Color Challenge: Week Thirty - Ruby

Ruby Week crept upon me all unawares.


I ended up on the old standby - search for ruby and see what falls out - and I ended up with a superlative ensemble. The Wishbox dress was an old impulse buy - her Charm Dress; I often can't afford to buy all of her clothing in a set, but I adore the ones I end up picking up and this is a favorite style. I'm particularly fond of the texturing of the bodice, how it looks patterned and layered with minimal prim needed. As an added touch, if you take off the skirt you have an adorable, ruffly underwear set.

The hint of red at the neck comes from Eclectica - do you think I wear her jewelry enough? The 60 Linden Sundays have totally tripled my jewelry inventory, I swear! The skin is from De La Soul, Charlie in Cream with her Phoenix Makeup, and I ended up adding the red brows to match my Majika Diamond Hair, which I totally got on a hunt. On my feet are a set of flats from Duh! which I didn't even know I had, her Velvet Flats, and I have to admit to being totally in love with them.


I've been having, to put it baldly, a fairly shitty time at work. Several clients in crisis at once, plus being behind in paperwork, plus a whole host of paperwork that needs doing for that once a year effect, leads to a Deoridhe that... well, lets just say I had a messy, sobbing breakdown and leave it at that. Luckily for me, prior to said breakdown I had arrange for a couple days off, to rest and recuperate; to not think about troublesome things. And, of course, as troublesome things do, they're creeping around the sides of my eyes clamoring for attention and mental space.

It also doesn't help that these days I'm surrounded by suffering people, even outside of work. The recession has led to troubles for everyone, and the suffering seems to spread exponentially outward. Much as I love Second Life as an escape, all too often these days I see the offline world reflected online in sparks and echos of pain.


It's times like this that I often find myself circling backwards, to times made simpler not due to a different world but due to my own ignorance. Thoth Jantzen and Thothica in Second Life were the places I started, in 2008, when I first came to Second Life. I'd been lured in by my dear friend Ro-chan, in her belief that I would create much beauty with the fashions (we met on Gaia Online, where beauty in fashions is central to your presentation as well), but then I was much more into debate and philosophy than now, and so I quickly found Philosophy House, and from there I found Thothica. It was in the Thothica sandbox where I build my first objects, and Open Habitat - another philosophy and discussion place - was where I set my home for a very long time.

It was in Thoth's builds where I first encountered interactivity; he had a room for a long time where I would just go to click things, play music, and dance. Now and then he would show videos, and as time went on videos and media began to feature more and more in his builds, becoming central. Our parting was... a semi-unpleasant one, and one mimicked in my largely leaving Thothica a few months later. I discovered within the philosophical set in Second Life a strong atheistic and anti-religion aesthetic which was sharply at odds with my own deep faith, in particular because that deep faith was not Christianity, and yet it was so often treated as identical to Christianity by those who dislike religion.


Thoth and I parted ways when he implied my religion was a mental illness I should seek freedom from, and philosophy debate in general lost my attention when I realized how often it was about people reiterating their own views and crushing the opposition, rather than any true discussion. There is a smugness within philosophy, combined with a lack of connection to real world feedback loops, which deeply disturbs me and is out of step with my own ethical and philosophical ramblings. I'm in a situation now where my choices have real world consequences, and often consequences not suffered by me; this has altered how I approach philosophy and ethics in an immutable and yet difficult to describe manner.

One thing about pulling together looks in fashion is how much the tone and timbre pull from our lives, how much my inner experience is reflected in my outer form. The pinkish-red of the dress seems the color of suffering, a darkish red of old blood sluggishly moving through a shuddering, stuttering heart. I feel the ache of old pains today, memories moving through my veins and clogging up the arteries.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Ears: Illusion, Mystic Fairy Ear
Skin: De La Soul, Charlie - Cream Phoenix
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hair: Majika, Diamond - Ruby
Dress: Wishbox, Charm Dress - ruby
Necklace: Eclectica, Elizabeth Neckpiece - ruby
Shoes: Duh!, Velvet Flats - Ruby

Pose: KSCreations

Location: Simplicity
Light Settings: [TOR] DUSK - Briony

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only