I thought I'd get an early start for once this year, and found the House of the Crimson Wings:

Supernatural horror, Japanese theme haunted Role play, paragraph RP, demons, youkai, ghosts, fatal frame / project zero, horror, undead, victim, violence, drama, mature themes. visit crimsonwings.net for more details, or visit us!

Huh. A website, even.



One arrives on a bamboo, or other similarly-grained light wood, deck, and one must then walk into the actual haunt.

There are many rules auto-given at landing for the sim itself, which seems to be a therianthrope preserve. Walk past that and you'll see this sign. (The small shack to the right will give out the flashlight mentioned.)



I swear I went through this one once. Didn't I? I can't even remember at this point, there's been so many.



Found the kitchen...I think...And it doesn't look familiar. Maybe they changed things?



Many of the rooms seem empty. Not, abandoned-haunted-house clutter, I mean actually empty of any furnishings, barring the occasional cobweb. It's very odd.



The library? There do seem to be a sufficient quantity of books to qualify.



All in all...it's sufficiently atmospheric, definitely. If one walks the house with sounds on, one will hear whispers, soft voices, wind, sounds of past pain and misery. But...that's really it. There's not much else.

This is what I get for being snarky.

[16:04] kinwelding: una pregunta
[16:04] Emilly Orr: No, not so far.

Then the penny dropped. "Pregunta" doesn't mean "pregnant".

[16:10] Emilly Orr: Ah ¿Cuál es tu pregunta? ('Ah. What is your question?')
[16:11] kxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: disculpa esto es algo nuevo para mi ('Excuse me, this is something new for me.')
[16:11] kxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: qe idioma fue ese? ('What language is that?')
[16:12] Emilly Orr: Ingles ('English.')
[16:13] kxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: perdona mi ignorancia ('Excuse my ignorance.')
[16:14] kxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: no avia visto algo igual ('I haven't seen anything like it yet.')
[16:14] kxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: jeje ('LOL')

Seems fair. There's a lot of native English speakers who spend their whole lives never hearing another language.

[16:15] kxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: como ago para qe laspersonas y lugares se vean nitidos esto es lo qe te qeria preguntar ('as ago for people and places to look sharp this is what you would like to ask'--Google Translate's first real failure this round.)

I think what she means is, would I have stores to recommend?

[16:18] Emilly Orr: Depende del presupuesto, pero las listas de ventas son un buen lugar para comenzar. Martes 24L, Sábados 30L, Domingos 35L. ('Depends on budget, but the sales lists are a good place to start. 24L Tuesdays, 30L Saturdays, 35L Sundays.')

Unfortunately, by that point she'd apparently logged off, or crashed. If she was at the same event I was, Fable, it's likely she crashed, because it took me three times to port home.

She was all of one day old, poor baby. Absolutely zero information on her profile. I hope she finds someone to talk to about what to do in SL.

Vanity Hair's designer had sent this message out with a demo pack earlier today:

I forgot about demos sorryyyyyyyy!!!

Yeah, thanks but no. Not doing it. Done with Hair Fair demos for the year.

For the record, she wasn't the only one who skipped that step. Bauhaus Movement on Noirette, Mister Razzor on Noirette, Lode on Noirette, Tukinowaguma on Noirette, Dahlia on Redhead, I believe Volthair on Redhead, Cranked on Redhead, Avada on Blonde, Throned on Blonde, DP Yumyum on Blonde, and quite possibly Revoul on Redhead all managed to miss that, too. Maybe next year.

Pursuant to yesterday's discussion, before I wander and talk to random individuals, I ran some simple searches through Marketplace.

Eli Rae's seems only to have one T-shirt, "Niramyth" (rigged for the Niramyth body line, obv), and they come in variations for L$50 to L$75 each: Brown with green/brown/black Celtic dragon knotwork, basic faded orange, a weathered light blue, basic dark green, dark blue, a faded gold, ragged pale brown, standard dark brown, a kind of out-of-place bright green, standard red, tattered aged white, serviceable grey, and everyday black. Oh, and there's a demo.

Todeswalzer Designs seems to have a LOT of male Gorean and adaptive medieval outfits, but...they're all for standard mesh sizes. So try demos before purchase!

Tigereye Designs, of course, showed up, and most of their male outfits seem to be a combination of Omega appliers (suitable for any mesh body that is rigged to accept Omega) and mesh pieces that may or may not be rigged (and thus adjustable). Like this one, it's Omega base layers and then five, it looks like, mesh (or sculpted, hard to tell) bits to pair with the layers. (That outfit's L$450, btw, so for those "non-self-respecting" men, it's pricey.)

Kanibal has (relatively few) male designs, but they're also only in standard mesh sizes, so demo, demo, demo.

Kahli Designs has a lot of male designs, but they're even more restrictive, doing three standard mesh sizes.

!Damned is...very odd. Like, let's look at their mesh brown cloak. All it says is 'mesh'--no listing of what bodies it's good for, or what sizes said 'mesh' comes in to wear. So demo (of course).

Treasures of the Desert is the first store that actually listed male bodies for their outfits. To wit, the Kemal White Gold set for example: the description says it's rigged for Aesthetic, TMP, Signature Gianni + Geralt, Belleza Jake, and the Slink Male Body. I'd still recommend demos, but this is the first store I'd heartily recommend to anyone flailing for male fashion.

The Golden Lily has a pretty narrow focus for menswear--fur--but they seem to be in an acceptable range of mesh body sizes. This one, for instance, is sized for system avatars, as well as Signature, Onupup, Jake, Gamit, Adin, four standard fitmesh sizes and Aesthetic.

And honestly, the longest time this search took was in tracking down the links, the prices, and searching down the Aesthetic store on the Marketplace to link to the Niramyth t-shirts seen above.

I'd say, unless the issue is a Gorean man has bought everything that caught his eye, Gorean men--or, at least, that one specific whining Gorean man--just aren't trying. So deal with what you have and stop bitching, dude, or make your own. It's not hard.

Last one. Twenty entries. Yeesh.



And the last store we're covering is liquidmoon, and their first style "NIK". I'm showing it in color 3, and there's a notecard with it that says their hair may not fit on all head shapes. Really? Gosh, I would never have guessed. The visible scalp patches completely blew past me.

I'm wearing the low impact version, and the second style from the style HUD.



This is "PARKER", shown in color 12, and in the first style from the style HUD.



This is "ALAN", shown in color 24, and in the first style from the style HUD. "ALAN" was also the only one I clicked to resize, more on accident than anything else, and found I could do it. Are the others click to resize? No clue, and I'm not digging them out again. But at least this one is.

And...that's it. That's all I'm doing. I may not even make it to Hair Fair this year, due to other circumstances, but at least, everything that was sent out--that I could cover--I have covered. Joy to you all.

You can find liquidmoon on the Noirette sim.

All pictures taken at the Free Photo Studios in Sora.


But to tie this one up, have a bit of bizarre I've been dealing with:



So, I've been dealing with this for a bit, now. I've updated my drivers several times; this particular glitch still persists.



And it's not just that I'm seeing all the Firestorm jellydolls as this pixilated moving nightmare, just occasional jellies get this treatment. It seems very random.



As you can easily see in the above shot, and the first shot--the other jellydoll visible in the frame is normal, for values of displayed normality. And that's what I generally see--variously solid-colored avatar shapes, no hint of additional rez until I choose to render them in. And I'm fine with that--it was weird at first, but it's okay now. It diminishes the amount of things dragging on my graphics card, which is getting elderly at this point, and might soon need to be carted off to a home.

But no. This happens. No idea why. No clue whether it's a glitch in my system, or in Firestorm's. It's just...odd.

And onward we stagger, through the towering pile of Hair Fair demos.



Up to {amiable}, and their first style...oh, gods, numbers again..."HAIR005". Great. All the styles apparently work off one color HUD, so I'm showing it in tone 3.

It is unrigged, so can be adjusted and resized by click, but I found I still had some missing places where hair was not.



This is "HAIR006", which I'm showing in color 9. I did slight resizing.



This is "HAIR007", which is shown in color 13, but...even with resizing and moving it to a slightly different place, I still had scalp patches.



This is "HAIR008", and I'm showing it in 16. Clicked to resize a bit and left it at that.



And finally, "HAIR009", moved and resized and still a little off, and shown in color 18.

You can find {amiable} on the Redhead sim.

All pictures taken at the Free Photo Studios in Sora.

This starts off normal, then goes off the rails.

[12:00] Bxxxxx Lxxxxxx: Anyone know where the 25L items is for [store on the weekly list]?
[12:01] Emilly Orr: Wait a bit for rez, they'll be marked with the 25L sign
[12:01] Axxxxx Axxxxx: in the first room its a long dress
[12:01] Emilly Orr: Or, look for a tilted rectangle next to a vendor near the floor if you can't wait
[12:01] Bxxxxx Lxxxxxx: I see it. It hadn't rezzed for me on the floor. It still hasn't rezzed. lol
[12:02] Bxxxxx Lxxxxxx: Thanks everybody!
[12:02] Emilly Orr: Ah, drat. That sucks when it goes that way. Dress is named [name of dress] if you have labels on when you mouse over things
[12:07] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx makes a poster with his red sharpie, Writes ..." Jarl on Strike...Men are equal to women. Stop the bias against Men!".... He puts on his strike uniform, and starts to protest....... smirks
[12:07] Emilly Orr: Wrong window?

Because it seriously seemed out of the blue.

[12:08] ixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: hmmm
[12:08] Emilly Orr: Cos...this ain't Gor, Chief. Redirect.
[12:09] ixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: lol.. i think that is because of most of these lists being for women
[12:09] Emilly Orr: Most are, true. But there are some male/unisex items. And I always tell people who really want more male-friendly options, make their own sales list. Male designers would likely leap at the chance.
[12:10] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: nope right window. Just cause I'm going doesn't mean I can not protest the bias against males in the retail complex of SL, the direct bias against us
[12:10] Emilly Orr: It's not a direct bias, so much as it's the larger population.

Which is true, and likely will always be true, because most women play women, and a lot of men play women, so...women are the more substantial population.

[12:10] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: come on we all know unisex items are really just female items

We do?

[12:11] Txxxxxx Hxxxxx: Or furniture
[12:11] Emilly Orr: No, and see it this way: if 80% of SL were Tinies, and only 20% were adult-sized people, how many stores would you see catering exclusively to Tinies?
[12:11] Txxxxxx Hxxxxx: but you guys do love seeing your girls pretty, so in a way we are making stuff "for" men
[12:12] ixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I see your point. However, there is a counter point. Men make up a large segment of SL. Would they sell more if they offered more? Or are they not offering because men dont buy? Like the chicken and the egg issue
[12:12] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I buy lots of stuff for my bonds
[12:13] Txxxxxx Hxxxxx: it's just a plot, so that one day you men will go around naked
[12:13] ixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: lol
[12:14] ixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx runs to invest in popcorn

Always good when drama pops up.

[12:14] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Men buy there is nothing for men to buy well I should say Gorean men.... Now if I was running about in a Man bun, drinking starbucks, and a little doggie... I could find tons of stuff

Unlike "real men", which supposedly he is? Wow. Insecure much?

[12:14] Emilly Orr: Well, that's not the worst idea, but to be fair, the sexiest look for women is still nice lingerie, and the sexiest look for most men is sharply tailored suits. That's kind of unfair, too.
[12:15] Emilly Orr: So, since every time this comes up I remark that I see a fair amount of mens' items on the main three shopping lists, should I just start compiling lists to send to you?
[12:16] ixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Have you asked the creator of Tigereyes - I think that is right - to join the lists?
[12:16] Txxxxxx Hxxxxx: I am sorry to say statistically men buy fantasy things less than women do. Are they going to be extinct soon? Do they change clothes less frequently than women? I do not know. What I know is it takes me the same amount of time to make an outfit for women and an outfit for men. The latter sells 1/10 So I do make them, but much less frequently.
[12:17] Txxxxxx Hxxxxx: And [Txxxx] has a point. If you have a favorite maker ask them to apply to 25L Tuesday :D
[12:17] Emilly Orr: And based on personal observation, men are far less willing to convert to mesh in the first place, buy mesh clothes, and pay out in general. They don't feel they need to.
[12:17] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: nope cause I am speaking about Gorean men's things Like I said if I want to look like I just walked out a fu fu coffee shop, reading a book about the evils of testosterone, and a manbun I could be set

Second time he'd said basically the same thing. So I pulled his profile. Yep. Definitely looks overmuscled and undereducated, so no wonder he's sneering at guys who wear glasses and likely have better jobs.

[12:18] ixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Tigereyes makes Gorean male clothes
[12:18] Emilly Orr: If you say so. I say there's vendors out there for Gorean, and adaptive medieval male gear. But you do you.
[12:18] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: ummm no self respecting Goream male would shop there

It's "Gorean", and...huh? Tigereye is that bad?

[12:19] ixxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: lol.. if you say so.. I happen to know better
[12:19] Emilly Orr: No self-respecting Gorean man....why not?
[12:19] Txxxxxx Hxxxxx: regardless, if you have favorite designers, you can ask them to join 25L Tuesday
[12:19] Emilly Orr: I freely admit I've never been to Tigereyes, so what's the deal?
[12:20] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: there items are for skinny ass little men Not any that have a muscular feature

Void stars, moron, we get it. You don't respect anyone who eats salad. MOVE ON.

[12:20] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: they have great stuff
[12:21] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: But if your not a certain frame size it don't work

"You're". So, if they make great stuff, why sneer at them so much earlier?

[12:21] Emilly Orr: If you have a particular mesh body that runs to the bodybuilder sort, yeah, clothing is going to be tricky. What you have to do is start scanning for people who make clothes for that specific body, and see what turns up.
[12:21] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I wish they made bigger styles

Ask them. It's not hard, just open a notecard, write down your request, and send it off to the owner. Or is that not high enough in the stupidsphere for you?

[12:23] Emilly Orr: Right, but again, figure out what best fits your body, and move in on makers that make for it. If they don't make Gorean outfits, ask 'em. Sometimes that works.
[12:23] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: [Txxxxxx] what is sad. There are many mens stores that have 25L plagues but there always empty.

"Plaques", I think you mean.

[12:24] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Now if any want to know I know soem great Gorean mens clothing makers

Wait...if you know Gorean male designers already, then...why are you bitching?

[12:24] Emilly Orr: As in, they're advertising they're on the list, and they're not?
[12:24] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: But I shop to much I think I own them all

So...you're just spoiled, and throwing a baby rant. Got it.

[12:25] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: meanign they belong to the group, but they don't put things up for sale

"Meaning".

[12:26] Emilly Orr: That is an issue. Nothing compels designers to have something every week, though I'd also think that if designers have the same items out every week, or no items at all week after week, [Txxxxxx] would have a chat with them.
[12:28] sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: tell you the truth, most all do great jobs. I think I have just bought everything already so I get bored cause there isn't anything knew that strike my fancy

Seems like that's his problem, innit? But now I'm wondering. As a female, it seems like there's a lot of makers of male gear on the three weekly cheap lists, so...is it just me? Am I seeing male gear where it's not? Or is it just that he's whining?

Personally, I believe it's the latter, but hey, it has inspired me to at least look through Tigereyes, and track down other stores. I know the Forge makes male outfits for Gor, or used to. So I need to find who else does.

We are so close to the end of the Hair Fair demos.



We're now at Zibska, with their first style, "Cyllene 02". It doesn't...seem...to have a color HUD included, so...you get it in basic white.



This is "Cyllene 09", and...look, I never expected Zibska hairstyles to make sense, but...isn't this the exact same style, only in black?



Oh. I'm sorry, I misspoke. There are no color HUDs for ANY of these styles.



But, now that I'm blind...This is "Kore 02", in basic out of the box white.



And this is the photo-negative of the above, "Kore 09".



This is "Pasiphae 02" in the base white. Now, for some reason, I have giant coiled millipedes on my head...



And its photo-negative, "Pasiphae 05". Because millipedes look better in black?



This is "Sponde 02"...and, uh...Look, I realized a long time ago Zibska doesn't make hair for me. I've just never been sure who, exactly, is their target demographic.



...and "Sponde 09"...because of course there would be.



...and "Thelxinoe 02", and great, now I'm a Croquembouche tower...



...and finally "Thelxinoe 09". There. Done. Yeesh. We move on.

I had no idea there were so many different demos in the box. You can find Zibska on the Redhead sim.

All pictures taken at the Free Photo Studios in Sora.

And onward we stagger, through the towering pile of Hair Fair demos.



We're up to Unorthodox, and this is their first style, "Blake". Intended obviously for men, or those who prefer fairly genderless styles, it doesn't come with hairbases I can use, so I went back to the [COLORS] box of hairbases. I'm wearing the "Blake Waves" attachment with the JetBlack hairbase. It did come with a color change HUD, but I left it in the default black for ease.

Also, may I add this is the single creepiest demo signage I've seen in a long time? Eurgh. Severed hands trying to trim my hair, no thank you.



This is the "Keith Flattop", and...maybe the included hairbases do it better justice, but on me? There is something deeply wrong and jagged with the hairline. I pulled up the included color change HUD, but it didn't work. So I'm still in the JetBlack hairbase from [COLORS] and wondering why this looks so off.



I mean, it's not just me, right? There is something just wrong with the attachment line of this hair.



This is the "Keith Messy", which, I'm sorry, looks like nothing more than a 2008 system-hair effort.



The "Keith Neat" seems to have the same problem as the "Keith Flattop", that bizarre jagged thing near the hairline.



Lastly, the "Lemonade Braids", which actually drape nicely, and there are other sizes included for the non-busty. There's also "Side Burn" attachments in three shades in the box, and three separate sizes (default male, "lil boobs", and "More Boobs", which is what I'm wearing).

You can find Unorthodox on the Blonde sim.



Next up is Wasabi, and...I'm just confused. This is the "Alex" double-braid style, in the second color from the "Fireworks" HUD, with the fifth pattern from the Headband Hud, and the hair ties (that keep the braids in check) tinted red. My head is seriously not that big, though, and this doesn't fit. And can't be adjusted. And yes, I am wearing the enclosed alpha layer. I don't get it.



Now, "Venere" on the other hand, is not only lovely and perfect for windy-day snapshots, but has an enclosed "Sizes" HUD so I could ensure it fit. I'm showing it in the third shade under the Roots menu for the "Solar" HUD.

You can find Wasabi on the Noirette sim.
L
All pictures taken at the Free Photo Studios in Sora.

And onward we stagger, through the towering pile of Hair Fair demos.



We're now up to theMars, with their first style "Calista". And oh boy, are their issues. This shot is just of the hair as is, out of the box, with the Bangs demo worn as well. Even from the front, you can see large patches of scalp.



This is the same hair, in tone four from the "Ombres 1" color HUD, with more of the back showing. No alpha, which would have solved a lot of this. No hairbase included, which also would have solved a lot of it.



This is "Daniel", a male style, though I could see it working for unisex, in color 1 from the Browns HUD.



This is "Gemini" in tone 3 from the "Mix" HUD.



This is "Min", which I'm showing in color 9 from the "Blondes" HUD.



Now, this is the first style from theMars that I've really liked. This is "Swift", and I'm showing it in color 6 from the "Reds" HUD.

The last thing in the demo box were two applier packs for LeLutka and Omega, for hairbases. Doesn't do me a whit of good, but hey, at least they're there for the other styles.

You can find theMars on the Noirette sim.

All pictures taken at the Free Photo Studios in Sora.

And onward we stagger, through the towering pile of Hair Fair demos.



We're up to no.match, and the first style they have in the box is "NO_ASPECTS". I'm...not sure what this is supposed to do on my head? Does it need a hairbase (not included)? Does it need an alpha (not included)? Probably yes to both, but...I'm wearing the unrigged/Low LI variant, and checked HUD A, which is apparently their reds. So I grabbed the Rusty hairbase from an existing no.match hair, and used it in the first shade of Rusty from the HUD.



This is "NO_SYSTEM", and while you could choose to wear a hairbase with this, it also doesn't seem essential. (Which is good, because I didn't have a hair base for the OMBRE HUD colors.) I'm showing it in shade 12 from the HUD, and in the 'busty unrigged hairbase' size.

(Though I will admit, that style might work really well for 70s dance nights.)



And this is "NO_WTF", another vintage style, and I'm showing it in size 2 with color 7 from the Unicorn! HUD. (I don't know if the Unicorn! HUD only comes in the fatpack.)



And it came with a scarf attachment, which gives the headband more of the look of a tied scarf. I'm showing it in color 10 from the ACCESSORY HUD, which is sort of a harvest-gold tone.

You can find no.match on Noirette.



So, pr!tty's next up, and...there's only one style in the box? Is that right? Did the others not unpack?

...Oh. There are no others? That's really odd, because other styles are shown in the main Hair Fair blog.

That's really odd, but okay, this is "Eleven", shown in color 25 from the Basics HUD, in rigged, and with Bangs 3. But here's the problem. The bangs don't seem to tint? I guess at least you know which are the bangs, then?



And this is the view from the back. It seems a fairly casual style, brushed but not overstyled, but it has this little wrapped bun thing on the back of the hair. (And yes, I get what they're going for with this, I've seen Stranger Things.)

You can find pr!tty on the Redhead sim.

All pictures taken at the Free Photo Studios in Sora.