when everything's made to be broken, I just want you to know who I am

I found the Alyriia wings from Bauhaus on Marketplace, and had them send me a demo.



Now, first, I really like the look of these. I generally prefer more of an aged metal look, but the bright brass and steel seems to suit the style pretty well.



The problem comes in, oddly, because these are Bento mesh, rigged wings--the metal bends when the body moves.



And in some poses, the flexing of the metal does look very odd.



All in all, though, even with the dissonance of metal flexing like muscle? They are very pretty. I don't know if they're moddable at all, though--on my frame they look very outsized.



Ultimately, this is the crucial information: you can acquire your own set of these wings in bright gold and steel, or bright silver and steel, for L$499 a set, and he even has matching metal halos--in gold and silver, naturally--for L$199 each.

say goodbye, it'll make me wanna kiss you

So, Violet Scrivener is picking up a lot of interesting gigs in some very interesting places. One of those was one I hadn't managed to make yet, last Sunday, but I finally had time, so...I went to J and R's Ballroom.



First of all, the place is stunning. I mean seriously stunning--all gilded columns, Art Nouveau paintings, Art Deco glasswork and marbled floors. Really well done.



This is the bar, just to the right of the entrance, around the curve of the dome.



The other side of the dome, with the dance balls, the cloud to click for animesh dance partners, and the tip jar (the gold rotating clef).



I do want to make it clear that I did not dress for the venue, because this was the first time I'd been here. But I dressed in teal to go dancing, and the ballroom was dressed in teal to meet me. Wild.



The Art Deco chandelier, or light fixture, or whatever it's formally called, at the top of the dome.



A painted marble urn stuffed with peacock feathers. Lovely.



In fact, the only downside (barring the fact that whomever picked out their dances needs to update to this century, because they're all vintage, and most seem like they were put together before mocap technology)? That the slow rezzing issues that seem grid-wide currently result in some very...odd...visual disturbances.

Case in point, the wonderful fellow who danced with me at the ball. Charming gentleman, agile on the dance floor...never stopped nomming his brain. Disquieting, but not a deal-breaker.

I do intend to go back, though. Dorky dances and all. It's a fun place.

you could come to me by plane, but that wouldn't be the same as that old motel room in Texarkana was

"An honorable human relationship — that is, one in which two people have the right to use the word 'love' — is a process, delicate, violent, often terrifying to both persons involved, a process of refining the truths they can tell each other."
~Adrienne Rich

Food for thought.

At any rate, "Spook House by Sinatra," the listing said. It went on:

Sinatra's Spook House Ride - Haunted House Sinatra ghost train dark ride Carnival ride Sideshow Spook Halloween scary Spooky

Okay. The first dark ride in SL? I thought that belonged to someone else, the Temple dark ride...but sure, let's check it out.



2003? That is quite old, yes. (And upon reflection, looking at the layout...I may have been through this one before.)



I have ridden this one before! This is the pay ride!



So, since I'd covered that already, and nothing in the ride has changed...I wandered the rest of the area. Some small storefronts, some decor items, and...a side tent, with...fortune-telling machines?

[14:00] The Spirit Speaks: "The winds are about and walking."

Though that's not really a fortune...



The next machine said "Touch skull for fortune". So I did.

[14:00] Magic Skull: So uh Emilly Shatner-Orr ......you touch dead guys a lot do yah? You kinda look the freaky type.
[14:01] Magic Skull: I see an attractive stranger in your future. I can't help but feel sorry for them.

Rude.



Scattered through the circle were Zyngo systems, and some other match-and-win "non"-gambling machines, and a few vendors, but all in all, it at least took up five more minutes.

[14:03] 7 - Your Future: All things are off in one hour.
[14:03] 7 - Your Future: You already know the answer to the questions lingering inside your head.

Now you tell me.

All in all, the ride itself still gets two of of three skulls, but the tent area, and some of the decor pieces, get three, so...it's at least worth going to if you're bored?

I'm all dressed up and naked, I see what's mine and take it (part III)

From part II, the last few gowns, pricing and a bit on the attached mesh collar.



This is the gold silk gown, which at least shows the gold tone ms. Vixen used for the velvet version. It's shown with the orange jewels.



I won't lie, this is a really great shade of pink silk. Paired with the pink jewels.



Annd finally, the rich purple silk, shown with purple jewels. And this shot also proves that not all leg movements break through the mesh.

And this time, the not shown: Wine. I figured since I didn't show the Gold velvet, I'd skip one of the silks. It made sense in my head.



Finally, the collar. So, sachi Vixen has been working on developing her own mesh designers, over using templates. This is one of them, and according to her, the halter dress was far easier than the square-set jeweled collar. But both look amazing, fit great, and seem well integrated into each other.

Each gown runs L$295, with the fatpack of all gowns--all ten of the velvets, PLUS all ten of the silks--going for L$1500!

(End bits:

(The gown set is sized for Maitreya, Slink Hourglass, Slink Hourglass Petite, Slink Original and Slink Original Petite. I'm showing it on a Maitreya body, but a HEAVILY altered one, which means in some outfits, I wear Maitreya, some I wear Slink Hourglass. All shots were taken on Time Portal's sim. Flower crown is from Persephona, comes in a variety of tones--I'm showing the Red Poppy tone--and has a clickable feature to change the pearls around the flowers.)

I'm all dressed up and naked, I see what's mine and take it (part II)

Back from part I of the Vintage Fair posts!

We pick up again with the deep pink velvet, with pink jewels along the collar.



This is the rich purple velvet, with purple jewels. In certain of my poses, the dress does 'break' across the front, but not badly--usually inn moves where one leg is farther forward. No other alpha clicks were needed for me to wear this. So, I'd assume dancing will also occasionally 'break' the mesh, but not badly.

The three colors of metal for the collar are silver, gold, and rose gold. Not shown for some reason: the Gold velvet.



Now, we have the silk gown set. Same as before--ten shades of fabric, ten jewel tones, three metal tones. This one is the pale, rich brown, nearly a cafe au lait with yellow topaz jewels. I took this from the side so the seaming can be shown--there, but not obtrusive, very close as a similarly-styled gown from the era would have them.



This is the royal blue silk with blue jewels.

This is the emerald silk, which honestly could be taken as either emerald or a deeply toned rich teal, with teal/cyan faceted jewels. It also displays that slight bit of mesh breakage at the front.



The black silk, with the black jewels in the collar. Also, I figured out something with the jewel color settings--the two stones in the middle, diamond and onyx, control not only the complementary shade through the collar, but the other jewel pairs also. So selecting black jewels, then picking between the diamond and the onyx jewels, changes the rest, which is why this shot features a solid black collar.


The white silk gown, shown with white diamonds.

On to part III!

(End bits:

(The gown set is sized for Maitreya, Slink Hourglass, Slink Hourglass Petite, Slink Original and Slink Original Petite. I'm showing it on a Maitreya body, but a HEAVILY altered one, which means in some outfits, I wear Maitreya, some I wear Slink Hourglass. All shots were taken on Time Portal's sim. Flower crown is from Persephona, comes in a variety of tones--I'm showing the Red Poppy tone--and has a clickable feature to change the pearls around the flowers.)

I'm all dressed up and naked, I see what's mine and take it (part I)

Ooof, this is gonna be a lot. This is going to be three entries, because I want to cover all of them.

I received another review package from Adam 'n Eve, this time for the gowns designed for the upcoming Vintage Fair, which opens on the 12th at noon. (And there's already a cam sim. They're thinking ahead).

I'm starting with seven shots of the Art Nouveau velvet set.



This is the first shade of the velvet, a rich cobalt blue. This is a halter dress with attached blue-jeweled collar (more on that later). The Maitreya version of the mesh, even with my heavily altered shape, fit perfectly out of the box.



This is the slinky scarlet red velvet, from the back. The collar has red jewels, which I just now realized you cannot see, because I wanted to display the curving dip of the back of the gown.



The bright emerald velvet, with black jewels in the collar piece.



The deep black velvet, with diamonds for the collar gems.



The white velvet, which at least in this light, looks more dove grey or silver, with pink jewels.



A lovely chocolate brown velvet, I changed to feature orange gems on the collar.



This is...either a pumpkin or a burnt umber tone, I selected to show it with purple gems.



And ths one's sort of a a wine velvet shade? The gems are pale blue.

We'll pick things up in part II!

(End bits:

(The gown set is sized for Maitreya, Slink Hourglass, Slink Hourglass Petite, Slink Original and Slink Original Petite. I'm showing it on a Maitreya body, but a HEAVILY altered one, which means in some outfits, I wear Maitreya, some I wear Slink Hourglass. All shots were taken on Time Portal's sim. Flower crown is from Persephona, comes in a variety of tones--I'm showing the Red Poppy tone--and has a clickable feature to change the pearls around the flowers.)

your eyes are like two jewels in the sky

{Decided far, far after publishing, this should probably be under the roleplay tag officially.}



I finally had an opportunity today to travel to the Isle Du Noir, and the Silhouettes Club. First things first: just as Jadida Mondrago presents a specific view of steampunk (post-Victorian Arabic, in their case), so Isle Du Noir does for dieselpunk--in their case, filtered through the view of a Caribbean port d'escale marchand, a home for pirates des Caraïbes, and interested others, contrebandiers, les commerçants, and simple travelers alike. A small, but significant, island nation.



Dieselpunk is intriguing on its own. One, because it's such a varied era setting--essentially, anywhere from the early 1920s to mid- to late-1940s, which covers a LOT of changes--socially, musically, in fashion, in representation--but that also means there's a lot of room to move when adapting to the era.



Of course, some never got the memo...I had to fairly significantly figleaf her, too, because head-on you could clearly see nipples and...other bits.

[12:32] Vxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx smacks her butt suggestively

Kind of clueless in more than one sense, too. Which...I'd normally ignore, because a) not my sim, not my rules, and b) it's intended, by everything I've heard, to be a sort of alternative adult playground...save for one thing. The sim's moderate. I am fairly sure nothing about Ms. V qualifies as "moderate".



There's not a lot of info on her profile to make that connection, per se,, but considering her SL bio implies heavily she was looking to become a high-powered lawyer and threw it all away for a dominant, I think I can read between the lines. There's also this:

"The only gift one can offer is its self. The last decision a true slave will ever make. To offer its self.
"This slave craves to be under total and full restrictive control as any true slave would. It's ability to communicate and act upon its own removed from its life. All communications, interaction and travel will be under the Dominant's control and observation. Plain and simple it is an object and property. It is to be respected and dealt with as any such, property owned by another."

Hoo boy. Okay, look. It's a wide world. There's a whole lot of ways to do a whole lot of things. I get that. But unless the sub knows their dominant very well, and trusts them completely...24/7 submission is so dangerous. And TPE, total power exchange, is a very easy way to explode relationships, personalities, self-esteem, self-worth... unless both parties know what they're doing.

And, at least in SL, I've seen dozens of subs--and a fair amount of doms--who say this is exactly what they want, when in truth, they have no clue what they're demanding.



And I won't lie, I've met some 24/7 sorts who seem very happy. Some have even completely depersonalized, so they're no longer Sally Smith from Albequerque, say, but 0171235, registered and ID-tattooed--or branded. (Note: that last link goes to a NSFW site, but more for the actual branding being shown than the nudity. Still, there is both, so it comes with a warning.) There's one lass I knew a while back who spent a consistent amount of time traveling between England, her home, and Dubai, where her dominant was--and every time she did, she traveled in a 100% covering, black latex burqa--frankly, the first one I'd ever heard of. And some trips, even that was not enough for her "owner", so he sent a handler to escort her back--because she needed one when she was traveling with hands cuffed together and attached by the wrists to her collar, and ankles cuffed together, attached to a six-inch chain.



That is far too close to places I don't want to go. She seems happy, and that's great for her, but...that's not something I can do. I will give a great deal of control to a dominant I trust, a great deal of access, occasionally levels of honesty my partners in RL don't always get...but I am always a person, I always have personal rights, and if they can't accept that, we can't function together as a D/s pair on any level.



I am not an object, and I will never be an "it". I don't believe any human should be. But...again, that's me, that's my take on things, and that's my issues talking. Maybe it's less about personality annihilation to those that engage, and more about freedom, but me...that entire end of things is terrifying.


Still, overall, it's a very pretty club, in a very pretty sim. And it was nice to see Ms. R again, though she's going by another name (and, to be fair, she pulled it off pretty well, for what was basically an Akasha cosplay). She's still an amazing DJ.



And I won't lie, I have been very tempted to get kitty feets for my daily avatar, but...boss-lady would not approve, so...I don't.

Plus, I'd lose the ability to wear shoes. And I like my shoes.

Ultimately, though, if you're interested in dieselpunk, piracy, era-based roleplay, or gentle villainy, this might be your island to visit. If nothing else, find out when the next event is at Silhouettes, because at the very least it's worth a look.

a little voice in my head said so

Welcome to Deeproot Manor in Mormo.



Outside, there's a lot of the typical--the haunted manor we've seen before, the trees with glowing skulls, the wraiths along the path. It's nicely done, but nothing will leap out at onlookers at being vitally original.



There are some neat furnishings and set pieces inside. I'm really liking whomever's doing all the heavy cobweb work this year, because it goes SO well with haunts. This room, also, had a changing picture above the sideboard, the images fading in and out, almost...ghostly. That was well done.



The basement had some intriguing moments, as well. Like this one--floating, burning embers in front of a skull bas-relief on the back wall. Why? For what reason? It's not explained, but sometimes, good things don't need to be.



This was another lovely side table, with another shifting image above. Vintage and spooky.



Upstairs, another pretty typical nursery haunt, but...I liked the eyes under the bed.



And up in the attic, the scariest thing in the entire house. Brrr! I left right after seeing this.

I'd say this one is worth a wander. Don't expect jumpscares, don't expect a ton of the creepy and disturbing, but for what it is, it's pretty well done.