Genre: Props in Play

Genre's sport theme is perfect for adorable accessories, and I have a few fun ones, all of them with animation possibilities. For example - customizable trophies - in gold, silver, and bronze - are being sold by Bliensen + MaiTai. Each comes with two poses - one shown and the other holding it triumphantly over one's head - and one decor version, and they can be bought no-copy and transfer-ok for all of your special sporting events! Texture packs are included so that one can edit the plaque for your own special events. This is the perfect view of my Entice nails, free as a group gift at Genre. I'm wearing the green of a soccer pitch, but there are ones for almost every sport you can think of, six in total! They come scripted to work with SLink, Belleza, Omega, and TMP. The shiny top just visible below my arms )and more visible in pictures below) is from LouLou&Co, comes in eight different colors, and has so many options it makes my head spin: all standard sizes plus Belleza Freya and Isis, Maitreya, SLink Hourglass and Physique, and TMP.

LEA 14: Coexisting Locations

Scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical, one sided and easily processed. Yet every misshappen spark's unseen beauty is greater than its would be judgement.

- RWBY Yellow

Genre: Aerial Silks

A legend of an acrobat using silks in her routine date back to 1959 in a French Circus school, but the earliest elaborate presentation was by Cirque de Soleil in 1996, a show known as 'Quidam'. It's spread incredibly rapidly, the images it creates striking and powerful. Distorted Dreams made a set of four iconic poses for this month's Genre, two hanging high above a stage and two with gentle curls of fabric touching the ground. They're color change by touch through a spectrum of rich colors, and the pose and silks are on two different items - linked but editable - so that you can resize one without the other. I had to do some major editing on some, minor on others, and occasionally the fact that my arms and legs are roughly the same length worked against me - but not badly. The curves are very useful for hooking bodies in and giving them a sense of weight that is critical for these sorts of images to work. Second Life is a world without gravity; it can be applied, but it it ultimately unnecessary. This leads to a curious unreal quality to many acrobatic Second Life images. Distorted Dreams did a good job of giving these silks, and the bodies which hang from them, an appropriate sense of weight.

LEA 11: What Is It to Fall?

The adorable abomination has graduated from pushing against tropes of cute and beautiful always being kind and good and into a trope of it's own. It's a high contrast, wide extremes combined in a single body and somehow co-existing. In many ways, it's the embodiment of chaos - evil wrapped up within an innocent shell. I'm a fan of high contrast, but I'm not sure there's much I can learn from this type of evil; it can only reflect for me my own limited perspective on evil. Cruelty I have some experience with - I have tasted the sweetness of schadenfreude - but my lived experience of evil is extremely limited. Even the cruelest people I have known have had within them a heart of suffering which sought to bring others under it's influence; less evil in the handlebar mustache and cackling sort, though it increases suffering none-the-less. I wonder sometimes if that is why people dislike good so much in narrative; good is seen as facile and shallow with depth reserved for anti-heroes and misunderstood geniuses. Good is also challenging to understand - how do you remain kind in the face of suffering? How do you wrestle with the full weight of your emotions without becoming cruel? These are questions far more difficult than simply combining bows and horns.

Clawtooth Challenge

We Are All Just Walking Each Other Home - Ram Dass

Clawtooth, Doolittle

Bubbles Clawtooth is walking his mother home; a role which falls to many of us, in our turn. In support of him, Cajsa Lilliehook issued a challenge (which Strawberry picked up!) to share a bunch of Clawtooth by Clawtooth hairs, to support him while his time is taken up by life instead of business.

Clawtooth, Angeles

Judgment, from the Self and Others

How do we know how well we have done?

In the wake of another person questioning my qualifications to blog - specifically about them but the point is generalizable - I've been thinking a lot about the kind and quality of feedback people give, and the motivations we have for doing - or not doing - different things.

The focus of Second Life blogging in particular, but a lot of blogging/commentary in general as well, on being upbeat and positive is nothing new. In the business and journalism world, journalists who are critical of a product may well find their access reduced or eliminated by that company, and that sort of punishment for critique is more common than it is not - at least when the target of that critique is powerful. That's why people often target their ire and negativity for people with less power, whether it is social capital or control over access and products. I'll admit to often falling along these lines; rather than critique something I will simply not cover it or say nothing. Usually this is a fairly minor matter - one of the benefits of Second Life is it has very low stakes - but practiced habits become worn in.

Sunday Squee: Victorian Era Candy Creation

The Sunday Squee is about things that make me happy and excited. From books to movies to television shows to podcasts, I'll highlight less commonly known things as a way to share what I love. If you want to join in the Sunday Squee, please link back to me, magnifying both of our joy.

I ran across these via MetaFilter and quickly became entranced, both by the candies themselves and the aesthetic of creating them by hand. Lofty Pursuits is a geeky sweet shop in Florida which makes a wide variety of sweets using Victoria era mechanics and techniques - from hand pulling sugar to make it white, to using hand cranked machines to stamp out glorious drops of sugar. Above is a combination of the history of the fictional babelfish and the creation of sweet representations of that babelfish - along with info on the Vogon Poetry Contrast held in person and online. I love watching the sugar as it cools and becomes stange. Sugar is a Non-Newtonian Fluid, which means it has some of the properties of a solid even when it's liquid - much like glass, it oozes.

LEA 11: Lucifer Morningstar

Since long ago have I known you.

Those lives I remember and you do not.

Together we have seen the light of heaven and the sorrow of falling from grace...

The hollow echo of Hell and the agony of being apart from your beloved.

The truth beyond Heaven and Hell.

The spirit of man -- his run through the fire and his resurrection. 

from Lucifer's Halo by Joseph Michael Linsner

I don't know when I first learned the story of Lucifer. By the time I remember thinking about the story it was a known commodity, the details existing independently of a source. My earliest opinions were not in line with the opinion I felt I should have. Lucifer should be feared, the adults said, and embraced, the youth said, but I was struck by a profound sense of pity. I couldn't imagine loving someone as much as the stories said Lucifer loved God before being cast away by that self-same figure for loving them too much. I wondered, in the simple thoughts of a child, if I could deliberately go to Hell and try to cheer him up. He must be sad, I thought, but I also thought Hell seemed like a terrifying and painful place and I wasn't sure I could or would endure such pain to try to comfort someone who might not even want that.

Genre: Erté Inspired

Genre is winding down, only a day or two left before it closes, so make sure to swing by and pick up some gorgeous Belle Epoche goodies. I'm channeling Erté today, or I'm trying - he's a devilishly difficult artist to rise up to, but this gown by LouLou&Co seemed the perfect vector to try. It has gorgeous drape, in front and in back, which is a mark of Erté's style - arm drapes would have been even more awesome, but I have no idea how they could be rigged! The extremely low-cut back is a step up from Erté's suggestive standards, but I don't think he would have minded. The drape is perfect, however, skimming over the buttocks and along the side of the body to frame each curve. The texturing works well with the mesh, long lines accentuating the fabric folds while lace-like tendrils catch the fabric up at the waist and set the stage for a more demure ankle length skirt to offset the thoroughly scandalous décolletage. It's fully lined, which is important with a dress showing off this much skin, and rigged to fit standard sizes, fitmesh, Belleza, Maitreya, and SLink. The rigging is good - usual skirt breaks with crossed legs, but otherwise no clipping or over-stretching and the textures work well with movement.

Fantasy Faire: Giant Deoridhe

The Fairelands has closed for another year. I may have a few more posts of the echoes of the Fairelands, but these are the last of my pictures of the sims themselves - taken as a small Colossi. Perhaps some year I will see if I can top ten meters, but I quite like my three meter form from Quixotic Dreams. I took advantage of it being Omega-compatible and added skin and eyes from .:Soul:. - one of the two skins available at We <3 RP. Shoes and hair were resized to fit - I just wish I could do the same thing with mesh clothing! Or rigged shoes, for that matter.

Fantasy Faire in Review

I am very happy with how this year's Fantasy Faire went! While we enjoy the lingering days of the faire before they vanish into the mists, I thought I'd reflect on how this year went and explore the sims in both micro and macro.

Fantasy Faire: Creations of the Golden Delta

I made this entire cute scene around the secret prize around Yoga Frogs from meadowWorks (The Golden Delta) - specifically around the secret rare prize of a yoga mat, which was the first prize I received! I couldn't resist a slew more of frogs to play with, and then moved on to the Tomb Traders Gotya (aka gacha) and managed to land uncommon and rare items, but not all the Canopic Jars - I'm in the market if you have duplicates! This ended up being a totally cute and unexpected side trip through what meadowWorks (The Golden Delta) has to offer, and a few of the items which made The Golden Delta incredible.

Fantasy Faire: A Traveller in The Golden Delta

The Golden Delta glows under the sun like a jewel, and the wonders available there are equally glorious. Beginning with one of my favorite hair stores, Wasabi Pills (The Golden Delta), I have this adorable pigtail style which is - glory be of glories - perfect for my enormous ears. So often pony tails are set to be tight to human ears, so it's really a treat to have one which tucks around and under my ears perfectly. I thought they were a cute style for a jiniri, and fit the light and playful style I was going for to contrast with my more somber surroundings. The ends of my hair are tied with simple cords in two colors, and a HUD lets you color them separately. The rough and thick style is echoed in my bracelets from BluPrintz (Twilight Illusion), heavy forearm guards which work as well as jewelry as armor! The color and weight are awesome, and they really add to my overall styling.

Fantasy Faire: The Golden Delta

Sim Sponsor: Fallen Gods Inc. by Alia Baroque (Interview)
Builder: Alia Baroque

Event Sponsors: 
Curious Kitties by Ameshin Yossarian (Interview)
meadowWorks by Garvie Garzo (Interview)
Building Daydreams by AineMari Flanagan (Interview)

Thursday, April 21 at 5:30PM SLT LitFest Region Tour: The Golden Delta
Friday, April 22 at 10AM SLT - LitFest Region Tour: The Golden Delta

Other Stores on Sim:

• Vengeful Threads by Vixn Dagger
• Faida by Titania Halasy
• Velvet Whip by Madmacit Resident
• House of RFyre by Raven Pennyfeather
• Wasabi Pills by MissAllSunday Lemon & Rouge Darcy
• Ankle Biter by Yuna Yuadl
• Musa by Filomena Quinnell
• Arx Loricatus by Dogma Trevellion
• Cygnet’s Dreams by Ann Cygnet
• MacMoragh an Gabha by Fenn MacMoragh
• Zohee’s Mermaid Designs by Zohee Goldshark
• forestfeast by Mikatsuki Matova
• Bare Rose by June Dion
• anc Ltd. by aki69 Resident
• !dM deviousMind by Chandra Meehan

Dark Anubis guards the barriers between worlds, beside himself in dark marble and gold and holding life in his hand.  The sands beyond bake under an unforgiving sun, reeds drying where the river has abandoned them. Ahead, a caravan of camels dig their hooves deep into the shifting ground, the youngest of them monopolizing the slim shade cast by palm trees. A tent is stake out nearby for the driver left to mind them all as the company explores the desert town built around the Nile, a friendly cobra soaking in the sun nearby. This driver has abandoned sand for shore, tired feet and dusty body half submerged in the river as she watches the pretty boats carry fragments of souls into eternity, each of them in their own canopic jar.

Higher above, crowds move between darkly shadowed interiors as the gods watch all without. Basalt Bastets, majestically coiled, stand tall on pillars between larger replications of Sekhmet and Anubis in relief carvings and sandstone statuary, and heads of Wadjet, her winged hood unfurled. Obelisks painted with dark pigments and crowned in gold are supported by pillars depicting Hathor and Ra, long messages on them for the dead. A layer above, crowned Horus guards pillars marked with red ocher and flanked by Sekhmet's lions while on the street scorpions skitter across stone looking for places to hide. Tucked into corners where the sun rarely reaches and walled off from encroaching animal life, fountains are built into layers and planted with exotic flowers.

Through narrow breaks in the wall, glorious Isis presides over the waters with her wings spread wide. Out in flat plazas, shallow pools of water are refreshed as they frame overwhelming obelisks crowned in golden statues of Isis, which are then overshadowed by even taller pyramids carved in basalt with gold lettering and sandstone edges. The main temple is framed with Bastet, mirror and Ankh in hand, while Anubis as both jackal and man stands guard in solemn lines. From here is he best view of the river which flows endlessly outward, and gatherings of both grief and joy play out on the wide patio warmed by fires in shallow bowls and cooled by the river itself. Life and death, hot and cold, fire and water - it is in the place where opposites co-exist that symbiosis may emerge.

( More Golden Delta images here. )

Credits: 

Location: The Golden Delta
Windlight Settings: Sim Default
Water Settings: Sim Default

Photographed by Deoridhe Quandry
Post processing: Cropping

Fantasy Faire: A Traveller in Lucentia

I wanted something dreamy and mystical for Lucentia, and this dress from AiShA (Lucentia) fit the role perfectly. It not only looks like bark and branches, it's literally shaped like a trunk down to the roots at the bottom instead of feet. This is a really fun outfit, with branch style jewelry that comes with it. There is also a mask - that is sold separately but really adds a lot to my red carpet dryad look. The dress part comes rigged in standard sizes; the jewelry is unrigged. What I had the most fun with was finding ways in which poses modified the root system to fit against the world around me. The pointy, ragged edges hint at a larger purchase on the earth without spreading out too far - though I have to admit I would love to see different trunk and root shapes as well; it would be so fun to be able to make a forest out of my friends!

Fantasy Faire: Lucentia

Sim Sponsor: The Looking Glass by Marcus Inkpen & Sharni Azalee (Interview)
Builder: Marcus Inkpen and Sharni Azalee

Friday, April 22 at 5:30PM SLT - LitFest Region Tour: Lucentia
Saturday, April 23 at 10AM SLT - LitFest Region Tour: Lucentia

Other Stores on Sim:

• Boudoir by Precious Restless & Vitabela Dubrovna
• Cole’s Corner by ColeMarie Soleil
• [Gauze] by Yukio Ida
• [][]Trap[][] by Selos Dae
• Dragon Magick Wares by Dragonia DeCuir
• Bliensen + MaiTai by Plurabelle Laszlo
• Unzipped by Destany Laval
• Touryuumon: Maho Sukuroru by Silverfox Rainbow
• Air by Aslan Kish
• .PoshTale. by Clarity Travesty
• Luna Bliss Home & Garden by Luna Bliss
• AiShA by Amandamir Resident
• AlterEgo by Toxxic Rhiannyr
• ~Soraida~ by Dwaina Resident
• Avatar Bizarre by Sredni Eel
• *Figment* by Dreamfantasia Nightfire
• Fallen Arms by SirSprocket Resident

Fantasy Faire: Creations of Lucentia

These are some of the cutest details on the grid, all arranged by the side of an unusually useful teleportation pool. The pool itself is from *Figment* (Lucentia) and comes with a HUD and instructions. I love it just for looks - inky dark with a shiny surface that is continually moving - very magical! The clock and fountain are both adorable accessories - and both actually perfect for being inside a location. Dragon Magick Wares (Lucentia) did fantastic work making delicate and fun accents to any stylish design. Finally, the dragons are rezzable and wearable both, from Bliensen + MaiTai (Lucentia). One of them is a gift from the Tale of Exiles Hunt while the other two are for sale. These are completely adorable, brightly colored with interesting mesh shapes which fit into a variety of places, both as a friend and a decorative element.

Fantasy Faire: A Traveller in Twilight Illusion

Twilight Illusion is a place of contrasts, and a broken angel seemed like a perfect traveller to go through these unforgiving and extreme environments. The demonic angel part could only come from BluPrintz (Twilight Illusion). The horns are part of a gacha - commons get you horns of various colors and the shown rare adds a halo for a really confused creature. The severed wings on my back come in black or white - I chose white but the black is equally well done. Finally, the Cerafina Heels are striking in their focus on just being the heel part, except for a band over the ankle, leaving one in a precarious if pretty situation! There's matching armor, and one of the RFL vendors sells a prism set that includes the heels.