Drumroll please, the Duchess is BAAAA--

--wait. What's that word that means "back but only occasionally and Em still has to limp around once an hour and make whimpery sounds until likely January because no one's going to be doing physical therapy visits over the holidays"?

Oh, English doesn't have a word for that?

Well, damn.

In the meantime, let me present to you the horror.



The two footrests, while I was in residence, at least, never moved. Other footrests did. At one point we had four separate wheelchairs and ten separate footrests in various spots in the room.



A better close-up. Several of us swear these have to be the original curtains, because no one makes that shade anymore.



And one night, when it was exceptionally cold due to the big bay windows behind said gold curtains, I asked for a blanket...and they brought me one in avocado green.

I rest my case.

Off for walkies.

Hey, kids? Wanna know what's better than trying to human with a headache that never leaves? I'll tell you--trying to human with that headache and a fractured tibia!

It's...something, I guess.

Right now Em-beyond-the-screen's reality consists of:

1. Trying to put weight on the leg;
2. Trying to move and/or walk on the leg;
3. Trying to put weight on the leg AND walk on the leg.

Thrilling stuph, lemme tell you.

The lack of a computer, where all my graphics live, is also starting to make me twitch. Which also makes the leg hurt.



So...yeah. That's where we are. I am so, so tired of the original 1970s everything here, too. You think I'm kidding, but the curtains are Harvest Gold, the striped wooden seats--one in gold pinstriping with teak-stained wood, the other a wine, gold and black wider-striped affair--that chair looks like cherry wood, and who knows, it might not be staining, but actually teak and cherry wood!

And I don't remember the pattern name--it was something like Sunshine Meadow or Meadow Gold--but it's covering the floor, authentic sheet linoleum.

Don't get me wrong--I want to be here. I want to get stronger. I want to do the work. But everything hurts, and walking feels like knives stabbing my feet, and even laying down is a challenge, because at some point, the leg with the fracture will move, or shift, or muscle fibers will pull....just...Argh.

Or maybe auurrooolllgh... One of those.

But onward through the frogs, or something.

<i>(Obviously, this is going to be more RL than most blog posts.)</i><br />

"Is this AI trying to learn?"

This also strikes me as AI work (and there is mild nudity, so potentially NSFW), but the song is moody, and atmospheric, and the animation is at the least fascinating to watch.

(Bit on Kiki Rockwell in general, because I hadn't heard her before--this article was written in January of this year, so she's relatively new, and from New Zealand.)



So! The 'Atropa' Parasite Flower, another iteration of an earlier work. It needed to be covered. [[Insert from the Editrix: I am being *very honest* in dating...sort of...in that the Necropolis Aether Salon occurred on 18 October, I started seriously working on this entry ten days later, on 28 October...but it's getting dated November 5th for final publishing.]]

It's a new library site, as well. No idea why, though it could have something to do with the current absence of the Baron, but--overall, it seems a much more warm, comforting space.



And yes, that is the Chartes Cathedral labyrinth in the library. I don't know if it's always there, or if that was an addition for the Salon on the Necropolis, as understood through a few eras. Either way, it's a lovely thing to see in a library.



And Sir Edward definitely was in his element for this one, comparing various cities of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, how they dealt with body disposal as a whole, as well as side jaunts into places like the Paris Catacombs and the Sedlec Ossuary in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic.



Basically, I wanted to attend--not only because I wanted to hear the Necropolis Salon, but because I thought it would be a good way to capture some still pics of me wearing the Atropa flower.



So as seen in the first pic for this entry, there are fourteen different options for the metals, fourteen for the petals, and I think seventeen different options for the vines?

If I'm counting correctly.



It was a pretty piece before, without the trailing vines, but there's something...extra...added with that addition.



I like it, though. I can easily see this being an oft-used accessory.



This was an exclusive release for Hallow Manor, which opened October 13th and closed November 1st. Now, it's in the mainstore, and if you want a direct beacon to the accessories wall, then click this. It's L$400, post-event.

Also, apparently it's Second Life Annual Cleanup Week. So, uh...go do that, I guess.

Wanted to push to get at least ONE post out, and whilst doing that, decided to wander an event I hadn't finished yet, and whilst doing THAT, decided to say hello to a dear friend...

Three days ago, things were terrible. Two days ago, things were terrible. Yesterday, things were grindingly awful but for a couple bright spots--talking to you being one of them. And today my system is still reeling from the past three days of leading-up-to, and then actually-having, a crushing migraine, to the point that my entire system fought getting out of bed due to ow. I'm hoping it's going to get better from here?

...and then backspaced ALL of that to say

[15:20] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) says hello as she's wandering a random event.

I mean...I'm not outright lying,exactly, I'm just not...going into everything?



I know. I KNOW. But...it gets tiring answering The Question some days. I'm trying to be accurate while also not dragging everyone's mood down, y'know?

AKA, Em is Trying to Find the Balance. Or maybe balance in general.

"There's no right way to forgive a person who hurt you." Also known as Ladyknighthebrave's take on Mike Flanagan's A Haunting of Hill House. And it's a miniseries that has a lot to say, on a lot of topics, but Ladyknight's take on it, I think, is sound for the material. It's an hour of how we, as individual beings, process trauma, but also...how we, as families, process trauma.

And in the meantime, processing through new realities and new issues and trying to sort everything out. And still only a couple haunts for the year under my belt. Agh.

Received this from someone on Discord, who had originally DMed me out of the blue asking to be "friends"...and then followed that up with constant server invites to his own server, where apparently he's "God". I finally just asked him what he was here for, becoming my friend, or just seeking new fish to swim into his server?

That's what I got back. The capitals make it extra-important, I guess.

And two different requests for aid: first, the maker behind Pirocious recently rescued a Husky, and he has a shattered leg. She'd like to ask for help in getting (the absolutely gorgeous, there are pictures) Ghost back up on his feet. Here's how directly, or you could just go to the store--she's having a store-wide sale on everything she's made so far, and if you like things cute and spooky? This is where you need to start.

And, from the brand Debauchery comes this:

"I have received some medical news that requires me to need to spend a sudden and surprising amount of money.

So, if you can, please try to come find some things to buy to help support Debauchery and me.

If you can donate, anything you can give will be greatly appreciated. I've set up donation boxes at the store and around Maui.

I hate to ask, but I really need help.

Bandor"

For those who don't know, he's one of the makers of adult furniture on the grid that's decided more is definitely better? So most of his pieces are integrated with Lovense, various adult bits brands, I'm not going to say for sure INM, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that locked into any of his showers or hot tubs--and he runs not only the Debauchery store, but the Maui Swingers' Resort in the next sim over. (I don't attend normally, because most of the days I think I may want to wander in for a Mai Tai I have fur, and it's a human-only place? Store's not, though. Store you can show up as anything, and I've never had a problem shopping as a cat.)

(I should probably also say that both Debauchery, the store, and the Maui resort, are both strongly adult places, and in both of them you can frequently find folks au naturale, so...I guess they're NSFW, basically.)

But, above and beyond that, I have had the absolute worst day, so...time to check out an old favorite.



Wait. Is this the same place?



I mean, the big pumpkin guy's here, but...nothing else seems to match...



Well, the interior's largely the same.



And Madam Leota's there still.



All in all, the haunt has seen better days, at least on the outside? And some of that's entirely possible SL's current fun party trick of not rezzing things in on sims is to blame. At the end of the day, though, it accomplished what it needed to--calming me down. What more can I really ask for from a haunt?

Picking up from part one...



Oh, yipe, what happened here? Those poor li'l Yetis...hope they recover.

Back into the bathtub, and the next room is a village of...heart trees??



Oh my. Site of another massacre. All those dead cherubs...poor things.



Another sploshy, curvy trip into the tunnel...and we've reached the sands of time? Now with added Soilfiends!



I fit right in with the rest of Eggland. (Though I will note, if you stand in certain places for too long, the sky rains chocolate eggs down by the...ah...dozen.)



Nope, I don't fit in after all--I better scamper before the bunny eats me!



And if you find all the jars, you can get prizes at the end stop. (And if you don't, there's a room between the last one, and the end coffins, where you can return to any zone you missed.)

All in all, this is a very enjoyable haunt. The hunt aspect isn't super difficult, the concept is sound, and I adore the whimsy of the bathtub rides from land to land. Five out of five skulls, do go if you can.

It's five pm, do I know where my children are?

No, actually, they're scattered through several timestreams at the moment. Working for the restoration of something, most likely.

In the meantime, I was in a profoundly weird mood, so--

Hmm? My moods are always weird, you say?



No, I'm serious. Even for me, carrying a teddy bear is just odd.



So I read through the instructions, and I'm following all but one of them--my sound settings aren't at the dead-low-tide point they were when all this started, but I doubt if they're even up to 30%.

But here we go anyway! On a jar hunt at Dark Adventures!



I kind of dig their pathway markers, the creepy tilted hand things. (And, checking, they seem to be something NOMAD came up with.)



So first off, and lemme drop my view so it's on a hopefully NON-arachnid containing frame...the start of the haunt is through a cobwebbed hallway. Just FYI.

...and GYAAAAH, arachnophobes definitely stay out, there was a trap in the tunnel that got even me! Not saying more than that.

Though, plus side, you could wander around in the upper level for quite some time, there is a great deal of seasonal pretty.



There is a short--and I do mean short--bathtub ride to get to the next section, so short I thought I'd looped in a circle to return to where I started!

[[Insert from the Editrix: I had actually gone to the first room, but thought I hadn't, so went back to the start, I thought--only ended up in the second room. Wups. This entry has been revised.]]



There is something deeply disturbing about these things. And it completely doesn't help that the pop-up monster for this room holds a toothbrush.

[[Another insert from the Editrix: in the (now three) days since I started putting this entry together, I have figured out what bugged me so much about the "tooth fairies" in this room. And it makes everything worse. Apparently part of my brain is deeply disturbed by the idea of a soft, squishy thing connected to a hard, chewing thing.

[[In other words. It's the eyes. It's always the eyes.

[[But that makes a good dividing line between part one and part two, so--off we go to the second!]]

OKAY. OKAY YOU KNOW WHAT? NO. NO HAUNT FOR OCTOBER. NO. DONE.

Primarily because...



...this is as far as I'd gotten.

Yeah.



AND I'm hopelessly behind blogging. AND I'm hopelessly behind on haunt coverage. AND AND AND I'm hopelessly behind on hunts.

Oh, and somewhere in that, hee hoo ha, I was planning on teaching myself how to make Dinkie clothes because...reasons...and...

NOTHING IS GOING WELL.

And I'm both tired of complaining and haven't even started complaining yet. (Make that one make sense.) Plus, the entire household is sick, and tired, and...and...and...

Yeah. So, no haunt. I did buy the gorgeous hunk of now-useless Octember building from What's Lost Spirits, because I saw it at the event...can't even remember which one, the last Engine Room? Something...and I had to own it. And I was coming up with a way to do the pathing properly and make a rest-of hunt beyond that one room, but...just...everything takes energy.

And I have the energy of a small yellow plastic soap dish right now.

So yeah. No haunt. Eventually there will be some haunt coverage. No guarantee when. Check out the last entry if you care to, there's a video there that I was tickled about actually getting done. It's not perfect--I am not a videographer on the same level as I am not a photographer, I do both badly--but hey, perfection is no longer the goal.

Or something.

So...expect more content...but no longer giving whens. I'm not good at them at the moment.

Right, off to meatspace to see if there's chocolate.

Okay, I really think this is kind of cheating--I mean, yes, I review things, but good gods, this is going for L$1,350 at the event--and knowing him, this is discounted from its full price, if and/or once it returns to the store. And while YES YES YES I do believe it is WORTH that price...I feel like I'm doing something underhanded for just having it delivered to review.

[[Insert from the Editrix, day of posting: I'm gonna go on with saying underhanded, because I totally missed the event window, by...a few weeks, I think. Dis bad, dis very bad. Em bad? Yiss, Em bad.]]

THAT HAVING BEEN SAID, I ALSO planned to do a whole big shebang with a (all right, for me, not necessarily for the ethereal beings that are Grim and Mesmer) properly divine avatar--and I may still, and post anything good from that run on my Flickr--but right now, I'm here, and this is what we get.



Saint Lisa Frank meets /Vae Victis\.

The other item at the booth is from Mosscore, and it's the Shepherd's Beacon staff. Which, I am told, works quite well with the AO. And I did pay full price for that one because we wanted it, oh yes we did, my preciousss...

Ah. Where were we?

There are some other things I want from this event before it closes, if I can manage that--like the Diviner's Drape from Nefekalum at the event--however, one thing at a time.



There are so many different options to tint the staff. I also added some chibi wings I've had since the Fifty Linden Fridays' Birthday Bash this last February--they're from Doe, so no idea if the Pemi wings are still available), and a body light from Krature.

And I can already tell I can't go into all the colors without going into a separate post.

There may be a separate post anyway, because I need to figure out capturing the best part--the stand that makes the staff slowly circle your avatar.

So expect a second post, and maybe even a third to go into Mosscore's staff!



Said HUD, so I can show you that at least.

Admittedly I may have fallen full-tilt into the bizarre, but there's a costume set BRII Fashions/V8 Underground has, called--with her usual, slightly glitchy titles in English, her second language--the "**CAITRIONA FEBAL PINK FELINE FANTASY COMPLET OUTFIT**". Pretty sure she meant Feral, there, but it includes the animesh tail and ears, the lace-up suit I'm not wearing, the BOM layer fishnet stockings (which I'm also not wearing) and the boots--for L$298.

[[Cue eyerolling from the Editrix--the boots seen here are NOT included in this outfit, but the boots seen when I mention Mosscore's staff for the first time ARE.]]


[[Insert from the Editrix again: This shot also includes the HUD, because I think otherwise this entry doesn't mention it. And dear gods, drunk on the details again.]]



[[ANOTHER Editrix insert, because I didn't mention this at ALL writing this up--the kneel is not included in the AO package. The back halo, however, is, and while the kneel is something I had in inventory, I still wanted to capture the green sparkles at the top of the event tower.]]

So, where were we? Right, Mosscore's Shepherd's Beacon staff, because it's been designed to work with the Hierophant AO.

Doe made the halo I decided on, the "Saturna" metal in twinkle--no idea where I got it, when I got it, as per my usual.



First, this is NOT the tall version. Yeah. Let that sink in. I know I'm short, but even so, damn.

So, I, uh...did a thing to show off a couple of the AO's bests moves, using the Mosscore staff. I'm at Equal10 now...well, under Equal10...and the music's from MC Quattro on Pixabay, royalty-free (but we'll see how that goes.)



Now, what I found out when I went home--the Shepherd's Beacon can be resized, but it's a delicate thing. If you're used to resizing, the best bet seems to be to click "Stretch both sides" on the menu boxes, and then edge it closer to where you want it. But then you'll have to realign how it fits within the hand.

So--not simple, per se, but possible.

Here's to October featuring more posts (and more shopping events, and oh gods, Shop 'n Hop opens on the fifth, and ALL THE HUNTS...*sobs*...

Oh! Hi there! It seems to be September.

And (who's surprised, really?) I'm still counting, so--welcome to Day 378!

Caught on a random profile:

Single. Poly. Don't want a relationship but I do want a bunch of friends I'm in love with. We can all live on a commune, take care of each other, and watch horror movies every night.

That's so sweet.

(Also, OMG OMG Wally Darling has a Makeship plush out AAAAAAH--)

Excuse me. What I meant to say is...the not-me aspect of the mesh head business? Is even more not-me than usual, because I forgot this planned EvoX-based avatar had a different base shape (Why? No idea. No, I'm serious, I didn't leave me notes explaining things), so apologies for that.

However. I needed to post about some new/revised items from /Vae Victis\! And Sonder called, in the meantime, so to Sonder I went.



The "Sanguis" Hemophage collar you can see in the above picture, but not really sure how the rest of it is coming across...



...and the other tattoo work may interfere, as well. Argh.

[[Ahem. Insert from the Editrix before publishing, WHY IS IT FIVE DAYS LATER, but also, fairly sure I had another tattoo under the Cultist wristlets? Go me. I THINK it's also Vae Victis, from the Zealot set of things, but...coming back to this later, no idea.]]



...okay. So those are the tears from the "Veritas" Cultist set along with the crest (which, I, um, forgot to put on before starting to take pics). Let's see if I can get a good pic of the "Veritas" Cultist cuffs.



There we go. Everything's in Old Gold, by the way, if I forgot to mention that.

[[Insert from the Editrix, again--see what I mean? I'm fairly sure the eyes belong to the Cultist set, but the hatching, not as confident. Or maybe it's the other way around...]]



Okay, best picture I can get of everything. Let's run it down, there's a lot:

• the "Sanguis" Hemophage collar, BOM layer, in "Blood" on the LeLutka EvoX "Kaya" head
• the bonus 'shadow' cover for the lower body, on Maitreya
• the "Veritas" Cultist crest and tears, BOM layer, in "Blood" on the Lelutka EvoX "Kaya" head
• the "Veritas" Cultist cuffs, BOM layer, in "Blood" on Maitreya

...and I've just now remembered the wrist cuffs were a gift for the event which I think I missed by a handful of days...

[[Great, I mentioned it in the blog. So much argh. Malfunction am me.]]

Onward through the frogs, I guess.



And this is everything listed above, only in "Void".

There are fifteen colors total in the "Sanguis" Hemophage collar, which also comes with the bonus 'shadow' layer for the lower body; fifteen combination crest-and-tears for the "Veritas" Cultist set, with an additional fifteen layers for the crest alone, the tears alone, and another fifteen SLUV layers in all the shades; and fifteen shades, BOM, for the "Veritas" Cultist wrist cuffs.

That is...a lot. Incredible.



(And, since I've done all that, let's do the rest of the rundown. I'm wearing:

• the "Sanguis" Hemophage collar in "Rosedust"
• the "Veritas" Cultist Tears and Crest in "Rosedust"
• the "Veritas" Cultist Tears and Crest in "Rosedust"
• the Wicca's Wardrobe "Laerlorn" tiara in "Black/Gold" [it was a gift from something, but damned if I remember where]
• Olive's "High Priestess" hair, Split 4 RARE variation [from a gacha, so maybe still available on Marketplace?]
• !deviantMind's "Falena" set [just Bra/Skirt] in "Blood"
• IDEALIA's "RAINA" ankle wraps [linking the Marketplace because the in-world store appears absent]
• the Lelutka EvoX skin in "Porcelain" from Enfer Sombre [with additional BOM layering for the elf ears]
• the Lelutka EvoX "Kaya" head
• TREND's Witch Eyeshadow [BOM 10] and Witch Lip [the orange one] from the Halloween Collection 2020 [purchased both on their recent half-off-the-things sale, but honestly, I would have been comfortable paying full price. Lovely set of lip tints and 'witchy' shadows]

...and pretty sure the eyes come with the "Kaya" head.

[[Last insert, I promise--somehow it's EVEN LATER STILL, so going with the 15th as the publish date and AAAAAAAGH and WHY DOES MY BRAIN HATE ME???



[[Past five days. Gah, six days now. Whyyyyy.]]

(And you've seen the pic that this was directing you down here to explain, but nonetheless: the little insert was doing as much as I could to highlight the Rosedust tone. It's like frosted, melted, then refrozen rose gold. Very subtle. Perfect for the Biblically accurate angel in your life. So--hope that worked!)