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  • #4120
    TracyTracy
    Participant

      Corrie’s findings from elsewhere:

      “It was no coincidence that “Elikozoe”, his nom de plume (he was born Albert (Al) Yokoso, from a father of Japanese descent and a mother of Cajun descent) had been sent to the Pickled Pea Inn (formerly known as the Flying Fish Inn).”

      I thought about leaving that one out, as it seemed so nonsensical, this place has never been called the pickled pea, but I’m leaving it in for now. Might make some kind of sense somewhere down the line.

      “This morning was quiet, but his mind was not.
      There were always the nagging thoughts that something ought to be done, the restless fear of forgetting something of importance.
      But this morning was quiet.
      A bit too quiet in fact.
      No raucous cackling to stir the soft velvety dust from the wooden floorboard.

      Quentin was wondering whether the story makers had lost all interest in moving his story forward. Yet, he was more than willing to move it notwithstanding, his efforts seemed of little consequence however. Some piece was missing, some ever-present grace of illumination shrouded in scripting procrastination.

      His discussion with Aunt Idle had been brief. She’d told him with great intensity that she had a weird dream. That she looked into a mirror and saw herself. Or something like that,… she was not a very coherent woman, the ging wasn’t helping.

      Maybe his task was done. Time to leave the Pickled Pea Inn.
      His friend Eicnarf seemed eager to see him. Or maybe that had been a typo and she really meant to sew him, or saw him,… she could be gory like that…

      No matter, a trip out of the brine cloud of this sand coated place would do him good.”

      And good riddance, you cheeky bugger, I can’t help thinking.

      ““Did anybody see our last guest?” Mater couldn’t help but regularly count her herds (so to speak), and although she wasn’t as authoritative with her guests as she was with her family members, she couldn’t help but notice that her last count was one person short —enough to start worrying her.

      “Hmm lwwft thws hhmmmng” said Idle, her mouth full with cookies.

      Mater shrugged. It was still better than when she used to talk with sauerkraut.”

      I had better ask Clove to remind me how to do italics I suppose. This could get confusing.

      #4098

      Someone had told him once : “Catastrophes are like meteor shower, they come in flocks.”

      Jeremy looked with dread at the smoke coming out of his computer. He had been writing an important e-mail to his new boss at the bank and was about to click the send button when it happened. The tech had said there was a current surge affecting the whole building. Everyone was in deep shit at the moment, they had to close the building to angry customers, and someone in high place was certainly worrying about the intangible money the bank was manipulating daily.
      Oh! and concerning all his data, considering the smoke coming out of the machine, it was certainly irremediably lost.

      Jeremy sighed. His last relocation a few hours ago had made him a 36 year old salesman in a not so well known bank. His ID said he was called Duncan Minestrone, but he couldn’t let go of his old identity and kept on thinking of himself as Jeremy. And he didn’t feel that old.

      His memory of his former life, before the relocation, was fading away. He didn’t remember well what he was doing and what were his passions. The only thing he was sure is that they had confiscated his cat, Max, when they gave him his first identity and he had been on the look for him ever since.

      It wasn’t easy, especially since every other day he was receiving a new identity in his mailbox. At first he had found it odd and not so easy : as soon as he got accustomed to a new persona, he would have to change again. He feared he would soon lose track of who he really was. And he wasn’t sure about what all this was about.

      The phone hanging on the wall rang. It was one of those old public phones. Jeremy had thought it was only for decoration. The tech was looking at him.

      “Are you going to pick up ?” he asked.
      “Me ?”
      “Of course! The phone is in your office, isn’t it ?”

      Jeremy hesitated but eventually got up from his desk. The phone was calling him, but he didn’t really want to take the call. What if it was more problems. They come in flocks.
      It was one of those old ringing tone caused by a mechanical bell inside. The speaker was shaking furiously. Jeremy couldn’t help but notice the dust on the machine.

      “You’d better take the call”, said the tech.

      Jeremy picked up the apparatus which a greasy feeling in his hand.

      “At last! Duncan, in my office! Now!”
      It was the voice of his new boss, Ed, and he didn’t seem very happy.

      #4090

      In reply to: Scrying the Word Cloud

      TracyTracy
      Participant

        green jib able
        hidden miss ones lack dust herself
        leaving honey
        done hope thinking
        silly trip quiet leave days
        human masters

        #4065
        TracyTracy
        Participant

          It was with undisguised delight that Liz realized that Finnley wasn’t right after all. A glimmer of hope had whistled in with the wind, stirring the dust laden cobwebs festooned across the threads. The clouds parted, sending shafts of sunlight to spear the dark recesses, illuminating the aimless floating of dust motes and dislodged detritus.

          Godfrey stirred, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and called for Finnley.

          #4061
          Jib
          Participant

            The hotel manager closed the red ledger in a loud flap, releasing a cloud of dark dust. Connie wondered if it was becasue of that volcano with the unspeakable name which had been fuming again since their arrival.

            “There is no vacancy”, he said.

            “But, we had a reservation”, said Sweet Sophie with her sweetest voice.

            “Maybe you had, but had is in the past. Now there is no vacancy.”

            Sweet Sophie took a deep breath in and tried to imagine the poppy ground of her hometown in Cornwall. It didn’t work. She didn’t feel relaxed nor did she feel bliss. She had no imagination for that kind of positive thinking, her mind only worked for conspiracies and time paradoxes.

            Connie had been looking at her watch repeatedly, and breathing heavily. They had been trying to get past this man for fifteen minutes. His face was as pleasant as a Gib’s monkey ass. Not as Maybe not as comfortable to sit on though. Sweet Sophie couldn’t think with all the noise Connie was doing. She knew there was a solution, and she didn’t want to go to another hotel, their instructions were specific, get a room at Diamond Suites hotel.

            “It’s no use”, said Connie. “Let’s find another hotel. I’ve been told there is one called Blue Lagoon part of a wonderful Spa.”

            “Shush”, said Sophie. “I’m thinking.”

            “That would be a first”, said Connie with a conniving smile.

            Sweet Sophie didn’t pay attention, she was used to rudeness. Instead she looked at the manager’s ugly face and suddenly had an idea that might have come from the past but could be applied in the present to get them a key.

            “Of course it was in the past”, she began, “We just forgot to take the key of our rooms.”

            “Very well”, said the manager, “What are your room numbers ?”

            Sweet Sophie smiled. There was some progress. What did the letter say again ?

            #4053
            TracyTracy
            Participant

              Unaware that she’d been spotted at Keflavik airport, a few hours later Hilda was happily sipping a cocktail in the glass-walled Northern Lights bar of the Ion hotel, listening to eerie Icelandic folk tunes and marveling at the mystical ambiance of the place. She was particularly taken with the surreal moss covered lava fields outside, and congratulated herself on her decision to lay low in a remote location for a day or two, while the dust settled, so to speak.

              #4052
              TracyTracy
              Participant

                “Did you have to make such a scene!” Yannosh hissed into the phone. “You were noticed!”

                The Indian butler looked furtively over his shoulder, but there was no sign of Mr Asparagus leaving the hotel bar yet.

                “Yes, yes, I know they’re calling it a dust devil but….”

                Hearing someone approaching Yannosh quickly pocketed the phone, but it was only the chambermaid, Finnbjörg.

                “Góðan dag herra, er allt í lagi?” she asked politely, and then added, ““क्या सब ठीक है? मैंने सुना है कि आप धूल शैतान का उल्लेख?”

                Yannosh was taken aback. How many languages did this island bumpkin speak?

                #4004

                In reply to: Scrying the Word Cloud

                ÉricÉric
                Keymaster

                  self dust heart once silly rat leader
                  missed dream robot intelligence
                  bending listen house thought
                  jar mean secret liked full clean

                  #3998

                  In reply to: Scrying the Word Cloud

                  TracyTracy
                  Participant

                    thinking eyes
                    funny smile
                    despite hope days moment cloud
                    lack honey
                    worry strange night
                    due calm dust
                    dark whether light window

                    #3982
                    Jib
                    Participant

                      “Are you following me, cousin ?” added Liz with a snort. “I never understood why you chose to hide yourself in that stinky town with your dead fishes. Maybe you are looking for a way out. There is nothing for you where I come from. I’ll never give you the teleportation ab-original codes.”
                      “Oh you never understood anything about me, or did you ?” said Mater, “You were too preoccupied by your followers. Is Big G still with you ? And that suspicious maid of yours. Is she still moulding dust critters ?”
                      “Dust critters ? What are you talking about?”
                      “What codes ?” asked Mater, squinting her eyes.
                      “Nothing,” said Liz, realizing she might have talked too much. But she couldn’t help it, her body was unable to contain all the words in her mind, they had to get out. She tightened her lips, trying to resist the outburst.
                      “What was that ?” asked Mater looking around, “did you hear that noise ?”
                      “Nope”, said Liz, “maybe an earthquake, or a storm approaching.” It had to get out one way or another she thought.
                      “Don’t talk nonsense with me, I tell you I heard something.”
                      Devan interrupted them. Liz looked at the young man, her cougar senses on alert.
                      “I got the paper”, he said.
                      Paper, with words.
                      “May I ?” she asked, showing the paper.
                      “Don’t try to seduce my boy”, said Mater, “I know you.”

                      #3953

                      In reply to: Scrying the Word Cloud

                      TracyTracy
                      Participant

                        rather dust program
                        religious discussion making
                        liked line years
                        central nothing seems run
                        wait limbo
                        wanted heart open leader truth full

                        #3948

                        In reply to: Scrying the Word Cloud

                        ÉricÉric
                        Keymaster

                          reality soon nothing round knew
                          ascended presence master gone
                          window everyone strange added
                          sound head able order dust funny
                          leave sometimes

                          #3888
                          ÉricÉric
                          Keymaster

                            This morning was quiet, but his mind was not.
                            There were always the nagging thoughts that something ought to be done, the restless fear of forgetting something of importance.
                            But this morning was quiet.
                            A bit too quiet in fact.
                            No raucous cackling to stir the soft velvety dust from the wooden floorboard.

                            Quentin was wondering whether the story makers had lost all interest in moving his story forward. Yet, he was more than willing to move it notwithstanding, his efforts seemed of little consequence however. Some piece was missing, some ever-present grace of illumination shrouded in scripting procrastination.

                            His discussion with Aunt Idle had been brief. She’d told him with great intensity that she had a weird dream. That she looked into a mirror and saw herself. Or something like that,… she was not a very coherent woman, the ging wasn’t helping.

                            Maybe his task was done. Time to leave the Pickled Pea Inn.
                            His friend Eicnarf seemed eager to see him. Or maybe that had been a typo and she really meant to sew him, or saw him,… she could be gory like that…

                            No matter, a trip out of the brine cloud of this sand coated place would do him good.

                            #3875

                            Cornella giggled, dusting off her keyboard before leaving the office. Ed Steam might have something to say about it when he saw the new lists of identities in the morning, but it had been worth it. A little alliteration helped to pass the day, after all. For the most part the story refugees either didn’t notice, or at any rate didn’t complain. They were relieved that the endless process was over, or too nervous about starting a new story to notice.

                            Zoe Zuckerberg to Zimbabwe was one of her favourites; and Quentin Quincy to Queensland. What did it matter that Zoe, previously known as Madam Li, had no desire to go to Zimbabwe, or that Ted Marshall had family in Spain? It was up to them to make up whatever they wanted once they started the new story. Her job was assigning names and locations, the rest was up to them.

                            She’d laughed out loud when one of them sat down at her desk, clearing his throat nervously. Current name and location? she asked.
                            Percy Piedmont from Paris, he said, I have a brother in Shanghai who has a new story, he said he’d insert me into his.

                            Cornella couldn’t help wondering who had assigned him his last character role, and if they were playing games in the office to pass the day, too.

                            Alright Percy, how about Shane Shylock?

                            #3835

                            “Pssst, Vincentius.”

                            Vincentius swung around in alarm, dropping his feather duster in the process. The potted spider plant appeared to be talking to him.

                            “It’s me, Arona,” said Arona, peeping up from behind the plant and barely managing to suppress an eye roll at the sight of Vincentius.

                            “Tsk, tsk, what in Flove’s name have you done to yourself?

                            Vincentius continued to gape silently at her.

                            I see the sight of my beautiful self has rendered you momentarily speechless; well, don’t worry about that now. I’ve come to rescue you!”

                            She beamed proudly at him.

                            #3814
                            ÉricÉric
                            Keymaster

                              A raucous explosion of laughter cackled in the neighbourhood, waking up Bea from her afternoon siesta.
                              SHUT UP!” she bawled covering her ears with a cushion, and looked desperately at something she could throw at the window. Alas, save for a manikin’s leg that looked like she owned a pegleg, and a piece of half-eaten banana, there was nothing she could find.

                              She resigned herself to waking up, and pried open her little wrinkled eyes in the late afternoon purple light.

                              Every time she woke up, she had to reacquaint herself with her reality. Not that she was such a junkie on computer duster, as that rat had rudely implied, it wasn’t only that.
                              A few months before, she had an epiphany. Many years of meditation, guided, in groups, alone, with zen masters and copious reading had amounted to nothing but the occasional nice fluffy feeling. It was when she had decided to drop it all of sheer frustration, and burn all the stupid self-help books that something had chanced upon herself.
                              She’d lost her ego. Poof, disappeared, like that.

                              Before that, she was completely adverse to endings, and to any form of deleting.
                              But now, she understood the words she’d read many years ago that had infuriated her profoundly at the time : “Everything must be scrutinised and the unnecessary ruthlessly destroyed. Believe me, there cannot be too much destruction. For, in reality, nothing is of value.”

                              She was. And every waking up was a wake up to her eternal self.
                              So obviously, the external appearances left a bit to be desired, now that desire was not. Continuity was never there in the first place.

                              But to live, she had to find again what new reality she had just awoken to, as she did every morning, and after every siesta.
                              Truth is, she kind of liked it, the non-continuity of it. Before, she would have gloated to whoever that name of an old friend of hers, that she was right about it, the unnecessary of that continuity babble. Now there was no need of it.

                              A loud cackle outside stirred her back to reality.

                              #3813
                              ÉricÉric
                              Keymaster

                                Bea took another frightfully long sniff of her computer duster. Her rat looked at her horrified. It rolled its eyes and moaned “Bea, you’re such a dustard…”

                                #118
                                ÉricÉric
                                Keymaster

                                  Beware, this story is for the light of heart and laughter inclined, not to be confused with Dafletown and the Tone Dancers of Dustard or Mapletown and the Mown Mancers of Mustard which are stories made of an altogether different cloth…

                                  #3805

                                  In reply to: Mandala of Ascensions

                                  Whenever Nabuco projected to human consciousness, they had the habit of seeing him as a plump looking bearded vagrant, like a Pavarotti turned homeless. It had annoyed him for a while, but now he didn’t mind as much.

                                  Nowadays, he was mostly off the bliss addiction of the Rays, so in a sense, it was fitting. If he were still in physical human form, he would probably have taken on quite some weight. And that made him a sort of pariah too, splintering off the great order of ascension, or whatever They called it nowadays.

                                  With them, there was no denying he’d lived quite the grand life, being ascended and all. They used to called him Master Nebuchadnezzar — well, often Master Nabuco.
                                  He’d gotten on the rayroll almost by luck. He was credited for inventing the chibubble technique, as a way of extracting bubbles and peals of laughter when people get all hot and excited. At the peak of the technique, somewhere around the 1968s, he had recruited and incorporated many gnomes into the fold, as nature spirits known as gnomes had a uncanny knack for extracting laughter off people. With the call for sexual liberation and getting closer to nature, they had plenty of opportunities to get people high, and chibubbles were all the fancy.
                                  It had started to go down as fast as it rose, people were no longer interested in nature, gnomes working condition when forced to move to urban environments were a disaster, and the chibubble production plummeted. Now, the industry was a thing of the past ; sometimes there were a few chibubble memorabilia kept by other Masters interested in speculating on its rare value more than for anything else. Now kitten videos on social media had replaced the chibubble gnomes business and driven a new unseen growth of the Gross Divine Product.

                                  He didn’t know if the gnomes were responsible for it, but living so close to them and nature for a while, somehow opened his perception to the falsity and the insanity of their quest for power. So instead of finding new venues for innergy extraction as they all did, he’d resigned.
                                  Nobody had heard about anybody resigning before, so they suspected him of trying to be original, and maybe disrupt the clever and immutable laws of the universe.
                                  Long story short, he’d managed to escape their clutches, and live on his own, and off unhealthy junk thoughts habits. Those were the worse, the craving of decadent thoughts, maintained by the entertainment and news industries, the social media and all of it. In the long run, that or the fuzzy bliss were faces of the same coin, and debilitating in the end.

                                  Even when he tried to block them, he could hear the thoughts, prayers and all the inner chatter. The spirit world, or however it is called, was a medium ideal to carry those thoughts and reverberate throughout the whole universe. Like sound waves travelling under water for large distances. Now, he could resist the urge to answer, seduce and insinuate. Many of the thoughts were so naive and would welcome anything. He was still a junkie, and those offerings were never helping getting him off the wagon.

                                  Humans hoped for ascension, but ascended masters like him who were trapped in a false blissdom could only hope to resume their path by descending to human form. Such irony.

                                  There was one voice that seemed to stand out. It had the flavour of “dangerous” pinned onto it, the kind of bright colours that venomous snakes and toads have on earth to warn predators to keep off, or else. It could only mean one thing, a genuine seeker of truth, someone who had the potential to tear the veils to shreds.

                                  He’d seen quite a few of those, they were usually young, and for many of them terribly naive and easily corrupted by displays of power. Search for truth and search for power were sometimes so easily mistaken one for the other. The bright colours would fade over time, but they were still dangerous, too unpredictable to be trusted fully. Learned Ascended Masters knew well to leave those to their own device, while tending to the less critical minds.

                                  But what did he have to waste, especially now? Nabuco zoomed towards the origin of the thoughts, observing at a distance, the young Domba.

                                  #3797

                                  In reply to: The Hosts of Mars

                                  ÉricÉric
                                  Keymaster

                                    Pádraig wasn’t too pleased by his daughter’s visit. They had not been on best of terms since she took the job to work on the military project they were recruiting heavily for 23 years ago.

                                    He’d done what he could to dissuade her to join the army, but he couldn’t have done more without permanently creating a wedge between them. He had nothing better to offer her, jobs were scarce around, and that could really have meant for her the once in a lifetime chance for a better future, even if he couldn’t admit it. And by the look of her car, and the ranking on her uniform, it may well have been so. So their relationship was tense, and her line of work was as taboo a topic as his health and cave-carving hobbies.

                                    “P’a, we need to talk…”

                                    He was already on the defensive, ready to snap back at her that he didn’t want a help (or worse, a bot!) to clean out his trailer, or cook for him, but she looked different, almost genuinely preoccupied.

                                    “What is it now?” he said in a gruff voice, his throat sore from all the dust of the cave
                                    “You should take a break from your cave digging P’a, just for a few days. There’s going to be some important activity —military training— around the place, and you don’t want to be caught in between, alright.”

                                    I suppose drones don’t really count then… he thought to himself

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