“Thaaat’s betterr.”
“Hold still Mr. Middle Slaughter, tee hee. Say cheese.”
“Cheeeeeese.”
“Perfect.” Snap.
Tag Archives: Middle SlaughterGTAVC2077^*++++
00440416
And so we end this section in the middle. Middle Slaughter. Standing in Kabusie again, illuminated by red neon light in the middle ground of the below snapshot. End there as well (for the BD (thanks again Lettuce Walk!)). Go figure. Too weird, too crazy, even. We continue in this vein…
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0044, 0416, C2077, Kabusie
00440407 (change)
“Don’t forget about Lichen’s 4 Stomach Tour,” I tried to ground Fern.
“Of course not. But back to immediate business. Black Wall.” Then she forgot. Again.
“Right, right.” I shook my head internally while nodding on the outside. Fern didn’t pick up on my doubts, which was a little disconcerting itself. Lack of recognition. Brilliant in so many other ways. But not irony — comedy in another form. I knew we were entering dangerous territory.
She drew more diagrams in the notebook before her, a gray Mead 5 star spiral with 22 holes and approx. 5×7 inch design. “Pre-1906,” she said, still looking down in a pause between scribbles. “Probably around 1893 or maybe even dating back to 1886, hmm. Anyway (she shook her head), we’ll see soon enough. So the Black, the White, the Green will all be in their proper place and not all mixed up during this period. She punctuated the page before her at the appropriate spots, apparently some kind of crude map as I understood now. “Auburn was still Slaughter with its Slaughterhouse Hotel, or close enough, before the scaredypants changed the name.” She scribbles some stuff on top of what I took now as Auburn on the map, near the old conjunction of the Green and White rivers as I knew from previous discussions. “Everything was right. We can even go there, you know — this Slaughterhouse.” She circles Auburn which she’s changed to Slaughter, with a little cartoon house with teeth drawn atop of it to reinforce the link. “Thanks to the magic of Our Second Lyfe. There we’ll meet Middle. Are you grasping this yet?”
“This… has already happened?” I guessed, thinking of the snake, the tail.
“The Wheel is the middle of the Tarot, or at least the end of it (The Wheel, not the Tarot). 10… you met Tin at another hotel which is perhaps the same hotel — motel — in Room 10. You have arrived.”
“*You* have arrived,” I said. “What happened next?”
“I… drew my gun and opened the door”
“Yes?”
“She turned.”
“Right.”
“Then… black out. Loss of power. But I recognized her. Tin for sure.”
“Ten,” I said. “The Wheel.”
“Yeah.”
“It’s where Lincoln starts his latest Brain Daze. Not 5 days ago. We’re looking right at it in the beginning. Sunset Motel in the Badlands again. Then he goes and hops on his motorcycle and heads back into town from whence he came, or at least the Rancho Coronado suburb. Leaves it at another service station there after walking around a while, finding stuff, interacting with people.” I end my quick review of the BD, wait for Fern to chip in. But she wasn’t there any longer. Where’d she go?
—–
“Are you Lincoln?” she said at the start, knowing it was truth.
“Yes? How’d–”
“You’re heading the wrong way. You need to go further into the desert.”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0407, Badlands, Blue Feather Sea^, C2077, Kabusie, Maebaleia/Satori
00440406
“It’s obvious that Hellboy (as she called him) is the Man in the Middle — this Middle Slaughter. And you know what that means?”
“No,” I said, lost in Fern’s brilliance per usual.
“It means we have to get to Slaughter before *it* gets to us. Black Wall. Diversion.”
Always the Black Wall for Fern lately. Where’s lighthearted Lichen when you need her?
“Pack your bags,” she then said. “We’re heading for Auburn.”
“Alabama?” I said. “What’s there?”
“Washington,” she corrected. “Like George. C’mon, let’s eat some cereal together and I’ll lay us out a plan.” She knew I was just a fill-in for Lichen but she had no one else at the time.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0044, 0406, C2077, City Center, Washington
00440311 (Hellboy?)
He comes around when I sit down and slap him. He looks around. “Where are we?”
“Motel. Middle of nowhere.”
“Any specific Middle?” he intuited right off the bat, being the smart-ass psychic he is. They had to talk about Jonny. They had to talk about the relic.
I soon got this out of him anyway with a couple more slaps, turning his cheeks from orange orange to apple red: “The suicide model was just a prototype. *Arasaka’s* aims were always higher.”
Arasaka — the *Tree*, I think. Should’ve known. Add another hotel/motel to the growing list of hanging fruits.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0044, 0311, Badlands, C2077
00440310 (end of Becky Hill this time)
At 33:33 he stared at the Slaughterhouse vending machine and thought back to the splat, then wondered why.
Then he also recalled their ad playing at the time which completed the triangle, another indicator of Middle.
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0044, 0310, C2077, City Center, United Kingdom
00440308
As Middle, my life started to become gray and totally predictable. I stared into the Eye and decided to Die. “Ayyyyyyyyyyee!”
He turned around after hearing the sickening splat behind him at 4:20, stared at my lifeless body, totally shocked at the jump. A Slaughterhouse commercial began to play from unseen loudspeakers overhead, which I learned I’d already set up, along with the finding of the body. The person’s name was Lincoln, and he was pretty fresh to the city like a shiny new penny. First BD. This one.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0044, 0308, C2077, City Center, United Kingdom
00440307 (in on the way)
On her way to work, Debbie drives past the old location of The Fern restaurant, lamenting its absence. Now a Crucial Fix coffee shop, still cool but not the same. She especially loved talking Plastic Cutlery with the owner Fern Stalin, a common love interest. Fern dated Plastic in the 00s and Debbie went out with Mr. Cutlery in the 10s. She wondered whatever happened to him. And her.
Later, walking back to the parking deck on her way home, Debbie wondered about the likewise missing Middle of the law firm Slaughter Slaughter and Slaughter, Upper and Lower still around. She makes a mental note to check up on that too.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL OT, 0044, 0307, GTA
00440214 (Kabusie secrets)
Mr. Middle.
And then, just beyond…
“Cary?”
No, that must not have been Cary, I think, now looking at his sparkly back as I circled around. He didn’t answer me. *Surely* he would remember who I was. Didn’t even look up to meet my eyes. But… maybe he didn’t see me. Maybe he didn’t hear me. “*Cary*,” I tried more levelly and with more volume. He turned.
“See here’s where it gets *really* interesting, Lichen,” said observing Fern at their new home near the pit. “Because it’s about to happen again.”
“Mm, mhm, mhmmm,” says Lichen, since her mouth is full of popcorn but she’s still so eager to speak.
“What’s that, dearest?”
*Swallow*. “Ier ssaied, whferef’s Mfr. Middlfe?” Swallow again.
“He’s not in this one. Just watch.”
I was walking up to him again. How was this *possible*?
“Madison?”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0044, 0214, C2077, Kabusie, Maebaleia/Satori, Nightsity, X-City^
Sunklands 