The Scifi Expo 2022 has applications open for Exhibitors(Merchants), Performers and Bloggers.
The SciFi Expo will run from 14th October to 23rd October, 2022 fundraising for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer and The American Cancer Society.
The 2022 SciFi Expo: Voyage Through The Stars
Returning for a third year in a row, the SciFi Expo helps in bringing together scifi designers, roleplayers, performers, and supporters from all across the virtual world of Second Life®, to benefit Making Strides Against Breast Cancer and the American Cancer Society.
The journey continues! Voyage Through the Stars, on board of The Nexus, a mobile space station and one of the crowning jewels of the United Earth Council fleet, as it continues its journey of exploring the vast uncharted reaches of interstellar space.
You can read the full Press Release HERE for more information.
Exhibitor & Event registrations close 10th October 6pm BST/10am SLT. Blogger resgistrations close on 1st October 6pm BST/10am SLT.
(The SciFi Expo should not be confused with the ‘Sci-Fi Con’ event. Both events raise money for cancer research, but are organised by different groups of people.)
This time around we’re in the Wild West at a place called Wind River and it looks great.
Travel back in time to the era of gunslingers and saloon girls, of massive migration and settlement. The Old West comes to life at Wind River, a photogenic backwater town at the end of the 19th century.
You arrive in a high-walled canyon that leads you through to the main street of the town.
As you walk through town you can see there are all the usual establishments you would expect to find in a frontier town, Sheriffs office, Saloon, Undertakers, General store among others. Also on the edge of town there is of course a Church with obligatory graveyard.
The Sheriff’s Office & Store
Across the street..
..we have the Saoloon
which has rooms since the Hotel is closed, although htey may be “by the hour”
The Doctors office, when you survive your gunslinging
The Undertaker for those that lose
Where you pray for luck or others say farewell
Coach and Mail office
The not so sociable folks maybe?
A lovely setting to come explore, maybe play at Cowgirl or Cowboy if you fancy but do read the notecard you receive when you arrive regarding private areas above ground level.
Last night I attended an introduction to Roleplay at Ancient Order of Centaurs (AoC). I’ve written about this place before, most recently covering a couple of their Fantasy Faire events.
This intro was about the type of RP they do there, both formal and informal, along with an introduction to their roleplay HUD based on the Unity system.
They have lots of different races at AoC, but mostly all are variant of “taur” which is usually a mix of human upper body and animal lower body.
We had a chat to begin with about who had what kind of roleplay exerience as well as about the different races and houses that you can be a part of at Centauria. Next we were taken to collect AoC Roleplay HUDs, based on the Unity Maxim system.
Left: Main Unity HUD. Right: AoC Setup HUD
If you can just about read the text above my avatars head, I chose for now to be Merchant Class, but we shall see if a story develops along that line or not, but it’s easily changed.
The system allows the use of items and currency that we can exchange and use in Roleplay, this is currenty what I have after yesterdays induction:
From her vantage point above the city of Opet she watches the masses of tourists ebb and flow like a tide. They think the city is a relic, its occupants long deceased and the houses turned to shops for their perusal. They are so wrong, its facade. It was decided long ago to let it fall into disrepair and it’s people to fade into myth and legend, to protect all the races of this world.
There is a polite noise behind her and she turns to see her handmaiden stood in the doorway, holding up the old dumb phone used for emergencies.
She takes the phone and reads the message, once again wishing she could ward her home against the modern radio waves. Glancing at the tourists again, it’s their fault, there would be uproar if their brain-sapping devices didn’t function.
“I think we have another Collector, deal with it” along with the approximation of where the moving Sphere was last stationary.
Another Collector already? It was only a matter of two and a half decades since the last one and he’d almost been successful. It amused her how the relations team had dealt with it; making a movie about a Temple of Doom to pre-emptively dispel any rumors that may have surfaced.
The Spheres needed to remain in their allocated places, guarded in secret by each fae race or magical community.
The occupants of Opet had chosen the best way to hide them was in plain sigh but their history forgotten. Turning their city into a museum had been fairly easy, just don’t touch it for a few millenia.
Explorers and archeologists took the clues they’d left and made a reasonable story about what happened. Even if the time frames really didn’t work. Certainly others came closer to the truth, but were called conspiracy nuts, despite their theories matching the evidence better. The “experts” telling the story didn’t want to be embarrassed and make an entire history that had been taught in schools for decades to be wrong.
But enough dwelling on the past, they’d returned and closed the pyramids to the public for “safety reasons” and restored them to working order. Having left their Sphere hidden with local loyal followers it was returned to its place in the pyramid and protected there.
Somehow remnants of the truth had emerged again and she must take action. She’d been called on simply because she was the closest of the Guardians.
Down to one of the display cabinets she goes, removing her weapons stored in plain sight and replaces it with a photograph and sign preporting the item removed for cleaning. Next was some slightly more modern clothing, her regular clothes that the public assumed was simply a costume, wouldn’t be appropriate.
Modern being a relative term. If she walked down a western city street looking like this, attention would definitely come her way. Here in the desert country a wide hat and a mask against the dust wouldn’t draw a second glance.
Once she was changed, it was time to go on the hunt..
Outfit Credits:
DYNASTY from Fallen Gods
Boots: *KD* Nut overknees – KD KaliDesigns
Crow: CKF_Raven ShoulderPet_Small – CKit Falconry Faire Store
Assassin of Elvenwood -Jazabelle
Hat: :Static:: Possessed Gunslinger Hat {Coal} – Static
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.
Athenum
Bassett Town
Broceliande
Fairelands Junction
Mythspire Ridge
Necturn Moon
Opet
Sunken Honey
Sylvuselah
Tenpyo
The Chrysillis Gardan
Hunros Mine
You will find links to all the Regions on the Fantasy Faire Blog when the Faire is open.
Vivendia is the latest build by Camilla Runo who built two incarnations of Varsargen and also Skullingtown for Halloween last year. Ars Vivendia has a slightly more serious air to it, more like a peice of clasical art than the other locations Camilla has created. As I explored it felt like I was walking around inside an old painting. It’s setting is of an old Italian town near the sea with fantastic views inside and out.
The landing point is the yard of a small house outside the main town, beautifully rustic.
On the way up towards the town you can see to one side a small island seperated by a narrow stretch of water.
Entering through the open gates is where you really feel like you’re stepping back in time. Inside the town is made up of narrow streets with bightly lit shops, cafes and hotels in an evening setting, so the place feels kind of maical.
Through to the other side of the town there are some other buildings stood apart from the rest.
At the top of the hill is an old church with beautiful stained glass windows and lovely sunset views.
Several of the buildings can be explored inside as well as admired from outside, so come explore for yourself.
Back in May 2020 I wrote about a SciFi roleplay region called Helix, followed very shortly after by the news of it’s closure. This wasn’t however the end of my story, it was just the start of a storyline that’s run across multiple locations in SL on and off for the year and a half since then.
Now the former owners of Helix have returned with a new location called World of Helix. This isn’t a city this time though, its more an outpost town with cilivans as well as military personnel that they describe as an adult sci-fi Western.
You arrive in the woods outside the town, which is behind you with the wilderness in front of you.
After a brief glance at the nearby structures (more on that later) I headed into town to see what it has to offer. Immediately at the gates you get the tone of the place with guards posted outside.
A glance Left
A glance Right
I entered cautiously taking a glance each direction before heading left to walk a circuit of the town.
All seemed fairly regular civillian establishments, including the requisite pink neon entertainment. As I approached the place where I’ve decided my character will set up shop, I’m reminded of the military presence by way of a dark green truck next door.
Inside the truck
On the way more can be een in the distance
Heading in that direction through a gateway there’s a few landing pads then the rest of the area contains Military personnel and installations.
Passing all this brings me almost full circle back to the entrance gate of the town. However coming from this direction I noticed something I’d missed before.
The local gun shop
Given my characters history of transporting weapons I had to have a quick peek. I was surprised there would be such a shop with the military around they might have wanted to restrict civillian weapon ownership. But what better way to control weapons than by controlling the shop?
Since I’d completed a circuit of the town it was time to have a look out into the wildnerness. Out here there’s a wide selection of buildings and terrain to be seen.
(Please bear in mind some of these are rental homes and may well be inhabitated by the time you visit, so don’t just walk in uninvited.)
Looking at the map on the website it’s quite evident I’ve only shown a fraction of this great new roleplay build, so I’d recommend any Sci-Fi fan come check it out and join in the RP if they wish. I would definitely suggest reading the story setting on the website before engaging in roleplay.
World of Helix is planned for public opening on 15th January 2021, so do drop by and take a look!
Photos were taken on 29th December 2021, so things may look slightly different by the time the 15th January 2022 comes aroud, but not much.
Every year there are masses of events and activities in SecondLife for the Christmas period that run throughout December. One of the regular highlights is the Winter Wonderland that gets built each year by the Linden Moles. Here you’ll find everything you’d expect from such a name, covering 5 regions.
When you first arrive you’re near the snowball fight arena, which is pretty impressive and is the venue for the annual Residents Vs Lindens snowball fight event:
But I wanted to see what else the place had to offer, so I went the other way up some steps through a snow corridor to where the landscape opens out again.
Main attractions are an ice skating rink, ferris wheel to ride, festive village to explore and a large snow race track.
I followed the signs to the Ice Skate area to check that out, if you don’t have your own skates you can get some at the kiosk. Even if you do have skates, the ones here do have a cool optional FX attachment that causes your skates to carve into the ice here.
I came across Angel Manor by way of a Spotlight article on the SecondLife Community blog and what a treasure it is.
I used the Visit Us page on the website to find my way to a number of different places, starting with the Rose Lounge. The whole place has a wow factor, it feels classy yet relaxed with great attention to detail everywhere.
I explored the other “Rose” related locations on the region, which includes a Theatre and Gallery among other locations such as an Opera House. All looks simply spectacular.
The Angel Manor Region is the centre of a small continent consisting of no less than 12 Regions for you to explore. I paid a visit to both the boating lake and the gardens, which were beautifully relaxing to spend time in.
I would definitely recommend taking the time to visit Angel Manor and the surrounding grounds either on your own or with a friend because the ballrooms and other areas are just enchanting to dance in.
Dress & gloves: S&P Jessica Glittery Advent gift 20 -12 – 24 (was available to purhcase instore later but has since gone, maybe it’ll be back.) – Salt & Pepper Store
UPDATE ON THE DRESS! [09:07:29] Salt Peppermint: I’ll put it back after the sale (Fatpack only, group members only)
Next is The Haunted History of Hummingbird Isle which is by the same designer as Once Upon a Spell, but it feels a little smaller. I totally love the environment settings here, a thunderous sky with appropriate sound and rain.
The pirate ship isn’t boardable, but it definitely makes for great scenery on the beach before you proceed up the steep steps to the gardens and house.
From up here you get a great view of that cool sky again before you walk through the rain to the house.
I opened the doors and stepped through, immediately recognising the building was the same as one I saw at Dead Mans Island last year, however while the layout is the same the interior and contenst of the rooms is different so still worth exploring!
