Otherworldly

The best kind of rain is a soft summer rain and sometimes it can feel wonderful to be on the beach when it happens, perhaps even take a swim in the rain.

Be My Mannequin’s “Feel How it Feels” pose (inspired by Stranger Things and its usage of Kate Bush’s fantastic Running Up That Hill) was perfect for the image of just sitting on the beach and letting a gentle rain wash down over you. The Lemongrass hair from Wasabi is a lovely, summery style which also comes with a hat for an even more beachy look and the Amelia shirt and shorts set from Salt & Pepper is part of their interactive Aquasense range, meaning it can go from dry to wet and vice versa when interacting with SL water and various scripted objects. Selected colours are on sale for the weekend.

Under a red sky cut through by lightning, the dark priestess sought to learn the future, calling up eldritch magic to do her bidding.

I love this EEP setting (Daves HD Thunderstorms 9), it is just the kind of dark drama that this scene needed. The centerpiece is the Silver Scrying Bowl from HEXtraordinary, with the magic effects coming from Dreaming Thicket. The hair from F&M Oblivion was first out at the Hair Fair and is now available at the Fantasy Room. And my outfit? Who else could it be from but Chandra Meehan of deviousMind. Its dark, sexy and full of attitude.

Where did July go? Oh I know, our new puppy ate the whole month! Its been a fun (but sometimes exhausting) few weeks and not until now have I been able to steal some time for blogging. Which means there’s quite a back log of things I really want to showcase, some of them no longer brand new releases.

One of these is the Viking Hut Gamla from Del-ka Aedilis. This is a commoners dwelling and I like the idea of this simple hut being found far away from a village, with perhaps an outlaw or a wise old woman living in it. In this case, I think it must be an outlaw, seeing the fine horse with the fancy tack hitched outside. The horse is by Teegle, of course, and the tack by Cheval D’or.

The Viking Hut Gamla comes in this mossy version and a regular one, plus in a separate package there’s a snow-covered version. Also included are three different textures for the door with different symbols and a lighter wall texture.

Sometimes, the poet and his muse get a bit carried away…

For the Fantasy Room, Del-ka Aedilis has released the Scroll Shelf Agrippa, available in two heights, three wood types and with two different ornaments (or none). I set it up in their Villa Agrippa, also adding in the Tablinium Table Agrippa in the background. The couple pose used is by Be My Mannequin? for the POSEvent. It is called “Mine” and at the event you can also get it in a fatpack with another couple pose for 10% off.

My hair is one of Raven Bell’s releases for the Hair Fair (which ends on Sunday the 10th of July, so don’t miss out!), a gorgeous long style fitted for both male and female avatars. Ran is wearing the male version of Ash from Wasabi and you can get a better look at both hairs in the additional photos below. The outfits are by Antaya and Last Ride.

They were not ready for what answered them…

F&M Oblivion has two cool fantasy hair styles at the Hair Fair with this one, called Selene, being the most spectacular. As it reminded me of horns as well as the curve of the moon, something magical seemed an obvious choice. Fortunately, I had just won a Discord giveaway from Petrichor for the very cool Kelstreia outfit (which consists of many more pieces than what I am showing) and I think it goes really well with the hair to sell the idea of perhaps a succubi or other demonic creature having been summoned. The summoning circle is from Roawenwood and includes animations both for a central figure and for people praying and summoning in the outer circle. Placing it deep within the cave system from Fanatik added an underworldly touch to the proceedings.

Six sims all dedicated to making you look as fabulous as possible can only mean one thing: Hair Fair is back. With all sales donating a part of the price to Wigs for Kids (and, in the case of bandanas from the Bandana Booths, that part is 100%) the event makes it easy for you to shop and donate at the same time. In addition to hair styles, the event offers hair addons, hairbases, beards, hair accessories and even some hair-themed props and poses. To make shopping easy, the layout of the booths make for very smooth browsing of all the stores. In fact, if you put up your draw distance high enough, you can stand at one point and cam shop the whole event. You’ll find all the links and previews on the official website, linked above.

Del-ka Aedilis has three new releases for the A Thousand and One Night event; a large divan, an elegant tea table and a matching floor cushion that is available either at the event or as a group gift at the main store. Each piece is offered with a 25% discount at the event which lasts until June 25th. Three fabric colours and three shades of wood are included where applicable and the divan and the floor cushion include animations; singles only for the cushion and singles and couple (including adult animations) for the divan.

To complete the decor of the room, I used pieces from Libertine, Paper Moon and Senzafine. The outfit is from Salt & Pepper with the snake armbands being a gift at the Shop n Hop from AtaMe. Another gift from there is the subtly metallic lipstick from alaskametro.

This dynamic pose from Be My Mannequin called for cool outfit and a cool location. I think I found it in deviousMind’s Yuna outfit and in Dystopian Nights, a small Blade Runner-inspired build.

The pose, called All My Rage, is available at Tokyo Zero together with two other new poses. They are sold as singles or in a fatpack with a 10% discount. The gun prop is included with the pose.

Yuna is sold in a NextUP vendor (or as a fatpack) at the NextUP event. There are two types of commons, the Silk Dress and the Top & Glove set, and three rares: Leather Corset, Silk Fan and Parasol. The dresses are gorgeous and elaborate, so you don’t need to spend tons to get a great outfit, and the rares are really cool additions.

This week, I was one of the lucky winners when DeeTaleZ did a social media giveaway of their latest skin, Hope. I used to wear DeeTaleZ quite a lot, but lost track of the brand a bit in the transition to mesh heads, especially when Catwa became dominant and I didn’t wear those heads at all. Now their releases are almost entirely for EvoX, which I do wear. Hope caught my eye and I entered into the draw and a few days later I was surprised to have the full pack including add-ons sent to me. Naturally I had to give it a thorough look, but first I had to go shopping for the new body skins. In the process of doing so, I managed to buy one tone for the wrong body…oops. Too eager to get setup!

The ancient temple lies half-buried by the desert, its secrets swallowed by the shifting sands. But it is said that at times, when the wind has driven the dunes just so, the legendary Mouth of Truth is once more revealed and those who dare may approach it.

The Mouth of Truth, by Fantavatar & Moonstruck, is based on a marble mask from Rome, likely depicting the face of the titan Oceanus. It has a single pose in which your avatar sticks a hand into the mouth. In her notecard accompanying the product, Luna Barak also shares this:

“According to enduring medieval legend, it will bite off the hand of any liar who places their hand in its mouth, or, alternatively, any who utters a lie while their hand is in the mouth.”

For this scene, I made an oracle out of it instead and placed it among the Ruins by Fanatik. My Truthseeker wears the gorgeous new Pandora gown by Tres, which features three different skirt styles: solid side panels, sheer side panels and no side panels. The skin as well as the eyeshadow and the metallic tattoos are all free prizes in the Free Dove & alaskametro hunt. Don’t miss it, there’s a total of ten prizes, including one more skin. The hair is Echo by Wasabi, which comes with two style options and hair clips that can be turned on or off.

The Klara hair from Wasabi adds a touch of playful innocence, as do the pale lilac of the stockings from Luxuria. But the Ohanna slip from Faida is anything but, with both the top and the skirt made from delicate lace (which Titania Halasy does so well). Altogether, the perfect little outfit for an evening at home…with some special company, of course.

The “Become the Beast” couple pose from Be My Mannequin? inspired me to do a rather NSFW photo using the Qismat Harem from Del-ka Aedilis. Clothing just didn’t seem right for it. ;) Well, at least not beyond the little chain harness from Aisling/Voluptas Virtualis, back in the good old days when they still did sizes for Slink Physique. No reason to let excellent mesh gather dust in my inventory just because its some years old.

Sometimes, the muse inspires the poetess in the middle of the night and she writes by the flickering light of an oil lamp.

The Tablinium Desk Set Agrippa from Del-ka Aedilis will be out on June 1st at the Narrative Event. This table is based on Roman finds and included with it is also the curule chair (with suitable animations) and three different decor sets with text fragments from Ovid, Sappho and Martial. I placed the set in the previously reviewed Villa Rustica where it of course fits in beautifully.

My Roman poetess is not that accurately dressed, but close enough. The Goddess Gown by HEXtraordinary is more fantasy Grecian, but very beautiful, and the necklace and earrings by Bliensen + MaiTai are mosaic-inspired and seem quite appropriate. Finally, my hair by Nylon Outfitters is a pretty updo available at Collabor88 that I feel comes pretty close to some Roman styles.

The latest furniture release from Dutchie is a cozy outdoor sofa set with enough space for 6 avatars if all 3 sections are used (for a smaller sofa, you could use just the middle section or put together the left and the right without the middle). To fit in with the rest of your decor, the sofa offers 4 wood options and 7 fabric colours. There is also a matching table with the same 4 wood options.

If you choose the PG version, the sofa comes with 10 solo animations and 10 cuddles. For the Adult versions, some 80 couple animations are added. Adult versions, you say? Yes, the sofa is available in FF, MF and MM, and you can get a set that allows you to mix and match different sections to cater to all your guests. To read more in detail about the various options, see the product page.

I placed my sofa set on the patio of Trompe Loeil’s Modern Villa, overlooking the pool. That gave me an excuse to slip into a bikini by Salt & Pepper and for Ran to be dressed for some casual lounging about. My hair is a new release from Wasabi, a very flattering style called Ash that you can get at Kustom 9.

Be My Mannequin has a set of poses inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas out at Enchantment’s Burton-esque round. A strange choice for this summery scene, one might think, especially as I picked the pose with the snowflake prop. But I love the incongruity of this combination and the reminder that no season—or anything else—lasts forever. As usual the fatpack (called Weary King) of all three poses is event-exclusive and offers a 10% discount. Also available at Enchantment is the Helena hair by F&M Oblivion, a large and quirky updo very well suited to the theme. Here I went for a light colour and a more whimsical feel.

The lovely butterfly swarm is by deviousMind and available at We Love Role-Play in a range of colours. These can be worn with most bodies and include an optional particle effect of additional butterflies. I matched it with the butterfly and bee decorated April bikini by deviousMind.