Rocking The Majestic

After a rather tedious trip to the libary in my last post, I’ve now got some lovely stuff to show you. More from PixelBox, an absolutely gorgeous skin from Fallen Gods and flying ship from En Pointe.

Today’s outfit is the kind of thing you’d often see me in, steampunk style turned rocker.

The photos were taken on my fabulous flying galleon, created by Ketsui Naidoo. If you’re a Fantasy Faire Fan you’ll notice it looks remarkably like the FaireChylde (the venue for many parties), that’s because she made that too! If you want your own, she currently has a 35% sale on here entire store (excluding very new items) for a whole month.

You do need a bit of space for one of these, because that’s the tower of a full-size castle at the bottom of the photo.

  • PIXEL BOX – Bracelete Bad Girl – Mainstore
  • PIXEL BOX – Guardian Angel Crop Top – Mainstore
  • PIXEL BOX – Punk Leather boots Over the knee – Mainstore
  • PIXEL BOX – Steampunk Mini Shorts Leather with hud – Mainstore
  • Skin: Druid [xx]+FGInc.+ Night Enchantment NB/PG – Photo Contest participation prize
  • Lipstick: TREND Maleficent
  • Hair: ***TRUTH VIP Bliss
  • Ship: Majestic Revived by Ketsui Naidoo – Mainstore Arrival Ship Vendor Location

A Trip to The Library

Flambois Academy has a library, of course it does, it’s an Academy. However it doesn’t have quite what the new girl is after, so she’s off to New Babbage Repository For Medical Arts and Science to try and find what she needs. Maybe some extra credit will offset all the trouble she’s been getting into since she arrived.

Outfit Credits:

  • PIXEL BOX – Vintage Dress round collar v2- Mainstore
  • PIXEL BOX – Wizard Witch Hat- Mainstore
  • PIXEL BOX – Heels Marry Jane- Mainstore
  • PIXEL BOX – Steampunk Book – Scientist notes- Mainstore
  • PIXEL BOX – Book of Shadows with blinking eye- Mainstore
  • Hair: Raven Bell – Magnolia Hair – Raven Bell
  • Lips: MoonMakeup-Morrigan Lips – Shop n Hop Gift
  • Eye applier: REPULSE – Necrosis Eyes – Shop & Hop Gift
  • Skin: M&M LeLutka Evo – GHOST – Yvaine – Dark Brow + Frex V1-Moth & Moon

Photo Location: The New Babbage Repository For Medical Arts and Science: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Babbage%20Square/112/226/109

Gothic Vintage from PixelBox – EVERYTHING ON SALE!

PixelBox HAS A SALE ON!

As one of my favourite steampunk/gothic stores, I couldn’t help but to shout about it and put one of their outfits together to show you. In fact they have stuff on sale in multiple places right now. At the Mainstore and on Marketplace they have their Fall Sale where everything is 99L$. On top of that everything at their Halloween Shop & Hop booth is 50% off.

The Halloween Shop & Hop closes on 5th November, but the Mainstore sale doesn’t close until the 15th, so you have plenty of time to grab a bargain!

I think I’ll be bringing you a few more PixelBox outfits in the near future!

Outfit Credits:

  • PIXEL BOX – Gothic Vintage transparent lace garter corset – Mainstore
  • PIXEL BOX – Gothic Vintage Skirt Cage – Mainstore
  • PIXEL BOX – Gothic Vintage Neck Lace Chocker – Mainstore
  • PIXEL BOX – Gothic Vintage Boots Gloves Legwarmers – Mainstore
  • Eye applier: REPULSE – Necrosis Eyes – Shop & Hop Gift
  • Skin: M&M LeLutka Evo – GHOST – Yvaine – Dark Brow + Frex V1-Moth & Moon
  • Hair: Raven Bell – Lavender Hair – From Engine Room
  • Eye Makeup: +KP+ Suffer Eyeshadow Gray – Knife Party
  • Lip gloss: +KP+ Slick Lips // Lel Evo X 5- Knife Party

Marketplace store: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/37394

Shop & Hop booth: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Poppy/236/152/53

Bloody Angels

It is said that on All Hallows Eve the barrier between the realms of the living and the dead is at its thinnest. Who’s to say that other such barriers become thin, perhaps between the realms of Angels and Demons?

Maybe the Angels go and play in Hell, or the Demons in Heaven? Do younger Angels dare each other to go take a selfie in Hell without getting caught? They’d need to dress the part so they don’t stand out. They also have to dim their natural aura so they don’t light the whole place up, which was a skill difficult to master for some.

The Demons really don’t like this game the Angels play, but there’s not much they can do about it. The touch or any physical contact of an Angel will turn most demons to dust like a vampire in the midday sun, even just their aura is painful. All a demon can hope to do is chase them away, or have human slaves attempt to capture and drag them to a crossing point. They did try an assortment of projectile weapons against the Angels, but generally this turned out to be pretty futile.

So while the Angels play their games, the Demons just go torment the Living instead.

Outfit Credits:

Fallen Angel

One of my favourite songs is Wish I Had an Angel by Nightwish, it has some very enticing lyrics and every so often I’m inspired to create an Angel avatar. This time there’s a second reason to create one, the Fallen God & Goddess Contest 2023.

While I was exploring the Renaissance Festival event I thought about how I would stage the photo. I wanted a classic pose, but one that didn’t put me in a position that would obscure the details of the Fallen Gods items. Which was when I came across this gorgeous harp, which was perfect.

Last dance, first kiss
Your touch, my bliss
Beauty always comes with dark thoughts

Wish I Had an Angel, Nightwish

Outfit Credits:

If you want to participate in the Fallen Gods contest, entries are open until 7th October and voting begins on the 9th. Details of how to apply and the rules can be gound on the Fallen Gods Blog.

Centauria Bard Circle

Last night I attended the Bard Circle weekly event held at Centauria, home to the Ancient Order of Centaurs in Second Life.

I’ve written about Centauria before but this was my first visit to the Bard Circle event.

When I arrived about 20 mins into the session it was all very quiet. When I made my presence known, I was greeted warmly (as always at Centauria) and it was explained to me that they were all busy writing. Last night the attendees had been given 15 minutes to write a poem or story on the subject of armour. I chose just to observe and listen. When the time was up, the poems were read out in Voice by either the author (or the event host if the author preferred) as well as being displayed in local chat.

The resulting texts were very entertaining and a few times surprising that some had been able to write so much in such a short time.

The Bard Circle is held each Monday at 1pm SLT at the Centauria Tavern.

You can read the resulting works from last night on the Centauria/Jinx blog: Bard Circle – 18th September 2023.

Header image credit to Tori Landau.

Nostalgia by Cica Ghost

It’s that time again to wander, slightly bemused at what we see, around another wonder by Cica Ghost. This latest creation is called “Nostalgia” as usual it’s best to let the pictures speak for themselves because there is a lot to explore here:

So it’s just as well there’s a few places to sit and enjoy the view.

Landing point: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Mysterious%20Isle/72/55/27

Outfit Credits:

  • Corset: PIXEL BOX – Gothic Vintage transparent lace garter corset – Pixel Box
  • Choker: PIXEL BOX – Gothic Vintage Neck Lace Chocke r- Pixel Box
  • Skirt: PIXEL BOX – Gothic Vintage Skirt Cage – Pixel Box
  • Accessories: PIXEL BOX – Gothic Vintage Boots Gloves Legwarmers – Pixel Box
  • Skin: .::WoW Skins::. Milk ELIANE skin & shape (EVO-X) from WoW Skins
  • Head: LeLUTKA Avalon Head 3.1
  • Hair: Tsveta GIFT – Sintiklia
  • Body: Maitreya 5.1

Return to Goatswood

Exploring the latest version of Goatswood by Hera, a beautiful location in Second Life.

Back in 2019 I wrote about Goatswood, created by Hera, who has created a wide range of stunning locations over the years. What I visited back then was a reinvention of a much older build; now a larger version is back again for us all to enjoy one again.

As before your arrival point is in a rural railway station, but this is not Goatswood itself, it is a place called Mortchester. You must travel to Goatswood by clicking it’s named platform sign, there’s another sign for Houdstead, but for now I’m headed to Goatswood.

Leave the platform through the station building and you emerge onto the main street.

The layout of the village encourages you to head straight down the main street, but I find usually there’s more interesting stuff if you take a less direct route, so I went down the path to the right. This leads you through to the back of the buildings, where you’ll find various animals before arriving back on the street.

It’s these little details that make Hera’s creations and bring them to life, because many of the houses on the streets are empty shells but give the feeling of a busy place.

Where I came out onto the street was adjacent to the Wild Man Inn so I obviously had to investigate.

The inn is the same one as that from my previous visit, which was to be expected with it being the same village. Here though there is a lovely beer garden out the back where you can enjoy a drink or two if the weathers nice.

Leaving the inn back onto the main street you can see how much larger this incarnation of Goatswood really is.

I shall stop my step-by-step wandering here and just show a few of the places you may see when you come to explore for yourself.

This version of Goatswood is much larger than the one I explored in 2019 and is full of little gems of detail to be found as well as places to just chill out with your friends.

I would suggest bringing a lantern or torch with you, in case it’s dark when you visit, putting your environment settings to Midday may allow you to see where you’re going but some of the atmosphere gets lost. I made seperate visits at different times to experience the different atmospheres of day and night.

Outfit Credits:

  • Hair: Hair Tsveta GIFT – Sintiklia
  • Outfit: Lusus Lotte – Lusus

The New Second Life Avatar: Senra has Arrived.

The new Second Life starter avatars are now available and they’re called Senra. Their names are Blake and Jamie.

It isn’t just the avatars that are new though, the “New User Experience” (sign-up) has had a dramatic overhaul, letting you customise your new avatar at the point of registration (see this Second Life University video for more on that), before you even log into the viewer. Previously your only choice was from a selection of complete avatars with no customisation options at all, so this is great progress, if a little late in coming.

This approach will let new Residents see how avatars are put together, allowing the process of customising their new avatar with purchased items to be much less painful.

Existing Residents will now find a folder called Senra in the Library section of their Inventory.

I put together a few avatar looks using solely the Senra items. Some are admittedly better than others, but I wanted to show a range of the different options available for the new starter avatars. I’ve used both the Male & Female versions, so GUYS SCROLL DOWN.

In the Jamie folder you have quite a range of basic avatar components (6 skins, 6 shapes, 9 hairstyles) and a selection of clothing.

  • Senra Jamie – shape 2
  • Senra Jamie – skin – 1
  • Senra Jamie – hair – style 6 – blue
  • Senra Jamie – top – tshirt – black
  • Senra Jamie – bottom – sweatpants – black
  • Senra Jamie – shoes – casual sneakers – white
  • Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Fox%20Den/133/107/34
  • Senra Jamie – shape 5
  • Senra Jamie – skin – 4
  • Senra Jamie – hair – style 4 – black
  • Senra Jamie – bottoms – suit bottom – black
  • Senra Jamie – tops – suit top – white black
  • Senra Jamie – shoes – casual sneakers – white
  • Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Favola/128/112/31
  • Senra Jamie – shape 6
  • Senra Jamie – skin – 3
  • Senra Jamie – hair – style 7 – light blonde
  • Senra Jamie – hair – style 7 – hair base – light brown (she’s a bottle -blonde evidently)
  • Senra Jamie – top – crop top – stripes pink
  • Senra Jamie – bottom – pencil skirt – arcade pink
  • Senra Jamie – shoes – slides – pink
  • Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Grand%20Valley/84/230/23

I know that the face of Barbie looks like a Ken in drag, but that’s the shape of the face and I wanted to leave stuff as it was out of the library.

And onto Blake….or is it just Senra? I opened up the folders and started adding stuff, replacing the Jamie parts with Blake ones and they’re remarkably similar. The Blake body shapes are obviously quite different, but the hair style selections are the same, as is the clothing. I did try to use as many item combinations as possible, but it was tricky after finding Blake had the same warderobe as Jamie.

  • Senra Blake – shape 6
  • Senra Blake – skin – 6
  • Senra Blake – hair – style 5 – black
  • Senra Blake – top – puffer jacket – green
  • Senra Blake – bottom – relaxed jeans – denim black
  • Senra Blake – shoes – canvas low – green
  • Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/WelcomeHub/143/164/25
  • Senra Blake – shape 3
  • Senra Blake – skin – 5
  • Senra Blake – hair – style 3 – black
  • Senra Blake – top – hoodie – blue white red
  • Senra Blake – bottom – shorts – red
  • Senra Blake – bottom – skinny jeans – denim light blue
  • Senra Blake – shoes – slides – blue
  • Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/WelcomeHub/143/164/25

The poses and facial expressions in the photos are those in the included Animation Controller object. It’s good this is there, but there’s no options for choosing animations. This is why they all seem to look deptessed or sad, there’s no option to make them smile.

So in conclusion it an improvement on the Classic system-layer based avatars, that were cutomisable but not mesh, it is an improvement on the previous mesh avatars that you couldn’t customse at all. However the range of options just isn’t there yet.

The best thing to come out of this release is that it can be done at registration, on the website, that’s the major improvement here. They are after all “Starter” avatars and if they were actually really good, people wouldn’t spend money to upgrade them. So for a new Resident they’re much more acceptable, if you already have a mesh body, head and existing warderobe, leave Jamie and Blake in the Library.

Some perspectives from other blogs:

Thoughts on: Return to true Gor: Let’s start with making the meter less dominant

I don’t usually re-blog other people’s posts, I think this may actually be the first time, but this one made me want to.

When I was roleplaying in SL Gor, I really hated the combat element. Not just because I was dreadful at it, but because I like stories and good roleplay allows the creation of great ones which I felt the combat spoiled. I played the local tavern keeper, which gave me a safe place to create those stories, because taverns are traditionally “safe-zones”.

Header image: An old screenshot from 2019 showing a griefer dressed as a Star Wars character,abusing the combat system right outside my tavern in the safe zone.

I’m not sure how I feel about the term “true Gorean”, because Gorean is a fictional term (I’d compare that to calling yourself a Jedi Knight or something) but in this case it refers to role-playing realistically in relation to Gor story-world lore. If the requirement is to have actually read some of the books, then I meet it and what a feat that actually is and shows a players dedication.

I’m glad my old friend Mariko is advocating for a less combat-oriented community, it was a contributing factor to my departure as the nearby panther tribe became more focused on combat than stories.

On the rare occasion I was in the tavern on Friday night or at the weekend you couldn’t concentrate for the noise. I had panther camps on three sides of my location, so there was a ridiculous number of combat meters flooding local chat with messages about who shot who. Which apart from being very annoying, from a story point of view, it was information I’d have no way of knowing from within the tavern compound.

I know meters aren’t going anywhere, too many people like them and non-creative, combat-focused “pew-pewer” players use them to initiate stories by starting fights. It would be nice though if this wasn’t the focus of roleplay in SL Gor. So I invite you to read what Mariko Marchant, a long-time and respected member of the SL Gor community has to say on the matter:

Well if you are a true Gorean and you read some or even all the books of John Norman would you expect that a craftsman, a weapon maker in  a city  would have a document with the standards a weapon should have to be approved? I ask myself, approved by whom? There is no such […]

Return to true Gor: Let’s start with making the meter less dominant