Category: Sci-fi

Vortex of Lust – Part 1

I came across Vortex of Lust through a post in the Cyber Alliance discord server,which included the description below.

The refugium known as the Vortex has a wide variety of geographic features, from the familiar to the fantastic.

The centre of it all, both proverbially and literally, is the Free Market, which rests on a floating platform anchored to a derelict mass of rock that floats above the surface.
Above the Free Market the Battleship Aurora rests collided with another splinter of levitating rock, hosting a portal to the Floating Islands, a place of beauty and mystery high above the Vortex.
The surface is a wild and dangerous place with frozen seas, endless mazes of tunnels, treacherous swamps and far more treacherous inhabitants. Travelers to the surface should be well prepared.

This description had me very intrigued and the images more so. The locations appear to range from steampunk through urban and into cyberpunk, dressing for this place could be a challenge!

Given the mention of battleships and ice lakes I thought a full body protective suit seemed the best option, along with a few survival accessories.

First view on arrival

I like a clear uncluttered landing point with clear signage and as little surplus stuff as possible. The Vortex has this, however it also has a lot of information to be shared prior to entering the RP area. Most of this relates to the HUD used here, which auto-attaches as soon as you accept the regions Experience permissions. There is a new players area that talks you through it all. Once you go through there you are guided to an are that tells you about the multiple locations here.

The New Player Area

The different locations

You leave this are via the Vortex at the centre.

You emerge through the Vortex into a new area that feels quite steampunkish at first glance.

A rather impressive portal
You arrive here through the Vortex

This is the area known as  Central Market. Despite modern aspects like the grage door and submarine, inside things are quite antique or industrial.

Behind the garage door is a study type room with old book cases and antique desk, but with a full tech suite upstairs.

Heading over to the submarine it only seems to serve one purpose, the local jail.

Around the corner I find signposted The Jolly Harbor Tavern and The Surface, I take the Tavern first. I reminds me of Drune Diesel in atmosphere for some reason, maybe that’s due to the piano in the corner, but looks like an interesting place to roleplay.

Now to explore in the other direction towards “The Surface”, following the signs direction I see a crashed plane and crane above some kind of gantry.

There’s also a buildy to the left that I thought I’d check out first, I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of the machinery is, but the other peice of hardware in the room hints at some not-so-innocent activities.

Carrying on my journey I head towards the gantry to see what awaits, a lift that descent to the surface.

At the bottom is an interesting place that looks like it’ll be fun to explore, you can see in the first snap that the place extends quite some distance before the view is obstructed by trees, which instantly makes it feel more mysterios.

Since the Central Market is essentially in the middle of the region, in terms of elevation, there’s also the airship Aurora to be explored above. There is a similar lift next to the submarine that takes you there.

I’ll show you some more of the Surface and Aurora roleplay areas in Part 2.

Click Here for Part 2!

Landing point: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Vortex%20of%20Lust/59/124/3017

Website: https://www.vortex-of-lust.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/6n7VmeRKtB

Outfit Credits:

This post was featured on the SecondLife Community Blog on 6th August 2021.

The Cyber Alliance

The Cyber Alliance (in SecondLife, not related to the RL ones involved with cyber security) is a growing group of individuals and communities wanting to promote and create roleplay between different Sci-Fi and Cyberpunk themed groups and locations scattered throughout SecondLife. It started with a Discord server and Inworld SecondLife group started by Jadzia (Boont Baphomet) in April 2021. Jadzia is one of the founder members of Hellas Platina that I have mentioned before, born out of the closure of Helix City.
Jadzia describes the goals of the Alliance as folows:
[10:19:53] Jadzia (Boont Baphomet): 1. To encourage RP and help RP'ers find eachother in the cyberpunk/sci-fi genres. The group is a place to seek out RP situations with other players
[10:20:30] Jadzia (Boont Baphomet): 2. A place for small sims and builders/creators to advertise their spaces and events so that RP'ers can learn about things going on in these specific realms
[10:21:38] Jadzia (Boont Baphomet): 3. Lastly, and most ambitiously, a long term plan for creating a cross-sim 'world' that we can all engage in; finding ways to connect our lore, do missions and quests between places.
[10:22:05] Jadzia (Boont Baphomet): Really it's all about sims helping sims and encouraging RP
Anyone from other Sci-fi and Cyberpunk roleplays groups are invited and welcome to join the server or inworld group and get involved. Now it has grown to have it’s own Website,Flickr gallery and an inworld location is also in the works I’m told.

So far the Alliance includes roleplayers from the following communities:

(Based on list of Worlds on the CyberAlliance website and subject to change.)

Insilico – Buddha Bowl & Beyond

The arrival point looked a little confusing at first, just loads of hovering stuff everywhere. After accidentally clicking on one and ending up I don’t know where, I came back and took a proper look. It’s a rather cool map and with the place covering 4 Regions I think it’ll come in handy!

I clicked on the closest map point labelled “07 Buddah Bowl” and sure enough that’s where I arrived and found it’s a rather cool looking bar.

Buddah Bowl

This area is rather huge and empty feeling, so was good to have some compay on this exploration.

On this particular visit I’m accompanied by my dear friend Joyouous Destiny.

Not knowing where to go next, it seemed sensible to take the only direction sign in sight, which got us nowhere. However  I think this because it lead to a rental. There’s a number of these doors dotted about the place and some of them clearly residences.

We saw a couple of shops as we walked, but they weren’t interactive, just scenery.

Then we came to somewhere that did sound much more iteresting, a place called “Cyber Doc”.

In here was all kinds of intersting but rather creepy equipment.

Coming out the “Doctors” there’s a few intruiging places I will have to come back to explore, since Joy was tempted by a lift.

This brought us up onto an extensive network of suspended gangways to explore, that reminded me very much of those found in the Cyberpunk varieties of Drune.

From up here you can see a lot of the city and other spots to visit, as well as some unusual artwork.

Below one of the walkways is a small oasis of greenery among all the steel and glass. I just had to go down and explore.

At the bottom of another set of stairs I found a bar, with a very cool looking animated android serving the drinks.

This is just one small peek at Insilico, there’s lots more city to explore down below, I’ll have to go back and do that soon. Definitely a place any sci-fi fan should take a trip to visit.

Landing point: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/INSILICO/33/182/522

Website: https://www.insilico.online/

Credits:

Drune – Diesel City

Another Drune installation is here and what a difference it is! A mix of Steampunk but with some newer tech thrown in. Just looking at the vehicles parked on the streets it’s quite a range from the Batmobile to worn out hovercars. It feels like your walking through multiple genres and time periods at once, but it really works.

The landing point is very appropriately located in an airship, I had an explore of the docking area building before takig the elevator down to the ground level.

Arrival in Airship bar

Like other Drune builds there are lots of lights everywhere, but not this time the neon of the cyberpunk styles of the past incarnations. There’s lots of shiny metal everywhere that reflects the light and making the place feel brighter, but then darker in the shadowy areas. Lots of the buildings are accessible and not just facades, as we’ve come to expect form a Drune build, attention to detail.

When you step out the tunnel from the elevator, you come to the first of many vehicles lining the streets. I did my usual routine of making a circuit of the streets to get my bearings and found some surprises.

By the time I reached the garae I was only about a quarter of the way around the block. I see some steps and explore and it’s here that I find there appears to be two levels of roads, since I found myself back on tarmac at the top.

Then I started seeing how many doors would actually open, as expected of Drune build, plenty.

Radio station – City Radio

Cinema

Private investigator – Deckard & Associates

Pub – The Garrison

Club – Old Calabar

Hotel – Cortez

One thing I did notice was absence of an aerial walkway area that have been included in the last two cyberpunk builds. Maybe simply because it wouldn’t have been appropriate in 1940’s era, but then neither would hovercars. Overall another fantastic build that anyone should visit and explore, whatever genre you’re into.

One last note a quiet little waterfront spot I found for those that enjoy misty sunsets, if you can find your way there (when using Region Shared Environment).

Landing Point: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Blissful%20Summer/204/123/2835

Credits:

Usually I like to wear something in-theme when exploring places, I really wasn’t sure what would class as DieselPunk. So it’s even more of a mix and match than normal this time!

Patiently Blue

I wore a rather unusual (for me) outfit to the SL Book Club a little while ago. Since a few people seemed to like it,I thought I’d re-shoot it to show the look off better.

Outfit Credits:

Location: Cocoon  Environment setting: Psycho Strobe!

 

Mischief in The Lab

Ava creeps around the lab looking for anything potentiality valuable she might be able to steal and sell at whatever place they all end up at after the evacuation. She finds an assortment of vials that look interesting and stuffs it into her bag. She had worn white in the absence of a lab coat so at first-glance she might be overlooked and the sheerness of it might distract those that gave a Second-look, that would give her at least a moment to escape.

Why she had bothered she wasn’t sure, everyone else will be in too much of a panic to care about a pilfering Scav.

She tries to be careful as she goes round, not to knock over any of the test tubes and vials on the work benches, since there had been protective masks hung outside which she’d donned out of self-preservation sense.

On the way out a terminal that has been left unlocked catches her eye. She looks around for a flash drive in one of the desks and finding one she sits and waits as a large directory labelled “Classified Projects” downloads.

Credits:

Cyber Fair 2021 items:

  • Metallic Legs & Arms:[StudioNova] METAL Implants
  • Skirt & Jacket: [StudioNova] Nova Hottie Set – 8
  • Mask:[UD] GasX Mask – Unisex 1
  • Shoes:GUTCHI – SuperBoots MK94 “White”

Other items:

Location: The Varuna Project(Location Closed 12th March 2021)

Last Descent at Varuna Project.

I joined a group of Roleplayers taking part in a “Mineshaft rescue” organised roleplay at the Varuna Project on 6th of March.

I went along just to watch, OOC (Out of Character) to see what they were getting up to, since it was the first I’d been able to attend. I wish now I had joined in IC, since little did I know, it would have been my last opportunity to RP there.

This morning Friday 12th March,(technically Thursday night in SL), it was announced in the Varuna Project Discord server that the build would be closing and was going to be dismantled over the coming weekend.

As I mentioned in previous posts I’d rank this place up alongside Hangars Liquides and the Drune Cyberpunk builds in terms of quality and attention to detail. So it is such a shame to see it closing,but good things don’t last forever sadly.

If you have the time, I’d suggest dropping by to have a look at this masterpiece before it’s gone.

Landing point:Location Closed 12th March 2021

Varuna Project Flickr

My previous posts featuring Varuna Project :

 

Cyber Fair 2021 Event

Last year I went to the Cyberpunk shopping event for the first time and bought a few nice things, that I’m still wearing and some featured in a recent post.

Cyber Fair 2021 is opening tomorrow (4th March) and I’m really looking forward to it!

I thought I’d do a post featuring as many of the items from last year as possible, before I go on another shopping spree!

Cyber Fair Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ACCESS%202/124/123/1504

Outfit Credits:

  • Breatplate: Novianna Tops by :[Petrichor]: (Cyberpunk 2020)
  • Wrist cuffs: Cainva Modulators by :[Petrichor]: (Cyberpunk 2020)
  • Eye augment: Astara – Cyber Eye Augment by ASTRA (Cyberpunk 2020)
  • Collar: ANTINATURAL[+] Specter Collar / SILVER (Cyberpunk 2020)

The rest:

Photo Location: Cocoon http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife//32/161/3013

Time for a swim

Having been caught and negotiating her release on her last attempt to investigate the restricted areas of the research facility, Ava decides to try a different approach.

If she can’t get through the indoor tunnels, why not try the outside? Sure it was dark and cold outside, but there were certainly no guards out there, so long as you didn’t count the sharks.

So Ava suits up in her scavenger gear, a bodysuit that will keep her warm and dry during her little expedition, along with a helmet that had seen better days. Hopefully her trip will pay off and she can trade for a newer one.

She crouches on the outside of the hatch for a moment making sure it was secure and to check her bearings before heading down into the depths.

Review post of the location: The Varuna Project

Outfit credits:

Related Posts:

Morning Caffeine

Ava slowly turns on the pole as her dancing shift comes to an end she flips her legs up and looks down to count the tips scattered on the podium below. Her eyes sparkle behind her visor as she sees several high value notes lying there. She scoops those up quickly and tucks them away before the greedy owner sees, it’s been a good night indeed! Flipping back down she collects the rest of the money.

With a wave to the other staff she wanders out the club as she is, not bothering with a coat since the artificial atmosphere keeps the whole place comfortably warm. She just taps a button on her top making it no longer transparent, not wanting to give the public a free show. She walks across the plexiglass floor to the cafe opposite and orders her usual drink, needing some caffeine before she showers and changes for her day job.

Location:Location Closed 12th March 2021

Review post of location: Varuna Project: Entertainment District

Outfit Credits:

Related Posts: