Bunnies, Eggs, and my Peeps

In Caledon Tanglewood, there was a huge gathering of tiny sentients.. including small woodland creatures, dragon hatchlings (and pre-hatchlings!)and plush toy golems. Along with the anklebiter crowd and some token humanoids were two larger draconians and a colossal stuffed bear. I stood on guard nervously, fire extinguisher at the ready.







Fire-breathing dragons and a huge, floating sack of cotton and cloth. In Tanglewood.

I need to ask the Governor for a stipend.

Afterwards I was summoned to Steelhead to host an impromptu party. Apparently the citizens take great joy in recolouring large eggs, and my Aunt Lumina and Miss Tensai won first and second place. I think it has something to do with ancient Spring fertility rites, but the behaviour still confounds me.




And Tensai has hidden eggs of temporal energy about the sim, primed for engineering as stargates. Perhaps Miss Orr can find one as a replacement for her broken Time Key.

Afterwards I traveled to Silverscreen to see the fruits of Miss Orr's collaboration with a corporate entity for the film 300. A little searching and you can find some wonderful free weapons, armour, and clothing! We really should have a Toga Party in Steelhead!


My Father and I had just seen the film. I had to ask him hold his tongue several times as he started telling me how different the film was from the actual battle as he remembered it.





But he was adamant that the King Xerxes of Persia did not look like RuPaul.

~Qli

The Doom that Came to Caledon (And Left Just as Quickly!)

Last night I was exploring the remains of the extraterrestrial craft unearthed in Caledon Moors. This "vertikon" as it calls itself is a fascinating device..and such bizarre cosmic flotsam it carried me to! The Caledonians have already wheedled the secret of cavorite from this insectoid husk, what other djinni shall the NeoVictorians unleash? And will their paradigm survive?

Most shocking I saw small tiny replicas of the mothercraft scuttling aimlessly about the crash site. Self-replicating technology..reactiviating after a crash-landing when unearthed after who knows how long. I looked up at the massive unearthed manipulators an wondered..was this a sentient construct, or something so alien that the terms "organism" and "machine" simply did not apply? Will these grubs grow to the size of the mothership to threaten us? Could the mothership itself..reactivate? Worse, is there a hive of these behemoths swarming through the cosmos looking for their lost companion? Is the catalyst for Caledon's anachronistic leap into antigravity flight indeed the origin of her undoing?

As I pondered, gazing down from the site into the greater landscape, I heard an alarm from my fellow Firefighter, the Baroness Dimsum. She announced that a presence of the Chtulhu Mythos had come through a dimensional gate and ordered all residents of the Moors to evacuate. I did see an unusual swirling mist below me, but perhaps luckily for my sanity I could not make out the source. After I herded half a dozen or so bystanders away from the anomaly into the Cay the Baroness used mysterious powers granted by the Guvna and the Lindens to phase the entire Moors out of our dimension, shake it like a rug to flick away the Cthulhoid parasites back into netherspace, then phase it back in with a little tuck around the sides.

Well done, Your Grace! Many lives were spared and Sanity Checks avoided by your diligent wizardry!

(You don't think it followed me back from the vertikon distortion do you? Maybe I'll just stay silent at this point..)

~Qli

Entangling Alliances

ADDENDUM: Mt. Sprocket, the Governor of New Babbage, has sworn that his nation will not ally with Neualtenburg in this conflict. At least for now..

I picked the latest copy of the New Babbage Cog and it says New Babbage and Neualtenburg are now..Sister Cities?

That means Caledon is now at war against New Babbage and Neualtenburg!

This is absolutely DREADFUL! But what am I to do, wear tie-dye and carry a placard outside the Guvna's Mansion?

I must form a Colonies Peace Commitee immediately! Profits made will go to the same charity as the warmongerers of course. Fellow Citizens! Let us show our Guvna that Caledon's talents are best used for PEACE!

~Qli

Why Is This Night..

I didn't see any practical jokes last night in Steelhead, though the giant coelacanth in the harbour serenely gnawing on a rowboat was charming.

Of greater concern was the Xeno I spotted perched on the roof of Beauty & the Beast. I had glimpsed the creature in the sky before during an event at Kokopelli Square, but it diappeared before I could pursue. It was at least four metres tall, and twice that long counting the tail. Numerous spines..I would even call them blades..extruded from all areas of its coal-black exoskeleton. From the safety of one of the shops in Caledon Row I observed the beast. I dismissed the idea that it might be a construct as I saw it feeding on the remains of something..or someone.

I was unsure of what action to take..trying to establish contact carried its risk, and there was always the chance this was some guard-beast Mister meQal had sentried over his store while he recovered from his illness. I took a daguerrotype of the creature for further analysis. But after I snapped the photo, it seemed agitated, turning its head back and forth, searching for the source of the noise. It must have finely honed hearing indeed..I was at least two blocks away!

The beast soon vanished. I flew to where it had been. The beast has left the head of a large saurian on the roof. Did it pull this creature from Steelhead Harbour? If our waterway could support the coelacanth, then there must be other large creatures in the deep for it and the xeno to hunt.

Note to Father: I have SERIOUS reservations about hosting our next Ballon Friday, underwater in the bottom of the Harbour! And this time I cannot be there to protect you..not in my watertight hermit crab body at least.

I returned to Caledon, strolling through the Cay looking for another of those special roses that grow from ime to time. I did meet a new neighbour from the Zombie household. (She did not appear to be undead..I will have to ask discreetly at a later time.) She mentioned in passing that the prior landowner had left Caledon..was this the "pompous blowhard" Captain Pearse had referred to before?

I grew tired of searching and returned to the firehouse to enter a sleep cycle. Androids do indeed dream..at last night I had a nightmare..

I was in full armour, standing on the pier of what my best guess was the Hobo Station. From across the sea an enormous creature, obscured from my sensors by billowing smoke, dove towards me with a roar that shook the island. Sensors could not penetrats the smoke, but this beast was easily the size of Sky City! I immediately began to retreat. Bricks and splintered lumber scattered around me as it smashed buildings in my wake. Somehow I managed to double back to the pier..I felt my systems shorting out as my guages burst. Tesseraction Systems: Offline..Flight Systems: Offline..nowhere left to go but into the water..where all systems would flood and short out..but I had no choice. Just as I leapt, the darkness enveloped me..

And I awoke.

This morning I returned to House Bloodwing to ask Father about the dream. As I enetered I saw my brother Vortex was crouched on the sofa with a nervous expression. He told me that he had the same sort of dream. Furthermore, every time this year in Heliopolis where he was raised, the Immortals would shut their gates and cower for eight days. It was the only time he ever saw his mother, the fearsome Sekhmet herslef, tremble.

Darien arrived, standing in the doorway with a bucket and a brush. He stirred the bucket and then daubed the doorframe in red. Setting the bucket down outside, he entered. He sat down across from us and explained.

"Vortex..your Mother's kin shut their gates this time of year for long ago the God of Hebrews cast judgement upon the Egyptian pantheon, for Pharoah..the avatar of Ra in the First Life..refused to release the Hebrew slaves at the behest of their Prophet. Did you not notice the cracks in every pyramid and pylon in that Eternal City? No stone was left standing upon another stone. Even still they have never recovered to the glory of what they were before the Ten Plagues were unleashed up and down the Nile."

"And my dear daughter..the dream was even more vivid for you because of the Hebrew magic I used to create you. The Tree of Death is still connected to the Tree of Life, and that is how, to my surprise, you were imbued with a soul. Because of this mysterious favor from Him, even I, a Demon Prince, must honor Him on these nights."

"What you saw was the Angel of Death who slew the first born in every household in Egypt. By marking our doors we mark House Bloodwing as safe from that dark angel. I know him by reputation and trust me, you don't want to tangle with him. I don't know if First Created counts as First Born..whether you or Vortex or even Ari are in danger. But after losing your brother Alan, I'm not going to take that chance."

Father then ordered me to mark the balcony door with blood, and Vortex to mark the gates to the service bay in the basement.

~Qli

Caledon My Home

For seventeen days I was trapped. Nausea shook my frame as I melted rubber in my furnace for its petroleum. Thick smoke coated my insides with filth. The only relief was from incinerating bones, which burn hotter than coal. I kept telling myself I was doing the poor souls a favour.

My optic sensors degraded from radiation. I performed self-surgery..improvising a new sensor and housing before I went completely blind.

I saw my old android friend Neobokrug. He was resigned to his fate..or perhaps he was content there.. running a recycling machine, remolding scrap for bare essentials of continued functioning..and watching salvaged archives projected on a concrete wall.

Even Toxia was better than this place. If either man or machine could survive into the next Age it would define the word "Miracle".

No vegetation..not a single blade of glass. Never did I feel so alone.
And when things were at their most dire, when my soulflame began to flicker and dim..my voice rose above the din of trash fires and squeaking rats in what I supposed to be my swansong..cradling myself on the concrete stair of a bombed-out building..I sang a song of home..

Over fields and rolling hills
Across the moors, on rocky shores
Past tangled trees and moutain skies
Is where our tartan flies!

Caledon! Our prosp'rous nation
Where the flag unfurls
Tradition guides and Progress drives
Our beacon to the world!

Explore, my friend! Go far and wide
Lose yourself in ancient tome
But first behold your flag with pride
Sing "Caledon, my home!"

My words echoed through the concrete canyons, grown silent. I waited for the punishment of having so foolishly given away my position. Instead..light, scattered applause. Father always did say I had a beautiful voice, I thought, as powered down to sleep.

The unshielded wrath of the sun stretched across the poisoned sky in the morning. The glare on my failing eye made me wince and I woke..

A tattered tartan tied into a sack lay in my hand. Inside I found a lump of coal the size of my fist.

~Qli

RESCUED!

With much patience I finally summoned a passing Time Lord! This gracious Gallifreyan, who answered by the name of Ewan, landed his TARDIS in the middle of a native encampment.




The desperate survivors circled the device, speculating as to its function. One supposed it was a latrine, another decided it was valuable as scrap metal. Mr. Ewan dematerialised us both before they could test either theory.

I am safe in Caledon now. I had to modify one of my eyes in the field to compensate for the radiation interference, but I can repair it quickly.

My one bit of revenge..I gave Mr. Ewan the EXACT coordinates of my evil double, so I materialsed OVER her and shunted her into otherspace!

Now to go to the Falling Anvil for a cup of hot oil! No..after this I could go for a shot of kerosene!

~Qli

Concerning the Safety of Caledon

The Duchess of Primverness and I disembarked westward from our new hangar to patrol the skies. It was not long before we encountered turbulence. The Falling Anvil is aptly named.

Citizens, do please keep some (prim) space open on your parcel for overhead traffic! Someday it may be -your- establishment that needs our help!

The Guvna is intrigued at the idea of a "dousing script" for fires that are quenchable by our hoses. Certainly one of our talented weapon designers can use their knowledge of physics to make blueprints (scripts) for such gear?

Perhaps I can pursuade the Guvna to install fire hydrants by the telehubs. In some cities the fire brigades must rip open the cobblestones to find the fireplug or drill their own in the hollowed-out logs that function as pipes!

Perhaps a steam-driven fire engine can reach the flames faster by road if turbulence remains a problem..and a fire-boat for the coastlines and outlying islands?

For home protection we could also build fire extingishers (a new invention) or even sand buckets for dousing the flames.

(Note to Self.. Add a Steam Jet Projector to list of armour upgrade projects.)

But above all the CVFB requires VOLOUNTEERS. We are only three members at present!

When the firehouse is built, a registration drive will be in order. Yet another excuse for Caledonians to hold a ball!

~Qli

Of Flames, Family and Furries

The Caledon Volounteer Fire Brigade has a new location! Baroness Lynn CoyoteAngel Dimsum has graciously offered to build a new firehouse and hangar for the CIRRUS on her land in Primverness!

In addition Lady Cyn Vandeverre has begun designing uniforms for the Brigade! Caledionian philanthropy and civic pride knows no bounds!

Meanwhile in Steelhead City, the mysterious Vortex Koenkamp revealed himself to be the progeny of the Egyptian lion-goddess Sekhmet and..my Creator Darien Mason. My future self had told me as much. Yet oddly it did not surprise me. I chose the right time to find a new domicile, did I not?

~Qli