Sunklands

… 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.

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.

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.