Safely sealed inside the spire, Dove in hand, Carrcassonnee begins her well deserved bath. *Now* is the time. Clifton “Carbon Glow” Mahoney quickly unfurls the track, rezzes the train on the other side of the castle, and sits…
… taking along a very special passenger with him.
END OF “SUNKLANDS 2022-2023 WINTER”!
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“What are all these… plywoods?” the struggling, swaying giant walker boomed down. 10 yards made, about 20 to go.
“Never mind that Carrcassonnee, we need to focus on that opening in front of us — the main entrance to the castle. You need to get low enough so that you’ll fit through that door. I know you can do it. Get a little closer then start bending down, bending down. Sloow and easyy.”
Carrcassonneee and her great olive body cooperated. 15 minutes later she was through the opening and out in the open, 7th spire straight ahead.
—–
“We’re going to have to do it again, Carrcassonnee. Bend down — get a little closer first again. It’s going to be a little lower this time — sorry. Don’t lose your balance. I’m right here.” A lot of good I’ll do, Mahoney thinks at this point, if she starts to topple. All he can really do is be a cheerleader, urging her forward and to the scene of the bath. The soap had all been prepared. Dove, not Ivory. Because Carr has to *see* it all. Ivory would just sting the eye. They learned that the hard way back in Rubi, way back in photo-novel 1. Because we’ve gone full circle.
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“What are we negotiating *now*, Young Me?”
“The return of Karoz Blogger to Mainland, Jeogeot continent in particular. Somoco specifically. The Julia House to pinpoint.”
“Ahh,” spoke the old hag that was also Shelley. “You want a return to the *N* (for it).”
“Not… necessarily.”
“You *know* what that means,” she says while nodding her head up and down in an irritatingly frantic way to Shelley.
“I… do.”
—–
Wasn’t going to happen, both knew, but they were playing along. The unexpected beaver float in the cove out back pinpointed *this* location. Something had to happen here. They were experimenting. They started again.
“You *know* you will retain your current form.”
“Yes,” said Shelley back to her older self. Much older.
“You and Arthur will continue to be married. Might be rocky. Might be bumps in the road. Maybe a pothole or two. But you will persist. I should know.”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t you want–?”
“No.” She didn’t.
“Get in the float,” the old hag then said. “Easy as that. Transport,” she explained. “From this photo-novel to the next. Just get inside. Enjoyy.”
Shelley stared over, wondering if this was on the up and up or not. She couldn’t tell. The old witch was ahead of her again. “I’ll… give you a big ol’ choco chip cookie if you do it. You can hold it in front of you. Like a steering wheel. You are a Carr… repeat after me. You are a Carr.”
“I am a Carr.”
“You are a *Carr*.”
“I *am* a Carr.”
“You are… well, you know the rest.”
—–
“Come on, Carr,” urged Clifton Mahoney, full transferred over from Baker Bloch. “I know it’s early but your bath is 5 days overdue. Get your drying moss ready.”
“Broken,” the great olive being replied.
“I know. We’re going to get you fixed up… cleaned up.”
“Not what–”
“I know. Come on, get up. I know you can do it.”
“Need… help.”
“Why I’m here.” And he moved toward Carr to help her get started.
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The next morning, Lucas examined the created tunnel more closely. Town scoundrels, he thought. Obviously planted this garden in this particular spot to hide any sign of the old tracks that might remain. But Mahoney had figured it out. Tiny back to Teensie. His mission would succeed. All he had to do now to make it work is lure the great olive being Carrcassonnee into the 7th Spire, directly above the tunnel, for her bi-yearly bath. Overdue by 3 days actually. Carrcassonnee, pheh, he thinks. It was the only way to get her properly started, get her talking again. Otherwise: just raspberry noises.
“Da-ddy!” called Bradley Boyy from the top of the tunnel. “Here comes the smoke again!”
“Pipe down, son,” he hissed up, looking anxiously around as his son holds his breath once more while the invisible loco passes through. They better keep pretending they’re walking about the place randomly, this Soos Mountain Community in the sw corner of Soos. “Get on down from there and let’s continue — you’ve had your fun.”
“Alright, Daddy.”
Daddy, yeah. Keep calling me that, he thinks. Until we get back to Julia.
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“So you’ll notice the 2nd one has ‘*Not* Soos’ at the top. We’ve left this sim behind. We’re in another world entirely. Oklahoma.”
“Fascinating,” exclaimed Lucas to the left. In secret he was preparing to take over. After Mahoney-formerly-Baker completed his foolish mission to this God forbidden state. No Man’s Land indeed.
“Sorry about your shack,” spoke Clifton — Cliff. “Train had to go right through it, see. Just like the olden days. Teensie.”
They’d viewed the spectacle beforehand. Clifton Mahoney dared to rezz the train and extend its track for a couple of minutes in the middle of the night while the townspeople were asleep, demonstrating what would happen — what *had* happened long long ago. The shack was conked by the train, gravity becoming all askew. It was a deep mystery, this Falls Shack. And it’s coming to a head now, because Little Big had returned. Mabel’s brother! All Soos, hehe, had to do was turn the TV off, draw the shades on the place. Then he can entered down the sandy stretch to the dunes proper. Beaver.
“Shame about the man-boy,” spoke Clifton, interpreting the 2 part collage as explaining his death. Lucas knew differently. This was a probable extinction. He was going to remedy that. “You can of course move into the Julia House just below until it’s over; Karoz and Baker Blinker, as I understand, will not be returning. At least for a while. Enjoy yourself.
Oh he will.
“Can we go home now, Daddy? Cold in here, brrr.”
“Sure son.”
—–
“It’s okay. You can be who you are now.”
Bradley Boyy changed.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0036, 0701, Jeogeot, Middleton^, Oklahoma, Towerboro
Clifton “Carbon Glow” Mahoney taking a well deserved rest at Gloomy Gus after a busy day working on the train and railroad. He’d figured it out. The last *key* was removing the cave front and replacing it with this suspiciously rectangular piece of rock positioned at the top of the town’s cascade, a leftover mistake of residents at the time…
rock before the move
.. because this was obviously the old front of the tunnel that the train passed through beneath the 7th and final spire of Castle Soos, also known as Soos Mountain Castle, or Somoca, not to be confused with the Soos Mountain Community, instead abbreviated Somoco. Anyway, once he figured this out and did the switcheroo, the train slotted perfectly into the hole, spinning keytop on the locomotive fitting comfortably beneath the top now, which the shorter cave didn’t allow. Check it out.
Another thing he had to do to make it all work was to shrink the miniature train found in storage behind the castle (more sloppiness!) from Tiny back to Teensie, an even smaller, original, pre-Robolution version, the one that allowed for proper portal hopping, he felt. He wouldn’t go to Oklahoma next time, even though that was just a dream. Or if he did, he’d know it wasn’t in error this go around. Something about dunes last night. Check here:
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/oklahoma/sinister-beaver-dunes-park-ok/
That’s not the first time we’ve brought up Beaver formerly Beaver City Oklahoma in this here blog and attached photo-novels. More soon (stay tuned!).
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“And over there is Carbon Glow — geez, I didn’t even realize they were that close. So you see, I’m the one that has to rescue Carrcassonnee from the cave.”
“Why are you telling me this now?” queried Lucas. “I thought — you already went into the cave.”
“No, that was a *dream* about going into the cave I told you. Quite different.”
“Oh.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow for the cave? Out back? Under the 7th spire of Soos Mountain Castle. Somoca?” Lucas was trying to keep straight on everything; not get bogged down in the labyrinth of information again. Carbon Glow? Kentucky? Carcassonne? But with the extra letters to disguise the link. But now he’s telling it openly.
“Yes. Just through the vegetable garden. The Red Door Church should have shut their doors while they had the chance.”
“Tell me about that relationship once more.”
It was here Clifton “Carbon Glow” Mahoney told him about the deleted train track. And the train. Teensie, also known as Tiny (before the 1st Robolution). The train use to pass right through its doors and into the cave. He was going to revive it.
“What about Spider?” Lucas then asks, knowing the mutt had to be in on it too.
“You leave that to me.”
(to be continued)
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Making his way through the profusion of lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers in the community garden, avatar Clifton “Carbon Glow” Mahoney, fully transferred over from Baker Bloch and accepting of that new role, enters the cave system from the hole directly below the 7th and last spire of Castle Soos. Probably goes to Kentucky, Real Life, he’s thinking. Pretty sure. Hence the name: Mammoth, changed over at the tail end of the 2nd Robolution, the Panhandle Year some call it.
He switches on the light.
“Adventures in Tintown Part 4b of Tin”
“Oklahoma?!”
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“It was the end of the line for me, Baker Bloch. Car broke down, you see.”
“I see.”
“Couldn’t go further down this road. Had to give over to another.”
“Who is yourself,” the male Baker attempted to clarify.
“No.” Fellow core Wheeler Wilson left it at that. I suppose it was like saying Baker Bloch here was the same as Clifton Mahoney — oops, there he goes again.
“You’re breaking down too,” Wheeler pointed out, staring over at the new figure. We’re *old*, Baker Bloch. Time to yield. There’s… even Liz standing behind Shelley now, 2 down the road instead of 1. Clifton Mahoney—” But Wheeler shut up here, not wanting to revealed too much future stuff again. No need to know about Carbon Glow right now.
Baker/Clifton extended his draw distance out to the maximum (512 meters), stared out across the flat plain toward the mountain he now rents the top of. The castle never rezzed above the bus stop in front of him, although it did when checking from this very spot yesterday. He sat and sat…
Broken once again. Our Second Lyfe has a fatal flaw, he thinks.
Wheeler could view it fine but she could see in the dark. And twice as big. Secret weapons. Among others.
“Nice redwoods over there,” Wheeler tried to deflect. But he couldn’t see them properly neither in the moment. Moving on…
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“See? He likes you. He’s staring at you instead of me.”
“And…” said Lucas to the left of us, the reader or readers, “… you are?” He had to ask. The other seemed oblivious to the transformation that happened while they walked up the hill to here, not really a chance meeting since the town wasn’t that big.
“Baker. Baker Bloch. We just looked at the Falls Shack together the other day. You pay me rent. 15 bucks a month.”
“You are not Baker,” spoke Lucas. “Or at least the Baker I know.”
“Well of course–” Baker Bloch looked down at his non-gloved hands, his olive drab shirt, his black-gray shoes and pants. He was not the Baker he knew.
“Explain,” said Lucas. “Explain everything. Start with Carrcassonnee. How did you come up with such a krazy kooky name?”
—–
I Carr,
I sat today with blog owner and blog stranger or newcomber. They asked me questions about my source. I, Carr, came up with something. Rrrrr. RRRRrrrrr. Rrr Rrr RRRRrrrrrrr. I start (continual raspberry noise).
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Sunklands 