got some feeling coming back

Well, this is going to give me nightmares. (Seriously, this is disturbing content. Not nudity, per se,, and not gore or violence, really...It's just skin-crawling, disturbing AI images. Be *warned*.)

Also, uh, hi again. I have about ten drafts waiting to be finished, that I planned to finish, and then the days ganged up on me again. Bah. If anything's not time-critical, I'll do my best to backdate, but only by a few days, not the month before, or the month before that--when I was supposed to pull my act together and toss them in as entries.

Anyway, soooo.....currently I'm at Harvest of Souls, which I still think of as a "newer" event? My brain thinks it started after SABBATH--or Ritual--but definitely not past Salem or...bah, what's the other name...I know it's not Trick or Treat Lane, because they've been around FOREEEVERRR...Gods, October's going to suck this year, EVERY event is planning on opening, it seems...



"You may ask yourself, 'Well, how did I get here?'"

Though that's not really my main question. I'm actually trying to avoid the main question, which circles around between "I haven't updated since WHEN?!?" and "If I'm going to stand around in world, by myself, for six hour stretches of time while I'm distracted to the point of getting nothing done in RL, either...am I really needed in world?" That one...I'm going to have to deal with at some point.

At some point. But not today.



"Little fish, big fish, swimming in the water..."

Today I'm at the event. I may do an entirely separate entry just walking around and capturing really fun landscaping. But I do look like I dressed for the booth, weirdly, and I hadn't seen it before porting to the event. What's actually in the booth, for sale, is /Vae Victis\' "Cernunnos" Monarch Antlers. It's now entirely redone mesh, all original work by Grimoire Hexem, and I'll get around to reviewing that hopefully soon!

[[Insert from the Editrix, sadly AFTER publishing--I am a complete FAILURE, I have forgotten how Vae Victis is spelled, oh, the horror and tragedy--but, err, the names have been fixed. My deepest apologies. When I'm more awake--the Editrixing is taking place late at night and one day forward...as is tradition...I'll check the keywords on other entries.]]

This is not going to be my usual exhaustive review. also. I know there are three places to change the color scheme, the jar itself, the trim along the jar edges, and the edges of the crack that the souls are trying, so very hard, to break through. Each can be tinted fourteen different tones, though I fully acknowledge that the booth's red light (along with the red facelight I'd forgotten I had on), means you're not getting that good a look at the options.



"I have my scars, you have yours..."

And, of course, we're only mentioning tangentially that having a migraine for a day and a half may have impaired some of my ability to brain and take pictures. Still. (This is not me asking for sympathy, either. My brain and I are not on speaking terms at the moment--it knows what it did--but that doesn't mean I'm trying to add stress and worry to anyone's plate. Yes, the Eternal Headache is still there, and why yes, the migraine was laying over it--but it doesn't matter. The headache is just that--mine.)



"Walk on water through the swamp..."

I can't even say for certain which color combos I used. My notes were scattershot. I did say this:

"The jar I'm holding, by the way, is one of the hunt prizes. Fourteen colors for the jar, fourteen for the trim, and fourteen for the broken edge that reveals trapped souls yearning to be free. Broken things can be very pretty, and this is, oh, so very pretty."

So yes, that's worth a mention. The Harvest of Souls event is having a scavenger hunt, of sorts. It requires a hud and tracking down and getting information from the residents of Hallow's End, where the Harvest of Souls can be found. Don't worry, there's only five town residents you need to talk to, and the hunt HUD is free, so why not take your chance to get hunt pretties? Including the soul jar.



"But what would you say if you were given one chance to say it?"

I remember this color set, though. This was me playing solely with hot pink and teal. Those are the vaporwave settings, apparently. And if you hadn't noticed (because I'm now noticing that in the pics, it's a bit hard to tell), this is another hand-held floaty thing. I have a soft spot for floaty things in general, and hand-held floating things specifically. So I'm overjoyed that it's their hunt prize.



"There's a red horse pawing at the door, in the hurricane of hands that I've ignored..."

So, that's the pitch. You want to see cool, innovative designs from some very cool, innovative designers? This is one of the places I'd suggest. Sure, I plan to go to Trick or Treat Lane when it opens, and of course I'm going to meander through the available October hunts...but I really liked the feel of this place. It's not "Boo, I'm a ghost, gotcha!" moments, it's not tons of blood and gore--it's, dare I say this, subtle. And comforting.



"Swallowing such sweet sorrow down..."

No, wait, I did forget one thing! Arkhive's back! Yes, Mesmer Macabre's personal brand has resurfaced, and this one hasn't gone to the bloggers yet, so I may have to count pennies. (It might not be sent my way anyway, because when Arkhive closed up, I left the group.) Either way, it is a lovely, lovely thing and I wannnts it. L$450 currently at the Harvest of Souls; likely more if you wait until it hits the mainstore!

And did I mention the antlers from /Vae Victus\ are L$500 at the event? Well, expect that in a future entry. I can say that Arkhive's spiffy staff will work with the spiffy staff AO from /Vae Victus\. Synchronicity is nice.

Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a river calling. If I catch a fallen autumn leaf, can I ride it all the way to Gearhaven? Let's find out!

they ask her why she did it, she said, "honey, you would too"

OKAY. OKAY YOU KNOW WHAT? NO. NO HAUNT FOR OCTOBER. NO. DONE.

Primarily because...



...this is as far as I'd gotten.

Yeah.



AND I'm hopelessly behind blogging. AND I'm hopelessly behind on haunt coverage. AND AND AND I'm hopelessly behind on hunts.

Oh, and somewhere in that, hee hoo ha, I was planning on teaching myself how to make Dinkie clothes because...reasons...and...

NOTHING IS GOING WELL.

And I'm both tired of complaining and haven't even started complaining yet. (Make that one make sense.) Plus, the entire household is sick, and tired, and...and...and...

Yeah. So, no haunt. I did buy the gorgeous hunk of now-useless Octember building from What's Lost Spirits, because I saw it at the event...can't even remember which one, the last Engine Room? Something...and I had to own it. And I was coming up with a way to do the pathing properly and make a rest-of hunt beyond that one room, but...just...everything takes energy.

And I have the energy of a small yellow plastic soap dish right now.

So yeah. No haunt. Eventually there will be some haunt coverage. No guarantee when. Check out the last entry if you care to, there's a video there that I was tickled about actually getting done. It's not perfect--I am not a videographer on the same level as I am not a photographer, I do both badly--but hey, perfection is no longer the goal.

Or something.

So...expect more content...but no longer giving whens. I'm not good at them at the moment.

Right, off to meatspace to see if there's chocolate.

unraveling since I found you

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.

how'd you get so desperate? how'd you stay alive?

[15:14] Marloo Redd (marlooredd): you can't have your meat candy til you've had your gummy broccoli

But MOOooommm...



So LEVEL is open, and remember when I mentioned the "Baphomet" Lapel Chain and Signet Ring from /Vae Victis\? That I wasn't sure if the event was open or not?

Well, it still is, and here's the booth, and it's still marked L$425.



Also, I ran into Arkivet at Shop 'n Hop! Her gift is the Crystalline Horns in Candycorn. Free for anyone who wanders by!

Meanwhile...hmmm.



The "Famous" Spook House, it says.



So I'm at Jenia's Very Spooky Haunted Halloween Land...I am already unimpressed.



And there's Jenia...and she's on moderate land.

Wearing that.



Well, let's get this over with.



This little guy was pretty neat, but he reminds me uncomfortably of the Coraline ghost children.



I jumped into the next car, not realizing someone else had done the same thing, and before I could jump out again, we were off. Well, let's make the best of it...and apparently 'the best' includes game rips. These are two iterations of Alice from Alice: Madness Returns.



And this lass is from Resident Evil, I believe, where a lot of the mesh zombies on the grid come from.

I may have to take back something said earlier about the maker of this particular dark ride: namely, I thought the game rips were annoying, but pervasive enough on the grid some people may just not know what they mean. But going through this ride, seeing the same exact infringing properties--could it be that the maker included those game rips in the sales package??

If so, there's extremely disheartening.

Two out of five skulls, and that only because Jenia says if she's on the parcel, then every rider gets five Linden, and on Halloween, she's raising it to ten Lindens. So...a small amount of free Lindens if she's there, at least.

If nothing else, Jenia did look lovely in that outfit...it just wasn't designed for moderate sims.

and now I'm turning to dust in a world that's twisted

So, couple reminder things to start--first, the Gruesome Relic from /Vae Victis\ I mentioned clear back in the first week of October is still available as a gift at the MadPea hunt. Which also still requires a HUD, either the Basic (A hundred Lindens, gives you the ability to Find All the Things), or the Deluxe (Five hundred Lindens, gives you the ability to Find All the Things, a spooky backpack, a spooky ghost blaster, and a spooky teensy car to vroom around in whilst shrieking at passersby).

..>Well. You don't have to, I just assume most will.

Meanwhile, we're covering the "Faust" Opalescent Demon Horns from /Vae Victis\, because I do need to get to those before I can track down more pretties to review!



Straight out of the box in the lovely carmine glow of Grim's booth, there they are. Pretty even in drenched reds, yes?

And tonight's haunt, to pair with the broken heart and the broken head, is....Krongower's "Halloween Haunted House 2022", where their bio says,

"A pretty terrific haunted house for the 2022 Halloween season. If you're looking for a no nonsense Halloween themed environment, you found it! All mesh, all awesome. Come see the ghosts, goblins, specters, vampires, and witches, Trick or Treat! :)"

Riiiiight. From here, I can see Alma Wade skipping around without even turning my head.

But let's see if it's any good in spite of the game rip.



The third gacha Mystery Mansion from Death Row Designs seems to be this year's big haunt build. To be sure, it has some very nice touches. I'm trying the top row to the farthest right for horn shading, black with a bit of bloodspatter. (I've also tilted the horns back and embedded them slightly deeper in the hair.)



I think their chef is drunk. And the horns are now the second shade from the upper row left, the pure opalescent with blue flashes.



The Apocalypse Clock from Never Totally Dead! Someday, I will own this gorgeous thing. The horns were teal with the emerald flash for this shot.



You know, if the bathroom's unusable anyway, might as well use it as possessed book storage. (The horns? They're now in the stellar red-on-red tone.)



It has been something of a tiring day...might as well catch a few winks. (There's a purple and dark green option for the horns! Neat!)



Ah, the nursery, and more possessed tomes. Well, it's never too early to start early childhood instruction. I approve.

All in all, the game rips--there were more--make me shake my head, but they've taken a seen-to-death haunt build and still managed some nifty touches here and there. I can't ding more than one skull. Four out of five, so if you have extra time (which we are quickly running out of!), you could do worse than meander through this haunt.



The horns come in ten shades total, some with bloodspattter, and some without. Oh, and these are the Hellforged version:



(These I arched back a bit, then selected each horn in edit and moved it slightly out; they only come in one shade, but it's a gorgeous one.)

You can find these horns (and their companion gift, the "Hellforged" Opalescent Demon Horns, shown above) at the Halloween Shop 'n Hop, which runs until November 1st. So still a few days left to grab the gift--and maybe the rest of the gifts too!

as the pain sweeps through, makes no sense for you

Excoriation.

That's what this feels like. We're here again.

To the point it's now fallen into ritual--the placement of the china just so, to receive the offering; the position of the knife, balanced on a single edge; the turn of the filletting blade to carve off another section of still-beating heart.

Why are we here again?

I'd been wandering The Guild's Hallows Aftermath event, pondering a good place to take pictures of the "Preacher" Occultist glasses from /Vae Victis\, when all this hit. Nearly in the same moment, someone restarted the Abnormality sim, so I had to relocate.



(It's of morbid personal irony that I find myself at Grandpa's Haunted House in Dorpeth, which seems to be an Adult haunt. But I digress.)



Nursery, not surprised. Game rips, also not surprised. This is Alma Wade, by the way, or at least her child form, from the F.E.A.R. franchise of games. And yes, it's long proven that this is a copyright violating item.

It just happens to be an item that's everywhere.



Oh, this is fun. I think the chandelier was supposed to brain me when I fell through the floor. Sadly, it wasn't fast enough.



Or maybe I'm already dead.



Maybe it is me...The fire doesn't seem to be at all warm...

Anyway, you can find the Preacher glasses for L$400 at the /Vae Victis\ booth at the event. You'll likely need to follow the beacon; they're in the second row of coffins to the northeast.



Oh, and these are the hunt gift for the Guild's haunted hunt--I freely admit I don't look as good in the originals as does Grim, but--I think I kinda rock these ones.

Enjoy!

(Oh, and three out of five skulls for the haunt. Wasn't that impressive, but wasn't terrible, so...they get a solid "meh".)

can you tell me, oh can you tell me, how the story ends?

So, I had other plans for today (namely, not sleeping in for three hours, covering more haunts, covering other 'official' blog things), but I was reminded the "Inquisition" Bannered horns from /Vae Victis\ are for sale today at Hallows Manor!



So, let's do that.

Because let's be honest, with the current two-week-long headache, I'm not doing a hell of a lot else.

However, this also put me taking pictures at Hallows Manor, in a handy stand of autumnnal trees, with a creepily whispering rock at my feet that reminded me I really need to pick up LOVE'S Traitors' Woods pack before the spooky season ends...

I'm getting distracted. I'm starting out with the horns in white, to match my current hair, with the bright scarlet banners, in tatters (there are two sections marked 'drapes' in the HUD, I'll show that at the end, so you can choose one of the colors for the hanging banners, then additionally make them intact, or tattered.



Because we had a conversation on the Vae Victis Discord about candygore, I'm now drawn to seeing just how much pastelerie I can apply. Turns out, there's a decent white, a pale grey, a new-blush rose, and a pale powder blue for the lighter options. Here, I'm showing it in the pale rose, with rose banners, untattered.



Switched to the bright scarlet next, and matched the (tattered) banners with the same tone.



It doesn't show up that well, but there's a red-veined black horn option, and I'm showing it with the bright gold in plain banners.



And a close-up to show off the details on said banners. I know, there are people with far more photographic skill than me, but if I'm blogging about something, unless it's an entire avatar, I am not the focus of the shot. So yes, I cut off the top of my face to bring the shot in with as much detail as possible, deliberately.

And just look at that detail. I'm amazed. You could have done the same thing, and have it look good, just plain without embroidered fabric, but that is not how Grim works. And I'm so grateful for it.



Finally, the HUD, and this is one of the most straightforward HUDs I've seen from this product line. But as simple as it is--horn color, drapes color plain, and drapes color tattered--there's even more variation. This one, in fact, has nineteen color variations! Phenomenal.

And you can get the horns at the event for L$450! Go and see!

close your eyes or just try to look away

I was wandering on the Quest Fur Cover hunt, then I started wandering on the Furry Fashion sim's crystal ball hunt, where little glowing amethyst crystal balls are scattered over the entirety of the sim, and then I found myself at a haunted house. Okay, let's go.



I have no idea how to get to the haunt, mind--I'm including a picture of the exterior and a direct SLUrl, but the region has a default port point, so...do your best?



Am I the only one who finds it a tad ironic that the furry sim's haunted house only seems to have skeletons and pictures of humanoids?



Welp, ya got poltergeists. Gonna haveta bless 'em outta here...

Unfortunately, the poltergeist action apparently grabs you, because after I captured the above vid, I couldn't get away from that corner of the room. I forced myself to leave the room--and then was immediately pulled back into the nearest corner of the hallway TO the kitchen. I ported off the sim--and was pulled to the corner edge of the parcel, flying in midair, pointing towards the sim the house was on.

I finally had to go to a sandbox, clear all three caches--while fighting my way back to the sandbox each time because it kept trying to pull me off the sim--and then log out, and log back in again, and stand there while 280K+ items load in.

Gosh, a more paranoid person would say, this was griefing. Me, I'm going to say, sorry, you had your chance, zero out of five skulls. I'm not going back.



So let's see about another haunt. How about Haunted Acres?

Ah, okay, sign says we're going to need a "vehichle". Got it.

And then...I was teleported home. Huh?



It's not rezzing the ride car. Fine. I can't even rate whether this one was good or not, because it doesn't WORK.

Moving on! Let's try a landmark I got from the Shop n' Hop, for the Spook Ride.



Which I have ridden before, but this year, actually at the designer's parcel. It's a short jaunt, but after the first two, definitely a palate cleanser. And if I ever do set up a full dark ride--this would be the one I'm buying.



Four out of five skulls, one knocked off solely due to the game rips seen inside. Still, pretty good overall. And right now--apparently on this parcel, and at their booth in Shop 'n Hop--they're running discounts on the full ride set. Kind of a steal, frankly.