Otherworldly

It took all of September, but now I have finally given into Autumn, and that set the tone for this post. Our sim remains very much a work in progress, but we’re hoping to find some more time for it soon. To gear myself up towards that goal, I’ve started shopping for various bits and pieces of landscaping. Like many others, I’ve now fallen in love with Studio Skye and I expect that quite a few of their pieces will grace our sim in the future. The same goes for LostAngel, whose inventive pose props always are a pleasure to use.

Bare Rose is a true Second Life treasure. The huge store is still filling up with more fun, unusual and inventive outfits on a regular basis, and now most of it is mesh. June Dion only offers a single size for her mesh items, but I’ve found that for the type of clothing I tend to gravitate to it often works out quite well. Such as with the Trobadour and Trobadour Lady outfits, which I knew I had to get for a couple photo with Ran as soon as I saw them.

We’re both wearing the Slink hands—the updated female hands and the brand new male hands—and skins from the Skin Shop. Ran is sporting a recent hair from Dura which I think is just so gorgeous and I am wearing Wasabi Pills.

I can’t resist doing another post about Genre’s September round, this one featuring the lovely Susanna dress from the Muses. Old times indeed, and it goes perfectly with the Akiko hair from Wasabi Pills. I am also wearing the updated mesh hands from Slink; if you already own the hands, make sure to get the update delivered using the terminals in the store, and if you don’t own the hands…well, get that problem taken care of right away. You need them, trust me. There are also male hands out now, so take your partner (or male alt) along as well.

The September round of Genre has opened and this month we are treated to an Old West theme. The Molly outfit from Senzafine immediately caught my eye and I decided that it would be lovely to pair it with the new Alisha lace booties from lassitude & ennui. These are made for the Slink medium feet and available at the new round of the Boutique.

“Of Fire and Ice…” is the second discounted—and updated!—Sourceress pose prop from chanimations for We Love Role-Play. This epic scene depicts a battle between two magic-users, each wielding one of the elements. The poses are suitably dramatic and the options for changing the look of the scene gives you many different possibilities.

While technically a set for two female avatars, the poses can largely pass for unisex, so we took this opportunity for Ran to show off his amazing new mesh armour from Silhouette Warfare. I, on the other hand, decided to go with rather less; I am wearing the lovely Naamah body jewellery from the Plastik, which definitely adorns you but doesn’t exactly cover you.

Chandra Meehan of chanimations is offering two of her awesome pose sets/scenes at a discount for this round of We Love Role-Play. The first one is “An Alchemist’s Tale”. For this scene, I am also wearing the Gypsy outfit from the Lounge, also from We Love Role-Play.

The September round of We Love Role-Play is now open and my first item of choice is the Miriel gown from Evie’s Closet. I am very happy to see Evangeline Miles move into mesh gowns—mesh gowns, thankfully, are much more forgiving of non-standard sized shapes than, say, mesh pants—and this is a lovely high fantasy design. I’ve paired it with the Curiata jewellery from Illusions and the latest release from Wasabi Pills, Robin. I am also wearing yet another newly acquired Skin Shop skin.

While still in Beta according to their website, The Shops has now been around for a few months. This new brand brings together the brands previously launched by the same team—including stores such as the Abyss and the Body Co—and adds a new store, the Skin Shop. More is supposed to come in the future, but for it is just the skins, though “just” isn’t the right way to put it. Since launching, the Skin Shop has released over a dozen male and female skins, all of the very high quality that Second Life has come to expect from these creators.

Despite being a big fan of the skins from the Abyss and the Body Co, I had actually not picked up a skin from the Skin Shop until yesterday. I’ll get into why in a bit, but for now, lets just say I am very glad I finally did; the Pixie skin was just what this particular shape of mine needed.

For this post I am also wearing a brand-new hair release from Eaters Coma and I am absolutely in love with the soft cascade of hair in front. The waviness is perfectly done and it is so flattering around the face as well. My dress for the first picture is the stunning Margaret dress from the Muses in Purple.

At the moment I feel as if the pose selection is the hardest part of any photography session. In part this is due to my inventory being in serious need of some organising, which means I reach for the same poses over and over again. However, I am also finding myself a touch disenchanted with static poses and quite a bit more inclined to be inspired by animations. As a result, Ran and I have found ourselves investing in quite a few pieces of furniture; the combination of a nice piece of mesh furniture with a set of—quite often—themed animations has proven rather irresistible.

Our latest acquisition is a collaboration between Maxwell Graf of Rustica and Froukje Hoorenbek of Dutchie. We already had several lovely pieces from Rustica, but this is our first Dutchie item. We have been very tempted by several previous releases—Dutchie always seems to do fabulous themed pieces that really tell a story—but not quite felt that we could justify the price for “just” photography. However, La Signora Della Pazienza—the Lady of Patience—proved to be something we just had to get. This stunningly crafted mesh cage—which Maxwell Graf created based on a drawing in a Renaissance manuscript—comes with an intriguing set of animations, perfect for a particularly dark sort of fantasy.

Needless to say, the images within aren’t precisely SFW.

This is one of those days when I am feeling rather jealous of my avatar because she has three new gowns from the Muses to play with and she can dress up like a medieval lady whenever she wants. I suppose I could technically do so in RL too, but gowns aren’t the most practical garments for everyday life. So, Second Life to the rescue.

I am also wearing some new hair styles from Alice Project, Calico and Amacci; changing hair style and hair colour with a couple of click is another of those enviable traits of Second Life.

Not everything has to be mesh. The Veritas tops from the Plastik certainly shows the viability of texture clothing and the peacock pattern made for a fortunate match with Volstead’s accessories from Collabor88’s birthday round. Slink hair and Slink avatar enhancements round out the look together with the shoes from lassitude & ennui, made to go with the Slink medium high feet.

For a while, mesh made it very hard to find nice clothing for roleplay looks. This has all changed rather drastically in the last few months and now there are several stores producing high quality roleplay-oriented clothing in mesh. And, of course, there’s the We Love Role-Play event, which is a great way of getting familiar with both established and new designers within the field.

This month’s lineup includes three outfits from FATEplay, Damien Fate’s latest venture. Some of the outfits made their debut during the Fantasy Faire, but they have been updated since then and now feature materials. I thought that made the Wende dress a nice match for the poet shirt from bastard (Maxwell Graf’s new male clothing line) since that one also utilizes materials.

Now that I am back home from our vacation—which means back on my regular computer and fast, steady connection—the blog should be getting some much-deserved attention again. I have a lot to catch up on, including several gorgeous releases from this month’s We Love Role-Play. For example, a chain maille doublet from Maxwell Graf of Rustica, released under his new clothing label, “bitch”. And don’t fret, guys, because the “bastard” label is also represented with a set of poet shirts in different materials. And yes, all these releases have materials, for that extra-spectacular look.

I am also wearing a new skin from the Plastik, released for yesterday’s 50 Linden Friday. Eren is part of the Astrali line and I have to say this may be my favourite face from the line so far; it feels very natural. It also comes with a toned down body that suits smaller breast settings very nicely.

For the upcoming round of We Love Role-Play (opening later today, the 4th of August), the participating creators have produced some really striking pieces. My instant favourite has to be the Penghel armour from the Muses, but there’s plenty more to choose from when it comes to outfits for both ladies and warrior women.

Of course, the right skin is also a crucial part of a roleplay look, and the Plastik has some great options for fey, otherworldly looks with their Elven skins; my favourite ended up being the Moon tone.

Hair Fair is still going strong with about a week to do, but it is not the only fair in town right now. There is also the Food Fair, featuring decorative food items as well as other items with a food connection.

Generally, you don’t want hair in your food, or food in your hair, but for this post we’re mixing things up. From Hair Fair, we’re showing hairs by Wasabi Pills (female) and Amacci (male). From Food Fair, we’re showing a gorgeous corset by Perception and a lovely, materials-ready necklace by Weather! or not?