Otherworldly

I’ve actually never been to Italy, but I have had the opportunity to see Roman ruins at sites in the UK and, most recently, in Spain. The museum outside of Sevilla included a small reconstruction of a villa, showing the various rooms of the house. The Villa Iunia from Del-ka Aediles is a grander affair, but definitely has the right feel, with larger central areas and small rooms off to the sides of these. The choice of colour and pattern also fit known examples. I really appreciate the attention to the details that make it feel authentic. There is also a neat feature where you can turn on rain over the impluvium (the pool), really bringing the outdoors indoors. The villa is a brand new release and you can get it at 50% off at Redeux. But remember, each round of Redeux only lasts a week, so make sure you fit in a visit before you get too busy with the holidays!

Sometimes, the right place for a bit of romance (alright, naughtiness) is a secluded corner of the castle, leaning up against a tapestry that keeps the cold stone wall away from you. After all, beds and couches can get a bit tedious in the long run. That’s when Roawenwood has your back (quite literally) with this new release for We Love Role-Play. The “Up Against the Wall Hanging Tapestry” offers nine different textures, 1 casual talking animation, 17 cuddles & kisses and 19 adult animations. I quite like the animation selection and it is a really nice way to have access to couple animations in locations where, for example, a bed would be out of place.

The current round of Romp ends tomorrow, so I wanted to squeeze in a look at two things from the event—a furniture set from Roawenwood and a pair of stockings from Luxuria. The furniture has poses for two and three avatars at once as well, but I didn’t have any extra bodies handy for these photos. The idea is that it is a “kennel” bed set (for girls, not dogs, even if my dogs would have liked the lower bed!) with solo animations that include various lays, a set of tasks (knitting, sewing, embroidering) and a set of beauty routine animations. The work animations auto-rez and attach props, but the beauty ones don’t, which I am not sure whether that is intentional or a glitch. There is also a “sisters” menu for two avatars, with hairbrushing and gossping, an adult menu for two female avatars, and a threesome menu (two females, one male) with cuddles and sex. The style of the set is pretty versatile, here I have it in a fairly rustic setting but I could see this kind of wood finish in a more modern room too.

Luxuria’s Heaven Thigh Highs (the writing on the back reads “this way to heaven”), which includes both appliers and system layers, comes in eight colours for easy matching with lingerie—or with nothing at all. ;)

I have teased it a few times already, since I have basically been wearing it all the time since I picked it up, but now it is time for a closer look at the new female skin from DNA. The creator, Brox Riaxik, is far from new to skins in Second Life and was previously behind the Signature brand. But with the advent of Bakes on Mesh he’s decided to launch a new set of skins that will take full advantage of the possibilities that BoM offers. The idea is to have skin bases, for male and female avatar, and tattoo add-ons for altering body type and facial features. Right now, you can get a pack of the male and female skin bases for just L$500, which is pretty insane considering that they include 64 tones. The pack also includes a set of “phenotypes”, variations in body type that you can overlay onto the skin bases for even more variation since these are also tintable.

Yesterday, I set about getting this post ready, uploading images to Flickr and the blog. Then, dogs and deadlines happened and here I am, a day and a half later with nothing written yet. And since the deadline is still hovering over my shoulder, this will have to be short and sweet. As I mentioned when reviewing the Quinta Palace from Fanatik, they also had a new castle out. In contrast to the palace, the Stalker Castle is a compact build with a footprint of 30 x 28 m and 170 prims.  There are three levels (plus the roof) and the castle is lit by torches and braziers. The beautiful lighting inside is what made me want to shoot it in the snow and even have it snow inside, which of course is perfectly plausible when you’re a snow queen courtesy of the latest deviousMind release.

Sometimes, even virtual floors need a good scrubbing. Of course, when your scrub bucket is made by Dutchie, you may end up being distracted from your work and things are very likely to get dirty rather than clean! Though there are two actual scrubbing animations and if you’d like to keep your roleplay safe for work, there’s a PG version. This, however, is the adult version, which has 30 couple animations and 2 sequences.

This past weekend, Fanatik released two new builds. I’ve done a video tour of the largest of them, the fantastic Quinta Palace. At 375 prims and 52 x 52 meters it is not something you easily tuck away on a small parcel. However, if you have the space for it, it would make a wonderful centrepiece of a sim. This beautifully crafted and textured build is inspired by the Quinta de Bacalhoa palace in Portugal. In the video, I walk through the two levels to give you a good look at the whole palace. I have also included some pictures below and of course the credits to what I am wearing in the video.