Otherworldly

A final portrait for now, and probably a bit of a blog hiatus for a week or so. The mistress that followed after Missy Blackwood was Barba Bracken’s younger sister, Bethany, groomed for the position by her father and sister. Alas, poor Bethany soon ended up a head shorter for sleeping with one of the Kingsguard rather than the King, who by then was “fat and foul-tempered”.

For Bethany I wanted a look that was less haughty and a bit sweeter and prettier than Barba. I used the same skin as for her sister (Bella from Logo), but I switched to another Logo head, Chelsea. The hair is from Truth and the dress from Senzafine. I couldn’t think of anything symbolic to give her for a necklace, so I opted for a design from the Plastik that felt fairly medieval in style.

I’ve tried doing portrait series before, but I always get too ambitious and too caught up in making them feel similar. So, we’ll see where I end up with this one. The genesis of the idea was to do some nice portraits for our game to spruce up the website a bit. Here, I am trying to portray Melissa “Missy” Blackwood, one of King Aegon IV’s mistresses.

To create her look, I am using LeLutka’s Erin head with alaskametro’s Ingrid skin (using the flat chest add-on since Missy was supposed to be quite slim and flat chested), which I think gives her a sweet sort of beauty that suits the description of the character. The hair is one of F&M Oblivion’s releases for Hair Fair, a style inspired by Giulia Farnese, also a famous mistress. It is a very elegant, ladylike style with a silk cap at the back. The raven jewellery is a nod to the arms of House Blackwood and I thought that the Heloise gown from Junbug could fit into Westeros well enough.

More often than not my posts are firmly anchored in fantasy and/or history, but when it comes to roleplay and character creation in Second Life there are of course many more options. For example, the Cyber/Punk Fair is still open (until June 7th, in fact) and it showcases a very different realm of possibilities. To do justice to the Novianna set and Sinon visor from Petrichor, I headed over to one of the longest-running sims (or sim collections, rather) in Second Life: InSilico.

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.

What wanders the lush woods of Queensgarden? A creature of legends, an elusive wood walker. Her skin is nut brown and dappled like a deer’s, she has long, claw-like nails and eyes like those of a cat, and she wears clothing made of leaves. At her side, a large wolf, a companion but nevertheless a wild animal.

With everything on offer at the Fantasy Faire—from skins to companion creatures—it is easy to create a fantastical character of your own, whether wholly original or, as in this case, loosely based on a pre-existing source. And remember, you will be shopping for a good cause if you buy from the RFL vendors that raise money for the American Cancer Society.

Today also marks the beginning of the first part of this year’s Faireland’s Quest, don’t miss it!

Somewhere deep in the woods stands a tall tower, where a man wearing a mask has arranged for a secret meeting with a lady. Who is the man who will not reveal his face? And why has the lady agreed to meet with him in such a secluded location? Is there a scandal in the making, perhaps? Or does he know some dark secret that he is using to blackmail her with?

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.

The Plastik—or Petrichor & Lune as the brand is transitioning to—has two whole gachas out at the January round of the Epiphany. Both are fantasy outfits that apart from clothing and accessories also include fantasy ears and horns. For this post, I picked the Variela gacha, which made me think of something a seductive djinn would wear. Hence the tent in the desert and the unsuspecting sleeper being paid a surprise visit.

I do love an opportunity to bring my Teeglepet animesh horses into my photos. It isn’t always easy and I am waiting eagerly for more poses and animations made for posing with your horse, because it can be tricky to make a good composition without that. In this case, I used one of the built-in horse & rider poses and then a couple of stand-alone poses for myself with the horse looking pretty in the background in the new Dapple Rose coat from Cinnamon. This is a new release for Redeux (which just opened) and is available for both Teegle (pets and the avatar) and Water Horse a 25% off during the event.

After a very busy first weekend of December, I am trying to slow the pace down a bit and enjoy the build-up to the holidays by slowly getting into a Christmas mood. This dress by Faida and Velvet Whip was not intended as a Christmas dress, but I would definitely like to have it for a Christmas party, especially in this frosty silver colour. The dress is will be available at We Love Role-Play when it opens in a few hours, together with a L$50 Christmas special. The earrings I am wearing are in fact the L$50 item from another vendor, Bliensen + MaiTai. Make sure to check all the stalls so that you don’t miss any of them!

My hair is a new style by Wasabi, available with and without bangs and featuring a pretty texture-change ribbon. It is out at Tannenbaum and so is the candle from the Plastik, which includes holdable versions for both your left and right hand as well as a rezzable version. A HUD provides plenty of texture options.

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.

The Plastik has a new gacha called Karynis Mage out at the Epiphany, another massive set with lots of different options and of course tons of texture choice via the HUDs. To match the pale, opalescent skin from Fallen Gods I went for a frosty, shimmering look in my texture choices as well as an almost-white hair colour. The fantastical swirls of ice come from the “Of Fire and Ice” prop from chanimations, with the fire options turned off.

I am continuing the theme of the previous post with more oldies but goodies skins through Bakes on Mesh and a ton of October-appropriate accessories and decor. This time, I am hanging out in my little witch’s shack from Jian which I have decorated with paper bats from Paper Moon and a furniture set from Roawenwood. The outfit is another Voluptas Virtualis release which worked great for showing off the fantastic Zodiac tattoos from Fallen Gods. I’ve also accessories with a jewelery set from the Plastik and a hair from Wasabi.

I definitely have a weakness for the Oops! line from Faida and Velvet Whip, with clothing that transforms from perfectly elegant and innocent to more than a little naughty with a simple click. The pieces are all scripted for roleplay interactions as well, with the option to allow another avatar to do the stripping. There are also optional emotes to go with the various stages of clothing removal.

Their latest release, available at We Love Role-Play, struck me as somewhat Roman-inspired, so I added a hairstyle in a similar vein by Bliensen + MaiTai (also from WLRP) and headed to our bath house by Tia. I am also wearing a collar and a set of cuffs from the Plastik for the Fetish Fair.

The latest release from Dutchie is a wooden stage, made to fit in a corner, with a vintage-style rig with lights. The stage and the lights are separate pieces, so you can adjust how high above the lights sit or even use the stage or the lights on their own. There are several colour presets for the lights via a menu and it is also possible to set each light to a separate preset or even to go in and make manual edits. That opens up a lot of options for how the lights look as long as you are comfortable with a bit of editing. Instructions are included in the information notecard.