My Dear Friends and Readers,
As any mystic will tell you, "as above, so below". The observant of you will notice that my pantheon has literally been turned upside-down. Themes of addiction and madness, rage and regret run through my prose like the deep black waters of the Styx. My imagination is a place where gods, demons, men and machines are differentiated only by the scope of ther power and how it corrupts them. The premise of unforgivable sin wrestles with the desperate axiom that no one is beyond redemption.
In three weeks, my partner in love and life will go under the knife. As in all such procedures there is a chance she may not come back, or slip away when my head is turned. The terror in my heart is very real. I am floating on a sea of panic, and there are stormclouds ahead. A family without a mother and a house without a bookkeeper. I can't imagine what life would be like then.
In times like these, Second Life can be an escape. It is also a lifeline to those who have become very real friends. I've also wasted time in world when I should have been cleaning, sleeping, working, planning, looking in the next room or doing absolutely anything else. It has always been an addiction (a stronger dose than the chatrooms and MUDs), creating more strife on my side of the screen than anything else. Grudgingly she acknowledges it as a creative outlet, and watches the legal issues with bemusement as it relates to her field. I think with article after article of our favored medium's use as a tool for science, commerce and art she is accepting that Virtual Worlds are not a passing fad. She still doubts they will become ubiquitous. She still wishes I never made an avatar.
Please understand if I seem more crazed, more angry, more forgetful than usual. The story helps me focus. If it starts to fall apart, would you be so kind as to help put the pieces back. Even in such a state I'd rather create and cooperate than let a network mogul run my imagination for me.
And now, back to the Chronicles, already in progress.
Thursday, April 30
Wednesday, April 29
Lockdown
In light of current citywide alerts and the recent breakin, Mason Labs is now under lockdown. A plasma field has been installed over the main entrance, and secondary entrances have been welded shut. Access is now limited to myself and current staff.
Be advised that contact with the plasma field will result in instant disintegration. Enjoy your day.
Be advised that contact with the plasma field will result in instant disintegration. Enjoy your day.
Tuesday, April 28
Security Breach
OUTRAGE!!
I go out for a sandwich and the rabble start trapsing in like some blasted guided tour! Where's my knife-wielding doll when I need her? I should set the entrance for one way...
I go out for a sandwich and the rabble start trapsing in like some blasted guided tour! Where's my knife-wielding doll when I need her? I should set the entrance for one way...
Friday, April 24
Spark Goblins
We already know they're being vat-grown. Now we have schematics of their war machines.
Be afraid! Be very afraid!!!
Be afraid! Be very afraid!!!
Thursday, April 23
setting the tragic hero plotline aside for a moment...
I've enjoyed my state of semi-retirement from the entertainment industry, as much as I've missed Novem. I tried my hand at 7Seas fishing. I took some forlorn alts out for a walk. I turned some inspiration from caffeine overdoses into new Bloodwing Mythos storylines that are keeping a few of you at the edge of your seats.
Gematria's doing a great job of hosting for SteelCobra for Squidvenom on Mondays, don't get me wrong. SteelCobra plays some great 80's and Industrial music. But when they're competing against Radio Riel AND Steelhead AND that pirate club in Caledon for the same timeslot, they're lucky to get one or two visitors.
Enter Annastina Christensen. We've worked together at Gypsy's Midnight Club and a few other places. Now she's got her own club: Catalyst. Guess who's going to host. :D
It's has a metal-plate warehouse feel, like Mason Labs with more sunlight. It has potential. Maybe a few tesla coils...
Catalyst will be opening in early June. It's an all-avatars club, like Giggles and Vortex (no relation). Just remember to Behave and Have Fun!
Gematria's doing a great job of hosting for SteelCobra for Squidvenom on Mondays, don't get me wrong. SteelCobra plays some great 80's and Industrial music. But when they're competing against Radio Riel AND Steelhead AND that pirate club in Caledon for the same timeslot, they're lucky to get one or two visitors.
Enter Annastina Christensen. We've worked together at Gypsy's Midnight Club and a few other places. Now she's got her own club: Catalyst. Guess who's going to host. :D
It's has a metal-plate warehouse feel, like Mason Labs with more sunlight. It has potential. Maybe a few tesla coils...
Catalyst will be opening in early June. It's an all-avatars club, like Giggles and Vortex (no relation). Just remember to Behave and Have Fun!
in the presence of mine enemies
"I have seen civilizations fall one after the other in my immortality. For some I have gloated upon their demise, but for some I have wept. But fall they always do."
A dark moon has fallen over the Steamlands. Doctor Obolensky destroys property with impunity. Miss Burton's powers could have protected us all, but thanks to that madman she can only voice the fear that even the bravest among us must carry.
"Man was never meant to harness the Fire of Apollo, Seventh Son. Even the gods fear when you mortal children play with matches."
Meanwhile in Steeltopia, Emperor Calamari's soldiers are massacred and their cargo - the Omega particles - are stolen. A man from the shadows usurps the Emperor, and he is thrown in chains for a crime he did not commit. What madness has washed over my own Steelheaders to be a party to this charade?
"All the power I have given your line comes with a price..."
Jeremiah Mason has returned with a Steel unit and claimed the lives of my brother and built son. Bloodwing's firstborn, the Vortex, claims the Obsidian Throne and sent his hordes topworld to retrieve the splinter of himself that is my son Koen. Even among loved ones he hides like a fugitive.
And now, adding to the chaos, the Other has found its way through the portal of worlds from Europa to Steelhead and claimed the life of my neighbor, Xandra Skytower.
I will protect those I hold dear with the last shred of my humanity! I need more power. More. More reanimation serum, for more enhancements, for more magic. More. MORE!
"...no one in this family has ever had a happy ending."
A dark moon has fallen over the Steamlands. Doctor Obolensky destroys property with impunity. Miss Burton's powers could have protected us all, but thanks to that madman she can only voice the fear that even the bravest among us must carry.
"Man was never meant to harness the Fire of Apollo, Seventh Son. Even the gods fear when you mortal children play with matches."
Meanwhile in Steeltopia, Emperor Calamari's soldiers are massacred and their cargo - the Omega particles - are stolen. A man from the shadows usurps the Emperor, and he is thrown in chains for a crime he did not commit. What madness has washed over my own Steelheaders to be a party to this charade?
"All the power I have given your line comes with a price..."
Jeremiah Mason has returned with a Steel unit and claimed the lives of my brother and built son. Bloodwing's firstborn, the Vortex, claims the Obsidian Throne and sent his hordes topworld to retrieve the splinter of himself that is my son Koen. Even among loved ones he hides like a fugitive.
And now, adding to the chaos, the Other has found its way through the portal of worlds from Europa to Steelhead and claimed the life of my neighbor, Xandra Skytower.
I will protect those I hold dear with the last shred of my humanity! I need more power. More. More reanimation serum, for more enhancements, for more magic. More. MORE!
"...no one in this family has ever had a happy ending."
Monday, April 13
Journey to Fusang: Back to the Fray
"Make sure he doesn't leave this ship!", growled Koen to my servant Oahu.
I was barely strong enough to whisper between gasps as I leaned my back against the wall of the cabin and slowly slid to the floor. "I must..."
"NO! Don't you DARE inject yourself with reanimation fluid! Look what happened to ME!" He extended the claws of his hand. "Everything that was human in me died when you brought me back! Believe it or not, Doc, there's a saturation limit for that stuff. And you're ready to hit the wall."
"You...you ungrateful..."
"UNGRATEFUL? I can't even describe how you screwed things up for my other eight lives down there." By which, he meant the remnants of Erebus. "The Vortex is incomplete without me. He's unstable," he twirled his finger against his head. "I can feel it."
Koen glared at my neko servant with crimson eyes once more. "No more green stuff. I mean it." Koen crouched over me, His fangs were longer in his new form, sharp ivory pointing parallel from below his cleft lip.
"No more demon. No more."
With that, he vanished in a whirl of black smoke. I shook in a coughing fit for a good ten minutes while Oahu tried to get me to drink from a water skin. I pointed to the brandy instead.
I felt calmer a few minutes later. "He's right Oahu...it's an addiction itself. The steel cigar tube in the third drawer...I want you to throw it over..."
No light at the end of the tunnel. A straight fall to the flames. Roars and hisses echoed upwards even before I could see the Hydra snapping dozens of its jaws at me. No, not at me, and the shapes encircling it. How colossal the beast's true form was, that I mistook an armada of mighty aetherships for insects!
The navies encircled the monster like an angry swarm, hurling all manner of projectiles and rays at its hide. Vallhallan sky-drakkars ripped Mjolnir bolts of static charge across a landscape of shimmering black scales. A Heliopan Interceptor was ripped apart in a snap of the Titan's jaws, Horus's elite tumbled to their doom, only to be captured in air by brave winged infantry from the Council.
The Obsidian King would never have allowed foreign fleets over his skies. The very idea of calling for outside help was anathema to a self-isolated culture like the Ereb'ai. No one left in the city must have had authority or confidence to object. That alone told me the situation was truly dire.
Fastest of all was a red speck of flame. It weaved between the beast's massive writhing necks and jagged fields of fangs as well as dodging friendly fire. It threw jets of blinding red hellfire deep into wounds the ships were fortunate enough to inflict, preventing the monster from reknitting flesh or sprouting more deadly sets of jaws. Ignoring the pain from gazing, I made out the shape within - a neko with demon wings. The Vortex.
I saw a cavernous maw snapping down over him. A flash of green and suddenly the jaws were pried open by...a colossal green pipe? Yes...even Oa had a stake in this conflict. There were blue and violet sparks soaring through the chaos as well. Were they reserves?
In all the din and kaleidoscopic terror of battle one sound rang a pure note deep in my soul. My eyes tracked the shimmering rays of the Sephiroth to their source, soaring upwards from the formations aligned on the ground. A jawed appendage descended upon her, but she took no evasive action.
I screamed as Gematria was swallowed whole. Prismatic rays of the Sephiroth began to erupt through reptilian flesh in all directions...
I shuddered back to consciousness. Oahu held me down as I convulsed.
"I's sorry Doc! You heart done stopped! I couldn' do nuttin else!"
I looked to my side and saw the empty syringe rolling towards the cabin wall.
Oahu cowered in the corner as I rose.
"Izzat...you Doc? You no gon' hurt me is you?"
I shook my head as my wings spread as much as they could in the cramped quarters.
"You did what you thought was right. For all I know the Dragon Who Waits is still fighting my comerades in arms. If any of my companions have fallen from his evil magicks," I clenched my pale fist as my eyes began to glow red with a rage only a demon could fathom. "then the House of Bloodwing shall settle an old score!"
I was barely strong enough to whisper between gasps as I leaned my back against the wall of the cabin and slowly slid to the floor. "I must..."
"NO! Don't you DARE inject yourself with reanimation fluid! Look what happened to ME!" He extended the claws of his hand. "Everything that was human in me died when you brought me back! Believe it or not, Doc, there's a saturation limit for that stuff. And you're ready to hit the wall."
"You...you ungrateful..."
"UNGRATEFUL? I can't even describe how you screwed things up for my other eight lives down there." By which, he meant the remnants of Erebus. "The Vortex is incomplete without me. He's unstable," he twirled his finger against his head. "I can feel it."
Koen glared at my neko servant with crimson eyes once more. "No more green stuff. I mean it." Koen crouched over me, His fangs were longer in his new form, sharp ivory pointing parallel from below his cleft lip.
"No more demon. No more."
With that, he vanished in a whirl of black smoke. I shook in a coughing fit for a good ten minutes while Oahu tried to get me to drink from a water skin. I pointed to the brandy instead.
I felt calmer a few minutes later. "He's right Oahu...it's an addiction itself. The steel cigar tube in the third drawer...I want you to throw it over..."
No light at the end of the tunnel. A straight fall to the flames. Roars and hisses echoed upwards even before I could see the Hydra snapping dozens of its jaws at me. No, not at me, and the shapes encircling it. How colossal the beast's true form was, that I mistook an armada of mighty aetherships for insects!
The navies encircled the monster like an angry swarm, hurling all manner of projectiles and rays at its hide. Vallhallan sky-drakkars ripped Mjolnir bolts of static charge across a landscape of shimmering black scales. A Heliopan Interceptor was ripped apart in a snap of the Titan's jaws, Horus's elite tumbled to their doom, only to be captured in air by brave winged infantry from the Council.
The Obsidian King would never have allowed foreign fleets over his skies. The very idea of calling for outside help was anathema to a self-isolated culture like the Ereb'ai. No one left in the city must have had authority or confidence to object. That alone told me the situation was truly dire.
Fastest of all was a red speck of flame. It weaved between the beast's massive writhing necks and jagged fields of fangs as well as dodging friendly fire. It threw jets of blinding red hellfire deep into wounds the ships were fortunate enough to inflict, preventing the monster from reknitting flesh or sprouting more deadly sets of jaws. Ignoring the pain from gazing, I made out the shape within - a neko with demon wings. The Vortex.
I saw a cavernous maw snapping down over him. A flash of green and suddenly the jaws were pried open by...a colossal green pipe? Yes...even Oa had a stake in this conflict. There were blue and violet sparks soaring through the chaos as well. Were they reserves?
In all the din and kaleidoscopic terror of battle one sound rang a pure note deep in my soul. My eyes tracked the shimmering rays of the Sephiroth to their source, soaring upwards from the formations aligned on the ground. A jawed appendage descended upon her, but she took no evasive action.
I screamed as Gematria was swallowed whole. Prismatic rays of the Sephiroth began to erupt through reptilian flesh in all directions...
I shuddered back to consciousness. Oahu held me down as I convulsed.
"I's sorry Doc! You heart done stopped! I couldn' do nuttin else!"
I looked to my side and saw the empty syringe rolling towards the cabin wall.
Oahu cowered in the corner as I rose.
"Izzat...you Doc? You no gon' hurt me is you?"
I shook my head as my wings spread as much as they could in the cramped quarters.
"You did what you thought was right. For all I know the Dragon Who Waits is still fighting my comerades in arms. If any of my companions have fallen from his evil magicks," I clenched my pale fist as my eyes began to glow red with a rage only a demon could fathom. "then the House of Bloodwing shall settle an old score!"
Wednesday, April 1
Don't try and fool me, I'm under seige!
Done.
Done.
Don't even JOKE about that!
Not funny.
Profoky did it first.
See New Babbage Ning.
That would have been funny/plausible six months ago.
See above.
Nope. I know someone who did though!
Oh Please! That's outlandish and completely unfair to that poor soul!
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