and I'm a world of emotion, for me, there's really just one thing to do

Started my morning off far earlier than I wished to, so I just wanted one good haunted house under my belt. That's not too much to ask, is it?



Apparently yes, yes it is. [[And note from the Editrix, I did not catch until today, the 31st, that the upload of this run of pics failed. They work now...obviously...]] Hello, Lisa. I have no patience today, so we're scratching the Port Adventure haunt off our list. Starting off with game rips does NOT give me confidence.

How about the Aura Haunted Area? It's adult, but that's not necessary a bad thing...



BAD THING. VERY BAD THING.

All...right...how about...the...World of Dark Imagination?



Well, easy's about my speed today.



That's...odd. It's just...hanging in midair. Nothing else. Silent. Just...there.



Yeah, won't lie. That's kind of disturbing. It...wiggles, when it reaches out of the hedge.



And then, into the haunted house proper, and...what? Bright yellow light, earth floor, trees growing through stone walls...It was a house on the outside, though??



Oh hey. I could live here. Save for the two obvious game rips, both from the haunted-house simulator game for the Nintendo Wii, The Grudge.



Okay, we get it, Satanism is scary to you.

By and large, though--this is a very strange haunted house, and--that's not a bad thing. There's a room of eyes. There's a room of clowns. There's a room of spiders--and I didn't show that one, because there was literally no angle I could find to snap a picture that didn't have a spider in it, and not small ones, either. There's a fairly accurate, game ripped children notwithstanding, of Children of the Corn.

I think it's honestly worth a visit. I didn't even finish, I had to go meet with a client, but I'm still saying that, because what they're doing is pretty unique. So I think this is my first five out of five this year. Check it out.

I'm breakable, unbreakable

I'm very low energy tonight, but I did want to take a haunt in. I went to Kekuli Bay earlier, and decided nope, the texture flickr on the whole of the ground is so savagely jarring I developed more of a headache, and that's just no good. So, the next one that perked interest was Doom's.



The first warning is for the arachnophobes: There are jumping spiders in this haunt. Like, dog-size jumping spiders. That, not to put too fine a point on it, jump at your face. (As in, the screen--not your avatar, this haunt is going after you.) It's a little jarring even for non-arachnophobes, so steer clear of this one if you aren't big on crawly things.



The burning church was novel, and really well done.



And this is the first time I realized it's pretty much just a three-sided box--and since I was still set on midday, it was kind of a switch between dark gloomy darkness and bright seaside blue?

Then there was the "Hallway of Torment".



Interesting conceit here--the picture frame closest to the avatar shows their avatar's current profile pic. It is slightly unnerving, I'll give them that.



Found the exit point to the next area, and unsurprisingly, lots of fire. Surprisingly, also lots of game rips. Argh.



Like these, the hanging triptych from Silent Hill.

But finally, I found the exit to the next area and ran into the sim owners in an...uh...intimate moment, let's say...so...I left.

For the game rips, I'd give them two skulls, but that profile picture trick was neat, so I'm upgrading to three. Don't know if I'll stop back by again, though, so...they may stay at three.

maybe tomorrow I'll wake to find myself sleeping on the floor

It occurs to me that we're four days into October, and nary a haunt has been seen on the blog. This is very nearly criminal. So we're redressing that today by visiting the Haunted Reef in Kon Tiki North.



Entrance is suitably atmospheric.



There are rules. And yes, it is a dark ride.



The ride talks to you as you go:

[12:43] SUB 2022: Welcome to The Haunted Reef ride!
[12:43] SUB 2022: Along the way you will see strange, interesting, and amazing things!
[12:43] SUB 2022: We hope you enjoy the ride (and hope you survive:P)
[12:43] SUB 2022: Monsters lurk down here. Be still and they may not harm you.

Which is kind of neat.

Also, it's just a visual conceit, but I liked the illusion of a dome over the boat, so the riders have air. It's the little things.



A few rooms of coral and reef fish led me to this, an impressive display of very long electric eels.



Some parts of the ride led you through cave tunnels, or old ruins, like this one, and others were through open ocean.



And this is where your Editrix got very disappointed. Note the figures in the two circles. The closer is Lisa, from P.T., the one farther back is the Broken Neck Woman (called Kubi ga Oreta Onna no Rei in the original Japanese transliteration, or the Woman Who Jumps) from the first Fatal Frame game. They're both game rips. It's so sad to see.

I get that game rips are cheap. I get that they're everywhere. I get that some of them really work for zombies, or sim decor (the Fountain of Tears from American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns game is also everywhere). But they're still a violation of copyright.



And near the end? Laser sharks.

All in all, I found this a marvelously calming haunt, perfect for when you have the time to just sit and watch the sealife go by...but while I was expecting to give four, maybe even five skulls out of five for it--that room with the game rips drops them down to three. It's just so unnecessary, when the rest of the haunt is so inventive.

and now I have the power to bathe all of you in entertaining fire

I'm playing this very silly browser game at present, which half of the YouTube creators have been paid to advertise. (RAID: Shadow Legends, but since I'm not being paid to mention them, I'm not going to go into what I like about it?) But I found Grim!



I mean...I can see the resemblance. This fellow's in the Void dungeon. Which also fits.

so, where is the Duke, anyway? (part CXLIII)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from part CXLII.)

Encrypted transmission: An intruder was detained on Deck 8 of Tannhauser Gate Station. It is of unknown origin and classification.

It is currently detained in a thaumaturgic kinetic containment cell. Given the unknown classification, it has been secured on Deck 3 for review by the Duke and Regency Council per Ducal general order 36:

(DGO 36: all phenomena experienced of unknown technology or metaversal or magickal agencies shall be reported to the Sovereign and Regency Council and shall be classified until further inspection)

The Duchess walked behind the Duke, trying to catch up. A door ahead irised open, and she skipped through behind him before it closed, then stopped, blinking.



"Um. Wait. This...Isn't this Rusty's studio chamber?"

"This is a hold," said Hiro. "It will be, but for now, it's an alien zoo. We captured this."



He pointed to the large cell in the center. An unearthly creature with undulating tentacles and glowing eyes--stood? Sat?--inside it.

"What--is it?"



Hiro shrugged. "Some transdimensional thing. Maybe related to the eggs and tentacles."

She peered at it. "That's...somewhat unsettling."

"We might need to take samples," Hiro said. "Send them to the biolab."

(Continued in part CXLIV.)

shoes at the door, shoes at the door please (part CXLI)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from part CXL.)


Time passed in a series of disconnected events. There was a giant cyber spider thing. Justine ran, the spider creature in hot pursuit. More visions followed: terrifying creatures, burning vistas. At one point there were nuclear missiles. Why? Her head pounded from the noxious odors and shrieking. She was shrieking.

Justine heard something like hysterical laughter nearby. Or maybe it was screaming. Or maybe it was both. Or maybe it was nothing? But there was pain. And there were questions.

"Where. Are. They?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

More pain. Images. Crystals. Six colours. She knew. She remembered. She told them.

"Take me there."

She took him there.

The backhand was strong enough to land her on the floor, but that didn't hurt as much as the spikes of pressure inside her head.



"There are only four here!”" Weats said, "Where are the other two? Where are the white and the blue?"

"I don't know!"

Weats walked over her and gripping her head in one massive hand, lifted her off the floor. Leaning over, he hissed in her ear. "You're going to find them. And you will tell me."

Justine answered in a monotone, "I will find them. I will tell you."

"Good girl." The ulitharid released her and she crumpled back to the floor of the fringe lab. Sweeping the four crystals into a bag, Weats left, thumbing 8its comm as it stalked to the lifts. "Fire her up, Oz, it's time to go."



"Tannhauser Gate Control, this is SS Kthanid. Transmitting coordinates for transit through the Stargate. Ready to transit on your command." The ulitharid in the frog onesie stuck the lollipop back in its mouth and looked over to its partner. "Shall we leave a little something else for them to remember us by?"



Weats smirked. "You bet."

(Continued in part CXLII.)

house of your friendly local accomplice (part CXL)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from part CXXXIX.)

The ship flew through the dark, quiet and still. The two aboard watched Tannhauser Gate station approach. It seemed quiet. Peaceful.

Easy prey.

"Tannhauser Gate station, this is SS Kthanid on approach, requesting docking clearance."

"Acknowledged, Kthanid. Please send through your flight plan, cargo manifest and crew complement."

Justine watched the details of the incoming ship in one part of her feed, while directing the cleaning and repair crews in the Nuclear and Plasma Cores. The fire suppression systems had made a mess of everything, and several redundant wire harnesses had to be replaced, but for the most part they'd been lucky.

"Kthanid, this is Tannhauser Gate Control. You are cleared for landing in Hangar Bay 2. Transmitting docking transceiver frequency now."

"Acknowledged, Control."

=====

"Welcome to Tannhauser Station."

Inside the visiting ship, Weats turned to Oz. "You're sure they're in there?"

Oz nodded, pulling the lollipop past his writhing face tendrils. "Mmhmm. The auguries were clear. There's a girl. High status. We will know her by The Marks upon her skin. She has them."

=====

"Commander, this is Control. The captain of the SS Kthanid has requested to see you. They're waiting in Security."

"Acknowledged, on my way." Justine thumbed the comm. "Rusty, can you meet me at Security on Level 1?"

"You bet!" came the reply.

=====

Coming out of the lift, Justine and Rusty headed towards security.

"What is this all about?" Rusty asked, hurrying to keep up.

"Not sure. Ship arrived earlier and they asked to see me." Turning the corner, Justine gasped, stumbling against the wall.

"What is it?" Rusty asked, reaching out to steady her.

Justine replied through gritted teeth, "Tattoos...burning...aaahhh!" Catching her breath, she straightened, "It's okay...let's go." But with every step the burning, itching sensation on her belly, back and legs increased. Arriving at the security desk they were directed to an interview room where the visitors were waiting.

By the time they got to the interview room, Justine was pasty white, a thin sheen of sweat on her face. The burning had subsided to a dull, mostly ignorable ache. When she saw the visitors, her discomfort became a little more understandable. Roughly humanoid, the newcomers had green-black skin, facial tendrils and four arms a piece. One of them was incongruously wearing a frog onesie. Justine rubbed her eyes and looked back. Yes. A frog onesie. But other than that, they looked like a picture she’d seen in a book in the Gearhaven library at one point. Something-thrid? She wasn't sure, she couldn’'t think, the burning of the tattoos was making any thought difficult, and the sound of distant screams was very distracting. Four flat, expressionless eyes locked on her as they walked in, and their face tendrils began to twitch excitedly.

"What can I do for you?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"Not what you can do for us," one hissed, "what we can do for you?"

Justine leaned heavily on the wall, making a mental note to have the screaming sounds investigated. "Yeah? And what's that?"

"We hear you have an...infestation. We can help clean that up for you."

Justine looked over at Rusty, then narrowed her eyes at him. Did he always have face tendrils? And why did he look so pained?

Shaking her head, she turned back to the visitors, and slurring her words a little, she said, "Let’s say we do have an issue you could help us with. What do you want in return?"

Frog-onesie replied with what appeared to be their version of a smile, an expression that was the opposite of reassuring in any way. "Not much, not much. We need some repair parts for our ship, resupply..."



It trailed off and the more somberly dressed of the two finished, fixing its opaque gaze on her. "And an hour alone with you."

Next to her, Rusty giggled. "I can watch?"

Justine put a hand to her forehead. "No...wait..." Something was wrong here, but she wasn't sure what. "You can get rid of the things in the station? All of them?"



"Absolutely."

Rusty leaned down to whisper excitedly in Justine's ear, "I can help, I have my thing...the music thing..."

She looked up at him. "Oh yeah, your thing. Cool. Yeah. You can help too."

She turned back to the visitors. Nothing was wrong. This made perfect sense, and it would be fine. "Deal. Let's do this."

Again, the eerie not-smile. "Of course."



Justine flicked the visitor’s supply and equipment request to the station quartermaster. Her head was pounding. The ride to Level 8 seemed to take forever. Once there the visitors commenced pouring fire power into the eggs and tentacles that had continued to spread. Rusty summoned his musical energy weapon and added his power to theirs.



The air filled with a fingernails-on-blackboard screeching that crescendoed in a spray of sparks and foul-smelling tentacle bits.



When the smoke cleared, the three of them stood there, the decks clear of tentacles and eggs. Justine looked up from her hiding place to see one of the visitors reach down and grab her by the arm. "Who are you?"

"I am the Mind Flayer, small thing, and now you are going to return what is mine."

(Continued in part CXLI.)

wolves on the street, roaming, howling (part CXV)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from part CXIV.)

-Captain's Log - Her Gnostic Majesty's Ship, Science Vessel "False Cause"-



Completed scans of the far edge of the anomaly, on route to Tannhäuser Gate.



We have been delayed to investigate a signal for aid from the Gearhaven listening outpost near the Mondragon Neutral Zone. We have detected a signal just beyond the zone, bearing a signature of unknown origin.



As soon as we came out of warp we were attacked.

- Gearhaven Fleet Intelligence Post//Tannhäuser Gate. -End of Message-

::TRANSMITTING::
::TRANSMISSION RECEIVED::

(Continued in part CXVI.)

something clearly terrified you; did you choose to disappear?

I have this conversation once a week, easily. All that changes is the name.

[10:19] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Welcome to Sakura, [Hxxxxx]! Do let me know if I can help, and otherwise, enjoy wandering the grounds of Bellefleurs!
[10:19] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: yes i need help
[10:20] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Of course! What can I do?
[10:21] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: im trying to find where i can purchase the engarde system,,,
[10:21] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Ah, right. So....there's a major hitch with that, unfortunately.
[10:21] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: cant find it on the mp
[10:21] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): You won't.
[10:22] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): So, the creator of the system left SL in...some upset. I have never been able to find out why. But he killed server access to everything he'd made the same day he left.
[10:22] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: damn

Yeah, everyone's still pretty irked about it.

[10:22] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Now, people who had their En Garde systems still out--us, a pirate sim, there's a few others--found the systems still work.
[10:22] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: so only have to find someone willig to sell me theirs i guess
[10:22] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): They no longer record for tournaments....No.
[10:23] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Because...and this is the TRULY annoying part....any new system breaks when rezzed.
[10:23] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: double damn

Now, this is what I've been told, but it suddenly occurs to me, I've never actually verified if this is true or not? I may have to ask Indy when she gets back just to pop one out, and see if it breaks, because...if it doesn't, that is a total game-changer, and if it does, then we have verification.

[10:23] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): So unless you want to buy the sim or parcel it's on? Because you can't even pick it up to move them. If Indy wanted to move ours, for instance, she could only pull it into edit and shift it. Taking it back into inventory would break it.
[10:24] Hxxxxx Cxxxxxxxx: bummer...thanks for your time
[10:24] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Sure!

There is still interest in the game. People have found workarounds so they can play tournaments. There's still an official En Garde league. There's just...no new boards anymore. Only the ones that existed when the creator left, far as I know.

I want you to be unused, I want you to remember

The blurb said

"Haunted house on route 8! Come explore or start the hunt for a prize at the end. October, Halloween, haunting, ghost, hunt, prize"

So off to Morbid Manor we go!



More drunken skeletons. They are fun to watch.



Well, that's not creepy at all. The creepiest thing? This wasn't even part of the haunt, these were someone's breedables on the next parcel over!



To stand at the window, alone, in a dilapidated house...while spirits degraded to floating lights flow past...That's also creepy.



And this is a very dilapidated house.



And the game rips start. This place was doing so well...evocative mood, fun little effects, definitely had the creep factor going...and now the game rips. This one they didn't even bother to hide--she's actually named 'Samara'.



And two more. Well, I guess I'm done here, then.

Overall, I really liked this one until the game rips. It really does present with lovely little mood pieces. For that alone, I'll give it four out of five skulls, but...really. Next year, do the same thing without copyright infringement? And it will be stellar.

will I choose water over wine, and hold my own and drive?

Caught this on a Discord server this morning:

[5:13 AM] masticina 🐇: the virus doesn't cares about your politics
[5:14 AM] masticina 🐇: your age, sexuality, your disabilities or abilities...
[5:14 AM] masticina 🐇: the virus takes without judgment
[5:16 AM] masticina 🐇: I think that a lot of people don't understand that
[5:16 AM] masticina 🐇: the only thing that seems to matter is, can you be smart with it.
[5:16 AM] masticina 🐇: are you and the people around you handling it well
[5:16 AM] masticina 🐇: if not, you get disneyland that just reopened and already has big name vlogger/bloggers sick again
[5:28 AM] masticina 🐇: one day it took... one day

Welp. That's depressing. But true.

We move on.

Historians are finding new ways to get attention to their museums--still mostly empty due to the pandemic, they've been culling archives worldwide for recipes and other craft ideas people can do at home. Great idea.

And did you know the US had a female lighthouse keeper? Precisely one, too, the sole woman ever to be afforded a gig at a lighthouse.

While we're at it, have a history of playing cards and the history of the first St. Patrick's Day parade. And did you know all but two country's recommended nutritional plans are massively flawed? I did not know that.

And lastly, a pretty for the day:



This spinny thing sits offshore from Tylar's Treasures. Though the maker, Tylar, tells me it's actually not his, but on his neighbor's land.

Considering his neighbor is Lunar Tripsa of newly rebranded Ever Green fame, that makes sense. She does a lot of fun things with light. And that particular one? Floats, spins, changes color, and she's selling it for L$100. How cool is that?

And finally, I can't remember where I came across this, but here's a list of the best SF novels from the 1960s to read. Sixty years back didn't see the start of SF novels, that would've been 1940s, I think, if you don't count outliers like Frankenstein as pure science fiction. But it's still a very fun list.

but somewhere here in between the city walls of dying dreams

Ooof. There's a disturbing list of sexual predators making the rounds, being collated by Josh Simons, and it seems to feature an incredibly high number of streamers and gamers.

This is extremely painful to read through, but it goes into more of the accusations. We're just at the forefront of this, so more information will be coming, but it's already a daunting amount of names to winnow through. I highly recommend if anyone finds a name of a Twitch streamer or a YouTube lets-player that they follow, at the least, Google them. Find out if there's any basis. Find out if it's become a he-said-she-said issue--not that that changes the accusations, exactly, but there is a difference between someone contesting something that's been said, and someone apologizing for something.

There's at least one name on the list that's causing some mild personal pain, but it does explain this video. At the time I first saw that, I was watching YouTube through Chromecast in the living room, where I have very little access to any video's description. So I really had no idea why Cryaotic was suddenly part of the call and response of abusers.

Now I know. It's very disheartening.

One of the things he says in the description is that nothing "physical" happened between him and anyone under-aged--and, I mean, okay, that's good, but that's also him acknowledging virtual involvement. Which rings some dire bells for me personally--I've never interacted with him, that's not what I mean, but one of my loves in the past...I'd been involved with him for two years, and one day one of his friends ported in with a breezy "Hey, dude, happy 18th!", and my heart hit the floor.

Because I can count. I knew when we became a couple. And I knew we became a couple before his birthday two years back, significantly before. So I was dating someone that effectively, in my mind, I considered a child. That was not a good day.

But. As scarring as that incident was, as paranoid as it made me, I was unaware. Cry, from everything I've been able to discover, was aware. That's an important difference.

I'm now unsubscribed from him on YouTube, but that entire situation is playing large on Twitter also, because there are a great many people who knew abusers on the list, and they're getting attacked because how could they not have known? Why didn't they warn anyone? Why didn't they care about the damage their friends were causing?

And I think the best answer to that comes from writer Seanan McGuire in a thread of tweets. She's speaking mainly of writers, but this also applies to any serial abuser. I'll be reprinting some of them here:

As we're discussing harassers in SF/F yet again, we're getting the aftershock wave of "how did SHE not KNOW?!" which always follows on, usually aimed at women who are shaped like me. (June 21, 2020)

And part of the answer is that all abusers have a type. Maybe that type is someone you consider hot, maybe not. Maybe it's a point in their career, an emotional state, whatever. And for whatever reason, some of us missed the mark.

(This is neither a mark we were aiming at nor anything to be ashamed of. It's just that some people--most often men, but some people--walk around painting targets on anyone they find attractive, and they skipped over us. We were fat, or mouthy, or too well-connected.)

And no, not every abuser is a secret genius. But the ones who last long enough to trigger whisper networks, who can build a career before they fuck up in public or on camera...they're canny, even if they're not clever. They know how to not get caught.

Several abusers have used me and @infamousfiddler as cover, because if the mouthy bisexual feminists like them, they can't be bad men, right? And we're fat frumpy girls with weird hair, so clearly they're not shallow predators! Right? Right?

...wrong.

We didn't know because they never indulged in those behaviors while we were around. They were clever enough to be careful. And because we were known to be friends of theirs, no one came to us when the whispers were brewing. We only get looped in AFTER the explosion.

No one deserves to be harassed or treated like a vending machine for sex, ever, for any reason. I have a good friend who is smart--brilliant, even--and gorgeous enough to be a little annoying. She dances pole. She glues googly eyes to her butt and spins them to amuse people.

Her Instagram is a wasteland of [a**holes] assuming that because her butt can see them, they have the right to demand she post pictures with less clothing, or send nudes, or sit on their faces. And they don't.

No one has a right to demand anything of her that she doesn't freely give. She's lucky in that she's not in a genre-adjacent job, so when she does cosplay at things like SDCC, she doesn't have to worry that telling a creep to fuck off will hurt her job.

For predatory dudes seeking camouflage, surrounding yourself with women where you know that the snap judgement of anyone who sees you will be "see? He has female friends he doesn't want to [f*ck]!" is a cheap and easy way to get it.

So I guess I don't have a conclusion here, beyond "he can be predatory when you're not in the room; him being good to you doesn't make him good" and "some predators don't [sh*t] where they eat, we really don't always know."

And a pertinent reply from zuyadragon:

how did she not know? easy. she wasn't his preferred type of target so he treated her well.

And, uh...there's this.

See, I know, I know, with absolute surety, there are good men out there. I've met many of them. I know several. They exist. But I think that's why episodes like this are so disheartening--when we think it's been long enough that culture would have caught a clue as to why using this sort of influence is so very wrong...only to be proven wrong again. And again.

Because while it's still wrong, it's one thing to point to a Weinstein and say, well, that's bad, but that was his generation. It was wrong, but they were raised that way. But--pointing at a 30-something gamer? A 20-something gamer? Who we think at least was raised to believe women were people if nothing else?

It's hard to take. And it's harder not to say things like "No man can be trusted", or "they're all like this", because...that's no more true than that all women want is a stern hand and babies. People are people, individual, distinct, different.

And, very often, disappointing.

I'm not sure what was your intention?

I was at the Pose Fair, of all places, when a short, distorted avatar started wandering about, complaining in voice that he couldn't find love. That he just wanted to be held, was that so much to ask? Then he came and stood next to me, perusing a static bellydance pose set in one of the shops. Still talking. I finally couldn't take it anymore and IMed him, which...in retrospect, was probably not bright.

[12:12] Emilly Orr: Dude, ask someone else. I charge.
[12:13] ForeignRufus: How much?

He wasn't serious, I could tell that. From his name, from his avatar, from the fact that he was less than a day old. But any port in a storm...or maybe I was just bored.

[12:13] ForeignRufus: Do you take v-bucks?
[12:13] Emilly Orr: L$2500 per half hour, L$4000 per full, and no.
[12:14] ForeignRufus: Damn, I like the sound of that

A prime case of "r/sarcasm".

[12:14] Emilly Orr: Really?

Not that text shows this, but this was also typed sarcastically, because he wasn't serious.

[12:15] ForeignRufus: Yes, so how does it work?
[12:15] Emilly Orr: Payment in advance. I can take you to my studio.
[12:15] ForeignRufus: How come I should trust that you wont just take my v-bucks and ruin?

Fairly sure he means "run" here.

[12:17] Emilly Orr: Why would I run? I honor all hires.

Even those from odd little troll avatars. And yes, this was the best picture I could get; the event was slightly lag-packed, but he never rezzed in. I'm fairly sure he was wearing pants, and of course the hat, but fairly sure he wasn't wearing anything else.

And no, only this one picture. I took one from the front, but...trust me, you don't want to know. It was...repellent.

[12:16] Emilly Orr: Okay, I need a term defined. What in the world are v-bucks? We deal in Lindens here.
[12:16] ForeignRufus: You play Madden'08?
[12:17] Emilly Orr: No.

So I looked it up. V-bucks are apparently the Fortnite currency? Never played Fortnite; the closest I've come to cooperative killing games was some pseudo-historical Roman game with destructible terrain features, and that so long ago I can't even remember the name. I'm not the PvP sort.

[12:17] ForeignRufus: Gotcha, so I have like a bunch of monies to spend, think you could tongue punch my meat ring?

That...is a line I've never heard before.

[12:18] Emilly Orr: Not sure my current bed offers rimming, but I could see what else I have.
[12:18] ForeignRufus: Please do, full list. Lemme know what animals you have in stock
[12:19] Emilly Orr: The House of Sakura does not offer bestiality. Though we do interact with furs happily.

It's true. The Duchess won't hire furs as Blossoms, but we're happy to have them as guests or patrons.

[12:19] Emilly Orr: If that's really something you want, there are sims for that.
[12:19] ForeignRufus: So like you cant gimme horse play, but you can gimme a dude in a furry suit? Thats [f**kin] lit fam
[12:19] ForeignRufus: yeet

So I figured the conversation was over, I'd just answer the last bit and be on my way...only, no, apparently.

[12:20] Emilly Orr: No, we don't have anyone non-human on staff currently.
[12:20] ForeignRufus: I follow you.... you dont have any ALIVE non-human staff.... Im cool with that

When...did I say that? I did not say that. What?

[12:21] Emilly Orr: No, no dead girls either.

Part of the problem, I think, is I was treating each statement seriously, and he clearly was not.

[12:22] ForeignRufus: Man... This blows

He wanted necrophilia?

[12:22] ForeignRufus: This is bad news bears
[12:23] Emilly Orr: SL, or the offer?
[12:25] ForeignRufus: What is SL?
[12:25] ForeignRufus: Sex lesbians?

Really? That's your best guess?

[12:25] Emilly Orr: You're in SL. Second Life?
[12:26] Emilly Orr: Second Life is the grid you're in.
[12:28] ForeignRufus: I thought I escaped the grid three years ago, [f**k]
[12:28] Emilly Orr: Mm, should have looked at the fine print.
[12:32] ForeignRufus: I feel super gay right now
[12:32] Emilly Orr: Hmm. We only have girls, but there are all-male sims.

He didn't say anything after that, not that I expected him to, but still. What sort of troll logs onto the grid only to be dissatisfied from go? Seriously, what is the point?

Miss Slighted, high-minded, I’m stuck in the rain

Oh, excuse me, the title is actually Summit Nights and HALLOWEEN HAUNTED HOUSE! BOO! There you go. The description states:

Summit Nights: A unique "night garden" themed dance club playing great music from all genres.

Come and see our creepy haunted mansion, guaranteed to give you a good scare! Ghosts, ghouls, skeletons and zombies, oh my!

So...dance club, but also haunt? Or haunted dance club? I have no idea.



Well, it has rules.



And they've definitely worked to set a particular mood.



Because of course they have game rips, why wouldn't they? Cue massive facepalming.



This was a neat effect. Two of the four paintings moved up and down on the wall. Simple, but effective. This was the second wall with the effect--the first one seemed to be in more shadow--but there didn't seem to be repetition, which is my other bane--the earlier four paintings were different.



The game rips are getting on my nerves...



Really? Okay, it's possible this is not a direct game rip, even though Ju-On had a video game released for the Wii. (And yes, the little meowing boy? He is in that game.) But one way or another, this was my "I'm done here" note.

Haunts are an odd thing--they rely on two key principles, and they are opposing: originality and creativity on the one side, and tradition and established settings on the other. But it is far from impossible to play to both things, and make a haunt work, without involving game properties or established media properties.

That is, if the designer cares at all.

And...that's it. I'll make one more correction to the list of all the haunts, and then I'll start working on old pictures for the haunts, but this is my last haunted house for the year. Blessings of the season to you all!