Otherworldly

The additional time allotted to the Faire this year has run out and after today the Fairelands may disappear back into the mists at any time. I have chosen to say farewell to this year’s Faire with an image from Aetherea. Thanks to tireless work by Alia Baroque, the sim was rebuilt and relaunched after the original incarnation was plagued by unexplainable lag. Eventually, Aetherea also found the balance between light and dark and achieved her final form. Alas, this left Fallen Gods with fewer releases than planned, but the striking Flow skin that I wear here did get launched and there will be more releases at a later date, including versions of parts of the beautiful Aetherea build.

It has been a fabulous 10th anniversary Faire, with considerable sums raised for RFL, and I am already looking forward to next year.

LORE has been putting out some excellent pieces of decor lately. For the April round of We Love Role-Play, it was the Desert Villa (which I am also using for this scene), and for the May round they have the Palace Bed. I did not have Ran on hand for showing some of the couple poses, so this is just a small taste of the bed, which comes in a PG and an Adult version. Also from We Love Role-Play is the Desert Princess outfit from Noble Creations.

A week of Fantasy Faire blogging did a number on my creativity, because after we’d been off to the year’s first boxer show, I found myself unable to think of a photo for several days. In the end, I decided it was time to play around with our setup of Libertine furniture and props again. That turned out to be just the right framing for the latest release from Voluptas Virtualis, a zippered little number that doesn’t cover too much.

No, indeed, it is not. Fantasy Faire 2018 was supposed to end today, but the Fairelands will now be around until May 7th. Official programming will still end today, but you will be able to continue shopping, exploring, doing the quest and of course donating to RFL. I will be gone for a couple of days myself and when I come back I do have some non-Fantasy Faire blogging lined up, but I hope to show a few more favourites before the 7th.

To celebrate that today is not the end, both Ran and I went shopping at Silvan Moon Designs, picking up a nice set of RFL retexturings of a pair of her outfits which we both paired with Wasabi hairs. I also added a jewelery set from Acios and used the Mythril Roleplay HUD for the bow and the curtsey. The house and the furniture set are from Rustica.

As soon as I unpacked the Memorial Monument set from Artisan Fantasy, I knew I wanted to do something with it, but it took a while before all the pieces came together. However, once I received the Rihtual set from the Plastik as well as the Helianne headdress, I had an idea for how I wanted it to look. Of course, then it ended up spending an hour testing windlight settings and remodelling my surroundings because the framing of the shot just didn’t come out as I had imagined it. Sometimes it can be a bad idea to have too strong an image in your mind before you setup a shot and this was definitely one of those times. I finally arrived at something that I was mostly pleased with, even if it wasn’t quite what I had wanted from the start.

No Fantasy Faire post from me yesterday as both Ran and I were busy doing not just one but two LitFest events for their George R.R. Martin day. First was a presentation we did together (with the excellent Saffia Widdershins as moderator) about how we ended up collaborating with GRRM and some of the things that has resulted in over the years. At the end of it, Saffia invited us to also take part in her panel discussion on adaptations, which given the theme of the day was focused on A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones. It turned out to be a lot of fun so we were glad we stayed up for it. But it didn’t leave much time for blogging, so what you are getting today is a look at my outfit from the LitFest.

I am taking a brief break in my Fantasy Faire coverage to take a look at a gacha collaboration between Stealthic and Toksik called the Off-Stage collection. The hair is of course made by Stealthic and the photo studio, backdrop and various props (lights, toolbox, ladder, chair) by Toksik. The rares are the hair and the photo studio itself but there are several other pieces that you can use on their own as well. The backdrop, for example, makes for a nice photo backdrop and all the lights are functional light sources.

Today it was time to wander the Fairelands for a while. Wearing the beautiful Verbena set from Dreaming Thicket, I was well prepared to make my way through the sands of Sanoria to walk in the footsteps of the ancients and see the remnants of their civilisation. There are clues scattered across the sim to who they were, a little mini quest that you can enjoy while exploring the sim and the merchants present there.

While I don’t roleplay in Second Life (instead, you’ll find me on Blood of Dragons MUSH), I am most definitely a roleplayer. I also like capturing what you might call “roleplay situations” in my fantasy blogging and I often find myself frustrated by the lack of poses for such scenarios. Enter the Roleplay HUD from Mythril, which offers a wonderful variety of poses and animations for roleplayers and photographers looking for something different.

In addition to the HUD, I also showcase Wasabi’s two new hairs for the Fantasy Faire as well as a neat outfit from Stitched.

Today it was time to flit through the woods on delicate fairy wings, discovering a clearing full of strange and wonderful flowers and vines from Adorably Strange Wares.  The beautiful Daphne dress from the Muses felt like something a fairy might wear and the autumn colour went nicely with the wings from Les Encantades. But a fairy doesn’t need to keep to one season, so the Gaia crown from Acios has more of a spring or summer feel with its lush blooms. My fairy-self also has a taste for other treasures and wears a stunning necklace from Bliensen + MaiTai.

The weather was too gorgeous yesterday to sit in front of the computer until later in the evening, so I didn’t actually manage to get the post out before bedtime. But I am thinking I will get a second one done today, to try to keep up with the one post a day schedule. Fortunately, I had my stitches in the finger out yesterday so typing is a bit easier. But you still get another combined blog and vlog because the star of this post really deserved a video. I am of course talking about the Interactive Tavern Table from Fantavatar & Moonstruck, a fabulous roleplay piece. Also featured in this video are two hairs from F&M, a gown from Les Encantades, an awesome outfit from Last Ride and a skin from Bite & Claw. Note that in the credits, it just says Fantasy Faire after each item, but the links are different depending on which sim the store is actually on. You can also use the excellent Shopping Catalogue to easily find where each and every brand at the faire are located.

Fantasy Faire 2018 is now open and the Fairelands will stay with us from the 19th to the 29th of April. I am starting this year’s coverage of the Faire with a vlog featuring the Fairelands Junction (built by Saiyge Lotus of Balderdash) and three of the new releases from the Plastik (in collaboration with Trap) for the Faire.

Typing is still a bit difficult due to my injured finger, so to give a sense of what awaits you at the Fairelands, I am going to quote briefly from the press release:

“In addition to the ten shopping regions, there’s also five whole Fairelands dedicated to various Faire events from Memorial Garden to the Fairelands Quest, from Literary Festival to Performance Stages, from Art Galleries to the Worldling Collection. This brings the Fairelands count of 2018 into fifteen sims, just waiting for you to come and explore them.”

I have also included a couple of closer looks at the skin, horns and eyes, but for any information beyond the credits at the end I refer to the video to give my finger a rest.

I talk about this a bit in the video as well, but this will be a rather brief post as my typing is currently hampered by an injured finger. I will just leave it at saying that this video is a brief look at Vista’s latest bento mesh head, Zoe, as well as the latest release from Voluptas Virtualis, the Sheryl gacha set from the Epiphany. Unless my finger heals faster than I think, there might be quite a few more videos coming up.

The Pose Fair has now been going on for about two weeks. I actually went shopping on the first day, but haven’t had time to blog my purchases until now. My favourite find has to be the “Shame Stand” from Artis, a pedestal with seven poses (versions for flat and high feet included). I used them unaltered for the first two poses, then used Animare to tweak the head position in order to better show off the jewellery from the Plastik in the close-ups.

A rustic wooden bed with texture options (three wood colours, five fabric colours) and many, many animations is the featured item of this post. The Vilnai bed comes from Roawenwood but it is by no means limited to a roleplay setup. The style and texturing of the bed will fit into any rustic home. It is also done in the same wood style as the bondage star previously released from Roawenwood and briefly seen in this post.

Also shown in this post are two new hairs: Marcus (unisex style) from Wasabi and Bewkie, the March VIP Group Gift from Truth.