Midian City Tober's Diary #23

Tober's diary is composed in a small, hardbound book that she keeps with her.

I have some good news and some bad news. Ok, good news first! I met a really cute neko boy the other day named Duke. He seems to really like me. The bad news is, he's in the Pack. This makes Tober a sad kitty. To make matters worse, when I met Duke, he was with his adopted kid, Blake, who kept trying to tell Duke that I was a spy for the Catwalkers. Duke seemed a little lovestruck though and wasn't really listening to her. Hee hee.

Seriously though, things are really becoming tense between us and the Pack. There's talk about the Pack moving from their underground den to a new place in the Apocalypse ruins. I don't know if that's good or bad just yet. I guess if they're planning on expanding and recruiting more people, then it could be bad...not just for us Catwalkers, but for Midian in general. The Pack are predators, and I know firsthand that Angela seems to be a bit bent on taking over.

I really don't want any part of this conflict, but unfortunately I've been stuck in the middle of it ever since I agreed to be a spy for the Catwalkers. I had a feeling this was going to happen. That's about all I wanted to write about right now. More later.

Bella Luna Gallery

Come see a fresh assortment of my photos and those of other talented Neko photographers tomorrow. Below is the official notice:

BELLA LUNA GALLERY is proud to present its first show and grand opening celebration on October 19th at 5pm SLT.
Our first show's theme is Kittens with Cameras, and showcases the works of several neko photographers:

+ OCTOBER HUSH
+ DUI ZHANG
+ JEZEBELLA ELECTRICTEETH
+ MYCA LING
+ VASEAN TALAMASCA

The opening party starts at 5pm SLT. Come in costume, and you'll have the opportunity to win $L500 to the best dressed male and female.

Hope to see you there for art, dancing and fun!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sunshine/195/160/22

Midian City Tober's Diary #22

Tober's diary is composed in a small, hardbound book that she keeps with her.

Something is definitely brewing between the Catwalkers and the Pack, and it's not good at all. I ran into Shem on the street near the Bridge to Nowhere. She's very friendly, and we sat down and talked while giving each other pets and scratches. While we were talking, I told her that I left the Pack and was now with the Catwalkers, but that didn't mean we couldn't still be friends. She then shocked the hell out of me by coming right out and saying that she was planning to kill the Catwalker Matron. She just said it so calmly and cheerfully, as if she were saying "Oh, it's a lovely day today!" that I think I couldn't even reply for a couple of seconds.

I asked her if she was serious, and she said she was. I tried to remain calm and asked her why she was doing this, and she said she was doing it because Rith (the Matron) is evil, and Angela wanted her dead. Obviously, I couldn't allow this to happen. We talked a little more, then I left her as soon as I was able. I reported directly to Lindsay about this, and she of course passed on the info on to Chai and Rith. Chai told me himself that the Pack was in for "a big surprise." I don't know what that means, but I'm sure it doesn't involve someone popping out of a cake. I think we may be at war soon.

After I told Linds about the situation with Shem, she and I were talking more. I found out today that Linds essentially cannot be romantic with another person. She was fitted with a device that resembles a metal snake that sits inside her throat. She calls this thing the "weasel." It controls her breathing and heart rate, and it's designed to do something else as well: kill. This thing is activated by arousal and deployed - through Lindsay's mouth - upon sensing pressure on her lips. It enters the victim and essentially devours their insides, then returns to Linds' body. While the weasel is outside of her, her breathing and heart stops. She says the action of the weasel is so fast that it only stays outside of her body for a moment. However, without the weasel, she would die. I asked her if there were any way it could be removed and she told me there wasn't. I didn't quite know what to say to her. I'm not sure I said anything...I think I just hugged her.

The closer I get to Lindsay, the more in awe of her I am. She's so brave and strong in many ways, and somehow just keeps soldiering on. She is something she doesn't want to be, and it clearly haunts her every day. If I were in her position, I don't know how I could carry on like that.

(Note: The concept of "The Weasel" is originally from the novel Hardwired, by Walter Jon Williams. An excerpt from the novel can be read here.)

Happy Monthiversary!

Chloe and I trying out the bed in Octoberville
This past Saturday marked the 5th month of Chloe and I being together as a couple. As luck would have it, we were also able to spend the evening together, and Chloe was on broadband for the weekend!

Thank you, Chloe, for making these past 5 months so very special =)

Car nuts hate Second Life?

Ok, you guys know I don't normally write about stuff like this, but I was kind of surprised and rather disappointed when I read the comments people have left on Autoblog's article entitled More automakers leading a Second Life. Most commenters stated that they found SL boring and stopped using it after only an hour, then uninstalled it from their computers.

I can't really argue against someone's opinion of SL; but I just can't help but wonder why they feel that way, and the rest of us (my blog audience, my friends, and probably millions of others) feel completely the opposite way.

Discuss!

New Nicholaz Client for OSX!

This was too good for me to not pass on to everyone I know...there's now a Nicholaz Client for OSX! Some of you may know that I use Nicholaz Beresford's Nicholaz Edition Client for Windows on my home computer, but at work, I've been stuck with using the official client from Linden Lab, which I really dislike. Well, not anymore! I just downloaded the release candidate viewer and the Nicholaz patcher from here, and now I can enjoy Nicholaz's sweet client on my work computer too! I just used it for a second and it seems to work great, and no more stupid "Communicate" window. I hate that thing!

Anyway, if you have a Mac (or Windows), give it a try! You'll probably like it. It's very much like the "old school" client.

Midian City Tober's Diary #21

Tober's diary is composed in a small, hardbound book that she keeps with her.

Rith (L) and Lindsay (R) unmasked
Lindsay called me this morning and said "Rith wants to meet with you today. What's it going to be? Are you staying with the Pack or are you coming to us?" I told her I was coming to the Catwalkers. Chai, who is the second in command of the Catwalkers, contacted me and gave me a meeting place and time. I killed time by leaving the Pack den and wandering around on rooftops to help work out my nervousness. When it got close to the meeting time, I went near the Bridge to Nowhere, which was our meeting spot.

I slowly approached the group, which was Rith, Chai, and one other neko I didn't know, and stood rather far away from them. Chai called out to me and assured me it was ok and to come, so I did. I hadn't had direct contact with Rith up until now. I found her friendly and warm, and kind of motherly. The other neko who was there that I didn't know was also being brought into the Catwalker fold. Without much ceremony, we were made "Kittens", and that was that. I now had a new family, and was out of the Pack. Chai even bought us sushi to celebrate.

Shortly after that, I met up with Lindsay again to tell her how it went and also to give her the update on Shem. She told me that this was something to keep an eye on, and I told her I would probably still be able to do that for a little bit before the Pack realizes that I'm no longer with them.

Lindsay and I also just talked for a little bit. She and I have seemed to develop a rapport, which I would have never guessed would happen given the circumstances in which I met her. I finally felt comfortable enough to ask her why she wears a mask, and she told me a little history about her life. It turns out that she wears the mask to help dampen the scent of everything. She was modified to have a hyper-sensitive sense of smell, amongst other things, and the mask was usually a necessity in the sensory overload that is Midian. However, for the first time, I got her to take her mask off for me. I had a hunch she was beautiful, judging by just her eyes, which was all I could see until now, and I was right. She's model-beautiful...something I wouldn't have expected given the fact that she was basically "engineered" to be a living weapon.

While she had her mask off, we compared our sense of smell. Not only can she smell more, but she can basically "pick apart" smells and sense their individual components. For example, where I would smell just garbage, she would smell decaying fish, moldy noodles, etc. It's pretty amazing. And it makes me feel very...ordinary. Which, I guess I am, compared to many of the citizens of Midian. But, ordinary or not, I'm getting by and finally starting to get ahead here, so I guess I'm doing something right.