By Jeanne Dupris, Nor Eastern EIC

16/12/282-A new scourge on Nor Easter has reared its ugly head in recent days. They started as rumors, but now we have confirmation from the Palace: The Mad Mechanist, Doctor Argyle Von Grimm, has come to Oeil de Fleur, and along with him a retinue of his mechanized gang.

What has the Palace done about this development? Nothing, nor do they plan to.

“Doctor Von Grimm has been granted immunity in Oeil de Fleur for the duration of this month,” said Henri Degeau, a spokesperson for Her Imperial Majesty. “The circumstances behind this are not the concern of the Gazette, or the citizen.”

It’s a rather strange, and disturbing stance, by what is considered to be the most open ruling figure in the Triumvirate. And given Von Grimm’s history, the atrocities he’s committed (including those committed against the Empress herself), I feel the people of Oeil de Fleur have a right to know why he’s being allowed to walk amongst them freely.

Doctor Argyle Von Grimm used to be the Imperial physician, first coming into the position with Empress Marcelette’s grandfather. It is even said that he delivered Her Grace into this world. But halfway through the reign of Empress Marcelette’s father, it was discovered that Von Grimm had a horrible secret, experimenting on the inmates of Marseille Asylum.

Von Grimm had become obsessed with the idea of the mechanical body, first removing the limbs of unwilling victims and replacing them with prosthetics of wire and clockwork. It is said that when his crimes were discovered (after a failed attempt to kidnap the young Empress Marcelette and turn her, literally, into a puppet), he had been trying to remove a human brain and place it into a completely mechanical facsimile. His workshop at the asylum is said to have been littered with the failed attempts towards this grisly goal.

I cannot fathom, dear reader, why the Empress has allowed this, nor why she is unwilling to address it. We can only hope that the Mechanist’s stay is uneventful, and that he leaves when his immunity has expired.