Sunklands

—–

(1 day later)

“I should stay here and wait for her, Wilson. I’m glad you showed me this place. Thank you. You should go and be with your queen. Let me talk to Doreena when she once again manifests.”

“I have no place to go,” Wilson replies. “I’m done (with travels tonight).”

“You need to find the queen,” Old Mabel insists. “It’s the only way for Doreena and Cerdunk to be free and with each other again. Not imprisoned. Convince the queen to free them. Convince the queen to be a prim and proper ruler.”

“You are a strange tooter, young lady.”

“I’m not young. I’m older than you, Wilson. And I can smell insincerity on a being. You are not being true to yourself because you are a 2-n-1. Figure out which head and body to use. Become like Baker Bloch. He is my hero. He will always be my hero, my savior. Little Big is gone.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry to hear about your brother going off to war,” Wilson says.

Old Mabel wills herself not to go in that direction. “Change to Wheeler and let me see you for who you are.”

“Alright.”

“No, you are no Baker Bloch. But Baker Bloch could learn some tricks from you. Assimilate *you*. Show me your other ways. Show me how to dance tomorrow. I wish to dance.”

—–

(1 day later)

HAPPYDANCE

—–

(1 day earlier)

“Doreena?”

Dear Queen,

I wish to receive the power of Greenup (Yellow Down) and become as unto you.

Shot of the Doria barrels (etc.) with maximum particle count upped to 2048 in Wilson’s graphics preferences. Quite a bit more spew now.

In Cervana — again just west of Doria — Wilson then discovers another ghost avatar, this one a male going by the name Cerdunkyrk. Yes, this means that *Dor*ia has a single ghost avatar named *Dor*eena, and *Cer*vana has a similarly lone one called *Cer*dunkyrk. It would be difficult to make this up. Weirdness afoot and clomping!

Cerdunkyrk casts a shadow too, but smaller and circular.

But he indeed turns out to be quite humanoid, like Wilson will soon confirm the same about neighboring Doreena positioned 175 meters west-northwest, using the handy “show collision skeleton” optional display for avatars from the develop menu. Wilson also knows he’s wearing a tunic and a sword.

Collision skeletons, Wilson to left and Cerdunkyrk to right.

Then Wilson takes a look at the collision skeleton of Doreena. Quite human again, one could speculate from this.

And clearly female.

Yet another collision skeleton is discovered near the lower border of Doria, but with no accompanying ghost this time. I just found it looking around the area.

And as I’ve been writing this post, Wilson has uncovered that Doreena has returned to her trolley! Also, a very important link has been found between the 2 ghosts: both are members of The Queendom of Gaia group. I’ll have to explore that obviously important development in another post.

Blue Salazar Jack Gnome implores Wilson to keep digging for mysteries!

This is Wilson’s kelp grove base in Doria, tentatively called Kelpington.

In looking at the online map of Nautilus City earlier today, I discover the word “Dora” advertised on the southern side, and almost immediately south of the Doria sim and its formerly imprisoned Doreena. Notice that the letters of “Dora” are also the same four letters shared between names Doria and Doreena. Coincidence? In all probability: no. At least in terms of overarching meaning.

Hucka Doobie has told me that this peninsula projecting from the northeast corner of the island city also has deeper meaning. Hmm. Doria would be just to its northwest.

Then northwest of the Doria sim, in Fruugoof, Wilson comes across this fairly large city of structures, or what appears to be a city of some sort. Dominating the landscape is a very tall castle. In fact, it’s twinned with two other, similar sized castles just to the back.

But as Wilson is checking now, all the castles are gone (!)….

… along with this cave below the one closest to Doria that Wilson had high hopes for.

Because, you see, when she entered it and looked around at the 8 stations inside surrounding a central pool of blood, she realized this may be Table energy in action again. The Wheeler within surfaced and began to machinate. “Maybe *this* is where I could summon the needed 8th player at our table,” she thought. “Zappa or whoever it is.”

“Then I could have ultimate power indeed.”

But it was not to be, apparently. Good news for all of Collagesity, it seems. The door into ultimate power was only a tease.

Wilson spies Doreena’s trolley and nearby, leaking barrels from a castle window.

Attempting to resolve the problem of exploring such a vast territory as the North Nautilus Sea (newly coined name) — covering, by my count, perhaps up to *30* sims — Wilson makes the wise decision to turn on her “show property lines” option and follow sim boundaries in the main for better orientation.

This almost immediately begins to pay dividends, like finding a “bird hand” on the lower edge of von Luckner…

… and then what Wilson dubbed the Plain of Kelp in the next sim west (Tirpitz)… immediately *before* spotting a crashed plane in the distance through the forest of tall, green kelp. Yes, synchronicity is back in action around Nautilus for sure.

More sea floor decoration.

Wilson called this Tirpitz location Octopus Garden.

Interesting terrain patterns on a proximate hillside.

Octopus Garden again.

Continuing to walk the sim lines today eventually brings Wilson face to face with the 3 pillars on the southern edge of Doria again, where all this new bundle of weirdness started to kick in.

She sits down on a nearby hill and enjoys the view.

Wheeler wasn’t having much luck aqua-circumnavigating the isle of Nautilus City as herself so she decided to change back into Wilson for better focus. When she attempts to stand up after sitting on these square pillars straddling the southern boundary of the water sim Doria….

… and enters some kind of in-between dimension…

… she knew she was on the right track again. Trail of Weirdness found.

In Cevera to the immediate west of Doria, Wilson then finds a great wall not uncovered by Baker Bloch on his extensive explorations of the seas surrounding Nautilus back in ’08. Perhaps it has been added in the meantime. But it’s a pretty big’un: the exposed part by itself is 87 meters long, as Wilson is finding out right now while checking behind herself for the purposes of me writing this blog post. I don’t know how Baker Bloch could have missed it in his own kind of aqua-circumnavigation around Nautilus City island at the time, but perhaps he did. One more mystery to add to a growing list, however, and more to come. Oh yes.

Typical hilltop vegetation in the Nautilus City seas.

Returning to Doria, Baker then finds an avatar which is present and not present at once. Again, as Wilson is checking behind herself right now, she is rather surprised to find out the person is missing from this old rusted railroad trolley gracing the seafloor. But her pictures and information remain logged. The name?: Doreena. Much like the sim she then inhabited: Doria. Wilson noted the coincidence at the time and moved on. She would return soon enough after finding another, similar ghost avatar in Cevera.

As you can see below, this ghostly presence, while just a white mist to the naked eye, still casts a shadow. Pretty spooky.

In the same low canyon as Doreena (later christened the Dor Canyon, building on the coincidence about the same 3 letters starting the names Doreena and Doria mentioned before), we have a collection of old barrels apparently containing some kind of toxic waste, mix in a couple of washing machines and also a stop sign. Four fish skeletons are found to the side.

Doreena’s trolley can be seen in the background.

Giant green head of Poseidon stumbled upon in Villaamill northeast of Doria, I believe.

About the only useful information I could find in Doreena’s Second Life profile is that she belonged to a group called The Queendom of Gaia, described as being part of the Tiny Empires Realm of Gaia. The group profile furthers states: “Gaia joins friendly people from all over the world and every walk of life in mutual respect for all life and enjoyment of the game. As such, cruelty has no part in our discourse. Our chat group is PG. Sabotage is discouraged so please don’t since we are all about generosity and friendship . No in-house recruiting, spamming or advertising. All in-house, inter-line changes must go through the Queen. Thank you :)”

But it’s interesting that Wilson then finds a cage at each of the 2 locations she uncovered associated with the group. Is this “queen” perhaps a bit more sinister than she’s letting on? Is it another coincidence that Doreena was apparently *trapped*, at least for a good number of hours, within the Doria trolley somewhat resembling a prison cell with its overarching suspension bars? Maybe not.

More Nautilus seas decoration.