As Ava cracks the last digit of the security code on the door of the facility, she hears footsteps and a voice behind her. “Stop! Raise your hands and turn around!” says the secuity guard. Ava complies slowly with a startled look on her face, convinced that the guards shouldn’t have been passing here for another few minutes.
I found Sindaria via a Scoop.it article that led me through to a Blog post about the Cyberpunk area of Sindaria. At the time of writing my previous post on Sindaria, I hadn’t fully read the said blog post, for which I owe the author an apology for seeming rather dismissive of it,when that wasn’t my intention. Anyway onto my visit to this city. Obviously this time I took the other teleport doorway, the one lit with neon.
The teleporter to New Runner City
This brings me to a large circular platform surrounded by skyscrapers with giant ad boards on them (not actual advertising for inworld stores or services, RP related). The one that stood out the most was one for a place called “Galaxy Glub”, so clearly a place I’d have to look at. Nearby is a shuttle landing platform that I headed for.
The shuttle landing platform
Before I left however I thought I’d mention the eco-dome type structure containing a few trees. A nod to the other theme on the region, like the police car in the Elven Woodland area below. At the shuttle platform I hit the big green call button and a shuttle could be heard approaching and landed next to me and I boarded.
The shuttle system is fairly impressive with quite a number of locations it will take you. I picked a location at random and the shuttle tok off and flew me down to a lower level, rather smoothly.
At the bottom I found myself a short distance from the Galaxy Club so I went to investigate. As Secondlife clubs go this was fairly mediocre, but given the region is meant for RP not parties, this is understandable, much more effort has been spent elsewhere.
Back outside I found a teleport station, again with a reasonable number of destinations. This is good, because as I explored I kept finding more to see, similar to Hangars Liquides, but on a smaller scale. I ended up at what appeard to be the rear of the club, near the entrance to another unidentified building. No signage and a locked door. What was beyond this place however I found more interesting.
Rain. Yes I know sounds weird, but when most people try to add weather to a place in SL, it looks dreadful. Not that it’s something you deliberately look for, but it stood out to me because it was so atmospherically accurate and appropriate to the setting.
Rain, that actualy felt like rain.
To my left I saw what appeared to be pink crosses so went to investigate, I guess even cyberpunks need religion, but this seemed more of the Vegas variety.
Crosses?
Religion, of the neon Vegas variety
Good job I’m wearing gloves, or I’d probably burn my hands
I headed out in the opposite direction to see how far the rain went and where the road led. The rain didn’t extend far, but the road does, lots of winding bends, leading downhill. The further down you go, the scruffier it gets, more proligic garffiti and the like abound.
I didn’t explore much more of the region beyond this, it would take quite some time with the city being so large. Lots of RP locations everywhere and multiple transport methods to find and get to them. If you like your Cyberpunk RP this is a place to definitely check out. Usually I keep my writing about SL, because making comparisons to PC games is usually like comparing chalk and cheese. However while I was writing this peice I saw a video that mentions the much hyped Cyberpunk 2077 game. I haven’t played the game on any platform so I watched it with inerest to hear a critical analysis. It was mentioned a few times that the linear nature of the game didn’t allow for much aesthetic character customisation or Roleplay in what was meant to be an Roleplaying Game. But to me that’s like trying to hammer a nail with the handle of a screwdriver, it’ll work, but isn’t the right tool. You want to aesthetically customise you character to your hearts desire with few constraints and have freeform RP? Sign up to SecondLife and spend the game price on Lindens (at time of writing that’s about $L 16,400) to customize your avie to your hearts desire. Then visit the cyberpunk location of your choice and RP away. Obviously if you want to go round shooting folk and NPC’s as part of a structured plot, it’s not for you, but if your focus is the “RP” in RPG give it a go. Landing Point: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sindaria/58/91/1089 Website: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/sindaria-scarlet-fey The Cyberpunk 2077 video mentioned: Youtube
Outfit:
Suit: Space Cadet Bodysuit by {REC} from Fantasy Faire 2020
Wrist gadget: Cainva Modulators by :[Petrichor]: (I got mine from Cyberpunk 2020 event, but you can buy them on MP at the link above.)
Sindaria – New Runner City as written on a blog post header image that led me here, is a rather misleading title, but not incorrect as I found out. I arrived at the landing point dressed in the sci-fi costume that I wore when exploring The Varune Project, but that didn’t really fit where I ended up.
The arrival point
The landing point is a large uncluttered circular space, just a couple of boards showing suggested attire, brief background and rental info.
Fantasy attire is mandatory, no urban clothing.Out this way
Head through the only exit and you’ll find two teleporters to begin your exploration.
Pick your path
There are two departure teleport doors from the arrival area, a stone arch and a neon-lit, steam surrounded metal door, which really was a rather obvious clue it goes to the cyberpunk location. Anyway I took the stone archway and landed in an medieval style village.
A cottage one way
Village the other way
I headed towards the village, to explore, having a look at a few of the houses, it’s basically a small fishing village.
I went up into the little watchtower to have a better look around the area and was prompted to accept an inworld experie permission to sit my avatar. Upon accepting it, I was teleported to a similar lookout building in a much larger village around a lake. This is where it starts to get impressive, the area is very large, covering multiple regions. Beyond the village there is a beautiful forested area with an orchard then some ruins and rock terrain leading up caves. I started waking around the lakeshore, it’s beautiful from every angle, with lots to see up above.
I then came to the first of the etheral structures to be found here.
In the distance a stone arch with green light on the far side beckons me. This led me into the forested area with so many visual wonders to see.
The first forest clearing
This reminded me so much of the Isle of Shadows Region of Fantasy Faire 2020 I felt I had to include a photo from my Fantasy Faire post here.
Isle of Shadows, Fantasy Faire 2020.
The woodland here however doesn’t develop into a daker tone as you move through it. It reminded me a little bit of Waterfalls and Dreams, (which I must admit I was rather overly critical of the place) but with more forest than water here. I took so many snapshots as I explored this region, so to save overload/boring you like an old holiday slideshow, I’ve just included some of my favourite shots from this area of the forest before I moved on.
I came to another archway and a set of stairs. obviously they both needed exploring. Since there was likely more through the arch, I took the stairs first.
There is an NPC at the top that asks if my soul is pure enough to go through thegats..it would seem not!
Continuing through the arch take me into the orchard I mentione, I would say it’s possibly intended to be harvested by hobbits, since each tree has a little ladder!
An orchard for Hobbits
In the background you can see a ladder going up into a cave, I just had to explore. At the top of the ladder (sit on it to go up) you enter a windy series of caves winding a very long way up. There are some open parts that give you a good view of the region, this my favourite:
Nearly at the top…
When you move on up the steps you come to the gates of a house built on a floating island.
Glad for the waterproff outfit
Then comes the inevitable incident that happens at least once when I’m exploring a place, I fell off something. Into a pond, a pretty pond, but still thigh deep water.
A more shady area of woodland
I took a rather sloshy walk to the shore then followed it through another area of woodland. This place was far more sheltered, the kind of place that would be lovely to walk through on a hot day. Also down here I found something that made me feel less guilty for walking around an Elven Forest region in a spacesuit. A crashed Police hovercar in the river.
This eased my feeling of desecrating a beautiful forest by walking around in a Sci-Fi outfit!
A short walk further along the river brings me to the entrance to a town, which for some reason (perhaps it was the two npc guards), made me think of Ankh-Morpork.
Cpl Nobbs & Sgt Colon perhaps
I really enjoyed exploring this part of Sindaria, it was very relaxing wandering through the pretty landscape on a rainy weekend in the physical world. Anyone liking your Elvish and medieval places should definitely check it out. I’ll probably come back myself to explore the neighbouring region,but properly attired next time. However as the title of the post suggests I’ll be blogging the Sci-Fi cyberpunk part of Sindaria very soon. Landing Point: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sindaria/58/91/1089 Website: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/sindaria-scarlet-fey
Outfit:
Suit: Space Cadet Bodysuit by {REC} from Fantasy Faire 2020
Wrist gadget: Cainva Modulators by :[Petrichor]: (I got mine from Cyberpunk 2020 event, but you can buy them on MP at the link above.)
I decided to follow up on my post about The Varuna Project and explore the parts I missed out, I really didnt do some parts justice on my ast visit.
The main hub area has 4 exits and I only explored two, or at least thought I had, but seems I missed lots out.
Starting at the hub, 2 sets of escalators up from the landing point,the next exit along was according to a sign, “Inspiration Park” so I headed there.
Looked and shrugged basically. (Sorry S..)
It’s an alcove with some seating and a couple of tree-like metal arches. Not particularly inspiring, I’d say it might be a nice quiet place to reflect or think. Reflection Park would suit better.
The 4th alcove round the curved wall wasn’t even signposted, but doesn’t really need it. It’s a transport point.
By the look of it the idea is a small shuttle/submersible that would carry you through tubes to different parts of the complex. In practical inworld terms, it’s a teleport system.
I tried each of the different destinations to see where I ended up.
The Hollows
The hollows North (where the fun booth with vintage diving stuff is)
Entertainnment District
The last place I tried was the Entertainment option, thinking I’d covered it already. How wrong I was!
I arrived and was presented with rubbish bags, literally piled up outside,so this is different..
I stepped out into a tight corridor that appeared to dead end not far away. (The owner later commented to me “There no dead-ends at Varuna”.)
There was a lift door however, so I decended
Which took me down to the very lowest level, that I fell to previously and now know is called The Hollows. Since I’d already explored down there, I came straight back up.
When the door opened again I found an opening opposite, dark and featuring pink neon.
Clearly the corridor with rubbish bags wasn’t a dead end, it was a junction. I had a bit of an investigate, though pink neon is usually a bit of a clue, adult entertainment.
Coming out the continuing corridor that seemed much brighter and very promising.
This corridor opens out into a rather large shopping-mall style area.
Across the main floor from me was a coffee shop called “The Joint”, with a large green neon sign saying “WEED”. I’d suspect their cookies are rather moorish.
Inside was a small dancefloor and the coffee serving counter, nothing too exciting.
Across from The Joint, is a trip club called Voltaic.
Following on into the next room through a circular doorway;
there’s some other vendor booths,but what draws my attention is a train.
Yes of all things, a train car made into a dining area. Maybe there was a nasty accident on the surface and it fell off a bridge or something and got salvaged, who knows.
I took a seat for a moment but the food didn’t look very appetising.
The food didn’t look too appetizing
Outside there is another tunnel, I had a brief look and could see it seemed to go on for quite some distance with various junctions coming off it. Maybe to be explored another day. (I found out later that the private rental accommodation is down the far end, so best I didin’t disturb anyone.)
I took the first door I came to, which was a lift that took me up to a rather classier style of establishment It was as I walked through these rooms I realised my previous mistake. I was directly *above* the club I’d previously visited and had completely missed it!
There’s a fancy piano bar and an observatory bar where the rich could look out at the beautiful oceanscape view while sipping their overpriced drinks.
How I missed the lift outside the club..I don’t know..lured by the neon I guess to see what lay within.
The room I passed on the right on my first visit..
then a cafe
..turns out it isn’t a dead end, there’s a lift at the back of there too.
I began my first post on the Varuna Project with references to Hangars Liquides and Drune, but I didn’t really draw an actual conclusion at the end. I briefly dropped by Hangars Liquides before finishing this post to refresh my memory, glad I did. It reminded me that it’s not quite so shiny (as in darker with more graffiti) as I remembered, especially with EEP implemented now.
The lower levels at Varuna are definitely like Drune in parts, but like Hangars Liquides in others. Having now seen the more luxurious area of the Entertainment District at Varnus Project, the bar put me in mind of the Voodoo club in Drune, but larger and plusher. Whatever your taste or favoured genre of entertainment, you can probably find a setting for it here.
If you didnt take the time to explore The Varuna Project yet, it’s definitely one to be seen. If you did see it already, it’s worth a seconf look.
Region Rating: Adult. Although most video games classed 15 are more graphic than this place. As with Last Chance City, it’s the potential RP and peoples actions that might require the rating.
Outfit:
Suit: Space Cadet Bodysuit by {REC} from Fantasy Faire 2020
Wrist gadget: Cainva Modulators by :[Petrichor]: (I got mine from Cyberpunk 2020 event, but you can buy them on MP at the link above.)
This place is an amazing deep sea sc-fi roleplay location. That description doesn’t do it justice at all. The premise is the surface becoming uninhabitable due to a deadly virus. So a deep sea leisure resort for the wealthiest of the wealthy (which hides a dodgy research facility below) is the last refuge of humanity. There are a few places/builds in SL that you can judge Sci-Fi builds against, in my opinion there are two main ones: Drune and the other is Hangars Liquides ( I really need to do an updated post on that place). The Varuna Project includes elements similar to both.
The upper levels are clean, clinical appearance of sci-fi film settings, similar to Hangars Liquides. The lower levels are very much like Drune, deteriorated, scruffy and graffitied under neon lights. The difference though is also the size of this area, with lots of winding tunnnels it feels bigger than Drune,despite the actual footprint being only slightly larger. The landing point is a large circular area with various info boards and signage. It felt simiar to my visit to New Frontiers, except much slicker and streamined. The place isn’t cluttered or overloading you with stuff to read or click on. There are in fact just 3 boards to look at:
An avatar script count board (relevant because they’re regulated)
Information about registration
Factions you can play as
You’ll see in the first image there are large screens at the escalators saying “RP Begins January 10th. Enjoy 🙂 ” My visit was on 8th January, so no doubt these will have gone by the time of posting, there may also be other changes. You leave the area via a couple of escalators At the top of the first one I found a Sushi bar, but what’s more interesting is actually the windows on this level. A glimpse out these windows gives you a glimpse of the scale of the place.
You might be forgiven for thinkng maybe there were just scenes on the windows
It’s not just pictures on the windows
The second window
looking up..
looking down.. it’s massive
I took the escalator again up to the next level, which is ringed with corridors leading off it. I thought I’d check them out one at a time, the first one was signposted “Entertainment District”.
The “Entertainment District”
there’s a lobby at the corridrs end
on one side we have ..art? Not sure.
then a cafe
and there’s the club..
the furniture indicates the club genre I’d say..
Somewhat limited drinks choice, but it *is* an apocolyse
A door at the back draws my attention
through to a corridor
opening into what appears to be..
Staff accommodation.
Somewhere to rest their Head.
Back to the main hub and down the next corridor, this on signposted “NANTEC: Solarium,Pharmasuticals Cybernetics”.
NANTEC
First an elevator (of many)
down we go
to the Solarium
which is very beaufiful
including birds too
a cafe type seating area
and an inocent looking lift
we’re on floor 3.
On 2 we have
rather prestigious office
one of the scientists maybe
with a dining table fo 4 though.
The next level down in the lift however is when things start to go from Strar Trek to Resident Evil, because it’s a lab.
A cheery attempt at art, or DNA diagrans of something nasty?
Reguar desks
a sealed testing room
with microscopes and the usual
more regular desks
then something that looks a bit darker
At the back is another innocuous door that you wouldn’t look twice at, but to where it leads
The exit from the lab
Cameras are kinda bad sign.
in an innocent looking reception area
doors on each side with a camera each
the right one is locked so I go left
Whereupon we find security scanners you have to pass through and cages..no more Mr Nice Scientist!
You step through the doors to a security checkpoint
can see the exit at the back
Worrying thought are these for decontamination?
security gates to pass through
Yes that is a cage, thankfully empty!
onward into the corridor
Through the corridor you navigate a couple of glass elevators until you find yourself here…where the place starts to feel much like Drune. First thing you come to however is what looks to be a booth selling antique diving gear?
What’s this little place..
Antique diving gear?
Then the place opens up to a series of walkways which I followed around to a surprise discovery.
Looking down on the jumble of industry
one of the locals..who wasn’t talking
so went around them
What’s that in the distance?
A Basketball court? This far underwater? Guess they’ve gotta exercise somewhere.
I was rather surpised to see this down here, that when I turned around I fell off the walkway. Then got a little lost, exploring all the suboceanic environment of corridors and tunnels. You might ask why didn’t I just fly up or something? When I’m exploring a place I try to keep it real, as you would expected to do in a roleplay scenario.
Basketball court is waay up there somewhere..
so I’ll explore here instead
Not too ominous then
a mini Chinatown?
Some kind of mining..might explain the “what we wake” graffitti
a Control room
the results of the lab? A caged..mutant porkupine? Hedgehog? Not sure!
Presumably this is what keeps everything running
There is lots to see here and I only explored 2 of the corridors off the main hub. Wandering around the place seemed to go on forever, elevators,tunnels and stairways leading into different areas of the seabed structures. This is intended as an organised roleplay region with related rules/codes of conduct. There are factions and clases of characters you can choose to play as. So if you want to RP here, definitely read the website.
Region Rating: Adult. Although most video games classed 15 are more graphic than this place. As with Last Chance City, it’s the potential RP and peoples actions that might require the rating.
Last Chance City is a post-apocolyptic style urban roleplay region. The storyline that you can read on their website (link below) tells of a computer virus spreading through everything electronic, taking out all services,communications etc. bringing civilization and humanity to it’s basest survival instincts.
The arrival point is in an abandoned underground station… (De-ja-vus?)
but much lighter environment and larger than the Drune station, as you can see from the pictures.
In fact the whole place feels massive due to a good use different height locations. You’ll notice this as soon as you exit the station up the stairs and arrive at ground level.
There’s a bus waiting outside the station, but given tech is out, so we can ignore it
I headed right out the station towards a diner in the distance
Unsurprisingly empty and cleared out of stocks, so I carried on along the road til I came to an intersection that had a run down church on one corner
Opposite was an abandoned house so I thought I’d have a look inside.
Outside the road turns uphill and at the top I saw a police station and went to investigate.
“POLICE” in sketchy white writing is visible on the building in the distance
The police station has plenty of rooms to explore and provides lots of opportunities, including cells and an outside fenced area.
“You’re on camera..not anymore
Spacious cells
Target range
The reaining squad car has ben scavenged for parts
As well as a police station there’s a Courthouse in the area, so you could roleplay capture through to sentence, if there were still police around. I suspect the gallows may still see occasional use however.
The Courthouse
broken benches
scattered papers
These may well be still used though
Continuing along the road I came to a collapsed flyover that someone had decided to call home.
From up on the bridge you can see quite a lot of the ruined city
Past the flyover I found the stations of other emergency services, before reaching the imposing doors of what, based on the hazard signs, appeared to be a nuclear facility.
Huge imposing gates..who could refuse?
Walking through the gates it’s rather creepy on the other side.
The gates TP you to a different height, so there’s plenty more to explore in this area.
I went back out and continued my way along the road, to investigate what I’d seen from the flyover.
There seems to be a collection of tables like an abandoned garage sale
Someone with a sense of humour has renamed the pizzeria..
Someone has a sense of humor
Just past here I’m back at the rundown church, having made a circuit of the roadway. This time I stuck my head inside to have a quick look.
There’s lots to see and explore at Last Chance City, with plenty of RP venues. I just made a circuit of one roadway, there may well be lots more TP doors taking you to other locations. But if you want to RP regularly there, I’d recommend you read up on their Lore and rules.
As I mention Death Row Designs (DRD) as maker of my backpack, I thought I’d add that several of the buildings,large parts of scenery as well as little details come from that store. To name just a few parts: The Diner, abandoned house, Courthouse,Flyover bridge…go look for yourself, its impressive.
In a similar style but not ground layout as the previous build (Drune Crossroads), Drune Babalon is full of lights in a dark setting.
Like Crossroads you arrive by tube (Subway), although this time the arrival point is in a carriage rather than on the platform.
You’re not in the wrong place, walk forward!
Unfortunately the TP routing drops you too close to the back of the carriage when using the default camera position. Just take a step forward.
Walk along the carriage til you come to the doors
and step out onto the platform
Exit up the stair into a much smaller lobby leading out onto the street:
A glance Left
A glance Right
I went left and across the street to the purple steps and what looked interestingly like some kind of portal
Which took me into a small club calle “Peaches”. The neon lights change very regularly to different colours, giving the club a different feel from minute to minute, but thankfully not at a fast flickering speed.
Coming back out I saw a weapons shop across the street, a reminder of the dark kind of RP that could be found here.
Maybe it’s close to the station for a reason, but I came prepared with my own.
Along the street I find a club East of Eden, but didn’t go inside
The building across the street was more intruiging..”Jesus Saves..with Drune Central Bank”. I wondered whether I find pews or bank teller cubicles inside.
Turned out it was neither, the church had been converted into a nightclub,the pulpit the DJ Booth.
Out on the street again I see a neon sign for another potentially interesting place to investigate, a Fight Club.
This place wasn’t too surprising on the inside, exactly as it proclaimed.
While I explored it became evident that while the layout of the streets near the station were similar to Crossroads, there was more levels to Babalon. The Crossroads had another level but it was high up above street level, here the levels are more evident, due to a waterway running through the region. This meant there was a lower waterside level.
So obviously I had to explore the lower level and see what trouble may be found.
However before I descended I spotted a tiny detail on the bridge, just some puddles, but is another example of the attention to detail in Drune builds.
Only in SL might puddles deserve a photo, but the detail caught my eye.
As I descended to the lower level I could see some brightly lit places that might warrant later investigation.
Down on the lower level however I found a fun looking Rock Club
But Drune being a Roleplay simulation, it’s unlikely it’ll see any dancing.
Back outside I found there was a walkway that ran underthe bridges, but no way to cross the river without getting wet.
I retraced my steps and crossed over to look at the other places I’d seen. The most brightly lit turned out to be a chinese restaraunt. As you would expect from a Drune build,while not particularly exciting, this wasn’t just an empty facade.
Nearby however I found a small starirway and followed it up.
On the upper level I found a small cafe and access onto a walkway similar to that of Crossroads, but not quite as extensive.
When I reached the end of the walkway and a brief rest, I took the quickest way down to the ground, off the edge again. The fal being much shorterthan the one in Crossroads!
Back on the ground I found another instance of the Vooddoo club
At the end of my post about Crossroads, I commented that it could probably have got away with a Moderate rating,due to the establishment signage being merely suggestive and absence of adult furniture. So I thought I’d have a look and see if the same was true here.
When I arrived I’d tried a few doors and they seemed to have combination locks keeping the public out, seems I’d just been clicking the wrong part of the lock.
So first stop was a massage parlor, which turned to have functioning massage couches.
Then the more flagrant establishment across from the station..which was pretty much as you’d expect,but more peepshow type than couples animations.
So this district of Drune definitely requires it’s Adult rating. But as you can see, this is just fairly small aspect of the highly detailed cyberpunk build. Which along with bars and clubs, even includes your regular mundane service vendors..
Garage
Pizzeria
and Laundry
As always we never know how long these builds will stay around, so go check it out before its gone.
Note on lighting: This Drune build uses an EEP shared lighting model, you’ll get a notecard about it when you arrive. If you don’t have EEP viewer thinks might look different.
(Also besides EEP implementation the photos got a whole lot better since the Crosroads post because I got a sweet new laptop with much better graphics!)
Outfit Credits:
Suit: Space Cadet Bodysuit by {REC} from Fantasy Faire 2020
Wrist gadget: Cainva Modulators by :[Petrichor]: (I got mine from Cyberpunk 2020 event, but you can buy them on MP at the link above.)
I read this morning on Twitter that one of the Time Portal locations in SL, a WW1 simulation was to be closing, so I thought I’d do as the message suggeste. Go have a look before it’s gone!
The arrival point is train station
I explored some of the ruined building first
Directions, with a Warning
Looking down on the trenches
You really feel the sense of confed space
Especiallly when exploring the living quarters
Tiny little spaces to sleep
live
and work
Notes and letters on the wall next to the ladder
Lots of little details
Up and “Over the Top”
A glancee back the way I had come
Before heading into the light
The location is due to be gone “by years end”, so go check it out. Turn up your sounds and lights down for best experience.
While we may not all want to look back at 2020 in the Real World, doing so for my Second Life isn’t half as depressing.
Looking at my previous posts over the last year I was actually busier than I thought. I did quite a bit of RP in SL Gor during first few months of the year tracking down old friends,
Pondering what adventures are to come with my return to Gor
before moving on to a Prison RPÂ which had me chasing escapees for a few weeks.
I caught up with one of the escapees in a bar
Then along came Fantasy Faire,where this year I was able to have early access the empty lands before the masses arrived.
Empty streets of Fantasy Faire
This was through my involvement with the NeoVictoria Project as opposed to the FF Bloggers (since I didn’t make the official list,maybe next year!)
This gave me a new perspective on the Faire that I wrote about. I also wrote two short stories based around the Faire as part of their “Faire Folk” challenge, called Under the Pass and Casseopeia. How could anyone not be inspired by the Faire?
I next moved onto a different more futuristic RP, a cyberpunk location inspired by the city of Helix.
Halloween came around fast and all the spooky places sprung up for October and I had great fun blogging some of them.
Shortly before the *actual* date of Halloween arrived I was at a club called Ohana that I’d visited several times in the past and they mentioned Hosting vacancies,so I applied and was taken on after a trial set that went great.
Debut Set at Ohana Rock Club, 19th October
Finally in December I decided I’d try to go along to the SL Book Club readings. I’d seen the Twitter activity about it weekly (who could miss Draxtors enthusiasm?)but never actually got around to attending. I went along two and a half hours early,just intending to have a look and take a Landmark.
I realised I’d unwittingly taken myself hostage,the place was already half full and if I’d left,getting back in wasn’t guarunteed. Fortunately I’d already done my whip around of Christmas advent calendar clicking that day!
Already half-full hours early!
Which pretty much brings this year of Second Life adventures to a close.
However..
I’ve explored more places than I got around to blogging about, so I’ve lots of photos of places that deserve long posts of their own. Maybe I’ll write those next year if the locations are still there in the New Year.
For now I’ve simply made small galleries of some of the different places I didn’t feature on the blog, as well as some one-off snaps,in chronological order:
A storytelling evening at NeoVictoria (3rd January)
Furry Night at Kitty Kaboom (23rd January)
Bikini party at Kitty Kaboom,from PG angle. (13th February)
Hayo as a Tarn (18th May)
Tarns are large birds,ridden by some warriors in the fictional world of Gor.
Sci-Fi Con 2020 (21st May)
Ash Falls (15th July)
Murder City (21st July)
SecondLife 17th Birthday explorations via train (24th July)
I missed the last incarnation of this place, since it doesn’t seem to stay for long, so I’m pleased I got to visit this time around. Hopefully it’ll still be there for you to visit when you read this.
To set the scene this is the land description:
Drune Crossroads
A drift down memory lane, with an eldritch tone. Cyberpunk Streets, Cyber Punk City, Sci Fi, Bladerunner, Lovecraft
So you can expect lots of bright neon lights, dark alleyways and (non-drivable)flying cars.
The arrival point is an Underground (Subway) station.
exit through the ticket barriers up the escalator as you would a real station.
This takes you up into a waiting room
Now we get to the interesting part, exiting this area takes you out into a main street where you are bombarded with the expected neon and shopfronts.
You then come to what must be the proclaimed “crossroads”.
You may have noticed in the last picture in the previous gallery I passed a blue Christmas tree, this becomes relevant when you reach the crosroads.
There’s different coloured trees in different directions, this helps you keep your bearings, when at street level at least. I picked red and went that way.
Drune has lots of little nooks and crannies full of detail, as I walked I saw a sliding door open slightly and had a peek.
This one was a car repair place,not super interesting from my point of view, but illustrates the detail put into the place.
When I got to the end of the road there was a junction
To the Left
To the Right
I headed right towards the pink neon lighting a stairwell and wasn’t surprised what I found..a bar with a some rather evocative statues at the entrance and some fun solo dance furniture.
Heading through to the back I had a look down at the street below
Next I retraced my steps down to ground level and took the opposite alley that took me to a ground level bar with a somewhat classier feel.
I then took a nearby fire-escape style staircase which seemed to go on for ever, when I reached the top I look over the edge…it’s a long way down!
However up at the top is a whole nother way of seeing the city, via a maze of walkways.
When I reached the apparent end there seemed to fortunately be a lift back down
But when I took it down and followed the subsequent corridor..It led to a locked door!
I had no choice but to go back up and walk around the gangways. But as I said, it’s a bit of a maze and couldn’t find the stairs! I decided to abandon my pedestrian approach that I try to stick to when exploring and took the express route back to the ground, that you could only get away with in SL, jump over the railing. The fall seemed even further than it looked.
Back on the ground I’d landed in what at first glance was a sex venue of some kind, til I read the second line “Cosmetic Surgery”, not what you normally might associate red or pnk neon with, also not a roleplay avenue I’d want to pursue!
On the whole another great incarnation of the cityscape, worth visiting for sure, lots to be found with lots of attention to detail.
Arrival point: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Real%20Angel%20Estate/33/128/37 Region Rating: Adult
(although it could probaby get away with being rated Moderate, if it weren’t for a few revealing photos on an upper level,since the signage everywhere appears to be merely suggestive and I didn’t find any furniture with adult animations.)
