The Ezekiel Nighthunter's hat from Vae Victis

And I quote:

[12:14 PM]♰ 𝓛𝔞𝔡ყ 𝔇𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔥 ♰: @everyone Hey guys! Been drooling over the /Vae Victis\ - "Ezekiel" - Nighthunter's Hat but you're on a budget? Well now it is available at the "Sales Room" event for only 75L! This hat is one of the sexiest hats ever made in my opinion. Certainly a must have to be dashing on any occasion!

I have no idea if it's still at the Sales Room, honestly.

[[Note from the Editrix before publishing: yep, blew right past the deadline, the next round has designers filling booths as I speak. Bah.]]

So off we go to the main store to find out the price there!

And it turns out to be L$400, and can be found at the main store. It's still a great deal, considering the customization options, but yes.

[[Another insert: I should also say, the original date on this post was July 14th. Why the delay? Well, it's been...a bad couple of weeks, let's say. And it's also Day 333 of the Eternal Headache. We are so close to living a full year of this. Which is not what I wanted, ideally...]]

Anyway! Onward!



I won't lie, I'm getting serious Valentine vibes with this hat on this look. All I need is heart-shaped glasses...which...I may have in the inventory somewhere...



Shoulder cat does not like. He keeps aggressively sweeping my shoulders to knock the hat's feather's away.



Of course, part of that is it occasionally clips through his little hat, so that could be part of it, too. He's touchy.



The very close, in-person (or in-kitten?) tete-a-tete wherein he gave me ten minutes to ditch the hat or else.



Flying around me until I've ceded to his tiny demands. But while we're here, just look at the patterns. And I adore how the hat pattern is also part of the hat band.

Pretty sure he's preparing to cast a fireball.



So I went back home--or, at least, back to the Duchess' Garden, AKA, 'Em thinks she can build things right now"
that I'm setting up--whereupon I realized I hadn't included the HUD. So here it is.

Look at all those options! And, as shown, the feather colors I chose to (more or less) go with the outfit and the skin, being black, pink, and purple. Gold for all the metals, purple for the hat.

[[Another insert from the Editrix before publishing--I had this dated July 30th, so...yeah. It's been....boy, how it's been.

[[Something I'll just drop off here, from a Patreon I'm in, wherein the artist asked all of us how we were.]]



That was my answer. And...yeah. Not playing the pity card, just...things are starting to get substantially delayed, as further degradation occurs. I'm doin' my best, y'all.

she's dressed up to the nine and all the cops are on their way

Hair Fair closes at some point today--I'm nearly at the end of a solid all-stores run to check on things, and already, at 4:55 pm SLT on July 2nd, many booths have cleared out already.

If you still want to go and grab some gifts, Fab Free put together a targeted spreadsheet that will take you exactly to which store you want to find. Enjoy!

Elsewise, everything is going everywhere today, but I wanted to blog about one thing, because it is AWESOME--



The deets:

Vae Victis' first proper decor item - planning to do more in the future. It come in gold, silver, black, and crimson. What does it say? Only the ones who came before know. Available at The Darkness event, July 5th. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Zen Soul/47/244/3201

And yes, me for size reference, because I rezzed out the largest one.

So there you go! I'll tell you how much it is when the event opens, and in the meantime--I think I have a garden that needs a monolith!

thought she was fragile like a flower, but she's fragile like a bomb (part three)

Dang, skipped right past 300 days for the Eternal Headache, and we're now at 302!

Not a number I ever wanted to reach...but here we are.

So! Getting back to Hair Fair coverage, because the clock is running down. Also, I am in no condition to muck about trying on Evo-X layers and hoping they work.

Next one's a set of photographic hair by Argrace.



This is their "KANNA", in the second to last shade from the B and W color HUD.



And this is "REIKA". Both styles feature four different 'set' styles, to allow for more lifelike wind in photos. You can find them on the Brunette sim, and each color pack goes for L$300, with the fatpack of all the shades for L$1000.

Next, Monso Hair with a mid-level confusing selection of sizes:


I sort of just made my best guess.



But the style itself, "Kuromi", is very pretty.



Next is Analog Dog. This is "Aki", and while I do like the style, the demo basically just shows what colors can be altered; it doesn't allow changing of the hair colors.



"Mer", on the other hand, does work--I picked the 'Mix' hair color hud, and changed it to the last option on the 'blondes' section.

You can find both of these styles on the Redhead sim. Each shade will set you back L$300, the Mix pack is L$400, and the fatpack of everything is L$1200.

Next up: well, more? More is good.

she was the last one in this town we would've thought would snap

Wait, SABBATH is open today? So the horns set from /Vae Victis\ is live?

And the two-day migraine having (with any luck) not surfaced for day three...it might be a good time for some honkin' heavy horns.

So, I'm currently standing in the Ancient Ruins of Emerald Bay...where it seems to be raining.



Straight out of the box, these are quite lorge (at least on me). Perfect minotaur horns, otherwise.

So let's muck with them a bit.



Hit the wrong thing first--MIN SIZE--don't do that, btw, it was HELL prying them out of my hair--but we're now at my favored forward tilt and about -30 on the size. That's better.

Basic color-tone reversal--pewter instead of gold cuffs, gold instead of black horns, still goes with the outfit and the avatar.

Amusingly, I've only worn this form twice before--once when I was following my errant daughter through a rift in reality, and once when I got shunted through the hull of a spaceship when we hit a patch of drifting aetherium meteorites. Marble not needing to breathe much, you ken. Or at all...



There are ten shades for the horns--this is showing the red--and ten shades for the cuffs (which can also be removed with a click), this one being the white.



There's a very interesting green on this set--it's not the usual bright lime or dark-toned forest shade. This is more of a gentle fern. I'm showing it with the blue-turqoise cuffs.



There's a heathered pumpkin orange on the HUD, too. I paired it with the purple for the cuffs here.



What's visible from the front matches from the back--but it's still some lovely texture work. This time it's blue horns to match pink metal cuffs.



For the last shot I couldn't really fit both HUD and horns in the lotus frame...which, honestly, is fine, because that thing was bugging me trying to carve out the petals. So, HUD with the color options, and cuffs on or off, included with the price of purchase!

You'll find these at the newly opened SABBATH, at /Vae Victis\' booth (linked above), for L$400. If nothing else, it's a lovely layout to wander.

A bit of housekeeping. From here, things are going to get briefly uneven. Not that they haven't been, to date, but our beloved Void Mother Mesmer has decided to fold her brand up, and work with her partner Grim. Which is good, because we were keeping her either way.

But it does mean that my brand dealing with Arkivet has come to an end. And, much as I want to support some of the friend brands that have set up shop on Eldritch, it...honestly may be better for me to pace to one brand's releases. At least until we figure out the medical whys beyond the screen.

Then it's Vae loveliness all the way!

thought she was fragile like a flower, but she's fragile like a bomb (part two)

This is the goddess braids style from Vanity Hair, "56". I might actually pick up this one, at least in the Happy color pack or the Must Have color pack shades. You can find them on the Blonde region, and a note enclosed with the demo said that BOM baby-hair layers are included with purchase.



How'ver, I had to take two pictures for two reasons. First, yes, this style will clip through your boobages, as shown. It's not constant, it's just something to be aware of for the bustier set.

Second is more irritating. The sole reason to have a five minute demo is because the designer wants someone to have an unedited look at the end product. But if a designer is doing a five minute demo, WITH a huge demo wheel behind the hair? There's no reason for that.

Plus my personal issue of having to pull down the demo box for this style three times from the Hair Fair group because I was trying to get proper angles on the pictures and the five minutes of the demo kept expiring. I finally just gave up.

Moving on.

...or--not. This is awkward.

In the midst of an incipient migraine off the screen, Em still wanted to get another blog entry out, because Em is very, very bad at self-care. (I'm working on it. It's a process.)

But on a whim, I decided to go pick up style "56". I hadn't yet decided if I wanted the Candy pack or the Must Haves pack. Ported to Blonde, tracked down Vanity's booth, and...



So, each pack is going for L$390, with the fatpack of all colors for L$1,399. First problem: in the demo pack, the HUDs are listed as Music Lovers, Must Haves, Ombres Naturals, Rainbows, Basics-All Black and Whites, Basics-All Blonds, Basics-All Browns, Basics-All Reds, and Basics-Happy. The two I was most interested in were the Must Haves and the Happy, remember.

On the table at Hair Fair? (Barring the grey demo pack box.) The fatpack, the Must Haves, Rainbows, Ombres Naturals, and the last box simply labeled Basics.

I could have bought the Must Haves, but I wanted more color to play with, so reluctantly, bought the Rainbows, because the Happy pack is not there.



Second problem: The BOM baby-hair layer. Second problem part one: the actual curls of baby hair do not change color. At. All. Second problem part two: It's tintable via the HUD, but it's going to be a damned picky process picking one color to try to match one of the braids (as seen above), and then ignore the colors on the rest.

Not thrilled with this, honestly.

More demos to come.

thought she was fragile like a flower, but she's fragile like a bomb (part one)

It has become painfully clear, if that's not too on the nose, that I am not as effective in a great many things as I used to be. 295 days into the Eternal Headache, with no end in sight--with it never getting better, but it occasionally getting worse. And it's starting to feel like that set off a chain reaction effect of cascade failures, which I get a front-row seat at experiencing.

Lucky me.

So, this year is going to be...different. I'm still going to cover (some of) the styles, but unless I really like the brand, if the brand didn't include a picture first, I'm not going to cover them. Jury's still out whether I'll track down the links for anything I do decide to cover, when they're not already in the demo box.

Am I resentful about this? At times, incredibly. Do I hate the fact that energy runs out completely in a strange, draining rush, at wholly random times? Absolutely. Have we reached the shaking-fists-at-the-uncaring-sky stage? Yeah, probably two hundred days ago, even.

So. Hair stuph.



We're starting with KMH, on the Streaks region. Their F231 take on the razor bob is fairly standard from the front, but it's interesting from the back--a series of leveled chops from crown to ends. I'm showing it in a shade from the Colorful Color Pack, because the two-tone shading made the razor work pop.



Next up is ONE Creations, with Kiana, a styled combination of scarf wrap and dreadlocs. There's a nice amount of wrap options--I chose the red--and twelve hair shades total on the HUD--I picked the bottom row left, the mid-grey. Seemed to go well with the dead-girl look.

You can find ONE on the Brunette region.

And I was going to do a third, but...that's all for my energy levels just now, so...I'll get back to that later.

like puzzle pieces, and now we're here at a standstill

Additional Revenant explanation! Because why not?



First, someone's made art of my current state. Fantastic. And such a deal at two thousand Lindens.

Second, I really tried to make a pretty frame and turn these images out proper, and...the head is not having it at this point. I'm currently huddled around the jar of candied ginger eating rice cakes with cream cheese, because it has the best chance of staying down. Love this for me.



So, something I only noticed when I logged in today--as I mentioned in the previous entry, I changed zero settings, just captured it as is. It uses the standard ZHAO II framework, so you can edit the notecard inside and add in new poses, et cetera.



But this is the one I really wanted to track down. So, when I'm feeling better, I'm going to look at changing some of the times, but it's a very straightforward notecard. I would definitely make a copy if you're not used to working with interior scripting, but there is a handy help button on the HUD that will toss you a general ZHAO II help card.

Hope that clears up some things!

Have a shot of adorable Xiu blep:



And to tie this up, I can't even get the kids to behave when it's just trace shadows of their adult selves:



They are exceptionally stubborn. I blame the parents, really.

And that's all for this! Seeya!

you might make everyone happy but you're dead, just like me

Day 280 of the Eternal Headache has dawned, and I'm beginning to think I'm going to 'celebrate' a full year of this thing. Y a y . Ah, well.

To other things: have you ever had one of those feelings where you almost grasp the shape of something, but you're not sure how to execute it?

Well, I'm still there, but this is what I came up with for the moment.

I have a few zombie AO sets--some bought as one whole item, some that had a few poses and I added some of my own. I grabbed the one from RC Cluster (which is now an outlet/heavily discounted skybox store, as the actual RC main store no longer exists), and it's MUCH more in-your-face in its approach.



I'm currently at Deeproot Manor, it seemed appropriate. And I'm not going to show off all the moves of either of these, but this is a snippet of...I guess my main dead-thing default, at this point?

I like it. It's fun, it's unnerving, it goes over well at parties. But it is very extreme.



Now this one. This one is gloriously subtle, and I mean that as a compliment. It's like the difference between a ghost standing and screaming at you, versus slowly rising up from the floor and just...watching.

{{Note from the Editrix, post-publishing: All I did was unbox this and put it on. Which is why there's a fair bit of repeating moves. Took me a bit, because of tired and ow, to find the thing, but I finally did. I'll link to the next entry to explain that.}}



But there's something even better, that the video doesn't really go into, which is why I took three stills. The hand work.



Believe me, it looks better on Grim, he has these great spindly hands with spidery fingers, but even on me, there's just enough distortion in the animation of the fingers to visually imply claws. It's brilliant.



And that attention to detail, what the eye notices, but doesn't completely register, is why this is so good. There's a great little head-bobble, which is about the most obvious pose in this entire thing. The rest...I mean, it's ideal for haunted characters--wraiths, phantoms, spectres, anything that has a need to float. I have a wasp-winged Unseelie lass I pull on from time to time (it's the one seen here, with the horns), and I'm thinking the Revenant AO? Is going to be just perfect for her.

Finally, a note from Grimoire Hexem I want to pass on:

The animations in this AO were created by llweyndwell resident (the designer behind Aten-Ka), as a member of the Vae Victis team. Please contact him for inquiries.

It's available at the Warehouse event, specifically at the /Vae Victis\ booth. If you want to try a demo, that's at the booth too, or you can drop by the /Vae Victis\ main store. It's on discount, down to L$630. And the Warehouse will be open until the bir....I mean, the 18th. Go see it! And see what it can do to you!

The not-a-review of the 'Aza Emperia' Celestial Codex

[12:45] Azraiel DeZad (azraiel134): The impasse of undeath

Mood.

Got a notice from the event group today that Enchantment is still open--I'd forgotten they closed on June third. Gives me a bit of chance to figure out a reason to spend more than I really should on a few outfits.

How'ver, that's not why I bring it up.



I cannot, in good conscience, justify pulling this set to review. It's just too gorgeous, and I will not do it justice. What I will say is, interested netizens can find both the Celestial Codex, and the AO specially designed for it, at Enchantment until the event closes. The "Aza Emperia" Codex will run you L$500, and the "Aten Ka Celestial Animation Override" HUD will cost L$700. (Both from /Vae Victis\, naturally.) And those prices will only go up from here, so keep that in mind.

Still not why I bring it up. This is: I have pulled the "Revenant" Animation Override that just launched at the Warehouse event.



Yes, I know, it's not a smooth looping animation, it was just a short few-seconds capture. For smooth looping, you have to go to Grim's demonstration:



This is going to be a challenge to blog, but I think I can do it. It's far subtler than my zombie/haunt Frankencobble AO I've worked with for a while. I think I like it, though. A light air of dread...like the scent of dead roses in a graveyard. Pleasant, but unnerving.

Also, that thing behind the glass seen in the choppy gif? That's Xiu.



Yes, she is a chonk. (Me for size comparison, and yes, she outgrew me by day five.

Anyway, this one's an even better deal than the Celestial AO, at L$630. Find it at what I'm starting to think of as /Vae Victis\' permanent location at the Warehouse.

So I'll get to that in a couple days!

In the meantime, since I've managed to come down with something and I have reached the fever stage beyond the screen...I'm gonna go lie down for a bit.

I've been trying for so long to sing you the right song

The Anesidora Keybound halo is now out at Arkivet's main store as well as the Marketplace--also where I just learned some of the prior brand's "Java#" releases can be found. Do I need more Teegle skins? No. Do I plan to get them at some point? Why, yes.

And look! Look look look!



I freely admit, I don't have one-hundredth of the talent that some of their bloggers do. So I never expect to get noticed for my work, and that's okay--really and truly. But someone tall, thin and demonic mentioned it, and so I had to go see. And I got the honorable mention! I'm so pleased.

Then...several months later, LONG past February...

This is now old. March 1st it was dated, and I'm fairly sure I copied the Halo info out earlier, two months back, and sent it out in another entry...and then didn't delete this. So--it's a bit of a clip entry now.

First, this bit from a freebie group:

[15:26] SiN-1 (synthetikangel): In memory of Paloma from from Free Dove to keep her SL Dream alive they now have Paloma Plaza open with free gifts with free group (Free Dove style) Gallii (173,38,33)

So...there's that, at least.

Second, telling everyone about the gift at We Love Roleplay from /Vae Victis\ now!



This is meant to go with the "Themis" Judgement Hammer, which is now out at We Love Roleplay on a 25% discount for the run of the event. So you can pick it up for only L$450!

I happened to be at Olive's main store, when I realized I hadn't taken these shots yet. So clearly, the horns are meant to go with giant bunnies. Or something.

And right out of the box I can tell: this is the wrong hair for these. No space buns for Themis. Still, I think I can make them work.



Okay, confirmed--even edged back and tilted, they REALLY don't like buns. Best I can do for now, because weirdly I think they're perfect for the current hair (amusingly, Olive's "Usagi" hair from an old gacha, in all the spring greens) and the skin (which is also old, but also amusingly might still be purchaseable from the last 25LTuesday offer of the Chronicles on the sale board.



(I checked; they are still available, though by the time ZombEm found the second brain cell to clack together, it was the Tuesday following.) Took this just outside by the fountain in Chronicles, which yes, is also the name of the sim.
[[Note from the Editrix, pre-publishing: Did I say the Tuesday following? It's Friday now. Brane broken, plz halp.]]

Also, it appears the giant bunnies are not sittable. Em haz a sad.



I think Vein 2 and 4 are the outer colorable veins, and the inner are 1 and 3. And this is pretty much trompe l'oeil--I'm "laying" about a meter above the back of one of the bunnies.



While we're here, have a gander at the HUD: these horns offer eleven different options for the horns, and then eleven options for each colorable vein! Very nifty.



Then I got inexplicably tired [[Editrix insert: remember, I wrote this bit back on March 1st, it's now March 18th]]--and honestly, that's been one of the most frustrating things of the eternal headache, is the sudden energy loss--so left SL to have a nap, which led into dinner, which led into me logging in later and going, "Oh, right, I didn't finish this shoot". So here I am at Ballade and Poeme's sim, for the following two.

If you join the We Love Roleplay group (which is free), these curled horns can be yours for ten Lindens. And hey, while you're there, the "Themis" Judgement Hammer can also be yours for L$450, at the /Vae Victis\ booth!



And sun seems to be going down, so I guess this is the end.

It helps that I'm deeply into horns--I'm afraid to count how many I have, even, and I've divided them into four categoriees in the fantasy folder--lights, darks, constructs and seasonal--and each of those folders has sub-folders for ram/goat horns, antlers, and demonic.

Any housekeeping left...well, I'm actually very supportive of this decision. Will it help, though? Who knows. If nothing else it might make the Marketplace easier to navigate.

Oh, and Enchantment's new round, Dark Academia, has opened, and Vae Victis' offerings there: the 'Aza Empyrea' Cosmic Codex for L$500, the AO to go with it for L$700, and the Gothic Frames for L$75.

(I am going to cover ONE of those, but it may be the gothic architectural frames--I'm trying to figure out how the hell I'd do the Codex proud.

Also! The "Minerva" Hellebore Diadem will be on sale at Vae Victis' main store for L$99, btw. This weekend only!

And now I think that's it, so...see ya!

if I'm past reversing, minds will keep rehearsing

All right, take two, this time actually from Frostweald: the 'Dionysus' petal Chalice from Arkivet.



Straight out of the box, it's already gothically pretty--jet black with purple flower petals.



There are fourteen different liquid options. This is the second to last one from row two.



There's a dark blue option on the Liquid section of the HUD, so I went with that--made the Chalice silver, the upper and mid petals blue, and the lower petals silver.



Of course there's an option for pinks--which I did on every option but the middle petals, and I tinted those purple.



This, I was thinking, would be a perfect mead tone, but...it looks more like mulled cider, or tawny port. Still, it goes well with the gold and orange tinting options.

Keep in mind this is just a held object--if you want a drinking animation, it's moddable so you can add one. That will change the hand position, though, so keep that in mind.


Of course there's a red option. For your necessary blood draughts.



And of course, winter white.

I forgot to snap a pic of the HUD for this one, and for the last entry--sorry, trying to rush these out, I fergit things.

There are five areas for tinting--twelve individual shades, and a dark metal/light metal option below each one, and as I mentioned, fourteen different liquids available. You'll find Arkivet on the Nysaris sim at Fantasy Faire, and the Chalice is going for L$250 on a 100% donation vendor for SLRFL.