"Where Castles Collapse in Tears and Facts are Guarded by Unfinished Thoughts and Half Truth"

This is Bloodwing Dragonash, reporting on my Seventh Son's machine while he is off treating an epidemic in the Congo. The title above is the riddle Jeremiah Mason used to ensorcel my dear step-sister Lumina Elvejhem after the Steelhead Town Meeting. I have until the beginning of the Steelhead Dance on Friday to solve the riddle. Should I fail, I must either surrender my essence to this undead megalomaniac or lose Lumina forver.

I was severely disappointed in the dishonorable way Lunar-san greeted his former Sheriff. Were this not a matter of life and death I would have ripped the dai-sho of his gi and spanked him with the flat of the blade.

More disturbing was the fact that he was ready to capitulate to the Hydra's host and deliver me on a platter. Would he have sold the rest of my kin down the proverbial river? Why not all of Steelhead while he's at it?

I sought clues from the shapeshifter Miss Orr. There are castles in a sim with Tears in the name, but they standing tall and well-guarded.

I beseeched the Chief Librarian for sagely advice. He suggested the Castle may be St. Francis of Assissis. I hovered outside the holy structure, newly reconstructed in this Grid. My demonic nature forbiade me entrance, so barred then would be the Hydra.

Sheriff suggested the second line refers to bureaucratic red tape. An interesting theory. I left an urgent note for Lady Darkling for help in divining an answer . Perhaps Baroness Amber has some mystical insight.

Qli and Koen are both pondering this as well. Koen is convinced the first line refers to sand castles dissolving in the salty tide. He says the riddle seems familiar to him..but not in his current incarnation. The Vortex is Koen as I first knew him from my union with Sekhmet. I only know one way to channel the Vortex . But even if his soul will return as another neko I will NEVER sacrifice one kin to save another!

~BW

Presto-Change-O!

Radio Riel hosted a an event last night where the one with the best collection of costumes wins. I arrived in my brown tweed suit, derby and cane, but soon I was face-dancing faster than you can say "seven-skin shapeshifter".

My Combat Medic uniform in preparation for the Great War to come.

Then I took the guise of one of my robotic servants.

Here I am channeling a Skeletal Witch Doctor with sexy boots and a colonial hat. No, wait..that's Miss Laval dancing behind me partially invisible in boots and a hat.

My Gangster (not Gangsta) attire.

"My G_d..it's full of prims!"

"Show me! Show you! Kikkoman! Tastes great on gaijinburgers!"

Yes, I know who it looks like. No, it's just me.

Anubis and Isis

"THIS! IS! CARNTAIGH!!" I was wearing this when I was told I won the event. I thanked everyone profusely, except for the Persian Ninjas cowering in the corner.

Finally I donned the garb of a brave hero looking for a dragon to slay. Damned if I could find one. The DJ doesn't count.

Rezdays & Revenants

Dear Reader,

Let be bring you up to speed on my latest goings on. I was able to catch the tail end of Miss Violet Schnabel's Rezday party, where I witnessed the oddest interaction with a huge gelatinous organism. The self-styled Villain, Jobias Barthelmess, expressed to me his disdain, but I chose simply to stay clear of the alien. Jobias dared to invoke my Father's name to me! I say he tempts fate enough hunting Lycans, best he holds his tongue before the Hydra's maws pin him down on Jeremiah's operating table!

Speaking of ghosts of the past, during this time when the veil between the worlds is thinnnest is when the souls who have departed yet not passed on walk through my walls, begging for me to give them life again. I keep telling them..No Brain, No Body, No Service! I even called in the Sheriff to try and shoo them away in his Crinos form. But no..they were too busy stealing each other's ectoplasmic heads and chasing each other around my foyer!




My spirits were uplifted (pardon the pun) when I attended the Rezday party of the Sir Edward Pearse, the Earl of Primbroke. Has it really been an entire year since Qlippothic coaxed him from outside the Grid to visit Caledon for the first time?

Even Death took a Holiday to ogle the Raving Duchesses! Or maybe he was there for the kilts at Shirtless O'Clock..Death's gender has always been open to speculation.

Colonel Hotspur shows off the flexibility of his custom made pressure suit.

Afterwards I was tempted to follow Duchess Gabrielle to Winterfell for a Masquerade, but instead I gave new Steelhead resident Eladrienne Laval the grand tour of Steelhead. I introduced her to our "Baroness" Miss Katt and made myself sound much older than I am by beginning every stop with "this is where that used to be.." We chatted with my neighbor, Lumina Elvejhem, who was busy moving her storefront out of her home and into the storefront across the street. For simple yet elegant furniture and exotic silks and jewelry, you simply MUST pay her a visit!

Just before I retired for the night, Qlippothic sat me down and told me something that brought me both joy and guarded concern. When Qli attends the Science Fiction Dance in Steelhead next week, we will see what comes to pass.

~Dr. Mason

My schedule went up in smoke..

Meanwhile at the Gorey House in Babbage..

"If this were my library, your brain would be on a steam-driven Radio Flyer chasing your skeleton down the street. Don't doubt that for a moment!"



"Look, we've been through this before! I can't reanimate Maude, Quentin, Rhoda, Titus, Una, Vicky, Xerxes or Yorick. Now hand over the REST of them!"

"Curses! You've RUINED my quota!"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday at the last Steelhead town meeting, I convinced Miss Laval to set up shop across from the Town Hall. Steelhead is now a destination for all well-dressed Colonial men!

I was ready to host the Masquerade at Baroness Amber's pavillion, but to my dismay the DJ was nowhere to be found. While we waited, we tried to convince a would-be Vampyre huntress that in Caledon one must ask Vampyres politely if they consent to be hunted. We misdirected the huntress towards a mainlander polluting the Moors on a bicycle with one of those combustion engines.

While we sat over tea instead of dancing I made arrangements with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to restock the Babbage Clinic after the terraforming.

Also my younger daughter Kohine called me, she was returning from her travels in dire need of yet another overhaul. I'll have to rename her as well. How I long for when she was still ARI and her brother ALAN made the lovely pair! Children are such high maintenance!

Then I received an urgent call from Sheriff Rau. There was a hotel fire in Deadwood. I packed my bag and folded space to get there.

Deadwood is a Sleeper zone, so neither my Spark inventions nor my Magick would work there. I was told there was an arsonist on the loose. This was there third fire in two days..immediately followed by a fourth.

Would that Qli were there to organize the bucket brigades faster! But being made of magick and Spark, she simply cannot exist in that realm.

There was an infant trapped in that cabin. No one else could reach her, so I took a risk that my protection amulet would work there, which it did. I emerged from the flames unscathed, but pretended to collapse after I returned the child to her mother's arms. While I "recovered" a precocious little girl slipped into the cabin and rescued a second child! I suspect Paradox may have rewritten the event as it occurred.

As I sat examining the smoke stains on my new hat, I spoke with the schoolmarm, Miss Vita. She is more than what she seems, but as a native of that realm she may not realize it...yet.

A new threat reveals its ugly heads

It was Superhero/Supervillain Night in Steelhead City. At assortment of the heroic and infamous appeared. The Shadow. Superman. Poison Ivy. Lady Rocketeer. Iron Man (steampunk version). Bill Heterodyne. Sonic the Hedgehog.

I hadn't planned on attending. I was preparing for evening prayers when I felt the Hydra sink a set of fangs into my neck. The burning venom stifled my screams,and I collapsed into unconsciousness.

Only later did I learn to my horror that my own father, Dr. Jeremiah Mason, was behind the attack. He floated there in Kokopelli Square, surveying the land and its citizens for weaknesses. He said little, save for a few choice threats, and the interrogation of one friend in particular.

He tipped his hand: he sought to claim the legacy of the Bloodwing curse that I inherited as his own. That is why the Hydra..the beast inflicted upon Bloodwing as a punishment by Hades..chose another Mason to inhabit. In the chimeric form you see, he is obviously undead. He ripped out his own heart as part of a Faustian bargain.

Even when he was alive, I never knew him to show feelings of love or tenderness..he was as cold-blooded as the snakes that have now seized him. Documents my children retrieved from the remnants of his lab confirm this. I wish I had never cast eyes on the passages relating to my own Mother! The reason he chose her from the multitude of young immigrant ladies, laboring endless days in his Baltimore factory, had nothing to do with infatuation..the truth was laid out in medical charts that only a handful in this Age can understand. It was all too clear to me. I sobbed myself to sleep, loathing my own origins.

Of all things, it was a song that did him in. A lesson learned: when possessed by the Hydra, don't make it angry, especially if you're borrowing the use of its heart to survive.



I fear we haven't seen the last of him. Reanimators are nearly impossible to kill, and the Hydra has an untold number of heads.

The only solace I have is that he seemed as frustrated in his search for Sumalee as his progeny are. The trail has grown cold. We've searched the Colonies, the jungles, the pyramids, the places where nekos prowl..and no trace, no sighting, save for the Ankh she left behind when she slipped through Jeremiah's cold fingers.

I cannot stop looking. I could never look my son in the face again if I gave up. Please, Sumalee..if you can read this..send us a sign. A clue. Something!

Goings on at home, and losing my commission

I've been so busy with one project or another that I haven't had time to explore my own town. I decided to remedy that. Lunar's new saloon is marvelous..reminds me of the Jardin in its opulence.


Baron Wulfenbach asked me to take a look at the flags on his embassy..and lo and behold, he fashioned a NEW Steelhead flag based upon my original crude designs! Trading the blue stripe at the bottom or purple was an intersting touch..it brings out the yellow of the scroll much better.

(Bloodwing tells me that the Baron always modifies the flags of the nations he conquers, but I told him that's rubbish. Besides, we just got annexed by the American Empire anyway.)



As for the failed experiment I was ranting about..well, I received a cross-time communication..I was invited by a foreign government to reanimate their recently deceased leader for a handsome sum in gold bars, vodka, fur coats and caviar. The Spark took over my judgment. I eagerly accepted the package from the portal they created, glass case and all!

But I soon realized this would not be a simple case. You can imagine my outrage when I started the procedure and found out the brain was missing! Someone had removed it surreptitiously to foil my goal! Furthermore, what was left of his nervous system was severely damaged by bullet wounds, and there was evidence of damage from venereal disease as well.

Normally I can only resurrect those whose souls have just departed their mortal shells, but with slain leaders, especially the more tenacious types, their ghosts can haunt the palaces in which they were deposed for centuries, and they are more than eager to inhabit a new body in an attempt to regain what they had lost. However, this subject was an avowed atheist..the fastest way to lose your soul after death is to deny that you have one. The late Comrade was a hopeless case.

I began drawing up plans for a mechanical brain to give their former head of state a semblance of life. However, the new ruler of the empire yet to come paid me a visit. Steelman, I think his name was. He was obviously opposed to my project since he barged into my laboratory with a bevy of armed guards, held me at gunpoint, and pulled my subject back through the time portal. "Property of the State", he said.



Qlippothic was highly upset after I told her what happened..he said that mustachioed dictator was the same one that, so her recovered journals from the future tell her, deactivated her and left her languishing in an unmarked crate for a century before waking up in one of the Dark Future of Toxia.

Hmm..Stalin..Steelman..Qlippothic Steele..perhaps another piece of the puzzle.

~Dr. Mason

Dance Therapy: Costume Party Wednesday 10 October 7:30pm @ Amber's Pavillion

Come to Caledon Moors for a costume party! 100L for best male and female disguises! Hosted by me, orchestrated by Nurse Annastina Christensen - her uplifting ecclectic mix is UNIQUE to Second Life!

So you soon, boys and ghouls!

~Dr. Mason