can you please tell me what's underneath my bed?

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!

lay down and whisper to its roots "won't you take my sorrow from me?"

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!

come join the murder, soar on my wings

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, come on, be alive again, don't lay down and die

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.]

just a few more weary days, and then I'll fly away

It's been...well, several not good days, an entire month of not good days, or even 181 days of not good days...but we'd gotten through the month of being in inarticulate pain, until Valentine's Day...and then a message came through Timeless Textures.

I'm leaving the business in, but anonymizing everyone but Wyvern Dryke, because...well, he's the point of contact.

On the 14th of February, he sent this message.

Xzavia's RL son sent me a message in Discord today.

I am so very sorry, everyone.

Xzavia Yifu passed away IRL on February 1, 2023

Understand, he wasn't trying to keep the news private, per se, he just wanted to make sure he heard from the family that it was okay to pass it on, first.

She became very ill over Christmas, due to Covid, and was not able to recover.

I do not know the future of Timeless Textures, or by extension USC / Eagle's textures.

Again, very sorry. *hangs his head low and curls up sadly with his tail over his muzzle*

Why is it always Wyv. My gods, too much loss going around.

Anyway, that came in around five, so I didn't hear about it until the day after, because...well, we had holiday plans. But when I logged in on the 15th...well, it was this, opening for me in mid-chat:

[2023/02/15 10:19] Wyv the FloxMonster™ (wyvern.dryke): Yes, when Free Dove's Paloma passed, she asked that her store be closed.
[2023/02/15 10:19] Wyv the FloxMonster™ (wyvern.dryke): Xzavia would probably not ask such a thing.
[2023/02/15 10:22] Kxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Nice..My friend [Axxxxx Rxxxxxxx] introduced me to timeless textures. :)
[2023/02/15 10:24] Cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: thats so sdd to hear I only poke to x in mid january
[2023/02/15 10:24] Wyv the FloxMonster™ (wyvern.dryke): Yes
[2023/02/15 10:25] Wyv the FloxMonster™ (wyvern.dryke): she last logged in, on Jan 31
[2023/02/15 10:27] Mxxx Wxxx: and sent the notice on 30
[2023/02/15 10:27] Wyv the FloxMonster™ (wyvern.dryke): or perhaps the 30th.
[2023/02/15 10:27] Cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I was not able to of gotten that message
[2023/02/15 10:27] Axxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: my condolences to her family, she was the best texture creator i knew of
[2023/02/15 10:27] Wyv the FloxMonster™ (wyvern.dryke): the 30th. She last logged on the 30t, not the 31st
[2023/02/15 10:28] Wyv the FloxMonster™ (wyvern.dryke): the 31st is when I got the message from her in Discord, that she was going into Hospital

I knew she'd gotten Covid, I knew it took a lot out of her, I didn't know she'd hit the hospital stage.

[2023/02/15 10:28] Wyv the FloxMonster™ (wyvern.dryke): and then... static.
[2023/02/15 10:29] Vxxxxxx Pxxxx: My condolences to her family.
[2023/02/15 10:29] Kxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: :(
[2023/02/15 10:29] Rxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: i got a notecard from the 30th
[2023/02/15 10:29] Mxxx Wxxx: so she went there for a day ;(
[2023/02/15 10:30] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Oh, wow. I was so busy yesterday, out, I hadn't heard. She will--deeply--be missed.

It's always odd what strange things we think of when we hear the news. What crossed my mind at first seemed so absolutely trivia--"Guess she's not going to finish the brocade sets." Like that is in any way important.

[2023/02/15 10:30] Wyv the FloxMonster™ (wyvern.dryke): nods
[2023/02/15 10:30] Rxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: there was a notecard sent out 30th january
[2023/02/15 10:30] Wyv the FloxMonster™ (wyvern.dryke): Yes, she sent a notecard through this group on the 30th, saying she wasn't feeling well
[2023/02/15 10:31] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): That, I got, yes.
[2023/02/15 11:11] Jxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: i cant believe this is happening
[2023/02/15 11:11] Sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx offers hugs to all who want one.
[2023/02/15 11:12] JewelMermaid: was it covid?

I'd go so far as to say complications from Covid, to be clear. But in brief: yes. As so many noble souls before her.

[2023/02/15 11:12] hcccccccc Rxxxxxxx: what happened?
[2023/02/15 11:12] Sxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I believe so.
[2023/02/15 11:12] Leslea Aldrin: She had covid before Christmas.. and never really recovered.. got sicker in January

(Left also non-anonymous for reason which will become clear in entry two, which...probably will be tomorrow.)

[2023/02/15 11:12] hcccccccc Rxxxxxxx: omg
[2023/02/15 11:12] hcccccccc Rxxxxxxx: :(((
[2023/02/15 11:13] hcccccccc Rxxxxxxx: I didn't know
[2023/02/15 11:13] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): She was my favorite texture designer. Well, probably still is--I own SO MANY brocade sets.
[2023/02/15 11:13] hcccccccc Rxxxxxxx: me too
[2023/02/15 11:13] Kxxx Cxxxxx: me too
[2023/02/15 11:14] Axxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: i have a ton of her stuff too
[2023/02/15 11:14] Kxxx Cxxxxx: Xavia is a great loss personally and to SL
[2023/02/15 11:14] hcccccccc Rxxxxxxx: yes
[2023/02/15 11:14] hhcccccccc Rxxxxxxx: so sorry about that
[2023/02/15 11:14] hcccccccc Rxxxxxxx: is it going to close?
[2023/02/15 11:15] Leslea Aldrin: At the moment- there are no details available if she had willed it to someone else or not.

[2023/02/15 11:15] hcccccccc Rxxxxxxx: I see
[2023/02/15 11:15] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Wyv's still hoping to find out.
[2023/02/15 11:16] hcccccccc Rxxxxxxx: we will miss it
[2023/02/15 11:31] Axxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: May she rest in peace. And he sent a notecard yesterday, which I'd missed at the time:

Hello friends, thank you for your patience during this solemn time.
Here are details for Xzavia's Memorial.

WHEN:
Saturday, 11 March at 1 pm SLT

WHERE:

Xzavia * Celebration of Life

HELP NEEDED: We need someone to VIDEO RECORD the service. If you know someone, please contact LESLEA ALDRIN

Okay, leaving Leslea's name in, too, so potential videographers can contact her.

NOTES:
* The Memorial's location belongs to Mxxxxxx Sxxxxx. (Thank you [Mxxxxxx].)
* All are welcome to visit and feel close to our beloved Xzavia. There is a picture near the benches.
* You are welcome to make a brief statement, if you wish to commemorate Xzavia's time with us (voice or text).

Thank you

~Wyvern Dryke a.k.a. the Flox

And that's all I know for now. A donation jar was set out; enough was raised to at least cover her parcel rental for one more month, until the family decides what to do. I'll tell you when I know more.

maybe tomorrow I'll find the answers I'm looking for

This is a fascinating dive into evolving chatbot ethics, or as Kevin Roose put it, large language model AIs. "There is something going on here that I don't think Microsoft intended to build into a search engine," he notes. "Something is not right."

It may not be precisely wrong, either, at least in the sense of world-ending Terminator apocolypses, but--it definitely bears watching.

And hi, hello, it's me again, who should have blogged this a week ago..It was a hard week. I missed a lot of things. I'm trying to catch up.

[Pre-publishing note from the Editrix: add on another five days to that figure...]

I'm walking into blogging this one while watching the latest Babymetal video, Metal Kingdom, so...that's the backdrop to this, I guess.



Let me introduce the "Pandora" Blood-Letting Dagger from /Vae Victis\. And for once I'm starting with the dual HUDS--one for tinting the various sections (and fourteen different shades for each section!), and the animation HUD, which I'm quite fond of.



So first, out of the box, and in an outfit I found on sale, oddly enough, from Le'La (sans the crown)--this is the dagger, untinted.



This can be resized, as with nearly all /Vae Victis\ products, but I'm showing it at the same size at which it unpacks.



Some great details, as expected, seen closer in the first image--and a great visual sense of weighting, if that makes sense.



And then I fell down. Why? Got me. I clicked the ground in the garden. That was all I did. Apparently that's bad.



It may or may not need adjusting on the hold pose--I found that in most of my AO poses, it was fine, but a couple threw the blade so it partially phased through my thumb (seen here).



And this is my favorite pose from the pose HUD--a dagger flip. Great for photos, great for being passively threatening at events, probably still great for a DIY AFK moment for when one must step away from the keys for any reason.

You can find this lovely lethal thing at Abnormality until the 28th! It'll set you back L$450, and I gotta tell you--for the flip animation alone that's a steal.

they never said that love is a twisted game and no one ever wins

So, I was working out details for covering the Pandora dagger from Vae Victis, when I suddenly realized it's the tenth, and that means Enchantment is open! Oh dear.

So, all those plans are thrown out the window. Yikes forever. But it's okay, my bedenimed self can do this. Day 165 and my head hasn't caved in, so that's also a plus!

Three days later...

Not so much a plus, and it's now the 13th. Ah, well. Day 166 of the headache was kind of crushing, Day 167 was far from ideal, and so far, Day 168 is wrecking all my plans for all the things. But I was able to put up a simple floating rock set on Gearhaven, and finish the little decorating I was planning for Valentine's, so I can do this too, damn it.

I ported to Mystery Hill, which I don't remember going to before, for pictures of the "Swansong" Bloodsworn Blade from /Vae Victis\.



I need to be taller. For a lot of my default poses, the tip of the blade's in the ground.



And now, standing on the very edge of a cliff to give an idea of the blade length. It's either as tall, or taller, than I am!

(I should add, while I changed the tints, I did not change the size. It does resize, and pretty efficiently, so it can go smaller--or larger.)



Then the Emilly forgot which way she was facing, and walked into the ocean. At least there was a boat there. Did I also mention this thing comes with nifty poses?



And a close-up of the detail work. There are several parts that can be individually tinted, you'll see that in the next image.



I heard chanting, so crawled out of the briny deep, and found myself near three cackling witches and a cottage. They seemed busy, so I went inside to look around. And this? This is just an appalling misuse of an oven.

You have to part the person into more easily sized bits for roasting, people. She will take FOREVER to cook with her legs sticking out! Not to mention the amount of heat that's going to escape that oven...

However, for the sword, there are sixteen different color/tint options until you get to the animated energy channels in the blade, and the inset gems. But even in those two areas, it's still fifteen different tones.



Anyway, it's been something of a tiring week, so I'm just going to sleep for a bit. Check out how many different poses you'll get with this one, though, while I'm getting my less-than-forty-winks.

This sword will run you L$550, and it's worth every Linden if you like pretty stabby things. Also slightly of the stabby: the booth's L$75 offering, which is the "Baphomet" Lapel Chain and Ring set, so if you don't have that, you can pick up those pointy details there. (Or, just hit the landing circle at Enchantment and wander two booths to the left.)

there's such a fooled heart beatin' so fast

We finally have an answer for what happened February 1st. Does explain several things--and why so many systems seemed to break at once.

So far, February has been...difficult. It has also been, additionally, not the best week. This may be taken as fantastical hyperbole, but there have been times when I have made my way to that far table, and sat across from death...and I have always, always walked away again. The last serious time was December; this week's bidding fair to be another. But I endure still. If nothing else, I am stubborn.

Changing topics a tad, today I went to CHAOTIC to get one of their newest releases--a casual cropped sweater-and-long-trousers set named Brynlee running for L$99 a color (but not black, you'd think black would be a natural, but...apparently not). After that I remembered there was a group gift from /Vae Victis\ I wanted to cover.



Out of the box it's so pretty--amazing anatomical detail, acanthus leaves as scarified scrollwork across the surface, and a small shattered place within storing...something else.



A little hue change, and what I thought was going to be the black and blue, but--apparently I forgot to hit 'Save' when I was moving through locations on the sim. Bother. So it's now showing off the black and red. Also demonstrated: one can, it appears, sit down whilst holding the heart--most of the heart's animations don't interfere with the body's animation.



It occurs to me I haven't mentioned the thing's name. It does have one, namely the "Eternal Vow" Broken Heart, which is the 2000 group members gift (thus, only available if you join the group), from /Vae Victis\. Did any of us ever think /Vae Victis\ would come so far? Probably not--even I hoped, but braced for disappointment. This is far from a disappointment.

(Though I should also mention it was not doubt in the designer at all--just the world's cruelty to artists in general.)

Either way, this is it in the brass/gold metal, with an amber-yellow cracked section--which I think is picking up the sky tones to look closer to rose, from yellow?

(And if you can't tell from the different poses, the heart has a floating pattern, long enough that it can seem somewhat random as an accessory. It never completely touches the hand, or at least it never completely touched mine, but it does come close!)



And in the traditional pink, with aetherium purple heart window. I also picked up some hot cider, because it's still snowy here!



And the heart in gleaming silver with a glittering white center, and the HUD.

There are seven colors for the heart itself, and seven slightly different tones for the broken section, and it's a lovely tribute to growth, and endurance. (As well as, I suspect, going well with the earlier released set of the 'Tell-Tale Heart' Relic, which was part of the Love Bites hunt in 2022, and is now possibly in the main store?)

And, as an aside, Arkivet's 'Anesidora' Keybound Halo that I covered earlier is now available for purchase at the Abnormality event, which just opened today, so--it may be a while before you can drop by to grab it. But when you can, here's the direct link to Arkivet's booth. It's going for L$300, which is a steal for that level of detail.

(And if you're after the Pandora Blood-Letting dagger from /Vae Victis\, I'll be showing that off tomorrow! That is also at Abnormality, here on the lower level, and I forgot to grab the price so I'll do that tomorrow as well!

[Bit of a late insert from the Editrix: thought I should toss in some credits since I am wearing some new things:

"Eternal Vow" broken heart from /Vae Victis\ (remember, ONLY available by joining the group!)
"Brynlee" top/pants combo in Light Red from Chaotic
"Sienna" long hair from Magika
Shot in Ethereal City

Sky: "outdoor city weirdlights" from [AnaLu] (I think the business itself is gone, but it should be standard in the Settings folder)

I'll paint you mornings of gold

A great deal of inference comes into play in virtual world interaction, and even in games with 3D NPC figures. Because they do not often show facial expression, or, if they do, it's either Uncanny Valley turf or not...quite...synched up with what's being said...a lot of what we go on are things our minds are thinking--how we think they sound, or how we think they look, or what emotion we think they're portraying.

That being said...



...there's a certain deer-in-the-headlights look I'm developing, and I can't decide if that's me reading into...well, me, or--genuinely what's happening with the way I'm choosing my avatar to pose, dress, behave...



Anyway, /Vae Victis\ is participating in the next Madpea hunt, "Cupid Catastrophe". This is a grid-wide hunt with a specific time limit--fifteen days, from the first of February to the fifteenth, with an interesting angle. The more hunt objects a hunter finds, the more "MadPoints" and prizes that hunter gets at the end.

As with other recent Madpea hunts, it's HUD-based--the basic "Cupid Chaser" gets a hunter the hunt HUD, and a "Fool's Flyswatter"--the better to flatten Cupids and hearts with, I guess?--while the "Cupid Conqueror" package gets the HUD, the Flyswatter, whatever "The Dominator 2020" item is, the "Heart Mobile" (I'm assuming car, not hanging thing) and the "Cupid Catastrophe" outfits.



And this is the "Eros" Gemmed Crown Halo that Grim made for the event, and this thing is GORGEOUS. I know, I know, I say that about a lot of accessories, but...this one really is. I have this Valentine's picture idea in my head now, for a skin I haven't worn often--the Elemental Golden Dust Diamond for 2018's Fallen God and Goddess contest from Fallen Gods. That could be really stellar.



I may post another run in that skin, even, if it comes out well. As an entry or on the Flickr.

And I'm thinking the lost-deer effect may not be what I'm putting out, in SL, but what I'm bringing in. There are days that are more...mass confused flailing? Than others?



So, remember what I said about this piece being gorgeous? This is it from the back, and this is the first headgear I've seen from /Vae Victis\ that had this kind of backing. What I mean by that is, I'm used to the front patterning--in this case, the horn strata of antlers--matching to the back, and...not here. Here, it's backed with the smooth, slightly rounded look one gets when metal accessories are hand-poured. Complete with the stamp detail that makers often press into still-cooling metal pieces. I am sheerly amazed.



All in all, this is a lovely piece, elegant and sweeping, and while there will be a slight charge, it's the charge of the game HUD from Madpea, not a charge for the piece itself.

[[Insert from the Editrix before posting: this was shot in the photo studio warehouse in Whispers Families, and I completely forgot to show the HUD. So I had to take one last shot, below, to show that off!]]



[[And there you go! Simple selections, but as shown here, highly variable. Good luck in the finding!]]