“Ray Davies visits Collagesity!”
Parallel to this, the Red Door Church has been re-established in Collagesity Heights.
Baker Bloch found Spongeberg within, freshly emerged from a stained glass window. Music was playing. “You Really Got Me.”
“Portal!?” queries an approaching Baker over the loud rock n’ roll.
“Time!” shouts Spongeberg back. “Care to dance with me *now*!?”
What could he do?
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, collages 2d, Heterocera, Rubi^
Wheeler watched television in Lockfry’s old trailor at the border of Minoa and Rubi before deciding to head over to Mystenopolis and pay a visit to Spongeberg Resident. *The* Resident. There was something they had to talk about.
—–
“Sure I’ll join your Table. And I don’t have to even audition?”
“You?” replied Wheeler. “Never. You are the Bunny Boy. You *must* be there. You are Nautilus, the 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Even the 7 1/2. Bizarre. I love you man.”
“Well, good to hear. How’s the Blue Feather going? I heard: *expansion*.”
“Collagesity is blowing up. Blowing up real good. You should visit again. We’re trying to vacuum up all those summoned ghosts at the Feather. And, of course, you can see I have the eye. Carrcassonnee is my woman servant. She does my bidding.”
“Is that a good thing?” asks Spongeberg. “She can come back[ if so].”
“She’ll come back sometime anyway. Best to feed her some humble pie in the meantime.”
—–
So that made John Lemon, Salad Bar Jack, and Spongeberg at The Table, along with Wheeler obviously. Dare she ask Page? Or maybe Plant? Plant or Page? Page or Plant, hmmm? Maybe both, maybe neither. She better find out. She better find out soon. Because time is starting to move backwards. The Bill must be solidified, the title secured.
—–
“She keeps saying she is The Bill, but I don’t think she’s The Bill until The Table is finalized.”
“What are we up to?” asks Baker Blinker to Baker Bloch.
“Page, I think,” he says. “Or Plant. But we’ll have to find them on Mars. Hold onto your horses!”
Mars crashed into Collagesity and took firm hold. Wheeler was back in Lockfry’s Trailor studying “Piledriver” when it happened, wondering what day to invite Karoz Blogger over for his weekly beating. Karoz watched the whole thing from his upstairs apartment above the Bodega market.
Crash!
He sprints around Carrcassonnee’s former gazebo and Castle Jack to join with Wheeler now in Rubi.
“Looks like Mars came to us instead,” she says, more calm than she should be. Karoz just stared out, flabbergasted.
Then the rain stopped.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Mars^^, Rubi^
“You see, you don’t have to worry. Wheeler sets it up and I bowl them down. It’s a good partnership. It’s the way it’s suppose to be. Drink your fresh bottle of absinthe and quit complaining. I have everything under control. *We* do.”
“Okay. But Hucka Doobie still wants to talk to you.”
—–
“So this is where all the magic happens, eh?”
“Suppose so, Hucka Doobie. Did you want to talk about something specific today? I don’t mind answering any questions.”
“No, no. Just catching up. Remember when we said we were going to meet weekly for a cup of joe? Well it’s been about a month.”
“Sure you don’t want to sit down? Or we can move over to the diner again. I think they ran out of a lot of the drinks last night. Kind of a pre-Halloween party. The gateway was opened.”
“To the past… I heard.” Hucka Doobie doesn’t want to look over at Baker Blinker’s pitch black eyes again. “Heard Wheeler played some mean avant-gard stylings on her 23 prim guitar. She entered the squared circle. She played well. So…” Hucka Doobie paused, not wanting to hurt the feelings of her dear friend.
“What is it, Hucka Doobie? Is it Wheeler? Like I was telling Karoz, it’s all under control. I know what I’m doing.”
“I hope so,” responds Hucka Doobie. “Can I see? I’m just curious about all this.”
But Hucka Doobie then disappeared, leaving Baker Blinker alone. Wheeler walks through the portal again.
“Time to get back on the keyboard Baker Blinker. We’ve got a show coming up!”
Baker complied.
—–
“Well that’s just wonderful Blinks. Is that a Spongeberg? Have they even been invented yet?”
Baker Blinker tried to speak but found that she had lost her voice. The piano kept playing.
“Yes. Avant-gard,” spoke Wheeler. “Just as I requested. Third time’s the charm. Who am I Baker Blinker? Who am I really? I have you now. Just like I wished. Maybe that little birdie can tell you.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Rubi^
Tom the Busker was schedule to perform at Starbuccaneers on the night of Tuesday, October 26th, but we instead found him encased in a force field of his own choosing. He wishes not to be famous. He is blocking fame and wealth. Another blocker.
So in place of a pleasant evening listening to the avant-gard stylings of a master at his trade, Baker Blinker and Baker Bloch mainly stare at each other in muted desperation. Spongeberg is also at Starbuccaneers.
“How’s the sushi here?” he asks the couple beside him, trying to help.
“That’s the Blue Feather,” Baker Bloch responds rather tersely. “Down the road.”
“Well… what are we doing sitting here?” Spongeberg then asks.
—–
“Wow, some view, eh?” says Spongeberg at the Blue Feather 15 minutes later. “Where’s the food?”
But Baker Bloch “answers” Spongeberg by turning into Steptoe Butte again, one of the 3 members of the infamous rock band known around these here parts as Story Room.
“Get me Karoz,” the headless entity responds in a much more ghoulish voice than Baker Bloch. “And this time: make it real.” He laughs like a banshee and fades away.
“Why are we not friends before?” asks a likewise changed Baker Blinker to Spongeberg. She has pitch black eyes now. “I am Baker too.”
“I — I don’t know lady,” Spongeberg stammers. “I don’t live here. I just came to hear the music. Tom whats-his-name. Tom Busker? No: Tom the Busker. Actually, I don’t know his last name. I just heard he was good. Furry Karl recommends him. So does Cardboard. You know Cardboard (don’t you)? Lady? Hey lady?”
“What’s she doing out there now?”
—–
Baker Bloch blocks the Blue Feather back up as they leave. They’ll get no reasonable food there this evening. “Haunted,” he finishes.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Rubi^
Karoz needed to talk to someone about his theories concerning the collages he just reviewed, but there was no one left in town that he knew well. Baker Bloch and Baker Blinker had disappeared. Hucka Doobie had already given him his assignment, which he was attempting to carry out. Carrcassonnee seemed finished with him too for the moment. There was always Furry Karl, but the bar was still closed for some reason. No one here. Then Karoz realized he could ask Wheeler to join him. Dare he?
—–
“It pleases me that you’ve changed, Karoz. Baker Blinker is happier too. When she comes back you will be rewarded. She has entered the blue and the grey. Civil War.”
“What does that mean, Wheeler?”
“It means one comes out a victor and one does not. It’s always about directions. But we’ve not come here to discuss that particular subject. Blinks can wait. Collages are up. I’m trying to help. I’m trying to further the Collagesity cause. So spit it out.” She then softens her voice. “Please.”
“Very good,” says Karoz. “Well, I understand that *you* understand the nexus. Where everything links together.”
“True enough,” responds Wheeler. She takes another sip of her 4 shot latte. Starbuccarina is still guarding the portal next door, but they were nevertheless able to retrieve the drinks from her. Good ol’ Starbuccarina. She’s a winner, Wheeler thinks. Not just a mere creation of fairyland.
“I’ve studied the collages in Falmouth, Red Umbrella, and Boos tonight. I believe Hucka Doobie is telling me to go back to Stonethwaite. I went there once before. To retrieve Story Room, or attempt to retrieve them. They were suppose to teach the course at my Noru college called “Composing with the Colors Red, Yellow, and Blue.”
“True enough,” says Wheeler again.
“I think they are me in summary. Me as baker b.”
“Yes,” she says. She is wise in this way.
“It’s the three ways I create music, or created music. Because I don’t really do it any longer.”
“No,” she says. “That should change. Spongeberg[ is here to help].”
“Anyway, I am the 4th. I realize that. The other three are improvisation — blue; chromagraphs — that’s red; and then yellow is composing in the regular or normal way by ear, something I do naturally since I was a kid. [The word] ear is between the yellow guys’ legs in that Falmouth collage. No. 12 I believe.
“Yes.”
“Wait, I’m checking now and it’s 11.”
“Not really that important,” responds Wheeler. “Go on. You are the 4th, yes.”
“Let me review in my head what I saw.” He reviews in his head what he saw. “Dancer, obviously.”
“Yes,” replies Wheeler. “That’s me!” she then exclaims.
“I suppose so,” he says, not joining her in raised voices.
“I’m sorry that you do not approve of my important hobby, but Blinks does and that’s the important thing I’ll say about that right now. To you.”
This is the kind of stuff Karoz didn’t want to deal with tonight. He wanted to focus on the collages and his assignment. Yet here was Wheeler, trying to draw him into the entanglement. He resisted for now. He wanted to see his analysis through. *Then* he would ask some questions about all that.
“Back to Stonethwaite. I think I can enter it through (he checks the number again) Falmouth 36. Master Shake opened that portal a while back in Collagesity Noru.”
“He’s just Master here,” Wheeler corrected. “But he holds the keys to the Civil War and which way it will flip. Depends on if he has one of those General Grants in his back pocket still.” She stifles a grin, but then wonders if she should have said President Lincoln there instead.
“Alright, I’ll take your word for it.” Karoz was trying not to get sidetracked still. “But that’s where the opening occurred before,” he repeats. “I just walk into the collage and I’m in Stonethwaite, just like [I did] in Noru. I can talk to Story Room that way; get their story. Hucka Doobie says to talk to the one without a head, so I’ll have to check that. Might be the blue guy.”
“Steptoe,” responds Wheeler firmly. “Use to date. He was something of a perv.”
“Yes, that was his name. Or is.” Karoz let the ‘perv’ description stand as is without further comment.
“So it’s settled,” says Wheeler. “You go to Stonethwaite again. You know how to do it. Anything else tonight? I’ve got to get back to my training.” She thought of asking something else but held back. Karoz didn’t need to go in that direction.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Rubi^
“I’m so sorry, Hucka Doobie. I went to the bar instead of the diner here. Carrcassonnee didn’t correct her speech in the blog until after I left. But the bar was closed — no sign of Furry Karl or anyone else there. I checked the portal very quickly to make sure it remained unblocked. I figured you were down here.”
“No sign of Starbuccarina[ either]?” Hucka Doobie was still irritated but getting over it. Her left eye twitched nervously, but she had the glasses on. No weakness shown.
“No,” answered Karoz. “The great 3-n-1 must be in mothballs once more.”
“You work for me, right?”
“Yes, Hucka Doobie. I’ve worked for you for a long time.”
“I’m going to give you your next assignment. You will go into the collages, the nexus. Inside Spider will become a horse. Ride that horse to the next town over and dismount. Don’t look to the left. Don’t look to the right. Just straight ahead. Go to the end of the road. Enter the bar or diner or whatever is there. Don’t speak to anyone. Just go over to the person who doesn’t have a head and ask where you are. Because he’s the only one who can’t tell you. When you get that information, go into the back room and lie down and wait for sleep. When it comes you will be in the place he incorrectly told you about. This is the nexus. Wait for Spongeberg. That is all.”
“Hucka Doobie, I have so many questions about Baker Blinker and Wheeler and Furry Karl…”
“All that will have to wait. Go into the nexus. Lie down and wake up in a better place. The green, green hills. We have ended.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Rubi^
*Those* things again, he thinks. How can they be this large?
“Well Baker. Let’s go see your father and talk about getting married, hehe. Seriously, he’s probably sleeping off a binge behind some big rock. It’s Karoz all over again.” She shouts into the back. “Right Karoz?!”
Baker waits for a reply.
Karoz is just shaking his head and staring. Spongeberg is totally gone man; Karoz sits in his seat.
“Come back here Baker. You can bring Starbuccaneer with you but come back here. Sit with me.”
“Well Star. Shall we?”
“That’s not Karoz,” she replies, fear suddenly in her eyes. “I can feel it. Karoz is not here.”
“Of course he is,” Baker responds. “That’s Karoz Blogger, my old friend. You were *there* in Noru with us. He was president of Sam Parr State Collage. College I meant there.”
“Did you?” she replied. “Just like the old days, Baker Bloch. Always the jester. Until it’s too late.”
“Latte?”
“Come here Baker Bloch,” repeats Karoz, or who appears to be Karoz, Baker then thinks. Star looks straight ahead. “I can’t stop staring at him, Baker Bloch.”
“Let’s just go over and speak to him, even if he isn’t Karoz — maybe he’s still Spongeberg — and see what he wants to discuss. We can do that?”
“I’m not going over there,” Star says. “You go without me.” She disappears from view. Newton and Jasper move over from the counter to the top of the round display case, looking toward where she once was.
“Jeez, are these things going to follow me around now wherever I go?” He turns to them. “Do you speak? Are. You. Animated?” But they were behind him now, sitting in the last booth.
“Are you going to come back and talk to me or not?” Karoz implores. Baker goes and sits down. He stares toward the booth in question. Nothing there.
“You better find those little rascals and delete them before you forget about it again,” suggests Karoz. “I can wait. I bet you can’t even find it or them.”
“I’ll find them.” It took Baker a minute, however. “Gotcha. Back to the inventory.”
“How did they get on Castle Jack is the question you should be asking. That’s impossible. They couldn’t be there. They’re like expanding salt and pepper shakers. Hold on… I believe that may have been your line.” He rustles some papers underneath the table while examining them.
“Never mind, Karoz. Never mind whose line is whose. Let’s improvise. Let’s go off the script.”
“We can’t do that,” replied Karoz. “We’re always on [the] script. We can’t improvise because we are following a path and can’t stray into the woods, into the wild, to be eaten like moles or voles.”
“Yeah, what *is* the difference between the two? And, to point, why did Starbuccaneer think you weren’t Karoz? You’re acting pretty much like I anticipate Karoz acting.”
Karoz laughs. “Accing,” he says.
Baker Bloch remembers that he’s highlighted Newton and Jasper but hasn’t deleted them yet. They he realizes he’s highlighted 275 more prims behind them as well. He quickly unhighlights everything. “Jesus Karoz, I almost deleted half the town trying to get rid of those two!”
“You *must* be careful. They do that.”
“I’m going to go top down on ’em. Hold on…” Baker Bloch is finally able to isolate and delete the two bad boys.
“So to *my* point. Stay away from [delete name]. Stay away from Nautilus in general. Stay home. World reversed.”
“You know I can’t do that. Baker through me.”
“I know. I just wanted you to know that I told you so.”
“World reversed is okay, though. Perfection. The perfect thing sought. Like the red violin, the golden sphere[ of Carrcass-5].” Baker Bloch then quotes from the synch. “What if the thing you most wanted, just comes.”
“Don’t do that,” requests Karoz. “No, we must talk about TILE. Tonight was okay, but tomorrow is another day[ as they say]. TILE makes us strong at home. Here in Collagesity. Gormthoog and BoB are in the past practically speaking. Honeymoon over. Blinks and I are back and ready to kick town ass.”
“So are you Karoz or not?”
“I just wanted to tell you that I’m not your enemy. I am in the past myself. I am gone man gone too. But here I am. Telling you these things. You must worship TILE. Everything must focus on TILE. TILE. Baker Blinker already knows this and is adjusting.”
“Karoz — whoever you are —”
“You know who I am.”
“I’m not staying away from Nautilus.”
And so it went.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Rubi^
Baker Bloch heads back over to Starbuccaneers to attempt to flirt again with Star herself, the namesake. Does she own the store? Did she buy his father’s house next door and turn it into not one but two bars, strange reflections of each other? What about the passageway behind the lower bar? It leads to blackness, like Star’s eyes turned black the other day. Baker Bloch went through, but he came out in the same town. It *appeared* like the same town. But Carrcassonnee said it would be different, somehow reversed. He has yet to figure it out what this means.
Baker Bloch has arrived. “Hi Star. Maybe we got off on the wrong foot the other day. I’d like to ask you on… a date. A date, Star. Can you animate yourself again, like you were in Collagesity Noru several years back? Hard to believe Collagesity itself is now close to 2 1/2 years old, eh? Star?”
Baker then hears a conversation fade in from the back of the restaurant, like a dream coming into reality. He turns to see an animated Karoz talking to Spongeberg about something.
He makes out words like dreamer and dancer and perpetual and world and Nautilus and box before Spongeberg seems to stop listening to Karoz rattle on and focuses his attention directly on Starbuccaneer. Or is he staring at *me*?
When I turn back to Star again for more attempted flirting I find she’s become slightly invisible. As I stare she grows moreso, until about 50 percent of her is gone. The process appears to halt.
“Do you want me to continue?” Spongeberg then says in my mind. “We need the prims. She’s a 7. We can get a whole dance pad in for a 7 spot.”
Spongeberg puts a series of images in my head.
Baker sighs through me. “Take off her hat first,” he speaks back to Spongeberg with his own mind. “That’ll bring it down to 5.”
“That’s not enough. But okay.” The hat disappears. Starbuccaneer otherwise returns to ‘normal’. “Can I flirt with her now?” he asks Spongeberg. “Now that she’s dehatted?”
Starbuccaneer speaks up. “Of course you can Baker Bloch. And how’re *you* doing?”
She’s alive!
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Rubi^
“Is that suppose to be Donald Trump over there, Carrcassonnee?” Wheeler asks in the awkward silence after sitting down in her special chair.
“I don’t know. Is it?”
“I don’t know neither. Either?”
“Why don’t you just try to gauge my eye out again, Wheels? Can I call you Wheels? Wheeler the Wheelie.”
“Baker Blinker is protecting you now. We made a pact, a deal. Part of that deal is that you and I have to get along. So I’m here. Talking to you.”
“What do you dislike about me, Wheels? Wheelie? Which do you prefer? Gauger, perhaps.”
“I am you. I don’t like the myself I use to be. With Perch. Perch riding around on Spider. Spider use to be a horse. That’s in the collages. You have to send her back in. You know so little. It irritates me sometimes, is all. I get impatient.”
“I know a *lot* woman.”
“Not as much as you think. Not at all. I’ve been in those collages myself. I’ve been to Stonethwaite, to Tungaske — that’s in Canada and not Russia by the way. I’ve been to those special places that make up the nexus. *We* operate from that nexus. Whitehead Crossing. Do you remember Whitehead Crossing, Carrcassonnee?”
“Of course. Kind of. And: not really. No, I don’t know that place atall.”
“That’s where I’m from. I’m from all of those places. That’s where I met Spongeberg. We had a thing going on back in the wild wooly 70’s. Ever heard of Jagger Juice?”
“No.”
“Tommy Tums? Richard Rechts? Bizarronator? Those were my clan.”
“Sounds like an evil superhero alliance.”
“It was! We had a number of eyes laying around we would huff on back then. Your mama.”
“What?”
“I said, your mama.”
Carr. (calling through the door):
Baker Blinker!! A little help!
—–
BBlinker:
She’s just pulling your leg. Go ahead Wheeler. Admit you were pulling Carrcassonnee’s leg. You don’t know her mother.
Wheeler:
The heck I don’t. Huffing and puffing on her. All night long.
BBlinker:
Alright let’s just end it at that. Now just *look* at what you did to Carrcassonnee again!
(after a pause)
Wheeler:
I can’t believe you have to call in Baker Bloch again to change Carrcassonee ’round. He needs to give everything over to you. Just deed it over. The whole town, the part that’s not yours. 98 percent?
BBlinker (admitting):
About.
Wheeler (standing):
I even have to get up for this charade?
BBlinker:
Yeah. Sorry. (pause) We’re done.
Wheeler:
She’s still got a little greenish glow around her belly.
BBlinker:
The night marches on. We must end soon. We can’t look at every detail.
Wheeler:
I didn’t think the mama joke would affect her like this. Change her over again.
BBlinker (looking at the script and reading):
It will take — sorry — it will take many episodes of 12 Oz Mouse to revive her again. Perhaps even 13.
Wheeler:
Nice. Why don’t you just remove her eye now. While she’s away like this. It would be easy. Then we could go to Muff-Birmingham. I’ve shown you pictures. It’s beautiful. We could get a place somewhere way up in the air. Buy a whole wrestling arena before we leave and take it with us. Then when we get back we just rent. Rent somewhere else. Away from here.
—–
“That eye would take us far.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Rubi^
“Where’d your pupil go?”
Wheeler:
Ah, there you are. Perch. How have you been Perch my old friend?
Carr (shaken):
I… I’m not Perch any more.
Wheeler:
I know. The whole assimilation thing. So you want to know about Jorondip, eh?
Carr.:
I didn’t say that.
Wheeler:
On and off. Black and white. I took over. I simply took over. And I took over the thing taken over. I’m just that powerful. Do you know who I am?
Carr.:
Um, you said you were me.
Wheeler:
You’re scared, huh? ‘Fraid I’ll take over *you*?
Carr. (meek; lying):
No.
Wheeler:
Well I can. I *will*. But not just yet. When Spider talks then that’s the End of Days. BoBylon realized. You understand me Perch?
Carr.:
I can’t reach those memories.
Wheeler:
I’ll have that eye and I’ll have you and everything else in this town.
Carr. (grasping):
Spongeberg. Spongeberg can stop you.
Wheeler:
No. Not even Spongeberg The Destroyer can stop me. I’m him as well!
Carr.:
No. Need… Asprind.
Wheeler (more of a whisper):
I’m even… this town. I’m Second Lyfe itself now. My Second Lyfe. *My* Second Lyfe.
(Carrcassonnee has no answer. “DEMON,” she thinks)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0002, Heterocera, Rubi^
Sunklands 
![[The word] ear is between the yellow guys’ legs in that Falmouth collage.](https://bakerbloch.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/snapshot8291_008.jpg){kind=link}
