Rainbows from the Shadows

I love rainbows. This is something most people know about me fairly quickly - I own a lot of rainbows, use rainbows in decorations, and keep crystals and brightly colored things handy in most circumstances.What I love most about them is how ably and immediately they demonstrate the true value of harmony; there is no uniformity in a rainbow - rather each shade stands out as itself - and yet each color cooperates with the ones around them to make a glorious, divergent whole. Every half year or so I pull together a new rainbow outfit, and this time I decided to go full-on Lolita, combining together a variety of clothes from across a great deal of Second Life time. On the older end of the scale is this amazing dress from Psych0, which is entirely made out of prims and textures. I chose it in part because I was showing dances, and I wanted them to have more movement than mesh allows for, and in part because Lolita in rigged mesh is fairly rare. I have loved this dress for a long time, though, and I was please to bring it out and jazz it up with a part-mesh, part-system-layer shirt from Violent Seduction. She released a ton of these in a ton of colors for layering under lowercut, otherwise Lolita style clothing, and the big bonus are these rigged mesh arms, which keep the poof and the frills of the Lolita look perfectly. The nice thing is, since it has a system layer, I can keep the older rainbow top of the Psych0 dress while still having all the advantages of mesh sleeves. The dress comes with a separate collar and bow as well, but I switched out the included black bow for a rainbow bowtie from Remarkable Oblivion, which carried the rainbow effect up toward my face. It's meant to be a hairbow, but I shrunk it down and tucked it in against my collarbone and it works beautifully.

My hair is fromt he middle of the mesh era, a lovely tousled Lolita style from Curio Obscura which has her characteristic thick, full texturing and shape. Even as she's embraced mesh, her style has remained fairly consistent and she's an example of someone making Lolita in rigged mesh, even mesh which could fit a male body. I tucked in a new headband released by Adore & Abhor which I simply adore - though sadly it didn't have rainbow textured flowers. It's a little spiky, but given the creepy Mlastina de Moarte I was wandering around in, a felt a little preparation was in order. The wings are from a Deviance gacha and are, unlike a lot of rainbow things in gachas, once of the commons. I adore her shading here, especially at the points where the colors meet; overlapping colors can become muddy, but she keeps each of them distinct and beautiful. And finally, I pulled up my skirt briefly to show off my lovely bloomers, something I picked up a long time ago from Scribble, and these amazing rainbow boots from Epic which I fell in love with as soon as I saw them. They had been mouldering in my "To Be Opened" folder since I picked them up, and I was all too happy to tug them out and prance around the marshy downs with them. They are, as the store name implies, completely epic and gorgeous, with subtle colors and patterning that move beautifully. I simply adore them and can't say too many good things except... I wish they came with white detailing in addition to the black and other colors.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: Izzie's, Irene
Hair: Curio Obscura, Princessy Hairstyle
Crown: Adore & Abhor, Princess Headband
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Mock, Silver
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe
Hands: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands
Nails: Dark Passions, Koffin Nails
Shirt: Violent Seduction, Lolita Blouse
Dress: Psych0, Rainbow Cupcake
Bow: Remarkable Oblivion, Briar Bow
Bloomers: Scribble, Bloomers
Shoes: Epic, Neo-Trekker's Goot Gear

Pose: Exposeur

Location: Mlastina de Moarte
Light Settings: TOR, DUSK Vision of Something
Water Settings: Mirror Water

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

SL Disney Bound – Week Twenty: Daisy Duck

I never had many thoughts on Daisy Duck, though of course I've known her since I was a child. I was always more attracted to Bugs Bunny who, despite his cross-dressing ways, could never be female. That sort of license, that breaking of boundaries and barriers, is still largely a male thing, which is perhaps why female comics (the Bugs Bunnies of adulthood) are so threatening to so may people. Most of these earlier characters are like the early female superheros - not existing in their own right, but rather as the gender-swapped version of an already conceived of or existing male character, and lately I've been really struck by the extent to which I feel locked out of what attracts me the most, simply due to my gender. It's difficult even to think of or dream of a world where that isn't the case; so many of my favorite figures seem to have gender woven into them; I would love a female reincarnation of the Doctor, but that most likely will never happen. I would love a master investigator and a powerful mage who changed the course of society to be female, but outside of a few side universes that never seems to happen - it never hits the main stream. Even very powerful women must somehow also be beautiful and elegant; they can never be old and grizzled in their power.

This is a slight modification of the look I used for the Blog the Beat challenge, and I kept most of the major aspects simply because I wanted to show them off to you all. The dress, complete with matching hairbow, is a rigged mesh dress from Violent Seduction which was released for the Genre Lolita event. The edging around the bodice is a little odd - it looks double layered, like there is a satin layer underneath, but at most angles that can't be seen, and even when it is visible it doesn't stand out as an error so much as double layering of the dress somehow, for modesty. I really love the bow - textured perfectly to look like satin - and the gorgeous flowers along the bottom edge of the dress. I also really like the neckline, and I look forward to pairing it with a variety of tops to see how well it works as a simple sweet Lolita, whereas here I'm wearing it more as a summer dress. My hair is also from the Genre Lolita even, this time from Curio Obscura and worn in white; it includes a variety of colors, and while the texturing is shiny for my normal wear, I love it for fancy, over the top looks where I would reasonably have been expected to apply hair spray. Genre had a lot of clothing, jewelry, and hair this time - and it's still open though I'm not sure for how long - so check it out.

( More pictures here. )

Credits: 

Skin: De La Soul, Candace Creamer
Hair: Curio Obscura, Long Gothic Spirals Pigtails (Genre Event)
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Eyes: De La Soul, Mesh Eye Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Elymode, Blossom - violet
Lipstick: Fruitilicious Gloss - Rose Gumdrop (Hunt)
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe Wings (Fantasy Gatcha Faire)
Jewelry: Earthstones, Butterfly
Hands: SLink, Rigged Mesh Hands
Nails: Adore & Abhor, Shimmer Fades
Dress: Violent Seduction, Roseraie Purple (Genre Event)
Shoes: katat0nik, Aya Wedge

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Sea of Fables
Light Settings: Phototools, Absinthe Light
Water Settings: TOR, Liz Taylor

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

A Very Rainbow Deoridhe

I've been having a very rough month offline, and apparently a bunch of creators are psychic, because this week they all conspired to make me a very, very happy Deoridhe. It all started with katat0nik, who had made these adorable shirts with a tulle skirt ages ago, and then made me an incredibly happy Deoridhe by releasing them separately - and including a RAINBOW one. Yes, rainbow. I know, isn't she fantastic? And isn't it a gorgeous fade 'round the sides, smooth and clean without any of the colors becoming muddy. She released a shirt to go with it - with a pretty rainbow heart on it, and that isn't mesh so it can slide under just about any top; I'm seriously hanging on to it for ever and ever. With mesh separates, having some system layer bits to add on is incredibly important. Then, while I was still goggling over what katat0nik had made for me, I ended up taking a quick run around the Fantasy Gatcha Festival and... lets just say that I hit rainbow multiple times over.

At the top of my head is my incredibly lucky score from De La Soul in the form of a crown of thorns that I had loved the first time Charlie showed it to me, and which I'm so glad he released now. The Super Ultra version has a HUD in addition to the horns, and a gorgeous hanging gem. The glow makes it a little difficult to see the details - I'll have to do another show off of some of the other options - but they are delicately formed and gorgeously made, with tiny gems hanging down from each of the horns. You can modify simply everything on it, from glow and shine to texturing and they remain editable so you can also tint them. This is the Ultra rare, though; all of the colors are available in separate commons and rares, too, so if you're aiming for just one color combination, that's the way to go.

The final cherry on my rainbowgasm of a look is something you are likely to see several times again in the future - these amazing wings from Deviance. Now, very recently you all saw me wriggle around like an overly excitable puppy when I saw her last wings, and can I just say that these are even better? Delicate, curving, with a delicious ruffled edge and curving veins. They don't flap like her other wings do, which is understandable since they're a gatcha prize, but I am completely in love. The rainbow ones aren't even her rares, too; her rares are a gorgeous set with little butterflies settled along the edge. I cannot express enough how much I love these; I was in all-caps mental breakdown for the first five minutes. ICly, Deoridhe has always been a rainbow fairy, and one of my quiet pains has been that I didn't have non-glamoured wings for her which I felt really fit her. Now that has changed completely.

I rounded my look out with three things from my inventory, some of which I've owned for a while. All of the corseting is from Rosal and is part of the same set - Unmei. It comes with a HUD which lets you tint each part of the corseting separately, so while it was time consuming to render the corsets vaguely rainbow, I think it was really worth it. Tucked in among my horns is a hat from Split Pea which I picked up a long while ago and which spreads the rainbow love across several flowers. I also really liked the shadows it cast, though they were hard to capture in the pictures. And finally, this amazing Love-Love Justice wand from Curio Obscura, which makes me giggle every time I see it, or even it's name. It's like a world of Cardcaptor Sakura and Sailor Moon all wrapped up with a bow.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Candace Creamer
Hair: Fashionably Dead, Moon Pigtails
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Horns: De La Soul, Royal Crown of Thorns (Fantasy Gatcha Faire)
Hair Flowers: Split Pea, Your love is a stag int he white sand
Eyes: De La Soul, Mesh Eye Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Mesh Lashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Mock, Taste the Skittles
Lipstick: Mock, Lucir Lipcolor Frostbite
Wings: Deviance, Sidhe Wings (Fantasy Gatcha Faire)
Wand: Curio Obscura, Magical Love-Love Justice Staff (Past Arcade Gatcha)
Lingerie: Adam n Eve, Ana Lace
Shirt: katat0nik, Rainbow Heart Shirt
Gloves: Rosal, Unmei
Corsets: Rosal, Unmei
Skirt: katat0nik, Tulle Skirt
Shoes: Rosal, Unmei

Pose: !bang,

Location: Ghostville
Light Settings: Phototools, Dead End
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Ginko

I watch a lot of anime, and have for many years now. I'm not quite a Nipponphile, but I have a great deal of appreciation for Japanese aesthetics and style; the characteristics of simplicity, purity, and nature are those sorts of universal things that can lead to beauty. Ginko leaves always make me think of Mushishi, one of my favorite anime/manga series, and a flower I made once out of ginko leaves in the fall.

Matsushima, the name of this dress/shirt from R2 Fashion (available at Collabor88), is a region in Japan that was very hard hit from the March 11 Earthquake and Tsunami, Matsushima is a collection of rocky islands covered with pines that were identified as a natural and national treasure in Japan. The Matsuo Bashō Haiku about it is particularly funny to me, since it is such an elegant way of indicating speechlessness with a twinkle hidden inside.

Matsushima ah!
A-ah, Matsushima, ah!
Matsushima, ah!

Each of the Matsushima dresses is styled off of a different flower, which to my untutored eye greatly resemble kimono fabric textures. This one is kiku-zakura, a type of pinkish-white chrysanthemum, rendered in a variety of shades of pink and gold. I love how starkly they stand out against the solid black of the background, making for an extremely dramatic look. I left a very red lip, a combination of L. Fauna and Mock, to match the drama, but kept under the dress simple, pulling out an old pair of pants from The Black Canary, which has been closed for a long while now.

The other two main pieces of this look are also from Collabor88, which is actually how I came to the combination; shallow reasoning, but fun! The hair is a combination hair from D!va, with the updo part unrigged and the ponytail rigged mesh, combining the best of both worlds - it can be modified to fit a variety of heads, but the pony tail will remain hanging over the shoulder as one moves. It's not immediately obvious in these poses, but if you look closely you'll see how my head is moving while the ponytail remains tethered while still appearing natural. Finally, these amazing boots are from Schadenfreude; I ended up being unable to buy the fatpack at Collabor88, but the creator very kindly allowed me to purchase them directly from her. At the fatpack level, different sections can be recolored to mix and match in amazing ways - leading to these two-tone spats and bright gold buttons. I especially love the texturing and shape around the knees and ankles, where the fabric bunches a bit very naturally; it's that extra bit of verisimilitude which is the mark of a superior creation. The final touch came at the last minute, when a friend and I briefly crossed paths and he passed me a bunch of wands from Curio Obscura, available at the Arcade Gatcha Event. I haven't gotten there yet, but now that I see these awesome wands I'm hoping there's space for me soon!

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De la Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De La Soul, RooMee Eyes - Rainbow
Eyelashes 1: SLink, Eyelashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Ears: Illusions, Seelie Ears
Lipstick: L. Fauna, Red 1
Lipgloss: Mock, Mizu Venetian Red
Hair: D!va, Asami (December Collabor88)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle
Hands: SLink, Mesh Hands
Wand: Curio Obscura, Scepter of Hearts (December Arcade Gatcha Prize)
Shirt: r2, A/D/E Dress "Matsushima" (December Collabor88)
Pants: The Black Canary, He Lurks in Darkness
Boots: Schadenfreude, Winter's Bite Leith Boots (December Collabor88)

Poses: Adorkable Poses (Advent Gift)

Location: Japan Project Garden
Light Settings: Abracadabra2
Water Settings: SNAKE!!

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

Wandering, Lost in Flowers

There has been a lot of words recently across the various blogs I read about sexism, especially in often self-proclaimed superior places like the skeptical movement and video game players. Its been a longer flow in the skeptical movement, having started with what is now called Elevatorgate, when pointing out that asking a woman up to coffee at 4am in an elevator after never having spoken to her before (but observing her do a talk on how much she disliked these sorts of approaches) was inappropriate could lead to death and rape threats. The most recent hubabaloo was sparked by Rebecca Watson again being blamed for driving women away from a conference that she actually raises money for women to attend by speaking out against sexual harassment and calling for all conferences to have a no harassment policy and set of guidelines to follow to handle incidents at their conferences. It's now expanded far beyond the initial spark (Pharyngula has a bunch of posts on it, as does Ophelia Benson who declined to go to a conference due to threats against her life which were not taken seriously by the conference promoters), but what seems clear is that skepticism is no inoculation against sexism.

Add in the far more compacted abuse and harassment of Anita Sarkeesian for having a kickstarter fund drive for an expanded series of video analysis of Tropes about Women in Video Games, and you have a virtual internet storm about misogyny; some people are doubling down, but the visible and vocal support of women is stronger than I expected. Sarkeesian hasn't made a single video yet, but she received such an enormous amount of abuse for it that she's doing an extended analysis of the various ways she was harassed - trigger warnings for these links (YouTube, Wikipedia Vandalism, Images). One of the aspects of her situation in particular was how many people expressed the thought that she should be thankful for the abuse because it got her more attention (her kickstarter was fully funded before she began to speak out about the harassment) or that she is doing what she is simply to get abuse and trick people into thinking there's a problem of sexism in gaming communities. Add in the usual "if you talk about it, you're giving the tolls what they want" and I ended up really being struck just by how much of a catch-22 being visible and female is on the internet. Expect abuse, worse than men receive, if you appear to be female but you must never, ever imply that your being female changes the type or amount of abuse you receive (not even getting into the persistent sexual harassment).

But we do have some support - more than I expected - so maybe someday... things will be better.

On a more positive note! The first Silent Sparrow outfit I ever bought was Coppelia - and I spent a very long time agonizing over which color, as this was long before I was free with my Lindens. Recently, other shades of it went on sale and I was significantly more free with said Lindens - buying up all that was on sale! Ode is a similarly long destination on my list, though now the individual who started it is long gone (leaving behind a beautiful history of gorgeous jewels), it continues in all of it's shining glory, now tucked next to Oubliette - a similarly beautiful sim. The style is all fairy, all brightly hued colors and shining lines of light on high cliffs above crashing waves. I find it a soothing place to be, relaxing and enjoyable no matter what my mood or mode of dress, though I am sad I missed the heydays of the sim when stars used to fall from the sky and you could catch butterflies full of jewelry.

The jewelry is another blast from the past; Kyccie left Second Life ages ago, selling off the last of her jewels which had a very distinctive style. I picked them up before I started blogging, but I always look for times and places I could fit them into a look, and as the accoutrements of the fairy princess, they seemed perfection. The hair, though, is entire newness - Curio Obscura is doing new mesh releases, including hair, and this is a gorgeous mound of princess curls that made me think immediately of my dear friend Ro-chan. The skirt is too short and the bodice too low for a Sweet Lolita look, but you will be seeing this hair again on a more traditional look.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose
Eyes: De la Soul, RooMee Rainbow
Ears: Illusion, Seelie Ears
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Eyeshadow: Mons, Eyeshadow Punk - purple
Lipstick: Mock, Opal Lipcolor - Roman
Hair: Curio Obscura, Princessy Hairstyle
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle Wings
Jewelry: Kyccie's, Sweetheart Set - Amethyst (store closed)
Dress: Silent Sparrow, Coppelia - Iris
Shoes: G Field, Ribbon Slingback Shoes (tinted)

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Ode
Light Settings: Places Astryls Wild
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only

2012 Color Challenge: Week 27: Cadmium Red

I got started on Cadmium Red later than usual, but it's a color I really love - so bright and vibrant.I went to a darker, more punk direction than I usually do - combining one of Wasabi Pill's Fairy Tale Event hairstyles with a very old purchase or win from Evldva (included hair not shown) and a set of jewelry from Ticky Tacky that I've had in my inventory forever. I love the combination of old and new - and in new news, Curio Obscura has a Lucky Chair! I've been lurking there for the better part of the morning, and began to notice just how complicated and amazing the store is. It's a giant Victorian mansion on the back of a hypno-eyed robot creature rampaging across the landscape. I went with a completely extreme color scheme, but I think the shadows and architecture hold up to it. As a reminder - outside of cropping, none of these pictures are edited; this is what can be achieved within second life with the right light settings.

There have been a number of posts recently ironically segueing off of each other about the topic of originality. Given a choice, the majority of humans cluster and group, building up conformities with a few people excluded. In the individualisticly-obsessed Western model, this is a failure of humanity, a failure to be "yourself", a failure to be unique and special and to innovate enough. As someone who has recently started seeking out local communities to join and people to build from strangers into friends, I have perhaps a unique perspective; I want to conform enough that people will like me, want to be around me; conform enough so that I can build circles of local friends to spend time with, do things with, support and be supported by without sacrificing any centrally important things to myself. In that way, I find the grouping behavior of humans deeply reassuring; it has resulted in me being able to find local hobby groups that share my interests, within which I may find people who will like me and whom I will like. The urge to community includes the urge to conform, and this has both positive and negative implications - on the positive side, people support each other, hold standards for each other, and make each other better; on the negative side, people negate themselves, pull each other into hatred and cruelty, and make each other worse.

( More pictures here. )

Credits:

Skin: De La Soul, Aestali - Cream Rose (promotional item)
Eyes: House of Ruin, Hypnos: Atomic
Ears: Illusion, Seelie Ears
Eyelashes 1: *X*plosion, PrimLashes
Eyelashes 2: Flugeln Brise, 05-A
Lipstick: Mock, Bella Vetro Gloss
Hair: Wasabi Pills, Matchgirl Mesh (promotional item)
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Azarelle Wings
Jewelry: Ticky Tacky, Sweet Dreams
Dress and Shoes: Evldva, PIP Rebel Yell Red

Poses: Glitterati

Location: Curio Obscura
Light Settings: TOR, HORROR Profondo rosso
Water Settings: Glassy

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping, only