and if that tree had not drunk my tears (part three)

We're picking up where we left off with EscalateD, and this is "Lemon", which I'm showing in a red-tipped blonde from the "Blondes" color HUD, trying to minimize that red demo ribbon, but...all it seemed to do was flash me back to the color tones Alice Project used in the very early days. Ack.



This is "Maeryn", a short chopped style, and I picked the "Neons" color HUD, a bright raspberry-pink as the base, and a strong, thirsty orange for the streaks.



And this is "Nevaeh", another style that's probably not for me, but it does look pretty. It comes with a style hud, both 'busty' and 'regular/flat' hairs, and I'm showing it in two ombre sunrise tones from the "Rainbows" color HUD.



.Shi gets no link, because .Shi gave no link, darn it. But this is "Sa-Rah V2", and I'm showing it in the color HUD "E-Bronde", which...I cannot even parse. It has some ombre tones, some reds, some monochromes, and some bright jewel tones, so who knows? I picked the reddish one.



And this is "Ya-Resh", and I'm showing the bright, bright green from the "E-Metallic" color HUD, but...their huds are confusing, because it looks like the same exact color palette.

and if that tree had not drunk my tears (part two)

Up to EMO-tions, now (main store link), with "Asta". I can't show any of the mesh-head hairbases, because again, no mesh head yet. The search is eternal. But this is in color "Autumn" (thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for NAMING YOUR COLORS) from the "BRUNTETTE" color HUD.

I'm interested in this. In the back, it falls into a long braid.



This is "Kaya", and as you can see, they included a busty version that does not clip across the chest. I'm showing it in "Crimson" from the "REDS" color HUD.

Drat, I don't think I took a picture of "Seychelle". Foo. Well, "Seychelle" is unpictured, but you can still see it at the main Hair Fair post.



We move on to EscalateD (main store), with the first style "Ashara". Not...really my thing, I don't think.

I'm showing it in two red tones from the Essentials HUD, but because of the bright red demo ribbon through the hair, it's really hard to tell.



This is "Haven", a fun little shoulder-brushing style, and I'm showing it in the same two-tone brown from the "Browns" color HUD. All the EscalateD huds have two tables of color circles--either Base and Streaks, as with the Browns hud, or First Color/Second Color, like I showed above with "Ashara".

What? Did I not snap "Katalina" as well? I'm slipping.

I'll cover the last three styles for EscalateD in the next entry.

and if that tree had not drunk my tears (part one)

Oh, brother.

[15:50] Eileen Saunders (dyoficegirl): Can someone lend me 100L? Please help me complete 1450L for pay my rent, I promise pay back tomorrow.

Ms. Saunders is not anonymized. She may have been an innocent once, but now she's a bot. Beware, block and report.

[15:52] wxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Nope. That's begging.
[15:58] Mxxx Wxxxxxxx: Thats a hacked account....they try and get Ls from people....AR it
[15:58] Cxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxxxx: I just want to know if this strategy has worked in the history of Ever.
[15:59] Cxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxxxx has the same question about unsolicited penis pictures.

I have the same questions.

Since Hair Fair opens today, I tracked down the master list of who's going to be where.

I notice Truth is missing, and from the pictures, I don't need to demo the Lock & Tuft styles, nor do I need to worry about Volt Hair, Clawtooth, Pink Hustler, ASO!, Lin, Adoness, .Shi, Modulus, Speakeasy, booN, Phoenix Hair, Hair Studio ONE, Tameless, Izzie's, Opale, Avada, Love, Cheveux, Tableau, Fashionably Dead, Navy and Copper and Just Magnetized. And don't take this as direct criticism--some of these companies make great hair that I just don't like their styles for, for this event; some are making just hairbases for mesh heads, I don't have a mesh head; some made hat hair, by and large I don't wear hat hair.

(Though this image from Calico has convinced me that Saira is maybe not my style, and the braids will cut straight through the bosom. Darn.)

But mostly, this is going to streamline things wonderfully, so that actually makes me happy.

There will be more hair covered for Hair Fair! Just minimizing what I'm going to cover. To that end...let's get back into it with enVOGUE (who's on Brunette this time around).

The first style should have been "Marsella", but apparently I rushed too much taking these shots, because I cannot track it down.



This next one is "Ravenna", and I'm using the second tone of the Light BROWNS color HUD.



And the last one is "Serena", which I actually really liked until I saw how much it's going to clip across the chest. Well, darn. I'm using the Diversity COLORS HUD, the sixth tone.

I come apart at the seams inside the panic

First up: The "Haunted House of Horrors and Halloween!" And alliteration, apparently.

I'm pretty sure I've gone here, too, but what the hell, the rest of the day has been a quagmire. Let's go see.

Their blurb:

"Come to the Haunted House of Horrors. We have all sorts of evil creations and furntiure for sale, zombies, ghosts, blood, Haunted Graveyards, Horror Haunted Church, scary and Vampire, HALLOWEEEN"

That's "furniture", but...that means it's a shop and a haunt? Or just a shop?



Just a store, then. Bother.

How about something more hyperbolic? The "HAUNTED HOUSE 2018 HALLOWEEN MOST INTERACTIVE HAUNTED HOUSE"? That sounds...extreme. Their blurb isn't overly helpful:

"HAUNTED HOUSE 2018 Come try it if you dare.. Lots of scary pop ups and lots of interactive things to do! Come try and if you like it , it is for sale!"

Yeah.

Let's go anyway.



It's starting with a rainbow arrow. I have dread, but not for the right reasons.



That is the single squarest TV I have seen on SL.

Overall, the effects are...pretty blatant. There's not a lot of 'subtle' on display, here.



Hammer time. (I had to, yes.)



Let's just say it's...not the best house and leave it there.



I...I don't even. So much glow, and she was accompanied by carnival clown music as she rushed forward and back over the moving walkway. Was that...supposed to be scary?

And then I got past her (after a couple of tries), negotiated up a moving stairway, picked a door...and fell through the floor to be eaten by a dragon. Yeah, I give up. Visit if you want, no recommendations.

when did it get so hard?

Next up, (red)Mint's (main store) "No 55'18" (gosh, these descriptive names are dizzying), and I picked the Redheads hud, this is, I believe, the second color?



And this is "No. 59'18", and for this one, I picked the "Fantasy (. 4-6)" color HUD. She really needs to learn how to name things.

But I think it'd be pretty for photos.



Next is Calico, and they're on the Blonde sim this year at Hair Fair. This is "Monroe", with a mid-range red from the Reds color hud. There does seem to be a tiny bit of clipping on my right cheek, but there's no interference with the breasts, so...small favors? It also looks weirdly flat on top.



And this is "Saira". and anyone who knows me knows what a freak I am for braids, so I am very interested in this one. I picked the Browns hud for color, and this is several colors down, sort of a cocoa-powder brown. This looks good.

I wanted the last two for this entry to be from ICONIC, but considering I've spent the last fifteen minutes trying to attach "Asha", and the last ten of those spent trying to DEtach the Millennium Darks color hud...fuggedit, I don't care enough.

ICONIC has hair for Hair Fair. Go see. They're somewhere on one of the four sims.

and I still hum its tune, but how could I believe every word it says to me?

We're starting with Astrology (the first designer to include a landmark TO their Hair Fair sim, they're on Brunette this year), and this is "Andrew" in the mermaid-y shade off the Black Ombre color hud. Do I regret ditching Astrology as a VIP group now? Maybe a little. But only a little, because she didn't put anything out under the brand for over six months, and stopped putting anything out through Alice Project for six months, so I moved on from both.



And this is "Gretch", a pretty flattering mid-length, I'm displaying it in the sixth tone of the Gingers section from the Medium hud.



This is "Jillian", another fairly flattering style, and I used the fifth color on the top left side of the Color hud.



This is "Kara", and it just felt like I should use a lighter tone, so I pulled out the Light color hud, and this is the second tone on the Light Blonde side of things.



This is the first one I'm not fond of, "Tiffany", though I can think of people who'd adore the style. And I picked the Color Fun hud, and the second shade in on the lower right Ombre side of things.

Each of the new hairstyles comes with an option for 'Edges' on and off, and 'Baby Hair' on and off. All of these were with both options on.

Last, I had also unpacked Beusame's (main store, not Hair Fair location) "Kirk" demos to display, but they're only for mesh heads. So we move on.

it’s a long and lonesome highway, it’s a bitter shade of blue (part two)

(Continued from part one.)

This is "Malin". Didn't bother to tint this one, either. Wow, if they're all going to be like this...



This is "Sanna". I might not even bother with the color HUDs for the rest of these.



This is "Signe".



And this is "Solvig". Well, this one's not terrible. I picked a good, sturdy purple for this one from the "Rainbow" color HUD. That's it, we're done, I'm going off for a nap.

it’s a long and lonesome highway, it’s a bitter shade of blue (part one)

Okay, let's do this, no haunt for today. Because I am DROWNING in Hair Fair demos. Probably won't be fancy frames, either, it's just too exhausting trying to get to everything.

Oh, and THANK YOU in advance to the people including landmarks to where to go at Hair Fair, because so far, two makers HAVE NOT DONE THIS and it's beyond frustrating.

Let's go!



We're starting with Ayashi's (main store, not HF location) "Lightning" hair. I picked a mid-purple, and the style as out of the box. This is a nice razor-chop pony; not my style, but it looks good. It also clips through my chest, and there's no way around that without a larger size given, which I don't have.



And this next one is "Mokka", which I liked enough to try in my now-given dark red.



It also has bows, and the HUD for those comes in ten preset colors, or an RGB click-to-tint section.



Next up: tram (again, main store, not HF SLurl or lm), and their style "H0904". Not crazy about it, didn't try the shades.



This is "H0906", and it's a little better, sort of a stranded razor bob. I used the very last ombre option on HUD C, and I also stretched the hair by 7% to fit me better.



Last, "H0913". Again, not my style--when my bangs get this long RL, I go nuts trying to keep them OUT of my eyes--but pretty. I used HUD A, the seventh color option on the bottom, and stretched it by 3% to fit.

Next we have [KoKoLoReS], who not only didn't include any landmark, but made me type that out with upper and lower case, so I'm not looking them up to link them.



This is "Linn". Didn't bother to tint it.



(Click here to go to the second part.)

and he still picks his trains by chance, chooses opinions to fit his circumstance

How about Haunted Island? If I have been there, it's been at least a year, right?

Their blurb is...odd:

"Halloween town, Haunted, Ghosts, Skeletons, Costumes, Pirates, Witches, La Catrina, Dia de los Muertos, Photo Contest, Freebies, Medieval, Victorian, Decorations"

That's kind of saying "everything's here". Well, let's take it one spook at a time, then.



I hear zombies.



Oh, hey, there's a cave system. And oh, hey, it has jump scares. Great.



It also has ritual circles and demons. Huh.



Okay, down to the village proper.



Ugh. Zombie horse.



And that's a donation statue for the sim, but it did make a nice image.

Overall...I wish I hadn't already visited this one, but also, the zombie horse still bugs me. And there are areas, the jumpscare ghoul circle being one, in the cave system that make me very much not want to explore further. Which is sad when someone goes to this much trouble to put together this large a haunt.

I thought it felt right but that right was wrong

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

you've gotta get up and try

Wait, the Halloween Haunted House people mentioned they had two haunts.



So let's go through the second one, I don't think I did that before.



The entryway is lovely.

There's also a fun bit from the welcome mat:

[12:04] susans matt whispers: Please take a moment to observe our Rules: 1. No Weapons, 2. No Particles or Poofers, 3. No Pushing, 4. Have fun!

I think I can agree to these rules.



And there's an excellent case for prim-saving in the living room of the house--that back bookcase is just a texture, and it's OBVIOUS that it's just a texture, but it does tell us there's a built-in, floor-to-ceiling bookcase there, and visually, we're content with that. Not everything needs to be the latest interactive clickable mesh whatever with haunts. Hints, implications, and plain textures over high-prim details--those still work very well.



The kitchen is similar to the first house, though...all those white cabinets make it look far, far too clean. Still, it gets the idea across. Sadly, the tray of candy apples and haunted ice creams do not give any items to carry about. Aww.



And I know this is just me, but...the plastic-wrapped body in the corner of the kitchen just put me in mind of the Robert Helpmann dead body videos. But maybe that's just me.



That is an insanely large Ouija board.



Seance room upstairs on the left...



And a lovely little daybed in the room on the right.

All in all, a nice little house. So, at the end of the day, what we have are two houses with similarities, but enough differences to be interesting, some good places to sit and take photos, and a place to pick a pumpkin or bob for apples outside. No huge sound effects, no jump scares, just a good time in a couple of haunts.