—–
“As you can see, Grassy, the 2 sightings of Mossmen in Our Second Lyfe from the past several years — perhaps the same as your Gene Fade…”
“It is!” reinforced the Mmmmmm sitting in the chair next to Baker Bloch. “It’s my old friend Gene Fade. Gene Fade!”
“Yes,” spoke Baker Bloch not quite as enthusiastically. “Anyway, both sightings occur very close to our brand new Heart Line. The actual heart shaped dance stage in, let’s see, (Baker Bloch looks at the part of the map closest to him, its sw corner) Catocala — never remember that — it marks the line as the Heart one. Then just a bit later I found a linden palm right on the line in one of the sims below this map, but didn’t make the connection to *palm* or hand line until a little later. Then the spinning train in (Baker squints further up the map this time), Velox — yes, Velox — convinced me this new Diagonal also had power, just like the old one running through Rubi and VHC City and the like.”
“One is Heart,” Grassy inserts. “One is Head. You *thought* about the Head Line too much, so the Heart Line is automatically produced. And your friend Art Oluja is involved?”
“Right. The Cato-cala heart (Baker makes sure he’s pronouncing the sim name correctly) points right to the center of her new installment in the same sim.”
“Art use to live on the edge of Collagesity?”
“Yes. Eastern edge.”
“Why did she leave?”
“Nothing in Our Second Lyfe is permanent, Grassy,” instructs Baker Bloch to the rather naive Mmmmmm. “Things change… but I think Art decided to use the tier of the parcel for other purposes. You see, you can only hold a certain amount of mainland with a certain amount of tier, and the tier is rigged to jump way up in price if you go over your limit and you own enough land. I pay 35 US dollars in tier each month to the Lindens, but my land allowance is maxed out under this agreement. To buy even a small 512 parcel would push it up to 67 US dollars in tier. Do you understand?”
“I think so. I will study this matter. I have never owned land in Our Second Lyfe. Nor do I believe I desire to do so if the game is rigged this way, as you put it. I will stick to visiting Collagesity when needed and staying in my nice, free apartment near Iris that Bill provided me at the end of Collagesity novel 8.”
Baker Bloch looked over at the ovoid green figure beside him, his wonky pupils darting about the whites of his enormous eyes like black ping pong balls. “Probably a wise choice my friend.”
Sunklands 