It's been a...not great handful of days. No huge pain spikes, yay, but no sign of retreat. I'm carrying the Eternal Headache into the new year, 123 days in. Whee.

But I wanted to blog *something* before the year ended. So today, it's the Fenrisulfr stole from Vae Victis, and...where am I?



Outland Christmas. Okay. So, out of the box it's pretty striking, but I noticed something interesting.



To wit: there are male and female rigged versions, but--sort of a mix? To further explain, it's rigged for the stole: eBody, eBody higher, Female Unrigged, Juicy Boobs, Jake, and Male Unrigged. For the sash, we have: eBody Closer, eBody over clothes, Jake Closer, Jake over clothes, and Juicy Boobs closer. Finally, for the Wolf Skulls add-on: Male, Male v2, and Female.

I'm in Maitreya, so I'm sort of hoping for the best.



I'm wearing the Female Unrigged and the Sash for the Juicy Boobs. Seems to fit. Took a bit to figure out the tinting HUD, which is not Grim's fault at all--between not wanting to be upright and some blurred vision now and again, it's tricky. But to that end, it is a more complex hud. (But that just gives you more options!)



And with the skulls. Do note: they are *heavily* adjusted, because as is out of the box, they sort of disappeared into the fur. Not great, so I pulled them into edit and slid them a bit out, and a bit farther down, and--works!



And the HUD in question. Took a bit for me to separate the stole options, from the sash options, but once you figure out what goes to which piece, you're gold. Endlessly customizeable, is what I'm saying here. I mostly stayed to winter tones, because I was in winter tones, but there's a wide variety of potential shades.

They're currently going for L$500, which gets you the fur stole, the hanging sash, AND the wolf skulls, any of which could be used indepedently with a bit of adjusting. Find them here!



Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to end the night in typical Second Life fashion--by pouring New Year's champagne into my third eye. Cheers!

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Eldritch/140/174/1015

One of the more annoying features of the Eternal Headache is my innate tendency to say "I'll do the thing later" being expanded to ridiculous proportions. Case in point, the Gothmas Holiday market event, which opened December 15th. It's now the 23rd, and I just got a notice that said this is the last weekend.

So, here I am, Lindenless and trudging through the snow, because at the VERY LEAST I can blog about the next release from /Vae Victis\ BEFORE the damned event shutters for the year!

Honestly.

(Because this is also a rush to get out, no frames on this one. I just don't have the time...though I may go back later and upload things after the fact? But it will be after the fact.)



First, there are two versions. One that rings the bell via clicking on it, and one that rings the bell via HUD. (Wandering demon not included, and I did have to do a wee bit of editing to make her mostly SFW.)



I am...not entirely sure...? If the bell actually makes a sound? Though it's probably easy to find a good bell-ring around and about, and pop it in, because the bell is mod.



This is the bell in winter whites, so you can see the detail work.



Grim picked a gorgeously deep cobalt for the blue, and the gold has the same option the reds have--either solid color, or stained-glass crackle.



And yes, there is a pastel pink, and a rich bold pink, to appeal to Byx Button's candyfloss heart.

You can find the bell at the /Vae Victis\ booth at Gothmas, through today and Saturday, and possibly Sunday? It's L$350, which for this level of detail and care is kind of phenomenal. So act fast if you want it!

Eight days since the last entry, ye gods. This is a facet of my "I will do the thing, I will I will, just...later" mentality right now. Well, it's now LATER, Em, so DO THE THING!



Which plonks me full in the 4th Christmas Wonderland event hosted by Rani Rosenhauch, carrying around a heckin' huge staff.



This is the Nix Solis staff, which is a collaboration between Arkivet and /Vae Victis\, designed for the Winter's Hollow event (now open).



Gotta show off the detailing, because that's the best part of any creation from these two--and yes, the inner part of the snowflake finial (is it finial in staves? The top bit, I mean) does move.

It has an animation hud with five poses, and a tinting hud with--HOLY CARP--

Okay, wait, brane can do this. Brane can do thing. Hold on.



All right. Not the most complementary colors--and that is not a knock for Grim or Mesmer, the designers; if anything, that's a knock for my current level of fractured concentration--but I tried to give some idea of tinting possibilities.



And this is it with everything in icy frosted tones.

It took a bit, but I found their booth at the event. Where this will set you back L$450, but keep in mind that's with a fully customizeable tinting hud with an embarrassment of color options, and its own pose hud to boot!

It's so pretty...

If you like to dress for the winter season, if you, say, have a folder of ice-colored skins to wear during the course of December...you need this staff. If you like finely-crafted, detailed accessories, you need this staff. If you haven't yet found the perfect gift for the holiday-obsessed someone in your life, the vendor has a gift option...

...either way, you probably need this staff. Enjoy!

(I never have any idea what I'm wearing in terms of details, but I'm going to start trying, so, in some rough order:

Winter coat: from siss boom, their "Nanook"
Hair: ADE's "Aura" in Large
Eyeshadow: M.O.C.K. Cosmetics' "[mock] Glitter Pop eShadow [Synjari Tierra]" [and I tried every SLUrl in her profile, none of them lead to her, so Mocksoup Graves may be gone for good]
Lips: Jade lips in Purple [which has now become Oceane Body Designs, so--I guess look for it there?]
Body is from Maitreya
Shape is still heavily tweaked from a freebie shape picked up in 2008 from AWESOME DESIGNS [she's now apparently just on Marketplace] (also, I no longer remember the name of the shape, but the description still slays me: "Exotic DD Cup Gorgeous and So intelligent!"<]
Eyes are from Inkheart [now only on Marketplace], his "Hades" line in "Toxic Green"
Skin is from SEVEN's "Noellia" line in Apricot [no longer available, it was an Advent gift several years back, it just became my default]
And I'm wearing FOXCITY's facelight designed for photography.)

Let's have some oddity!



I went to Forever Winter, with the closest I could get to chibi in SL (without actually going Dinkie). What I got turned out to be a not-quite classic shortstack (link included for those what don't know the term, and it's...reasonably...SFW), but I'm still fairly pleased with her. The only place I had trouble was the eyes, so the eyes I ended up going with were a no-copy mesh pair from Ruin, and that's going in the saved-outfit folder, I guess.

Sorry, Ruina.



But lookit! These are the large size of the Perchten horns from /Vae Victis\! Without resizing!!



But yes, she am short. And on non-moderate sims, why yes, this avatar will get me in trouble (because she's even shorter than my usual level of smol).



Oh, I like this bench. Comes with its own blankie. And there the horns are in gothic tones of deep red and coal-black.



Really great aged gold texture on them, too.



And the hud for that final note of closure.

I know I say this a lot about Vae Victis horns, but I really do mean it--I love these. I love their colors, I love that I can go deep haunted darkness up to fluffy pastels, dependent on mood. And I am tickled beyond reason that this avatar can wear the large horns straight out of the box.



You can pick up a copy of Madpea's Advent calendar still (I guess, me for size reference?); it runs L$500 at the /Vae Victis\ store--or any store of the other designers of nifty products in the calendar. And it will function quite nicely as a holiday art piece, so that price tag covers not only the gifts inside, but the gift of the little house. Very neatly done all around.

Looking at the last entry and realizing it was November was kind of daunting. I really stopped counting on the days of the Eternal Headache once I hit a hundred, but we're a hundred and two days in, now. Though slowly, the diagnosis is coming together, and it seems to start with "k" and ends with "idney disease".

But we'll see what happens in January! Why January? Because that's the next time I see my docs, w h e e for US healthcare...

Anyway, yeah, I'm gonna try to blog more, even if they're short due to ow-pain-ow.

Day 91 of the Eternal Headache dawned with a profound disinclination to do all the things. But I have horns to show off, and I want to do that, so...I crawled into a cardigan set and went looking for a good setting. Today, that setting was Glencoe, more random than usual, than any particular grand desire to be there? Though their intro upon arrival said this:

Hello Emilly Shatner-Orr!
Welcome To Anghysbel!
The legends say that when the Wilderlords first came north they sent explorers out even as far north, beyond the Alkali wastes to beyond the perpetually frozen mountains in the far north. Eventually a monk returned with stories about the hidden Vale way to the North that is warmed by the earth and contains a pristine lake, many unique plants and animals and even tribes of Alon.

That's a lot of north. Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

Anyway...



I wandered for a bit, sat down in a circle of stones, and apparently folded my torso, so this is where the picture-taking will occur! These are Arkivet's "Crystalline" horns, unadjusted--I normally do muck about with positioning for most horns, but today...today I was doing pretty good sitting upright, so I didn't want to push things.



The first shot was a red shading to a soft rose-pink tone, very pretty, and this one reminds me of vivid sunset tones.



And I have learned--if anyone wants to do a full-saturation pink look, Arkivet and Vae Victis both generally have that in their palettes, because one of their customer service reps adores that particular shade.



This is that HUD palette, by the way--a full twenty different options, including one Torley-watermelon which amused my brain.



Yes, of course I had to show that one off.

No, I don't know why I shot the picture like this.



There's a lot of variation here, and that's without the given mod options. I love this wintery option, too--as if they've grown out of ice shards instead of crystal protrusions.

Just go to Arkivet's main store if you want a set of your own; they're going for L$300 right now!

By now readers have noticed the chaotic changes of colors, templates, and graphics on the wee blog. About a week and a half ago, my chosen layout corrupted, for some reason. It's been...difficult, that's a good word, difficult...to find a new one that does what I need it to do without tweaking.

This one's the closest to something I can nod and say 'done nao' for, but...you can still carve what I understand about CSS on a thumbnail and have room to spare. So I am trying to fix it...which with the head is not easy...and I'll get there.

Eventually.

I find myself tonight actually more tired than usual, so this may, in fact, end up spaced out by another day by the time I get the photos set up and uploaded. But I'm standing in Moonshadow Rising, watching a pretty--and pretty unnerving--set of deer unphased with local reality. It's trippy.



It's odd both touching a deer, and not touching a deer, at the same time. But let me introduce you to Arkivet's "Fragmented Cosmos" horns. These hit my brain as more 'organic crown' than 'horn set', but--either way, they're very stylish, sweeping, and marvelously colordrenched.



It's a pretty build, admittedly, and--if I'm right, I think I see pumpkins in the distance...



Ah, little ones, you do invite prettily enough, but I don't enter fae dancing rings on land I own, and this land? This land, I do not own. Scurry off to the more gullible.



As it turns out, I was right--though the bar has stopped serving witches' brew, there's still room to dance, pumpkins and skeletons galore, and several drifting wraiths. I approve. Also, this is the HUD for Arkivet's "Fragmented Chaos" horns. It's very adaptable, and intriguingly, I discovered that I can get one tone by clicking the large rotating star first, then the second inner star, or two different tones by clicking them small then large. Fun. And if you decide to change the particle color, clicking the black orb in the very center will shift from the former color, to particles of the new. Very neatly done.

These are currently on offer at Abnormality, for L$400. Along with many other tasty things.

There are days we want clarity. There are days we don't get clarity no matter how hard we try. There are days that began before the night has finished, until all the hours blur into one, long, eternal questioning now.

Days when I want a final answer etched in stone, and discover that perhaps, just perhaps, I have the answer...barely traced onto fragile mayfly wings, held aloft on the slenderest thread of possible hope.

It's going to be a contemplative week.

But I tell you that to tell you this: I was planning more of a production for the latest group gift from /Vae Victis\, "Astros": a two-pack of specially-tinted Bannered horns. And thus I find myself with no plan in the Deep Woods.



This is the 'Gilded' version, no adjusting, no resizing, straight out of the box. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to muck about with these much, but as per usual with /Vae Victis\ offerings, they're fully modifiable.



And these are the other version in the box, 'Nebula'. Again, I just wanted to see them on, with no alterations. Time to adjust when the brain's less tired, I think.



All right, I fibbed--I wanted to see how they looked together. So this is the pair in 'Gilded' that I left on, and then a pair of the 'Nebula' that I shrunk slightly and repositioned lower.

They do seem to work together.



I may see if I can link them together so I have this adjusted two-horn look for later.

I didn't actually set the full-length view in a frame, for some reason...so I'll tell you to go look on Flickr, and the next paragraph or so will make more sense then.

The rest of the outfit is fairly simple--the Shiloh trousers in olive, and the Leesa blazer in olive, both from Erratic; the hair is the Yoko style, given out as a group gift from Ayashi; the shoes you can't see are from Bonbon, the "Misa Look" boots and stockings; the eyes are Inkheart's Feline eyes in Green; you might be able to find the Cavern Club eyeshadow pack at SN@TCH, I'm wearing the black--it's an old system layer, but a good one; and while you're there, you could look around for the Holiday Gloss lipstick pack, because I got that from SN@TCH, as well.

The skin, alas, is no longer available; it's 2015's "Noellia" in Apricot, given out during SEVEN's daily advent calendar that December. It is my default 'human' face, though. I'm rather fond of it.

And all of that is preface to this: these can be yours, yes, yours, for the low low price of joining the group. Yeah--these rich, oversaturated beauties are a thank you to his group members. I stand in awe.

Come join the madhouse, we only bite if asked. Though we do have a resident expert on Kamen Rider in the group, so those are always fun conversations.

Now you'll have to excuse me; I'm at the twenty-one-hour-mark for being awake, so I'm going to work on nonsentience for a while.

We're on Day...68? No, 72, I think? Of the Unending Headache. It's a huge spiky ball of no fun, and it's interfering in all the things, including blogging. But that's not why I'm here, I'm here--actually at Abnormality, because their build for this event was very cool--to show off the new Celestial Greatsword from /Vae Victis\, the "Impera".



http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Eldritch/66/165/1015 Straight out of the box and it's already too long to fit in a close shot. But hey, while we're here, look at the ornamentation!



That's the full sword, before resizing and shading. I usually don't do diagonal shots, but I wanted the full thing, tip to hilt.



It has a nice over-the-shoulder pose you can click on an included HUD (and in this shot, the sword's all in sanguine red save for the energy core, which is more reminiscent of lava).

(Also, to get it to this size, I reduced it by 60, and it's STILL this big!)



This shot is just a section of the blade, with all the options in dark cyan, and the energy core in shade 15 from that menu.



And this is another close-up, of the eye detail, which I adore, and this time the sword's in all the rich blues, save for the exposed core, which is screamingly cerise.



The included pose HUD has six options--a gendered (F) upright, a gendered (M) upright, one straight up, one over the shoulder, and one with the tip down. And the Impera tinting HUD includes eleven metal options, twenty-three different glowing core options, and as you may have figured out, even though I'm mostly showing active energy cores--three different ways to deal with the 'blade' part of the blade (those being solid metal throughout, exposed core, which is my favorite look of the three, and pure energy--no metal at all).

It's not combat scripted, but it is fully modifiable. So potentially, one could make it combat scripted.

You can find this lovely sword at /Vae Victis\' Abnormality booth, retailing for L$500.

Gentlethems, start your celestials--this is your sword! You have until the 28th of November to get it.

I am three days from having this headache for two months solid. It's draining a lot of energy for...everything. But still, I had things to do today, and I did...some of them...and I'm still trying, perhaps in vain, to find one good, solid, scary haunt.

Tonight, before I leave for dinner, I'm taking in a haunt in Sleezywood...which already makes me think it's yet another disappointment. But let's go.

Game rip from go? No, we're moving on. I threw away the picture even.

Dear gods, what's left? What about the Haunt at the Admiral's Arms?



Took me a bit to find out how to get out of the rainy back alley to the haunt, but now we're here, and...wau, it's dark.



Okay, flashlight on, let's go, and...Okay. wait. One door leads to a games room stocked with adult furniture and erotic art. Another leads to a bedroom and a bar. Yet ANOTHER takes me to a shopping area downtown...Clicking on the door in the garage gets me to a Bloodlines storage area....What?

Finally I turned around to the ONLY door unchecked, the one that had the Circle of Avatar Moving off a land spot...save I didn't land there. Right, then, let's try that...and into a circular maze of demi-connected passages, leading finally to stairs down, spiraling towards...



...an occult library? Chest has some freebies. But...this seems to be about it.



Meanwhile, I can't believe I forgot to cover the "Bad Moon Rising" Bannered Horns from /Vae Victis\ when I covered the other ones. Where is my mind...Well. I know exactly where it is, in excruciating detail, and I'd rather I didn't.

But they're one of the hunt gifts at Hallow Manor, which I believe closes on the 31st? So there's a little time left, I hope!



So I went to 1313's redux of their "Curios and Spooky Things" haunt.

And why yes, I did tint the entire horns teal to match my hair. Doesn't really show up on the horns themselves, but look at how neat that shade picked up the runes on the banners!



I will likely drop the tent on these when I wear them again, because they truly are a perfect blood-moon red..but for now it's fun.



Haunting the radio station at the back of 1313's haunt is kind of fun.



Floating in the horns? Also fun. Oh, and just for the sake of mentioning it--for once, I wanted the heaviness. This headache is dire, and now on its 59th consecutive day, so horns that were just a solid, heavy presence actually worked for me.



I won't lie, I own a lot of horns. So many that they've been subdivided in the Fantasy horns folder, between 'antlers', 'demonic', and 'goat/ram' varieties, then further into 'bright', 'goth', 'seasonal', 'aged', 'natural' and 'construct' subsets. Some few also go directly into larger seasonal folders, under 'Autumn/Hallows' or 'Winter' usually. The beauty of doing this is not only that I adore covering really wonderful things, but that I can, without a doubt, say I have at least one set of /Vae Victis\ horns in the larger seasonal folders, and several have made their way into the Fantasy folder subfolder sets as well.

And even having said that, I think the Bannered horns are going to be heavily in rotation. Even when I smallenize them later, they fit my "occasional deer with sheep honns' aesthetic. :D

You can find them, remember, at the Hallows Manor hunt by searching for the hunt prizes in the back woods, orrr...this year I said the hell with it and bought six of the Silver hunt HUDs, and just going directly to the prize room. Several tasty things there, and I see no loss of honor in taking the easy route currently.