pale under the blistering sky, white and red, black and blue (part I)

Yeah, I think we all get the point now, thanks. What bugs me about the 'enhanced Jew' presentation of Magneto is not the Jewish angle. Presenting characters with religions, faiths, beliefs, outlooks, even skin and hair tones outside of what is considered "the norm" is a good thing, and should be highly encouraged. (DC's recent treatment of Sharif, the nearly-was Muslim superhero--I'm looking at you.) In fact, in the recent film X-Men: First Class, I couldn't have asked for a better treatment of Magneto's childhood, and embittered teen and early adult years.

However. There comes a point at which it's just needless character reinforcement. The fact that Magneto is of any faith doesn't need to be mentioned nearly every panel--it would be like Superman announcing he's an alien every time someone new saw him.

Oh, wait.

Sent over from a friend, so no idea beyond the avatar's name or when it was sent:

Omega Garnet: Yanno Alexis, it would be nice to have a script made, just for hunts.. I noticed alot of hunters take other prims that belong for other hunts....even though they aren't participating in that hunt..

Okay, hold the hell up here. You're a merchant, and you've got hunters coming to your store for the End of Summer Sharkbait hunt, for which you have lovingly hidden the little shark fin with its adorable little lag-inducing particle blood droplets, and you are complaining that people are staying in your store long enough to pick up the hunt object for the Summer's Turn at the Beach Hunt, for which you have lovingly hidden the little starfish with the prim googly eyes?

Have you lost your mind, Omega?

I ask this in all seriousness. You may, in fact, need medication. Because if you think this through for one single minute, you will see several things:

* First, that avatar is in your store long enough to find more than one item;
* Second, that avatar is in your store looking around in general, which may lead to sales of items in your store;
* Third, that avatar is now motivated to spend time in other stores, on ANOTHER hunt entirely, which will also benefit you for supporting that other hunt, as well;
* and fourth, that avatar may then tell their friends, if they like the item made for either hunt, and those friends might come back and spend Lindens in your store.

Maybe you're just not that bright, Omega. If so, continue to protest this. I'm sure all the stores who've closed on SL at this point due to lack of sales might even agree with you.

So, I want to talk about the Creature Feature hunt a bit. I was going to wait until the hunt was over, but I thought maybe--just maybe--someone felt up to dealing with the hair-tearing frustration of this misbegotten thing enough to want to get some of the prizes, so...yeah. Here you go, your less-than-positive hunt review.

First, you will need this: it's a not-really organized list of stores participating, and it will be a godsend when you can't find something somewhere or other.

Which is going to happen a LOT, I'm not kidding--there's easily a dozen stores that have dropped out of this hunt along the way. Some look like they never joined the hunt; some have the hunt sign out, but not the gift; and in a few cases, the store itself is gone, and only bare sim earth remains.

Second--and this irritated me nearly beyond words--apparently the merchants in the hunt were given no clear guidelines as to what to do. About half the hunt items come in a single bone box to your Objects folder. The rest come in as a folder. So half your time on this hunt is going to be find hunt gift, port home, unpack, delete bone, open folder, find landmark...port to next location...find hunt gift, port home, unpack, delete bone, open folder, find landmark, port to next hunt location... Repeat, rinse, burn. This isn't an occurence that happens every so often, it's nearly every other object that comes in like this.

While--living as we do in the age post-Twisted hunt--we expect decoys and glib little stupidities as a matter of course, thankfully, there was only one merchant who felt she had to go all out with the decoys. Irksome was that she felt she had to put all the decoys in the same place as the goddamn prize:

(from the fashion album)

See what I mean? There's just no call for that.

Now, the good things. Surprisingly, there are a few. First up, RokumeikaN's "Haku Princess" outfit:

(from the fashion album)

It didn't come with stockings, or shoes, so I didn't show them; it does come with a ruffled headband, but that I didn't show, either. Regardless, this is a frothy, ribboned, purely Gothic lolita outfit, and while I'm not overly pleased with the back-and-front bustle draping, with the right shape (aka, not the one I'm wearing), this could be a sweetly dark outfit.

This is Sassy's 'Dead Doll' dress:

(from the fashion album)

It has a sculpted skirt, which doesn't make me inclined to favor it, but the color's lovely, and the sleeves are nicely done. Also comes with arm bows (shown) and collar bow (not shown).

This is why I don't shop at Trapt:

(from the fashion album)

Trust me, you don't want to see the back, and I think we're all glad I found the thong for the women's version, because before that, I was just planning to show the back. I couldn't have shown the front without changing the blog rating.

Next up, the "Gothic Doll RED" outfit from !!*Fatal/VIRUS* (yes, that's really their name):

(from the fashion album)

It's nothing spectacular, but it does come complete with combat boots.

(from the fashion album)

And here it is, shown with Sweet n' Tart's Zombie Dolly skin. Which I was very excited about getting...until I saw it on.

Pinkmare's came up with a near winner:

(from the fashion album)

The dress is fun, flirty, and the textures are decent. How'ver, I'm not sure I understand the nails through the hands and stomach, and the head cage.

Aliza Karu (AngelsDemon) made bone shoes; they were inventive and really creatively done, but lacked the leg bone to offset the alpha layering:

(from the fashion album)

I can't go on record as saying they were good, or even wearable, if part of the effect is missing from the gift package. You're seeing the part that had a leg, not the other side where the calf had been mostly replaced not by prim bone attachments, but solely by a black leg sleeve.

Squeek! came up with a pair of prim 'creature' wings which were okay:

(from the fashion album)

Sangre Noir did a 'suspendered circus kilt' which is likely a better idea for men than women. The long kilt length sweeps the floor beautifully, but there's not so much a top (this shot was taken after scrambling for the first sort-of-matched tone I could find, which happened to be the top to Pixeldoll's Fiore dress in black):

(from the fashion album)

Jenna's Whimsey came up with a lovely darkened silver dress:

(from the fashion album)

Bliensen & Maitai came up with a 'Happy ever after' skulled necklace:

(from the fashion album)

and it manages to be both elegant and costume jewelry in the same piece.

ImmateriA came up with a dress inspired by Serket.

(from the fashion album)

It's very nicely made, but the question of where one would wear it arises...

And obviously, I'm leaving out a lot. I'm trying to be as charitable as I can, but so much of this, while not outright useless, just...wasn't that interesting.

(This will be continued in part II.)