Philip Strevor couldn’t help himself. He had to read ahead in the red book to see what life would be like in the Bermingham part of Muff-Bermingham. With the kid.
Journal entry, 01/18/19:
Today was the first day my mother didn’t come calling.
Panicking, he quickly thumbed back to pages already experienced, carefully marking the ultra important division between past and future. He’d read enough of the latter today. No more peeking, he vowed!
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0007, 0407, Muff-Bermingham^^
They met in the highest tower of Raven Central.
“I’m glad to see you are adjusting well to Capitol City, Musician,” Lou spoke to begin the serious part of their discussion.
“Musician?” Philip replied, taken aback. “Believe me, I’m no musician. I’m tone deaf!”
“Nevertheless,” continued the pale, tall alien in her level manner, “you are. And it’s time to repay the favor we bestowed upon you.” She then explained how Philip’s metallic stigmata suddenly vanished about 2 weeks back.
“Oh,” he then said, understanding quite a lot more. “Transference, huh?”
“Yes. You were sucked in. It really wasn’t your fault. It is the fault of the designers of telescopes, microscopes, other artificial extensions of the naked eye. We, as a planet, were never suppose to see beyond Uranus.”
“It’s a tricky planet with the naked eye,” Philip replied, unable to resist astronomical trivia in the moment. “You have to know exactly where to look.”
“Right,” Lou said, steering the conversation back to the matter at hand. “About the repayment…”
“I’ll do it,” he quickly followed. “Whatever it is — outside of signing away my soul to The Devil — I’ll be glad to comply. I’m just so happy to be free of all that metal shite after, what, *10* years. 10 years ago that demon Jimmy operated on me, or what he *calls* an operation.” He paused, shook his head, then looked up again. “Transference… just like you said. Whatever you do, don’t confuse a physician with a physicist.”
Lou emits a small, lilting laugh here. “It’s not Jimmy’s fault either, though.” She sits further back in her wicker armchair. “Here’s the deal.”
—–
Later that night, Philip returns to the home which Lou wants him to stay in after his “assignment” in Gaeta V has ended. But, good news, he can take Heidi and her shape shifting ways along for the ride.
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0007, 0403, Capitol City^, Gaeta V^^, Muff-Bermingham^^
Better break this to Duncan gently when it all shakes out, George deliberates.
No more Bermingham to go back to now!
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0006, 0511, Muff-Bermingham^^
It’s time for Improvio to strike out on his own.
Hana Lei…
… and Leona too.
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0006, 0111, Muff-Bermingham^^, Purden/Snowlands^
No one says anything, not knowing if Woody is finished or not. But after about 30 seconds, it’s pretty obvious to all that he’s wrapped up his spiel. Mary takes his place, thanking Woody and the others for their words, then asks if anyone else wants to speak. She looks at Baker Bloch then at Hucka Doobie. Both wave her off, but then Baker felt the need to say, “We appreciate your supreme sacrifice Mary.”
“Then I suppose it’s time.” She turns to the rocket ship. “Goodbye all! I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Goodbye my love!” Pitch cries from the second row. “I know you will. I have faith in the Gods.”
Sobbing, she touches the launcher, then manifests inside the firing capsule. A person was already there. It was George, seated beside her.
He took her hand. “It’s you and me now.”
—–
24 years later…
“Do you not know me?” asked Mary/Chuckles to Sikul Himakt The Musician.
“Of course I do mother.”
END OF “COLLAGESITY 2017 MIDDLE”!
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0004, 0618, Heterocera, Muff-Bermingham^^, Rubi^
“There she is, George. Just like I predicted.”
“Who is she?”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Duncan replied. “How long did you say you’ve been here now?”
“What’s time here? But 50 as of last Wednesday. *You* were there at the celebration.”
“Ever hear of mothersightings?”
“Of course,” said the younger boy in appearance. “But… *oh*, you don’t mean…?”
—–
“That’s when we first saw her. Together. I’ve been spotting her fishing in various places for a while. We determined later it was the same ghost that haunted the village’s 3rd cottage — Osborne Well’s house back then, before he moved up the hill. He probably summoned her through the monster tome, we reasoned. That’s what we had nicknamed his heavy book of spells. And now she couldn’t escape this realm. But what was the spell? That’s what we had to find out next. Well… Mr. Well always took a morning walk down in the lowlands: Path of the Circle River. That was our window. Literally. We entered his house through a window and not a door. George had just received a universal pass-through for his 50th death day, but we still dare not come in from the front. Very expensive in those days.”
“Doors?” Baker Bloch ventured.
“Pass-throughs,” Duncan corrected. “Buster Damm can tell you all about them. When he gets here.”
“Which should be soon,” Pitch Darkly said.
“Yes. The book was just laying open on the table, which should have been clear indication of a trap for us. It wasn’t. We were so proud that we’d found a way to enter the house in the first place. Vanity.” He shook his head. “The next thing we knew we were the same. I was him, I mean. Just by reading the passage in front of me. Rule 110.”
“Well, what did it say?” Hucka Doobie had been studying magic for years and was very curious about all this.
“We couldn’t remember. Neither of us.” Duncan kept something hidden here. “But that was the day we found out we had the same mother. And the same father. Osborne Well. Lucky us, eh? Osborne Well was our father.”
Mothersighting.
“Not Pitch?” exclaimed Baker Bloch.
“Nope,” Duncan replied tersely. “At least not until *now*. That’s why I’m apparently here. A summoning. Three days ago I was returned to my former self. Spell broken.” He wiped his forehead with his hand. “Thank the Lord God Almighty.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0004, 0615, Heterocera, Muff-Bermingham^^, Rubi^
Morris scolds Bendy for getting drunk in the corner of the room and missing Tronesisia pass through the portal outside into Bermingham.
Lou admonishes Tronesisia about being so proud of herself for figuring out the portal animal situation and forgetting to check the sealed Muff building indicated by Woody.
For Osborne Well, everything was going exactly as planned.
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0004, 0611, Heterocera, Muff-Bermingham^^, Rubi^
It was also Woody who discovered what was, in effect, the keyhole of the cypher city. One of its buildings stood out from the rest, being isolated inside its own small square of surrounding road. The wooden man figured that if you unlinked the berg and then, in turn, touched or sat upon this building, the surrounding force field would be removed and you could reach the portal. But only one person should be up here when this happened, because you couldn’t just stand/un-sit and get back to Collagesity afterwards. Tronesisia was the one.
And if Woody’s theory was wrong? Tronesisia would be stuck here until Karoz could get his rocket ship launched for a rescue. After speaking with Baker Bloch on the matter, the robot lady decided it was well worth the risk, a quicker and, in all likelihood, safer way into Bermingham. Baker confided to Tronesisia that Woody is probably the one who set all this up in the first place, and then just conveniently forgot he did so. “How did it just show up one day outside his front door?” he rationalized to her. “How does Woody seem to know how it works so well? No, this was another aspect of his split nature, like how he regularly brings inanimate objects such as Snowy and others to life. He goes *into* them. Just like he has already gone into this world, this Bermingham. He’s merely forgotten; it’s what he does by nature,” Baker reinforced. Tronesisia nodded, remembering how Snowy use to sit static beside Woody’s house when she first arrived in town.
But there was an additional problem to tackle: the issue of the portal animal needed to actually pass through the gateway. Wheeler stated to Baker Bloch that The Musician held a fox to effect the transition (but which we later find out is really a dingo resembling a fox — still a portal dog). And then a bit later in our story we learned that snakes such as Old Colin Hiss could be used for the same. Woody asked his key about the matter and received an answer. “Such an animal has already been given to you by one no longer with us,” he says to Tronesisia. She goes back to Baker Blinker’s Gloomy Gus to ponder on this, and then received the Eureka moment about 3am in the morning. “Aspinwall!” she cried.
The next day Tronesisia phoned up Baker Bloch and Woody and declared that she was ready. They meet at the smaller version of the sealed city outside Woody’s house. Snowy doesn’t join them this time. “What’s in the cigar box?” asked Baker Bloch, but then realized what it had to be. He looks at Woody who gives him a wink back. “She’s figured it out, my main man. She’s figured it out.”
Tronesisia unlinks.
Tronesisia touches.
Tronesisia passes through.
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0004, 0609, Heterocera, Muff-Bermingham^^, Rubi^
Woody had justed booted up his computer when he saw it outside. “Hmm, I don’t remember that being there before.” He went out to check.”
—–
“Come over here Snowy Snowmanson. See what you can make of this.” The recently animated snowman complied.
“Another key world, you say? Just what *I* was thinking. It says ‘sit to enter’ in the text on the top. Shall we?”
“Whoa, Snowy. Where are we *now*??” Woody looks around at the landscape between the buildings. “Is this *Mars*?”
—–
Woody next took Baker Bloch up. “No, it isn’t Mars,” he expresses. “I think it might be Muff. Wheeler has given me some graphic details about the place she and The Musician were trapped in for a while last month. This looks like what she was talking about. Sealston, eh? Maybe another world within a world.”
“Snowy thinks a key is here. We have an opinion.”
Baker Bloch glances over at the snowman, taking its recent animation in stride. Woody has powers, yes. “Please share.”
Woody begins. “The central avenue — not boulevard — of the sealed sity heads directly to the big cave mouth, yes?” Baker didn’t know this, but agreed anyway. “Yet you cannot reach the mouth because of the force field surrounding us. Sealston is named for a reason. And there’s another, different building next to the cave, gray as well. You cannot reach it either. We are inside. They are outside. But if you look closely — here, better walk over and I’ll show you. Snowy, you stay here next to the entrance point and alert us if anyone else comes up.”
—–
“See, this avenue –2nd Avenue Snowy and I are calling it — ends at the outside building. The next one over, 1st or Main or Central — Snowy desires Central or Main, I say First…”
“Go on,” encourages Baker.
“… is the one that leads directly to the cave. But this building is sealed up as well. If you look closely, the rocks around the cave seem to block up its only entrance. So what does that mean?”
Baker didn’t know. But he did understand that this “cave” could be the portal back to Bermingham, as Wheeler also described. Tronesisia might not need that rocket ship to find Bendy after all. Better break the news gently to Karoz. He’s worked so hard on it the past week.
Filed under **VIRTUAL, 0004, 0608, Heterocera, Muff-Bermingham^^, Rubi^
Sunklands 