Virtual Time

Time is a funny thing.

I'm one of those trying people who will vanish for a while and pop up again, surprised so much time has passed. This happens even offline - long weekends lead me to lose track of the days, a sufficient "break" in the day will make me think two have passed by, and enough internal turmoil will make months seem like weeks.

Time is a subjective thing.

Description: Deoridhe in a green and red bustle dress (sadly Limited Edition) at DV8.

Time in virtual worlds tends to be similarly bizarre. I had, once, the odd experience of having someone express romantic interest in me after approximately an hour; I was flattered until I realized he had a woman-shaped hole in his SL experience, and any women would do - bland and regular preferable to weird.

Being weird, I went from flattered to annoyed. When, a week later, he let everyone online on his friends list know we had to audition to remain on his friends list, I dropped him with a sigh of relief.

Taking your time, moving slowly, and being careful are often treated suspiciously on the internet. From people sharing their deepest wounds in an open forum, to people seeking money and affection from virtual strangers (in both senses of virtual), speed is often expected. Quickly decide you like someone, quickly build a quasi-intimate relationship, quickly end it and quickly move on.

I have some friends that I have had experiences with over the course of more than a year. Some of them I was intimidated by when we met; some I felt instant affection toward. All of them I have a public and private familiarity with. They don't always mix well; many of my friends are very protective of me, which means they look askance at the casual treatment other friends have toward me until they're sure those people value me as much as they do.

These aren't relationships built of a few weeks, though - they're relationships build of months and years, which have included a lot of different experiences and moods. There's nothing rushed about them.

I don't tend to share much of my offline details online. I come from the paranoid past, and have had enough minor encounters with how vile people can be online to be glad of the protection, but there is a short list of people who I want to know my offline details so that they can find me outside of a single world.

There's nothing rushed about that desire, though. It's a slow, careful decision, and so far one I have never regretted.

Daily Shot #2

I told you these wouldn't be every day.

This is an out of character shot during a meeting of the Wilds Admin in the Sim of Karamoon. Karamoon is a quasi-historical fantasy roleplaying area made up of rather a lot of sims, actually. The Wilds is a northmost edge roleplaying Faction made up of the things which bedazzle the mind or go bump in the night. I'm a Fae and one of the ambassadors, and also the events coordinator. I do ok at it, but I'm bad, as always, at planning things.



The guy I'm lying on is Bink, OOCly a dear friend and ICly one of her only friends.

Daily Shot

I won't be doing this with any sort of regularity - it will be as whim holds me - but I thought it might be fun to take a simple snapshot of something I'm doing and what I'm wearing on a given day and posting it. Unlike my more formal photoshoots, where I'm highlighting a place and an outfit, this is more impulsive and singular and I'm not going to be trying to write down what I was wearing.



I was busy today roleplaying, managing to avoid any number of domestic chores I could have, and likely should have, been doing. But it was fun, and I've been stressed, so spending a day doing whatever I wanted to seemed like a good idea.

I am a short avatar in Second Life, though. I aimed for the height of 5'4" and, well.... most of the time I come up to peoples' waists. It's pretty funny.

P.S. I'm the blond.

Irony

Irony is someone castigating people for using a nom de internet while doing so themselves.

I think my favorite piece was from the "staying safe" page - which gives some good advice, but also reveals something rather, shall we say, revealing about the mindset of this person who isn't revealing their real identity while demanding others do so. "Many of these people are not functioning members of society."

And, of course, the "sex offender" bugaboo comes soon after. Just for once, I'd love to see something original. It remains true that children are at far more risk of pedophilia from someone who knows them, who is a friend of the family, and who has regular physical access to them in order to initiate the disgusting process of grooming them for abuse. All of this freaking out over people on the internet... is beginning to ring a little hollow.

So, yes, be suspicious on the internet - by all means. Be suspicious of people with slightly odd names, and people with incredibly normal ones. Be suspicious of people in the analog world, too, though. Just because you can see someone's face doesn't mean you can trust them.

Two sided

It's interesting how quickly time spent changes, even while the amount of time remains fixed. Sometimes it seems like I'm always bouncing after a long list of things I want to accomplish, and a longer list of things I have to accomplish.

One thing I've noticed on SL is how singular so many people appear to be, at least in their profile. Go to a philosophy discussion and everyone's an intellectual; go to a club and people are seeking good music or good romance; go to a BDSM discussion and people focus on their approach to power dynamics. The only place I honestly understand this sort of singularity is in roleplaying Sims, where all too often the person in front of you is not the main identity of the person behind the screen but rather one of many faces, specially tuned for a type of character.

I know I have a couple of accounts like that, where a few I'm close to know the names and their connection to me, but few others might even guess, much less know.

Online, identity can become such a fluid thing. It's a lovely place to play out the darker or lighter places in our soul, to take on other roles and see them play out to their fullest extent.

And sometimes, when I go to these different places and see these people who fit those places so well, I wonder if - like in roleplaying - these are faces made just for these events, to ideally fit. Not the full extent of a person, with all the variations and conflicts inherent in being a fully formed person, but facets of to return only the light we want others to see.

Twisted Hunt - Moar!

I don't have the patience to repeat the previous post of just listing everything, but all the details in that post are also on the flickr for each picture, so here - have a link to the flicker set for this hunt! Wheeee~!

(The link was back there. No.... look up. UP! There! You got it!)

Instead of just regurgitating my photostream, I'm going to instead talk about some of my favorites in a little more detail. I know it's politic to say everything's my favorite, but the truth is I have a definite style which doesn't stretch quite as broadly as the Twisted Hunt might, so not everything is my style. It's been interesting taking off-style pictures, though, and I'll talk more about that next post.

I adore Blue Blood, for instance, like anything. A significant portion of my inventory is from that store. It's no surprise, then, that one of my favorites is her Female twisted Hunt Gift. I especially like the ribbon detail around the base of the skirt.


Description: Blue Blood Twisted Hunt Gift.

The same can be said of Falln Angel Creations. Again, a large part of my inventory comes from Azriel's store and it's a style I really love, so it's no surprise that his Julia Gown in Purple is a winner with me.


Description: Julia Gown Twisted Hunt Prize from Falln Angel Creations.

Nightshade Designs was new to me, though, and as much as I loved the women's outfit - which was as GothLoli as I could care for - I was surprised how much I liked the 80's pants inspired Men's Outfit. The pants are huge and poofy - I had to shrink them to fit, but the suit lines and how everything fit together was surprisingly enjoyable to me.


Description: Nightshade Designs' Men's Prize for the Twisted Hunt.

Another surprise was the Sassy Kitty Designs Fucktastic Outfit. I tend to avoid showing too much skin, even inworld, and the pictures of me in silks are few and far between (at least before I started taking all these pictures). I was surprised, however, at how much I liked the lines of this dress. While I'm not sure fuckTASTIC quite fits, The combination of narrow-coverage down the middle of my body and the bands on the arms and legs is definitely striking, especially given my chosen skin tones tend to be pale.


Description: Sassy Kitty Designs, the Fucktastic Outfits - Dress for the Twisted Hunt

Programming Break: Twisted Hunt Post 1

We now interrupt our review of year old photos to bring you a breaking story! Deoridhe has LOST HER MIND and is trying to photograph all of the Twisted Hunt Prizes - in order.

We're calling the Mobile Crisis Team now, but while we wait for the inevitable 5150, let's see what she's got to show us.

Stop #1: DV8


Tripping the Light Fantastic

Hair: Electrohead - Candy Pink
Outfit: Cyberjammer - White
Shoes: Cyberjammer Skates - White
Mask: NeuroTox Mask

Not DV8:
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Wings: Rebel Hope Designs, FleXtasy Butterfly Wings - Green
Pose: (pda), I'll Be Your Mirror
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only


Tripping the Dark Fantastic

Dark DV8
Hair: Electrohead - Nightshade
Outfit: Cyberjammer - Ashes
Shoes: Cyberjammer Skates - Black
Mask: NeuroTox Mask

Not DV8:
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Wings: Fancy Fairy, Goblin Wings - Murky
Pose: Studio Sidhe, Faery Froic - Free Frolic
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey



Stop #2: Blue Blood


Twisted Women

Outfit: Female Twisted Hunt Gift

Not Blue Blood:
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Hair: Miriel, Artist Hair - Snow tinted Red
Wings: Facy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent Wings - tinted black
Pose: sunflower poses, oh!
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only


Twisted Men?
Outfit: Male Twisted Hunt Gift

Not Blue Blood:
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Hair: Miriel, Artist Hair - Snow tinted Red
Wings: Facy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent Wings - tinted black
Pose: Long Awkward Pose, Capture
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only



Stop #3: RFyre


Leather Love

Pants: RFyre Twisted Hunt Gift - Black Leather Pants

Not RFyre:
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Hair: Miriel, Artist Hair - Snow tinted Red
Wings: Facy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent Wings - tinted black
Outfit: Blue Blood, Male Twisted Hunt Outfit
Boots: Prozak, Leather Kicks - Black
Pose: Long Awkward Pose, Fantasy-Faepose14
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only



Stop #4: Dare Designs


Flexible Viole(n)t Twist

Outfit (including shoes): Twisted Violet

Not Dare Designs:
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Hair: Nushru, Jasmine - Midnight
Wings: Facy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent Wings - tinted violet
Pose: Long Awkward Pose, Fantasy-Faepose15
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only



Stop #5: Self Expressions


Male Nightmares

Outfit: Nightmares set for Men

Not Self Expressions:
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Hair: Nushru, Jasmine - Midnight
Wings: Facy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent Wings - tinted black
Boots: M'z, Strap Long Boots
Pose: Long Awkward Pose, Fantasy-Faepose1
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only


Female Nightmares

Outfit: Nightmares set for Women

Not Self Expressions:
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Hair: Nushru, Jasmine - Midnight
Wings: Facy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent Wings - tinted black
Boots: M'z, Strap Long Boots
Pose: Long Awkward Pose, Fantasy-Faepose1
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only




Stop #6: Stringer Mausoleum


Viole(n)t Demonic Dreams

Claws, Horns, Spine Terrors, and Tail: Twisted Nightmare Demon

Not Stringer Mausoleum:
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Hair: Nushru, Jasmine - Midnight
Wings: Facy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent Wings - tinted black
Outfit: Self Expressions, Nightmares set for Women
Boots: M'z, Strap Long Boots
Pose: Long Awkward Pose, Fantasy, Voila
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only



Stop 7 Unique Needs!
A store so awesome I had to take TWO pictures to take in the whole set!


Silver Bone Whip (has wear and holster gestures)
Basic Handcuff Earrings
Basic Handcuffs on Hip
Twisted Belt 2009
Twisted Jump Boots

Not Unique Needs!:
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Hair: Nushru, Jasmine - Midnight
Wings: Facy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent Wings - tinted black
Outfit: Self Expressions, Nightmares set for Women (no skirt)
Pose: 10 (didn't record pose); 11 *MM* Model Pose 3
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only



Stop 8 Nocturnal Gothic Designs


Dearly Departed

Coffin (opens and closes)

Not Nocturnal Gothic Designs:
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Hair: Nushru, Jasmine - Midnight
Wings: Facy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent Wings - tinted black
Dress and Stockings: Blue Blood, Female Twisted Hunt Gift
Boots: M'z, Strap Long Boots - Black
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only



Stop 9: Burning Chrome


Marching To A Different Mechanic

Metal Arms
Spinal
Forehead Piercings
Mini Twisted Top Hat
Vivian Spikes (hair)

Not Burning Chrome:
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Hair: Nushru, Jasmine - Midnight
Wings: Facy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent Wings - tinted black
Stockings and Top: Blue Blood, Female Twisted Hunt Gift
Pants: House of RFyre, Black Leather Pants
Boots: M'z, Strap Long Boots - Black
Pose: Diesel Works, Dyna8
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only



Stop 10: Nightshade Designs


MenSwear

Outfit: Herr Charmant for Twisted Hunt

Not Nightshade Designs
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Hair: DV8, Argon - Atomic Orangee
Wings: Facy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent Wings - tinted black
Stockings and Top: Blue Blood, Female Twisted Hunt Gift
Pants: House of RFyre, Black Leather Pants
Boots: M'z, Strap Long Boots - Black
Pose: Diesel Works, Dyna9
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only


WomenSwear Too

Outfit: Charmant for Twisted Hunt

Not Nightshade Designs
Eyes: Miriel, Diamond
Skin: GP, Petal [Dark] April - Rainbow 2
Ears: Illusion, Fairy Ears
Hair: DV8, Argon - Atomic Orangee
Wings: Facy Fairy, Azarelle Iridescent Wings - tinted black
Stockings and Top: Blue Blood, Female Twisted Hunt Gift
Pants: House of RFyre, Black Leather Pants
Boots: M'z, Strap Long Boots - Black
Pose: Diesel Works, Dyna3
Background Texture: Fortunas' Design, Chaos Cloud Dark - tinted Dark Grey

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping only

Leapfrogging

Second life is an interesting place, especially when it comes to things like fashion, photography, and landscaping. Anything you want to find, you can.

As I've mentioned before, I was introduced to SL by a Dolly, and while I've never much felt LIKE a dolly, I can understand the appeal of being beautiful and cherished and kept save in a glass jar.

Description: Deoridhe, in red, her heart pierced by an arrow, under a glass doll jar on a stand.

A lot of my SL experiences are confluences of influences. Azriel, of Falln Angel Creations, gives out a heart to his group members. This is shortly after Tomoyuki showed me a fantastic outfit he'd just picked up from Rabbit Kiss (aka Umi Usagi) and inspired me to do likewise. And then, wearing my dolly-pretty dress and my arrowed heart, I remembered a placed that Rowanhad taken me early in my introduction to SL - an entire dolly extravaganza complete with doll stands.

I suppose, in some ways, you could say this was the beginning of what I'll later call my "photoshoots," which are extended sessions of posing and photographing a particular outfit and hairstyle against a thematic and often beautiful background. I'm still working on it, but for a point of amusement, let's compare this early example of a photoshoot to one from my absolute latest.

Description: Deoridhe in a cream colored gown in front of a seascape.

I think you can see the differences pretty quickly.

I chose the one from my latest which has a lot of views, and which also was the one I had to do the most waiting and modifying for. Since this is underwater, I played with the water settings more than I normally do, adding some atmosphere. Also, the skirt is connected to the chest, which means in that pose it went flying off to one side without being shifted significantly. Each time I do a "shoot," it seems, I begin to learn something new about how to edit prims while in pose to make things look better.

I also had to wait for that docile looking jellyfish in the background to get into position and disguise the poseballs in place there.

One of the banes of my slandscape photography is poseballs. They hardly ever look good or blend in, and often cropping to remove them crops other stuff you might want to keep! I really wish people would come up with more decorative ways to place them - making them pillows, or fountains of bubbles - or something else. The text over them vanishes in photography, but the poseballs remain to taunt me like evil taunting things.

No Place Like Home

Briefly, I was honored by a good friend Marya to have some land on her Open Space to make a home for myself.

I'm a novice builder, but fond of orbs and circular shapes in my building, and this reflected itself in the home I eventually build that I really like to this day, though I've no real place to rez it.

Description: Partial orb home with platforms in rainbow colors on top, with a fish tank visible.

I conceived of the platform levels as dance floors, though I never actually managed to throw a party. The fish tank conceals the entrance to the home itself - you literally walk through it and fall down inside.

Description: View from above, the rainbow pattern of the platforms clearly visible. The purple covers the red.

I had fun placing the platforms, but they are very prim-heavy. I have high hopes of replicating them using sculpty prims and thus decreasing the prim count!

Description: A view inside the first level, where there is a platform allowing the water to fall down on all sides above a staircase.

When you drop down, you land on a platform, then can drop over the edge of it to the first floor down. That's also where the spiral staircase down begins. I never filled int his floor, but the purpose was for a more public area that still remained private, like a living room, but I never had the prims to fill it.

Description: A view inside the second level down, where the fountain ends in a pool.

This is the second floor down, essentially my bedroom, where I kept my stand for changing on. Likewise, I never had the prims to put in a bed, but if I ever do it shall go here.

The pool actually conceals the third floor down, which I always wanted to make over as an underwater paradise.

Someday I hope to have the land and primcount to truly do it justice. I'm also thinking of making it soap-bubble like, but I need some time and patience to create the textures for that but make them non-transparent.

I've Falln and I Can't Get Out

I mentioned chat groups in my previous post, but didn't talk about the one I'm most active in - Falln's Angels. The group associated with Falln Angel Creations, Falln's Angels thrives on random, spammy chat across a wide variety of topics which is frequently silly.

I adore it.

I had no idea the first time I teleported into Falln's main store how central it would become to my SL social life. I semi-regularly simply hang out there, and at one of these times I was playing with some of the objects Azriel (the owner and creator of Falln Angel Creations) made and left out for use and sale.

Description: A blond figure in a red dress, Deo, is stabbed through the chest on the lower step of a dais. Two thrones are at the top, the right, red one occupied by Azriel. A figure, Grrr, also hangs from a meathook to the right.

Hanging from one of the tastefully-done meat hooks is Graverobber from the Repo: The Genetic Opera movie. I call him Grrrrrrr. On the red throne is Azriel, likely with his nose in Photoshop. The blue throne is for Tomoyuki, Az's partner and the owner of Little Boy Blue.

I wandered in while they were busy in other windows, or in instant messages,a nd tried out the "murder scene" pose Az has on his dais. This proved to be a risky choice, since Grrrr is fond of the no-longer-living.

Description: The stabbed figure, Deo, on the dais from a different perspective and wearing a purple dress now. The figure from the meathook, Grrrr, is now straddling Deo. A figure in black and white with angel wings, Xaethriel, overlooks by the glass coffin.

(Yes, I changed clothes. In the other dress my panties were showing. Shush.) Next thing I know, I've got a Grrr on me waiting for the last of the blood to trickle out. Luckily for me, Xae came and rescued me before I became another of Grrr's mindless, adoring Harem of the Dead.

Description: Deo is now standing up in her pretty dress. Grr is looking forlorn and Xae is looking triumphant.

There are loads of other pictures on my Flickr, but how many images of the same general scene can you put in a post before people start crying, "Off with her head"?