00410516
I feel like I have failed them, thought Atlantis High Priestess (etc.) into the sacred flame from her space, communicating with the Beyond. They’re heading toward Shangri-La but don’t understand what they’re leaving behind, Black Maria and so on. It will happen, she knew.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0041, 0516, Maebaleia/Satori, RDR2, Redsland
00410515
“If we discover a new land in the ship I think we should call it Redlands. After our current hangout. Whaddaya think?”
“How about *Black* instead. Er: Black Nation, say.”
With his quicksilver mind from all that pirating business down through the years, Red Dead Beardy Head thought of a compromise. “*Well*,” he started the new pitch. “Since red and black are both card colors, 50-50 for each, how about a card game. Say: Poker.”
Black Pearl laying beside him had to smile. He certainly was honoring both him and her with the name. But she couldn’t help countering with: “Black Jack. I say Black Jack. Fits the card part. 50-50 on the cards.” But my color up front and on top again, was the implied meaning.
“Okay, got another one. How about, say, *Hearts* — Heartsland. Like our two hearts are joined beyond just playing poker.”
“Awwww. How *sweet*.”
“Red on top, I know.”
“Yup,” she returned crisply, knowing the game was on again. “Spades,” she countered logically. The game of Spades, like we have the game of Hearts. Except, let’s see if I remember, *spades* trump everything; a black suit trumps everything.
“Okaay, but if I remember correctly (thinking quick again), Black Lady and Black Maria are variants of Hearts (game). So *if* we find new land, how about we stick with Heartsland — but the capital or the town we found there or whatever will be called Black Lady. I mean, Black Pearl of course.”
“Make it Black Maria and we’re good,” she finished the negotiation. Maria was her mother’s name as it turned out. Good to honor ancestors in a new land. Remember the past and roots while at the same time moving forward beyond them.
Heartsland, slightly changed to Heartlands, stuck. But Black Maria turned out to be Valentine.
(to be continued)
00410514
She was just standing there watching the waves crash when it flew out of them, hitting her in the thigh region and wiping that smug smile of satisfaction right off her face.
“OW!” she exuded with suddenly bulging eyes and down-turned mouth, body reflexively bending over in the sharp pain. “Damn thing hit me!”
“What’s that??” called Derek from the front of the boat they came on here from the mainland. Maebaleia is the continent again now, and Funnel is the sim. The island they landed on shouldn’t be here according to the map; drew their attention. It was all leading up to this.
“A can!” she shouted back over the continuing sound of turbulent water. Would it suck them in if they tried to return now? Was the sim aptly named because of this?
“Can?!” shouted Derek.
“Yeah! In the leg!” She picked it up after examining the mark it left, pain already easing off a bit. Unpopped, with pop still inside. Of course she dare not open it until the fizz settled down. Could take days. She was smarter in the ways of canned drinks than Newt apparently.
“Jimmy! Frederica!” Derek called to the people standing above them on the height of the islet. “We need to leave! Sarah’s hurt!”
“I think I’m okay!” said Sarah to this. She looked down again; no blood still. “Yeah, I’ll be okay! One of those bruising the ego more than bruising the body moments.”
“What happened?” asked Jimmy, standing next to Derek now but looking over at Sarah. She was upright again. She looked okay.
Frederica came up next. “Yeah, what is it?” she added. Jimmy was about to take a photo of her, a perfect spot, a perfect snapshot.
“It’s Sarah. She said something hit her in the leg.”
“It’s a can of pop,” she said, hearing every word despite the decreased volume of the talk. “It just, well *popped* me.”
“W-where did it come from?” questioned Jimmy. He looked out at the sea, the now strangely calming waves. They’d forgotten all about Tom. Tom came with them from the mainland. Tom was no longer there.
Satisfied Sarah was okay, Jimmy and Frederica returned to their former positions but the moment seemed ruined. Something about those 2 palms really bothered Jimmy now; he couldn’t focus camera or thoughts. He kept thinking about that thigh. He envisioned: a ship.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0041, 0514, Maebaleia/Satori, Outer Islands
00410513
“I hear the perch is good here.”
“Don’t be silly, dear. They don’t serve fish this early. These are *landlovers*.”
“Oh.”
“So… *Libra*. Is it still Libra? I mean, since we’ve been walking? It was Libra about 10 minutes ago and I’m just wondering if the name still sticks.”
“You can call me such but, admittedly, I go by many names.”
“Yes, I’m seeing the bigger picture now.” She looked over the parrot dress, which Libra aka Atlantis High Priestess aka Bermuda aka Victor/Victoria redonned shortly after being released from jail by Officer Michelle Roundup. Some sort of pirate convention in town; they figured they would need the cell soon enough. Assign a hefty fine for the crime and move on.
“Where is our waiter?” asked impatient Red Dead Beardy Head. That man over there in the other room had been staring at him all the time. Is that our waiter on a break — taunting me? he wondered. Turns out it was.
4 handed Keat Owens, waiter/chef by day, private detective by night. He’d learned to sleep with his eyes open but he needed to wake up now and go to work again.
00410512
“I found the ship at a golf course sim which was closing up — got a cheap deal on it for that reason. Plus it was a mess, all cracked up on those rocks over there as you can see from the photo.” Black Pearl provided a photo to Red Dead Beardy Head much like the one below where she is finagling the deal with a woman named Libra Neptune who, of all places, had ties to Saint Dennis. So it seems like she has the power to manifest such realities. I, the writer of this here blog and attached current photo-novel, had no idea the Black Pearl ship would be here too. A gift, we can call it, ‘nother one.
“How ’bout Davy Jones?” said Red Dead still beside her in bed, although it was a different night than before. Plans had advanced. The restored Black Pearl, ready for space as it would ever be, parked in the vacant lot in back of downtown. They were staying in the captain’s cabin, testing it out. Well stocked with Caribbean White Rum — good start.
“Not needed in this story,” she replied plainly about Jones, knowing what he was referring to. *Her* Black Pearl was different from Sparrow’s. This was from a woman’s perspective.
—–
They were walking into town for a morning drink and a bit of breakfast when Black Pearl spotted her walking below Parrots for Pirates.
“Libra??”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0041, 0512, Big Woods, Hana Lei^^, Jeogeot, RDR2
00410511
Soon after leaving Aisle of Palms, the pirate ship ran into choppier waters rounding Thailand, encountering unexpected waves of stretch marks in trying to stick to the prepared dotted line of their journey. But this was only prognostication derived from the leg, with the actual voyage into space and not sea still lying ahead of them. Keeping with the body analogy, The Black Pearl was about to set sail for the fabled or perhaps fantastical Islets of Langerhans, said to dot the Pancreatic Sea in considerable numbers and whose shores are protected from harsher elements by huge ribs of sandbars, or so the legends go. The parallels to all this in space could only be guessed at (islets = asteroids? etc.).
Hopefully the sea and its islets haven’t been removed from the body in question and the dotted line they’re following turns out to be more akin to this, ick. In other words, the chest had been opened and the buried treasure within removed. Like coins in a gold bullion, maybe the islets themselves are this trove. We’ll work on it.
Barfly Sparrow has a secret.
“Hold *still* Prisoner Bermuda or whatever your actual name is while I take this final shot.” Officer Michelle Roundup had started at the end and worked her way back to the beginning. As shall we.
There. The Black Pearl is now in Aisle of Palms.
Thieves Landing (perfect time machine (pair of cards))
“No. *Not* like Blackbeard. It’s Red Head Beardy… shoot, let me start again. It’s Red *Dead*–”
“Why don’t I just call you Redbeard, eh?” she suggested with an interruption, hand laying on his chest. Red hair also there, she then realized, running her fingers softly through it; red hair all over, actually. “Or how about just Red?” Again, he’d heard this before. He’d turned in his hair. At a motel, he’s picking up. To be more myself, he thought.
“Oh *okay*.” He rolled over while taking her hand, looked straight into her pretty green eyes like a door or a phone. “*Black*,” he playfully chided with a return name. “Now about that ship?”
—–
She couldn’t find the free one in the inventory she had in mind, goofy looking but oh so reliable and roomy despite the odd shape. She decided to just let him have her own (The Black Pearl). On one condition: she goes too. Wherever this mysterious “X” spot is. He said there’s buried treasure to be found in the past there. 150,000 American dollars, which translates to roughly 5,000,000 dollars present day. “We just have to go there and find it in the center of the X, buy gold with it, and then come back here to cash in and spend — I’ve got it all mapped out. We’ll have to land in Mexico and take a smaller boat to the opposite shore. Or maybe just swim if the distance is not too prohibitive across the channel. How’s your swimming skills?”
“Let’s take the boat,” she said, dismissing the swimming part, not wanting to grease herself all up before going into town, this Backwater place, he said.
The name had been changed from before to protect the innocent.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0041, 0510, Mountain Lake^, Omega^^, RDR2
00410509
“I came here looking for ship parts. Maybe even a whole ship. Instead I found an X. X marks the spot.”
“You’re in over your head,” she said back, the first female salvage related person he’d met. And the 1st person of color, period. She rezzed in to help, to be truthful. RDBH had the perfect angle for an opening shot. He didn’t want to mess it up.
“Or a spot marked by an X,” he changed the wording of his former sentence. Now that she had come he could look down.
Ah yes, a bunch of stuff named Mare: cigarettes, beer, ‘nother different kind of beer. “Why are you running an, er, eatery stand? Salvage person.”
“I have to make ends meet,” she said plainly, matter-of-factly. “Else how could I offer goofy looking scavengers like you such good prices, eh?”
RDBH looked over, took her in better. Pretty face. Jewels on head and body. Attractive. But the prices were still too expensive. More than one way to skin a cat? “What’s your name, dear?”
“Pearl. Black Pearl most call me. To differentiate from other types of pearls: grey, white, so on.”
“Black Pearl,” he parroted back, making the birds on his shoulders share a smile. He seemed to have heard the name before. But where?
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0041, 0509, Mountain Lake^, Omega^^, RDR2
Sunklands 