there's no more coming back this way, the path is overgrown and strewn with thorns

He's not wrong. Even for bad movie fans, the Star Wars Holiday Special has broken too many geeks for it to be considered 'bad' in the traditional sense. It should more properly be classified as 'toxic' to all who view it.

You will not emerge unscathed, it should say. Or come with a bright red warning label affixed to it: CAUTION--THERAPY WILL BE REQUIRED AFTER VIEWING.

Before we go back into the rant zone, I wanted to mention a couple things. First, SN@TCH--the store name I hate to mention--is, along with several other makers of very cool things, having their annual Halloween Hunt.



Last year they built a haunted girls' school and called it CUTTING CLASS. It was fairly well-thought out, genuinely creepy in spots, and it was a puzzle, a game, that led you through the tragic history of the school to the end room, where there were lots of prizes to be picked up.



This year they did things a bit differently, in that they hid prizes throughout the build. Look everywhere--in drawers, behind structures, on top of lockers, in chairs. And you'll also be collecting notes that explain what went on in Nightmare Eden, a now (mostly) abandoned space station somewhere in orbit between Mars and Earth.



You know me and eyes, if you know me in world at all, and I'm here to tell you, there are a lot of eyes to pick up and cuddle in this game. But be warned--most of them are eye-sized, and in fact, eye-shaped. The House of Ruin did the eyes for finding, and I'm reasonably sure, without too many doubts, that I didn't find them all.

This one's also definitely creepier--the sounds, the look of the place, the mutated animals, the skinned humans....and the computer, B.E.T.T.I, getting more and more deranged the closer you get to the core. It has some chills, and at least one place where I actually (RL!) jumped back.



You can start in front of the SN@TCH main store, or go to the Nightmare Eden Embarkation Center instead. Inside, you'll find a sign for Nightmare Eden, which will give you a landmark and a HUD to wear. You can wear the HUD; I don't recommend it, as it cut off a lot of my range of vision. How'ver, it does contribute to that 'video game' feel.

Secondly, to celebrate the opening of an actually open satellite store, Lady Disdain is having a hunt!



The Lost Coast is located at Black Sand Beach, in the Solace Beach Estates. It's a charming little patch of land, that I am slowly developing (as I get funds and time). But the store is open, and making sales, and to celebrate that, I'm holding a hunt!

This one's so much easier than last year. Twenty bats, a Linden each, very easy to see against the walls of the store. As the sign says, all but four of the bats are inside the store--and none are hidden behind anything, though you may have to cam in (or cam up!) to find them all.

They contain:

* Thirteen newly-painted sets of eyes, tilted towards the spooky end of things;
* Three of my first ever poses (the sign says four, but I think in the end, I ditched one as unimpressive); two static kneels, for photography, and one animated "zombie attack" that comes with a sculpted arm stump (mod, of course);
* Two new outfits (the next two in the "Carni" series);
* One set of amber horns (large, but I think they can be resized);
* And my first ever skin. Based on the Splendor skin release by Sezmra Svarog, with a burlap overlay and burnt stitching here and there, it is a wonderfully creepy little rag doll.

Click the sign in the store (or click the sign in Autogenic Alchemy for the notecard and a landmark) for more information, and exactly which bat contains what. Find them all or pick and choose, it's up to you!

And if you'd rather not hunt them out, everything but the horns and the poses will be for sale in the store after the hunt. (I'm still working out how to find an animation sales display stand for the animations and poses.)

All right: next post, more ranting!