Sorrow is always heavy, grief heavier. It presses on us, bending us forward, pushing us to the ground.



So, after this week, when I found the Weight of Sorrow horns were one of the things I could review, well...it seemed apt.



These are heavy horns, make no mistake. They come in three sizes, Large, Medium and Small (I'm wearing the Small), and are unrigged for ease of adjusting.



All but the last two pictures taken were straight out of the box; the last two were with the horns a bit farther back and slightly up.



As usual with Vae Victis products, these are very customizeable pieces. Eleven different color options, and four different 'faces' to color: the horns themselves, the candles, the horn tips, and the flames. And yes, absolutely you can mix and match.



You can find the horns at /Vae Victis\, currently retailing for L$450.



(The tears are not included; those are from +{ Rosier }+, and run currently L$65 on sale at their main store.)



And they come with included 'spirit flames', which take the color of the candle flames as a sort of mobile mantle. It's neat.

I'll bounce back; I always do. It's just been a difficult few days.

(Roleplay...ish? Entry?)



A slip between worlds, a tug on the fabric of reality, a delicate fold in the matrix of time...When the mists cleared, she found herself standing in the shadows across the road from the shop. She stepped forward, grateful for the travel cup of warm arsenic tea she held, proof against the rising damp of the evening. She was in Castle Rock, Maine.

Travel to the literary universes was always tricky; this stop more than most. Complication was already setting in, she saw, as the proprietor of the shop stepped into the open doorway. She squared her shoulders and made her way across the street. This was necessary. Needful, one might even say.



It was a moment to barter a bit of herself away to Mr. Gaunt; a moment more to return through the portal in the alley. The longest leg of her journey, in fact, required walking up all the turning steps to the tower.

Now, all she had to do was use the ring to reinforce the wards on the estate..before the full curse fell.

Simple.



It was a pretty thing, at least. Clean lines. A bas-relief eye in the crimson metal, sigil for so many things.



She slipped it on. It fit...as if it had been cast specifically for her. Perhaps it had. There was ever an element of risk in trades; perhaps she would not win, and Gaunt would delight in her suffering. Perhaps she would, and Gaunt would realize some fish are too big for his hooks. Either way, it accomplished the most needful thing: prevention of the slow erosion in reality beyond the tower...where New Alexandria used to be.

She dare not do any less--not only for her own people, but for those of Darkmere she'd invited in. Though, on reflection, she likely could have trusted their Duke to help...Still. Done was done. And she was home again. She stood and began to cast.



In the end, the invocation was the simplest part; words that were rote at this point, retying her magic to the realm, her spellcraft to her Duke's, to wreathe the land in a protective net. Self-sustaining, as well, which required a tricky bit of phrasing; the last thing she wanted was the ring to turn on the wards and slice through them when the unblinking eye chose to shut.



All too soon, it was done. Another hour and the visible magics would fade, the ring would come off. She could return it to the small box she was sure it hadn't come with, originally, and go on about her work. She would sleep soundly tonight, she thought...which would be something of a relief.

This, by the way, is a gift from /Vae Victis\ for the Warehouse Sale, which opened August 23rd. (Or just keep an eye on their web page for more information.) And it's still this pretty.

I'll likely cover what's actually in the booth at the Warehouse in a day or so, but I wanted this out first. It comes in five colors, a sturdy brass, a strong-cast silver, a dead-of-night black, a gleaming white, and this, the scarlet. I was wholly prepared to adjust and fiddle, since it was a ring, and the whole of my SL existence has featured fiddling with adornments, regardless of where they attach. But this? No need. It fits perfectly.

I was going to cover another product of Grim's today, and I'll do that when I get back to the keys after dinner, but--someone hit me with an interesting question. First, what I got:

The object 'CasperLet' has sent you a message from Second Life:
{{sim I've been banned from}}.
Your rental has less than a week remaining.

= CasperLet is owned by {{sim owner}}
= {{sim I've been banned from}}

Now, I was going to let this go. I mentioned it in passing among friends because I found it morbidly amusing:

[5:15 PM] Emilly: Well, gosh, I'd go clear that right up, but, uh, I'm banned.

But then it was suggested that I ask for a refund. And AR the sim owner if I don't get one. Again, I figured, I only had a month left, let them have it, but--at least six other people had also paid rent to them, that were also banned (this wasn't a griefing incident, it really comes down to sim owner instability, unfortunately?). But their sim, their rules, they don't want a lot of us there, fine. Save...they kept the rent.

And there's the issue.

Thinking on it now, that's a rather unique way of shoring up resources. And I was pretty much only paying a month or two in advance--one other fellow who was also banned recently got an eviction notice, because his rent had expired--but neither of us have the option to catch up on our rent, even if we wished to. We are banned from going on the sim.

What about the six or so people, if not more, also banned along with us, who had paid months in advance? What, we were all naughty so they keep our funds? Is that fair? More importantly, is that worth an abuse report to the Lindens?

I had been thinking not, but reconsidering it, it's not just about me. Even worse, even had things resolved equably (which there was litle chance of, sadly), the night before they banned all of us they went through the sim in a fit of rage and deleted a lot of the structures that had been rented.

Childish of them.

But is it abuse?

Now I'm wondering.

Sometimes my spam folder gets some choice, choice things.

Re: Email From The Federal Bureau of Investigation

No, you're not. Stop fibbing.

FBI Deputy Director [paul.m.abbate@jcom.home.ne.jp]

This fellow does not deserve anonymization.

Mon, Aug 15, 2022 at 2:43 PMM

Yes. It actually said "PMM".

Reply-To: paul.m.abbate@daum.net

And note the two different email addresses.

Now, they do have one thing correct--Paul. M. Abbate is the current director of the FBI. But that's about all they get right. It's yet another 419 scam.

To: You

I didn't change this part! It came to "You"!

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Field Intelligence Groups The J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC 20535

Attention: Beneficiary,

Again, this is how it came. Not to me directly, just 'You' and 'Beneficiary'. Another sign it's a scam.

We sincerely apologize for sending you this sensitive information via e-mail instead of certified mail, post-mail, phone, or face-to-face conversation. It's due to the urgency and importance of the security information of our citizens. I am deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Paul M. Abbate. We intercepted and seized two consignment boxes at the John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, NY 11430, coming from a foreign I checked the content of the two consignment boxes and found they contained the sum of US$4.1 million dollars in value of certified payment bond. Also, the two consignment boxes had documents with your name on them as the receiver of the package. After questioning the diplomat that accompanied the two consignment boxes into the United States, we learned that he was to deliver these two consignment boxes to your residence as an inheritance/winning prize payment due to you.

And this was the first time Em bent over the keys laughing. "Inheritence/winning prize payment". Really. Well, which is it, Paul? You're the director of the FBI, right? You think you'd know.

The two consignment boxes' paperwork lacks the PROOF OF OWNERSHIP CERTIFICATE AND LEGAL DELIVERY PERMIT CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE forms.

PFFFFFFT.

We confiscated the two consignment boxes and released the diplomat. According to section 229, subsection 31 of the International Commerce Regulators Code Enforcement Guidelines, the sealed envelope lacks PROOF OF OWNERSHIP CERTIFICATE AND LEGAL DELIVERY PERMIT CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE. Since the content is valued financial material of such an amount by the joint team of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security, you're to reply for direction on how to procure the two consignment boxes and be relieved of the charge of tax evasion, which is a jailable offense under section 12 subsection 441 of the tax code. We will also be asking the IRS to launch an investigation into money laundering if you do not follow our instructions.

Suuuure you will.

You are required to reply within 72 hours.

Bite me.

At that point, I will walk you through the process of clearing and claiming the money. Failure to comply may lead to your arrest, interrogation, and/or you being prosecuted in a court of law for tax evasion and/or money laundering.

No, it won't, no, it won't, and no, it won't, because this is a scam. Get real. People actually fall for this nonsense?

You are also instructed to desist from further contact with any bank(s) or person(s) in the United States, the United Kingdom, or any part of the world regarding your fund because your payment has been confiscated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation here in the United States.

If I thought any money was actually in jeopardy, I might care, but it's not, so I don't.

Yours in Service,

No, you're not.

Paul M. Abbate
The Deputy Director of the FBI

And no you're not.

But I did have fun reading through this, so thanks for that.

up on Melancholy Hill, there's a plastic tree
are you here with me?



I don't...I've never been able to un-love, easily. There are nights I envy those who can throw others aside blithely; that's never been me. I love until it's--emotionally, psychologically, sometimes physically--beaten out of me, and even then...I love, but distantly. I love, but I know I've lost. I love, but I mourn.

"just looking out on the day of another dream
where you can't get what you want, but you can get me



Tonight has a flavor of more, because there has been another loss. It's not just the one I can't have; it's the one bright, shining spark who deserved more time. But can't we all say that, at some point? Still, Ktahdn has passed, and it hit me hard enough I can't imagine the level of grieving for those closer. He was...art with a pulse, in a lot of ways. Living thread of music and sculpture and words. And he will be missed.

so let's set out to sea, love
'cause you are my medicine when you're close to me
when you're close to me



In the interim of hearing the news, and feeling the loss of presence, if nothing else, of a lot of loves...I've been building. I finally finished the shore path I started in 2021 and never got back to. Now it leads from the front of the garden, down to the Fish and Whistle, the new pub by the fishing area. Linkages slowly forming, day by day. And the island in the Dark Sea got leveled in a mis-click, so...I raised a new one. But before, it was a gentle swell of curve, and now...well. Now it's an imposing bluff. Bit higher than I intended.

so call in the submarines, 'round the world we'll go
does anybody know, love
if we're looking out on the day of another dream?



Still, now it has a path too. It's a bit trickier coming down, than going up, because of the steep angle, but that's also why there's a fence. So no one falls off who doesn't want to.

Sometimes everyone falls, though, in spite of our best intentions.

if you can't get what you want, then you come with me



At the top it's much the same as it was before--sheltering trees, a place to stop and rest, the drifting fog between the standing stones. I removed the memorial that used to be up there, as well--though that was designed by Alia for Finn, when he passed, so...maybe it's time that returns. Not sure yet.

up on Melancholy Hill
sits the manatee, love



In other removalist news, there's only one thing left on the Krakenstorm sim, and after the owner of that ship is contacted, and removes it, it will likely be returning to the Linden mists. Though there has been a nibble of interest in renting it--we'll see where that goes, but honestly, I think we'll end up losing it. Going from five sims, down to three, now that New Alexandria's renter has moved on. Passages, transitions, losses. We're in the thick of them.

just looking out for the day when you're close to me
when you're close to me



The one bit of good news in all of this--Darkmere rises, and its denizens return. Which is kind of funny--its duke and master has been a friend for so long, but he'd wandered from the grid for several years. Still, when he returned, word went out, and his people joined him. And I'd met only a handful, once or twice, most I never met in all those long years between the then, and the now, but--they've become some of the joys of my virtual life. Scrim Pinion is such a talent, and he, like Violet, always introduces me to some new song, or new musical group, that then I must dig up and learn more about. Lilly his lovely wife, quieter, gothically amused, but also a joy to spend time with. Diana their reprobate third, eternally searching for new shops (an affliction I share) and the highest of surfaces to sit upon (an affliction I don't). Mourna, shy but present, Vertigo, all fire and electric energy, Charlemagne the genuinely maddened, but in good ways...and still the likeliest candidate to crash a sim on pure accident...(Scrim calls Chaz' inventory a level one cognitohazard. He's likely not wrong. Chaz reminds me palpably of Stiv of the before times, the long-lost dead god of Enigma)...and all the rest...They're good people. Fun people. Funny, not infrequently. And most of them had left the grid, too.

Suppose that shows you the pull one person can have.

when you're close to me...

Now I just need to find ways to lessen the pull.

(The song lyrics used are from "On Melancholy Hill", of course, by the Gorillaz, from the Plastic Beach album released in 2010. Though this one might also be apropos...even if I can't figure out if I'm him, or her, in this scenario. Maybe I'm both...which is far from comforting.)

I wish I knew how this happened...



Nearest thing I--or the folks at KittyCats--can figure is, I had more than one set of winged angel cats. It doesn't make sense to me, but the most we've been able to parse is I decanted two cats, and Alexei and Moira's daughter, Laila, I kept (she got the white rainbow wings), and then, at some point when I needed to move the cats around from Krakenstorm to Gearhaven prime, and a lot of them got jumbled up--someone must've gotten with Erato, the library cat, because the coloring matches.

At some point I'll trace the bloodlines and figure it out, but in the meantime, today I noticed that the angel kitties are dated 2021. Never noticed that before. And he wasn't born until 2022. So...fun.

(And I still have two unused pairs of wings...finding special cats for those is going to be a job of work...)

ANYWAY, I had intended, first thing in world, to blog about the Hiraeth 'Forest Monarch' antlers at /Vae Victis\'s next event, because I'm running against an event deadline--and, between one thing and another, well, hours went by. Things happened--some good, some mournful, we will not see Ktahdn's like again--but happened they did. I began to panic a little.


Finally, I thought I'd just take some on-the-fly shots of the Hiraeth 'Forest Monarch' antlers at the Ocean Lounge in Gearhaven, because it's where I was at the time.



Now, I don't, as a rule, go this completely into one hue, but some of my avatars are very color-dependent, and this one, I thought of pale sands, deer chamois, weather-bleached wooden fencing on beaches...and then I panicked, thinking the horns wouldn't go.



I could not have been more wrong. These can go vibrant or delicate, which amazed me. I'm also wearing the smallest size--but there are four sizes, I believe, in the box.



These retail for L$450, and feature some of the most beautiful beadwork I've seen in SL.



And I wanted to show off the HUD for this one--again, it's not complicated, but it is very specific. So many variations--light to dark, gleaming metal to color-drenched and dazzling to the sterility of aged bone. I love them.

Hurry if you want to get these at the Abnormality event through August 25th, because they'll be more at the store!

(Or if you'd rather just go directly to Grim's booth, use this, he's on the main grounds circle this time out.)

Okay, okay, I get it, these are going to require more than just adjustment. Though I am now laughing hysterically.



Better, but still not perfect. Much as I'm not happy with it, I pulled out a mesh head to show the rest off...

It's a lot easier to see the metal fittings without the reddish facelight (which is default for this outfit), so took that off, too.

The Garmonbozia Divinity Halo (Eye 2, natch, I couldn't pass up the spinning eye-in-pyramid) behind the horns does not come with them, sorry. That's mine.



So I'm currently in the Standing Stones in Darkmere. Don't worry if you don't recognize the avatar as me--it's not, actually. It's a quick-n-dirty mod on LeLutka's Lilly head. Not my best work, but I can cope for adjusting horns, yeah?

But I hate this face. Pouty wench.



And these are the 'Tyrant' Crown horns from /Vae Victis\.

Now, I still prefer horns buried in hair, but--for something designed to (mostly) work with the existing skin, this is impressive.

(Though I still maintain--you put up standing stones, people are gonna invoke things. It's the law, or something.)



She's so suspicious.

But, as with all things Grim-designed, there are TONS of opportunities for customization. This set, in fact (I'll show you later in another image), comes with options to make it etched and aged, in a variety of hues, as well as simple color tones. And everything has its own section.



You do have to know how to mod things. And straight out of the box--I refer you back to the first image--you likely won't get good results. BOM skins are a necessity, and while there are horn options that will work with system heads (since I still mostly have one), NONE of the other horns work with that. But if you've got a head you like, and a little bit of modification knowledge...you're gold.

Did I mention there's a tinting HUD for these? Because of course there is.



Twenty-three colors for the horns themselves, twenty for the crest, twenty for metal, twelve for the gems, and twelve for the central orb. This? This is also impressive.

You can find them at Enchantment right now, for L$480--which, honestly, is still a bargain for this level of customization and texturing. They're gorgeous.

And this entire endeavor was written to PARANOiD DJ's "Use Me Up" on repeat, in case people are curious on that sort of thing.

There is no one thing left, but that one thing, and that one thing, you cannot have. What now?

Gooood question.

So. I've been gone a month. Longer than, really, if you count the slipped story, and that, I'm not sure I can go back to--both the story and the story-tellers have changed in the intervening time. I'll try, but it won't be the story I would have told then, and it may not even be the one I'd tell now, all things considered true.

Am I being obscure? Probably.

So what's happened? Big changes, big transitions. New Alexandria has fallen without a mention, much as I'd meant to mention it; Port Fortune has (sort of) risen in its memory, though not its place. Krakenstorm my beloved, while still there, is not; it will soon be released by the land's owner back into the mists. New Alexandria's former territory will depart as well, around the same time, leaving Gearhaven no longer five, but three.

But in reality, we're mainly two, because Darkmere rises again in the Dark Sea. I've been enchanted watching it rise, and watching its scattered denizens return. They couldn't be happier. I think I couldn't either.

Soon the black sun and the darkened moon will shine their occult rays on the fens and marshes, and for once that is not hyperbole; Lucifer Baphomet is designing the sun and moon for his skies, and they are...distinct, and different. And very much him.

What else?

The Night Court has fallen; vestiges of it still remain in Silver City, and while I do not wish them well, at least I do not wish them harm, and that is about the best that can be hoped for. Once again, Gearhaven is home to refugees from elsewhere, and I'm doing all I can to make our strange, wild lands somewhat more...tame? Tame is not the word, but it's the only one coming to mind...for their stay with us. They're looking towards owning their own lands, so their sojourning within our borders is for a finite time, be that weeks, months, or years. And that's fine; all things change, whether we wish them to or not. Nothing stays the same.

I'm now an official blogger for Vae Victis; I suppose I should thank the nepotism of friendship for that, but honestly, I'm awed and amazed that I was approved. Because, as every reader of this blog knows, I don't take pictures in the best, most optimal light; I take them for what is seen, by most, on the grid as is. Very few fancified effects; for all my fancies, and many are innate at this point, I am a realist where the lens is concerned.

I will try to note where I was given product, versus just buying it on my own; the Dracul Regalia horns of last entry, for instance, were given graciously by Grimoire Hexem. The next entry, on the Hiraeth antlers, I bought those on my own. (Amusingly, they're one of the product offerings I could have had, gratis, for the blogging, but--I wanted them, I bought them, I made them mine. So there.)

And I'm putting the blog back together. Whatever haphazard glitch in the matrix disabled it in the first place, I can no longer find the originals to restore, so--going back to the template before the template I had before the last template. Annoying, but there we are. I will slowly add things back in as we go.

And...that's about one. Down one hand surgery, will have another hand go under the knife next month, but that's RL...in SL, things are...more or less good. Well. They're good, they're just...either I have way too much free time, and nothing to do with it, or no free time at all, and I'm scrambling to get everything done. Isn't it always the way?

But from here, I start to reweave the threads, and we'll see what happens from there.

Has to be better than a month of nothing at all...

Why am I in Mount Campion National Forest? I have no idea. But it's pretty, so here's where I'm going to show off something from /Vae Victis\.



These are the "'Dracul Regalia' Magma Aether Horns". Tinted in this lovely shade of blue, and just look at that gleam.



So it took a bit for me to figure out the HUD. It's not complicated, at all, it's just specific. The center moving color paths are for the magma in the horns; the upper colors (two sets of three, so the upper row of either set) are presets, and the lower colors (again, two sets of three, so the lower row of either set) will independently tint the horns exclusive of the magma channel.



So if you just want to grab and go, pick a shade you like and you're off; if you want more personalized control, he's designed for that too.



As far as adjusting--these will go smaller, or larger. I shrunk them a bit, and adjusted the horns back a tad--they're unrigged. Some people like horns that flow up from the skin of the forehead--I tend to bury mine in my hair. There's no one 'right' style.



I may try them out more 'smallenized', but for now, I like the sense of weight and presence they bring. I'm primarily an antlers girl, but I really like these.

There are eleven color presets, eleven horn shades, and thirteen flowing magma shades for the horns. They're on the wall now at the Curemore location for L$450. Check them out!

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.