got some feeling coming back

Well, this is going to give me nightmares. (Seriously, this is disturbing content. Not nudity, per se,, and not gore or violence, really...It's just skin-crawling, disturbing AI images. Be *warned*.)

Also, uh, hi again. I have about ten drafts waiting to be finished, that I planned to finish, and then the days ganged up on me again. Bah. If anything's not time-critical, I'll do my best to backdate, but only by a few days, not the month before, or the month before that--when I was supposed to pull my act together and toss them in as entries.

Anyway, soooo.....currently I'm at Harvest of Souls, which I still think of as a "newer" event? My brain thinks it started after SABBATH--or Ritual--but definitely not past Salem or...bah, what's the other name...I know it's not Trick or Treat Lane, because they've been around FOREEEVERRR...Gods, October's going to suck this year, EVERY event is planning on opening, it seems...



"You may ask yourself, 'Well, how did I get here?'"

Though that's not really my main question. I'm actually trying to avoid the main question, which circles around between "I haven't updated since WHEN?!?" and "If I'm going to stand around in world, by myself, for six hour stretches of time while I'm distracted to the point of getting nothing done in RL, either...am I really needed in world?" That one...I'm going to have to deal with at some point.

At some point. But not today.



"Little fish, big fish, swimming in the water..."

Today I'm at the event. I may do an entirely separate entry just walking around and capturing really fun landscaping. But I do look like I dressed for the booth, weirdly, and I hadn't seen it before porting to the event. What's actually in the booth, for sale, is /Vae Victis\' "Cernunnos" Monarch Antlers. It's now entirely redone mesh, all original work by Grimoire Hexem, and I'll get around to reviewing that hopefully soon!

[[Insert from the Editrix, sadly AFTER publishing--I am a complete FAILURE, I have forgotten how Vae Victis is spelled, oh, the horror and tragedy--but, err, the names have been fixed. My deepest apologies. When I'm more awake--the Editrixing is taking place late at night and one day forward...as is tradition...I'll check the keywords on other entries.]]

This is not going to be my usual exhaustive review. also. I know there are three places to change the color scheme, the jar itself, the trim along the jar edges, and the edges of the crack that the souls are trying, so very hard, to break through. Each can be tinted fourteen different tones, though I fully acknowledge that the booth's red light (along with the red facelight I'd forgotten I had on), means you're not getting that good a look at the options.



"I have my scars, you have yours..."

And, of course, we're only mentioning tangentially that having a migraine for a day and a half may have impaired some of my ability to brain and take pictures. Still. (This is not me asking for sympathy, either. My brain and I are not on speaking terms at the moment--it knows what it did--but that doesn't mean I'm trying to add stress and worry to anyone's plate. Yes, the Eternal Headache is still there, and why yes, the migraine was laying over it--but it doesn't matter. The headache is just that--mine.)



"Walk on water through the swamp..."

I can't even say for certain which color combos I used. My notes were scattershot. I did say this:

"The jar I'm holding, by the way, is one of the hunt prizes. Fourteen colors for the jar, fourteen for the trim, and fourteen for the broken edge that reveals trapped souls yearning to be free. Broken things can be very pretty, and this is, oh, so very pretty."

So yes, that's worth a mention. The Harvest of Souls event is having a scavenger hunt, of sorts. It requires a hud and tracking down and getting information from the residents of Hallow's End, where the Harvest of Souls can be found. Don't worry, there's only five town residents you need to talk to, and the hunt HUD is free, so why not take your chance to get hunt pretties? Including the soul jar.



"But what would you say if you were given one chance to say it?"

I remember this color set, though. This was me playing solely with hot pink and teal. Those are the vaporwave settings, apparently. And if you hadn't noticed (because I'm now noticing that in the pics, it's a bit hard to tell), this is another hand-held floaty thing. I have a soft spot for floaty things in general, and hand-held floating things specifically. So I'm overjoyed that it's their hunt prize.



"There's a red horse pawing at the door, in the hurricane of hands that I've ignored..."

So, that's the pitch. You want to see cool, innovative designs from some very cool, innovative designers? This is one of the places I'd suggest. Sure, I plan to go to Trick or Treat Lane when it opens, and of course I'm going to meander through the available October hunts...but I really liked the feel of this place. It's not "Boo, I'm a ghost, gotcha!" moments, it's not tons of blood and gore--it's, dare I say this, subtle. And comforting.



"Swallowing such sweet sorrow down..."

No, wait, I did forget one thing! Arkhive's back! Yes, Mesmer Macabre's personal brand has resurfaced, and this one hasn't gone to the bloggers yet, so I may have to count pennies. (It might not be sent my way anyway, because when Arkhive closed up, I left the group.) Either way, it is a lovely, lovely thing and I wannnts it. L$450 currently at the Harvest of Souls; likely more if you wait until it hits the mainstore!

And did I mention the antlers from /Vae Victus\ are L$500 at the event? Well, expect that in a future entry. I can say that Arkhive's spiffy staff will work with the spiffy staff AO from /Vae Victus\. Synchronicity is nice.

Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a river calling. If I catch a fallen autumn leaf, can I ride it all the way to Gearhaven? Let's find out!

everything falls out of focus, you walk through the door

So I'm frantically trying to get through as much as possible of the Shop and Hop before I fold up for the time being (and yes, I know, I KNOW, I should have been done by now!) and finally reached Aluveaux Technologies. And their gift--shown below--is a universal door plug-in:



And I got all excited. Granted, Tannhauser Gate Stations has iris doors, but still! Sounded potentially neat!



Okay! They put up a build, showing how the doors work! Though, come to think...this one doesn't seem to have doors in it...



Oh. ...Oh. Well, that's...unfortunate...

So some bugs in the system yet. Pity.

and you'll read your Erasmus on park lawns again

[19:45] Grimoire Hexem: no problem, sorry for the inconvenience
[19:46] ɐɹpuɐxǝlɐ (misssuicide.marshdevil): hi its me im the inconvenience its me :P

Soooo. The astute among you might have nooooticed a small change on the blog...in that it's reverted CLEAR BACK TO CONTEMPO so I have to start from scratch. I have one guy saying, hey, you could just convert to Wordpress, buy a cheap domain, I could host it for you--and while it sounds good, in theory, I don't think he understands exactly how much I'd have to port over. Some of the original blog images are already lost to time because I can't remember where I shunted them off to! Plus with hard drives dying right and left...it's a whole thing. A whole huge, ungainly thing.

But it will be fixed in time! I am working out how to do that since I managed to completely erase the changes I'd made to TRY and update the thing which hadn't worked so far and did I mention there's an anniversary I never wanted coming up? I am scarce but a fortnight from two...full...years...with the Eternal Headache.



Just so.

Well one other brief diversion:

[16:48] sxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: nice body
[16:48] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Thank you.

This was how "nice" the body was, by the way, when I was picking up something at Stiff. (Actually, strike that--this was the pic taken when I was at Dollholic.)

Then I got a friendship offer. So I pulled the profile.

The entirety of his SL bio is confusing:

I am Arab. an usa I like dealing with upscale people. I do not like dealing with people who are slaves to money. It is better for a person to be a slave to money than that.

So I asked. Of course.

[17:04] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Hmm. You really need a first life pic.
[17:04] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Now, is your 'slaves to money' line including shopping addiction, or do you mean, you're not crazy about anyone who spends Lindens in SL at all?

I didn't give him a ton of time to reply on this latter section, because I did have an elsewhere to be, as it happened.

[17:07] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): yeahokayfine, I'm needed in RL, so have a good diurnal/noctural span of time.

He's new, as in two-weeks-on-the-grid new, so I didn't want to spend the time it would take to really track down what about the Pripyat fashion doll he really loves, so let's just call it a weird moment and move on.

[[Note after publication from the Editrix: Few days later, I just switched the entire template back to basics and selected Soho Neon as the working template until I could figure out what to do next. Thing is...there may not be a next? I'd love to change the banner, and the background, but a friend told me my blog, which had been loading like molasses in winter for months, is now nearly instantaneous on load. So...we're here for now, I guess.]]

took my breath away, knocked me flat on my back

Emotions get heavy from time to time. Our fears, our worries, general anxieties over our situations, our relationships, employment, the world...It can take a toll not just on us, but on those that care for us. That heavy weight, dragging down everything we do...

Welcome to the Vineyard Terrace.



This is not going to be the typical review (I mean, do I give typical reviews? But I digress); even so, the "Typhon" horns have earned their descriptives--they are very adorned, and they are monstrously oversized.



Straight out of the box, unmodified in any way, they barely fit me. This is not to say only men can wear them--anyone can, if they're drawn to these. After all, find a way, or make one--so make sure yours are modifiable.

Everything Vae Victis sells is, after all. But it does present a challenge--because they have crystal gems depending from rope drops, so that seems to point in a direction for 'gravity'. And yes, this is SL, there is no gravity when not dealing with physical prims, but even there, it's just programming that causes the drop.



Apparently, some of the information boards will give notecards! That's a nifty feature.

I mean...you know, I really had a point when I started out on this. The heavy weight of emotions, of hearts, of even unattached things, because things have their own unique dragging weight (as anyone who still has a storage room filled with boxes well knows). But...

I mean, the information boards. Solid info on swamps, and swamp ecosystems, how they act as water filtration, trapping many chemicals and metals before the water runs clean again...and they had another feature, which I may return to and make another entry--because as I walked past, the info boards rezzed into visibility. I clicked for the card, read through it, and moved on down the path...and the board faded back into invisibility.

As I said, very nifty feature.

And as it turns out, I thought this dark navy was a dark green, for the current avatar tones--but, hey, navy still works.



Before the third picture, by the way, I reduced the horns down by -20. They are still huge, but I think they fit a bit better. (On me, mind.) But I should also point out something else--the colors are...not the expected ones, let's say, on the tinting HUD.

Some are the colors we expect--smooth, even tones layered over the mesh. Some...arent', showing up as ombre tones, or lightly burned tones, or something else entirely from what we've come to expect. This is not at all a complaint--far from it. There's so many color variations to play with.



I am loving PBR Materials, while we're shooting through the window of this little swamp shack--the patterns you see on the inside of the metal bars? Those move when the light source changes--so, clouds drifting by, birds passing between the 'sun' obscure in their own way...



Neat, innit?

[[Yeah, no, I was WAY off on this one. PBR hadn't been implemented yet, this was just Advanced Materials lighting. That's my bad. Still cool, but PBR is an entirely different animal.]]



And say hi to the trio of HUDs for all the options. With a codicil (which, rats, I forgot to show): the slide panel on the bottom of the far-right HUD. That one controls, if I'm remembering correctly, the settings around each gem, the cuffs, the metal accents that link up the ropes--then, simply click that little sliding buckle, and there you are with all the settings for the gems.

(I freely admit, I didn't take the most careful notes. I was too enchanted wandering the sim, so my initial mordant reflection on trials and tribulations never had a chance. I had forgotten how...it's going to sound odd, but...serene swampland is. And this sim may do the best job of capturing it in SL--the slow lap of water against piers, the brief splash of a fish (or a gator, depending) farther from shore. The little chorus of tree peepers calling out to each other through the brack.)

The one thing I do know is you should check out the picture of Grim wearing them. And looking perfectly unbowed. You can find them in the /Vae Victis\ booth at Abnormality's current round. I'll update this when I traipse over at my next opportunity!

[[As I'm putting this together to publish, something about the structure of the horns, the bases, with the planes of Grim's skull...likely nothing but a fancy, but--that reminded me pwerfully of Lord Darkness, from 1985's Legend. So, y'know, if anyone feels like striding out on human--skull sized hooves to seduce a lady into killing a unicorn...These may be your horns.]]

movers sulk like gravediggers, while you hug at the door

"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.

cómo se puede bailar, es un escándalo

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?

We've been eating Gameraaaaa! (part two)

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.

she reapplies her lipstick, lights are flashin' red and blue

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*...

guess he finally found the straw that broke the camel's back

The Awilda hat is the current Fifty Linden Friday offer at Poison Rouge. As stated, it's going for L$50. But as is tradition, I failed to actually POST this on the 14th, so...go me, I guess.

[[Note from the Editrix: and then failed to post it for several days after. Not only that, but I managed to lose the picture of me IN the damned thing.]]

Did I mention the Darkness event is open now? (Though I'm not sure why I would, Vae.V isn't at that one...it just occurred to me, I guess, because I'm covering the Aza'Telos Monolith set, which was at July's Darkness event...

I am hopelessly behind.)

Oh, and there's a new Merkins vid out, I just realized...but anyway.

So, the Duchess' Garden has evolved substantially since I took these pics, and that's primarily because I took a random port from someone in the Contraption group and found myself in front of the booth there for the Wizarding Faire (which I had been avoiding, because, you know, the transphobia has kind of poisoned the property for me)...and promptly bought the Fournier Conservatory. I think it's still open, though, and if you want a Conservatory of your very own, go here with L$600 and it can be yours.



Meanwhile, we're talking about the Monolith set. At the last Darkness event, it ran L$450; now, I'm not even sure if it's in the mainstore (but you're welcome to check). Pretty sure the L$450 was a discount, though.



So I took out the medium and plonked it down in front of the altar for the Duchess' new garden, AKA, "Em thinks she can build things right now".



It's a pretty set, adaptable, just choose your height and your prim count and the tint, and go.



And it's a lovely glow effect on the runes.

The entire Monolith set compromises about six different options, from small to huge, and glowing and non, and high prim and low prim versions. It am comprehensive, is what I'm saying. It also comes with a tinting HUD. The ones you see in the pics I took (about...halfway to August, I think they were...) have largely been some shade of gold and purple.


This one, one of the huge ones, I rezzed out just behind the Conservatory, for a size comparison...

...and it's absolutely unresponsive, that's odd...Wait...

Did I push the big one over the sim border?!

Turns out, I did--all I had to do was fly over to the far side, and it tinted like a dream (which with my usual fine attention to detail, I forgot to capture in a photo).

If you want to see the Conservatory, the (free, btw) mossy snake statues (also from Contraption), or the Monolith that remains, you're welcome to drop by. The Duchess' Garden will likely be in flux for some time...similar to the Duchess, really.

And if you tire, there's sangria and sweet tea to be had inside the Conservatory. Enjoy.