The Watcher in the Forest and the Taur Parade

It’s that time of year again, the Fairelands are accessible to the Mortal realm, she has mixed feelings about it though. They ramble all through the land wandering here and there, sometimes inadvertently trampling things in their haste to explore and purchase Faire trinkets.

The positive side of their visiting however is the energy they bring with them. From the little squeals and smiles as they see something they find beautiful, or the thrill of a purchase that brings them joy, all the way up to their noisy parties. All of this positive energy combined, by the time they depart, it will be enough to sustain the Fairelands until they return in a year’s time.

One of their regular activities she likes to watch is the Centaurs Parade. Although these days it’s not just Centaurs, they have a whole menagerie of creatures making up their numbers.

For a long time they stand, waiting as their kin gather and their numbers grow, ready for their procession through the Forest. She must depart before they do though, that’s when she might be spotted, by one of the Taurs or more likely one of the Mortal observers also watching.

Watcher Outfit Credits:

  • Face Tattoo: PunkinBlend- Hatmehyt Tattoo Evo X (Green) – Faire Store
  • Skin Overlay: [Cubic Cherry] {Abyss} suit darkness JADE v2 (bom) – Faire Store
  • Skin: Druid [xx]+FGInc.+ Primal Spell (Event Item only)
  • Arm Tattoo layer: ~FHHS~ Growth- FLOWERS tint 100% – Faire Store
  • Clothing: Fairy Mermaid Outfit – Green – Crious Kitties – Faire Store
  • Necklace: Portal: Rana Necklace – Faire Store
  • Hair: Raven Bell – Nereid Hair –Faire Store
  • Pose: Astalianda – Moon Magic 2 – Faire Store

The Wiki Wizzard of Whispering Pages

Apparently Humans have these things called “Wiki”s, they’re meant to answer basic or frequently asked questions about a particular subject, in theory.

This Wizards answers are always right however, though she doesn’t know where they come from. She just opens one of her books at random and the answer to somebody’s question will just be there, even if she didn’t entirely understand what they were asking. Sounds great you may think, she knows everything, but alas no. None of her books will provide such answers to her own questions or questions about her. This is obviously most frustrating, things like “Where will my next meal come from?” would be very useful to know for a wandering Wizard, so she doesn’t walk a day’s journey in the wrong direction. The books do seem to impose certain other caveats too, if someone wealthy asks “Where can I get gold?”  it’ll likely say “You’ve got enough!” if a person in need were to ask, it would provide advice for them to earn it within their capabilities. So they don’t always provide the answers people wanted, more what they needed. This sometimes resulted in angry people, or grateful people that would provide her with dinner and a bed for a night or two.

What question would you ask?

(Inspired by a comment by Amaya in the Fantasy Faire Discord)

Credits:

Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Whispering%20Pages/38/128/77

Faire Folk: Slick Salvage at Plankbarrow  Harbor

They call her “Slick” not because she’s particularly cool, fast or some shallow reason, it’s simply because her tail scales have a rainbow pattern similar to how the water goes when human boats pass by. It’s not a bad thing though, in a way it gives her an advantage. Her kin won’t swim near the wrecks of the human vessels for fear of getting their shiny scales stained. For her though that’s not a problem and it means she can search the wrecks for salvage in peace. Certainly the murky water of the old harbour isn’t pleasant, but the rewards of salvage can make it worthwhile. She’s heard a fresh wreck has been dropped in the watery junkyard, so it’s time to explore.

Credits:

  • Tail: Zen Child Designs // Brine – Odyssey Mer Tail Maitreya 1.1 – Faire Store
  • Tail Texture: Brine – Nouveau for Odyssey Mer Tail RFL Oil Slick – Faire Store
  • Arm Tatto: ~FHHS~ Growth-Stems tint black 100% – Faire Store
  • Hands Tattoo: ~FHHS~ Growth- FINGERS tint black 100% – Faire Store
  • Shoulder & Body Tatto: [n.a.p] Leaves Embrace – Faire Store
  • Face Tattoo: [n.a.p] Wildwood Paints v2 – Faire Store
  • Bra: Chorrai – Acantha (Legacy body version worn on Maitreya which fits fine) – Faire Store
  • Hair: Raven Bell – Luxe Hair –Faire Store
  • Skin: Draco [xx]+FGInc.+ Silver PG. – Faire Store

Location: Plankbarrow Harbor

The Forest Huntress

Standing on the lip of the valley the huntress raised her arms wide, looking to the sky and prayed to the God of the Sun and the Goddess of the forests for a successful hunt this day.

Credits:

(Note the Body Tattoo come in plain white for tinting to your choice of colour.)

Reflecting in The Old Tunnels

Swimming through these old tunnels always makes her think about all the people that must have passed through here before the water rose. Her people have seen the rusted remains of the vehicles that ran on the rails in ancient times past, it always makes her reflective of what the world was like back then. Where were they going to and where from? It must have been awfully noisy compared to the quiet stillness that fills them now. Now it’s just a safe playground for young Mers due to the narrow entrances large predators can’t enter.

Credits:

  • Tail:Riptide Mermaid Tail (Maitreya) + {Aii & Ego} – Faire Store
  • Tail Skin: [Floro] Abyssal Tail Mod – Faire Store
  • Tattoo: [Floro] Abyssal Flesh – Arms Purple – Faire Store
  • Tattoo: [Floro] Abyssal Flesh – Chest and Neck Purple – Faire Store
  • Head: BeSpoke – Deep Sea Siren – Head (f) (EVO X) – Faire Store
  • Body & Head Skin: BeSpoke – Deep Sea Siren (F) EVO X – Andiron – Faire Store
  • Bra: :: ANTAYA :: Coral bra FATPACK – Faire Store
  • Hair: Azren Hair – Shaved –Raven Bell Faire Store

A Night at The Circus

Tonight was the Jail n Bail of the Lindens and Moles. The Lindens having been dragged off to perform in the Circus need to be bought back to keep our grid running! They had some insane prizes up for auction; a Full Region paid for a year and Family Name Change, which I’ve never heard of, but you were bidding on a Custom Last name of yourself and 10 invited friends! That sold for 100K L$ (406 USD / £386), which when you work it out and divide it up by 11 names..that was quite a steal and I wish I’d had the nerve to bid!

A last minute update… the Lindens have extended the Faire by 2 days, so it will now stay open until the 7th of May.

Credits:

Fantasy Faire 2024 Opens: Faire Views

The Fantasay Faire 2024 has opened! I have for you simply a few views I saw on my first wanderings through the Faire for starters. As with previous years, there’s always a Wow factor around any corner. I didn’t get all the way around the Faire in my available time, so this is just a fraction of what you’ll see as you explore and I’ll have a lot more to show you.

Harvest Home
Hope Wish
Ogham Grove
Ondheim
PlankBarrow Harbor
Samsara

Main Fantasy Faire Website: https://fantasyfairesl.wordpress.com/

Store List: https://fantasyfairesl.wordpress.com/store-list-2024/

Preparing for the Faire

In the days leading up to the Faire things get pretty busy for the Merchants, finishing items, making posters and putting it all in thier booths. The other thing they do is add an item or two to the Blogger room. For the Bloggers it’s a time of anticipation, we’ve seen WIP photos, what final gems are we going to get this year? Also there’s the question of an outfit for Faire exploring, preferrably made from Faire items. So what I’m showing you today is a mix of new stuff from the blogger room that you’ll be able to buy this year and some purchased items from last years Faire.

Credits:

Faire Items:
(Links will be provided when Fantasy Faire opens on the 18th)

  • Face Tattoo (white flecks) : K9nnor – [EVOX] Soft Spots – Faire Store
  • Face Tattoo (eyeshadow) : XS Primal EvoX Thunder Veins – 1 – Black – Faire Store
  • Arm Tattoos: ~FHHS~ Growth- DOTS tint black 100% – Faire Store
  • Arm Tattoos: ~FHHS~ Growth- STEMS tint black 100% – Faire Store
  • Hand Tattoos: ~FHHS~ Growth- FINGERS tint black 100% – Faire Store
  • Hair: Raven Bell – Magnolia Hair ~Shimmer~ + [Fantasy] –Faire Store
  • Backdrop: Folklore & Fable : The Arwen Fantasy Faire Garden House 24 – Faire Store

Faire 2023 Items:

  • Dress: KD Lua ripped dress Lara
  • Body Tatto: Artoos Ink – Embrace of the Dragon 70 – SL Tattoo Layer BOM
  • Boots: UNA. Dove Boots

The Faire is getting closer…

The Mysts are slowly parting, the Fairelands approach and as they do, the Chroniclers Emblem glows brighter. Surrounded by her notes and books telling the tales of past Faire times she waits.

Are you ready for the arrival of The Faire? Fantasy Faire 2024 arrives on the 18th of April, will you be ready?

Official Press Release

Credits:

  • Outfit:.Silvery K..:Steam Eques
  • Book: PIXEL BOX – Library Book – The Poet for arm R
  • Desk: DRD – Bloodcroft Castle – Desk
  • Emblem: Fairelands Quest HUD box 2023

End of an Era : Linden Lab sponsorship of Draxtor comes to an end.

Earlier this week I received an email from Draxtor’s occasional update newsletter, which announced that his contract with Linden Lab comes to an end this month. I saw this as a very sad day.

Draxtor Depres (aka Bernard Drax in the real world), has been creating media of various types in our beloved virtual world for as long as I have been in Second Life and long before that.

Drax had a very unique arrangement with Linden Lab, a retainer with final cut approval. This gave him the freedom to create insightful, honest and entertaining content without corporate influence. He described his contract with the Lab in an interview with me in April 2021:

“I do Linden Lab contracting work where I produce weekly videos highlighting destinations, creations and creative individuals in personal profile style videos. In that sense you could see me as influencer, since I am on the payroll of Linden Lab AND showcasing the best of the platform. I don’t have a problem with that classification (influencer) however I would like to add that with my specific contract I have tremendous freedom to choose topics and the way I visually present them.
It is maybe a bit like working for the local tourism agency of country XYZ where you LOVE all the stuff the locals do and you tell stories how they do it!”

I believe Drax’s content, along with the likes of Strawberry Singh, has significantly influenced a change in the internet search results for “second life”. I remember when such a search would return merely griefer videos and negative stereotype tropes (to use Drax’s term), now it returns a much more positively relevant collection of results.

Here I had to stop myself for a moment because this was starting to sound like an obituary. While this is not a death, I’d say it’s definitely a loss to the Second Life community. Draxtor intends to continue making Second Life videos of various types, read his announcement linked below for more details on his plans for the future.

When the Second Life Book Club launched I started attending quite regularly. I had great fun creating avatar looks that were inspired by the book being discussed.

A SciFi outfit I put together for SecondLife Bookclub

A Flickr Album of my photos taken at the Second Life Book Club: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmV7mL23

Second Life YouTube (largely populated with Draxtor content)

Draxtor’s YouTube

If you want to help support Draxtor to continue making his content, have a read of his announcement below. Where you will also see a selection of his videos, he picked one for each of his time with Linden Lab.

Draxtor’s announcement: https://draxtor.substack.com/p/thank-you-linden-lab-for-a-good-run

My blog post when I interviewed Draxtor: https://avadelaney.co.uk/musings/avatars-brands-and-personas/

Post header image taken at the Second Life Book Club 19th May 2021.