anna's castle (law office), 6th avenue, ouray, colorado, 1991

mt. carmel to kanab rt. 89, utah, 1987

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You head back to the Drunken Sea Serpent, inexplicably once again choosing to return to a place that you were in less than a half hour ago despite having found no new evidence that would point to anything here. Still, that's free will, you guess.

Salem, New Mexico Pop: 650 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem,_New_Mexico Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=115758371 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18148021 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94688034

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You're not entirely clear on why you immediately head back to the same town square you were just in minutes ago, but hey, free will baby! That'll teach that omniscient narratorial voice you read in the newspaper. It's not your real mom! Anyway, you're back now!

La Cienega, New Mexico Pop: 3,526 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Cienega,_New_Mexico Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=119046760 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=106197345 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=115201955

dutch prospector statue, petrified rockery, route 64, valle, arizona, 1987

Map re-up for people too lazy to look back.

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You make your way up the winding seaside path to the lighthouse on top of the hill. It's a beautiful construction! Vivid red and white striping, and even an observation deck about halfway up. The design's old (no reflector dish, just a fire) but then you ARE 200 years ago.

Kayenta, Arizona Pop: 4,889 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayenta,_Arizona Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76043847 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71070694 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31436046

NARRATION BREAKING EXPOSITION: To be honest I was hoping Bluesky would have implemented polls before I rolled this game out, and we're now at a MILD technical issue. Instead of choose your destination via poll, like we did on twitter, now you're gonna have to just post your choice in the replied!

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You return to your faithful well in the middle of the town square. It's about midday now, which seems appropriate for the turning point of your journey. Up until now, you've more or less been going just where fate takes you. And now it's time for that to change.

We went on a tour at Taos Pueblo last week. The men from the pueblo climb this huge post for certain events. #BlueSkyArtShow #vertical #EastCoastKin #PhotographersUnited #PhotographersOfBluesky #photography

300 people have started to pay their newspaper subscriptions! Wow, that's way more people than actually live in town, even including the Young clan!

Skeleton trees... 35.89808 -106.32929 Two tall dead trees in this low spot have a haunting look about them.

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You were, about three seconds ago, sitting in the Drunken Sea Serpent Inn , talking to a dead snake. You are, currently, sitting in the most gaudy tiki bar you've ever seen, sitting across from a demon lord wearing a Hawaiian shirt. And drunk. He's VERY drunk.

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You're about halfway through the pitcher of margaritas down at the Drunken Sea Serpent when it belatedly occurs to you that the drink you have in your hand right now won't be invented for another 200+ years. You sigh heavily and put your head on the bar. Fucking time travel.

zion national park, springdale, utah, 1987

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You walk to the top of the conveniently nearby and appropriately dramatically placed hill, and look out over the village. Everything you've learned has lead to you one, inescapable conclusion: Every Single Person in Solomon's Manor has summoned and bound a demonic prince.

🎃 October 15 🎃 Urban cowboy

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You're walking down by the pasture when you hear the familiar sound of horse hooves beating the Earth in their infinite hatred of all existence &good things. You look up, professional curiosity as a cowpoke taking over- wait a second, you KNOW that guy. How in the world...?

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You slowly meander the streets of the village, carefully and discretely sniffing the place and people over in a way that, if you saw someone else doing it, would lead you to assume that they were a pervert. Unfortunately, what you learn is nowhere near as fun as that'd be.

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You and Chastity (the librarian? You'd know her name if you were paying attention earlier. God!) stare awkwardly at each other for a long, loooooong moment. "Can you... explain what you mean by that?" She asks, nervously, "Not every day your town gets called cursed."

REAL ESTATE: One parcel of land, sized for homestead, two miles SSE of town square as the horse flies. Creek access. Previous owner deceased w/upper half of torso missin', teeth marks indicative of bein' eaten. Previous house destroyed in green(?) fire. Includes immovable carvin' w/glowin' red eyes.

VACATION DESTINATIONS: The door to Solomon's manor (lowercase), the de facto town hall of Solomon's Manor (uppercase) swings open, revealing a slightly-pretty-in-a-plain-way brown-haired woman in her mid-20s. "Hello, can I help you?" She asks, since you're still trying to think of anything to say.

VACATION DESTINATIONS: This is a big house, in the same way that a good-sized whale could be described as "big". That feels like a bad comparison in your head, but your nose is the one who came up with it, since this place also SMELLS like someone dumped a good-sized whale up on a hill and left it.

HOUSING CRISIS: Famed dairy cow Ursula Udders smashed @anekonamednancy.bsky.social's house to splinters this mornin' 'pon takin' offense to her dedicated... specialist image archival work... in a fit o' jealous rage, shortly before mooin' to ne'er darken her pasture again.

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You sit on the edge of the honest-looking well in town square, posing dramatically-yet-thoughtfully (but not so dramatically that others call you out on it, because you've mastered that fine line, haven't you? You self-important dickhead) as you ponder your situation.

THEATRE: What a beautiful rendition of Little Nell and the Marchionness! Oh, you laughed, you cried. What music! What a performance! What... are you doing here? Varmint Vale has no theatre. The buildin' dissolves around you, leavin' you alone in the red rock canyons, kachinas runnin' an' laughin'.

VACATION DESTINATIONS: The mind is, as Milton once wrote, its own place, and can make a Heaven of Hell, or a Hell of Heaven. It lifted humanity from our basest beginnings as basically just an ape with secondary sex trait insecurities to the conquering nightmare-masters of Alacon VI (spoilers!).

Crozier, Arizona Pop: 40 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crozier,_Arizona Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74480348 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53315078 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=71394720

It's been a fun weekend vacation in Varmit Vale.

PERSONALS: You have skeleton inside you still? Nice and hard and healthy lovely bones? Big bones small bones skull bone not ever made into stew? Beautiful breathing human woman big boobs not decayed seek you. Come Boot Hill at midnight tonight no moon very alone for mouth loving.

Temple of the Moon and Temple of the Sun Capitol Reef National Park, Utah #Stunday #EastCoastKin #ClassicMono

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You sit yourself down at the bar of the Drunken Sea Serpent Inn and order yourself a whiskey, because if you're going to die then by God you're not going to do it sober. Thankfully time travel + inflation means your money goes pretty far here.

Rancho Grande, New Mexico Pop: 52 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Grande,_New_Mexico Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94702462 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94702464 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98360219

BIRD WATCHING: Why, what lovely vultures those are circling overhead! You wonder what poor critter they're waiting on, because you don't see anything else around but you and your horse. Weird. You have pretty good lines of sight out here, alone in the desert.

VACATION DESTINATIONS: To say that you have a feeling of impending doom would be an understatement. You'd thought that you'd come here, work out what happened, and stop it. You'd be a hero! You'd change history! Your father would finally love and respect you! Take that, court-mandated therapist!

SEASONAL: Come one, come all! Who says apple pickin' is just for those soft easterners? Lazy Vole Ranch is happy to open to the public to come pick road apples! Just one penny each for adults, and kids pick free!

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You've barely had a moment to admire the starlit sky before you notice the light slowly making its way up the path towards you, gently swaying from side to side. A robust, cheery middle-aged woman holding a lantern, maybe out for a walk? "Well hello there!" She greets you.

EXTRA EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT: As you pass through the timelessness of the fog between, you encounter Ratatoskr, the headless delivery squirrel for Azure Eye News. "Sorry," he apologizes as he hands you your paper, "Got a bit lost in the fog." This newspaper is from last MONTH. What?

VACATION DESTINATIONS: You're sitting in the front room of your home, the heavy fog swirling against your windows and breathing under your door, when there's a short knock. No, literally, short. As in it's down by the floor. You cautiously swing the door open, and before you is a headless squirrel.

WEATHER: You look out your window, and dark grey fog obscures everything around you. The whole of Varmint Vale is, for all you can see, simply gone. But that would be ridiculous, right? After all, you know it's October 1st, 1881, and you're in the New Mexico Territory. You know that.

Kaibito, Arizona Pop: 1,522 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaibito,_Arizona Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76019823 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61015567

LOCAL: You're headed home, tryin' to beat the fog rollin' in, when you see your French friend Pierre crouched over a rock outcroppin'. "Hey buddy," you start, but he holds his three-fingered hand up. You stop. Pierre's lips shoot forward, extending two feet an' dippin' into a rock crack.

WEATHER: A heavy, impassable black fog is rollin' in from the east, smellin' o' the sea an' ol' spices. Looks set to completely cover the Vale. Might wanna get inside, folks, lest ya get lost in the mist. An' who knows where you'll end up then?

DEAR DECAPITATED DELILAH: -Adrift in Albuquerque: While it's true that your fiancée should not have kept such an important truth hidden from you for so long, she's still the same person you loved before you knew. Marry her, even if she IS a 5 foot tall mass of spiders wearing a human skin suit.

HUNTIN' SEASON: As more an' more of the menfolk are out an' about huntin' to provide for their families an' engage in masculinity signalin', more an' more womenfolk are turnin' to the new Mogollon Monster Literary Appreciation Society to keep themselves occupied.

MYSTERIOUS PAMPHLET DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR:

WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE: Join Azure Eye News on October 1st, 1881, as you embark on the trip of a lifetime with star investigative reporter Ivan Squirrelov-Mikitov to the charming seaside town of Solomon's Manor. Spend 28 days exploring the mysteries of the village with your fellow readers-