… from a nearby, safe dune.
Category Archives: X-City^
00440304 (Contemplation of an execution…)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0304, Blue Feather Sea^, Maebaleia/Satori, X-City^
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!”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0302, Blue Feather Sea^, C2077, Kabusie, Maebaleia/Satori, Nightsity, X-City^
00440301 (both sides of the Aisle)
“Hey, don’t drink my drink!” commanded Fern.
“Sorry,” the small bartender apologized, no more than a kid it appears. “I was… thirsty. Not use to customers. Not use to eyes looking at what I’m doing.”
“No more, then! You haven’t got any diseases I should know about now? Seeing we’re share buddies, ha.”
“None that I know of,” spoke the boy. He continued to shake the drink and not drink. Both at once. “Soo, you here for Breakfast?” Pause. “Or Dairy?”
“Both, actually.”
“Hmm,” he said, and poured the finished martini, dry and wet as one. Perfection if he says so himself. But he prefers the unmixed version; likes to taste both flavors separately (gin and vermouth). Darn watching eyes! “Well,” he continues. “How much have you seen so far?” he asked, not wanting to go over covered ground as it were.
“Airport first obviously. Had to come in from *somewhere*.” But Fern came in on a ship, sea instead of air. Has to be both, she figured. And with the captain none other than our Philip Strevor, fresh from a cube drop. Or so he said. Interesting.
“Not much there,” said the boy with his slight Chinese accent, worn off by years of state-side existence. Or so he said. “What else?”
“Well, pretty much saw everything in the rural district close to the void.” Too close, she thinks. “The, um, downed helicopter, the swamp, the dunes, the swimming pool. Very interesting.”
“There’s a plane in the swamp too.”
“Yup, saw that as well.”
“Do you want to hear the story (about it)?”
“Oh sure. Why not. But first, the helicopter.” Philip Strevor mentioned a helicopter along with the cubes, she thinks.
“Same story, actually. Swamp attracted both. Swamp drew them in. Just like a picture it drew them in. Got a taste for aerial. Opposites attract, after all. Water and air.”
This boy’s just spouting boyish nonsense, Fern thought, looking at his mischievous expression on his small face. But whatever; don’t have any other point of information as they say. Haven’t spotted anyone else in town. Just this child. A bartending child. Doesn’t quite add up. “Go on… I’m listening.”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0301, Blue Feather Sea^, Maebaleia/Satori, X-City^
00440216 (north)
“Look Lichen. It’s like our black and white lists that started the last photo-novel, 43 in a series (!).
“Lichen?
“Lichen!”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0216, Althyria, Maebaleia/Satori, 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)
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)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0214, C2077, Kabusie, Maebaleia/Satori, Nightsity, X-City^
00440211
It started with flamingos…
… it ended with flamingos.
And in-between, Fern found a new home for Lichen and herself while they investigate the developing super city of upper right central Maebaleia, the one northeast north and northwest all of its old capital of X-City. 100 lindens a week — quite reasonable. And a pool! Ah the joys of summer in fall, never mind the bit of rain this morning.
Chopper sounds in the distance. Approaching. Fern’s been waiting.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0211, Maebaleia/Satori, X-City^
00440205 (weakness)
They got the green light for the project even thought the base plans were still a bit up in the air.
Fern Stalin, playing the role of Dr. Kelp at least in section 02 of this here photo-novel, cussed because she couldn’t get inside to take a better look-see. Restricted. In fact about all the interiors of the Krypton sim seem to be that way, except for the naval hospital. So she decided to break a leg.
“Ow ow ow,” she acted for the night doctor. Idontknow I believe, which is perhaps Turkish. “Fix it fix it *Fix it*!”
They tried to take an x-ray but she squirmed around in so much fake pain that they couldn’t get a clear image. “Dr. Kelp — *please*, Idontknow pleaded, having to enter the scene again after retreating to his office to let the techs take over. “If you could just hold steady for a moment. I know it hurts.”
“You don’t *know* the pain,” she barked through a grimace. “No, just get me a wheelchair. I’ll come back later when a different doctor is on the clock. I don’t like your attitude.” She grimaced again, yelped in pretend pain a bit once more.
“Dr. Kelp, if you’d just–”
“Do it!” she commanded at the top of her lungs. The techs working on floors 1 and 3 turned their eyes upward and downward respectively, wondering about the noise. Dr. Idontknow thought he had no choice.
“Get her a wheelchair,” he said to his 2nd floor techies who were staring straight on. Let her circle around the hospital a couple of times with that leg, he thinks. She’ll be back soon enough.
“I’ll need a pass to get back in,” she said as they slid her into the seat.
“Well, actually–,”
“Do it!”
And so they gave her a pass even though she didn’t actually need one to return. They were trying to quiet her down in any way possible, her plan all along. Once she got in the wheelchair, she took the elevator down to the first floor…
… and was out of there, putting its little electric motor on full throttle on the way back to the room with the up-in-the-air military personnel about 200 yards away. Her plan to get to those plans worked (!). She was so pleased with herself. Dr. Idontknow, pheh, she thought. 3rd shift indeed.
“What???” more competent Dr. Who screamed in the morning when he arrived upon learning about the missing patient and wheelchair. “Yes sir?” answered 2nd shift Dr. What standing not far behind him, having to come in early for a personnel meeting. Dr. Idontknow also decided to stick around from 3rd to attempt an explanation for the situation. And then non-shift Dr. Why showed up out of left field to join the discussion, surprising everyone. And then the whole thing ended with all of them actually not caring, go figure.
Fern, base plans stolen before the military personnel’s eyes with more trickery, was home free.
What a convoluted joke! But it worked.
Now to build this aerial thing, she thought back in her own hanger.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0205, Maebaleia/Satori, X-City^
00440204
He and Slop sat there for the longest time. He kept the truck running in the cool Autumn morning, almost completely rusted over from the Blue Feather Sea salt and brine. The heat was set to medium high. The radio was tuned to the local KLXC station and its blend of medium rock and high jazz. Even the worn seat of his truck was set to same (medium high) so he could sit up and see the road better in his older age. Slouching more, he recognized. Uncle Barnacles, so named for his crusty attitude, also perhaps brought on by his own proximity to the same salty, upper central Maebaeleia continent body of water named before, had his back turned on the “creature” on purpose. He had a crate to deliver, per his new job, but he didn’t want to go over there, get any closer. “Slop,” he said to his riding companion, a droopy hound with almost as complex of personality, “I can feel it. Even if I can’t see it. You hear that hum? That’s it. Some say, Slop, it’s *comforting*. Imagine that,” he spat out with bile. Slop slopped an agreeing bark in his face, pelting it lightly with saliva, which Uncle Barnacles was use to. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
2 hours later, he’d managed to turn the truck around and face it on the upper lot of the same parking deck, but on the opposite side of where he could get a direct look. He was trying to get use to the idea of being here, of working for the people who decided to create this whole megalopolis centered around it. Or working on it, super city creation in progress. “1st crate and I’ve already got cold feet,” he complained to Slop again. “Might as well turn in my badge and get paid for my 1/2 day’s work. Maybe, hmm, maybe I’ll just leave the crate here, in the parking deck, and tell them where it’s at. Whaddaya say, Slop?” Another light splatter of spit. The crate was unloaded and they were outta here, returned to the sea of which they were so much a part of now.
“Another one lost,” human resources director and more A. Pond lamented later back at the office, staring at the still moist security badge. “Well, if the locals are spooked by the thing then we’ll just have to hire more outside workers, preferably ones desperate for a job. Her thoughts turned southward, beyond the continent’s old Neutral Zone. Slums of Hatton, as she derogatorily called it in her Northern way, might do for a start.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0204, Maebaleia/Satori, X-City^
00440203 (mystery flesh pit)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Voicesofthevoid/comments/1en5q2b/wha_the_hell_is_this/?rdt=43388
Question: what the hell is this?
Best answer (right answer): that’s where the voices of the void come from
And here is where Our Second Lyfe begins outstripping this more modern game in importance. Because this hole… actually comes from that. A whole super city in the upper right central part of the Maebaleia continent of that virtual world is being built around the phenomenon. Lab coat wearing Dr. Kelp and her companion A. Pond look on.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0203, Maebaleia/Satori, VOTV, X-City^
Sunklands 