On the muddy banks of The Rivelin

There's a new diary entry on hellsborough.com right now:

Having been steady for many months, the humidity plant went haywire again this weekend, so headed down the muddy banks of The Rivelin, where the air is cooler and there was a bit of a breeze, blowing the murk about in curls. Me and Shad were minding our own business -- not much tends to bother Shad, he is big enough and bad enough for most creatures not to mess with, so this is a first. I think the barker must have been wild, certainly the jellyhead that purported to be it's owner wasn't in control of it. This damn thing, it looked like the chaotic mutant spawn of a ripperthroat and a sly, was chewing on rocks as we approached. Yes, I know, when have you ever seen a barker chewing on rocks, and seemingly enjoying itself? Must have been strengthening up its jaw, for as we was parallel to it, the damn thing almost took my legs out in its haste to get to Shad and take a chunk out of him.

Shad actually yelped, but would have defended himself admirably (how could he not, he can't die now can he?), but I stepped up to the plate and commanded the beast back to its owner, which it did with tail between its legs. The jellyhead owner was most apologetic, and so he should be -- I advised him to put his damn mutt on a lead, or face the wrath of the nascenti; he obliged, the organic network out there is very focused, so he'll likely get his comeuppance from the nascenti anyway.

All was calm after that, and it is a funny coincidence that the event happened at the Ripperthroat wheel, which is where I snapped this shot of a clown quacker with my psycmask:

Other developments…

Last week I mentioned releasing a Tiktok video channel called "Murk Lore" with video short stories that are set in Hellsborough and The Dark Peak. The plan was to have that done already but pressure in the off-world and technical problems put paid to that over the last couple of days. This is the transcript for it, which will be another diary entry when I sort this technical stuff out:

[[ Murk Lore ]]

[[ The strange tale of Nigel the Librarian ]]

Nigel lives at Outibridge. [Ootibridge]

Every day he walks in the early murklight along

the Middlewood road to his office in Hellsborough.

A murk wraith spoke from the shadows.

Nigel looked into its eyes.

"Do you know why dark matter leaves this place?" It asked.

Nigel said nothing. He kept walking -- he needed to get to work.

He got stuck in, but his head wasn't in it.

What was it the murk wraith said about dark matter?

He looked it up.

Jarvis Fry came and shuck his hand.

Jarvis didn't say nowt -- just looked Nigel in the eyes and nodded.

Joe Bean came up, chuffing on snough and spluttering condolences.

Boggy Lomas and Mandy Turner.

Ronnie Sykes and Jimmy Savage.

They all said their goodbyes, their farewells.

Nigel's eyes were jittery,

tiny sparks shot here and thereabouts.

Davey Hawley brought him flowers, he thought.

Nanna Farantee -- his boss -- told him to take the rest of the day off.

Nigel protested, she insisted.

So Nigel left, he didn't go back to Outibridge, [Ootibridge]

but he knew why dark matter was leaving Hellsborough

-- he knew The Hinge was leaking

-- and he had a plan to fix it

-- he was going to plug that hole...

#### HMM::IN('DPDC Alert: Hellsborough junction closed, suspected sabotage of Hellborough Bridge.')

hits:: 4991007 // [this]2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:037g:7334 [loc::hellsborough//middlewood_road//467]__ // now:: 79.squall-longleg.12.0.9.15.11

Avoid area. Roads closed. Suspected casualties.

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Cheers, until next time,

Pip :)