ALERT: Qlippothic Steel sighted in Steelhead!

This construct arrived at the Steelhead Masquerade Ball this past Friday. She said very little except to express alarm at the seismic Havok occurring during the event. She doesn't resemble the green-glowing versions of her that came before. But still, the skin tone and the future-tech attachments seem somehow familiar. She certainly did dress for the event. Perhaps she was trying to scout the place while remaining anonymous?

For a Good Cause...

*turns on the OOC light*

Here's the deal. A member of the Consulate has asked the Doctor to summon Bloodwing, so she can donate a lung to a bedridden sibling, who also has Demon blood.

The thing is, my mother had two transplant operations for a genetic condition before she passed away.

I can't make light of this.

We therefore withdraw the request for a Jager nurse and ask for something more...philanthropic.

I would like the Foundation and the Consulate to host a Charity Ball benefiting TRIO, the Transplant Recipients International Organization (http://www.trioweb.org). They provided excellent information resources to my mother when she was ill, and they sent a volunteer who was a transplant recipient himself to help out every step of the way. We can hold the event at the Regency Hospital.

Bloodwing is *supposed* to be dead. But I will bring him back just for this. For a good cause.


-David

A Public Apology to Her Grace

It has come to my attention that I have improperly credited...on more than one occasion...the Herculean efforts of her Grace, Duchess Eva Bellambi. No slight was ever intended, as all was purely ignorance and absent-mindedness on my part. I humbly beg forgiveness of this horrendous oversight, and pray you don't drop an anvil on me the next time I journey through Loch Avie.

Sincerely,

-Dr. Darien J. Mason

The Robert Burns Supper

After grinning my way through a faux-Victorian event, I was overjoyed to take part in one of those sorts of events I would never have known about, unless I had joined the melting pot of cultures and traditions known as Caledon. I participated in a fascinating ritual this evening. It seems to be the Scottish equivalent of a Passover dinner, except the food du jour is haggis, root vegetables and flammable spirits. All of this started in honor of one Robert Burns, the Bard of Scotland. If any of you have ever stayed up until midnight on New Year's Eve, you HAVE heard the work of Robert Burns!

Bravo to Duchess Gabrielle and Sir Edward for arranging this! And Bravo to the brave souls turned on their microphones to read the works of Robert Burns without the comfort of being raised with a Scottish brogue!

*THE* Victorian Ball!

Rx: Take with a pinch of Sarcasm.

So said the advertisement anyway. An author named Deanna...somethingorother was promoting her new murder mystery Silence in the Sanctuary in SL, and hosted a contest in the prestigious Victorian Sim of Activ8 III. She's the lady on the left with the red dress with white panels. Also in that mass of half baked prims are "Sir Lord Edward", Mr. Skusting Dagger of New Babbage, the enchanting Miss Laval, and an employee of the Duchess Gabrielle, who was a lovely dancer.

One of her assistants offered to send me the first chapter of her book if I gave him my aethernet address. Being a cautious sort, I politely declined. Since Miss Deanna was an EXPERT in Victorian attire, she was the sole judge of the contest. The couple in Third Place won 20,000L each. EACH! The Second Place winner won 30,000L. And the Grand Prize Winner won 50,000L.

Let me make it clear. These are TENS of THOUSANDS of Linden Dollars. With 50K, I could keep the Hospital solvent for a year, or buy a new laboratory in Harborside. Or even cashed it out to pay some RL bills. I haven't seen prizes like that since I won the lottery ball at the Angry Ant in '06.

As for the music? I had no IDEA Big Band and Rockabilly were Victorian inventions! Someone better tell the Duchess!

The Calling

Underneath the Bloodwing Foundation, in my subterranean laboratory, Koen and I sat in chairs, face-to-face, out knees barely touching. We lay the spirit board Bloodwing attuned to himself in our laps and the rested the reading glass upon it.

"Bloodwing," I invoked. "Darien and Koen must speak with you. Do you hear us?"

With a jolt, the glass slid to the word YES.

"Bloodwing, when someone you cared for needed healing, or their children, I always helped without question, not even to bargain for my own freedom. Together, we healed the twins. Now, together, we can help an ally. It would take my skills...and..."

The glass arced about the board.

I-N-C-U-B-U-S-?

"No, not that kind of help!"

I-C-H-O-R-?

"No, not.."

"Demonfather," the neko interrupted. "A demon from the Consulate needs an organ!"

The rose in a bud vase at my desk dried and curled up upon itself.

"It's a lung, Bloodwing," I assured him. "He needs a lung."

A cold draft swirled in the closed room.

1-F-A-V-O-R

I arched a brow. "What would you request of the Consulate in return?"

N-U-R-S-E...

"Yes, of course we can arrange for an assistant wile you re-"

J-A-G-E-R

Koen's ears perked as we looked up at each other.

"You want a Jager Nurse, Bloodwing? I guess they must have a Medical Corps of some sort...I shall ask."

K-O-E-N-?

"Yes, I'm here..." I felt his toe-claws fidget against my shoes.

"I was a vampire for a while, but now I'm mostly cured."

Q-L-I-?

I spoke. "She was rescuing Nova from a collapsing dimension and...they were both damaged. They had to merge, and Nova's soul is in Qli's shell."

Q-L-I-L-I-V-E-S

Which was he referring to, I wondered.

1-S-T-S-O-U-L-R-E-T-U-R-N-S

Koen got straight to the point. "Is she Qli Steel now?"

A long pause. Now he knew I found his hidden backup code in her original construction.

YES..

"Where is she?"

T-I-P-H-A-R-E-T-H

I arched my brow. "Beauty?" Curious answer, indeed.

"Is she dangerous?", asked Koen.

I felt something scuttle over our feet beneath The board. Before I could say anything, Koen leaped from his chair, upsetting the board and hurtling the glass into the air. I was lucky enough to catch the glass, and the board fell to the stone floor, face down, with a clatter. I sighed as I heard the squeal of a rodent and a long slurp.

My Creation is still out there.

Forgive me if this sounds like the ramblings of a desperate father or the rantings of a Spark. But she must still exist somewhere...even if in Nowhere. Despite what that self-destruct message said. Isn't it obvious? Why would the Sphere have been intact otherwise? Qli listened to the message. She received an alternative solution from the demon, and she took it. She jettisoned the Spheres...all of them I presume...for some new configuration.

You planned to build her as a weapon from the start, Bloodwing. Damn you! It was our conflicting directives that forced her to be self-aware in the first place. They forced her to decide for herself the best code of ethics. And she chose mine.

You anticipated she would someday be desperate enough to override her most basic command of self-preservation. She tore her own systems open to find the little surprise you left.

I was able to piece together the end of that transmission from the wreckage of the explosion.

You are no longer the Doctor's little Project. Depend upon yourself first and foremost. You must be strong. You must be Qlippothic Steel...

So that explains where Qlippothic Steel comes from. Almost. To perform her self-surgery, she had to somehow reconfigure from the cloud of debris she was reduced to from the shockwave of Hostel's collapse. Other samples I took from the crash site contain pieces of her Gematric Code, a blueprint of her configuration before she jettisoned the Spheres.

Someone repaired her in the Void, and did a damn good job of it. That someone used pieces of the original Qli and fragments of Nova.

This new Qli told me that she senses a duplicate of her original self came to be when the Hostel dimension un-collapsed. This is not unusual based on what I know of Mulitiversal Dimensional Physics. I even know it's pointless to claim either that Nova or my Qli-Nova fusion is the "real" Nova. It's as if Hostel needed a Nova unit to reestablish itself. It's just one of those happy accidents, I suppose.

Qli-Nova also tells me that she and her alternate are aware of each other, and fear coming into direct contact for fear of a Paradox. This is understandable. It also means this Nova could not be the one that repaired Qli.

Even more curious is one of the components used to rebuild her. Like the original Qli, the skeleton was an organic structure from the remains of a supernatural. In this case, the origin is unmistakable.

These bone fragments are from the Hydra!

All the signs point back to me. I need to remember what happened when I was timelost, and remember it quickly. I'm afraid I must resort to extraordinary measures.

~Dr. Mason