She found a half programmed “Victoria” — or what she knew back in Paper-Soap as a Claude (or Claudette) — in the old Big Dick’s Halfway Inn building next door to the diner, proof her father was up to something. Why bug a robot if you don’t have a purpose?
And then there’s the mutable wall glyph…
Based on what’s out the window, she thinks it has something to do with the movement of time. 50 years. What changes in such a span?
—–
“She’s here.”
“Damn cold,” *sniff*.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0041, 0209, Cass City^, Maebaleia/Satori
They played footsies with each other in the parked UFO before Mythos leaned in for a kiss. Suddenly Horace was back. Laughing. “Damn Horace!” he said aloud and then continued in his mind, reverting to the old way of communication. “You almost let me go through with it!”
The Mind Games were over. Back to Meat City. But first…
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0040, 0312, Heterocera
He was trying to take advantage of the situation, get to know Mythos Roswell better through this new avatar he created on a whim to make a point. He did that sometimes.
“Sure,” he as she answered back about the offered drink, seeing his green alien friend (friend?) had fallen for the bait. He’d set him up well. Loneliness goes a long way toward it. And Fillip and Brindle showing up now and then putting him even further down on himself. Mythos Roswell figures he could use a drink himself, although it defeats the purpose of the first (making a buck — he just gave it back). “What’s your, um, name? Stranger?” he said in his mind. But she answered aloud, surprising him. Was this really Horace? Was the t-shirt, what do you call it, a *synchronicity*?
“My name is Lilly. Lilly Day.”
He stuck out his long green alien hand and shook her normal human one. “Well mine is Roswell. Roswell Mythos, although, like the Oriental way of arranging it, you spell it Mythos Roswell over here on the old continents. So… just call me Mythos to make it simple.”
“I can do that. Mythos.”
“Horace are you in there?” he tried with his mind again. “Horace? Where are you?” No answer.
She orders a second slurpee and he does too. Soon they were careening up Route 2 on a sugar high toward Fillip and Brindle, aiming to brag that they were on top of the world and not them. And soon they were also calling each other sugar. Was this wrong? they kept asking themselves. “Was this wrong?” Mythos Roswell tried to communicate with the mind of Horace again in the UFO they drove up there. “Beats me,” Horance wanted to say back but remained silent, not wanting to ruin the moment. The square and circle as one! Now he as the third can come in and save the Day.
(to be continued (?))
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0040, 0311, Heterocera
He was staring at me holding his tiny gun armed with a bad attitude but I wasn’t scared. I was a much bigger green alien after all, half Roswell half Mythos.
“Along with being a triangle,” I could hear the little, wretched creature say in my head, “I am a circle that is also a square. A 3-n-1.”
“Yes, I’ve heard of those,” I said back with my own mind. “About 5 minutes ago when you mentioned it last.” We often played these mind games with each other, both of us being stuck out in the sticks on the far north side of Heterocera, as far up as you can get if you don’t count Fillip and Brindle (which we don’t — more on that story later?). He wasn’t such a bad guy I suppose, except he tends to repeat himself over and over. And the whole tiny gun issue. Those itty bitty bullets can sting a bit. Plus I suppose they could put out an eye if you fired directly into one of them for, say, 5 minutes. About the time it takes to say 3-n-1 twice.
Someone entered the cafe — phew! Out loud talk for a while hopefully.
But when I turned to greet the visitor and saw the square cartoon figure on the shirt I knew it was just Horace again in another guise, trying to make a point. He did that sometimes. Oh well. Better than Fillip and Brindle showing up and bragging about being on top of it all, king of the hills.
I watched in amusement as the two tried to determine how to become one again, the spider web I put up just yesterday getting in the way, ha. Now he’ll have a human doppelganger roaming around in the world for a while until they can figure it out — serves him right.
“Drink?” I said to her, trying to take advantage of the situation. Might as well make a buck off of it.
(to be continued?)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0040, 0310, Heterocera
“Perfectly round,” spoke the first.
“Perfect triangle,” uttered the second.
“Perfectly… hold on,” said the third closer to the center of it all. “What’s this?”
“Nauty,” spoke the just appearing pincushion voodoo doll to Square and the rest, pins in place just there there and there. “I come from Jasper. Jasper Falls to be concise.” Knowing of their needs, he took them there.
—–
“This is where I live,” he said to Triangle who had absorbed the other two for the moment. Just to simplify things and reduce lag. “These are my roommates Jennifer Lane and Biff Carter. Keith B., the third, is out traveling again. 3 — just like you guys.” He takes a gander at Triangle’s singular face. “I mean — *normally*. But we here are like that too,” he explains. “There is really no one here but me. I live alone. And yet these are my mates. Playmates more than roommates. You’d get along with Biff especially. He’s an investigator. Like you.”
Triangle let Square have a turn to look over at Biff, study his figure. Then Circle did the same with Jennifer. “Perfect,” said the third for all, and leaned back and turned triangular once more, satisfied with the sights. He thought of the end.
He laid down to sleep as host Nauty comforted him the best he could. A lullaby about shapes I believe.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0038, 0608, Nascera^^, Nautilus, NORTH, Rank & File
She looked over. “You are one again.”
“And so are you,” he quickly replied in his higher register voice, exactly one octave higher to be precise. “Jennifer Lane through and through, switched out from twin cousin Shelley Lane, aka Shelley Struthers (in Part 04). Marvelous.”
“And who,” Jennifer asks, “is this?” She looked to his left, but to an onlooker the chair would still be empty. We’ll thus withhold a picture until the end.
“Biff Carter,” answers Triangle between both Square and Circle, absorbing them. “You’ve met before, remember?”
“Maybe,” she shot back, getting defensive. Why was she getting defensive?
“I thought it would be best to end with the 3 cores getting together again. We should do this every once in a while. Catch up with each other. It’s taxing to the computer, but… the new one: not so much. Good you got a new computer during the pandemic.” He takes a sip of tea, ready for the other one (core) in the room to speak. Better prepare him. First we have to minimize a window, then log in the third… shouldn’t be long. Oops, he’s naked. Better get him some clothes, ha. And some tea.
“You!” Jennifer exclaimed about the manifestation. No collage needed for this one. 3 cores. Nifty. But it wasn’t Biff Carter.
“Pocket cup,” Triangle declared, moving his tea cup up into his shirt pocket to lighten the mood. We weren’t quite done yet.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0029, 0705, Nautilus, Southwestern
He’d landed in the right spot. Now to end this.
—–
You’ll have to excuse our friend Square. He hasn’t caught up with the book yet.” He looks over, notes the blonde hair. “I see you’re turning into Jennifer Lane again. Good one. Veyot likes that one.”
I took another sip of of my 4 shot latte and wrote: “Yes, I further said it was a real place, and *now* — since I spoke to her — (the maturation) means something else. Retirement, the library becoming an increasingly far away and fuzzy edifice after that. I proceed forward with my new life, my new eyes. I will have no need for physical books any longer. I am my *own* book. I am beyond my Firesign Theatre period, having absorbed the Piera (“Billfork” through “Uncle Meatwad”). I am even beyond the positive carrcasses (“Cpt. Mouse” through “Shiny Hare”). I enter something different.”
“Good, good,” he said. “All and well.” He becomes Square and makes another collage.
“These…overlaps,” he says, now studying, now reading the physical book again while turned away, “are becoming interesting. Comings and goings. Dr. Mouse arrives at the same time he departs.” He turns the page. 5 seconds later: “And *Zach and Lena*. Aren’t they a couple already?”
I check his pronouncement with my already changed eyes. “Yes. Too much information,” I decided. “We must end and then begin again. Clean the slate.”
He switches sides of the couch again. “Downstairs first,” forward looking Circle requests. “We must speak with a few more people in this one.”
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0029, 0704, Carrcass+08, Carrcass-00, Nautilus, Southwestern
Sunklands 