Second Thoughts

The Forgotten War

Rental Dementia: "You Have to Be a Lonely Man With No Life"

So, here's my last post on this creep, and then they don't get any more attention from me. Why am I even still getting messages from them inworld when they are blocked?

A reminder that this person did indeed have four alts and abused a rental limited to one per person.

This is easily determined when they not only all pay at the same time, but have similar profiles and groups. In fact, you can see that two of them still have the same story on them about "lost parents". They are a psychopath. This person writing to me is likely another alt.

 

gooooooood morning cat man
[07:39] PazzoPazzo: another fine day for you to accuse someone of something they didn't do and get attention from the world
[07:39] PazzoPazzo: good luck to you
[07:40] PazzoPazzo: don't forget to give your middle cats some attention, people like to concentrate on their first one and last one
[07:46] PazzoPazzo: dont forget
[07:46] PazzoPazzo: its ok to love your animals, just dont loooooove your animals. You know what I mean ?
[07:47] PazzoPazzo: you have to be a lonely man with no life and I'm sure you have alts that have sex with both male and female.
[07:49] PazzoPazzo: One thing I am very good at is finding alts. I am a speech pathologist and I am pretty good and finding out who is who just by comparing text. Don't worry cat man. I will find out all about you. Maybe I will start a Prokofy Blog. You got way more to loose than I do. All I need is a text from each of those alts you were talking about.
[07:49] PazzoPazzo: I will figure out who they are. In fact my computer will do it for me.
[09:23] PazzoPazzo: I think it is amazing how you know you messed up and instead of just deleting what you said you continue on with the lie and add more to your blog when you know it makes things worse.
[09:23] PazzoPazzo: I want to keep studying you and maybe write a paper on your actions.
[09:23] PazzoPazzo: It is fascinating.
[09:24] PazzoPazzo: I really can't wait so see what you decide to post. You will pick and choose what you post. You won't post anything negative about yourself.
[09:25] PazzoPazzo: You are hiding who you really are from other people and posting things that make you look good.
[09:25] PazzoPazzo: Am I making this up ?
[09:25] PazzoPazzo: Look at it, Examine yourself and you will see I am right.
[09:26] PazzoPazzo: you punished a person who didn't deserve it. We had every right to be angry at you but you keep condemning us trying to make people belief we were the once who hurt you.
[09:27] PazzoPazzo: you really should get some help.
[09:28] PazzoPazzo: We never posted anything on the blog to hurt you publicly. Remember that. Buy you want us to hurt because we know something about you that you didn't want anyone else to know.
[09:29] PazzoPazzo: We are good people and all you got to do is delete what you wrote and we will go away. We are not here to hurt you. In fact if I caused you to look at yourself and somehow made you better than I will be happy about it.
[09:30] PazzoPazzo: No matter what I need everything about Lexdysia off of the blog. I will make it happen even if we have to meet publicly.
[09:30] PazzoPazzo: I just want to see how far you take this.

Some fun facts:

o I don't have any cats. 

o I don't have any alts that aren't visible and unknown, holding my groups, and obviously related to me because they have those groups.

o The day-old accounts pretending to be employees or "bots" aren't related to me at all, and the Lindens remove them after abuse reports as obvious griefers.

o Kicking four avatars who are all alts of one person out of a $50/week rental isn't "hurting" anyone. It's a virtual world in which there are a zillion rental. People who threaten me get documented and publicized. If they persist, they continue to get documented and publicized. 

o Nothing about Lexdysia is going to be removed from this blog, so that people in SL can see that they are dealing with a psychopath. When people use alts to deceive and harass, they are publicized, that's all there is to it.

And frankly, they don't need me to claim that, as anyone who threatens to stalk you and ruin your business, force you to "meet in RL," and remove something about an anonymous avatar from a blog are obviously psychopaths.

o This person or "Lexdysia" herself (likely they are the same person) have contacted some of my tenants, trying to get them involved in ARing me. They ignore this, or they contact me and once they see what it's about, they don't do any ARs.

o If anyone does send ARs, they will have no impact as the Lindens don't attempt to control blogs outside of SL. We're stuck with a system that enables anyone to endlessly make anonymous accounts and defraud or deceive others, and there is no way around this except publicity outside of SL. The end!

Meanwhile, I think with the title of this blog we've discovered the ultimate secret to this nest of female alts -- it doesn't apply to me obviously as I'm a known quantity. Fear of being outed as a male with female alts evidently is driving this psychopathy -- it's quite common in SL and not for the first time. But I do have to point out that I have no way of knowing who the real person in RL is driving this nest of alts -- and I don't care.

BTW, by sending lists of alts around that this person claims are not her/him, in fact they are themselves violating the TOS, and violating the privacy of people they claim are separate people (!). Interestingly, none of those "other people" have contacted me. Because...indeed they are alts! My advice: let it go! Find a new rental, and get a life.

 

 

Thoughts on the SL Home & Garden Decorating Competition -- and Complete Ranking of the Entries

The House & Garden Expo Decorating Competition is really a wonderful experience. I participated in it again this year, and although I didn't win (last year I came in second place), it was still exhilarating and I spent a long time both working on my own decor and studying others. I wish I had had more time to cover all the houses or even look at them, but there just wasn't the time (there was only a week and it happened to be a week I had to travel). I realized quite early on that I wouldn't win this one for the simple reason that I decided to work on a story more than on decor. And it's a design contest, not a story contest LOL. I became engrossed making the story, solving problems in it, making things for it, or finding items for it and it was a large, open house that was hard to fill up so I couldn't do it justice without that focus. But it's just what was more important for me, for some reason, making a story out of the elements of design.

It's an odd thing, making a 3D story of sorts, a kind of play or still-life or something, I don't know what to call it; I remember one year I just turned in the 100,000 words or whatever it was you needed for National Novel Writing Month as just the running chat log of SL -- so that meant automatic things chatting, people chatting, the mechanics of SL chatting, etc. It didn't win LOL. But I remember at the time -- was this like 15 years ago? -- I called it "Novotar" -- the avatar as the hero of a novel made in a virtual world.

There's something unsettling about it, however, because you wonder -- shouldn't I write a story "for the real world"? Isn't it hugely limiting making a story with a still-life setting in a virtual world with these objects and posed avatars? (Of course you could make it machinima if you want but I never learned to do that -- every time I have tried different programs trying to record my SL it doesn't work very well or it's too hard for me to operate.) Only a handful of people will see it. Only a handful of people will read the blog of its script unless you make it very "popular". Even so, I find it compelling. But I do wonder if it is really worth spending time on. Perhaps that's why I do it now once a year, although back in the days before The Sims Online, I was very active in making the "family stories" or sort of comic books using the device they had to build screenshots and web pages, posing the sims (the avatars) in 2D. There was a whole cottage industry of people who made props for the offline sims that you could upload into your offline came and then pose with and take screenshots. I started a club that had both adults and children making these scrapbooks, as they were called, and we had such fun with it. Like a lot of online things, a few psychopaths got into it and spoiled it for others and eventually it died out. 

This was something that perhaps only a few hundred people in the club did, and perhaps a few thousand saw every week -- so it was very much a niche thing. Why do it? The Sims Online in fact helped ruin it because it was very hard to make stories with the online sims -- you couldn't freeze them, pose them in the same way, or put created objects in the world (this came toward the end, but too late, and then it died). The Sims Online in a way was its own evolving story, with various dramas, good and bad. 

The Victorians had this hobby of taking boxes, like shoeboxes or cartons, and arranging scenes in them -- I don't mean dollhouses, which is something they also did, or their weird taxidermy of pets and wild animals, but the dioramas, I think they were called. They would make and arrange thing for hours and days and show them to each other. SL is kind of like that. The reason backdrops are increasingly popular is that people can pose and photograph their sims in various scenes without having to have a whole house. I prefer the house, and staying in one house, which is why I like the decorating contest.

Anyway, one thing that some people object to, is the form of voting. But I really can't think of how else they could do this and still reach their goal, which is to raise money for the American Cancer Society. This is a mania in SL, with events not just once a year but year-round, and ACS is not my favourite charity or one I wish to give to, and I've been quite critical of it, as others have. I'll buy a few things in vendors (you have to buy 3 to enter the contest) but because I like them, not to help this cause. 

But the problem is, there isn't another way to do this. You could have everybody donate, and make a pool, and say you'll divide that up for the prize-winners. But people won't give as much, surely. They will give when they either have a friend or decorator they wish to support, or like the decorator even if they have no relationship to them, and in the end they likely give more that way. It would be great if there was also a "popular vote". That might distract or deter from the goal of raising money the other way, however. Perhaps that's why they only publish the three winners who grossed the top contributions.

Last year, I was surprised I won, in fact, because all week, I didn't have that many contributions, but it seemed a few people came in -- merchants? secret admirers? -- who donated a lot and put me ahead.

You could consider whether the judges, if you will (there really aren't any, just managers) could have a discretionary $50,000 that they donate to put somebody into the top three -- but that might not work. They raised $240,000 Lindens -- and it's not certain that if they spent $25,000 or $50,000 of their own they would have enough to put someone into the top three, anyway. 

So it is what it is!

The bottom line is: if you want to have a decoration contest, do your own, the way you want to, with one avatar, one vote or however. And notice I'm not organizing any -- you'd really need a whole sim or at least half a sim to do this right, and I don't have that space.

In any event, here is the list of winners ranked by their donations, which is interesting.

First, the top winners as publicized:

1st Sarabi2theextreme (aka ڪαЯαßϊ Ğєяαяd ڪt.Cℓαíяє™) with Yoni2sweet for the Casa Miraflores (No.6)

2nd Chant Lyric, for the Palomar House (No.5)

3rd Sabina Valeska for The Stacey (No.10)

Now I will show you a list of each one, ranked by descending amount, with the information about where to see more about them taken from the cards at the houses:

1.  No. 6 - 75000

This house is Casa Miraflores, created by Tess Spargel of Spargel & Shine Homes
It has been decorated by Sarabi2theextreme (aka ڪαЯαßϊ Ğєяαяd ڪt.Cℓαíяє™) with Yoni2sweet.

You can (if you are a Facebook member) see more here: https://www.facebook.com/SexySarabi

2. No. 5 - 64500

This house is the Palomar, created by Cain Maven of Maven Homes
It has been decorated by Chant Lyric.

There are also pictures of the house here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/58903384@N04/Chant has also written a feature about the house which you can read here: https://slhomegardenexpo.com/stories-from-the-houses/#palomar

3. No. 10 - 26657

This house is the Stacey, created by Sandi Glas of Glas Houses
It has been decorated by Sabina Valeska

You can see more about the house here:
Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83mhp6UU5Bw&t=11s
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/sabina.valeska

4. No. 7 - 25905

This house is The Treehouse, created by Mike of Loggin' Off Homes

It has been decorated by CaMeRoN Messinez and Luna Silbermann (aka Luna Messinez)

You can see more about the house here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cameron_messinez/sets/72157704296024772They have written a story about the house here:  https://slhomegardenexpo.com/stories-from-the-houses/#treehouse

5. No. 2 - 15410

This house is the Del Mar Farmhouse, created by Dean Ashby of Redgrave Homes
It has been decorated by Denise Rowlands, Babydoll Tracy(aka ℬαвуđσℓℓ), MiaSofia1987 (aka Mια ) and CaseyGarced (aka Casey)

You can see more about the house here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/denise_rowlands/46573772955/
And there is a story about the house here:  https://slhomegardenexpo.com/stories-from-the-houses/#delmar

6. No. 14 - 8281

This house is Atlantis Lava Beach Cottage, created by Moco Scribe of Moco Homes
[Unfortunately, this card didn't get updated after the initial display to show who decorated it].

7. No. 9 - 8250

This house is The Anini, created by Robert Galland of Galland Homes
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/181463

It has been decorated by Ava Jhamin

You can see more about the house here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/58871101@N03/

8. No. 4 - 7105

This house is the Rothko House, created by Kaerri Rae of Kaerri
It has been decorated by KharmaObscura (aka TwistedFetische)

You can see pictures of the house here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kharmaobscura

9. No. 15 - 5742

This house is Villa Sirocco, created by Eku Zhong of Culprit

It has been decorated by Prokofy Neva

You can see more about the house here:
https://3dblogger.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2019/03/my-entry.html
https://twitter.com/Prokofy (use the hashtag #H&GExpoDeco

10. No. 11 - 3601

This house is Stone Cottage, created by Roxy Bergiere of Love Everlasting Home & Garden Store
No longer available

It has been decorated by Devin Vaughn

You can see more about the house here:  https://devinvaughn.blogspot.com/2019/03/home-garden-expo-design-challenge-stone.html

11. No. 8 - 3390

This house is Iolaus, created by Emileigh of Vicious Decay
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Heavenly%20Views/29/208/849

It has been decorated by TeylaGrace (aka Tey Murphy)

You can see more about the house here if you are a Facebook member at: https://www.facebook.com/teyla.murphy.3

12. No. 3 - 3250

This house is La Casa Blanca, created by Al P. aKa of also Known as
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/181463

It has been decorated by smallxbig (aka LilCutie)

13. No. 12 - 3150

This house is Kent Spring Cottage, created by Ulaa Coronet-Blackwood of Funky Junk
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/52677

It has been decorated by Engelsstaub (aka Staubi Reilig)

You can see more about the house here:
https://staubissecondlifeblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/home-decorating-competition.html
https://www.flickr.com/photos/137216052@N04/40531547813/in/dateposted-public/
https://www.facebook.com/engelsstaub.resident/posts/1521758787960633?notif_id=1553929632327503&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic

14. No. 13 - 3119

This house is Old Savannah Rowe House, created by Alex Parke of Parke Ave. and Posh
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/135581

It has been decorated by Kavita Carnell

You can see more about the house here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/161481804@N08/

15. No. 1 - 3001

This house is the Hayashi Loft, created by Kai Mannequin of B I G B U L L Y

The Hayashi Loft was decorated by ana1isa (aka Ana).

16. No. 16 -  2626

This house is Getaway, created by Jenny Ashland of Painted Pixels
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/165650

It has been decorated by Wιʟʟα Cαʟʟιdoяα (willahmina) and Eᴍiʀi Gʀαcє Ƒuʀi Zαηє ĐuƁỗis (graceland.zane)

You can see more about the house here:
https://www.facebook.com/willahmina.resident
https://www.facebook.com/CallidoraLandscapes/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/134234582@N02/

So you can see 7 out of the 16 -- nearly half -- are very close, only within a few hundred of each other. I don't know if that reflects "real votes," i.e. ordinary people coming and putting just $50 or $100 in, which is what I think most people can do. The higher numbers come not from lots of single voters, but from a smaller number putting in very large contributions because they are wealthy -- merchants themselves, the house designers themselves, perhaps, perhaps some very loyal friends -- I'm not sure. I don't know if the organizers even know how many votes are cast in each case, and whether it's a few big spenders that determine it, or in fact lots of little guys. I did see the winners shoot up high within the first day, which suggests that it's not a lot of votes, but who knows? It's interesting how it turned out.

The first-place winner is the one I could predict would win because "Tibet" and "meditation" and so on are hugely popular as themes in SL, and this designer did an excellent job of decorating. The others were also I think genuinely popular houses. The question is in the "long tail," what then is "winning" -- or whether it truly is just fatigue, that you can't get to every house, much less donate a gradation over all houses. That was a problem I myself had!

 

Rental Dementia: "You Need People to Feel Sorry for You"

[10:11] PazzoPazzo: don't ever forget that you hurt another human being by something you just made up
[10:12] PazzoPazzo: I think that the other alts that you accused my sister of being is actually you
[10:12] PazzoPazzo: you are just trying to draw attention to yourself on the blog
[10:12] PazzoPazzo: you are nobody
[10:12] PazzoPazzo: you are nothing
[10:12] PazzoPazzo: you created this because you are an asshole with 10 cats and you need people to feel sorry for you
[10:13] PazzoPazzo: the letters are already out to SL
[10:13] PazzoPazzo: I willl fucking get answers
[10:13] PazzoPazzo: I promise you
[10:14] PazzoPazzo: the letters and ARs will not stop until I get some answers
[10:14] PazzoPazzo: you can not to this to another person
[10:14] PazzoPazzo: I am also giving everyone on your sims this story
[10:14] PazzoPazzo: you not the only one who can hand out text files
[10:15] PazzoPazzo: you want a fignt
[10:15] PazzoPazzo: lets fight

I don't have any cats.

Um, I don't need anyone to feel sorry for me.

The person to feel sorry for is this idiot writing me and their friend/alts.

This psychopath who originally started it "Lexdysia" -- had at least four alts -- this is probably another one.

Anyone can see they are alts -- she used them to get four cheap rentals in a place limited to one so that others could enjoy it. That's selfish -- and again, psychopathic, because who needs to do that??? These are $50/week rentals.

This psychopath is now contacting my tenants and trying to enlist them in abuse reporting me. For what? For publishing information about the bad behavior of someone in SL, outside of SL? LL cannot act on such complaints.

Remember, this person was detected and expelled nine months ago -- and this was publicized because they threatened me. Anyone who does that gets publicized.

 

Yes, Your Alts, M'am

So I get a message from some idiot in SL now as follows:

[18:46] PazzoPazzo: Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
[18:46] PazzoPazzo: I am having trouble with a guy named Prokofy Neva. I rented from him and he banned me saying I was you. Now he has me posted on his blog. I trying to get everyone to send an abuse report so we can shut this guy up. I appreciate anything you can do. Posting our names and chat is against the rules.
[2019/04/11 18:34] Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
[2019/04/11 18:34] Lexi (Lexdysia Resident): He sent me this "your alts"
[2019/04/11 18:34] Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
[2019/04/11 18:34] Second Life: Inventory item 'Your Alts' offered
[2019/04/11 18:34] HollyRaea: User not online - inventory has been saved.
[2019/04/11 18:35] Lexi (Lexdysia Resident): Here is his blog.
[2019/04/11 18:35] Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
[2019/04/11 18:35] Lexi (Lexdysia Resident): https://3dblogger.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2018/07/rental-dementia-your-alts-mam.html
[2019/04/11 18:35]

Let me point out again:

1. This person invaded a B&B with cheap rentals of $50/75 with four alts, and took over four rooms. The rule for this cheap place is one per person as stated on the lease. They were discovered easily enough and expelled but instead came back with yet another alt. 
2. It's really psychopathic to do this in the first place, and when caught, to keep trying to justify it. This story happened nine months ago, but I'm still being harassed.
3. Linden Lab cannot police outside its servers. If you publish chat or publish names of avatars outside of SL, it is not against the TOS because this rule applies ONLY ON LINDEN'S SERVERS. This fact has been explained a zillion times in the 15 years plus that SL has been in existence, but some people just never grasp it. LL has never acted to enforce its ban on publication of chat when it is OUTSIDE their servers. It applies to the forums and inworld which they control. The end.
4. Why is this sick person still pursuing this? No one cares. They are named and shamed because they not only behaved badly but kept threatening me. It was very easy to tell these alts once you focused. If they are so concerned about their exposure, they could make four new accounts and no one would know or care.
5. I am 100% sure these are alts of the same person. And one way this is confirmed is by this psycho pursuing it well past the sell-by date. A normal person accused of running alts might complain once or twice but then they would move on. They wouldn't care.
   
   I should note there has been quite an uptick of harassment lately. I wonder why that is. Because I was in the public eye during the decoration contest? But who cares? It's odd. I get multiple phone calls at my RL home with fake pizza deliveries, etc. Why do they bother? There's a simple solution to all these forms of idiocy -- don't answer the phone (screen calls) and block idiots who text you with this stuff. Bye!

April Fool Kitty Named Marzipan

Part 2 - Credits for My Entry to the Home & Garden Expo Decoration Contest

By Prokofy Neva

For Part 1, go here.

I'll start with this delicious meal and this area which is the center of the house, in a way, and second favourite, after the photography studio -- although this is prettier.

{LORE} Marrakesh Chair
=Mirage= Sultan's Seat
*UI* Arabic Table Copper
Boon's Indian Frybread - I changed to the fry bread although it is Native American because it's actually closer to the naan or whatever flatter bread than pita would be -- and one prim AND it dispenses. God bless Boon, who left SL sadly.

Moroccan Bowl  - FFFred Auer Creation - first I had Fred's big copper plate, but it was 2 prims, and kind of a cliche, so I changed to this bowl, which is more interesting. I also have another bowl of his as part of a prize in a quest at the Memory Bazaar in Ross, which was my original Moroccan decorating effort 15 years ago -- this is Jessica Ornitz's build.

BG Orange roses in copper vase - Love!
Lokum by Simply Shelby - or Wild Lokum as I call it -- try it and you'll see! Based on the Crumb cake by Cinco (see Part 1).
#Dock17# Marrakech Tea plate - I keep forgetting the name of this wonderful tray with dispensing tea and a sprig of mint, which I have in the Arabian tents in Ross, so I literally have to keep teleporting back there to get the name to put out elsewhere. Love! There are other Marrakesh things in this set.

The Half Moon Market - Steaming Tagine
Dispensable Half Moon Market - Olive and Cheese Tray - I made this dispense! 
The Half Moon Market - Chicken Stew - also delicious looking - and too hard to make to dispense so imagine!
Culprit Bucket of Roses - I put another local texture of Moroccan wooden engraving on this bucket.
Rowan Roses vase Thaino Designs - I wanted to have roses!
Simply Shelby - Copper Votive Candle - touch on/off flame this was with her Turkish fireplace which really makes the room.
Maxim Gorky and Zena Peschkoff His Adopted Son.
c. 1910 by Alice Boughton - I put this photo in a frame by Fance Decor because I wanted to somehow tie in De Gaulle with Russian emigres. So I Googled those terms, and found that Zinovy, or Zena, had been carried off the battlefield by DeGaulle. Imagine! That's the story anyway as you can see on this page about Russians "who brought glory to France". A great page!  So there I saw that Zinovy was the adopted son or godson, as some versions have it, of none other than Maxim Gorky. Now it's a good thing Maxim Gorky has come into the story. Why? Because he was friends with H.G. Wells, who wrote about time machines and time travel, and there you have it, the means by which our hero travels in time to get those anachronistic photos and such.

CJ (Caren Jewell) Rust Planter with colorful Ranunculus . It rurns out Ranunculus is a national flower or one of the flowers associated with Morocco. It's never quite said this country is Morocco. But it's loosely based on it.
= MB = Arabian Pouf Orange - I love MB's Arabian poufs. I put them everywhere. They have one animation, which is all you need, a sort of sideways kneel. They are pretty, and just fit everywhere and look good everywhere.

To be continued...

Credits for My Entry to SL Home & Garden Expo Decoration Contest #H&RExpoDeco

We must leave M. Carter Blanc to languish in one of the nastier jails of the Near East for the time being... You are wondering how the loose ends tie up? Well, they don't...all of them. But what we can tell you is that Carter's sojourn in the Sûreté nationale's dungeons in between...conversations...with the chief of intelligence in fact saved him from a far worse fate, as you may have gathered from the tickets and brochures he had for the infamous ship of the White Star Line, owned in part by his father's acquaintance, J.P. Morgan.

His father's influence couldn't help him now as his offense was serious: he was caught in possession of the torn half of a postcard, the other half of which matched one in the briefcase of an internationally-known spy -- this being a method of tradecraft to ensure bona fides. What the Sûreté nationale hadn't discovered yet was that Carter had also fabricated his diplomatic passport. But we will pull a veil over these unpleasant experiences now until we can pick up with M. Blanc later on the Mainland.

So on to the credits:

The house I asked to decorate is called "Villa Sirocco," made by Culprit (eku Zhong). The big olive tree in the front yard is by Nadine Reverie, and the glam poppies are by the Looking Glass. That's all the prims I was willing to spare for landscaping -- hence weaving the "indifferent gardener" into my tale.

The plaque is a retextured !Lyrical B!zarre Templates! - Art Deco Frame - Textured with the fictitious little European nation of Tatania. The graphics for the seal is licensed from Clipartof.

(Later, for some really odd reason, this prim stopped working to give notecards -- I notice that more and more with mesh things lately. I tried everything all kinds of scrips, making sure the notecard name was correct, etc. etc. I finally had to replace this with an ordinary prim.

I also had the Honorary Consul's seal made from this image by Vanyi Resident who makes such seals for the Gor crowd.

I decided to put my own name on it because I would use it in the future, unlike the name of the character for this story. In the story, the seal with the Prokofy name is from the previous honorary consul, who is some relative of his Russian mother, you see.

BTW, click on the letters on the desk and you can get a sealed letter, too!

I should mention at the outset that the Arabian-style music is from an amazing and very long loop created by Mikki Miles, MusicSphere Desert -- you never get tired of it, and you can put it all around your build or sim, by amplifying orb scripts he provides, and set the volume. 

Cosmos Red &Cream Roses in White Planter MESH - I love these roses as they are, and calling them "scraggly" is just for the story's sake to highlight that the gardener is "indifferent".

rose petals by Torie Zeplin

floorplan. 2 apple crates

::Marocaine:: Large Hookah & two seats - I am so glad I made a last-minute trip to Marocaine to see if she had anything else.

Pomegranate Braided Jute Rug 5

Pizza-Oven-Door-Off by Minotaurus Merlin

Kei's Wine&Shine Rhubarb Cutting Board

..::THOR::.. Workspace Table

*UI* Kitchen Oven Rusty

MadPea MyHelsinki Crate of Cherries

Pie Shell by Lunar Tripsa (from a strawberry pie-making set)

A pot of mulled wine. Materials enabled by Ayynaren (this is the "pie filling" which also dispenses cups).

I made the book of Aubrey Beardsley's drawing and had one of the drawings temp-rez. The "Rez Object on Touch" script was by Old Bohemian. Wulfie Reanimator helped revised it for me so the items rez out at the right angle facing you

Pomegranate Braided Jute Rug 4

*UI* Moroccan Buffet Copper Green - I re-textured this sideboard along with the one upstairs because I wanted to get away from the cliche copper for Moroccan things that you see everywhere. So I used a variety of tile textures from Wayfair or bits of travel photos or whatever that wasn't copyrighted. As I said in the story, I'm not sure Carter's "varnishing" was always an improvement, and it is in retexturing that you learn new appreciation for creators and what they do, and I'm happy to use this United Inshon in various builds of mine "as is," too.

MADRAS Tiffany Decor Set Fully Linked - this is a wonderful set which I had to "de-fat" a little, taking some things off like the flower and pot and shadows to reduce prims. I also spread out the pieces to fill the room more (Cocoanut Koala came and took a last-minute look at my distressing kitchen and said it needed fixing). So the potpouri and the TNT (which is genius!) are put on the counter and the corner, respectively.

^v^Lilith -Magic Lily ^v^ (2019) by Lilith's Den. Instead of the original Madras flowers, there is a Madras Moth Jar, also "de-fatted" a bit -- it really is a wonderful thing, a moth on rocks and sticks that I must put out at the Moth Templte). And inside that moth jar is Lilith's Den's magic iris, that emits particles that look like flower petals and pollen. LOVE. I am especially grateful to Lilith's Den's creator, Alrunia Ahn, who literally at the last minute as the contest time was nearly up, adjusted her ^v^Lilith -Magic Lily ^v^ (2019) for me to make the particles smaller and so they wouldn't blast out over the sim -- something that I was afraid would cause the organizers to make me remove it, and I hated that thought, since it was really perfect for this house.

I also re-textured the scrolls in the Madras jar with the vintage French receipt texture to fit the theme. 

I love the mirror!

*pm* Rug Merchant Rugs: Flat & Fresh - 01

I'm sorry -- but I despair of ever getting that rug to rez right for me. I'm sure it does for others. See Wildstar's so-much-better photos from this house I decorated here to see it in MUCH better light.

{LORE} Marrakesh Latern (wall)

ionic : el banquito del pueblo

floorplan. vintage travel poster

Le Maroc Marseille - a vintage poster I got from the Internet.

magazine shape D (fashion2) by gummi yao

ROIRO - Drink server M (Orange)

The pistachios' bag is from a set I made from Christmas bags licensed from Joan Nomad.  It has this famous Arabic text on it. Inside are pistachios licensed from T-3D Creations.

For this dispensable and animated items, like others around the build, I am grateful to Qie Niango, who once answered my query on the forums about how to make things dispense and stay in your hand -- there were a lot of proprietary versions of this, and some of them disappeared on you (they are meant to be temp) so you'd lose no-copy items that way, so he made "Original Rezzer of Wearable" and "Original Wearable" which you can pick up at The Alchemist's where I have free and open scripts.  I have added various animations to this if I can get it to work.

One thing I used to make the pistachios scatter and also to put the bag up to your face is the Crumb Cake freebie made by Cinco Pizzicato. It is a wondrous thing. Especially the emitter.

22769 ~ [bauwerk] Moroccan Coffee Table - COMMON

~Libertine~ Magnolia Slim Cabinet, wood & black velvet

3rd Eye_ 2 Fae Music Box ( Ambrosia Fairy base ) - I had to remove a twig or two from this as I was shaving prims. It's from a great gatcha with even more cool ones that were too high-prim to use.

This Velvet Whip chalice is from a goblet gatcha and I renamed it "Triumphant Chalice" because it has a horn riff that plays from it which I added.

Fnordian Oracle Eye - I had to shrink and de-prim this item again. I also added a synth sound to it I had in a Halloween set I got from Hastur Pierteson

JCD- MET 17th Cent Dagger Display by Jacon Cortez

The "Hand of Glory" (which I call "Elegant" compared to a more creepy one I made) I made as follows: a basic box, covered with teak texture from tile stores; the hinge I am grateful to Molloch Dragevar, whose box I bought, and examined how he did it, and discovered a script by Trullo Oh which works within a hinge which you make invisible. This solves the problem of how to get lids to open right -- they have the same angle issues as objects rezzed as I noted above. You have to make cut doors with invisible parts, or figure out angles, or whatever to get it right, but it's better if there's something that "just works". I have this on the MP for $1.

Next, I got a mesh hand licensed from Karra Baker (Linda). The one inside the box is textured with a zombie skin I found online; inside that is the actual "glory" hand that has a teak texture, and a tapered candle by Greg Parker. The particles I bought from Drake. It's something to see, and my photos don't do it justice!

A cornerstone of this project was =Mirage= Moroccan Urn Planter - OrangeGlass - it's an old piece but holds up so well, I love the shimmer on the glass -- I actually used two, as you will see. 

Here's the other Mirage piece =Mirage= Moroccan Urn Planter - Pinks. For the office, which in the story is Mrs. M's domain, I chose LAQ Decor ~ Secretary Desk because it seemed more feminine -- there are a lot of big old desks out there and I have some of them and "A Room in Florence" also might have been a possibility but this had the right set of non-anachronistic stuff. Then I used the mail bag from the Madras mail gatcha, and added a bunch of letters from Internet textures.

That's ionic : 19th Century Bookcase - it has the same feel as the farmhouse piece in the kitchen by Kuro and it's Victorian, so it worked for me. First, I had a big safe here but then took it out, it was distracting and was extra prims. I used the one-prim wall safe to make the point [LJ] HIdden Safe - Tall Painting.

Amala - Mail Basket with the little packages seemed like what was needed. I would have rather overstuffed this room with lots of odds and ends. But there just wasn't the prims, given the decision to use some old primmy pieces and have other story elements.

 

Any pictures used in the story of persons living and dead are not related to this fictional story but are just period pieces.

On the desk I had to have waxes and seals for the Honorary Consul! I imagined that straight off. So here's 5 MI Seal Wax Kit [LI 1] ad, Thor's StampsHolder which is part of a desk set, and some Internet vintage receipts and ledgers which I put my wax seal on made by Vanyi.

From the first time I saw Culprit's house, which is very open and expansive, I despaired of being able to fill it and right off the bat decided I had to have this part of the Raven's Nest - {C&C} Raven's Nest Bookcase 3 - which with the others makes for a secret room accessible by clicking on the metal plate above with the engraving of the dragons. There's *pm* Metal Moroccan Monstera Planter: Cobalt/Faded here as well to serve as a foil, so that people won't think that you'll walk through this plant to another room.

Moorish Cabinet Orange back by Tara Tagore is old-school, 13 prims, but I can't imagine a Moroccan-type build without it. I got it years ago, and used to have it in my big river house on the mountain above the waterfalls in Refugio. 

You can see Persian Rug/Modify/Copy from Evaline Merlin; 22769 ~ [bauwerk] Moroccan Bed - RARE from a gatcha; a wall rug I made out of a texture from a Turkmen rug and the back of Liz Gealach's rug from Thistle -- God bless her, as this mesh thing re-textured well in ways that mesh doesn't always, enabling me to put lots of rugs around that otherwise would have looked like flat cardboard on a prim. Also here is Blot Brick's antique military cabinet that has a funny gun that says "BANG" inside as you can see in the story. He has closed his store, which I loved, but I realize the demand for old-school prim workmanship is limited. 

I don't like chandeliers, but this is a nice one and I thought the room and my characters would have one. This is [Tia] Light Extension by Tia Biscuit. 

On top of the dresser is Mahogany Dressing Case- touch to open/Copyable by Eva's Nest, and you can see from the story that it has nice shinies in it as a texture, but it works.

Then I added the photo of the national liberation movement leaders and ~B'sR~ Berber Knife with Sheath, Morocco, 19th cen by Paisley.

I only reluctantly decided on the bauwerk Moroccan Bed -- that is, I love that bed, precisely because it is so white with such a high thread-count Egyptian linen LOL -- sometimes bauwerk stuff is too dark for me -- but originally I had wanted to use the wonderful Turkmenistan bed from Dreamland Designs. DD is probably the only person besides me ever to make anything in SL called "Turkmenistan". But it was more prims and more space than I had, and as it turned out we needed to put in PG beds to keep the visitors from "performances," and this bauwerk bed is PG. 

It's called "Orange back" because -- the back is orange. And you can see she hand-drew (or somebody did) the latticed design, so as to spare prims.

Inside on the top shelf is jewelry box_egyption + key by Jimsky Rhode, who makes nice antiques. But this lid didn't open with a hinge, so I made one myself and added "mother of pearl" -- which is actually from some plastic tile at Wayfair but as these things go, it looked better than actual mother-of-pearl textures I found here and there. I also textured the inside with a burl wood and velvet as Jimsky didn't have those. 

The baubles are SPELL : Pearls Earing - R, SPELL : Vintage Pearls Choker and a strand from a Poet's Heart pearl set.

On the bottom shelf is {LORE} Jewelry Box which doesn't open, but that was ok and SPELL : Vintage Pearls and Diamonds Necklace. These push back to reveal an internal passport I made out of an image from the Internet, as in the story.

The book on top is Byron by Eva's Nest and inside I have the Russian letter of transit as a temp-rez -- see the story.

SPELL : Forgotten Victorian Frames seemed like something that belonged in this build. The rug is a Turkmenistan rug, from when I began at first with the Turkmen idea but had to leave that as only a past post of M. Blanc.  Then LISP - Jasmine Silk Rug - Warm Beige which together with other rugs in this set of different colours has saved me many a time. [f] Boho Silk Route Washstand & Pitcher finishes this off  -- as you will see, other items from Folklorica seemed key to this project -- my only nod to a bathroom which I rarely put in my decorations.

So here you see another Turkmen rug, on enough transparency to see the book shelf as it moves aside so you can see where to walk out. The [Figure 8] Classic Contemporary Chair Wood (White) and (Red) and [Figure 8] Conversion Coffee Table and Chocolate Truffle Cake Figure 8 I saw at Swank, they're one of my RFL vendor selections, and I thought they were perfect for the decadence of this room -- not too ornate, stately. I shrunk down the table and cake to fit the scene better.

Then there's (RVi) Arabian Market Tray which was a gift at the very last minute from Roshy Aura, who I think is one of the RFL event organizers and a merchant. Just like last year when Artisan  and TLG came by and gave me things for the installation.

I had been fretting about a sculpty coffee giver I had made myself which didn't look very good and then this offer came in which was also only one prim. Inside is a coffee cup originally made by Jessica Ornitz, which I retextured and resized a bit, and added animations, temp rez, a frothy coffee top, and liquid that goes up and down. Every once in a while I spend a whole evening struggling to make/fix something like that, but I enjoy it! Try it out on site!

And the original Ur-rug -- Thistle Rug Oriental orange mesh -- isn't it wonderful? I remember seeing it in their store and having to get it some time ago. And this was the backing I could use for the others.

Now I'm tired out again -- back to finish soon!

Part 3: The Secret Life of M. Blanc

By Prokofy Neva

Part 1

Part 2

The guests filed into the drawing room, anticipating Emil's delicious hors d'oeuvres

One thing Emil did right was to get to the fish market early in the morning for the best salmon and caviar.

Tea? It was more like a posh cocktail party with not only the hors d'oeuvres but chicken in delicious sauce, the mysterious dishes in the tahine, and goat cheese with some kind of savory sauce. Cocktail party -- without the cocktails. This was a Muslim country.  There was M. Blanc's moonshine stash somewhere around the darkroom, but that was only for very special friends at very private affairs -- not even Mrs. M.

The guests ate heartily and there was still the cherry pie to come! Graced by the lovely mint tea.

The guests occupied themselves by examining M. Blanc's treasures -- the unusual paintings and photos. A bright scene of women in Turkmenistan; women at the well -- Carter seemed to get early versions of the master's works long before the museums. A party at a cafe in Paris -- who were his flapper friends? And a tall, elegant soldier -- now that was M. De Gaulle, his good friend at Saint-Cyr, before...the incident. They had remained friends despite everything; his loyalty was due to certain valiant favours Carter himself had once performed for his friend and his family.

Indiscretions might be forgotten over the years; life-saving favours -- not.

Always, it was the gaze both enticing and reluctant that drew in M. Blanc -- it had been that way with Mrs. M. But the local women would never go with him -- he was too short and simply too...odd.

That had been the way at all of Carter's postings -- popular, in demand, always entertaining and fixing for people -- yet women kept their distance, not even friend-zoning him. He was a man's man -- yet his diminutive stature had misled some of them there.

Here was his prize -- the villa was so named Sirocco because of this painting on the wall of the second floor: Sirocco Over the Desert by Frederick Arthur Bridgman. Using his connections and invoking his father's name, Carter had obtained an early version of the painting known best in its 1925 version.

The last guests might leave before sundown, but M. Blanc remained in his parlour, smoking and thinking.

M. Blanc could sit for hours in his well-appointed drawing room, staring at the play of light on an exotic scarab purloined from an Egyptian tomb, reflected from the roiling waters of the sumptuous, miniaturized Hall of Story Fountain for his feted and spoiled bird -- Carpe Diem -- whom he dreamed of carrying into battle, like McTeague, across the Wadi Rum.

He had gotten himself into quite a scrape to get that scarab but it had been worth it. Carter lingered, waiting for a late guest still to arrive, after all the others had left.

Emil came into the drawing room but Carter told him he wasn't ready to depart yet, he had to see to some papers. He told him to feed the bird -- a chore he normally performed himself.

Carter spoiled the bird beyond all reason, feeding him choice exotic flower seed instead of the usual run-of-the-mill bird feed. 

Emil wondered if such fare was healthy for the creature but he seemed to flourish.

The Story of Thrones bird bath was operated by an ingenuous mechanism that kept the water bubbling and fresh for the bird's few forays into its bowl.

Emil went down to the kitchen to rummage for some grit to sprinkle on the bottom of the case -- Carter also insisted on a dose of potpourri for the cage. Emil sighed. It was getting late, and they still had a half-hour drive to Carter's compound outside the city.

For the 100th time he reminded himself that the rose bush needed trimming and he really should pick up some of the boxes in the kitchen.

Hearing footsteps, he realized Carter had a late visitor. He had served himself a toast and caviar and also urged the fellow to help himself. Carter told Emil not to wait to drive him -- he apparently was going to spend the night at the Sirocco -- or somewhere!

Carter slipped a certain document out of his ledger and set his traps -- again, the inspectors would be counted on to nip some -- or even all -- of the catch, and wouldn't watch to risk cutting themselves on the very sharp letter opener so as to peruse the ledger. It was unlikely they would notice the letters of transit within.

The battered accounts book -- not surprisingly Blanc kept two sets of books -- had a bevy of strange receipts and torn catalogue pages but by themselves, they proved nothing.

His purchases book might be of far greater interest to a police inspector but again, it was a distraction from greater activities.

M. Blanc was about to receive a great deal of cash from the hard customer gobbling his caviar, and the risk was great, but soon his only concern would be where to put the cash -- until Emil could disburse it the next day.

It was hard to believe that the future hope of the country lay in the hands of such ruffians -- but in fact this visitor was from the future as his curious footwear indicated.

 

M. Blanc disappeared downstairs to put the cash in the wall safe.

It was growing dark and the lovely flowers were releasing the last of their scent. Emil was supposed to put fresh bouquets in each day.

The guest lingered in the drawing room, studying M. Blanc's treasures.

The photographer then called him to his study.

First, the passport photo -- and a cloud of smoke.

A few more, for good measure. 

 

Carter sat at his desk, rapidly working with a glue pot and a razor with items prepared in advance. Soon he had two travel documents finished and a confidential letter to go with them.

Voila! He handed the visa, which the visitor instantly pocketed, then carefully presented the expertly fabricated diplomatic passport to the rude man, who took it carefully in his hand,

He checked it carefully. The passport was for his boss -- an international spy of sorts -- on a mysterious mission.

The visitor hurriedly left through the side passage and disappeared into the night.

M. Blanc tidied up his dark room, and idly wondered if he had time to work on one of his artistic projects before he went to his club.

M. Blanc thought he heard footsteps, and wondered if his visitor had returned, perhaps having forgotten something, although he couldn't imagine what it would be. But no one appeared. He busied himself at the darkroom sink again...when all of a sudden a burly stranger appeared, and thrust a rag soaked with chloroform in his face.

Carter slumped to the floor before he even had time to wonder what it was all about.

For some reason, the intruder headed straight to the reading area, bypassing so many other promising stashes around the villa -- perhaps he had been tipped off by a snooping errand boy? 

The intruder was not interested in photography or philosophy books and pushed the Oriental screen aside abruptly.

A cabinet with odds and ends was his target.

Nothing inside the Russian books, given to M. Blanc by his mother which he was always promising himself to read.

Another cupboard held tickets for M. Blanc's trip in a fortnight -- and the reason for his planned departure to England -- he was going to America at the request of his father, who had still not given up hope that his son might take an interest in the family business. And he had other errands...

 

The intruder left the tickets on the shelf and found what he was looking for in the first drawer below.

A torn postcard, another postcard with a photo of the airfield -- who would give a second glance? The intruder knew that at last he had found the evidence he needed to report the cautious M. Blanc to the police.

It wasn't the first time he had ransacked M. Blanc's offices -- previous probes had not turned over anything beyond his contraband, which was of little interest in a city rife with it, and nothing of importance to national security had been found. With M. Blanc's imminent departure for an indefinite period, his enemies had been forced to use more forceful methods to perform another search -- hence the chloroform.

By the time M. Blanc pushed himself up from the floor groggily, it was growing dark. He was bewildered. No one was upstairs, and not even the bird was chirping.

M. Blanc heard men's voices in the courtyard below. A van had pulled up to the curb. 

They were coming for him at last. He had time to be grateful that the fabricated diplomatic passport was off the premises and he couldn't think of anything else that mattered at the moment. M. Blanc remained calm, and helped himself to an olive. It was going to be a long night.

Part 2: The Secret Life of M. Blanc

By Prokofy Neva

 

You can find Part 1 here.

The love nest of M. Carter Blanc, honorary consul of a second city of the Near East, representing the small European nation of Titania, was, as love nests go, comfortable, but not luxurious; well-appointed, but not opulent; cosy but not langourous. The fact is, M. Blanc was not in it that much. After all, there was his villa outside of town which was his main residence.

Mrs. M., the other occupant of M. Blanc's love nest, was in it more often than not, alone, sometimes waiting for him to come -- and he didn't. She never went to his home -- that would have aroused suspicion, as she was a married and respectable woman after all, the wife --- or rather grass widow -- of a general, frequently absent though he was.

M. Blanc prided himself on the furnishings of said love nest; he had picked up some lovely, solid classic furniture when a diplomat by the name of Figura decamped from the second city, bound for glory at a more prestigious posting, and had let it go for a song. M. Blanc was glad for the rich pieces, which he liked for the clean but prosperous line that did not verge into decadence. 

M. Blanc never wanted to be seen as decadent -- not after the incident at Saint-Cyr when -- but we'll leave that aside for now. Carter was unhappy at the departure of Figura if only for the loss of a good connection for his main occupation -- or pre-occupation -- which was of a covert nature, and -- but perhaps we'll leave that for now, too.

Ah, the love nest.

Aside from the love nest's main attraction -- love, of course -- there was the only good coffee in the house. Hot, brisk, Turkish coffee made by Emil, M. Blanc's rather ineffectual cook and only very occasional gardener who was mainly employed running errands for the -- well, we'll get into that later, too.

The coffee. The coffee was brewed very strong, very early in the morning the way M. Carter liked it, and was only available in his secret nook, so it lasted throughout the day, untouched by many visitors, who had to make do with the lukewarm tea and thin lemonade. Mrs. M. would bring elaborate truffle cakes from a French bakery -- her one extravagance. The general kept her on an extremely tight budget although he could afford more and would be suspicious of any strange or large expenditures. M. Blanc paid her for doing his receptions and sorting out his jumbled books -- but then all that cash seemed to go to things like tortes or taxis home or prepared meals when she was late and unable to cook. 

Blanc never ate the tortes -- she nibbled on them herself, alone in the nest, drinking the strong coffee and absently reading one of the American magazines. The women in them seemed to lead lives of luxury unknown even to Mrs. M., and were curiously obsessed with recipes and cooking techniques even though, judging from the pictures and articles, they did very little cooking of their own.

M. Blanc never practiced his photographic skills inside the love nest and the photo of the nude woman draped in a veil was in fact not of Mrs. M. and Carter swore it was not any past (or current) lover of his own. He claimed he got it at an estate auction and it had been put out as part of his network of subterfuges and strategems around the house, designed to distract and foil inspectors and policemen and secret agents who might discover the nest.

Next to the photos -- behind the nude was a home in London that Carter also claimed had nothing to do with him (although she doubted him) -- was Carter's favourite piece -- a hand-made Moroccan cabinet from the old days which he had very nearly started to re-texture himself before Mrs. M. stopped him and implored him to leave it with its original beauty.

On top of the Moroccan chest was a book of Byron's poetry -- the hugely practical and business-like M. Blanc seemed to have inherited a sentimental streak from his Russian emigre step-mother -- or rather, his birth mother, as he had recently discovered although the first wife of his father, Arthur McTeague, told a story of his wife dying in child-birth with him, in fact. This was one of the mysteries Carter had only recently started to unravel, and was one of the aims of his trip to London coming up within the fortnight.

Inside the poetry book was a document that Blanc had worked hard to get and paid a handsome some for, having to deal with various relatives and strange acquaintance's of his mother's.

The document was a French Letter of Transit that would assist getting his true Russian mother's parents -- his own grandparents -- out of Russia when the Bolsheviks came to power -- another curious anachronism or tesseract, if you will, in the Villa Sirocco which perplexes readers until you follow the connection from Maxim Gorky to -- well, we'll come to that in due course.

Just as Carter hoped the poetry would be so dull to the inspector's eye and the ravishing photo of the nude woman so interesting that he would't notice the Letter of Transit, so Blanc's plans for the jewelry boxes inside the cabinet.

One of the venal policeman or detectives might be counted on to grab the jewelry inside the boxes -- and also be relied upon to conclude that M. Blanc's love nest was covering up a contraband operation -- there being no grounds for finding any lovers. If Mrs. M. was ever discovered inside, she could simply explain that the only good coffee was kept in this room, and she had been working on the books. She would cooperate fully of course! That had always been Carter's instruction to her.

Usually, when petty, venal officials steal something -- they want to get away with the loot. They won't want to stick around and keep poking into your affairs. But if they should, there was one more gift from them on top of a jewelry box so they wouldn't even have to open it.

It was hoped they wouldn't push anything further, but if they did -- the chances were 1 in a 100, give the corrupt and lazy nature of the officials -- they would find an internal passport of a man they might not recognize. They might think it was merely a scrap fallen from M. Blanc's presumed main attraction -- his provision of passport photos of letters of recommendation to "expedite" various applications for travel into and out of the Near Eastern outpost.

But an internal passport? That would be dismissed as insignificant, perhaps merely a piece of identification to secure the foreign travel document. It would be unlikely that a) the official would pick up the scrap and b) tie it together with any news story of any man found with explosives in Aqaba. "I long for the gardens of Cordoba...but first must come the fighting..."

As Mrs. M. sat waiting longingly in the love nest late in the afternoon after the courier left, she wondered sometimes if the love nest -- and she herself ! -- were the cover for the smuggling operation -- or whether the smuggling operation was a cover for the affair with her (she wished!) -- or both of them covered up some other secret activity whose purpose she could only guess at -- and not think about, because it alarmed her.

There on Carter's bureau was a photo of some men -- she surmised intellectuals and leaders of a national resistance movement -- and a Berber dagger which had been given as a gift by a man who once visited late at night and never gave his name.

Again, M. Blanc was counting on the photo not to get a second glance -- or the gun inside the chest to be noticed -- once the gleam of the silver items in the grooming kit fell into the field of view of the prodding detectives.

The gun, in any event -- as one ill-clad visitor once explained to her during a long evening they waited for Blanc to return -- only made a lot of noise, as it had blanks in it. It was meant to scare off intruders.

If anyone thought that M. Blanc's system of subterfuge meant that something was hidden behind the photographs -- they would be wrong. There was nothing there. Should anyone get past them to look. Nothing there because -- as Mrs. M. suspected -- it had been recently removed.

Emil -- who supposedly served as houseboy, cook, gardener and did none of these jobs fully or well -- was often away on errands that were more important to M. Blanc than Emil's finishing the cherry pies that Mrs. M was trying to get him to make -- truffle cakes were expensive and she wanted to have something to impress the other foreign visitors when they came to one of M. Blanc's teas that she herself organized.

The thought had crossed her mind that maybe the teas were for show, too, but Carter seemed to enjoy them and spend a lot of time in the corner smoking with some of the more important dignitaries -- whose homes he also visited.

Although M. Blanc had purchased a shiny new American store out of a mail order catalogue and had it shipped for use in the villa, Emil claimed that he couldn't work its flues and it didn't cook things through, and preferred the Moroccan style oven that kept its heat after you shoveled in the coals. He baked bread daily -- well, weekly. But the fire was kept up.

Subterfuges were at work in the oven as well, and it was just as well Emil didn't bake anything. Inside was a rather risqué set of drawings by a British author that were rather old hat at home but sensational in M. Blanc's adopted land.

The drawings could be counted on to keep inspectors fascinated enough not to look further in the oven -- which was strangely cold, with pies unfinished.

To be sure, pie filling was bubbling on the stove and all that was required was to pour it into the pie crust -- already made -- and cover it with more criss-crossed dough -- if only Emil would return and finish the job.

If any policeman did begin to wonder what ELSE might be inside the oven, he would quickly singe his fingers on the drawers that were kept hot with coals -- he might not stop to think why, when nothing was inside.

Their attention would be drawn to another obvious hidey-hole -- the tea-bin, another item from the British society that M. Blanc seemed to keep but spoke sparingly about -- said to be a gift from a dear old governess. That indicated perhaps he had spent time being raised in England, away from the wheat fields of his alleged home.

The tea-bin -- true to form -- had an assortment of tea-tins and packets and tea biscuits -- that were more appreciated by M. Blanc's guest than himself or Mrs. M -- they preferred the strong coffee. But tea-time means tea, and there you have it.

 

The searchers could be reliably depended upon to help themselves to the open biscuit tin and scoop up some of the packets -- if they noticed anything colourful underneath they would initially assume these were more of those exotic British packets -- actually of tea made in India.

And -- here M. Blanc counted on his deep knowledge of such officials' psychology -- if they filched something, they'd want to get away from the scene hastily, and not look further.

If they did they would find passports.

Fresh, clean, new passports, for all kinds of countries.

Now, that was odd.

What were they doing here?

If they merely needed photos or letters of "expedition," they'd be on the desk where Mrs. M usually sat, no?

It was a mystery that we were not able to get to the bottom of right away -- we were no better able to solve it than one of the errand boys who, after a longish wait in the reception area, risked a theft of the biscuits while he was rummaging around for something more to drink after the lemonade ran out (he actually found a warm ginger beer in the cabinet, which fascinated him and also kept him from examining the passports further). 

But soon Mrs. M. would examine the last petition for Carter -- who was delayed once again! -- and flush the whining errand boys out of the waiting area because it was time to get ready for the guests coming any minute for a late tea.

Things were rather dismal in the kitchen as Emil had disappeared once again and Mrs. M. was thinking sadly of the need to raid the love nest for her expensive truffle cake to serve the guests, when suddenly Emil appeared to finish up the cherry pie and pop it in the oven -- taking the book of drawings and disappearing in the direction of the studio.

Guests arriving would smell the delicious pie cooking and other savory aromas from a meal Emil had already placed upstairs and not notice the scraggly rose bushes -- they got enough of gardens at all the other lavish establishments along the diplomatic row.

To be continued...

Credits to come.