We had to go through Gold City and Barry and Stinkerfoot to get back to Zapppa and the Big Woods cemetery. He dug up the truth about Franklin. It wasn’t pretty.
There was no body; there was nobody.
—–
“Black Jack,” psychic Donald said in a related scene from Towerboro.
“Black Jack.”
The TV went to snow.
August 14, 1974. Lucy Blue Dress takes one last look back at the campsite she’d stayed her summer after graduating from high school. She’d miss the cool cool stream that flowed and sometimes cascaded by her tent. She’d miss the gatherings at Sugar’s shack with all the weirdos of the woods. She’d miss more organized White Tree Village and dreamy Bluebird who lived there and who she took occasional long walks with. Most of all, there was Titiana and Vanessa, her bestest friends during this period in her life. “Come with me to college!” she begged of them beside their favorite wagon near the shack near the center. “No, we stay here,” said Vanessa, which made Titiana nod. They all called her Tiana, because her full name was just a little too much to pronounce in casual conversation. She didn’t like it but she accepted the shortening; she was growing up and becoming more mature about such things. Both were smart. Both took the SATs and did well enough to go to their pick of at least a public school. But: no. The woods had captivated them beyond escape. The Ourobos that is the stream had worked its magic, beginning matched with end. They would be happy going round in circles the rest of their lives, without a worldly degree, without a decent and rewarding job that resulted in such, without the ability to support a family beyond perhaps a husband or wife — both girls swung either way on that preference. “The woods will take care of us,” they said, and bade her farewell with teary hugs just minutes ago. They offered to follow her to the campsite down the stream and see her off from her woodlands home of 2 months but she said this wasn’t necessary, and there was no reason for them to watch her leave the way they all came: alongside the brick wall that led outta here. This corner is where the woods die for her.
And then there was Zapppa, who was set to leave the forest himself tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow at the latest, he promised. “Just gotta wrap up something at the cemetery,” he said minutes before she then met with Vanessa and Titiana that one last time.
He was the love of her life. Pretty sure of that, she was. Going to college with her, he was. Studying math: her, psychology. Stats would be their shared passion beyond the bed. They determined there was a 24.687531% chance they would return here after college, using their acquired skills to better the woods and their denizens and citizens. Never happened. The zero and nine would have to be added in to make it work and that, they realized, would defeat the whole purpose. Worldly they remained.
In one reality.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0034, 0307, Big Woods, Jeogeot
A person was found dead at 64/64 Koryo just outside the brick wall surrounding the manor. Lucy was her name, yet another character the woods produced, spat out in an attempt to tell as much of its story as I possibly can. Lucy doesn’t fit in?
So that’s Zapppa at 32/32 in the corner of the graveyard, Lucy here, and, let’s see, *another* Lucy — dead again it seems, and sans head this time — with a more science fictiony outfit at 96/96…
… and then to complete the first half of our diagonal across the sim, in the very center, we have dreaming Billy Clock at 128/128 or, more specifically, his tag along, blasted damned Wither Tree, as well as, I would assume, that giant waterfall Mistress named Falls of 10000 Lions he also manifests when snoozing.
Yes, there it is not far away, with roar indeed deafening.
Barrels seen from 160/160. *There’s* Science Fiction Lucy. She’s okay as it turns out. Must be part of the dream.
More woods at 192/192 not surprisingly. And there’s the other Lucy, the first one, sprung back to life, hmm. She faces a covered bridge at the northwest edge of White Tree Village here.
Then a dead Zapppa or something hanging near the center of a different covered bridge at 224/224, leading out of WTV on its other side…
… bringing us to the end, which is the same as the beginning: 256/256 > 0/0.
Now to clean all this raw information up.
—–
Got it! Everything relates to that central stream running basically northeast to southwest across Koryo. You can clearly see it from all key spots on our diagonal outlined above. Beginning indeed does equals end.
beginning
end
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0034, 0305, Big Woods, Jeogeot
An urban legend claims that the monolith used in 2001: A Space Odyssey can be seen in some scenes of Zappa’s film 200 Motels (The Film). While a monolith can indeed be seen [most prominently at the beginning of the song “Penis Dimension”], it’s actually not the same one used in Kubrick’s film, as Kubrick had most of his models destroyed after 2001 was finished. On the same token Zappa didn’t film in the same studio Kubrick filmed 2001 in either. [1]
But it was the same, at least in spirit. And Zappa must have noted the 200-2001 similarity for the films. Subtraction of the 1 must have been satisfying for him, like he emasculated The Beatles with “We’re Only in It for the Money”. The monolith, the slab, is a penis with dimensions of 1:4:9. Perfection. It can all be telescoped back to 1 (and then gotten rid of).
—–
Zappp had long thought he’d always keep the extra p in his name after adding it in school. “Play Ruben and the Jets,” the children chided in the playground, lovers of doo-wop at an early age. “Sing Yellow Snow,” most of the same requested in jr. high after progressive rock became all the rage. You want extra p, he thought vindictively when all this went down, I’ll give you an extra p. At 9 o’clock on Wednesday’s Thursday’s Friday, October 5-7, 1973 he announced his name change. Zappp. 3 p’s in a row, not 2. *Now* try to make Zappp A. into Zappa, ya’ll.
But what he found in that grave when he dug up old man Franklin had him doing a rethink. It was a dream, yes. No one in their right mind would try to raise that dick from the dead. Sorcerer, everyone has heard. Wizard say some. Zappp knows it is the latter. Because he’s been contacting him via wegee board for years. Robert Franklin; Roberts and Franklin. Wonder what happened to Roberts, because they were quite the team, measuring their careers against each other, like, well, like the type of people they were. Probably doing the same kind of stuff in the afterlife. Again he should know. Old Man Franklin gives him an update from The Beyond at least every other week. Or the WIZARD does — Zappp is not quite convinced the 2 are one and the same, a logical reduction, despite mounting evidence over time. They sleep in the same metaphorical bed is all he concedes.
And then *this* when he wakes up. What is someone trying to tell him? He feels like the disposing of the newly placed Monolith over there — just digging it up (as well) perhaps — is the same as getting rid of the extra p in his name. Strong conviction on this.
He and Ben could do it together; he’s plenty strong but he’d need help from the stronger animal. But Ben had run away, totally frightened of the thing standing so shiny and alien in the far corner of the yard, and with that weird humm emitting from it, like some kind of dynamo — Dinah… Moe, hmm. Zappp couldn’t blame him. He’d like to run away in the woods too. Big Woods. Big Run. Anything besides facing another decision tree. While he’s at it, he may just dig up that tree as well.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0034, 0301, Big Woods, Jeogeot
“GRROWLLL!”
“What the?! — oh, hi Ben. You scared me you joker. I thought Eloise over there had come back to life!”
“GRROWLLL!”
“Yeah, I know. You’re probably starving. Been gone for 2 days. Where’ve you been… Ben, he he?”
“GRROWLL?”
“Well come on in and tell me all about it, then. We’ll eat breakfast and share stories. Because *I’ve* got something to tell *you* too, something you won’t believe.”
—–
“I don’t blame you, Ben. I don’t want to get too close to it either.”
“GRRRRROWWWWL!”
“I know. I’m scared too.”
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0034, 0217, Big Woods, Jeogeot
‘There (!). At the corner of the cemetery. Just like you predicted.”
“Just like I *directed*,” corrected Baker Blinker. Back in the saddle as I said, mysterious incapacitating illness over. Zapppa it was, but with an extra p. We’ve seen him before.
He turns. They’ve seen him and that’s all he wanted. Now to find that grave which told him everything, how it begins, how it ends, all the stuff in the middle.
There were quite a few to examine…
… not even counting the 3 tombs marked Henderson, Williams, Bennett. Those don’t sound right to him, though.
But *this* could be it.
He starts digging.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0034, 0215, Big Woods, Jeogeot
He hid behind tall tufts of Pampus Grass (etc.) waiting for Jenny to pull into the Crystal Hill of Moonberry, the central mount of the 3 Queendoms in extreme lower Nautilus. Nauty: but in a different form.
Can had been easy to overtake, having all those holes in his head, holes matching holes. “Glory be!” he exclaimed in his now non-wheezy voice as he seeped into the body, the only way to ditch pretty but snitchy Miss Ouri, monitoring the Lower Austra beaches for any sign of escape. Now if I can just keep *this* body from loving her as well. Can fell for Alysha before, and Ouri is just a different form of the same. We’re back in Arkansaw and that is something. Monster Book.
There she is (!) *CRASH*. Uh oh. Right on the rocks.
Directly above Can who is the same as Nauty now, another figure watched the incoming ship with great interest.
Soon both were ejected from his or her land.
(to be continued?)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0032, 0512, Lower Austra^, Nautilus, Trinidad
He was behind glass again, writing to his superior officer. Summary: he fell for it, the whole Captain and rock art story. Man About *Time* won’t be snooping around his *islands* for a while. Signed — no *Love*, Zapppa, with an extra “z” 🙂 🙂 🙂
Time to put Jenny back out to sea and head toward Jenny.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0032, 0511, Lower Austra^, Nautilus
“So you see, Man About Town–”
“Time. Man About Time,” MAT mildly corrected.
“Yes, of course. Anyway, we don’t need to be a part of Lower Austra. We are more than capable of protecting ourselves with our large ships, *huge* in the case of the Pompelmoo here.”
“I see.” Indeed this particular boat stretched from one corner of the namesake sim to the other, darn near close to 400 meters total then. MAT admittedly couldn’t wait to explore it more, along with the rest of the island, this Trinidad? “Did you say the name of your island here was Trinidad?” he tried to clarify.
It took Zapppa back, to when he first found the island himself. A lone painter was there. Rock painter, before they moved all the rocks to make room for the ships. Named the Captain but not because he was a naval hero or anything. Jon Carson tried to get to the bottom of it, my mate in the tiny “Annoying ZZ Mat” that made the trip from Nautilus City to the southeast, he reminisced. *Barely*. Almost sunk along the way. “Sink Sank Sunk” we nicknamed it after that, because it produced the same results over time. And now I’m with a man named Time. Funny how things go in a big circle — MAT again and all too. He’s finding out himself how special this island is. “Trinidad?” he finally answered. “Well, that depends.” It’s the same thing the Captain said all those years ago.
(to be continued)
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0032, 0510, Lower Austra^, Nautilus, Trinidad
Mary Pippins’ red umbrella and the Red Umbrella gallery
Bake’s Bakery (newly relocated!) with Barry X. Vampire and pretty Poetry Dancer
Zapppa’s apartment? (dreaming of that chick down there)
that chick down there — actually, those chicks, including the Her Majesty bigfoot/yeti in the doorway just down
Toddles roaming the mean streets of Black Ice at night again after drugging up her Grammy
Stumpy, the new bartender at Moe’s, smoking bong hit after bong hit while listening to noise rock with Gotham the psychedelic reggae monk. He’s got a head! He *is* a head!
Charlene Brown the punk working late night on her cryptozoology dissertation, unaware that off again on again boyfriend Barry X. Vampire Jeffrie Phillips is with Poetry tonight, the bastard
Melvin the devil boy offers a passing skateboarder some suspicious looking soup while half-sister Eldwina ponders her 1st assignment as an official member of the City Squad. Knew it! thinks full brother Judd from the stairs.
Filed under **VIRTUAL SL, 0023, 0308, Black Ice, NWES Island^
Sunklands 