Martians in New Babbage? Again??

Arriving at the Town Hall to take a look at the crashed barrel falling from the sky three nights ago, I crossed the path of Mr Jesper Renfold, leaving the place.

************************************************************************************

************************************************************************************

Myrtil Igaly: why is he leaving?

Triky Jinx: aliens myrtil

Matthew Querrien: He's gotta tell someone something.

Myrtil Igaly: that's not green, alien stuff is always green

Matthew Querrien glances at Underby with visible uncertainty.

Triky Jinx: there gonna eat us a nose it

Myrtil Igaly: oh yes it does look like it fell from the sky

Triky Jinx: i bet they'll look like mr bumbleby

Myrtil Igaly: maybe he's one

YoYo Underby: What was that?

Myrtil Igaly: Your aliens friends missed their landing Mr Underby

Triky Jinx: nuthink

Triky Jinx: SHSSHSH myrtil!

Myrtil Igaly: woops..

YoYo Underby: I know both your names.

YoYo Underby: Mr Tenk has pointed you out.

Myrtil Igaly: you can't I never saw you!

YoYo Underby: But I saw you, Myrtil.

YoYo Underby: And you, little Jinx

************************************************************************************
An old lady with a huge bag full of stuff on her back (including a big telescope, and a chair, don't remember the rest) arrives, climbing down the stairs of the Town Hall.
************************************************************************************


Margo December: oh a

Myrtil Igaly: Hello Madam

Margo December: nice keep my hands warm yes

Margo December: like a stove

Margo December: i small boy with a big chin offered me a stove today

Triky Jinx: ?

Myrtil Igaly: it might be dangerous you know Ma'am

Myrtil Igaly: You've got quite a big package to carry

Margo December: my hand s warm yes they are warm, safe and warm, no moon out today

Matthew Querrien: Everyone has luggage.

Myrtil Igaly: no moon out..?

Triky Jinx: shes barmy

YoYo Underby: You will both wish you had not been so impudent with me.

Myrtil Igaly: moon is out at night Ma'm

Myrtil Igaly: I've not been impudent!

Matthew Querrien picks up a small handful of snow.

Triky Jinx: that sounds serious, what does it mean?

YoYo Underby: You will find out soon enough.

Margo December: this is the tear dropped from the sky

Myrtil Igaly: That barrel?

Triky Jinx gulps

Matthew Querrien: A tear? I though tears were water.

YoYo Underby: A tin tear drop.

YoYo Underby: I leave you all to the mad woman.



*********************************************************************************
Mr Underby changes into something, not sure exactly what cause he got stuck in lag on my screen (something tiny and furry I think), and disappears.


*********************************************************************************

Myrtil Igaly wonders which one is madder

Triky Jinx: ha look hes gone tiny

Matthew Querrien: Good. The company will become bareable again.

Margo December: you all be looking out for the moon will find you

Matthew Querrien: So, Miss, do you know what this is?

Margo December: its warm

Matthew Querrien: It's warm, like a stove, and it's not the moon.

Margo December: keeps my hands warm child

Triky Jinx: uoh

Margo December: keep it in my things maybe useful someday when i get it all back

Triky Jinx: shes a bit to old i think

Myrtil Igaly: you want to take that barrel?

Matthew Querrien: Have you lost your things, miss?

Margo December looks over her shoulder

Margo December: no dear, what i lost i keep with me you see

Matthew Querrien: Oh, i see.

Triky Jinx: have you got some marbles?

Matthew Querrien: So this isn't something you've lost, then?

Myrtil Igaly: Ma'm, why are you talking about the moon, is that dangerous?

Margo December: keeps my hands warm, yes warm and safe

Matthew Querrien: Do you recognise this, then, Miss?

Margo December: when the moon is up, i have to hide

Triky Jinx: hide?

Myrtil Igaly: At night you mean?

Triky Jinx: from the moon?

Margo December: when its up in the sky it looks for me so i must hide

Myrtil Igaly: are you a werewolf?

**********************************************************************************
The old lady climbs up the stairs of the Town Hall and disappears inside.
**********************************************************************************

Myrtil Igaly: Strange old lady

Matthew Querrien: O... kay.

Triky Jinx: what kinda question is that

Myrtil Igaly: cause, werewolves transform during full moons

Triky Jinx: oh i see

Myrtil Igaly: but she doesn't look like one

Triky Jinx: never heard of an oldlady werewolf before

Myrtil Igaly: yeah but

Matthew Querrien: Women like that are proof that girls are weird...

Myrtil Igaly walks to Matthew and slaps his backhead

Matthew Querrien: Oi

Triky Jinx: he he he

Myrtil Igaly: so what is that anyway? A stove?

Matthew Querrien: You're a girl, you tell me.

Triky Jinx: a container

Triky Jinx: you click it and you get a message about it


Mysterious Container: Upon closer inspection this object seems warm, and slightly burnt. Could it be that it has fallen from the sky? Perhaps from some passing airship?The broken bits of wood and brass suggest that the top has been broken, but looking inside only reveals the container to be empty.


Myrtil Igaly leans over and smells the inside

Myrtil Igaly: what was inside you think?

Matthew Querrien: I might travel outside the city, see if it look like something from another city.

Triky Jinx: Martians

Myrtil Igaly: that's a long trip Mat

Myrtil Igaly: we'd see skeletons if there were martians inside

Triky Jinx: we might need to start alien hunting or something, protect ourselves

Myrtil Igaly: oh you think they survived

Myrtil Igaly: but they would be very tiny

Matthew Querrien: Well, the top DOES look forced.

Triky Jinx: i could fit in there and you know what i can do

************************************************************************************
Triky throws a Molotov cocktail to demonstrate what he's able to do.

************************************************************************************

Matthew Querrien: Damn it, will you stop burning things?

Myrtil Igaly: but that would be only ONE Martian then

Myrtil Igaly: Yes I know what you can do!!

Myrtil Igaly: The bag lady might like you, she's always talking about getting warm

Triky Jinx: he

*********************************************************************************
Triky runs away.
*********************************************************************************

Myrtil Igaly: You know that man

Myrtil Igaly: Jesper Renfold

Matthew Querrien: Nope

Myrtil Igaly: I know him

Matthew Querrien: Never seen him before.

Myrtil Igaly: what did he say?

Matthew Querrien: Nothing of interest.

Myrtil Igaly: did he tell who he was gonna see?

Matthew Querrien: [12:44] Jesper Renfold: right i must get back and inform the Van Creed

Myrtil Igaly: oh gosh

Myrtil Igaly: He was already there last year

Myrtil Igaly: The Van Creed are greedy people who just wanted to make money on the Professor Eliot's invention

Matthew Querrien: I'm kinda new, I don't know what this Van Creed is.

Matthew Querrien: Oh, I see!

Matthew Querrien: I heard of that.

Myrtil Igaly: Then they wanted to use Jason Moriarty

Matthew Querrien: We should make sure that thinger is still in place in the theatre.

Myrtil Igaly: I don't think they can use it

Myrtil Igaly: it's broken

Matthew Querrien: Yeah, but it's one of three parts...

Myrtil Igaly: already last year Jason Moriarty tried to use another kind of power source

Myrtil Igaly: the Cloud Angel

Myrtil Igaly: no no, it's all three parts reunited

Matthew Querrien: This may be related.

Matthew Querrien: Oh, it is?

Myrtil Igaly: yep

Myrtil Igaly: but Jason fell from a sky plateform very high in the sky

Matthew Querrien: Hmm

Myrtil Igaly: into the Vernian Sea

Myrtil Igaly: although his body was never found

Myrtil Igaly: I dunno, but I don't like to see That Jesper Renfold around

Myrtil Igaly: he's bad

Bye bye School!

Last Sunday, it was time to go back to school to show our creations to Mr Jenkin Slenderbelly and to take the 80 pages long ethical test...


There he was again, still looking thin and turquoise with a huge black moustache and tinted glasses. That time he introduced himself as Mr Jenkin Slenderbutt, which was quite suspicious in itself you'll tell me.



He started to go round the classroom and asking every kid to show him their creation.

Loki had made a cool mini bulldozer with the front really looking like a bull. The teacher liked it.

Tepic had made an "ethical detector", that was strangely turning red (for "non-ethical") each time Mr Slenderbutt was touching it, whereas it was almost always green when one of the kids touched it (ok, only a few tried..). The teacher found it interesting.

I'm not sure I remember everything that everyone did, but I recall Red's little Babbage greenhouse (to allow plants to survive in this unwelcoming place). It was looking cool too. And Willow sewed a doll, Fiona had made a lamp, Tsula made an amazing device that was supposed to remove the magical powers if I understood well. It was really great and the teacher asked him to turn it off before someone got harmed.

Jimmy had built an impressive armchair, and when the Professor went to sit on it, he got electrocuted and couldn't stand up for at least 5 minutes! That was really funny to see him jerking in the chair. He finally got up and asked Jimmy to come see him after the class...

Sammy had made a hoop with a stick to bowl it and the teacher told him he was sure he had much fun with it, in a strange voice.
Sandi made a spinning snowman that didn't melt, Billy made a gun, Vivi made a boxing bot apparently designed to specifically boxe Creaky Gloom, and I didn't really see well what Clara made since the teacher had sent me to sit in the corner for talking in class, but I think it was some kind of clank.
Sevian didn't make anything but he had the excuse of being a magpie.

Then the teacher asked me what I had created, and I answered it was a story, so he asked me to stand up and read it aloud.

Here is my story :

Once upon a time was a little boy named Jack, who was living in
a little house with his mum and dad.
He loved them very much and was as happy as a little boy can be. He had little train toys and his favorite teddy bear was wearing a flight helmet, that way he could come along with Jack on all his adventures. And his mum would always knit him fluffy sweaters to keep him all warm and comfy during Winter.

One day though, a big fire burnt the whole house and his parents inside, and the boy became an orphan in less time than needed for the smoke to clear out. Even his teddy bear got lost in the fire...
He was sent to an orphanage where he was sleeping in a huge dormitory with dozens of other orphans like him.
The least we can say is that the adults who were in charge of the orphanage weren't very nice... They were feeding them some very clear soup with nasty bits inside, and some days nothing at all, and were taking every excuse to whip them and beat them up.
You would think that the children were trying to stick together against the grown-ups, but on the contrary, Jack was always laughed at and accused in place of others. He never made any friends there and was just so sad and lonely all the time.
For Christmas, they were just attending a longer mass but never got any presents.
Nor for their birthdays, and the little boy didn't even remember which day he was born on...

When he eventually turned thirteen, Jack was sent to a workhouse where he had to rub out the verdigris from copper-made objects. He wasn't fed much more than what he had at the orphanage and grew up but stayed very thin and bony. He was spending almost all his time in a dark basement rubbing out verdigris and the blue-green dust was sticking to his already pale skin so tight that even if he was able to take a bath, it would have been very hard to remove.

One day another of the boys working there stumbled upon some tool forgotten on the floor and the bottle of acid he was carrying fell and broke, spreading the liquid around. Some of the acid got into Jack's eyes and started to burn them. His eyes turned even redder than they already were because of the verdigris dust, and they became very sensitive to the light and even to the contact of thin air. They started to swell because of the inflammation and became two big blobs. Jack had to find two glass pieces that he would be wearing at all times to protect them, but the pain, although lessened, was still hard to bear.
He didn't make any friends in the workhouse either, because all the others were scared at his appearance, and he grew even more lonely every day, slowly forgetting the happy memories of his childhood that were keeping him hopeful during all these years.

Jack started to become bitter and angry, and couldn't stand to see people around him being happy when life was so cruel with him.

He eventually left the workhouse and started to wander in the
streets, hiding in dark corners, spying on the children laughing around him and he would follow them and play his tricks on them to make them cry. Only then would he feel as close to "happy" as he could get. But it wasn't really happiness, it was more of a revenge feeling and the more he was doing it, the more he was sinking into angriness and revengfulness.

One day, he heard about a test that the children of the city would have to take and he put a disguise on and begged the Mayor to allow him to be their teacher.
Once in the place, he started asking them what it was that made them happy, and he was planning on removing all of those things from around them to make them as sad as possible. He had a twisted feeling of satisfaction while he was imagining all those children crying around him, and he gave them some homework to do, of course, for the following Sunday, to prevent them from having too much fun in between. Because everyone knows that homework is boring.

The day of the test came, and Jack arrived in the class filled with children.
He started to ask them to show him the things they had created as their homework, and they came up to him, and offered them what they had made.
He received a fluffy warm knitted sweater, he received a teddy bear with a flight helmet... He received lots of other presents, and he was just standing there, looking at them while something was happening inside his mind.
The children started to sing "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you Mr Jack" and something funny started to tickle his eyes. He, who couldn't stand to hear children sing, or even birds, he let them wish him a happy birthday because he could hardly remember the last time he had heard that song addressed to him.
The children all ran towards him, and wrapped their little arms around him, to hug him all together, and suddenly something happened inside his chest, and the ice around his heart started to melt while all the memories of his happy childhood were coming back to him.
The children smiled to him, and for the first time in decades, Jack smiled in return.

Mr Slenderbutt didn't like my story, he asked me to stop, but I didn't.
At the end, I walked up to him and offered him the teddy bear with a flight helmet that I had made. And Red walked up to him and offered him the fluffy sweater she had knitted to him, and Willow walked up to him and started hugging him, and the others stood up too, to go hug him, and some started to hum "happy birthday".
The teacher started to cry.
But then he shouted to us to go back to our seats and to back off.

Triky said he hadn't showed yet what he had created, so the teacher turned to him and asked what it was.
Triky brought a huge metal machine with big metal teeth and the teacher backed off a little, startled and asking what that thing was.
Triky answered "It is a Teacher Eater". And he activated it.
The machine started to hum and the big metal teeth moved as if they wanted to eat something. The teacher looked horrified, but he was standing too close and he got caught by the teeth that slowly started to swallow him inside the giant mouth of the machine.
The kids stood up and tried to grab his legs to pull him out, but the Teacher Eater was too powerful.

Suddenly, some smoke started to pour out of the machine, and we almost all ran out of the school.
Miss Breezy was outside, wondering what was happening, and her school exploded before her very eyes...
There were still some kids inside, but luckily they could get out without any harm done to them.
The teacher, though, had disappeared, eaten by the Teacher Eater.

No longer after, we received a note from the Mayor, saying that the test was cancelled indefinitely and that we wouldn't have any other anymore.

It was the end of School for us.

Was it the end of Angry Jenkins though? Not so sure...

Steelhead Shangai on Designing World

Check it out !!

http://archive.treet.tv/designing-worlds-steelhead-shanghai

A new life.

I have left New Babbage.

Yes, that surprised me.

It all started with people in the city becoming more and more suspicious about the ones who were "different". Grown-ups, ya know, don't believe in the tales they read in the books. Smoke and mirrors they say, charlatans! Or they get scared and try to hunt down and make disappear everything that doesn't fit their image of a perfect world.

'tis sad cause I know they do exist. I've seen them. Just like in the books, they are. Even the Mayor is an imp, even if he keeps scolding me for saying so.

Miss Mara is an elf, everyone knows that, she doesn't hide it. And Miss Softpaw is a fairy. But life has become too hard for them in New Babbage. People don't like it that they've got special powers. Sure they're jealous or something. Nobody's nicer than them though. But that city doesn't mind if you're nice or not, it just doesn't want things they don't understand. Cause that scares them.

Miss Mara got driven away and decided to go settle in Steelhead, far away across the sea. Miss Softpaw went there too, and lots of urchins with them, and Miss Mara's new friend, a faun lady named Autumn, and her children.

I am sad to leave the city I was born in, where I made all my friends, where I had so many adventures.

I will miss the Imperial theatre, the Absinthe cafe, my lost bakery.

I will miss waving at Mr Holmes and the Doctor Watson on a ride, seeing Mr Tenk on the roofs, going to Miss Breezy's balls, plotting against the evil Dr O, talking with the nice ladies and gentlemen, running on the rooftops, rafting in the sewers and ice-skating on the canals. I will miss the friends I left behind.

But I know I would also miss chatting with gargoyles on the roofs, being hunted down by werewolves, offering tea to a mummy, discovering with horror that ladies I thought my friends and role models had become blood-thirsty vampires, being amazed at the elven healing abilities, trying to figure out what the cloud angels are, speaking with ghosts, meeting the random silly people and creatures appearing in the streets and being dragged spontaneously into a new mysterious and exciting adventure.

I decided it was time for me to travel away and find a new place to play in before my memories of my birth city started to get tainted with dullness and scorn.

So I waved farewell to New Babbage from the boat that was taking us to Steelhead.

I haven't visited the wole of Steelhead yet, but I have started looking around and that seems to be a cool city. It's not the same as Babbage, but it's interesting in a different way. Plus there are trees, and I like climbing on trees. And Flynn too.

Jimmy already found new clothes more suited to the climate in that city, and I have to change mine too. Also I can't wait to meet the local urchins.. I mean, the local children, they're not called urchins over here. Will be fun to compare our accents and ways and adventures and all.

Miss Mara got a dog, called Gonzo. He's very cute with his long hair. I do wonder how he can see where he's going though. But at least he may warn us if Creaky Gloom or some other danger approaches from the Hostel.

I went back to New Babbage for the lesson at school though. The other urchins from Steelhead went too. The teacher, Mr Jenkin Slenderbelly, was very weird. All thin and green-blue with glowing eyes and a big black moustache. He had a big book where he was taking notes and he kept yelling at us, asking us our name and what made us happy.

That's only at the end that I suddenly had a bad feeling after someone noticed it wasn't really a lesson since he just asked us what made us happy. I suddenly recalled someone who had visited Babbage the previous years, the Angry Jenkins. He hated seeing people having fun and his aim was to remove that fun from us. Eventually the Captain Dagger tickled him away and he disappeared.

I wonder if our teacher isn't actually Angry Jenkins, and he knocked the real teacher on the head to take his place...

He asked us to do some homework for Sunday, when we'll have our actual test (80 pages, gah!). We have to create something. And I've got a little idea...

************************************************************************************

The typist's point of view :

***********************

I first came to New Babbage because I found a landmark at Loki's sim, now Goony Island. I visited and found it rather nice. I am not that big a fan of cities though, but Loki's first roleplay event, the Moriarty affair, totally hooked me up there.

I had been roleplaying in SL in others sims, but had grown lazy and bored with most of them. The concept of an optional roleplay really seduced me at this point. I could just be out of character when I didn't feel like roleplaying, didn't have to change clothes or appearance all the time, wear a meter, fill in a character sheet or the other silly things you have to do in a strict RP sim.

It was FREEDOM!

Of course, at the time Babbage was only two sims and not much RP was happening there at all. It was more of a builders town. And sure, it was a very pretty background. But what I really enjoyed was interacting with the people, trying to solve the mysteries etc.

I bought a parcel, built a bakery, invented my own roleplay stories. I met many various interesting avatars and had a lot of fun.

Over the time, New Babbage grew, attracting more people, and more stories. The story tellers aren't any more counted on the fingers of an ET hand but on all 20 fingers and toes of a human. That's a nice thing, everyone can choose to participate in the one they like more. Or not participate at all.

There have always been all kind of creatures in Babbage. Humans, clockworks, fantasy, magical... Has it done any wrong to the Steampunk theme of the city? I don't think so.

Would the lovely builds be affected by the people living and roleplaying around them? I don't think so.

Would visitors think Babbage is a fantasy sim because they crossed an elf or a fairy in the streets? I don't think so. Fantasy sims have got forests and stuff. Never saw one with as many cobblestones and smokestacks.

Will Babbage become boring and restrictive if the roleplay and the characters are regulated? Well for my own personal case, the answer is yes. Most of what I loved in Babbage, its freedom and openness, will be lost.

I can't argue because this is the Mayor's decision, and he is the one who owns and pays for the sims.

Thus, I prefer to leave it now, before it becomes unbearable for me.

It's been a hard decision, because I have lots of fond memories there, but I am sure I can have as much fun in Steelhead. Oliver Twist Myrtil will just slowly become Huckleberry Finn Myrtil :)

A threat on the New Babbage urchins

Wednesday night, Loki gathered the urchins of New Babbage in the hideout to see a bit who was new, how much of the Babbage history was known, to make sure every urchin would be aware of the dangers that could roam about in the streets, and also to plan a little Halloween.



We were all discussing and it was good to meet new kids and remember the past events, and we came up with all kinds of fun ideas for Halloween, but I think it got Triky a bit excited as he kept wanting to "blow stuff up" and Janet quite agreed with him in a pyromaniac way and at one point Triky disappeared without us noticing and a bit later we heard back from him. He seemed a bit worried because there was a fire at the old location of Loki's store, just behind the Imperial, and so we all ran towards there.


That was a big fire, and it soon caught up on the upper floor. We tried to call the Babbage ladies fire brigade but apparently they weren't there and a few citizens arrived, alerted by our shouts, but that was thanks to an urchin, Lil Max, that the fire could finally be watered out.

The problem is... That this story somehow made its way to the pointy ears of our dear Mayor and that he decided the fire was our fault and we were all unruly kids and something had to be done about that. Here is the official note he sent, I let you judge by yourself... :


It has come to my attention that the urchins of our fair city have shown less than adequate levels of respect, moral fiber and a severe lack of education, particularly in mathematics.
In light of the recent burnings, it is my mayoral duty to prevent further disobediant acts towards residents and property of the State. All urchins will take part in an exam to be proctored at the Babbage School for Urchins to assess their basic Ethics and Morals and prevent further unruly acts against respectable citizens, their property, and the State.
Failure to comply will result in being thrown from the city wall.

-M. TenkClockwinder.



An exam!!!!!!
It's just not fair and I'm not doing it!

Save us from our families!

New Babbage is a nice town full of nice people who like us urchins, or at least don't mind us.
For the most part that is.

Yesterday, after visiting the sewers with Jimmy, Quill, Ron and that evil Lil Obie, we went to the City Hall to see Mr Mayor Clockwinder because Obie wanted to ask him to rename a street after his name (which he never dared asking him eventually). Instead, the Clockwinder warned him against being a traitor and that he should change his ways now that the Doctor Obolensky was dead and the observatory ready to be auctionned off.

Obie and Ron then had to leave, followed by Quill. Jimmy and I went out and met Vivi in front of the building. He was looking quite different than in my memories. Shrinken and with less fur... Apparently he had been playing with a ray in the Doctor O's observatory and had changed himself into a kid, and while trying to turn himself back into an adult fox, he just managed to grow his tail back.

Jimmy and I were trying to help Vivi, giving him shoes and clothes and stuff when an old man approached us and called onto us from a short distance.
He had the most unpleasant look on his face while he was examining us, and his voice was harsh, spitting his words as if we were some disgusting creatures and that he didn't want to be contaminated.
He was at first, very rude towards us and Vivi got a rifle out, which later proved to be only a rice gun.
The man somewhat softened and sighed, saying he needed our help to find his grandson Quill.
We said we knew him but didn't know where he was. The manners of the man had set off all the alarm bells in our heads and Jimmy and I tried to question him to know more.
He said his name was Xiu Qiao or something like that, not sure I remember well. And he wanted to find his grandson who was his only left family to smothen him with his affection and drown him in love. He was right creepy and reminded me of my aunt and cousin with their unctuous and hypocritical manners.
We said we didn't know where Quill was and he eventually decided to leave, heading towards the Port.

Later, we saw a familiar silhouette standing in front of the Museum and recognized with utter surprise Elenore Darwin, the Professor Nishi's daughter.
I still remember her as a little child. She was younger than me just one or two years ago... And now is a grown-up.
I was really happy as I thought I would never see her again, and there she was.
She invited us to come inside the Museum, which she had bought back from Miss Elleon, and she sat on a bench while we were looking around, seeing that it had been left unchanged for the most part.
We couldn't talk for very long though, because Mr Mayor Clockwinder came in a little after and asked us if we knew where Quill was. He added that he may very well not be an orphan after all.
He had met the old man who was pretending being Quill's grand-father, and seemed to want to send Quill to him. We protested against that, and Quill arrived at that moment...

We explained him our encounter with the creepy stranger and his face distorted as he was looking ready to run away. He told us his grand-father was evil and had made him work as a cabin boy on his pirate ship the Black Heart and that there has been a storm and the ship sank with its treasure shipment and Quill was the only survivor and that now his grand-father was looking for him.
Quill was really agitated, repeating his grand-father was evil and that he hated all the children, that he would kill him and would kill us too. He said he should better leave the town now that his grand-father was around, but we convinced him New Babbage was the right place to hide in and he finally agreed.

I can't tell where we decided to hide him because someone may find those notes and betray Quill to get the reward his grand-father offered us (which was actually not much of a reward as he just offered not to hurt us in exchange of the information), but now poor Quill is alone in his secret place, relying on his friends to bring him food and comfort, living in the fear of seeing his grand-father get hold of him again.

Hopefully, he is safe. For now at least.

Peter Pan and Science Museum

Yesterday, some of us SL kids decided to meet up in Hyde Park in London, next to the Peter Pan statue. All a symbol of eternal youth!

There was a squirrel too!!! I even think it was a red one, Yay!

Tepic and Winne arrived first, then me, then Murdock, Kitto, and finally Felixe.

By the time everyone was there it was lunch time and so we settled on the lawn next to the statue to pic-nic.

The weather was really nice and sunny and I got a little sunburn on the nose :op

I then received a text from Gemini saying his train was finally taking off and we decided to meet him directly at the Science Museum.

So we got up and walked across the park towards South Kensington.

The Science Museum is like Heaven if you are into Steampunk (and it's free!). I took like a million pictures so will just show you a few to make you drool over it :op

Babbage's difference engine n°1

After the Museum, we headed to a pub to get a drink and then parted, everyone saying they enjoyed the day!

So it was a great moment and next time Winne wanna go to a zoo or safari park. We'll see hehe

SL6B is open!

Yep, the SL6B sims just opened and it's actually still a bit difficult to get in there with all the lag and full sims and overall SL problems :op but it's open!

You can go visit the "1000 kids faces floor" (ok there aren't 1000 pics but close!) and find your pic or your friend's and especially don't forget to look for the pic of M Linden. If you find him and click him you can get a prize!

If you aren't a kid yet, you can go through the transmogrifier and become one, and then take a look at Loki and Zak's fabulous Second Childhood network to find out which are the most popular kids places to visit.

And last but not least, go up to the "Nostradamus", Loki Eliot's amazing space ship, and ask Tobi about the prophecies...

http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Cryo/28/95/25


Enjoy your visit!

SL6B - Kids pics wanted !

The Second Life Children (SLC) will be represented once more in this year's SL birthday (SL6B) and Loki is planning an amazing futuristic build.

Under the build will be the part where people can read about the SLC and what it is about to be a kid in SL. And all this part will be above a giant floor made of a patchwork of (hopefully) hundreds of SL kids pics, the "1000 kids faces floor".

So! If you are a SL kid and you want to be on the floor, please send me your photo !!! It should be full perms, better if it's 1024 or 512, but if you don't have that, send me what you have. It's better if it is centered on your face, or face and shoulders and top of torso, but I can recut, so send me what you have!
If you don't have a pic of yourself and you can't upload one, IM me and I'll come take it for you.

Tell all your friends! Send me your pics! Thank you!!!

And don't forget to come visit the floor at the SL6B (June 23 - June 29) :)

Nightmares

Since the first stone of the Dagon Hall was lain there, the Captain Dagger has been having weird nightmares. And these nightmares have inspired some even weirder drawings... Tentacled monsters and company...

Yesterday, I was wandering in Jefferson way and suddenly noticed a body in front of the stairs leading to the Dagon Hall. I rushed there and was horrified to discover that Mr Skusting Dagger was laying unconscious, his poor little kitten Dickens meowing miserably and licking his face to try and wake him up... But without a result.
I called Mr Dagger and was starting to wonder if he was still alive when Jimmy appeared too behind the gate, soon followed by Miss Breezy.




Miss Breezy noticed right away the drawing on the ground near Mr Dagger and she didn't sound happy about it. She said he should stop working on those drawings. And she might very well be right...




Soon, the Captain Dagger began to move, but his eyes were still close and he muttered in his sleep, and then started fighting invisible attackers.
I ran inside the Hall to go get some fresh water from the pool under the statue and try to wake Mr Dagger up, but before I could reach the pool, I heard him screaming "NO!! Don't touch the water!" or something like that, so I froze. He was still sleeping though!

After a few minutes, Dickens licking repeatedly his daddy's face and us asking him to wake up, he finally started to stretch and open the eyes. He sat-crouched and looked around, asking what he was doing there.



He said he was drawing in his atelier and after that he had a total blackout, and he woke up between us, in front of the Dagon Hall...

It seems like Mr Dagger's artist mind is very sensitive to the squalid waves emanating from the Hall, which give him awful nightmares that he has to draw on paper unless he wants to become crazy.

Jimmy saw one of the members of Order of the Dagon Hall recently, watching silently at him, standing in front of the big statue. And it gave him the creeps.

The building seems now to be open and working. The members of the Order are starting to appear.

Let's just hope that Mr Dagger's nightmares never come true... There are already too many bad memories of huge tentacled monsters crawling above the Babbage skies...

All this sounds a bit fishy to me...

So finally, they opened the doors!!!
There is a first room with some chairs, table and portraits.



Portraits of.... well of people I guess?



Maybe foreigners..?

And there is a second room, looking like a sort of church, with benches and a statue...

A big green glowing and steaming impressive statue standing in the middle of a liquid-filled pool...

That looks like it is welcoming us, or waiting for us or... something.

There was nobody else around but then, the sign on the door says "services nightly" so...

The Order of Dagon

Ok so.. Those guys can build really FAST.



The building appeared during the night. But as Jimmy noticed, it looks like it is about to fall apart at anytime.



It looks old and used and there is a big glowing eye-looking symbol above the door that has something familiar about it..
The Doctor Watson thinks that maybe the whole building has been imported piece after piece from another location.
And it looks strange and weird and the blood stained little crates from Miskatonic are still there...

Plus the door is locked, but there is a slate on a pillar next to the entrance, reading "The Order of Dagon. Meetings nightly..." Ummmmm...

Who or what is this Dagon and why are the meetings hold at night?? And what happened to the big purple glowing crate? What was inside? Mr Footman seemed to know a bit about the winged octopus headed statue that was standing there at the beginning. Maybe he's got some answers?

Poiple steam

Getting stranger and weirder by the minute, isn't it?

Big boxes

Hmmm.... The little statue disappeared...
And "they" are building something...



And there's a new box, even bigger than the big dark one...

And it's all steaming and weirdly green on top...

What's going on??

Miskatonic U.

Something happened during the night at my bakery's old location.

Remember my bakery got bombed and an odd Professor or Doctor or whatever bought the parcel to build a kind of asylum?

Well, the place must be cursed because the Institute for the Chronically Confused totally vanished during the night... And the Doctor Watson was as surprised as Jimmy and I about the sudden disappearance of the Professor and Doctor Effingham.

But that is not all.

Something got shipped and parked in place of where the old asylum was standing.
I'm not the only one to have noticed the degree of weirdness of that new stuff. Sparrow already had a look, and Skyler, Jimmy and Lil Max too.



We wondered about the curious little sculpture resting on the pole in the middle of the land. It looks like the statue of a kind of little beast with an octopus head and wings.. And Jimmy noticed the strange writing signs carved on the pole.


Also, there is a huge dark crate about three times my size standing there, and a few smaller ones reading "Miskatonic university" on the side, and all stained with fresh blood...


Jimmy said the Doctor Dayafter mentionned the Miskatonic university, like he's been studying there or something, but apparently he doesn't like to talk about it. And Mr Footman talked about some evil book that burned his eyes just after he tried to read a few lines from it even if it wasn't even translated in English.


That explains why he has got mechanical eyes now.
And he said the statue on the pole could represent one of the Old Gods, a monstruous giant.

Well it's hard to believe cause, when I look at the statue I find him so cute!

The New Babbage Institute for the Chronically Confused

After the awful events that resulted in the demolition of my bakery, I had to sell my piece of land as I couldn't afford anymore to rebuild a new bakery or anything else.


A few days after the bombing and demolition, I spotted a strange man who was wandering amongst the pieces of wreckage. I walked towards him and bidded him the good day like the polite little urchin I am.
He turned to me and asked if the land was for sale because his brother and himself would be interested in buying it. So we agreed on a price (4444 $L because he thought it was a good number, he liked the "4"...) and on the following Saturday, the land was theirs and I was back to urchinry.

I went, out of curiosity, to visit my old place, a few weeks later, and found a big dark building with tall towers and smoking chimneys.

(photo credit : Jimmy Branagh)

Above the door, a metal plate was reading : "The New Babbage Institute for the Chronically Confused".

The two proprietors, are the man I met, the Doctor Zachariah Effingham (on the right on the photo below), and his older brother, the Professor Nathanael Effingham (on the left). The Professor is said to be a Professor of Neo-Psychology whereas the Doctor owns diplomas in Psychiatry and General Surgery and is a practising Mesmerist.


Apparently, they thought New Babbage was a niche for such an establishment. I don't know where they have heard that...



Anyway, would you be nuts or not, the doors of the building are open for anyone to enter and visit.
Yeah, I said to ENTER ;)





P.S.: I've been told there is actually always a way to get out of a room. Without cheating I mean.

A fine Saturday in New Babbage (or how Jimmy got kidnapped and my bakery demolished...)

"What could possibly go wrong?"

Yes, this is the New Babbage motto, and it was hanging on a nice tapestry work done by Miss Elleon, on a wall inside my bakery... until yesterday night. Why not anymore? Well... Just cause the bakery doesn't have walls anymore since yesterday night...

Let's start by the beginning.

Some months ago, I learnt that my grand-father on my father's side had deceased and left me an inheritance. I didn't know I had any family left, but my cousin Arthur Keenan found me and helped me accomplishing my grand-father's last will with building a bakery in Babbage Square.

The thing is, my cousin revealed to be an unsane murderer who tried to get rid of me to get the whole inheritance. Luckily I got help from lots of Babbagers, Miss Janus, Mr Wirefly, who got shot by my cousin in the arm, and Jimmy, who finally shot my cousin dead in an act of self-defense witnessed by Mr Zanzibar and Finley.

After that, everything was going good again.

One week and a few days earlier, a lady called Catherine Kelberry came to my bakery and told me she was interested in renting the room upstairs. I was happy I finally had found someone to rent it, and accepted.

I didn't know who she was...

Yesterday, Jimmy got kidnapped by Mr Merricks and brought to Mrs Kelberry upstairs of my bakery. I wasn't there and didn't see what happened inside, but Jimmy and Patch somehow told me.

I was walking on the railway from the Palisades to the Square and, arrived in front of my bakery, I saw both of them running down Jefferson Way towards me and shouting me not to enter. Jimmy had bad marks on his arms, the sleeves of his shirt torn down.

They said Jimmy got kidnapped and that my renter Mrs Kelberry was actually my aunt, the mother of my cousin Arthur, and that she wanted to kill Jimmy.

Apparently she had an agreement with Mr Merricks to have him bringing Jimmy to her and then she tried to kill him, because she was mad at him for shooting her son dead, but Patch saved Jimmy.

They told me not to enter the bakery, because she was still inside, apparently inconscious and I assume Patch knocked her down to set Jimmy free.

So we left her locked inside, maybe still inconscious.

Then Jimmy and I headed to the Port, on Jimmy's hoverkart, to find an airship docked there, and the Captain talking with Miss Breezy and the Doctor Dayafter.

We arrived in the middle of the discussion so we weren't sure of what was going on, but we could see the Dr Obolensky on the other dock, next to Cad&Bounder, with Mr Merricks and someone else, and the Dr O shot us pies with his new pies shooting gun.

Then the airship took off and started to roam above the city. We could hear them inside, talking about finding big buildings or things like that.

They flew all over New Babbage, and dropped their first bomb in Miss Pennyfeather's park, in Babbage Square.

This was a weird sort of bomb, not exploding, but looking exactly like the one that was found in Mr Pearse's demolished store.

We continued following them and were joined by Mr Pearse on his own hoverkart, but the air pirates finally noticed we were around.

And they started to shoot at us!

Jimmy and I left them after a while, as more residents were coming in their own airships to battle bravely.

We went back to my bakery and landed on the opium den's roof, soon joined by Mr Mayor Clockwinder Tenk, to have a better view on the air battle happening above us in the Babbage foggy skies.

Suddenly, the pirate airship started to cruise more and more close to us and stopped above my bakery, to drop one of their bombs.

Mr Tenk soon started to look very ill-at-ease because of the sound the bomb was emitting, and before my sorry eyes, my bakery exploded, walls and roofs flying in every direction, as far as Mr Jack's Steamworks backyard...

We climbed down and ran towards the disaster, to find the body of Catherine Kelberry laying on a piece of wall.

Lots of people came to see, the Doctor Augustus examined my aunt and announced she was dead. Miss Janus and Mr Wirefly arrived next and they both kindly proposed Jimmy and I their place to sleep at. Miss Janus tried to comfort me...

Other people arrived, all trying to help, but nothing was to be saved really...

And the bomb, in the middle of the pieces of wreckage, was buzzing naggingly, like a big evil bug.

I then followed Mr Rip and Miss Janus to the Port, where the citizens had managed to circle the air pirates on the ground, back to a building, and they were questionning them, to know who paid them for bombing New Babbage.

The grown-ups didn't want me to see the tortur..questionning and I had to leave, and headed towards Miss Mara's Soup Kitchen, where she was with Jimmy, taking care of Mr Mayor Tenk, suffering from ear bleeding. Lots of other harmed people arrived laters, to be taken care of.

From what I gathered, the bombs were meant to damage the magic people, but Mr Tenk said he just had a very sensitive audition and that's why he had been hurt. But well... All those people in Miss Mara's Soup Kitchen... That's a LOT of audition sensitive persons...

I then went back to what was left of my bakery, to see if anything could be saved, but I found out it was a total loss.

And my inheritance is totally gone, I can't afford anymore to build a new one. I will have to sell the land and go back to live in the streets or at nice people's attics with my urchin friends.