The Ballad of Lost Hollow

art by Sarah DeBuck

The Ballad of Lost Hollow is the second connected series by Paul Shapera. It contains the albums *Miss Helen's Weird West Cabaret**, Uncle Raven's Super Happy Fun Time Carnival, The Path From (Lost Hollow to New Albion),* and *The Grand Cyberpunk Gala of Gabriella Gadfly**.*

The story follows a cabaret cast as they seek to discover the twisted truth behind their show.

## Miss Helen's Weird West Cabaret

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Miss Helen introduces the cast and the show. As she begins to describe this week's episode, Han-Mi, who plays the villain, refuses to participate, saying the plot is stupid. Reluctantly, Helen allows Han to act out the flying baby zombie plot that she came up with herself. Hank Hernandez sing his song, describing how he became the sheriff of the town, and Helen sings her song, describing a sinister carnival that lured away her sister and mother.

When Han-Mi sings her song, she describes wanting to alter the racist stereotype that is required by her performance, but she is unable to contact the writer or anyone outside of the show. She feels trapped within the play, is having an existential crisis, and pleads for the listeners to help her. Hearing this, Helen tries to console Han and is about to try to stop the show when Henry The Alchemist shows up. Henry is excited to sing his song for the first time, and Helen lets him. Henry's song describes the creation of his alter ego Hurl, a wild man who can defeat monsters and then go on sex benders. Han points out the homophobic undertones of a gay man who becomes a monster due to his sex drive, and the three make plans to talk to the writer, but nobody knows how to contact him. Hank arrives, and attempts to seduce Han, and she snaps him out of it. The four cast members call for the show to be stopped and someone to speak to them. The voice of an AI asks them if they wish to initiate dialogue, then denies them the opportunity to do so and cryptically says that the performance is terminated.

## Uncle Raven's Happy Funtime Carnival

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A girl in the tunnels, tuned into a broadcast, expecting to hear another episode of Miss Helen's Cabaret, but instead something completely different is played.

The four cast members run away from the cabaret and find themselves in the carnival that was alluded to in Helen's song. The carnival is run by Raven and The Floozies, who welcomes the cast and shows them around the grounds. Raven is excited to have them here, as he is trapped in his own carnival and believes Helen has the power to help him escape. Raven locks Han, Henry, and Hank in the Hall of Mirrors to be consumed with their own sadness, so that he can have a chance to talk to Helen alone. In a rambling manner, Raven tries to tell Helen about Post-Humans and asks her to marry him, and gets angry when she doesn't respond. Han breaks out of the Hall of Mirrors, much like how she broke out of the cabaret, and she threatens Raven to leave Helen alone. Raven realizes it wasn't Helen who was a post human, it was Han. At this moment, Hank interrupts, suddenly revealing that he is an AI who was placed in the cabaret to keep the show running smoothly. He pledges to protect the cast, even from himself, and commits suicide. The door into the tunnels opens, and everyone leaves.

The girl in the tunnels had been revealed to be Helen's sister Shira. Raven approaches her, saying that he had just seen Helen, and he invites Shira to the carnival.

## The Path From (Lost Hollow to New Albion)

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   Raven guides the remaining cast members from Lost Hollow to the corridors beneath New Albion. At a few intervals he tells Han Mi about her burgeoning powers and snippets of posthuman history.

## The Grand Cyberpunk Gala of Gabriella Gadfly

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Helen finds herself in the Room Beneath New Albion, talking with Mary, who is in the form of a metallic spider and is spokesperson for the AIs. Han and Henry are trapped inside Helen's mind.

Mary explains the AI's situation. They are fighting a war with their future selves, who will one day destroy New Albion in an attempt to become post physical. In order to prevent those events, they came up with a unpredictable plan to and use the cabaret to turn Lost Hollow into a real place where they could move into and lock themselves away in a location that would prevent them from harming the city. Lost Hollow is the second attempt at this plan, the first was The Grand Cyberpunk Gala of Gabriella Gadfly, based on a series of books written by Nathan Brindesi. However, the first attempt had driven Helen mad and went horribly wrong.

Helen is overwhelmed by this all, and in order to free Han and Henry from her mind, she commits suicide. Han grieves for Helen, and then Mary states that this is unfortunate and they will have to wipe their minds and start over again. Han and Henry try to escape, and when they cannot outrun the AIs, Han uses her posthuman abilities to make Hurl real. Henry transforms into Hurl, and kills the other AI before Mary subdues him. Han threatens to hill Mary herself, but she successfully pleads for her life

Mary is now in a new Cabaret broadcast, taking Helen's place. In this one Henry is the sheriff of Lost Hollow and he is a part of it presumably to keep an eye on Mary. Han-Mi meets Lloyd Allen who wants to return to the Carnival to meet up with Raven. He asks Han-Mi to show him the way, and reveals that Han is Raven's great-granddaughter.

## Characters and Credits

* Lauren Osborn as Miss Helen and The Floozies
* Psyche Chimere as Han-Mi
* Paul Shapera as Hank Hernandez, Raven, and Lloyd Allen
* Rhys Owen as Henry The Alchemist
* Eimear O'Riordan as Shira
* Jessica Singer as Mary
* Cover art for the trilogy by Sarah DeBuck