Steelhead's "Sharknado" Party

By Bixyl Shuftan

The Steelhead community in Second Life is the source of many weird happenings. While many are caused by the mad scientists among it's residents, others are not as the place itself seems to attract oddness. On Friday Sept 6 came another strange event when a number of waterspouts, to those who don't know a tornado in open water, appeared at Steelhead Shanghai. What made it truly odd was that there were electric sparks coming from some of the waterspouts, in addition to sharks seen flying around in them. The locals promptly christened the event a "Sharknado."

So what did the Steelheaders do? This group of wacky humans, elves, weres, furs, and other folk did what they so often do in the face of weirdness: throw a party. And faster than one can say "da-dum, da-dum," people began arriving at the harbor's docks.

DJ Fuzzball Ortega, normally the town's sherif, was the DJ for the party. The pointy-eared were had managed to squeeze himself in a scuba outfit, with his charming partner Eugene in a bikini. They had on just two of the many costumes at the event, which including old-time diving outfits, shark costumes, shark hats, and more swimsuits, "I love Ma's get up, hehehe!" And of course the pet sharks from the 7Seas fishing game.

Besides the sharks flying around in the air, a couple "landwalker" sharks joined the party, "Watch out for the land shark!" But these "landsharks" weren't there to chow down on the Steelheaders, or look for bargain real estate. They were there to enjoy the music and dance along with everyone else. And with the sharkgirl fitting her bikini just nicely, no one seemed to mind.

At one point, chainsaws were passed around, "helpful if it starts raining sharks." "I knew investing in power tools would be useful someday." By accident, one was passed to one of the landwalkers by accident, "Thanks! This'll make chopping up the tuna a *lot* easier. … When you have a shark's body designed for a big brain and opposeable thumbs, well, your jaws aren't gonna be as strong."

At another point, Lelani took a gun of some kind to the flying fish, "Don't be alarmed, people, just taking a practice shot at some silly old sharks." She got a few curious looks, "alarmed of guns in Steelhead?" One of the landwalkers remarked, "Just don't shoot me. I came for tuna, not 'long pig.' " Someone else mentioned the possibility of a Telsa gun seen on "Facebook" as a weapon against the sharks. Another just remarked, "Hey, you wth the gun! Less QQ, more pew-pew." A third cautioned, "You shoot enough sharks and it will be phew-phew!"

Some of the women's swimsuits were more revealing than usual for Steelhead, "Okay Lumi, that's oddly hot, and not at all 'G' rated." The neko girl just giggled, "hee-hee-hee, thats me, accidentally perverted." Someone else remarked, "Who needs stinkin' G ratings on 'Sharknado!' night?"

Fuzzball's tip jar got a number of donations, "Thank you … Now I can bribe SyFy NOT to make a sequel." One of the landwalker sharks suggested, "maybe we in Second Life can make a better shark movie." Steelhead co-owner TotalLunar Eclipse suggested, "We should recreate some of the movies on MST3K." There were a few jokes about bringing back Saturday Night Live's "Landshark," "knock-knock. Candygram!" And there were other ideas for B-rated flicks, "Shark Bait II - Fishing Chums."

With all the sharks flying around, someone wondered about "shark poop" falling from the sky. One landwalker commented, "Don't look at me, I used the outhouse before coming here." There were a few jokes about a "sh**storm," and "where's the fan?" And of course, "jumping the shark."

Eventually, the party came to a close. Unfortunetly for Steelhead Shanghai, this event for the location would be it's last. While no Steelheaders were killed or seriously injured, the structures suffered serious damage. With Steelhead's city funds running low, it was decided to level the ruined buildings and close the sim. And so Steelhead's Chinatown area was no more. While only a few residents had to move, the community was sad to see the place go. Willow Leafstorm wrote a poem in tribute:

'Tis a day that is sad for all good things must come to an end.
We say farewell to a land that was a home and to some and a friend.
Tonight we dance and and make merry for old Shanghai,
Auf wiedersehen. Au revoir, sayonara , ciao, zài jiàn and goodbye

 A few pictures of Steelhead Shanghai can be found in Eladrienne Laval's blog.

Steelhead doesn't usually mourn for long, so chances are instead of the event being known as the end of Steelhead Shanghai, it'll be known fondly as the "Sharknado."

"Thank you all for sharing your sharks."

Bixyl Shuftan

Sumo Wrestling at Steelhead

By Bixyl Shuftan

Recently at Steelhead, the steampunk community held their Sakura Festival over several days. Most of the events took place at the Steelhead Shanghai sim. There was a hunt, and some folklore and poetry readings. And for a little action, there was a sumo wrestling event, dubbed "Sumo Sunday."

Come one come all to Sumo!
Part of the Sakura Festival in Steelhead. Come join the festivities and beat each other up while having fun doing so. Starts at 5pm SLT in Steelhead Shanghai.

Sumo wrestling is an old sport, it's beginnings going back centuries in Japan. The rules are simple. The two wrestlers start from crouched positions in the center of the ring, then when the match starts each tries to force the other from the ring without a body part other than the feet touching the floor. Matches are typically quite short, sometimes lasting just a few seconds. But they can go on for over a minute.


For Steelhead's sumo matches, a scripted ring was placed in Steelhead Shanghai, complete with a 'bot referee, with stands set up to the side for the audience. Of the seats, Tensai Hilra joked, "custom is to throw seat cushions after a match, but that broke, so throw whatever you got (grin)." There was a "dead parrot launcher" that got used a time or two.

Those taking part had to touch the board for a "pusher" attachment, which was worn. Then they would touch the two white lines in the ring to crouch. When the ring gave the signal, the participants would charge at one another. As in real matches, some ended in seconds. But some went on for a while. There was also a technical glitch. If a larger avatar was up against a smaller avatar, sometimes the bigger one would go flying up into the air. Landing outside the ring in this matter was not considered a defeat, so after flying up in the air a wrestler could get back in. As the matches went on, the wrestlers began to use smaller avatars.

One of the more talked about bouts was held early in the event. Steelhead owner TotalLunar Eclipse went up against street urchin Jimmy Branagh. Lunar boasted, "If I lose the sumo match, Jimmy Branagh gets to be mayor for a week." As it turned out, Jimmy turned out to be a more skilled fighter than expected, "He's small, but he's scrappy." Eventually, he won the majority of the bouts, and the match. Fuzzball Ortega's reaction was to groan, "I'm moving to Caledon." Jimmy took the key to the city with a grin, though made no boasts about what he would do with his newfound position.

Yours truly got into the act with a freebie sumo wrestling avatar up against local Willow Leafstorm. But with her smaller fairy avatar, the result was the bulkier avatar ending up flying into the ring. So I switched to a small mouse avatar (Luskwood Bunkie), one not much taller than a "tiny." I won a single bout, but Willow got two and the victory. Tensai then challenged me in a small avatar of her own, "Cat versus mouse." While the mouse beat the cat once, in the end the rodent left the ring bested.

The matches went on for about a couple hours. In the Steelhead community meeting a few days later, they were declared a hit and a success, with lots of fun and laughs held around. There was no word on what Jimmy Branagh was doing as "mayor."

The Festival goes on until Saturday June 29.

In real life, professional sumo wrestlers live highly regimented lives, with matches having much tradition and ceremony. For instance the leg-stomping actions wrestlers do on entering the ring is actually a ritual to drive out evil spirits. But there is also amateur sumo, which is more worldwide and lacks most of the old rituals. Professional sumo wrestlers are not divided into weight classes, though a skilled wrestler can still beat a much larger opponent. Amateur sumo is divided into three weight classes plus Open Weight (Wikipedia entry).

Bixyl Shuftan