October 4, 2017 · 8:59 am

name game

Earie woke up in a strange place once more. He felt like he’d been drugged. But he recognized the rusty lighting all around. Still Gaston-Berry, he realized. For there indeed was a Berry too, as legends told.

Now where was home again in all this mess?

Ahh, the ocean. He must be close. There’s Stewart’s ship out there. A landmark for his confused mind.

He sits in the worn wooden chair on the pier and tries to remember what happened the night before.

Audrey was her name? No… Leona. Leona Lei. And her sister Hana Lei. Or at least they always wore leis (traditional Hawaiian garland of flowers). But wait — he’s remembering the horrible details now. It was only his siblings Improvio and Chroma, dolled up like women of the night. What was in that weed Jacob sold them last week?? And those wacky glasses (sunglasses?) they passed back and forth between them, with one lens red and the other blue. Yes, he must track down Jacob, who resides downtown somewhere. He remembers an initial for a last name but not the actual name. Jacob I. Maybe that will be sufficient.

But first, to find home.

Easy enough.

He must pay more attention to his surroundings.

—–

Meanwhile, downtown:

“So little grass, Broken Heart Jackie.”

“And so much paper.”

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October 2, 2017 · 2:58 pm

color row 02

“Giant Jiff,” Buster commands, “this morning we need to dismantle this block of houses and attached tiny village. Location change — other colorful houses used for the set, you see. Also: phone Bettie up and tell her we need to start preparing to get the heck out of Dodge. I have to take a shower.”

“Sure thing boss.”

“Shoot,” exclaims the overhearing sheriff down at Tiny Towne.

“Looks like you’re free to go Prisoner Pothead.”

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October 2, 2017 · 1:38 pm

color row

One day, after a particularly intense jamming session the night before, The Musician woke not beside Terri but *as* Terri. Although his name was now Earie. Some people called him Chuck. He lived in the Yellow House — been living there for a pretty good while.

Siblings Chroma and Improvio resided in the same row of houses, but remained in cocoon form, chained to a more basal music. He was the first to emerge.

He gives Improvio next door in the Blue House a ring, knowing he wouldn’t be up, hehe.


“Don’t answer it.”

Chroma (Red House) was usually down at the waterfront by now, studying symmetry in objects washed up on the beach. She jots down a lot.

Right this moment she happens to be scrutinizing an old waterlogged book found floating underneath a rickety pier.

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October 1, 2017 · 3:49 pm

Bodega Market

Chroma gets around. The next morning she visits Baker Bloch’s new upstairs gallery at the Olde Lapara Towne’s Bodega Market and takes notes. She especially likes the large red work of the 8 piece exhibit: “See title 02”.

A balance for “See title 01” on the opposite side of the room, hmmm.

Chroma’s all for symmetry. And mystery for that matter. But now it’s time for an early martini at Audrey’s just below (a.k.a. Red Door Bar) and a chat with Terry. Not the same as Terri, obviously, but related.

Teleporting down, Chroma didn’t realize what a big boy Terry was getting to be. He’s grown!

They talk of New Lynne and the purchase of additional magical seeds.


Bodega Market: Red Door Bar in back; Art gallery upstairs; Teleporter inside door.

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October 1, 2017 · 5:54 am

Gaston Terri

The Musician tries to remember where his studio apartment is in this maze of streets, stairs and alleyways.

Eight, nine… He believes his was 5.

Squalor. He thinks for the thousandth time that he must remove himself from this environment. But he’s been inspired (!). The Musician has some new songs. “Terri,” for one, a love ballad.

He found it. Down by the harbour.

How’d he get so lucky?

But he’s got his eyes on this 2 story yellow house 2 doors down. The place remains unlocked, and sometimes he and Terri meet here and jam.

Yesterday he received a telephone call from Wheeler. They caught up. Wheeler said she’s probably heading back to Collagesity in a month or 2, and that some things remain to be tied up in Olde Lapara Towne. He, in turn, tells how he got to Gaston from VHC City. It was pleasant talking to her again. Afterwards he thought of the good times back in their Safe Plaza, where they first met up. The Ear Bar. Yes…

He looks for the landmark. Takes him a while…

Key shop… close enough.

There it is. The Musician almost forgot how to find it.

Ear.

Bar.

His favorite pinball machine inside — still broken.

“Howdy Percolator,” The Musician calls toward the bar counter. Percolator is a sentient clown machine.

The red doors across the way were no longer locked. Underground open to all. No OD needed!

He could still stay here. Crash on the upper floor’s couch just like old times.

But there was Terri to think about now. He imagines him sitting in the chair next to the couch, his twin sister Chroma illuminated in the background.

Chroma wishes to be a mathematician, but is limited because she only likes group theory. “0 1 4 9 4 1”, she might randomly say. He can’t recall any other of her rows right off. Chroma’s graphs she calls them in total. She’s red for a reason.

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September 30, 2017 · 8:58 am

Ring

They were waiting in Clownski’s for the start of filming tonight when Wheeler got the ring. Seeing who the caller was, she distanced herself from Rocky in case it was bad news.

“Uh huh,” she said, listening to Baker Bloch. “2, maybe 3 more months. Until Christmas.” She listened some more. “Uh huh.” She bit at a fingernail and spit on the floor. “Okay, I’ll tell Rocky.” The call ended.

Wheeler Wilson sat down again opposite Rocky in the booth. “Good news, Mr. Racco. Baker Bloch’s said the Bodega Supermarket and Deli can stay a while. You’re a store owner still… for now.”

Rocky rapidly clapped his hands together and jumped up and down a little, even. “What’d he say, what’d he say?”

“He said he’s going to try out a gallery upstairs. Said there was more stories to tell. I guess he meant second floor stories.” She smiled.

“Tealie,” began Rocky again. “Tealie, Tealie, Tealie.”

Wheeler stared at him blankly. “Anyway, he said filming is off tonight. His graphic novel may be completed. I was wondering how he was going to create a town set 50 years in the future full of robots. Seems he’s chickened out of all that.”

“As he should! Present is the point of power. Let’s go back and tell Terry!”

—–

“Because a futuristic town would have been way too much to pull off.”

“Sure would have, Wheeler.”

END OF “COLLAGESITY 2017 MIDDLE”!

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September 29, 2017 · 8:00 pm

“see title 02”

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September 29, 2017 · 9:06 am

finishes 04

Nancy leads Rocky around the transmogrified village, showing him various things that are different now.

This includes the Defiance Cemetery across the tracks, still tiny but with several additional graves and revamped tombstones to fit the future times, along with some artificial ground mist.

“Razielians we are now,” Nancy explains. She points to each grave in turn. “Still Richard, Danny, Linda at the top, but those little ones — our children. Star and Par, named after the two sims of the town. Young they were at death.” She stops here, being still unable to weep at the sight despite many years passing.

“Where is your grave?” Rocky asks, looking around.

“I am not buried with Danny according to the laws of our new religion. Advantages it has from the standpoint of appealing to the mechanoids, which began to outnumber us regular flesh and blood citizens starting in 2049. Or was it 2059? Anyway, that’s the main reason for the switch. Robots. Tronesisia became a high priestess herself. A popess or female pope, some claimed, although I processed all the paperwork of town, being the city clerk, and never saw an official decree to that regard. I would know.”

“What happened to Danny?”

Nancy sighed. “He never became a vampire and remained in his grave, looking for pipes and other plumbing to fix in the great beyond. I died a lonely spinster at the age of 72. But I am young again now in appearance. Don’t I look super for 72 years plus 1?”

“So Star and Par aren’t Danny’s children? I’m confused.”

“I was pregnant at the time of his death.” She stops again.

“Look,” says Rocky, pointing toward town. “Someone is over there.”

Wheeleria likewise turns around, knowing Rocky couldn’t see her.

But nothing is there except the side of the Razielian synagogue. *Can* he see her? It hasn’t happened in 50 or so years but maybe… maybe…

(to be continued)

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September 29, 2017 · 7:39 am

finishes 03

The Librarian walks through the door without opening it. Rocky sees no choice except to follow suit…

… but on the other side the figure is nowhere to be seen. Rocky stands alone.

He peers around at the cobweb filled room with its two huge spiders (Boris and Doris Webb)…

… and understands where he is. The Magill House. The Magill Hill House, the Hill House. The House on the Hill. The point is, it still stands in this reality he now inhabits; hasn’t fallen off the edge of town to be destroyed on the grassy plain 100 meters below thanks to Story Room’s thump thump thumping from the night before.

And it now has a ghost on the upstairs porch.

“Rooo-cky,” the spectre calls in the haunting way ghosts do. “Roo-cky,” she repeats. “Roooo-cky,” she wails again. He reaches her.

“Nancy??”

(to be continued)

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September 29, 2017 · 6:13 am

finishes 02

Rocky was walking around town just after 2am the next night, pondering over the hard choice he had to make, when he came upon it to his right. The structure most like the one he was renting in town, suddenly filled. Musaks was the name. He remembered the establishment use to be beside Baker Bloch’s rental in Tenement Square. Within still were a number of orchestrions and gramaphones, all powered up and producing a kind of spooky cacaphony in toto. And then in back, a steam calliope; he didn’t remember that from before.

But what is the lilting tune he automatically finds himself playing to add to those already thick in the air. Checking the object’s description, he sees it’s something called “Girls Just Require Amusement” by a C. Lauper, who he doesn’t know. He stands up.

The Librarian had just appeared out of nowhere at the lone desk of the room, reading a book as usual. Rocky decided just to stay calm and take the manifestation in stride.

“What are you reading — Librarian isn’t it?” The figure didn’t answer but just kept on studying the book in his hands. Rocky takes a look.

“Oh, it’s *my* book, hmmm. ‘Bible Truth.’ But I don’t remember a hardback edition being published yet. You must have one of the first copies.” Still nothing from The Librarian. “Is that the one where Nancy dies at the end?”

The Librarian closes the book and puts it on the desk while standing. He backs up a little bit and, hands together, begins to stare at the wall. Rocky gazes with him in silence.

A red door appears.

(to be continued)

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