George manifests the planchette again and asks a question. “Will the east and west witches learn to coexist?”
—–
Wheeler was feeling better if still tired. Seeing this, Buster Damm had excused himself, saying he’d heard of trouble in VHC City. Wheeler reinforced that she could certainly fend for herself.
“Attack from the west, eh?” she ruminated while sitting in a raven black Victorian chair at the real Clare Nova’s church. “Well, two can play that game.”
“Or was it the east?”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0004, 0516, Heterocera, VHC City
Baker Bloch changed into Pitch Darkly and summoned Buster Damm to the scene. They couldn’t think of anywhere else to go, so they took her to a nearby church just on the other side of the woods. Tronesisia and Mary were supposedly still out of town. VHC City was not safe any longer. King Orange’s place was too close to the edge for comfort. No, it would have to be the church. The real Clare Nova’s church.
The next day, after a good night’s rest in a barrel bed located on the second floor, Wheeler felt a little better. “You called me Clare,” she said to Pitch Darkly, sitting in a nearby chair. Damm was out gathering firewood in the forest. “I distinctly remember your voice saying the name Clare in alarm. You thought I was dead.”
“Actually, at first I thought you were Mary. But, yeah, I did say Clare. I’m not sure why. I knew you were the person in the picture.”
“What picture?” asks Wheeler.
Pitch uncrossed his legs. “Never mind that right now; I’ll show you later. First you must get better. That was a nasty collision you had with that tree.”
“Hallo-ween tree,” she said.
“That’s right. Nowhere near Christmas. I don’t know why you were there. Do you remember your name now?” Pitch looked at her keenly.
“I’m Wheeler. My name is Wheeler. Wheeler Wilson.”
“That’s it,” says Pitch Darkly, encouraged.
“Or is it Wilson Wheeler?”
—–
“Very sad,” Pitch said to Buster later after they’d shared a meal of fruit and vegetables downstairs. “It’s as if she’s stuck between regular and reverse times.”
“She must have made successful contact with the shadow being.” Buster looks around the room. “Sure are a lot of bear images around here, Pitch. And more in the woods — real ones. There’s a cave if you haven’t noticed. Bear cave. Thing shocked me when I went inside and turned to the right. But she’s a right fine fellow. Name’s Abigail. But she’s mad as hell at the real Clare Nova. She’s hunted her kind. For example, look to your right.”
“I know. I’ve seen it over there.”
“And your left.”
“Appears to be circus related,” guessed Pitch. “Clowns… bears. We’re moving closer to the truth.”
“Wheeler may not fully come out of it for a while,” said Buster, sighing.
“We may have to keep her here,” suggests Pitch. “Nowhere left to turn.”
“And danger all around.” Buster scans the room again.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0004, 0510, Heterocera, VHC City
“What do you think Buster? It’s the first image that comes up in a google search for ‘pitch darkly’ that isn’t a part of the Sunklands blog.”
“But… there’s nothing in it,” Buster logically replied.
“Oh, there’s a bit of blonde or red hair if you look closer. Right down there at the bottom.”
“Not much.”
“No.”
“So what does it mean?”
“Hmmmm… I’m sensing a general absence about the Pitch Darkly character. And of VHC City as a whole. I guess you heard that George won’t be joining us anytime soon.”
“Yeah, sorry about that Pitch,” Buster replied. “False pregnancy alarms are tough. I have 23 children — I think — scattered around not only VHC City but the whole of mainland. Been around, you know. 2 by what use to be called Blue Angels alone. Use to live underneath the hot spot, hehe.”
“Thank you Buster. We’ll keep trying, of course. I want to have a kid so bad.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you really?”
“Ummm…”
“You don’t do you?”
“No.”
“Not at all, do you?”
“No. Not really at all.”
“Well there you go.”
—–
Outside the Sphere of Influence or Realm of Orange (take your pick at this point), our boy George has discovered a small Christmas tree on the southern edge of the PCH Forest he now dwells within. “Presents!” he cries, and looks at the tags. The one with the green bow up front is from Lou. The larger present that has a red bow says it’s from Morris. And then perhaps the biggest one tied with a white ribbon is from Osborne. Osborne Wells. Which to open first??
—–
Afterwards, Baker Bloch goes to the same spot in the woods and find something different: a seemingly dead witch glued to a tree she obviously ran into while driving around drunk on her broomstick. He now realizes whose head it is at the bottom of that empty picture.
“Clare!”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0004, 0509, Heterocera, VHC City
“I can still make this role work out,” Wheeler said to herself while standing before the scrying mirror between representations of the sun and moon at the real Clare Nova’s Crystal Cottage in Hooktip. “I will summon forth a helper from the shadows dark.”
Pitch Darkly suddenly appeared in the yard outside the door, with friend.
“Damm,” she uttered.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0004, 0505, Heterocera, VHC City
“This Eclipse wine is pretty good, Hucka.”
“Yeah, you’re certainly woofing it down, Baker. Thanks for meeting with me tonight, even if in character — as the Orange King?”
“Still working on it. He’s from Saturnia. But we better start calling that (sim) simply Saturn. Like the place the guys who run this coffee shop are from apparently.”
“Could be a connection, even,” offers Hucka Doobie. “We must explore every angle and then discard mercilessly. Tough going ahead to finish (the novel).”
“Jupiter mentioned in the last (blog) post,” adds Baker/Orange King. “Jupiter and Saturn. Opposites.”
“Greater benefic and greater malefic,” furthers Hucka Doobie. “But back to Clare and Wheeler. She came back to VHC City to play that role. And now it’s snapped away from her?”
“The real Clare Nova seems nice enough. And her spots in Saturn and several other sims around the area are nature and beauty oriented. I think that swayed me into telling her I’m writing fiction about greater VHC City. Just tonight. Just a minute ago.”
“I suppose that’s a good idea.” Hucka Doobie tries to look out the 4th wall again but can’t quite find it.
—–
Wheeler awoke to the smell of familiar dampness. She knew she was back immediately. Tears formed in her eyes. She never thought the Underground would look this good.
—–
The Musician had returned to VHC City via the key shop several hours earlier. Pilot Woody Woodmanson was nowhere to be seen upon “landing”. He soon found his feet walking toward his old haunt, the Safe Plaza, and its Ear Bar. But his beloved Dr. Who pinball machine there seemed to be broken. Malefic Saturn already in action?
He found an old friend to chat with on the bar counter. “I wonder where Wheeler is, Percolator?”
Percolator told him. And about the potential loss of the Clare Nova role. And about the new Orange King of Saturn. The perpetually caffeine filled mutant clown was noted for being quite the gossip machine.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0004, 0501, Heterocera, Key Shop, VHC City
Sikul Himakt faced a similar choice as before. Across the bridge from him here lounges an elephant, a male in this case named Eli. If he instead follows the river bank to the right on this side, it should lead him to the path beside the waterfall that was missing in the parallel forest. He decides he has to find out sooner or later about the village. He goes right.
Sure enough, there it is, just as Lou described.* Excitement!
He heads up.
—–
Meanwhile…
After having explained the best he could about what happened to the man Wheeler Wilson knows as The Musician, the red alien Morris excused himself and faded from view again as he had done once previously. He warned Wheeler to just stay put here in this arid skybox and he would attempt to bring The Musician back himself. “Don’t move,” he said. “Else you may never be together again.”
She quickly tired of exploring the various structures in the now opened up skybox. Castle Knight with its projecting red spires, for example, only contained a picture of who Morris called Ted, described as “another employee” of this mysterious Lou he kept bringing up, a fairy being he said owned the place The Musician went to.
He also stated that The Musician was not awake but asleep in her realm. “I’ll find him and rouse him,” Morris promised just before he disappeared.
Wheeler waiting, and wishing she had a good book to read.
—–
* compare with end photo of this post: https://bakerbloch.com/2017/06/09/54752/
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0004, 0410, Heterocera, Muff-Bermingham-, Rubi
“You can come out now, Wheeler and Musician.” Morris called from outside the cave, holding his own fox still. “The lights aren’t flickering any longer. All clear signal.”
But when they emerged from the cave, Morris became flabbergasted. “*Why* do you have two foxes, Wheeler? What happened?”
“I don’t know. They both liked me. They didn’t take to The Musician. It just happened, Morris. Why does it matter? We both made it through.” She looks around. “Ooh nice. Everything has opened up.”
“Look,” says a pointing Musician. “There’s the caravan, all safe and sound.”
His point moves to the left.
“And there’s the building we only saw the top of before, now apparently in full view. Let’s go take a look Wheeler… Morris.”
“Giant tree here as well,” adds Wheeler. “Nice job Morris.”
“I didn’t do any of this,” responds Morris. “I just figured out how to get here. Yes, everything is exposed now. This is Muff-Bermingham in full.”
For some reason, that sentence didn’t sound quite right to Wheeler but she let it go.
“There’s more,” continues Morris. “But first: the issue of the foxes.”
“What do we do?” Wheeler asks the red alien. “Just set them down on the ground and let them run back into the cave?”
“Yes,” answers Morris. “Except we were suppose to have one apiece.” Just then, the second fox that jumped into Wheeler’s arms began to fight with the first. What ended up happening is that the second squirmed out of her grasp and fell onto the ground, running off in the direction of the caravan in a panic.
“Great,” exclaims Morris. “Just great.”
“I’ll go get him back,” offers an animal free Musician. He begins running in the same direction as the fox.
“Scotty,” pouts Morris, holding his own fox even tighter. “Should’ve seen it coming.”
“The Musician is pretty nimble. Maybe he’ll be successful in catching him.”
“Maybe,” says Morris to Wheeler. “But I sense our plan has run afoul of something. We’ve been sabotaged.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0004, 0405, Heterocera, Muff-Bermingham-, Rubi
“Aww, look Musician. It just hopped up right in my arms. Who’s a good foxie?” The fox Wheeler holds yelps softly while she pets its head.
The second fox was more warey. He or she eyed the Musician suspiciously. “I don’t think *mine* likes me as much,” he says while staring back.
“Oh go on. Pick it up. This one’s so *friendly*. Don’t be a scardy cat.”
“I mean, why are we here playing with foxes anyway? Where’s Morris?”
“Oh Moriss Smorris,” counters Wheeler. “We have foxes! Adorable, lovable foxes. Go ahead. Pick it up,” she repeats. She just knew that The Musician *had* to hold that fox. The desire was overwhelming. “Go ahead. Call it to you. Say: ‘Here foxie foxie. Jump in my arms. Who’s a good doggie?'”
But her urging created the wrong effect. Suddenly she had *two* foxes in her arms.
“Oh dear, hee hee.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0004, 0404, Heterocera, Muff-Bermingham-, Rubi
The Musician woke up Wheeler the next day to the tune of “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes, played on a gothic violin purchased in a VHC City music store several days back. He’d been saving up for months. And he’s already dubbed the steep hillock he plays upon in the above picture Fiddler’s Knoll, a natural perch for such creativity. As fine as the musician is playing, and as interesting a song as he’s covering, Wheeler still awakens upset. She had no water to bathe with the night before. All the scrounging around the various corners of their compound — nay, their *prison* — had produced basically nothing of interest. And they were unable to scale the walls to see what was outside. No flying here as well. Trapped. But today was another day and perhaps Morris would return and give them more information.
Wheeler yawns and stretches her arms as she exits the caravan. The Musician halts his playing and looks down on her. “Past 10 now,” he explained. “Waited long enough to practice.” He then begins another song, which he introduces with the title and composer. “‘My Sweet Lord’; George Harrison,” he says, and immediately leaps into it.
Wheeler walks over and sits on one of the logs at the still brightly burning fire in the compound’s center. “This place stinks,” she says.
The Musician halts his playing again. “What’s that dear?”
“I said, this place *stinks*! Did you hear that?”
Sensing the mood, he gives up trying to practice for now and rather stumbles down the knob’s slope while cradling the violin in his arms, meeting Wheeler at the fire. “I don’t think it’s too bad,” he says, sitting down on a log beside her own. “I have my knoll now, my practice perch. I’m pretty happy here.”
Wheeler simmers a second before responding. “No… I meant this place *smells*… smells bad. And what’s that beside the fire? Looks like a bit of colored shoe.”
Just then a hole opens up in the cliff wall opposite the direction of their caravan with only a slight, brief rumble. Morris emerges.
“Ahh, I actually found you here. Good you’re up. I hope you slept well, or as well as possible. I heard there was trouble locating water.” He then stood unusually close to the fire, shuffling and kicking his feet around on the ground in front of it. Again, Wheeler and The Musician missed the hints.
“No water, yeah,” Wheeler said. “Tougher for a girl.” She glared over at The Musician, who moved his violin to the opposite side.
“Well, no fear in that now. I found a portal to the outside. It was those darn foxes all along. One for each of us. I’ll go first, just to make sure it’s safe and it works again. Give me above 5 minutes before heading in yourself.” He moves around the fire and leaves just as quickly as he came, exiting through the hole again.
Wheeler only waits about 30 seconds tops and then bounded off the log and toward the opening. “Come on Musician,” she beckons with a wave. “I want to see what he’s up to if we can.”
Inside they found the cutest little things possible.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0004, 0403, Heterocera, Muff-Bermingham-, Rubi
“The sky looks like Mars,” Wheeler opined. “I think this is Mars.”
“No,” countered Morris, who had been explaining what his home was for about half an hour now. “This is truly the legendary Muff-Bermingham planet you’ve heard so much about. Muff-Bermingham may have been a *conduit* to Mars, I’ll admit. I don’t have your experience in that realm. I only showed up day before yesterday. I’m a newbie, as they say down here. Or up here.”
“What’s that was over there?” The Musician asked, indicating with a head tilt the projecting spires of a structure beyond the rimming brown rock cliffs of this habitat.
“That’s something in the works, let’s say. Things are a bit plasticine here still — melting plastic.” Morris took a deep, satisfying breath through his nostrils. Wheeler and The Musician had suspected nothing in that direction; just thought it was a different planet smell of some sort. “I have few land resources to work with,” he continued, staring into the fire. “Already, the SoSo gallery had to be stolen from Collagesity below us to create an effect I desired. *We* desired.”
“Who’s ‘we’?” Wheeler asked.
“I think his name is Lou.” Morris paused, uncrossing his legs. “Or her. Anyway, we’re still working on that as well. I do know that one is red and one is green. Stop and go. Like Muff and Bermingham. I’m sorry Osborne Well couldn’t show up in person to greet you as well but… land resources again. Collagesity may have to make additional sacrifices. But at least your Spongeberg the Destroyer has been put to bay. Is that the expression I’m looking for?”
“If you mean that Spongeberg didn’t effect the destruction of Collagesity between (the two halves of this novel) you seem to be correct,” Wheeler offers. “Instead of VHC City we are here, in Collagesity but not in Collagesity. Like the legendary Moon and its own (Moon of) Moon.”
“Like Mars,” The Musician says to Wheeler. “You’ve told me quite a lot about it. Sounds fascinating.”
“I’m projecting you’ll learn to love Muff-Bermingham just as much,” Morris pipes up. “This is just a foothold, a start. In several hours spotless day will return into splochy night. I will leave you to your own devices now to explore, gather, prepare.”
With this he simply fades from view in front of them.
—–
Back in VHC City, Mary/Chuckles ungrasps Pitch’s cold white hand extended across the table and stares into the dark corner of the room behind him.
“Um, your Timmy Osborne Well is fading out again, my love,” she states with only mild surprise. “It’s as if he’s trying to reach somewhere else, maybe a place he can become lively again. Wonder where?”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0004, 0402, Heterocera, Muff-Bermingham-, Rubi, VHC City
Sunklands 