Otherworldly

The massive new release from Fanatik is now out (11 new products, plus two new group gifts), which prompted me to return to the showcase sim yet again, this time in the guise of a wanderer exploring the rugged landscape. The new landscaping items and the sim built with them are inspired by St. Kilda, a remote Scottish archipelago in the North Atlantic, so it is no wonder that it reminds me a lot of the coast of Northern Ireland where we went on a tour a few years back to visit various filming locations for Game of Thrones. To visit the sim, head over to Fanatik’s main store and click the teleporter right at the front of the store. That is also where you will find all the new products.

Of course the heatwave hits a week after we return from our vacation right by the sea, making me wish I was some kind of mer-creature living in the actual ocean. Maybe not so nice in wintertime here in Sweden, but right now it would be glorious. If you too have a craving for the waves, you might also want to slip into the latest release from deviousMind, Meerilyn. I am also wearing Wasabi’s latest release, the pretty Sora hair, which is available at Anthem.

La vie en pose has opened its anniversary round and I am going to share two more items from the event. From Spyralle comes another set of Pinnacles, meant to set you off against fantastic Windlight/EEP skies. In this set we have the Colonnade (seen here), Column and Monument. These sets are great for fantasy photos but also model photos as long as you are able to rez them somewhere up in the sky. The poses used are from Diversion and while this set is actually for teasing a partially removed bikini, I liked the attitude of them so much that I couldn’t resist using them with a fantasy staff instead.

I love the idea of combining clothing and jewellery as sachi Vixen has done in this gown for the Vintage Fair, where a bejewelled collar tops off a slinky silk (or velvet) gown. I went without any additional jewellery to focus on the collar itself and stayed with Truth’s latest group gift for my hair, here in the version without any wisps and with everything neatly gathered up. Dutchie’s New Amsterdam houseboat served as the stage for the photo, with the mid-century vanity showing in the background, to hint at either the beginning or end of a festive evening.

I have blogged a few pieces from Del-ka Aedilis in the past and was recently invited to blog more of their buildings and decor items. Seeing as they align very well with my own interests, I was more than happy to agree! To introduce the brand properly on my blog, asked them to provide a short description of what they do and why:

“As passionate roleplayers we discovered the need of low-prim, well-built and nicely textured buildings, especially for Fantasy, Medieval and Ancient Greek or Roman settings.”

Today I am going to feature the Slave Quarters from their Civitas series. It is essentially a complete district from a Roman city, with apartments, a small slave auction, a brothel, a forge and some storage areas. This offers many different options for roleplay as well as many photo opportunities. Since I don’t have a Roman city built up on our sim, I paired the Slave Quarters with their Villa Iunia for a more complete scene. I have to say I love the attention to authentic details, such as the graffiti! In the last two photos, from inside the brothel, you also see the Whore’s Mattress which includes solo, couple and threesome animations.

The footprint of the Slave Quarters is 33 x 16 m and the total land impact with all decor is 136 (102 for just the buildings).

The beautiful wings from Static was the seed of inspiration for this post. As soon as I unpacked those among the blogger boxes, I knew I had to put together an outfit that used them. However, it took a week before I settled on the other key piece, namely the Viscivorus skin, a collaboration between the Plastik/Petrichor and Trap. Or rather, I am using the included tattoo of the markings, which I feel have something of a feather-like quality to them. The flexibility of being able to use the markings from the skin on an altogether different skin is quite a bonus, I must say. The skin also includes materials appliers for both body and face, though I was not able to get it to work on the face. Finally, I am also wearing the Hayden hair from Wasabi that you saw on Ran in my last post; this unisex style works great for both male and female avatars.

As always, remember that the Fantasy Faire raises money for Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society, so do keep an eye out for the RFL vendors and donation kiosk when visiting the Faire! Today is the last day of events and organised programming, but the Faire sims stay around until May 10th.

A somewhat unusual choice of colours for me, it tends to be the blacks and the bold reds that draw my eye. But since every colour in the Jodha Lehenga collection from Zaara looks fantastic, I wanted to pick something different. And when I decided that the scene needed something more, it turned out that the ivory version looked really good against the albino texture for Jian’s peacock. I played around a bit with the windlight as well and I think the pink sunset light made for a very pretty contrast.

Del-ka Aedilis has another building in their Civitas series available at a 50% discount at the current round of Redeux (which ends in just a few days!). The Ludus Magnus is a villa with an attached gladiatorial school. Those who watched the Spartacus TV-series may recognize the design of this complex. I decided to focus on the gladiatorial arena for my photos, though the rest of the villa is a very nice build as well. The arena is nicely sized and surrounded by the cells in which the gladiators lived; the gladiatorial school was essentially a prison.

Just a quickie heads-up. As a Valentine’s gift, Dutchie has sent out a new item to their subscribers, a charming breakfast tray with three bento poses. So if you’re not already subscribed, now is a good time to sort that out! Man-Freyja is not included, however. ;)

I think I am well on my way to becoming a virtual horse hoarder. I’ve now got six of the seven Teeglepets plus the Teegle avatar (on a separate account, so I can take myself for a ride) roaming around on the sim. The latest addition is the absolutely gorgeous Arabian, beautifully modelled to have the distinctive dish-shaped face, large eyes and nostrils and proudly carried tail. The movements of this horse are also very well suited to the breed and while I did not do a video this time, I tried to capture some of it in the shots I took.

The Arabian is currently an event exclusive at the Princess Bride round of Enchantment and the same goes for the lovely Arabian Nights tack from Jinx that I also picked up. This made it easy to decide how I wanted to show off the horse and so off I went to setup the Sahara Oasis solid sky landscape from Landscapes Unlimited. To this I added the new ruins from Fanatik and tinted these to blend in more with the desert sands. As for myself, I decided to be a desert prince rather than a desert princess—easier to find clothing suited to riding astride.

In time for Valentine’s Day, Roawenwood has put out a set which I guess one could call romantic BDSM at We Love Role-Play, the “Yearning Heart Collaring Ceremony”. Well, that was an excellent excuse for breaking out a silk set from the Plastik/Petrichor & Lune for myself and getting Ran to wear a newly bought and very princely necklace from Old Treasures for the current round of Enchantment. Which, btw, I will be showing you more things from soon since I may have acquired yet another Teeglepet horse.

I think “short” may be an understatement when it comes to the Kayo dress from Voluptas Virtualis, available at the current round of Anthem. It is, however, excellent for showing off your legs and thus anything worn on them, like a pair of sexy, high-heeled boots like these from lassitude & ennui. The dress certainly doesn’t do a shabby job of showing off the rest of you either, one has to add, especially not when worn with Slink Hourglass (it is also available for Belleza Freya and Maitreya Lara)

After a hiatus in January, a new round of We Love Role-Play opens in just a few days (on the 4th). The pretty top that I am wearing is Paper Moon’s release for the event, a tank top style with laces all the way up the back (which I of course failed to do a shot of…) which comes in seven colours with each including a fresh and a faded version. This is the faded version of Crimson, which I paired with a skirt from On a Lark. Matching two unrelated mesh pieces isn’t always easy, but these work wonderfully together.

“När alla vännerna gått hem
och festen är slut för länge sen”

New Year’s parties are mostly a thing of the past for me (we have a cosy night in with the dogs instead), but I remember how melancholy they used to make me. Actually, “melancholy” doesn’t quite capture it for me, I have to resort to Swedish and “vemod”. It is closely related to melancholy and nostalgia, but with a somewhat different resonance. It specifically relates to something beautiful or enjoyable that has passed and the realisation that it won’t come back. It usually strikes right after you’ve been really happy, when you slow down a bit and reflect on things. I wanted to get across a little of that in these pictures.

We’re taking our Christmas tree in tomorrow, but I am not sure I will be decorating it wearing a similar “outfit”. Actually, I am pretty sure I won’t. ;) But since the decorator’s stool from Libertine includes both some tree-decorating poses AND some pin-up poses, the ideas kind of merged in my mind. I also had a few new items from Voluptas Virtualis that lent themselves perfectly to decorating myself a bit. Finally, the lack of clothing allowed me to wear the Slink natural bottom augment for the Hourglass shape and to really focus on the new boots from Slink.