While Ted went to get help, I watched her start jumping up and down on the thing, the alien object — whatever it was.
At the same time nearby:
I tried to turn off the noise of the bouncing bed springs but couldn’t. Something was coming to a peak. Grant!, she shouted. Grant!!!
We were back.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0038, 0208, New Mexico, The Waste^^
She barely made eye contact with him to acknowledge his presence. Cyberpunks, hmph, he thought. “Business good tonight, Lexi? Selling many sodas on top of the regular alcohol?”
“Whoa whoa there daddy blow. One question at a time. Try again.” She kept dancing to the beat that hadn’t started yet. DJ was still relaxing and chilling and drinking before the gig. While she had the time.
He skipped to the most important one. “Have — you — sold — many — *sodas*? On top of the alcohol which I know will do good,” he sped up.
“Two Hills,” she instead said.
“W-what?”
“Two Hills.” And she pointed to the left, the opposite way of the horn.
“Oh yeah. It’s a promotion.” He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing it could have been something else. Too early! “Now back–”
“Why does there have to be two?”
“*You* have two,” he wanted to answer, but then thought better of it. Maybe she didn’t. Was she a girl or boy? He never figured it out. I guessed she’d have them either way — doesn’t matter.
His lemon-lime drink awaited at the table. He looked around, seeing a lot of soda imbibing with his own two peepers. One over in the far corner had a Dr. Peeper. He resisted the urge to rush over there and swat it outta his hands, causing a scene. No scenes, his brother Benny Right Horn warned. “Tonight must go nothing wrong.” His words, not mine, Jer thought. That’s why he’s not here. Too drunk and coked up to make a proper showing of himself instead of a proper spectacle of himself. Typical. Cokeheads not allowed.
“Anyway,” he finally answered Lexi the bartender, still dancing to an imaginary beat or a beat from the future perhaps that only she can hear with her futuristic head and ears, “it kind of goes along with the idea of doubling the fun or doubling the pleasure.” He locked briefly with her sci-fi black within green within blue eyes. She was finished with him, he knew.
—–
He sat down beside her. The Hills came square to the camera, a horn curled against one of their cheeks.
“How is the wine?”
“Pretty tasty!” She downed another guzzle.
“Load up while you can. But not — too much. Take a swig of soda every now and then. People are watching.” He indicated the ads beside them. “Can’t let down the Hills.”
“Oh no.”
“Mike should be showing up soon.”
“And Pat,” she said. “I also invited Pat.”
“Oh boy.”
“Maybe. We don’t know!”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0038, 0206, Hana Lei^^, Nightsity, Oooo
She opened the red doors. She came down the stairs to face him. He looked at the different hair.
“I– I thought you went… away,” he rasped.
“No.”
“But–”
“It’s the future, right? *I’m* from the future. Not the present. I’m not a present to be opened any longer.”
“Buut–”
She knew he wanted to see. So she showed him. His “boys”. “Do you understand? Now?”
He wilted at the sight. “Y-yes.”
“I’m DJ-ing at Kedas Klub tonight. I want you to come. I want you to *see*.”
“Kedas?” he mimicked.
“Yeah. Another one owned by the Horns. The Nightsity location shut down.”
“I–.”
“Just *come*.”
—–
“And bring Pat if you wish,” she thought to add while walking back up the stairs to go outside again.
“Someone’s knocking at the door… Dorr.”
“Oh it’s probably just Shelley again. Ignore it this time. I don’t feel like walking down all those stairs again.”
“I hear ya.”
Dorr looks at her ordinary nails, at least compared to her companion Iss’ Edward Scissorhands like ones. She was thinking of her appearance from the last time. Crazy Blue outfit my ass. Drunk off her tits obviously.
“Maybe…” attempts Iss. “Maybe she really owns the place, like she said. Maybe… you should give it back to her. I’ve read the blog.”
“So have I,” shot Dorr back. She decides to end the suspense. She looks remotely at the visitor far far below, Azure a barrier between her and the inside.
But it wasn’t Shelley this time. Instead: Horns, Left and Right. What gives? she thinks. The Red Devil. Very unexpected!
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0037, 0615, Nautilus, NORTH, Rooster's Peninsula
No azure door here, Hucka, but a reflection of a door across the road, garage in that case. Interesting patterning.
And almost across the road from that: an anomaly. Doesn’t clear up using any angle of view.
Then looking the opposite direction: ladder boy, we’ll call him, someone who seems to have unusually short legs for his stature, the opposite of what a basketball player might possess. Illusion, as it turns out from other directions, but perhaps still meaningful given all else. His head overlaps the ladder’s bottom rung. Dressed in Azure. Are we suppose to climb further in order to find the true door? (no answer) Or are we suppose to look sideways from what we are doing? (no answer) Maybe some combo of Heaven and Hell we’re looking for, hmm.
Then in going to a handy realty site called redfin.com, we find the actual Azure Door for the house… and in digging deeper we find the residence is owned by a Door. Actually Dorr but close enough.
A personal business of some kind this was suppose to be, but no more info than that in my searchings.
Through the same site we can check out the place via drone video, taking it in from every angle like a 3d cubist painting. The blurred house in Google Streetview across the way turns out to be quite ordinary looking. Wonder why that occurred? We can guess: substitution.
As we keep flying around, we spot the Horns coming around the corner of Woo and Crab Wood and Chuck in their Real Life silver(-blue) truck rented in Silver City. Once again they’ve been expected.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0037, 0610, Google Street View, Illinois, New Mexico
When they finally arrive it looks like they were expected. Aztec Warrior. Nikki. One and the same.
She steps out of the caravan missing a right hand. And a head, but never mind about that. We’ve seen that before anyway. Blonde as rope.
“Swastika?” Jer started, pointing. Benny giggled, just enough to be heard. Aztec Warrior went inside and produced a box, containing not a left handed gun to kill them, as they might have feared, but information. Mitford Unity. An error between the legs.
“She wants to be heard out,” states the handless one. “Your *Maw*.”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0037, 0517, 0601, New Mexico
“Yes, my love. I mean my *lord*. The Hills have been exposed, one greater, one lesser. Just as you requested. The one opened up…”
(reply (in head))
“Yes, my… lord. At once.”
—–
7:06pm, in a secret rendezvous spot in Nightsity Harbour:
“He wants to invoke Horns of Hatton again, weight challenged brother of mine. Let’s try once more.”
“But… *Maw*.”
“She’s been overruled. The King is in charge now. The Devil, red as. And also, of course–”
“– our father,” completes Jerry. He pops his off, Ben does likewise. They exchange; they restick. Ben is no longer Ben but Jer. Jerry is no longer Jerry but Benny. Now all they have to do is find Lena the one who unites. They’d heard… Silver City, New Mexico, the place of the choppers.
—–
“Keep your eyes peeled, requested driving Jer to riding Benny. Grant County is big enough to hide someone for a while but not that big — not as big as it use to be. We’ll find her.”
“We will.”
“Maybe even try Tyrone next door.”
“Azure? Could she be (hiding) in Azure?”
“Blue.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0037, 0516, Google Street View, Nautilus, New Mexico, Nightsity, Upper Austra^
Blue Mountain from the slopes of neighboring Pink Peak, the actual namesake for the town it towers above. Not as much from the western direction we see here but more from the north. And to its north lies not a *barren* landscape bereft of humans but comparatively so. I might be heading there next; who knows where I’ll end up. Lower Pink Peak might be closing up for the spring, what with the early encroachment of poison ivy and, quickly following behind it, other bothersome woodsy aspects like snakes and bugs thanks to a mild winter here in the NC mountains. And despite a fairly cold March much to my disappointment. I spotted some poison ivy coming out on the town’s greenway 2 days ago, about the soonest I remember it sprouting. Use to be, I swear, the *end* of April I’d start seeing it instead of more toward the beginning. But maybe its just a weird spring, and the plants are confused because of all the odd weather, hot then cold, hot then cold. But overall pretty mild still, like I said. I can’t help but think of the advancement of global warming…
That night I found a figurine of one of Batman’s archvillains Poison Ivy staring menacingly in the same direction as similarly green Kick-Ass in a Nightsity comic book store display case. The night before this we observed Edward ordering a kick-ass grasshopper, his regular, from bartender Lexi at the seedy Nightsity establishment he runs for Ben Left Horn, formerly Jer Left Horn in these here photo-novels, 37 in a series so far.
Turning to leaves, there are precisely 3 population places named Leaf in the US, the same amount as found on a poison ivy plant. One of these is in Greene County, Mississippi, and whose only notable person, according to wikipedia, is named Lloyd *Green*, a pretty famous steel guitarist featured on Ken Burns’ “Country Music”. Also according to wikipedia as I found out this morning, villain Poison Ivy uses the power of an interplanetary force known as Green for the purposes of her ecoterrorism.
Why does Edward order a drink named kick-ass from a bar in the same town as a comic book store featuring the wannabe superhero? What is Shelley being tempted into by wearing a “Crazy Blue” outfit, another type of uniform if not a wet suit? Does formerly blue clad Duke Blue Devil Grant Hill still drink Sprite? Does it still quench his thirst? And what of his less famous and less tall Duke basketball running mate Thomas Hill, who won a national championship with him in ’91 and ’92? Hills again — peaks, higher and lower. The only way to figure out more is to go inside again.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0037, 0515, Blue Mountain, Mississippi, Nautilus, Nightsity, Red Hill, Upper Austra^
“You don’t understand these people, Shelley. They are *powerful*. He’s over there with his new girl, *plotting* things. Things that can’t be stopped.”
“*I’m* his new girl,” said unruffled Shelley to this, assuming a cute pose in her seat opposite Edward. Ben Left Horn and Mona sat across from them in the balcony area. Indeed they were plotting, or at least Ben was plotting and Mona was acting as a sounding board for his ideas. She was good that way. Ben thought she might be a keeper, one of the true harem he was collecting down through the years. And Shelley… perhaps the new queen, he thought. Queen of the cats.
“If you put back on that Crazy Blue outfit you’ll be gone to me, to the world at large,” Edward continued. “This place, this Nightsity, will suck you in.”
“What do you care? Surely,” she thought aloud, “surely not for the benefit of *Arthur* after all you’ve done to him.”
“*You’ve* done to him,” he retaliated, then got back to the main subject. “*Don’t* take the gig, Shelley. You don’t know where it will lead you.”
I want… adventure, she thought, thinking of boring, stuck-in-the-mud Arthur. The Arthur who gasped at every sentence of the draft of her 5th novel, not believing what he was reading. What did he expect? she thought. He was gone *most* of the time these days. It will all come to a Shakesperian end, she surmised, but then quickly forgot — backtracked. Running away from the sunset, running toward the moon, no matter how full and blood red it was, indicating warning. Arthur was still her hubbie, her lubbie wubbie. Edward was just a distraction while he was away on the Omega continent. *Corsica* continent, she then reminded herself, confusing lies with truth again. *I’m* the one involved with Omega, she quickly remembered. Lonelyheart Publishers. They said to *juice* it up a bit — that’s what all those lonely housewives want. An *escape*, and a steamy one at that. So she had to write more detail, each novel becoming more graphic and revealing than the one before. That was the development. She tried to pretend it was deeper characters, twistier plots. But at the bottom she was seeing the writing clear. DEMO. DEMON. Satan at the middle, doing what he does best. Black Lake; starless.
“You know he use to go by Jer,” Edward said to fill the void. “He and his brother switched names, just to confuse the lot of us, the readers I suppose.” He looks for the 4th wall with this, to no avail.
“Horns?” said Shelley.
“Those too.”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0037, 0514, Nautilus, Nightsity, Upper Austra^
“Oh it’s a God awful outfit, this Crazy Blue.”
(reply)
“*No* I’m not going to keep wearing it. I just tried it on just for laughs and giggles. If anyone was here looking at me, what they’d be doing.”
(reply)
“Well, that’s very kind I suppose. But it comes off in a moment.”
(reply)
“Just stop it, *you*.”
—–
“Is she gone yet?” asked the bigger boss about the singer Edward Daigle was suppose to fire today. They were out on the docks to afford more privacy. Plus it was a starless and bible black sky, nothing to distract from fully enjoying a blood red moon.
“Not quite. I’m letting her work out her shift before telling her.”
“But it has to be today,” the bigger boss reinforced. “Someone else is coming in. She doesn’t know it yet but she is.”
Edward had a pause. The bigger boss was flirting with Shelley just yesterday as she still clung to his arm. What’s that girl up to? Could it be?
“Who?”
“Oh you know her. You know her well.”
*Gulp*.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0037, 0513, Nautilus, Nightsity, Upper Austra^
Sunklands 