(Considering I've been up since three, and it's now nine...I will try and be in world later, but that may not work...

(In the meantime, it's dangerous out there, take this with you.)

I'm not going to lie, the last two-plus weeks have been...brutal. Today we're at Day 204 of the Eternal Headache, and while I am going to still keep track of the days with this thing, I'm beginning to think this is now a feature, not a bug.

Also, I had intended to blog about two other things before this one, and then I remembered both of those require me to work ONE of the LeLutka mesh heads I now own into wearable status. (I know, I know, it's not hard to make it wearable--what it is, for my brain at least, is to make it *not look like everyone else*.)

So. Here we are, covering the "Apophis" Ritual Blade from Arkivet and Vae Victis (collaborating), at long last.

Since everyone was doing the Egyptian thing, I thought I'd go to Ta-Kemet, a recreation of the temple at Luxor. But first, a bit of history on the khopesh.



There are several different theories on the rise--and fall--of the blade, and most generally coincide with the end of the bronze age, so the assumption is that bronze was just an inferior metal. I'm not so sure, though.

What I do know is that battle axes were the first form, and still used when the khopesh was invented, and they're why they had that original curved shape. (Note: at the link, that is a reproduction steel blade, just FYI.)



In battle, Egyptian warriors used a variety of weapons--spears, hand and battle axes, and daggers mainly--but there were other styles. Until they noticed their battle axes were becoming less useful against Roman and Canaanite weapons and shields--particularly the shields. So the khopesh was invented. (It is hard to say whether this was a design Egyptian soldiers copied from Canaanites, or whether they invented it on their own.) Curved because it followed the previous form of the battle axe, but also to take into account the natural fragility of bronze. A solid length of bronze would still shatter, but the pronounced curve in the khopesh changed the balance, and strangely, made it sturdier.


It was fine for the sword to bend; what they didn't want is the sword breaking. And mostly that's what they got.

In fact, most khopesh blades, as used in battle, didn't even have a sharp tip. They didn't need one, being used primarily for two things--to curve around shields, and to hack into torso or limbs thus exposed; or to puncture through the shield entirely, either ripping it from the assailant's arms, or just used to hold it away while a secondary dagger was moved in.



It was very, very effective at what it did, and was only abandoned when Roman soldiers began to make swords out of iron.



The HUD for this version will again give a great amount of flexibility in hues--seven different places to change into eleven different colors. Very versatile.



And again, the detail work is just stunning. So, in fact, is the shape--more reminiscent of a lightning bolt, but immediately recognized as a khopesh-style blade.



This is likely soon to tie up at Chronicles and Legends--this premiered as an offering on March 10th, and...

Okay, update, 'cos I was curious--the event ends Aprille 1st, and you'll find it in Arkivet's booth (linked above), while Vae Victis has the fabulous feathered Nighthunter hat in their own booth elsewhere on the site. (And I need to get to that too.) You can make it your own for L$450!

So, take two on taking the horns out for a spin!



I went to Strange Matters, a Macbeth-centered art sim. "Foul Whisperings" is right, lines from the play repeat if you have sounds on.

And I forgot the hair I picked to wear with them had wee horns already, so...I tried to make the horns disappear, which I accomplished, but failed utterly on making the hair that wraps AROUND the hair also disappear? Bother.



This is a very odd sim. Randomly clicking things may port you elsewhere, or shunt you up a level, or introduce you to an endless staircase and a court chamber beset with ghosts...I would say it's worth a visit for that alone, the randomness effect.



This was as close as I could manage, because there's so many places to focus on on these. The drape is either whole, or tattered; there's a separate chest drape (I don't show it off, but it does exist), and with the number of things you can choose to recolor, these can be wildly variable. You can make them solid, cored with swirling colored aether, or cored with moving magma.



They have a word garden! 'Ware the reaching hands.



Mes! I found a birb!

Big damn bird, even. Carrying a dagger. (And if you sit on it, it flies out of the nest and takes you somewhere else.)



And I'd finished the sixth picture, thinking I was done, when I looked at the one past that...which had the HUD. So here you go! End picture with the HUD showing!

It looks complicated, but if you understand the breakdown, it's really not. "Horns" will tint the entire horn, inset channels and outer structure. "Solid horns" omits the inset channel. "Drapes" will give you whole silk draped between the metal rings, and "Tattered" will change that whole drape to a tattered one.

"Aether" gives you a delicately eerie, almost starfield-swirl of glowing motes suspended in whatever color you picked for the channel. "Magma"--which is actually the option shown here, but I picked red for the horns and pink for the magma, so it's hard to see--gives you a more molten-seeming core through the channel (and is also animated).

As it happens, due to unfortunate delays, this event actually opened on the fourth, and it's now the eleventh, so--uh, sorry? But it's still open, and this will land you at the center (where hopefully, you'll get a beacon to follow for the booth).

They're going for L$388, which is a huge discount, so if you love these as much as I do--leap on them before this month of We Love Roleplay folds up!

So, first of all I believe this is a group gift from /Vae Victis\, which has a nominal fee (ten Lindens, I think) mostly to discourage those who join a group only to immediately abandon it. We've all known people like that. Or, ah, occasionally have been people like that...

ANYWAY, that's not what I intended to do yesterday. I was going to cover the new "Ahriman" Draped Horns that are out now for sale at We ❤ Roleplay (which is open now), or the "Ezekiel" Nighthunter's Hat at the current round of Chronicles and Legends.



Sadly, while considering a place to be, I put the horns on and immediately sank to the floor with the new cats. Right, it was not a good heavy-things-on-head day, even virtually. Got it.

Didn't solve the problem of what to cover that day, and today, I ended up wandering over to Drear Fen, my haunt. And something about the lighting made me want to try the new spectacles.



So yes, these are bridgeless in every sense of the word. For consistency's sake, you can imagine the inner nose mini-braces (I don't entirely know the proper word) to be connected via a piercing bar through the nose. Or you could just go with them for the style and forget consistency.



On to the first hitch, and it's something that cannot be corrected for by the maker, it's a wider SL hazard: the chain is clipping through my shoulder. There are so many poses in our personal AOs, in the furniture we sit on, in dance sets--it's literally impossible to reduce all clipping possibilities. About the only thing you could do is extend the neck with a deformer, like those sold for the Snokra snake avatars, but...I think it's just an occasional glitch, and the pretty more than makes up for it.



Did I mention it comes with three actual parts? A solid bridgeless set, a right-side monocle style lens, and a left-side monocle style lens. This is the left.



And the right. And of course there's a pink, it's tradition, or something, now. Amusingly, this particular shade is less "pink" and more "fever-dream cerise pried out of Lisa Frank's paintbox"...which made me laugh a bit.

(Though in tracking down if Frank even had a web presence these days...learned she does kitchen gadgets now! And crocs! Whyyyyy...)



The HUD's simpler, but still gives you lots of options, and as with the above, remember, you can tint the whole thing, just one side as a singlet, or if you really wanted to be flashy you could wear each monacle as a pair and tint them different from each other!



All in all, I really like these. They project a fine, focused line of sarcasm before I even say a word. I don't even have to tilt my head to look over them disapprovingly. How wonderful.

So, next up, likely the "Ezekiel" Nighthunter's hat, since Chronicles and Legends has them there. I'll give a more direct SLUrl when I cover the hat. But they're going for L$400.

Wait...did I say that? I think I already said that...Well, bother, you'll just have to read it twice. (Oh, but also coming up: an Arkivet and Vae Victis collaboration blade, the "Apophis", which is a lovely khopesh sword. And that's going to run L$450. So watch the blog for more!)

Oh, boy:

[11:30] rxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: YOU SAY YOUR BOARD JUST DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO COME TO FIRE AND ICE TRY YOUR SKILL AT THE ARCADE/BOWLING ALIE OR GET YOUR HEART RACING ON ONE OF 9 COASTERS OR OUR GOKAT/BUMPER CAR TRACK OR MAYBE YOU LIKE ROLE PLAY CHECK OUT THE GHOST TOWN AND SCIFI STARBASE

WHOA, there, stop yelling.

[11:30] exxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxsxxxx: OK
[11:31] oxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: WHY ARE WE YELLING!

I know, right?

[11:31] oxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: LOUD NOISES!
[11:31] lxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: n why no LM
[11:31] lxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: sheesh

Took a look at his profile. This jumped out at me:

İ wont be captive of no one, but i can capture people, this is my roleplay because i am a Dominant

Yeah, sure you are.

[11:31] mxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: AAA
[11:31] Fxxxxx Sxxxxxxxxx: Doesn't mattter, it's spam

Also true.

Could just be a language issue--fellow's Turkish, and I know many people who can barely speak one language, let alone two, give those who are more comfortable with their native tongue grief over it. And it's not like I have a landmark so I can avoid his whatever it is, but wau. What an intro in a shopping group.


Okay! BIG HONKIN' SWORD time! And this one's going to be weird, because Em's meat component faw down go boom last night, and, well...kind of distracted from that. Soanyway...



Ignore the poseballs. I was doing a photography run with a friend, and she pulled out a sword, and I thought, hey, I have this thing I was going to cover from /Vae Victis\...so, I went with it. So this is it right out of the box, unsized or moved. (Though I did learn--because I was curious--how low will this go...and no lie, this one can shrink to the size of a letter opener if you want. You could give a little mouse soldier the bestest ever sword for teensy battles.)



On me, the sword tip sinks into the floor in this pose, which is why I cropped it closer to the handle. Still. It's very impressive.



Using all the greens makes it look like the greatsword is carved out of solid emerald.



Another detail shot, and while I'm likely more suited to carry the Pandora dagger, I can't deny feeling a little thrill carting around this massive greatsword.



This is one of the four shoulder/back holds for the greatsword. It also drops the tip into the ground by a bit, but I'm more impressed by the fact that the shoulder holds, and the back positions, are all matched to my shoulders. I still think drawing a sword this long out of a sheath by hand would result in some awkward body movements, to say the least, but it looks very cool.



And can I say, while I didn't have a lot of posing opportunities at the event I was wandering (either Cyberpunk or Mainframe, not really sure, I failed to capture the SLUrl), the poses I did find worked as intended, and the sword worked as intended. Very cool.



All in all, it's a thing of beauty, and I didn't even show half the color potentials for this one. And the pose HUD also gives a lot of different potential stands.

It's out now at The Warehouse Sale. It has fourteen different shades to color individual sections, and eleven separate hold animations. And all of this could be yours for L$495!

[Update before posting--I began this on February 26th, added two pictures then, then was waylaid for a while, kept staggering towards the goal, and am finally posting it tonight. So, while I usually stay with the date when I begin a thing, I think it's only fair to say this was substantially delayed.]

[Oh, and it's still available at the Warehouse Sale.]