This is the time of year when we go out of the way to help the unfortunate. There seem to be many more of them this year. Some of them have lost everything. Some are teetering on the brink, quietly praying for help before frustration turns to full despair.

I have never understood why so many in my country despise the government so much that they're not willing to fund it so it can, in turn, help those among us who need it most. An ounce of prevention is indeed worth a pound of cure if it stops the cascade. Lack of daycare leads to lack of employment. Lack of internet access means isolation from contact with the ones who support us and the fonts of knowledge that can help us improve our desperate situation.

Dame Kiralette Kelly made the Steamlands and Second Life proud by running this year's Relay For Life. She gave her time and energy to help us fight cancer. Now, my friends, with great humility, she asks us for our help. Were it not for a change in my fortune just today, I would be a month or two away from holding my hand out as well. I do not have much to give, but I will give.

That is what friends are for, is it not?

It seems my friend Hotspur Otoole has become the latest victim of Linden Labs, or "Labbies" as the astute Crap Mariner has begun to call them. I guess calling the Labs Stalinist was one step over the line?

We will all be watching Linden Labs ticket #4051-7043947 very closely.

Colonel Otoole, please enjoy the amenities on the Clockwork Caravel in the meantime. Lady Christine left a banana bread in the pantry and the bar is fully stocked.

Dear Ash,

There has been an explosion at Mason Labs. Steelhead is burning, and my life's work is strewn as slag across Port Harbor. All of this carnage is my fault. Exile or no, I cannot simply sit and watch.

By the time you finish recharging, I will have donned my aethersuit and jumped ship through the airlock. I have timed my escape to enter the gravity of the wormhole we dicovered earlier. I detect manmade radio frequencies emmanating from it, but I know not the origin. I pray who or whatever is on the other side can get me home.

Find Gematria. She has been missing for too long. If the Timekeepers have harmed her, you are authorized to punish them.

Both of you need to analyze the energies of that explosion. After the lightning and the chain reaction I saw a beam of purest light...nothing I sequestered in my laboratory had that kind of frequency. Search your archives. Prophecies seem to be at work.

I will see you again, My Children, in a happier place. My Love for you will sustain me wherever I find myself, as it will sustain you.

~Darien

entropy
fading his life away
before the world can ever see
dissapating
evaporating...

I would like to thank Clockwork Couture for their patronage for the past two months. The loss of Linden Labs was Clockwork Couture's gain. This was my first foray as a professional creative writer, and was thrilled the entire time. I gleefully accepted the challenge of writing new adventures of the Mason family to the tune of a J. Peterman catalog. The newest episodes of Gematria's latest mission can still be read on their blog.

As soon as I re-establish contact with Gematria, her adventure with the Timekeepers will continue in this journal.

I will be more than happy to discuss product placements of virtual as well brick-and-mortar projects privately.

~Dr. Darien Mason

Much thanks, Lady Aeon!

Hold my calls, Sparky...