometimes when you teleport directly into the middle of a sim, Karoz, you can tell a lot about where you are.”

Karoz was hoping he wouldn’t have to play a game of roshambo with Baker Bloch on top of everything else. “Ferns,” he stated plainly.

—–

“Well, we’re just *east* of the center,” says the stump sitting Karoz. He glances over his shoulder. “Nice view. Didn’t you once say there was an obelisk around here?”

“Not any more I don’t think. That was on the Island of Not-Baker.”

“Island of Not-Baker,” Karoz repeats. “Yeah I *think* I remember hearing about that. Refresh my memory.”

“Island — or actually Isle of Not-Baker was, well, an island, a small one, terraformed in the very northeast corner of this sim — Rodeo. On the tip of it existed an obelisk with texts from three different languages written on its sides. Turns out all three said the same thing. Translate one and you also get the other two as a bonus. It was a Rosetta Stone.”

“Like in the Long Now Project?” Baker and Karoz were talking about that earlier as a possible model for the college.

“Kind of, I suppose. It was three races of people who decided to drop their spears and take up quill and live peacefully with each other. Another Great 3-N-1.”

“Nice. But where’s the map? Not on the island, I suppose. Is the island still there?”

“I tried to reach it but it’s on private property now, with security sensors. So I don’t know if it’s buried underneath their [structures] or not. I would assume so. Or you could recreate it. The basic landform of a mainland sim doesn’t usually change over time. It’s just the terraforming you add on top of it that makes the alterations.”

“Map, then. Chop chop.” Karoz clapped his hands together here. “No Time Toulouse, as Monty Python once said.”

“I’ve landmarked it,” Baker responds. “Hold on.”

—–

“Turns out this is not it. But’s the place is right up there. On those cliffs. I think.”

Karoz is wondering how he’s going to remove himself from this concrete without getting wet, but then finds he can just back up and get out easily. “Shall we fly?” he then offered.

Baker checked his movement options. “No flying, hmm. They really want you to explore the nooks and crannies of this place.”

“Certainly seems like a Lemony world,” Karoz adds. “That’s good. I’m appreciating it, Baker Bloch. Thank you for bringing me here.”

“You’re welcome Karoz. And I think if we just follow these stairs up and then go around top of the cliff we’ll be there. We can visit the other house up there as well, if you wish.”

“Quickly,” Karoz responded.

—–

Baker Bloch was glad they visited the other house, because he found a number of additional objects he could copy and take back to Collagesity within. Afterwards he tried to read a book on the table but found it was a 3d tableau instead called “Hope Springs Eternal”. No interior pages. Karoz was looking over the backwards letters on the wall below the copyable posters.

“Shall we move on?” he then said.

—–

But the house Baker wanted most to show Karoz didn’t seem to be on this particular cliff. Instead we have the singing 3 eyed pig again, with Bryn Oh statue just below. Language again, Baker Bloch thinks while staring down. Maybe Salazar Jack really is behind all this.

Darkness was descending. Karoz’s stomach begins its first rumblings. Baker spots the sod house hidden in the green foliage just ahead. He tells a relieved Karoz this. Karoz imagines Baker Blinker preparing the squid back at the Gloomy Gus in her special sauce. He must ask her more about that sauce just in case he has to go away again. Wheeler, he then thinks with some disgust. A reprieve for now, but he’s always on call. A long chain. A long now chain.

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Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, Coast Town Sims, Heterocera, Rubi, Sansara

New Mystery

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