Otherworldly

Have you been to the SL Christmas Expo yet? The 12th SL Christmas Expo & Winter Breedables Fair runs from December 2 to December 11th and raises money for the American Cancer Society. The theme of this year’s expo is “The Magic Of Holiday Stories” and the beautifully decorated sims offer some amazing winter wonderlands to explore. There is lots of shopping available but also several exciting events. Don’t miss it!

In the words of Siddean Munro:

“I am holding a huge 50% off everything in the store sale - Slink, One Bad Pixel and Cinnamon and Chai - from RIGHT NOW until 11:59 on November the 28th. This sale includes everything. EVERYTHING IN THE STORE. I’ve never had a sale like this, and I never will again! Now’s your chance to grab that thing you have been dreaming about! Only at Slink (Marketplace not included).”

As I have no doubt mentioned a few times, the Slink Physique Original body is my favourite body for a realistic shape. Slink Physique Hourglass is a bit more exaggerated, but I am still very fond of how it handles the stomach and hips. The very best stomach and hips, however, can be found on Cinnamon & Chai, which is the entirely separate body that Siddean launched some time ago. This sale seemed like a good excuse to take a sexy shot of each body, dressed up in clothes and shoes from Siddean’s brands as well.

A market had sprung up in front of the castle, with colourful stalls selling all sorts of wares; fruits of all kinds, large wheels of cheese, fine fabrics, and so on. There was also a space set aside where horses for sale were hitched, waiting for buyers. One of them caught her eye, a pony with a golden coat. She had bought an apple from the fruit seller for herself, but now she held it out to the pony, who took it carefully. Later, she returned with a second apple, untied the pony from the post and asked if it would come with her. Together, they walked away from the market, pausing only to eye the cheese on the way out.

The 2022 Horse Show, with everything you could possibly need for your Teeglepets and Teegle Avatars, is here. Expect more than a few posts featuring new releases from the Horse Show from now until October 2nd, when it ends. In this post, you’ve got the simple but useful apple from Multifarious (it includes a hand animation for the human avatar) as well as the beautiful Sunny coat from artMEfashion.

But I do like trying to mix it up a bit, so in this post I am also featuring new(ish) releases from F&M Oblivion and Del-ka Aedilis for We Love Role-Play and the Fantasy Room.

Be My Mannequin has a new set of three single poses out for the Grid event, opening today. Exclusive to the event is a fatpack called “Sing to Me” which gives you a 10% discount over buying the poses individually. I made use of two of the poses, both which have a very moody feel to them. Someone who never went to the party after all, but stayed alone at home, brooding.

I haven’t worn the Chai body from Cinnamon & Chai for a while but the addition of support for the body to various Slink and One Bad Pixel releases made it easy to expand my wardrobe for her quite a bit. These red pants, for example, are available for just L$75 right now as a promotion for the addition. And if you already own any of the pieces now getting a new size added, simply redeliver them to get your hands on the update.

The Bubbles hair is the latest from Wasabi, out for Access. The style includes three style options, optional bangs and a lot of hairpins which can be texture changed or turned off.

Verdandi is the “middle sister” of the Norns in Norse mythology, her domain is the present and her name essentially means “that which is happening/becoming”. It is also the name of the beautiful makeup set from Seydr for the Fantasy Faire that I am wearing for this post. There’s no Norse-inspired Faireland this year, but between that makeup and the Norse Warrior tack set from Cheval D’or, a Vikingesque post was inevitable. Fortunately, I have a beautiful snowy landscape all of my own. By no means as spectacular as a Faireland, but I think it served these photos well.

I’ve featured the Ludus Magnus from Del-ka Aedilis before, but what better build to use for a bad-ass battle pose? This is another pose from Be My Mannequin?‘s set of poses for Enchantment’s Iliad and Odyssey round, this time using the included prop sword. The Ines set from deviousMind for We Love Role-Play is perhaps not standard-issue gladiator wear, but this leather-and-feather set has such a fierce attitude. The hair from Analog Dog is currently a free gift in the mainstore, in the Freeball (you need to cam around a bit to find it). I also like how the Ashlynn head from Slink came out with this expression from Vista’s Facial Bento hud.

To show off the Ludus more fully, I built up a small mountain with the help of Fanatik’s Lofoten set and placed it on top, with one of the sim surrounds from Landscapes Unlimited providing the dramatic backdrop.

It started with the second of the two images popping into my head when I tested the “Little Drummer Boy” pose from Be My Mannequin. I liked the idea of showing that amidst a waterfall, and fortunately I was sitting on an excellent one from Fanatik. No clothing needed meant I could break out my favourite body, Slink Physique Original, and I am wearing an older DeeTalez skin since it is so hard to find good skins for an SL UV mesh head. The hair Yelena, the latest style from Wasabi which you can get an Anthem. Yelena also includes unrigged bangs which I am not wearing for this photo.

We brought the tree in today, though haven’t dressed it yet. Instead, I dressed my virtual tree today, setting up my little Christmas corner with various pieces from Libertine. I love the aesthetic of Libertine, especially the Christmas collection which really captures the feel of old-fashioned Christmas card. If I could have my Christmas looking like that IRL too, I’d love it. No modern minimalism for me. For this year, I picked up the dark and snowy foliage add-ons for some variety and also a few extra ornaments, both interactive and unscripted. The Christmas Collections have been rearranged following the ban on gachas and Alia has put up a detailed post about how they are now being sold.

I also decided to get a little holiday festive with a new dress for my Chai body and a pair of heels that make my feet hurt just from looking at them. But in Second Life they’re no problem and the red leather does look very nice. The Wasabi hair is the second of their styles from the Arcade, very sleek and elegant, and I am wearing the new gift head from LeLutka.

I am still enjoying my new, spicy self thanks to the Cinnamon body. Siddean Munro has a very nice starter wardrobe out at the Cinnamon & Chai store and I thought this little casual crop top and hotpants set was perfect when putting Cinnamon through her paces with some Nutcracker-inspired couple poses from Be My Mannequin. These are available at the current round of Enchantment; the second couple pose (Perfect Balance) and the two single poses (not shown) can be purchased individually or as a fatpack. The first couple pose (Pas de Deux) is only available in the event-exclusive fatpack, so make sure not to miss out on it if you like it. We did need to adjust our heights a bit for Pas de Deux, too large of a height difference was particularly noticeable in this pose, but that is unavoidable in that position and no fault.

Time to redecorate your SL bedroom? Dutchie has you covered with their release for FaMSHed for November, an elegant bedroom suite that can be matched to the sleigh bed released for the October round. The suite consists of dresser, lingerie chest, mirrored nightstands and a large wardrobe with mirror doors and animations which comes in a PG and an Adult version. Each piece offers 4 wood options (with the cherry wood matching the sleigh bed) and 2 metal options. The cherry gives an elegant feel, the rustic a heavier feel and the blue and white are very shabby chic with aged and flaking paint. To showcase a full bedroom setup I opted for the cherry wood, but I really like the other options too.

The wardrobe is my favourite piece, especially the Adult version. But both have the 10 solo animations setup with a special mirror view where the camera angle makes it so that it looks like you are looking at yourself in the mirror.  The couple poses do not have this setup, but you can cam around and approximate it,  it just gets more difficult to get it to look convincing with two avatars. Of course I had to try it for some of the adult poses. ;) There are 20 foreplay and 30 sex animations and there are some distinctly NSFW images in the latter half of this post that give just a hint of what’s available. All animations, PG and Adult, have bento hand poses and animations and where it is applicable they use auto attaching of props.

Its a fair trade. I made Froukje Hoorenbeek of Dutchie laugh when I asked for suggestions on Plurk for cheap or free hair for outfitting an alt soon after she had sent me her latest creation. Then she made me blush as I explored the various options of said creation together with Ran and a couple of totally innocent alts. ;)

The item in question is the Sleigh Bed, released at FaMESHed’s October round. Wood with a smooth, polished finish and soft, light-weight fabrics give an elegant (and perhaps somewhat Scandinavian-inspired?) look to this bed which offers nine different colour options for the blanket and bed spread. The modelling and the textures are, of course, top notch, with great attention paid to the finishing touches.

The bed comes in four versions—PG, Adult FM, Adult FFM, and Adult FMM—and the photos shown below are from the Adult FFM and the Adult FMM versions. These two versions have completely different animations from each other and from the PG and Adult FM beds, so if you want any solo animations or two-person cuddles or sex you want to look at the PG and the Adult FM versions. But if you prefer more of a crowd in bed, then you will have a lot of fun with the FFM and FMM beds.

First up are four photos of the FFM bed and then four photos of the FMM version follows on. I’d say the FFM bed features more intimacy/sex between the two girls than the FMM does between the two guys; for the FMM bed such animations are constrained within a single meny. The focal point of each bed is definitely the single guy or girl, but there’s good variety among the 70 animations.

Full feature lists, including lists of the various menus on each bed, are provided on the product page for the Sleigh Bed.

If you ask me, the best female mesh body in Second Life is still Slink Physique Original. I do have an use Maitreya Lara and Legacy as well, it is virtually impossible to blog without at least one of those, but for a natural, realistic look Physique Original can’t be beat. The hip and thigh area, in particular, drives me crazy on the other bodies.

But like I said, I have had to cave in and start using them for blogging. Still, I am always thrilled when a new release that supports Slink Physique Original shows up! The Iris dress from Faida is one such release and this time Titania Halasy gave herself quite a task, modelling the dress for 12 bodies/body variants. And since it is for the Itty Bitty Titty Committée, there’s a version for Slink Physique Original with the Petite Chest Augment and that is precisely what I am wearing here.

A new round of Redeux is opening today and running from June 14th to June 20th. Remember the full Laketown build from Del-ka Aedilis that I showed off a few weeks ago? Now they are starting to release the individual builds from this set and the first one out is the Laketown Tavern and Inn. Available together with it at the event is the Tavern Table Set and the Medieval Dishes Rezzer and all three releases are at 25% off for the duration of this round.

Also shown in this post is the Sam hair from Wasabi, a unisex style that can be worn with and without a cap and that is available at the current round of Anthem.

Tomorrow is your very last chance for this year to visit the wondrous realms of the Fantasy Faire. This may be my last post for the year, unless I manage to squeeze out another one tomorrow, but don’t count on it. For this one, I opted for focusing on a couple of builds available at the Faire to create a Viking homestead.

Deep in the Wandering Woods, you may come across her, the Butterfly Queen. From time to take, she takes human form to explore the woods, often delighting in playing a flute that is said to make flowers bloom.

The beautiful butterfly-inspired Asclepia gown from the Dreaming Thicket insisted on being showcased in a colourful and magical way, and the Wandering Woods sim (sponsored by Titans) was just right for it in terms of looks and hues. I added the Anemone crown and collar from On a Lark for a regal look, further helped along by the tall updo from KMH, and wore the Mystic tone of the Jemima skin from Lumae to match the colours of the gown. The lovely flute from Harshlands is the Ultra Rare from flute gacha, which means it plays all the songs contained in the other flutes.