Otherworldly

Winter Haven

A cosy winter skybox, furnished with a couple of elegant new pieces from Libertine’s collection, offers the perfect place for a lady to receive a special visitor. Garbed in a long gown with matching jacket, both decorated with luxurious fur, she lights a red candle that spreads a spicy scent in the room. Then she moves to lounge on the sofa, coyly hiding her face behind a lace fan.

There are so many goodies at this round of We Love Role-Play! Starting with the skybox, it is from Tirrany Design and features a beautiful fireplace at one end of the room and windows that overlook a snowy landscape at the other. The style of it is vaguely 19th century but could fit a broad range depending on how you furnish it. Here, I am using two pieces from Libertine, a new version of the Cheshire Pouf (which includes animations for decorating a Christmas tree) and the brand new Alice couch in an Adult edition.

The gown and jacket is by Luas and if you get the fatpack you can mix and match the colours between the pieces and also pick different fur colours. The candle comes from Jinx and includes a basic holding animation as well as either closed or open eyes.

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The Lady at the Fountain

We Love Role-Play remains open for two more days, until the 28 of September, so don’t miss the chance to check out all the great deals for this round. You will find new releases at 15% to 30% discounts, such as the lovely Cerridwen gown from Ruxy and the Butterfly Hennin by Grasshopper St. The gown is definitely more of a fantasy piece whereas the headgear is appropriately medieval. The ensemble gave me a reason to revisit my little Renaissance-inspired town, built with Del-ka Aedilis’s Medici Series of buildings. I also added a fountain from Hextraordinary to fill out the central square some.

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Sins of the Father

How fortunate that I sent Ran to shop the Salt & Pepper retirement sale, because a few days later it turned out that a naughty priest was just what I needed for the couple pose “the Noose” from Be My Mannequin.  Clearly, the temptation of the beautiful concubine was too much for this man of the cloth. 

I am wearing the very revealing Keraves dress from Petrichor & Ersch, a one-piece outfit with plenty of texture options for the fabric and the gems. Here I went with gold and red to match the utterly stunning Theodora Circlet from Old Treasures. That has to be my new favourite piece of jewellery in SL. And it fits very well with the beautiful new Morgana hair from Magika, a must-have style.

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Regal Reception

Few were granted the honour of meeting with the King’s favourite in her private apartments, from where it was said she ruled the King and thus the kingdom. She was beautiful, garbed in green and gold, and very dangerous.

From Zaara comes the beautiful Kashmira Lehenga, consisting of a beautiful, embroidered top over a skirt and accessorised with a scarf.  The fatpack allows you to mix and match all the colours, for some lovely combinations. The elaborate hair jewellery is made by Antaya and the HUD includes a good range of colour options for each section, so it was easy to match it to the outfit. Finally, I added part of the Ceres tattoo from Nefekalum, with materials for an extra bit of golden sheen.  All these new releases are from We Love Role-Play, whereas the decor consists of older releases from Old Treasures, Del-ka Aedilis, Libertine and Paper Moon.

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Domesticity

With a little (okay, a lot) of help from Del-ka Aedilis, I have started piecing together a little Renaissance-inspired household. The building used is the Townhouse Isabella from the Medici series, an elegant two-story house with beautiful stonework on the outside and different wall colours and floor textures for the various rooms. In one of the rooms, I placed the Atticus closet, the Agrippa storage chest and the Livia cabinet. There are several versions of each piece—plain, Roman ornaments and Medieval ornaments—as well as several wood colour options. Additionally, the storage chest (which can be either open or closed) comes in one empty and two filled versions, with different folded outfits in each.

To fit into the scene, I picked the Raphaelle Gown from Senzafine and the elegant Costanza d’Altavilla hair from F&M Oblivion. The necklace was a gift from Old Treasures at the last Shop & Hop.

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The Power Behind the Throne

There is certainly no doubt of what inspired the “Green Queen” dress from Old Treasures, the stunning green gown worn by Queen Alicent in episode 6 of House of the Dragon. A great choice for a dress to bring into Second Life, and it looks wonderful in this red gold/copper version as well. It (as well as the icon green version) is included in the Dark pack and there is also a Light pack and a Fatpack.  The Verity necklace and earrings from Random Matter finish off the royal look.

The impressive braid is from Wasabi for Anthem and this has to be one of the best styles they’ve ever released. I just love the way it looks and its handy that the braid can be worn over either shoulder. Optional, unrigged bangs are also included.

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By Any Other Name

I am a slow blogger these days. I’ve had the gorgeous Capulet dress from Old Treasures in my inventory for well over a month and the Delight hood from the same brand for even longer. But sometimes you just have to get the right idea and for me it came with this pose from Le Poppycock that I picked up on The Saturday Sale. I did have to tweak the right arm a little, as it was half sunk into the dress, but I didn’t touch the left arm with its very gracefully posed fingers.

The Capulet dress as well as the Delight hood are available in two gorgeous colour packs, dark and light. The Delight hood includes coiled braids and a hair colour HUD with colours that match LeLutka hairbases. I have a little renaissance-inspired mini town setup on the sim, using builds from Del-ka Aedilis and Fantavatar & Moonstruck, and that’s where I headed for a sunset balcony photo.

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Dragonkin

I did warn that there would be more videos for the 2022 Horse Show and here we go. With cool new idles for the horses and a fancy new cloak for myself, a video was definitely needed. Plus, it made it easier to offer a good look at the three different Dragonkin tack/mod sets from Idunn’s Clutch. I go through all the new items in the video, but for a quick and easy overview of the credits, scroll to the end of this post. On the way, you’ll pass a few photos; I am particularly pleased with the first one but the rest are pretty cool looks at the horses too.

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The Lord’s Retreat

It is much easier to shop for a female avatar than a male one, but now and then something shows up for just male avatars that I just have to have even if it means slipping on a male shape for a while. The Montague Doublet from Old Treasures is one such item; I’d love to see it for female avatars too, but I am perfectly happy to admire it on myself in male form as well. ;) But while I have a lot of great hairs for male avatars (meaning longer styles that work on men, since that’s my preference) such as this Ash style from Wasabi, I’ll definitely have to expand my collection of heads and skins if I am going to make this a habit.

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Fantasy Faire 2022: A Respectable Woman

She came to Bassett Town at dusk, driving a trader’s cart pulled by a piebald mare. There was a raven sitting on her shoulder and she held her rifle in a loving way, but she was dressed like a respectable woman, with a large cross around her neck.

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Greek Treasures

A while back, I showed off a pair of Grecian-inspired earrings and a necklace from Old Treasures. Since then, the Kleos series has seen quite a few more releases, including clothing for both male and female avatars. I love the attention to detail with these pieces, from the shape of the garments to the textures that suggest different fabrics. I am particularly fond of the texture and the colours on the male clothing, but the female outfit is very good too.

The male set includes the chlamys (the robe-like garment) and the perizoma (basically a loincloth) and six colour combinations for each. The female outfit is sold as two separate pieces, the chiton (dress) and sash, where the sash comes in a version for wearing on its own and in a version for wearing over the chiton. There are several colourpacks available for each piece.

I found the perfect setting for showing off these outfits in this temple build from Del-ka Aedilis. Admittedly intended as a Roman-inspired temple, it definitely works well enough for a fantasy Grecian feel as well. The temple uses a rezzer and includes two statues as well as some plants, though these can be unlinked and removed after the fact if one prefers. I also added a pair of incense burners from Paper Moon.

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For the Right Price

Fancy an evening stroll through a crowded market, perusing the wares and enjoying the atmosphere? With the Souk Building Kit from Del-ka Aedilis, you can create your own Middle Eastern-inspired marketplace. The kit includes the outer walls (wall, pillar and gate), the market stalls (walls, awnings, roof) and various additional pieces such as shelves, racks of shawls, display tables and jars and bags of products. While you might need more variety of products for building a larger market area, the kit would make an excellent base for adding additional decor elements to, for example from the Roman and Medieval series from Del-ka Aedilis. You’ll find the kit at 25% off at the Fantasy Room event until December 20th.

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Kleos

Old Treasures makes beautiful, historically-inspired pieces, at first accessories and furniture and now also clothing. The jewellery is of course particularly appealing to me, as I love to hoard shiny things. The Kleos Necklace and Earrings may be my favourites from Old Treasures so far, especially as jewellery inspired by Ancient Greece is not exactly common in Second Life. Gemstones polished into beads rather than cut and precious metals decorated with fine etchings and little metal beads fit well with the kind of work done in the ancient Mediterranean. I am showing the set in gold with red gems, but the texture change HUD offers a choice of five metals and, for the necklace, five gemstones. You can get the necklace at the current round of We Love Role-Play. The earrings were at the Warehouse Sale but since that ended on the 18th they should either be in the mainstore or on their way to the mainstore.

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On the Road

Journeying alone, she keeps to the less known roads, always with her bow and arrows within easy reach on her horse. The slight, elegant mare is a little too fine to pass as a common traveller’s horse and her own garb might also arouse too much interest. On this evening, she passes near the eastern shore of the peninsula. Some distance out into the water, a pair of houses on tall stilts are visible, their lights beckoning in an inviting fashion.

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Decadence

Alia Baroque went all out with Renaissance decadence for the Ice & Fire event, bringing three gorgeous pieces from this Libertine that go beautifully together; the Optimo Dierum Throne, Gianicolo bench (free-standing and wall version) and Tales of Might divider. I cleared out one of the grand rooms in Fanatik’s Dungan Castle to make room for this setup and then Ran and I dressed in some of our favourite pieces from the Muses. Though not from the Ice & Fire event, I thought F&M Oblivion’s Sansa Stark-inspired hair was a suitable choice to go with my Lucrezia gown and my Fair Lady jewellery from Old Treasures.

Both the throne and the two versions of the bench offer several texture options for the seat, including marble and stone versions for the benches which allow them to be used in a garden as well. There are solo as well as couple animations and the latter include both cuddles and adult animations. The only thing I would have liked to see as far as the animations go are some more sits that work with long dresses, apart from that it is a fun selection. I particularly like the couple pose I used for the bench, which portrays them arguing.

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