and what am I now but your reaction, I'm all those memories you tried to steal

There is no one thing left, but that one thing, and that one thing, you cannot have. What now?

Gooood question.

So. I've been gone a month. Longer than, really, if you count the slipped story, and that, I'm not sure I can go back to--both the story and the story-tellers have changed in the intervening time. I'll try, but it won't be the story I would have told then, and it may not even be the one I'd tell now, all things considered true.

Am I being obscure? Probably.

So what's happened? Big changes, big transitions. New Alexandria has fallen without a mention, much as I'd meant to mention it; Port Fortune has (sort of) risen in its memory, though not its place. Krakenstorm my beloved, while still there, is not; it will soon be released by the land's owner back into the mists. New Alexandria's former territory will depart as well, around the same time, leaving Gearhaven no longer five, but three.

But in reality, we're mainly two, because Darkmere rises again in the Dark Sea. I've been enchanted watching it rise, and watching its scattered denizens return. They couldn't be happier. I think I couldn't either.

Soon the black sun and the darkened moon will shine their occult rays on the fens and marshes, and for once that is not hyperbole; Lucifer Baphomet is designing the sun and moon for his skies, and they are...distinct, and different. And very much him.

What else?

The Night Court has fallen; vestiges of it still remain in Silver City, and while I do not wish them well, at least I do not wish them harm, and that is about the best that can be hoped for. Once again, Gearhaven is home to refugees from elsewhere, and I'm doing all I can to make our strange, wild lands somewhat more...tame? Tame is not the word, but it's the only one coming to mind...for their stay with us. They're looking towards owning their own lands, so their sojourning within our borders is for a finite time, be that weeks, months, or years. And that's fine; all things change, whether we wish them to or not. Nothing stays the same.

I'm now an official blogger for Vae Victis; I suppose I should thank the nepotism of friendship for that, but honestly, I'm awed and amazed that I was approved. Because, as every reader of this blog knows, I don't take pictures in the best, most optimal light; I take them for what is seen, by most, on the grid as is. Very few fancified effects; for all my fancies, and many are innate at this point, I am a realist where the lens is concerned.

I will try to note where I was given product, versus just buying it on my own; the Dracul Regalia horns of last entry, for instance, were given graciously by Grimoire Hexem. The next entry, on the Hiraeth antlers, I bought those on my own. (Amusingly, they're one of the product offerings I could have had, gratis, for the blogging, but--I wanted them, I bought them, I made them mine. So there.)

And I'm putting the blog back together. Whatever haphazard glitch in the matrix disabled it in the first place, I can no longer find the originals to restore, so--going back to the template before the template I had before the last template. Annoying, but there we are. I will slowly add things back in as we go.

And...that's about one. Down one hand surgery, will have another hand go under the knife next month, but that's RL...in SL, things are...more or less good. Well. They're good, they're just...either I have way too much free time, and nothing to do with it, or no free time at all, and I'm scrambling to get everything done. Isn't it always the way?

But from here, I start to reweave the threads, and we'll see what happens from there.

Has to be better than a month of nothing at all...

you think I only think about you when we're both in the same room

Names anonymized to protect the guilty (grins), but name of the store left in:

[10:15] ixxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Hey Debauchery. Would you ever consider making an Adult Yoga mat with th inclusion of Yoda animations?
[10:15] ixxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: *Yoga
[10:16] Cxxxxxx Fxxx: Yoda positions!!! That totally put all kinds of crazy images in my head.
[10:16] ixxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: It was a typo
[10:16] Cxxxxxx Mxxxxxxx: Sex you will :)
[10:16] Cxxxxxx Fxxx: ha!
[10:17] Cxxxxxx Fxxx: Yes, it was obviously a typo, but it was an amazing typo!
[10:17] cxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: lol
[10:21] Jxxxxxxxx Wxxxxxxxxx: the kamasutra you still have to learn young sexling

How'ver, I wanted to talk about something else. The gyrocopter.



I took these pics months ago--anyone who's been to Gearhaven in the intervening time knows the terrain's changed a bit, and we've gone to non-mesh surround fragments. But Dejah built the gyrocopter.



They also built New Alexandria from the ground up. And did a stellar job. It's phenomenal.



But this is neat, too. They actually put a winged angel hood ornament on the front of it! (Sadly, yes, the only pick that came out of the ornament head-on, when the building was unrezzed. Rats.)



We'd circled around the entire city by this point. (I'm the one with blue hair in the back, btw--Dejah's the one in the pilot seat.)



And landing.

I honestly don't know if Dejah plans to sell this one anywhere, but if you're curious, the legacy name is Deebrane String. It's just...perfect.

I tried to pray for a new reality (part LXXXVI)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from part LXXXV.)

The Duchess stepped to the door. Right, then. Time to tackle the next problem.



She looked from Gearhaven across the Dark Sea towards New Alexandria. She should be able to see New Alexandria. She was not seeing New Alexandria. Hence the problem.



She took the port Deebs had sent when she was in the tank, and landed...in New Alexandria. It was...here? But...how?



She was confused. How could it be here and gone? She started researching, pulling up all the information on the land she had. Nothing. All settings looked normal...



Was it something with the sigils at the crossroads? She checked, and no, they seemed to be perfectly in order.



She stared towards the Arcanist's tower. Everything seemed to be in order there, too.



In utter frustration, she murmured the flight spell she'd memorized, and used to often it was rote, and went aloft, flying out directly over the bay. She could see the Face islands in the Dark Sea, she could see Gearhaven clearly...She was confused. She flew farther out and turned.



It was there.

What?

An hour of her life spent on the ground in New Alexandria, trying to figure out why the land was hidden, and...the solution to see it was just to fly out from its shores back towards Gearhaven?? WHAT??

She finally sighed, flying back to Darktow and setting foot on the small island once again. She contacted the Arcanist.

"It's back now," she murmured into the comm. "No, I don't know why."

She sighed, slumping on the lounger under the parasol. Chalk it up to one more thing that was buggy about Gearhaven...

(Continued in part LXXXVII.)