Armourers For a Day

At last, something to post about! This past week has been very busy in RL, not least for my beloved, and Grid time together has been limited. When I have been IW I have been involved in a major project, which I hope in some way will add to life here in Caledon, but I will post about it when the time is right. Suffice to say, it has been weeks in the planning and development, and is something I am very proud to have gotten this far.

So I was glad to take a break and attend a class! This was a lesson in the craft of the armourer, and saw me learning to make a Renaissance helmet, of the sort worn by the Conquistadores, and still seen today as part of the garb worn by the Swiss Guard in Vatican City.

The class was a TUi event, held at their Edugames classroom, and delivered by Mr Alunoe Janus. I was amazed to discover this was Mr Janus's first ever taught class, he did very well, and was at pains to make sure everyone stayed together throughout the build.

I was particularly pleased when my darling Kacy dropped in - she is up to her eyes in RL at present, so for her to take time to share a class with me was very much a treat! There can't be many fiancees who would join in a class on historic armour just to be with their love, and I feel very blessed indeed that she is mine.

The build itself was straightforward enough, but the results far outwieghed the seeming simplicity of it. I learnt a good deal as always, and the plumes were a revelation! My effort was very standard, all rusted steel, but Kacy made a very attractive helm in gold! Just the thing for the lady who wants to look good whilst she plunders a lost civilization!

We returned home after the class for a brief canoodle before RL claimed my beloved once more. Don't we look dashing in our new headgear! Once this week is out of the way I hope we shall both be posting more often. I shall close with a quick Hello! to Kacy, and just say that I love you very much, and look forward to Monday very much indeed!

Steppenwolf Redux

In the spirit of my previous thinkpiece on the Kittiwick Were, I here present another, words by those eternal anarchists and true Steampunks of our time, Hawkwind, the song being entitled appropriately enough "Steppenwolf".

You can see my eyes are lupine
The liquid golden fires glare
My loping walk, my slinking spine
Are signs that there is something there
The way my nostrils flare for odour
The way my ears prick up for sound
My hair's electrically aware
Tells me things for miles around

I am a man-wolf, I am a wolf man
I have half a canine mind
I have half the mind of a man
I am neither of one kind
Maybe it was only an hallucination
I'm no stranger to such things
I made a thorough investigation
The image had a power that clings
To my jaded imagination
My brain has found the bells it rings

Like a wolf my wilful loafing
My languishing alone in my lair
Where you will never hear me laughing
I'm half in love with dark and despair
The Moon's a howling, mouth of mercury
Quicksilver quivering in the sky
It echoes like a cave of chromium
That'll vacuum up my soul when I die

I am a wolf man, I am a man-wolf
A freak, a fiend, a figment of mind
A species of the steppes and city
I am neither of one kind
Dissolving in the slendour of this desolation
The forest has been filled by a fog
Exactly a description of my isolation
I made a note of it in my log
To the secret of all creation
I follow my own trail like a dog

I am a wolf man,
Who walks alone in the gas lamp shadows
of the streets at night
I am a man-wolf upright on two feet in the city,
dressed sombrely as a man,
I am a wolf man
Under skies heavy with snow,
my eyes are convex lenses of ebony,
embedded in amber,
I am a man-wolf
The fat bourgeois and his doppelganger,
are buried in their solid glare
Twin specimens of insect, set for display
I am a wolf-man,
The man in me would kill the wolf
I am a man-wolf,
The wolf in me would eat the man
I am a wolf man,
Who despises the strivings of common men
I am a man-wolf
Who sees them at work,
at their daily tasks at factories and office desk
Who watches them at evening,
elbows lift at tavern tables, heads lolling in song
Isch weis nischt weis ischa (Zargonzoi)

I saw a neon sign reflected
in a pool of liquid sky
It was not what I expected,
I was only walking by
The sign said "To the Magic Theatre"
It is not for everyone
It is but for madmen only,
the first performance has begun
I looked up to see that notice
where the lights were shining from
Nothing but blank wall was there
and their reflection too was gone

Maybe it was only an hallucination
I'm no stranger to such things
I made a thorough investigation
The image had a power that clings
To my jaded imagination
My brain has found the bell it rings

The picture is one I managed to snap myself, as I returned to our cottage after a moonlight ride around the Shire. Fedioukine immediately drew my attention to a nearby presence - the Were himself! I hastily took out my Box Brownie, and managed to snap off a few shots, but my talent for photography coupled with the heat of the moment, and the very low light levels, meant that only this one is usuable. The Creature must have heard the shutter, for a moment later he turned and looked at me, holding me fast with his glowing eyes, but then he caught scent of my steed, and this caused him to bolt. Once again I thank the gods for my trusty charger!

The song deals with an aspect we may have overlooked entirely in our varied correspondence on the subject, what indeed it must be like to be one so afflicted by this curse. The tension between the competing natures must be fierce indeed, and is perhaps the main reason why so many Weres are reputed to run amok. Let us hope the good Mr Sin can perfect his method of capture and rehabilitation before this poor unfortunate goes down the road to howling madness.

Pavilions Of Glory

Our good friends Leon and Gloriana invited us over to see Glori's plot in Eyre the other night, and to help celebrate the occasion of her moving on to it.

Miss Maertens is awaiting delivery of a house, being created for her by Miss Carricre Wind, the architect par excellence responsible for all the stunning buildings on Eyre, and for the sim itself. As a stop gap, she has erected this fantastic pavilion, a structure very in keeping with her bohemian artist's nature.

Constructed of rich fabrics, it sits not incongruously with the mountains behind, and indeed when one comes upon it, you feel as though it is meant to be there, part of a Steampunk Bohemian encampment, tucked away in one of the wilder parts of Caledon.

Inside, it is equally lavish, good solid timbers of dark wood making up the floor and ceiling, and holding the whole together with a sense of solidity. The warm colours give the place a very welcoming feel, the dark hues lending themselves to talk of revolution and emancipation over a glass of absinthe, or whatever else it is that Bohemians do!

Gloriana had made very good use of the space as well, managing to fit an entertaining area, her bookshelves, drawing board and a magnificent four poster bed into the place, without making it feel at all cramped. The Tiffany lamps and the Klimt on the wall all spoke of this being the abode of a lady of the Arts.

My love and I made up a quintent, the other guest being their friend Mr Gryffen Hax, who also has land in Eyre.

The atmosphere was very convivial, and we spoke of many things, our hopes for the future, how we all loved Caledon, and Leon's plans for his laboratory in Babbage Canals. Another example there of the cross-fertilization between the disparate Steampunk communities on the Grid.

We are glad to have made such friends as Leon and Glori, and find that we share many things in common, not the least of them being a love of all things fantastical such as are to be found in the world of the Steampunk. With such people as these two in it, that world can only become a brighter place.

Birthday Girl

Friday was the occasion of my sister AuroraSkye's RL birthday, and a party was thrown for her in SL by some very good friends of hers, AnnaLee and Roberto.

They held the party on their island, which acts as a showroom for AnnaLees piano's. Sadly I did not take down the name of the sim, and for that I do apologise, if you are reading this, miss.

They had made a fantastic cake for my sister, with candles she could blow out - and then relight, to blow out all over again! I thoroughly enjoyed my slice of it, nothing makes a party as much as a good cake!

I arrived late to the party, having gotten caught up in one of my obsessive searches for something across the Grid, but it looks from the pictures on display as if a very good time was had. The bag of party favours was an eye opener in itself, I am still trying work out what a Penis Sipper is.

Those few of us left at the end gathered on the dance floor for a commemorative photo. The signs had all been made for the occasion by Aurora's friends, and were animated with messages and appropriate birthday images.

I was late to the party, and would have liked to have seen a bit more of it, but I am glad I managed to make for the short while I did, and say Happy Birthday to my middle sister in SL. Such relationships deepen our whole experience of the Grid, and it is nice to share important events in the lives of people we are close to.

Cannon Fodder

The last exhibit we tried, and this was definitely a case of saving the best till last, was Professor Avalanche's Verne Cannon!

This was a small replica of the actual device described in the book "From the Earth to the Moon", an account of a journey taken to our satellite, as accurately transcribed by Mr Jules Verne. The columbiad used for that voyage was of course far larger, but the Professor's scale model was just as impressive.

My love and I took our seats in the capsule, and waited for an earth shattering roar as the cannon discharged. It may have been the lag, but such did not occur. All of a sudden we found ourselves 1500m above Primverness and climbing!

The flight was very smooth and took place in an unearthly silence, as the projectile flew far ahead of its own sound. Another marvel of science!

We returned to terra firma no less gently than we had left it, splashing down in the waters off Primverness. Another amazing experience, granted us by the creativity that runs rampant through the soul of all Caledonians. Again, this device should, I feel, be on permanent public display, for the welfare of all.


The Great Exhibition of 1851 ran for five and a half months, and was visited by some six million people. Our Steampunk Exposition ran for 42 SL days (each being 4 hours long), and I am sure attracted a proportionate amount of interest. It was all held to raise money for the SLRFL, and I look forward to hearing the total raised when Miss Paris has collated all the figures together.

All in all the Exposition was, to us at least, a marvellous event, held to raise money but also to showcase the wealth of inventive talent we are blessed with here in Caledon. I do hope it becomes a permanent fixture in our social calendar!

Steampunk Science = Fun!

Moving on from the Tea Room and it's ticklish Squid, my beloved and I came to Mr Greggan's Cavorite Repulsion Chamber! For those who may not be familiar with Cavorite, this is the Wiki description;

Cavorite is impervious to gravity and can shield other materials from its effects. It is used to shield a craft from Earth's pull, allowing easy flight. It was named after its discoverer, Mr. Cavor, who used its levitational properties to travel to the Moon.

A most remarkable and much prized material! You may not also be aware, but Caledon is blessed with a rich seam of the material, details of which - and a lump of the raw ore itself - may be found on display at the Guvnah's Mansion in Victoria City. I certainly make use of it on my airships, a thin coating of this miraculous substance, applied as a mixture in the final painting and varnishing process, does away with the need for cumbersome - and frankly highly dangerous - gas bags filled with Hydrogen.


Enough science! Cavorite also lends itself to a whole deal of fun, as in this Repulsion Chamber! You step in, and are instantly made weightless! Bouncing around the chamber, accompanied by all manner of lewd noises, was a great tonic to the ennui of the lag that day! Such a device should be put on permanent public display in VC, for the good of all residents - though demand for such capers would probably lead to horrific lag-inducing queues as the good people of Caledon and places elsewhere stood in line for their turn!

Steampunk Tearoom

On entering the craft, we found our dear friends Miss Gloriana Maertens and her beau, the good Captain Leon Susenko. The craft was actually a Tea Room, set up for the duration of the Expo by its creator and host, Mr Angus Mesmer.

Through the great glass portholes we could see the sea monster - apparently some form of Giant Squid! The creature did not appear dangerous though, indeed it was quite ticklish, as was discovered when Kacy went to swim with him, and also the good Professor Avalanche, swaddled as he was in a fine diving suit.

Mr Mesmer has done a fantastic job breeding the beast, and indeed two tentative orders were placed in case he should manage to hatch any more.

The Tea Room was a magnificent construction, I do hope you managed to see it on your visit to the Expo. It would be nice to see it become a permanent feature somewhere in Caledon, and maybe it will, Mr Mesmer is a man of many projects and much surprises!

Steampunk 07

Much has already been written about the Caledon Steampuk Expo for 2007, so I will direct you those articles here, from Miss Lapin Paris, the organiser of the Exposition, here from Miss Lavendar Beaumont, and here from Miss Virrginia Tombola. These next few posts will just be a pictorial record of our visit on Saturday 16th.

The first picture shows the Expo atrium, at the purpose built site on Caledon Primverness. There were many vendors set up, selling all manner of Steampunk delights, and all raising money for RFL. Miss Paris can be seen welcoming visitors.


The next shot shows two inventions of Miss Paris', her Hot Potato Vendor, based on a genuine Victorian machine, and her steam powered Rose Grower, that harnesses the technology of our day to produce lovely roses almost from thin air, it seems!

Below that we have a recreation of a Stirling Engine. These are classified as external combustion engines, and I can't pretend to know any more than I did before the Expo, but it was a fascinating build.

Then my love directed me to this sign! It was set in the ground next to what appeared to be a stricken vessel along the lines of the Nautilus, complete with sea monster attached! There appeared to be signs of people within the metal craft, so we stepped inside to investigate....

Steppenwolf

I saw on Miss Lavendars blog a very good post on the nature of things here, using the classic song The Snake by Al Wilson. I love "think pieces" like that, and Miss Beaumont has created a good one.

So when I received these shots of the Kittiwick Were from an anonymous source - possibly another supporter of the beast's right to be, I was minded to put some words to them. Searching through my collection I came to this, from the classic album "Sunfighter" by Grace Slick and Paul Kantner.

When I was a boy I watched the wolves
When I was a boy I watched wolfpack
Run, I watched the wolves till the mornin' sun
And as I grew I soon found the wolfpack grow on me
Laser bright feel the lunar light comin down on me
Moonlight, leave me be, comin down on me
We Roll and we go thru the mountain snow
Wolfpack silver, down to the water
Timber line leader gonna find you
Getcha goin down to the nighttime

No eyes shine on the mind protected
No light shines on the fang neglected
Run with the wolfpack

When I was young and low out here in San Francisco
I could rely on the fire of my friends, now I can Carry a few and I do when I can we get
By however we can

Me and my friends we roll thru the hills in the nighttime
Me and my friends run into the mornin sunshine

I suppose you could yell at your dog
He'd be barking his face right back
I imagine you calling yourself big fang
Observing you run with the pack

Wolfpack werewolf, gleaming on the hillside
She-wolf dripping come here and find me
Down by the cool clear waterside
Down by the nighttime

Bow to the moon / lean to the morning sun
Feel how clean / when the night when your nite is done

Run with the wolfpack
Get down be bright go back, run with the wolfpack We have the mountains, we have the town now Battle cruiser, two tone silver loser
Run with the wolfpack
Run with the wolfpack
Run with the wolfpack

This intended as a piece to complement Miss Beaumont's, dealing as it does with the question of allowing our inner natures to run free so as to truly be ourselves.

A Shilling A Day

Having Fedioukine has given me an excuse to play dress up once again, this time realising boyhood dreams of being a cavalryman. Here then my collection of uniforms so far;

1; Hussar, based perhaps on the uniform of the 11th Hussars. Available from Tombola & Whittlesea, Caledon Eyre.

2; Prussian Hussar, possibly based on the 1st Lieb Regiment, also available from Tombola & Whittlesea of Caledon Eyre.


3; Caledon Light Horse, a work in progress, as only the tunic is suppplied in the RFL Militia pack. Watch this space for more of my attempts to create a Light Horse uniform that appears based on a historical Victorian precedent.

Brontes And Blimps

My love and I took a ride out around Caledon Eyre this evening, the newest and 18th of the Caledon sims. Named for Jayne Eyre, the sim is very grand indeed, half of it given over to large plots, each with a fantastic prefab on it. Very much a Regency feel to the place, which fits well with the Steampunk theme, being as it is at the earlier end of the genre.

The mountains that loom over the eastern half of the sim really create the sense of of dark foreboding and brooding passion so beloved of the Bronte girls, and I congratulate Miss Carricre Wind for what she has given Caledon, and in such a punishingly short time scale as well. Our beloved Guvnah is very well served by the talent he can call on, when he himself is so immersed in the future development of our fair land.

Naturally we paid a visit to our bloodstock agents, Tombola and Whittlesea, and were able to congratulate the Girl Genius herself, Miss Virrginia Tombola, on the stud she is developing. Miss Tombola looked most elegant, in a very fancy new dress, on her way to the Pearse reception I believe.

I was able to pass on a rough draft of my Supermarine S1, a racing blimp I am working on, and so named after the superlative float planes that dominated the Schneider Trophy races of the 1920's. Not particularly Steampunk perhaps, but it is a blimp, and the name suggested itself from the lines I created in its design. Miss Tombola seemed quite pleased at this first attempt, her praise is praise indeed considering her own prowess as an aeronautical engineer.

We discussed briefly the possibility that perhaps there should be a Caledon Trophy, won for an air race around Caledon, and then the way that we could use our horses more, with Point to Point, Hunter Trials and other such equestrian fun. Then my beloved managed to interrupt my flow, and allow Miss Tombola to escape, this time at least!

We rode on across the sim, driving our mounts up the side of the mountains to be afforded a stunning view from the summit, where we rested next to the Thibaud Mill. I believe that Eyre is the first in a run of sims across the northern edge of Caledon creating a wild and wooly area to perfectly counterbalance the mannered sophistication of the South, particularly the South Eastern quadrant around Victoria City and the Duchies.

Indeed , Guvnah Shang is creating something very like an alternate Victorian England, London and the South East have ever been above and apart from the North and West of my homeland, and the South Western sims of Caledon I, II, Tamrannoch et al are very much the Home Counties of Caledon! Whether by accident or design (and I suspect the latter, given the sheer genius of the Guvnah's vision) Caledon is becoming what it was hoped it would, an alternate 18th/19th century Britain, and I for one am honoured and not a little over-awed at being able to play my part here, however small that may be. Vivat Caledon!!

Fountain Of Knowledge

My love and I like to build, and more so to build together, so when Kacy suggested we might like to take a class together, I jumped at the chance. She had found a class on making an Ornate Fountain, which we could possibly install somewhere on our land, so off we went to school together.

The class was offered by the Academy of Second Learning, at their Colorado Tech Campus. The tutor was a Miss Dnali Anabuki, and for what was quite a complex build she delivered the class very well.

The areas covered by this build were surface texturing, use of Dimple, texture rotation and the layering of textures to create an effect. Both my love and I were thrilled as the build progressed, at how seemingly complex effects are produced very simply.

I take something new away from every class I attend, and not just the supplies either, but this time I learnt a great deal of tips and tricks. I also had the delight of working alongside my beloved - sat at the back of the class (where else) we had fun but got on with the lesson as well, the pair of us ending up feeling more confident in our skills.

Kacy is proving to be a natural builder, her eye for design and graphics really being allowed to shine as she works with the SL 3D interface. I look forward very much to seeing what she will create as our time together on the Grid passes into many new days to come.

For now, we have a new fountain by the Scaggs-Despres Cottage in the Shire, my fiancee having installed one by the front door. If you haven't paid a visit yet, please do, Kacy is creating something very special with her talent for dressing interiors. And bring a friend, as with all our installations, this one is best shared!

Step Right Up, Behold the SL Freak Show

I signed in last night and was changing at home when I saw what looked to be a Tiny gliding around in our living room. The only person on my radar was Mordecai, so I thought maybe he was tired of being a big, red daemon, and was going to try his hand at being a Tiny rabbit or beaver, or other cuddly woodland creature.

“Honey?” I called out, still trying to find a dress, and only half paying attention to the small, hovering mass outside the door. As I pulled my dress over my head, I looked up to see my darling fiancé. Smushed beyond recognition.

“Wtf?!” I exclaimed, starting to giggle at my tiny little fiancé all crumpled up.

“Am I still showing up in a ball to you?” He asked innocently, his hands flexing within the Orb of Mord as he typed.

I laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe, doubled over as my beloved floated around the room. I managed to get a “What happened?” in as I lay on the floor, taken over by a full on giggle fit.

“TP disaster,” he said begrudgingly.

Being the dear that he is, he let me take some pictures of him in his compact state, smiling (well I think he was, he face was turned into his stomach) as he let me have my fun, suffering a bit of humiliation so I could have a giggle.

Mordecai relogged and came back my 7 foot, blaze red daemon, and all was right with the world. We went off to enjoy our evening, me giggling every once in a while at how silly he looked, thinking to myself how glad I was that I always look proper, never one to have that type of avatar malfunction. The SL gods do not look kindly on faux-proper ladies it seems, as they exacted their revenge on me a few hours later.

My love and I had just gotten back from a lovely ride on our new horses that my love mentioned in the previous posts. As I dismounted His Majesty Imperial of Shire Coppice by the Fiume di Kacy, who I call Hank, I blushed as my horse went off to graze and stayed looking as though I was riding an invisible pony.

“A little saddle sore my love.” Mordecai quipped, stifling a laugh. I cleared my throat, smoothed my hair, and clicked “Stop all animations” furiously. Nope. Nothing. Nada. Just me and my invisible horse.

“Er, yes, love, I am just, uh stretching a bit.” I think I played it off beautifully, thinking if I just walked a bit, I might shake it off. Again, not so much. I just hovered above the air, gliding on my phantom horse. I started to laugh, and tried everything I could think of to get myself out of this silly pose. Finally, something worked, and I stood properly, chin held high.
“See, all set,” I said haughtily as I turned to face my love. Only I didn’t turn, my head did. The rest of me stayed put as I channeled Linda Blair and looked back at my love. And down at my ass.

Mordecai started to laugh, “Death Becomes Her, dear?” he joked, as I spun in circles trying to snap my head back in place. “Let me get some snaps” he said.

“Of course.” I groaned, my earlier snobbery at the Orb of Mord coming back to bite me in the butt, of which I had an excellent view.

“Ok Meryl, time to relog.” He said grinning. Humbled I quickly logged out and back in, breathing a sigh of relief as I saw the world stretched out in front of me again. A word to the wise, the SL gods will punish you for bad behavior, by turning you into a walking freakshow, so be careful, or you might end up tragically deformed and have to start a traveling band of freaks to tour the Grid with…on second thought, that sounds kind of fun….

The Horsey Set

The beauty of SL - or one of them at any rate, is the ability to do things pon the Grid that are out of reach of one's RL for any number of reasons, or indeed that are just plain impossible outside of a virtual world!

Sticking with the former category though, I am sure that you, like we, have done things IW that you wouldn't normally do. Skydiving and flying planes are two things that spring to mind for me. And then there are those things that are difficult in RL by virtue of cost or location. I can ride a horse in RL, and ride to a fairly competent standard, having a natural seat, or so I am told. However RL equestrianism is costly, and way out of my current reach for now.

So my beloved and I were overjoyed to find that Miss Virrginia Tombola is now selling steeds from her newly opened Eyre branch of La Bicyclette. Miss Tombola has informed your correspondent that this unit will become a Regency Coaching Inn and Stables, her horses being available here along with a lovely little Trap, and appropriate Regency and Equestrian attire. The horses are worn as attachments, and are the best I have seen. I know that there are other breeders and bloodstock merchants out there, but Tombola and Whittlesea of Caledon Eyre are the horse traders for me. Miss Ginnie's horses are very reasonably priced as well compared to others in the market place.

My betrothed and I each chose a steed, Kacy taking a Black and me taking a Grey, both geldings as they make the best mounts. At present these and Roan are the colours on offer, but I understand Miss Tombola will be bringing other colours to market, I particularly want a Dun for myself. The horses come in two varieties, English Saddle and Side Saddle. Naturally we both chose the English Saddle, my love may be a lady, but there is something of Miss Pankhurst about her, a fiery independence, and being from the US she is used to the Western style of riding anyway.

We took off and had a marvellous gallop around Eyre,Tanglewood and The Shire. I do believe both our mounts had something of the Royal Godolphin in them, they handled so well, and with a good turn of speed. Kacy rides a true thoroughbred, its stud name being His Majesty Imperial of Shire Coppice by the Fiume di Kacy, although she calls him Hank. A descendant of the great stallion himself, and a lineage a Caledonian lady can take pride in. My Grey does seem to have some fancy blood in him too, but my needs are different, a Major in the Light Horse needs a mount that is steady under fire and that will happily ride at the enemy in the press of horse flesh that is the charge. Of more mixed stock, he is called Fedioukine (one for all you students of military history out there), and though not the brightest of equids, he is as loyal as the day is long.

My darling and I have both been thoroughly bitten by the horse bug that is sweeping our glorious State of Caledon, so expect to see more of our adventures on horse back. And for those of you unsure as to whether horseriding in SL is for you, Miss Ginnie provides a "try before you buy" facility at her yard, something I heartily recommend you do!

Meet The Wrymlings

I logged on yesterday evening to await my beloved, and received a rather cryptic communication from my friend Leon. Was I at home? I was, and on my way down to the cottage my love and I are dressing into the landscape of the Shire. Okay, came the reply, meet you there. I arrived, but could see neither the good Captain nor his beloved Miss Maertens. So where? I IM'd. Behind you.

And there they were, my friends the wyrmlings! Ever ones for "shinies", they had that day been to the Isle of Wyrms, and like so many visitors before them they had succumbed to the beauty of the avatars available in the Cathedral.

Our two friends had picked well. Leon the Steampunk Inventor was a Steam Wyrm, complete with mechanical limbs and wings, and an oxyacetylene torch of a fire breath, and Glori the Artist was an Astral Wyrm, changing colour in a very pretty, girlish way, whilst breathing out stars and planets. Matched as humans, matched as wyrms!

The avatars come with saddles, and after a bit of trial and error, Leon got his sorted and I was treated to a midnight flight over Tanglewood on the back of a draconid! These wyrmling avatars are real works of art, and come with a lot of bells and whistles too, all HUD controlled, and when I was told the price was L2200 I was amazed! I have paid L4000 for a manskin before now, and all that did was look okay!

Kacy and I will have to go look at the Isle of Wyrms soon, others of our friends have also become part-time dragons. Doesn't mean we will, but according to Miss Maertens, the Shadow Wyrm would suit

me!

Triathlon Ball

Yesterday was the occasion of the Caledon SLRFL Triathlon, a full account of which can be found here, on Miss Lapin Paris' journal. My love and I did not attend this event, as we were very busily engaged elsewhere, but we did attend the prize-giving ball later that evening, making up a foursome with Captain Susenko and Miss Maertens.

The event was hosted by one of the newer residents of Caledon, a Mr Newbe Writer, held in the very fine ballroom he has had installed in his property looking across the bay to Sky City itself.

The dress code was tuxedo for the gentlemen, which I welcomed, as it gave me a chance to wear my Silver Nightshade outfit for the first time, and white for the ladies. My beloved Kacy shone above all others in the simply elegant and classically cut outfit she wore. All the ladies did very well to meet the challenge of a white dress that was not designed first and foremost for the aisle. All bar one notable exception, Her Grace Riel, who arrived in a red number - one can only assume this paragon of social graces had come from a prior engagement, her tightly laced schedule not allowing her any time to change to this events theme.

Our foursome danced well, despite lag, and Miss Gloriana gave good account of herself despite carrying her injury from last night. Her paramour Captain Susenko was peerless in attending her, bidding her sit before she became too taxed by the evening's diversions, and fetching her all manner of sweetmeats and libations as her fancy took her.

I should also commend my friend for not rising to the (albeit very weak) bait provided by Colonel, now Post Captain, O'Toole. I must admit the good Hotspur's delight in uniforms exceeds even mine! The Colonel seemed in ill humour this night, and bantered with Captain Susenko on the health of our brother Captain Sin.

O'Toole seems to have a real bee in his bonnet over this one, and seeing my friend's distress at such a bad-tempered interrogation I had to step in, gently chiding about how Miss Maertens had been injured by the Were when a certain Colonel-turned-Post Captain had been on hand to guard the women. This caused the Colonel to lapse into a sullen silence, which I am happy to say was somewhat lifted when Miss Paris charitably took him off to the dance floor.

The night was taking its toll on us all, so after a dance for Leon with my fiance to satisfy custom that a man may not dance solely with his own lady all night, Kacy and I returned to our home above the Shire, to dance a dance all our own in the private ballroom I have installed there. The Ball had been a most pleasant one, overall good natured and good humoured, and the arrival of Mr Writer and his ballroom onto the social scene in Caledon bodes naught but good.

The Kittiwick Were

My beloved and I are able to spend a whole weekend together, a rare treat indeed for me. In fact these last couple of days have been wonderful, Kacy's RL allowing us to take a virtual vacation together in SL! So we decided to head off to our local bar, the Salty Mermaid in Kittiwick, and spend a Friday night in the company of friends.

We arrived in time to find the best seats at the bar, and the place soon started to fill up with patrons. The Mermaid is owned by Caledon's very own Time Lord, Dr Oolon Sputnik, and a fine establishment it is too! Although the spitoon is absolutely vile in the most delightful way, and don't challenge the good Doctor to an arm wrestle, his Gallifreyan physiology makes him impossible to beat!

My intended decided to have fun by working the bar, and this she did to great effect, the Mermaid soon packed and overflowing onto the street outside. Certainly she will get my vote every time as the best barmaid in Caledon! We had a fantastic time in the company of friends old and new. At one point it was almost a reunion of the Light Horse, as although we were all out of uniform, there was myself, Captain Susenko, Captain Vollmar and Captain Sin, a gentleman whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making for the first time last night. Although the Mermaid will like as not be the watering hole of the new Caledon Navy that is being formed by Dr Sputnik jointly with Admiral Carricre Wind, it will serve that purpose well for us horse soldiers too.

The mention of Captain Sin, Lucius Sin when not in uniform, brings me to the meat of last night. If you read the various Caledon blogs, you will have seen here, in Miss Lavendar Beaumont's wonderful journal, and here, from the most inestimable Colonel O'Toole's pages, that we have a Werewolf loose in Caledon! It seems Mr Sin is tracking the Beast, as it is one he and his late brother encountered in the Balkans some years ago. It was during this encounter that Lucius's brother was killed, and he himself wounded, so he has old scores to settle with it.

It is therefore much to Lucius Sin's credit, that he wishes to trap and rehabilitate the Beast, seeking in some manner to even heal it of its lycanthropy. This is an attitude I thoroughly applaud, and hold it up as a light to shine against the reactionary attitudes presented elsewhere. To wish to kill a creature simply because it is different is outrageous, and trying to justify such despicable lusts with innuendo and rumour only compounds the very wrongness of it within Caledon society. How long before it is a crime to wear a red skin and be of Djinn stock? The beauty of Caledon is its inclusivity, particularly of Furs - indeed our Vicereine is a Fur, and to wish harm to a Fur is doing great disrespect to both her person and her sovereignty.

I have spoken before about the tensions between Steampunks and Victorianists in Caledon, and the Affair of The Kittiwick Were has once again highlighted those differences. As a Steampunk, I welcome the darkness as well as the light, one cannot have either without the other, and thus a lycanthrope is a vital part of our community, one we must learn to adapt to. The Victorianists hate what they do not understand and what they cannot control, thus seeking to eradicate any suggestion that the world is not the chocolate-box cover art they wish it to be. The issues raised here stand to be very divisive, dealing as they do with Furs - who is to say that just because a creature is not a cutesy fluffy wuffy Tiny, it therefore has less right than said saccharin woodland creatures to exist?

Mr Sin has come under some most unwelcome scrutiny for his attitude in wanting to help the poor unfortunate so afflicted, and I am shocked at the way he is being treated for it. A student of the deep esoteric mysteries, if anyone can release this creature from its bondage to the lunar cycle it is he. Indeed his knowledge proved invaluable last night, and I shall explain. The Mermaid filled up with patrons, and it soon become apparent that there was the anticipation of a kill in the air. Colonel O'Toole, in his (self proclaimed) role as Destroyer of Werebeasts, was making ready to finish his personal crusade against the Creature, armed as he was with a silver bullet. Ever vicarious, the great and good of Caledon society had turned out to see the denouement. My dear friend Captain Vollmar was most upset at the attitudes displayed by some of the supposed pillars of our community toward a Fur, and I felt very aggrieved for him. It seems as if the Light Horse is now become the protectors of the Lycanthrope, being as we are all four square behind our brother officer Captain Sin in his efforts to finds a more meaningful conclusion to this business than mere bloodletting. Sadly he had to retire before the Were showed itself, his many years of travel in the Orient having left his system weakened, thus missing a great opportunity to catch it. Though how much more successful he would have been than the posse of men who tried to snare it last night is unknown as yet.

The Beast did appear, and ran right down the main street of Kittiwick! You have to admire it's pluck if nothing else, and I can discern a sense of puckish fun in its behaviour, something I applaud. We of the Light Horse (including Viderian, who had persuaded to return and help protect the Creature if we could) gave chase, accompanied by Sir Zenmondo Wormser and Her Grace Bellambi, two of the all too few others who were showing any kind of compassion toward the Werewolf and the plight of the person so afflicted. In fact the one person notable by his absence from the chase was the good Colonel. I think his blunderbuss was not properly primed or some similar technical mishap. Tis still a mystery even now as to how the Beast was able to return to the crowd of onlookers and accidentally graze Miss Gloriana Maerten's leg as it strove to avoid the crowd it found itself confronted with.

We heroes of Kittiwick were suitably contrite when we heard this news, having allowed ourselves to act as nought but gun-toting yahoos, leaving the women unguarded in our zeal to capture this creature. My good friend Captian Susenko was beside himself at this, as he and Miss Maertens are courting, and a very wonderful sight they do make, too. The injury to Miss Maertens sparked debate as to whether she too would sprout hair and grow fangs, certain comments made by certain people doing nothing help the lady's composure at all. It was at this point that I tried to explain quite how something as unearthly as lycanthropy can take a hold of its victims, or not as the case may be.

Though amongst my kind I am known as a Sila, one who cannot shapeshift, I have plenty of cousins who are Ghul, who can change their form, and thus I know something of this topic. I have also spent many aeons amongst humans, as I strive to understand what makes them, and consequently myself by reaction to them, tick. Yes, lycanthropy is passed much as rabies is, an infected creature needs to bite another to pass on the affliction - Miss Maertens was merely scratched, so she is safe. I also contend that she is safe because she is not a wolf inside, being possessed of an artist's spirit and striving to see the good in all. This is the esoteric element to the condition, and the one that is most often overlooked by dull-witted people who seek to kill all such creatures, fearing what their existence says of them. One must be a wolf within, to have a rapine and violent soul, in order to fully become a werewolf. Miss Maerten's is not such a person, and we can only be thankful that it was she, and not another - for instance someone with a desire to hunt and kill, who was injured - had they been bitten, we would surely be facing an epidemic of wereishness by now.

My comments will undoubtedly not make me any more popular than I already aren't, but the presence of a lycanthrope amongst us does, by the very nature of the action of affliction, throw our society and the principles it is built upon into stark focus. Some have commented and congratulated me on the fact that my writing on occasion forces the reader to ask questions of themselves, and this is one of those occasions. If Caledon is to retain it's vibrant Steampunk heart and soul, we as a community must put aside ire and fear, lose our ignorance and pride, and embrace all that this poor benighted creature symbolises for us. Rather than being a cause for disunity and division, rancour and ill-feeling, lets us make it a cause celebre, whereby Caledon can stand proud and tall, head and shoulders above all other parts of the Grid, and say "Here is where true civilisation lives, this is where all may come and be made welcome, here is where fur and feather, flesh and fin may live in peace and accord, one with another".

I suspect that I shall be taken as nothing more than a rather irritating noise in the background, and events will follow the unhappy course they seem set upon, UNLESS certain members of the group that wishes to kill the Kittiwick Were made a polar shift in their thinking and add their not inconsiderable expertise and resources to the search for a way of saving him - or indeed her.

Back to the events of last night! Miss Maertens was swiftly attended to by our very own angel of mercy, Miss Mitsou Fraisse, and then Lucius Sin was summoned to give any aid he could. Things began to get heated again, so in the spirit of comradeship and the esprit de corps of the Light Horse, my beloved and I took Miss Maertens, her Captain, and Mr Sin back to our home above the clouds, where Lucius attended to Miss Maertens wounds, declaring them safe from taint and treating her with all manner of strange and exotic herbs. He did say that having so much healing sunlight flooding into our house, made as it is of glazed panels, was most helpful in cleaning the wound of any possibility of unearthly infection. So Miss Maertens will be seen to remain very human indeed, albeit with a slight limp for a while, and all talk of chains and silver bullets should be dropped with regard to her, unless of course she and her Captain Susenko wish to explore such things in the privacy of their own home!

The good Captain has also taken our brother Captain Sin into his house in New Babbage, there to work with him on a device for first restraining, and then rehabilitating, our lycanthrope. The Light Horse stands shoulder to shoulder on this one, secure in the knowledge that it is what our beloved leader Guvnah Shang, and our majestic Vicereine, Kamillah I, would have us do, namely catch and treat this creature, so it can wear its skin rather than lose it. We of the CLH cannot do this alone, nor would we wish to, in this one issue is all that is right and beloved of Caledon contained, and we must all step up to the mark and be counted amongst those who heal and not harm. Otherwise, it will surely be Werewolves today, Nekos tomorrow, Fae the day after, and Djinn by the end of the week - when value judgements are made on the grounds of species and with the eyes of fear and ignorance, we start down the road to a Hell none of us wishes to visit.

Destiny, By Edwin Arnold

Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours
For one lone soul another lonely soul
Each choosing each through all the weary hours
And meeting strangely at one sudden goal.
Then blend they, like green leaves with golden flowers,
Into one beautiful and perfect whole;
And life's long night is ended, and the way
Lies open onward to eternal day.

A Home Above The Shire

So now we are living above Kittiwickshire. 450m above, in a pair of what my dear sister Cheyenne has dubbed giant Steampunk testicles. Bless her!

All the windows have been scripted to change to privacy textures when needed. All 200 of them. At the moment the change textures are metal sheets of varying types, which don't look unattractive as a stop gap, but my beloved will be producing change textures to match the windows themselves, so the effect will be even more stunning.


If you look back at the previous post on our new sky home, you will see we had intended to have a spiral staircase running up a central atrium in each sphere, but this was actually not the most effective use of the spaces available, so a simple TP system has been installed to take people between floors. And there are now 4 floors in each sphere, which greatly enhances our scope for both luxury and entertaining. Separate spaces for bedroom, lounge, zen spa, hot tub, orchid house, gallery, the list goes on. At last a virtual lifestyle that I and my darling Kacy both aspire to, and deserve!

Being set at 450m should avoid one of the bugbears of life aboard the Rakehell. Gawpers. Being so large at such a low level meant our home appeared on the map as a very obvious landmark. People wanted to come see this beast of a dirigible, which is understandable, but very few have the manners to ask politely before using the Sit Bug to board. Now we are well above unassisted flight ceiling, the amount of random unannounced and uninvited guests should decrease. I will always try to accommodate visitors, it is just nice to be asked first.

The full glazing of the Rakehell proceeds, and when completed, as a publicly accessible platform from which to view the two sims it hangs above, it will have no equal. More details to follow on this and the other phases in the creation of an Arboretum of Romance.

Our Lady Of Textures

Whilst we were staring awwstruck at the Tour Eiffel in Paris 1900, Cheyenne wondered where the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was. I just happened to turn round and look out cross the sea surrounding the sim and spotted it, about a quarter-mile off shore! Someone had obviously left their bath running and flooded La Ile de La Cite!

With no obvious way of getting there, we gritted our teeth, took deep breaths and ran the distance across the sea floor to get there. This was fun, as I had only just learnt to toggle my Run by using
CTRL+R. Apparently I look quite good running, Chey being quite miffed at her newbie shuffle, but I couldn't see any difference. We got there to find no way in, so the Sit Bug came in handy!

Once inside, the two girls, texture sluts that they are, were in fits of ecstasy. The place is an absolute pearl, all the custom textures creating a very beautiful interior. This is definitely one build you simply have to see, it is stunning!

Cheyenne sat on the pipe organ, and I took up the pose at the lectern. Someone was obviously very aware of people's sensibilities where such things
are concerned, as the pose was given the very secular title of "Master of Ceremonies". I am not sure if that is a sad refection on how these days we must be so so careful who we offend. PC bollox I call it, it's a facsimile of a Roman Catholic cathedral, so to call the pose "Monsignor" or "Father" or "Cardinal" should be perfectly acceptable.

My feelings on rampant political correctness aside, the cathedral is a visual piece de resistance. I could'nt see a TP point anywhere in the building, so quite how access is meant to be gained I don't know. Unless of course one is meant
to run across the sea bed to get there, in some very Catholic parable of having to work hard to come close to God. Whatever the case, if you can get to see this place, do so. I have never seen textures so vibrant and real, and Notre Dame is now firmly in my Top 10 Places To Visit On The Grid. It should be in yours, too!

Au Fin De Siecle

Another Saturday evening apart from my intended due to our differing RL routines, another Saturday night being looked after by my sister Chey and her Sweetie. There can be few brothers out there with a sister like mine, prepared to drag me along on their jaunts as an antidote for lovelornitis.

This jaunt was a visit to Paris 1900, a collection of four sims that seek to faithfully reproduce the look of the city at the turn of the last century. The most obvious part of this recreation is the massively impressive full scale Tour Eiffel, which stands at 320m high. A construction of epic proportions, you really feel its huge presence when stood near to it.

There is a TP lift right to the very summit, where one can collect a free parachute and leap from a specially placed gantry. SL BASE jumping at its most historically accurate!

At the foot of the Tour was another faithful reproduction of a RL Parisian work, an art installation by Daniel Burns. Here Chey and Sweetie are stood by the SL version, and in the next picture my sister is reading the bio of the RL work on a nearby signboard.

We had a brief look around the surrounding square, and found a delightful roundabout. Big kids every one, the three of us leapt on for a journey back to the more carefree days of childhood. Sweetie leapt off to take a snap, and remarked that dressed as we were, my sister and I looked like a Steampunk wedding topper!

The three of us were in fact the only people to be in appropriate costume, the girls looking tres elegant indeed. Everyone else seemed to dressed in more modern garb, and it crossed my mind as to whether they thought we were part of an installation ourselves!

We had a most enjoyable time, my sister and her love are both filled with a spirit of mischevious fun. Paris 1900 is well worth a visit, but I was more than a little surprised to see no couples poses at all! And in the fabled city of Romance, too. However it is spread over 4 sims, so perhaps on a future visit with my darling wife-to-be Kacy, we shall uncover a few!

Look To The Skies!

Yesterday saw the Caledon RFL Militia assembled for war again. Another day of filming, another day of being involved in something quite spectacular.

We gathered on Caledon Primverness, once more at the airstrip cunningly disguised as a railhead. The first part of the day's itinerary called for the Caledon Air Corps to launch their bombardment of Noyaltenberg, so those of us in the other arms of Caledon's illustrious military joined the group of spectators to watch our angels of vengeance take wing.

Or not as the case may be, for much amusement was had as eager pilots rear-ended each other in their desire to get aloft. Ornithopters are also very temperamental beasts, and more than once one or other of the pilots could be heard exhorting his or her steed to go in the required direction as opposed to whichever direction it felt like taking.

Our brave men and women of the CAC persevered, and the watching crowds were treated to a number of very impressive formation launchs, as shots were filmed from a number of viewpoints, each necessitating a separate run as the Caledon School of Kinematic Arts had only been able to provide one Kinemascope operator. However this was the Kurusawa of Caledon himself, Colonel Oolon Sputnik, and throughout the day he worked tirelessly for his art. As did all involved, I include here a snap of my dear friend Captain Vollmar throwing himself into the role of runway marshal, directing the Ornis expertly with his glow sticks. And so as not to confuse anyone viewing who might take an interest in continuity, he even slipped into his Zebra av to look like another cast member.

Once our airborne paladins had finished their sequence, we all headed for another part of Primverness for the flypast sequence, where the bombers and fighters of the CAC pass the transport blimps laden with the troops who were to make the parachute drop onto the hopefully bomb-wracked citadel.

We got back into our sticks from the previous days filming, which happily teamed me with my brother officers from the Caledon Light Horse, Captains Vollmar and Susenko. We had a capital time, chatting, joking, calling ribald remarks across to the other blimps and generally engaged in much good-humoured esprit de corps. Which was just as well, considering we were sat in our jump seats for 3 hours. But we cavalrymen are not unused to long hours in the saddle, as Captain Susenko remarked, the bible of the cavalry is that well-known manual of military equestrianism, Forty miles on horseback, by Major Assburns.

We were lucky enough to have Miss Carricre Wind as our pilot for the day, the lady responsible for these amazing craft. I was able to get some good insights into ship design from her, and will be applying them to my own creations very soon. The day ended with some more formation Hooing, and then we were released from our duties.

Once again, grateful thanks and a tip of the hat to Colonels Sputnik and O'Toole, who ensured that we all felt involved and made the day a very enjoyable and entertaining one. With any luck we may get to jump from the blimps next time, giving voice as we do so to the new Light Horse battle cry of "SHANG!!"