and you better start swimmin', or you'll sink like a stone

for the times they are a-changin'...

Yeah. Sometimes it do be like that.

come gather ’round, people
wherever you roam
and admit that the waters
around you have grown...

August 28th, 2023, fell on a Monday, at least in the northern hemisphere. Monday was also family dinner at the mansion. The family knew it was the anniversary. It was...an uneven night, not unsurprisingly. How does one celebrate having an unending tension headache for a full solar year?

I'm the one on the end with the moths.

and accept it that soon
you’ll be drenched to the bone
if your time to you is worth savin’...

Dinner also featured a spritely vintage from Darkmere, and I was grateful for it.

I think even virtual wine goes to my head occasionally. I wasn't exactly effervescent, but I did seem more...open is not the word? Fluid, mayhap. Confessional. Something.

the line, it is drawn
the curse, it is cast
the slow one now
will later be fast

So, it's been a year, and what have we learned? I beyond the glass may have Celiac's, and if not, then a fairly unstable version of gluten intolerance. No one knows why the headache persists. Half my doctors are treating me as if I am diabetic, and the other half aren't--and meanwhile, my pursuit for a diagnosis of SOME kind keeps driving off the cliff, the latest being my (new resident) doctor's confidence in the latest A1C being "fine" (even with some other symptoms and readings in other tests).

Let's not forget that in the course of one month (with blood tests at either end) I went from some issues we needed to work on to HOLY FARKING DUCKLINGS YOU HAVE THIRD-STAGE KIDNEY DISEASE...which, by the way, disappeared with the next blood test...



Oh, and my neurologist's officially thrown me away, because there's "nothing neurological" she can fix. But if I develop something...something that's not migraines, headache, nerve pain, and a kicky little tremor, apparently...she says I should feel free to call her.

Sure. Let me just make a note about that....how does the 32nd of February next year work for you?

But that...admittedly, adapting to that led to some very dark days.

Witness this was supposed to be shot, and framed, and written, and posted, on the 28th...and I slipped a couple days due to sudden depression slogging through the mire.

as the present now
will later be past
the order is rapidly fadin'...

Stone-home truth, here: I started wondering what was the point. Now, no one call in wellness checks, guys, I am not in danger, believe me. But there was some staring into the abyss, namely...Should I still keep counting? Should I stop? If I stop, what do I replace it with? If I keep counting, when does it become another obsession? When do I get to pick up the threads of my life and get back to reality, fractured as it was?

And the deep, midnight-in-sealed-crypts dark question: is this the new baseline, and I just have to suck it up from here?

So, yeah. Took a couple days to catch up with everything.

and the first one now
will later be last
for the times they are a-changin'...

If nothing else, I have the garden. It keeps me occupied when I have spare non-hurty time. I stay in touch with friends and loves as I can. It's not a terrible life. I may have to ask Aiko where she gets her running-in-circles animation from, because I bet it would be mad frenetic on a Dinkie.

I will admit, it is a struggle some days NOT to go huge (like, giant thorn vines huge, mysterious earth portals that fling folks in a random direction huge), but so far I'm constraining things. I'm working on changing out all the no-copy flora (and the non-seasonal flora), so it will be easier to change from season to season...

...because WHY YES I have noticed the lack of seasons on the land and I miss it, and that, at least, I can start pushing out in Tannhauser and Gearhaven.

For the rest of it...well, I am a very stubborn muffin. I may be bruised, battered, staggering and broken, and it may take me longer to stand up...but I intend to keep standing up for some time yet. This weekend I may spend more time with the offworld partners, and idly make new things out of old things while we watch the next episode of Mentopolis on Dropout. (I am still convinced that Hank Green is just playing himself in that season...or, at least, Hank Green if he was bright red, in a weird 40s noir mystery, and of his hands were bigger than his head...but otherwise, yeah, that's my working theory.)

And life will move on, as is the way of such things. And I'll get back to product reviews soon, because I do like them, first, and second, for baffling reasons they haven't slapped my wrist for going past some event times, so if nothing else, they're building up unswerving brand loyalty from me. It helps that I adore Grim and Mesmer to death, too, it must be said.

But now it's late, and it's been a long day, some of it spent dashing between transport and clinic doors with ice-cold rain in between, so I suppose this is as 'done' as it gets, right now. G'night.

guess he finally found the straw that broke the camel's back

The Awilda hat is the current Fifty Linden Friday offer at Poison Rouge. As stated, it's going for L$50. But as is tradition, I failed to actually POST this on the 14th, so...go me, I guess.

[[Note from the Editrix: and then failed to post it for several days after. Not only that, but I managed to lose the picture of me IN the damned thing.]]

Did I mention the Darkness event is open now? (Though I'm not sure why I would, Vae.V isn't at that one...it just occurred to me, I guess, because I'm covering the Aza'Telos Monolith set, which was at July's Darkness event...

I am hopelessly behind.)

Oh, and there's a new Merkins vid out, I just realized...but anyway.

So, the Duchess' Garden has evolved substantially since I took these pics, and that's primarily because I took a random port from someone in the Contraption group and found myself in front of the booth there for the Wizarding Faire (which I had been avoiding, because, you know, the transphobia has kind of poisoned the property for me)...and promptly bought the Fournier Conservatory. I think it's still open, though, and if you want a Conservatory of your very own, go here with L$600 and it can be yours.



Meanwhile, we're talking about the Monolith set. At the last Darkness event, it ran L$450; now, I'm not even sure if it's in the mainstore (but you're welcome to check). Pretty sure the L$450 was a discount, though.



So I took out the medium and plonked it down in front of the altar for the Duchess' new garden, AKA, "Em thinks she can build things right now".



It's a pretty set, adaptable, just choose your height and your prim count and the tint, and go.



And it's a lovely glow effect on the runes.

The entire Monolith set compromises about six different options, from small to huge, and glowing and non, and high prim and low prim versions. It am comprehensive, is what I'm saying. It also comes with a tinting HUD. The ones you see in the pics I took (about...halfway to August, I think they were...) have largely been some shade of gold and purple.


This one, one of the huge ones, I rezzed out just behind the Conservatory, for a size comparison...

...and it's absolutely unresponsive, that's odd...Wait...

Did I push the big one over the sim border?!

Turns out, I did--all I had to do was fly over to the far side, and it tinted like a dream (which with my usual fine attention to detail, I forgot to capture in a photo).

If you want to see the Conservatory, the (free, btw) mossy snake statues (also from Contraption), or the Monolith that remains, you're welcome to drop by. The Duchess' Garden will likely be in flux for some time...similar to the Duchess, really.

And if you tire, there's sangria and sweet tea to be had inside the Conservatory. Enjoy.

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.