Tag Archives: NODAL

May 19, 2017 · 7:39 am

busting in

Using his universal pass-through, the littler vampire entered the house. “Buster Damm as I live and breathe, ha ha.” Pitch was use to his free comings and goings.

“Morning wine, Pitch?” Intervention Buster queried, looking at the bottle and full glass in front of him.

“Oh, this is just left over from last night,” Pitch explained. “You know how I am about cleaning up.”

“Who was the dame?” Jealous Buster asked with an edge, taking a seat opposite his bestest friend in the world. “Not that laconic bee woman again? I thought you two were Spitsville.”

“It’s Splitsville,” Pitch corrected. “But, no, it was Wheeler. You know, the lively one who bought the Key Store from Chuckles outside. Not a beaner. However she doesn’t own the shop any more. A wooden man bought it from her. Toys in VHC City, Buster. What’s next? Elves?”

“Hmm. What did you two guys talk about?” Had Jealous Buster skipped over a line? Didn’t matter. Pitch was a super duper pal and would play fair instead of foul if so.

Pitch hurled his morning spitball. “Sister.” He paused.

“Sister?” asked Stifled Buster back.

“Sister. Everything you see around you.” He waved his arm, indicating the house and its windows to the outer world. “There’s a place we should visit on the edge. Let’s call it that. The Edge. Won’t take long at all. A baseball field away at best.”

Nosey Buster had started scanning Pitch’s latest jottings, attempting to understand better. He reads aloud now. “‘The future fisher lives on the edge. Chuckles knows identity but won’t spill. Got that he owns a slavebot who is bent up inside. Coins. Squid and whale.'” Shaking his head, Thursty Buster reaches over and grasps Pitch’s glass of viscous wine, downing it in one take. “Let’s hit the trail,” he said, wiping his tiny mouth with his little black cape. No stain remained.

—–

“No one home, Buster,” Pitch says after calling. Curious Buster wouldn’t be denied. He deployed the universal pass-through again.

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May 18, 2017 · 5:15 am

Sibling Sims

Wheeler was tiring of the chit chat. “You said you had something important to tell me.”

“More ‘Winesap?'”

Wheeler looked down at Baker’s Pitch Darkly’s extended hand. “If you mean wine, I’m good. So spill.”

“It was such a good name I couldn’t wait. Hope I didn’t interrupt anything over at… where did you say you were?”

“I didn’t.”

“Oh all right.” He put his hands behind his head and made the announcement. “It’s Silver. I’m sorry (!): Sister.”

“What is?” Wheeler asked.

“The sim. The name of the sim we, I, couldn’t determine before. It’s really clever. Want to hear my logic?”

“Oh sure. I’m here. Drinking suspiciously viscous wine with you.”

“Well, first off, the sim in question is kind of the sister to Bemberg. Together they hold about 80, maybe 90 percent of VHC City. The town’s kind of split between them. Brother and sister, maybe.”

“Ok, that’s understandable I suppose.”

He removed his hands from his neck and leaned forward. “Now here’s where it gets really clever. Take the last six letters of the actual name, rearrange them — not adding or subtracting any letters — and you, voila, get Sister. Go ahead and try it.”

Wheeler worked the problem out in her head; took her a moment. “Okay, that’s kind of cool, admittedly — starting to make more sense.”

“And there’s more. Has Chuckles told you about the Seven Sisters yet?” He nodded his head in the direction of the perpetually reeling fisherwoman outside.

“I don’t think so,” Wheeler said without turning around to look as well. “What are they?”

They’re pools in the sim I’m rather insisting we now call Sister. You have to go through the blue door. The Musician may have already found them. Anyway, you pass through that door and soon you are upon an inundating, grassy plain dotted with these small pools. Trouble is, there are only six pools out of seven present now. The seventh is gone. The seventh *sister* is missing. Where is it? is what I’m asking. What is it? Can you guess?”

Wheeler scrunched her mouth up, indicating she couldn’t.

“Black horse. Oh, drat, sorry again, black *hole*. I’ll quote to you from a famous music song directly related to all this. Let me make sure I have it right — wrote it down in preparation.” Pitch Darkly pulls out a piece of paper from his ragged black coat and reads:

In the constellation of Cygnus
There lurks a mysterious, invisible force
The Black Hole of Cygnus X-1
Six stars of the northern cross
In mourning for their sister’s loss
In a final flash of glory
Nevermore to grace the night

Pitch Darkly then stabs the paper on the table several times with his forefinger. “The Oracle indicated this.”

—–

Meanwhile, The Musician had moved through the pools called Seven Sisters and up a sewer ladder giving access to a green wall marking the southern line of the property formerly known as Pitch Black. “What was hidden by Harrison Head before is now exposed,” he said in a confident voice, looking at this similarly green picture at its east end and thinking back to the new collage called “The Point of It All” he had seen earlier in Bemberg’s Clown Central.

“The monster swallowing its own tail; perpetual. Cardboard Derek Jones was right all along (about Greenup).”

—–

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May 8, 2017 · 8:00 am

Revelations

“Tell me more about this OD… oops, I think I’m making a full transition now.” Chef-inspector Petty was no longer Doogie Martin in any part.

Baker Bloch answered. “Like I said, we contacted him, it, through wegee. He, or she, or it, didn’t identify a sex, but it has male clothing on as it turns out.”

“Who’s ‘we’?”

“Hucka Doobie and I. She’s a member of my avatar family. She’s versed in spiritual matters — why I got her involved.”

“Tell me more about this avatar family of yours. Any criminal records?” His pace was crisp.

“None that I know about. Spongeberg is a destroyer by trade. Does that count?”

Petty became cryptic. “Glad you brought him up. Spongeberg is not a member of your family. He is a member of *our* family.”

Baker Bloch scratched his head at this. “Well,” he began again, “we admittedly don’t know much about him. Are you saying, I don’t know, that he’s from *here*?”

“That is precisely what I’m saying. We also believe there is a link between Spongeberg and OD — know it, in fact. You’re aware of the former property called Pitch Black?”

“Somewhat,” answered Bloch.

“In November of 2016, the property was taken over by the town, with the oft deemed “noxious” or “poisonous” temple derezzed. The FTI gallery expanded into its former space. It was through this incorporation that the town split into two separate realities. Or, better, we became *aware* of this second town overlapping the first. It was always there. But the portal had been opened.” He turned around and looked directly at Baker Bloch. “In the *big* picture, the owner of the FTI is the same as Wheeler. Assimilate *that*.”

To Baker Bloch, Petty was spouting gibberish now. He didn’t think Spongeberg was from VHC City (but he did want to find out more of his background now). Wheeler as the FTI owner? That didn’t make any sense.

“And I’ll give you one more,” Petty continued. “See the innocent looking Musician sitting on the couch between us?”

“Who… me?” uttered The Musician, sitting up a bit and wiping his nose on his sleeve. He had half nodded off during the discussion.

“Yes, you,” Petty answers. “I don’t guess you remember anything at all about creating *VHC City itself?*”

Nope. No he did not.

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May 2, 2017 · 12:17 am

Test

“I thought we’d try this out tonight Hucka Doobie, since Wheeler and The Musician are away getting food.

Hucka Doobie was observing the planchette. “It’s spinning.”

“Yeah. Freaky. I thought we might have to hold the planchette but maybe not. Should we go ahead and ask some questions? Why don’t you read down through the list. Take your pick. Use your bee intuition to choose the correct direction.”

Hucka Doobie unfolds a piece of paper in her lap. “Alright. At the top we have… ‘Who is the owner of the Key Shop?'”

The planchette spin transforms into a back and forth movement across the length of the board. Then it goes to “YES”, and then the “O” of OUIJA. Then it moves to the center of the board and stops.

“‘O’ owns the shop?” Baker Bloch queries. The planchette returns to “YES” and then the “O” and then back to center. “That doesn’t really make any sense to me, Hucka Doobie.”

“Nor me. Let’s try another one. First off, can we identify who we are speaking to?”

The planchette spells out, more rapidly than the two expected, “THE DEAD”. It returns to center.

Baker stared over at Hucka Doobie. “The dead of VHC Town?”

The planchette hesitates, then moves to “YES” again and then more slowly back to center.

“Do you have a collective name?” asks Hucka Doobie.

“OD,” came the response after a small pause. But the “O” used was that in the word OUIJA again at the top of the board, and not the one that’s part of the 26 letters below it. And the planchette moved back and forth between this “O” and the “D” to its lower left a number of times before returning to center. Another thing: the “O” was lingered over longer than the “D” in each repetition.

“What do you think, Baker Bloch?”

“OD. The letter ‘O’ and the letter ‘D’?”

The board answered affirmatively.

“Maybe it’s initials, Hucka Doobie.”

The board then spelled out “OD” again, using the same motions as before.

—–

Meanwhile, Wheeler and The Musician were studying menus at a nearby sushi bar, oblivious to the oddity of the picture on the far wall.

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February 25, 2017 · 8:16 am

The late Mrs. Squaredpants.

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Snowmanster sat on her couch, soaking it all in. Home again… so good. But where was everyone? Spongebub? Snowbob?

After a while the truth began to settle in. She was late. She had missed something. But what? Snowmanster went to the window; stared out at the familiar Rubi Woods. The purple hummingbird below her outside twittered loudly.

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“Meeting Place,” she mutters, staring at the appropriate flat spot of the forest. “That’s where I’ll find out.”

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February 24, 2017 · 8:29 am

Log in.

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Robot Derak Jones distinctly said this was where the other end of the pipe is, its “far side” as he called it. But there’s a log here instead. He said it was a disguise. “You must use your new eyes,” he implored. “Your New *Island* eyes. This is how things often work here.”

Baker Bloch looks over at the statue of the Great Old One to his right and knows, er, one is related to the other. How’s *that* for new eyes.

Both terminal points of the “pipe” lie at latitude 121 of their respective sims, which are caddycorner to each other. At least at one point along the line, the pipe appears to bend roughly 30 degrees. But that is just assuming we’re dealing with a simple, linear affair. What about the name of the beach here?: Sharp’s Angle. Are there sharper angles within? Is it a complex affair instead, perhaps much more so?

The name given to this log is “[MnM] Forest bed”. Here’s the accompanying description: “Long time ago… She is the guardian of forest… and now, She is the mother of forest…” Could this possibly have something to do with Rubi’s Unch?

—–

Meanwhile, Old Mabel is dreaming again at her Cry Island. Like Baker Bloch, she stands in front of a huge hollow log, one leading to the VWX fairy cottage visited numerous times before. Strangely she’s Old Grey in the dream, Baker’s faux mother who is actually “Wheeler the Complex,” as the Martian has started to call her.

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Old Mabel knows that if she doesn’t figure out what’s going on soon enough, they — Baker Bloch, Wheeler, Karoz and herself — will be forever trapped on this infernal island. She’s visited the downtown and the community college Robot Derak Jones teaches at. Nothing is good here, like rotting fruit. Spells abound. It’s a witch island.

The hummingbird flies off Old Grey’s back and into the tunnel…

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—–

*Meanwhile*… Wheeler is dreaming about falling asleep while waiting for another phone call from Snowbob over what’s actually going on.

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February 23, 2017 · 7:50 am

Blames

They were at Tiff’s Bar, only about 100 yards east from Wheeler’s recently set up house on New Island. A potential local hangout for the gang. Baker was on his second mug of Johnson’s Rye. Old Mabel was studying the the labels of drinks behind the bar but not imbibing.

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“Weatherman says Storm Lucy’s cleared out of the area now, Old Mabel,” declares Baker Bloch. “You’ll be able to get back to your Cry I. tomorrow.”

“Wonderful,” is all she could manage.

—–

Old Mabel returned to the house to take a nap, she said, while Baker Bloch explored more of the local environs and snapped pictures.

Baker’s Spookmobile, New Island version, spookily turned into a love bug during Night 1 of their stay. Groovy, I suppose.

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The Diagonal House, as Baker Bloch calls it, next to Tiff’s Bar. Vacant right now.

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Visiting a paraphernalia shop, Baker again wonders why there are no true mirrors in Second Lyfe.

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Lot’s of open, grassy duneland here, courtesy of the Lindens.

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Baker found this mystery pipe 2 days back…

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… then made friends with the mechanoid who lived next door to it. Robot Derak Jones was his name, a physics and astronomy professor at New Island Community College. Quite the scholar. “What have you been reading today, RDJ?” Baker asks. “You’re sitting on them,” he replies.

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And, yes, Robot Derak Jones knows of the very similarly named Cardboard Derek Jones in Collagesity. Turns out they’re 1st cousins. RDJ says he’ll have to go back with Baker Bloch sometime to visit with CDJ again. “Cardboard often stayed at my uncle’s place here during the summers over at Sharp’s Angle,” RDJ explained at the time. “We explored Pipewold. But I don’t want to go back there, and neither do you want to go there the first time. Trust me.”

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Baker Bloch’s faux mother Old Grey showed up. “Figured you were down here lazing about. Your supper’s on the table getting cold. Get — home.” She didn’t mince her words. She didn’t greet Robot Derak Jones. Old Mabel speculated they might even have some kind of history neither is talking about. “And afterwards I want you to give the Love Bug a good washing, including underneath it. Don’t want it to rust out like your blame Spook Beetle.”

Baker wondered again about the presence of the Love Bug here and the Spookmobile over in Collagesity. Reality had split asunder. Blame orange.

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January 17, 2017 · 9:26 am

She has a name:

Old Mabel had trouble getting to sleep. She kept thinking of poor Snowmanster and Spongebub and Snowbob. She decided to teleport back to the room where it happened. She simply typed “Ask” to find the location. Interesting.

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“That woman over there must have seen it all,” she says while within. “Ma’am, are you alive?” No answer.

“What’s she staring at?” Old Mabel moved her camera angle behind the slut’s head.

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“The drink machine? Hmmm, no drinks within.”

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Then it dawned on Old Mabel as the sun sphere touched the horizon. Opening!

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January 15, 2017 · 6:56 pm

Paper.

It was night again. Jerome’s time. Seats were still cold and warm. Icy fire.

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“Let’s take you somewhere and put you to work, Mr. Author — Mr. Detective. How about Perch, hmm? Wait… that’s currently closed for ceiling repairs. Blue Feather it is!”

—–

(meal joined in progess)

“I can’t eat another single shrimp, Baker Bloch, despite it being on the house. I wonder if our waiter would enjoy taking it home with him. Oh, this must be the chef.”

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“I’m so sorry about the paper in your wine,” he began, hands wringing. “I hope you are enjoying the free extra food and drink. Anything else we can get you here at the Blue Feather? Anything at all.”

Baker Blinker looked him over from head to foot, noticing a small red stain on the right pocket of his rather rumpled coat. “We’re fine, Mr. — what’s your name again? I don’t think I’ve seen you around here before.”

“I’m new,” he replied. “I’m Mr. Owens. Amateur chef by day, professional sleuth by night. Here’s my business card.” He reached into his right pocket, hesitated and perhaps turned slightly red (?), then switched hands to procure the promised paper from the left.

“Cool,” responded Baker Blinker, taking the card. “Interesting first name.”

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“It’s Irish. Call me Kenny. I’ll let you enjoy the rest of your dinner. Your waiter Andrew will return in just a moment to check on you. Have a nice remainder of the evening.”

“Thank you,” said Baker Blinker, nodding at him.

“Yes, thanks,” added Baker Bloch.

—–

15 minutes later…

“Did you make the switch?” asked a fidgety Newton back in Collagesity North again.

“Yeah,” responded the declared chef/detective. “Can I go home now?”

“Not quite.”

A cow suddenly burst into flames across Robin Lane.

(to be continued)

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