Ava's Chronicles in SecondLife
Not all those who wander are Lost
Jail ‘n’ Bail is a tradition at Fantasy Faire, whereby a well known resident ends up being arrested by the Pawlice (not a typo) on some spurious charge and people make donations into charity kiosks to pay their bail/bribe the Pawlice. Yesterday was the turn of Julala Demina the owner of Jinx who produce a line of Centaur avatars.
Arriving at it’s shores the island seems deserted, the only path open to her was into the darkened cave entrance, so cautiously she enters.
Going forward the path widens and there is light ahead, emerging at the bottom of a hillside, there appears to be a marked trail of red stones to be followed.
One cavern after another eventually brings her to the summit of a large rock formation, one of several.
There are bridges joining the stony peaks, dotted with wooden huts, so maybe not so deserted but a least no-one is home right now; she can continue her journey to the brightly coloured sails across the water.
Come see what else lurks in the caves under Clouded Mountains, the location for this year’s Quest. The Quest starts on 25th April.
Yesterday was a Fantasy Faire FilmFest event with Strawberry Linden being interviewed by Saffia Widdershins and Chantal Harvey.
They discussed a range of topics around making videos in SecondLife. These included what does and doesn’t class as Machinima (the making of videos by capturing virtual world images and animations). It was very informative and interesting, including some very useful tips and talk of features long gone. Did you know there used to be a Record button in the viewer that let you capture the screen as video? I didn’t! Maybe we need a campaign to reinstate it via Jiras for Feature Requests! We also saw some of the first videos that Strawberry made.
The reflection on water effect was achieved by a particular Windlight setting, that one of the audience reporte as still being in the viewer, but I haven’t looked for it myself yet.
Strawberry was apparently asked a lot where she got that colour catsuit when she released the video. Turns out it was actually Black with Materials enabled and it was the club lighting that created the fantastic effects.
Saffia asked if Strawberry had trouble finding Bollywood dance in SL back when the video was made. They weren’t very common and the one used was actually a different type of dance that just worked s well with Bollywood music added.
You can watch the recording of the interview with Strawberry HERE.
A collection of photos from the first of two Masked Ball events that will take place during Fantasy Faire. The second Ball will take place on 30th April at 6-8PM SLT in the Sunken Honey region.
Slowly the hunter creeps through the tunnels, looking down on the cavern below. This darkness is her home now, her appearance blending so well with the surroundings she’s almost invisible.
People think wearing black makes you invisible in the darkness, but they’re wrong. Black can make you stand out because darkness isn’t black, its just an absence of light. You just need to blend into the surroundings, with or without light, which her skin does well in these tunnels.
Outfit Credits:
Faire items:
Oh yes..the Boots, I love them! They come with 13 colour options for the boots and straps with 3 options for buckles. You can see them better in my last post The Explorer, but the HUD has just the right dark green to work for this photo too.
Other items:
Location: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sylvuselah/18/226/46
I always like to dress appropriately to the setting, for whatever I’m doing in SL, even if I’m just an observer. Yesterday was the first part of this years Children of Store Roleplay, which was no exception. So here’s some better photos of what I was wearing, which included a couple of Faire items that you should check out.
Outfit Credits:
Faire Items:
Other items:
Last year I began my explorations at the region where the NeoVictoria Project was based, this year though since I’m also selling some stuff at the Faire, I’m starting from where my shared store is located.
As with any of my other Wanderings it was on foot, only resorting to flying when I fell off stuff. This way I feel you experience The Faire at its best.
I was awed each time I crossed into the next region, they are all so varied and beautifully crafted every year. Somehow this year I managed to make it all the way around the square the Faire makes on the works map, with just minutes to go before the Faire closed for pre-opening region restarts.
I’ll have plenty of FaireLands inspired stories for you over the coming weeks I’m sure, but today I simply have a collection of teaser photos.
You will find links to all the Regions on the Fantasy Faire Blog when the Faire is open.
Post featured on the SecondLife Community Blog on 22nd April 2022.
Something is wrong with a Spheres. She doesn’t know where or what, but something is wrong. The shrine where she stands was built where the leylines from various parts of the Fae races converged. Most of them maintained a connection to the respective Spheres continuously, except the Mermaids obviously. Their airheaded builders putting the temple in the wrong place,but at least it was regularly connected enough to do its job. But something still felt wrong.
There were some that were only occasionally showing up, but from different lines, as if they were moving, perhaps one or more had been stolen. The Web of spheres and leylines must be maintained, or the Egg of Ostara will hatch. With no parent, the bleached bones of the last of its race outside of the Khol Dracus valley curled around it, who knows how it will react.
They were mysterious and beautiful creations, many a lifetime had been spent searching and eventually she’d found one. Having heard the tales when a child she had first thought them just stories. It wasn’t til her teen years that an old journal had surfaced among a crazy old relatives possessions. This contained research notes in several different hands, clearly it had been written by many over a long period of time.
There were descriptions of egg-like objects of many designs but their purpose and origin were unknown. Apparently they held great power, but to what end and how? This one had turned up in a woodland, a logger clearing a swathe of ancient forest, that really should have been protected, found it secreted within a hollow tree he had felled. Apparently it had been found with a symbol made of gold, resembling two letter Fs back to back, this he had sold to a local gold dealer and was likely melted down by now, such a waste! He had shown a little more sense when it came to the Egg though. He took it to an antique dealer in the city, where he’d received a fair price for it he believed. The antique dealer was laughing all the way to the bank though, believing he had just acquired one of the famous jewelled eggs of Russia.
This was when it came to my attention, when the dealer listed it for auction. All those people that had spent decades searching for these things had lacked something that made the job much easier : Twenty-first century Internet with AI search algorithms.
I’d spent a lot of time and money setting this up using some possibly privacy invasive techniques along the way. When the antique dealer in the back end of nowhere pressed Submit on the Web page, my search algorithm picked it up. Which proceeded to run the photo through comparison photos of all the known Russian eggs and found no match ran a trace of the dealers IP address, using hacked access to the service providers customer list then promptly emailed me with the dealers home address and a photo of the item in question.
Now I had it in my hands and the dealer wasn’t going to be selling anything ever again. I say my hands, but currently it was sat on the ornate table in front of me while I watch mezmorized as candle and firlight reflect off it.
Little does she know, far away in a place she doesn’t even know exists, someone has noticed..
Credits:
The Centaur patrols the pool below the waterfall, enjoying the cool water on her legs when everywhere else in the forest is warm.
She sees movement in the trees and becomes alert, she relaxes its just a faun come to drink. She doesn’t mind her watch shifts in the summer, she gets to stay cool in the water, it’s the best position to guard the cave behind the waterfall that contains her races sacred Sphere.
She calls out from her cover out of his sight. “Who goes there? What’s your business in this part of the forest?”
There is no response and the Human is even looking in a different direction, as if they had not heard. Curious now she comes up onto the shore and partially out of cover, her bow raised and aimed in no uncertain terms at the man..in a flat cap, this is most odd.
She calls again louder this time and the stranger responds this time. “I hope you’re not going to be loosing that that thing at me” he says. “That depends, what are you doing here in this part of the forest? Are you lost?”
He looks rather confused and asks “Am I not still in the park?” she eases the pressure on the string but doesn’t lower it just yet, “Where do you *think* you are? she asks a little concern in her tone now, this guy is clearly not all there. “Avebury?” he replies, clearly coming to the realisation that he wasn’t. Clearly he’s accidentally done something in the stone circle and transported himself to the Faire Lands.
She lowers her bow and gestures along a path, “Follow that path you’ll come to a cirlce of stones and there should be a glowing archway, walk through there and you’ll be back where you belong…then you will wake up from this weird dream you’ve been having about Centaurs. OK?” The man looks embarrassed and heads off along the way she had indicated.
She goes back to the waterfall and checks on the sphere behind it, satisifed she assumes her sentry position once again.
Location: The Seventh Valley
Credits:
