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.
Halloween is a special time of year, for different reasons for different people. For some it is a deeply religious time when rituals are performed formally or informally to honour the dead and rememer lost loved ones. You can find legimate Wiccan/Pagan organisations in SecondLife that perform these ceremonies. The opposite extreme is the very Westernised version of the holiday that is a retail exercise featuring lots of black,orange and kids dresing up to get sweets.
Wherever you feel you fit on that range doesn’t really matter in SL. You can go to the rituals, the parties, the shopping, it doesn’t really matter so log as you’re enjoying yourself.
The common theme through it all is the costumes! Whether you go for playful cute witch, some kind of monster or in my case dark creepy vampire, it’s all such fun!
There’s not much in terms of skin coverage in this outfit, but that’s kind of the idea for a vampire on the hunt. Too much clothing would just get in the way and soak up any spillage that could be drunk! The cloak is definitely a requirement though, it lets me wrap up and disappear into the shadows quickly away from witnesses!
Daggers and pose: Red Angel of Revenge + Daggers from *FN* (Although the cloak does have an “arm fix” that keeps your arms inside it, which changed the pose a bit.)
This one’s a little different. Much more about an adult horror approach to Halloween than the child-friendly pumpkin fest you see elsewhere.
Usually not many people read the welcome notecards given out at places in SecondLife, they’re usually just full of rules that can be abbreviated to something like “don’t be an arse, be polite”. This one was worth reading because it abbreviates to more like “If you’re offended by adult images of nudity leaning heavily towards porn.. Go No Further. You Have Been Warned.”
Obviously this didn’t stop me, so take it as fair warning that you will see such images below. I started by exploring the outside grounds, first to the left of the entrance since that’s the side you arrive at.
Then along a misty riverbank to the other side and explore some buildings back there.
It was time to go inside and see what all the fuss was about. In here at ground level there are some fairly inoffensive naked ghostly figures, the kind that could be classed as erotica.
When you mount the stairs and head upstairs however, it’s quite a different story!
Up here you’ll find lots of ghostly figures going at it like they were able to breed and the human race needed repopulating. These aren’t just static images like your regular SL “ghost” popping up to surprise you, quite a few are animated. I would advise against sitting your avatar on anything here, there’s no telling what might happen. For me this resulted in being moved somewhere I couldn’t easily leave, so I had to teleport back outside. Since I’d seen plenty inside I thought I’d see if I missed anything around the back of the house. Sure enough there’s more animated kinkiness round there too.
However before I got there I came across this stone altar with a single pink pose ball on, so I sat and it had some cool ritual type animations in that I was capturing when I got a nasty surprise. Be warned ladies, heed the local chat or you may regret the consequences of staying sat too long!
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!
My explorations of SecondLife’s Haunted Houses of 2021 continues with Once Upon a Spell. I went to the last page of the list of Haunted Houses on the Destination Guide, simply because I don’t like being totally conventional.
The arrival point is at the entrance to a kind of mystical forest setting with thankfully just a couple of boards for their inworld group and Flickr (regular readers will know how much I hate lots of clutter at an arrival point). As I went forward I came to some autumnal red and gold leaved trees, I was immediately reminded of Pumpkin Town a location from last year.
Coming out of these trees, through a tunnel I arrived at a campfire in what felt like a more bayou swampy kind of place, suggested by the rickety shack on the other side of a small stretch of water.
As I continued into the forest I encountered another shack, but this one in much better condition, evidently maintained by the resident witch.
Just past here are two rows of pumpkins forming a path uphill towards a house, but I went the other way into the green darkness of the forest. This took me to another larger area of water, bordeed by waterfalls and a bridge crossing it at the far end.
I followed the lakeshore til I came to the bridge then turned back towards the pumpkin-bordered path and the house at it’s end.
The pumpkin path
The Witch’s house at the top
The Witch playing her piano is the source of the music here
A cozy bedroom upstairs
TRIGGER WARNING: SPIDERS and CLOWNS BELOW!
(Yeah I know, it made me cringe typing that, why would you be reading a post about a Halloween location and not expect such things? But I know people that are sensitive to them.)
Around the back of the house is the bridge across the lake I saw earlier,at the far end of which is a big spiders web you walk through to get to the next area to explore.
Through here it opens up into another large area with a big top, a cemetery, a haunted mansion and a ghost train.
The haunted mansion was the most tempting to me and turned out to be the largest part of this area.
I’ve not shown everything here, your visit wouldn’t be fun if I did!
After blogging several spooky places last year, I thought it would be fun to do the same again this year. First up is 80Days-Skullingtown.
The arrival point is in front of a tall pair of gates that instinctively you might proceed through, but wait! I did as I always do and look behind me on arrival, you should do the same here. There is a graveyard and a massive pumpkin patch back there to see first.
What’s this behind me?
A Spooky graveyard
and a massive pumpkin patch!
As you explore you’ll hear an appropriately tinny version of a tune from the film The Nightmare Before Christmas, which is quite haunting and coming from the creepy merry go round near the entrance.
Heading through the main gates you’re in small town square with lots of appropriately spooky paraphernalia scattered about around and inside the houses and towers. Some of these are just scenery, but several of them you can enter and explore. I picked the house straight ahead first, stopping at the bottom of the steps to admire its creepiness for a moment.
Looking up at the looming house I realise how damn short this sexy skirt is, good job it comes with undies!
The way ahead
The way back
I then had a wander around the other buildings to see what surprises were in store!
Abandoned dinner
stuff on the doorstep is suggestive of spooky
What’s up here? I’ll let you find out..
But the view is great
back on the ground someones been cooking..
and someone else has been..making a call to a dead relative?
One of the things I love about SecondLife is the variety of creations available to dress our avatars in weird and wonderful ways. I enjoy making themed outfits inspired by books featured the SecondLife Book Club, but I’ve recently been reading a book not featured at the club: Armada by Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One (&Two).
A character we meet early on is Alexis Larkin a gamer girl (call sign: Lexecutioner) I thought it would be fun to make an avatar outfit in her described image. As I read the (usefully detailed) description of her, I was sure it wouldn’t take me too long…except for the tattoos!
" ..Alabaster skin contrasted sharply with her dark clothing—black combat boots, black jeans, and a black tank top (which didn’t fully conceal the black bra she was wearing underneath). She had a spiky wave of black hair that was buzzed down one side and chin-length on the other. But the real kicker was her tattoos, on each arm: on the left was a beautiful seminude rendering of the comic book heroine Tank Girl, adorned in postapocalyptic rock lingerie and smooching an M16. On her right bicep, in stylized capital letters, were the words EL RIESGO SIEMPRE VIVE."
Cline, Ernest. Armada (pp. 114-115). Random House. Kindle Edition.
I was able to make the tattoo that reads “EL RIESGO SIEMPRE VIVE” on her right arm fairly easily, then found a picture of TankGirl that looked close enough to the description (after a bit of tweaking) for left arm.
Of course any Sci-Fi outfit wouldn’t be complete without their respective gadget. In this book it’s called a “QComm” and can do pretty much anything communication wise from anywhere, including controlling drones.
After a spontaneous snap I posted on Flickr I thought another was in order, but this time with a friend, since we’d been planning to do something together for a while. One snap turned into several and then into a story.
I pace my room glancing frequently at the clock, where has she got to I wonder. I want to take our time to be relaxed, but the longer I must wait, the worse my thirst gets.
Waiting impatiently
Will I be able to restrain myself when she arrives, long enough for her to feel relaxed. A little bit of adrenaline in the blood from excitement is good, but I’m not in the mood for the taste of fear tonight, if I rush, that’s what I’ll get.
When she does arrive she’s very giggly and flirty, almost throwing herself at me, not her usual self. She’s drunk. She knows why she’s come here, maybe she got nervous, I did advise her against drinking, but I guess a little alcohol is better than fear.
Appetiser drinks
A few glass or two as we sit and get comfy, then my thirst gets the better of me. I stand to remove my coat and move in close in front of her, staring into her eyes before taking her hand and a small bite from her wrist.
A Caress
A little nip
I slip her off the couch to kneel in front of me and hold her in a tight embrace as I feed from her eagerly.
Devouring the Main course
Sensing she’s getting weak, sagging in my arms, I lift her effortlessly to lie across my lap to few more sips from her chest
Drained Embrace
before I stop and raise her into an embrace, as she passes out.
Lipgloss: TREND – Dark Lips (Halloween Collection 2020)
Bat Tattoos: Amour Fashion – Cryptic Bat Tattoo (No longer available)
Chair: DRD GV – Gothic Vampire Love Seat – Adult – Black –Death Row Designs
Victims Credits:
Body: Slink Hourglass
Head: Slink Becky
Hair: TRUTH Rumor (blond /1)
Eyes: IKON Sovereign Evening
Outfit:
Moon Elixir x MUSE – Boudoir Secrets -Dress and Thong
Moon Elixir x MUSE – Morning Glory Shoes and Stockings
Moon Elixir x MUSE – Penthouse Princess Pearl Necklace
I am not a “pink” lady, anyone that knows me, or just a glance at my flickr or past posts will testify. However I’m not adverse to a bit of purple now and then.
This post was going to be called “Pretty in Purple” when I was putting the outfit together and I thought I’d find a suitable setting in the Faire. When I found myself in Paer Thura and felt this was the perfect place.
This ripped denim outfit from Dark Fairy Fashions seemed to hit the spot. Rough around the edges like me and in the right colours for when I’m not feeling so dark and inspired by the bizarrely beautiful location!
It leaves plenty of skin on show which just begged for the right tattoo. Fortunately Nefekalum has just the thing also at the Faire.
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
A very grand arrival
Photographers await you
Explore this little stairwell before taking the Elevator
You’ll get your firt view of the city from above
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.
First of many vehicles
What’s this unusual one here?
The Batmobile?!
I guess all these vehicles need looking after
Extremely optimistic..
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.
A nice but rather foggy sea view
Drune street
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
Drune Diesel Club
Hotel – Cortez
Nice lobby
Seating area
um..hotel room movies..
Ordinary room
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).
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!
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.
