Otherworldly

Deep in the woods, by a dark pool of water, sat a pale princess.

Ironically, the pose from Be My Mannequin? that I am using here is called “Sunlight in the Gray”, but what I ended up with was a foggy night-time scene, a little inspired by one of John Bauer’s paintings of Princess Tuvstarr by a forest tarn. The gorgeous long hairstyle is Alizee by Wasabi, which includes four different wear styles. And the pale skin is Delphine from Nar Mattaru.

The Popsicle hair from Wasabi for The Fifty is a style that says party to me. In this case, it turned out to be a pool party where someone forgot to change into more suitable attire before getting into the hot tub. The glass of wine might have something to do with that…

The dress is one of Salt & Pepper’s aquasense outfits and while it won’t react to non-SL water unless the water is scripted for that interaction, the HUD does allow you to set the clothing to wet or dry as you prefer. In this case, you can see how the soaked dress clings like a wet garment would.

The wood-fired hot tub comes from Dutchie and can be had either as a PG or Adult version. Both seat one or two people and include several animations with auto-attaching props like the wine glass.

Puppy, vacation and getting the website ready for House of the Dragon. Those are some of my excuses for why I haven’t blogged for several weeks; while I could have found the time, I’ve been too busy to give inspiration a chance. I stared for two full weeks at the same outfit, trying to figure out what to do with. In the end, I changed it up and decided to head down to the market instead to inspect the clothseller’s wares and perhaps order a new gown.

The Hedeby Clothmaker’s Stall from Del-ka Aedilis is out at Redeux until August 30th.  The set includes a market tent with pennants, a table with bales of fabric and additional fabric in crates and baskets.

My lady is wearing a gown from the Annex and the hairstyle with the two long braids is Aliana from Wasabi. It includes various 80’s-inspired ornaments on the braids but for this post I turned them off. The skin is a special version of Salma from DeeTaleZ, a weekend sale item from a couple of weeks ago. I love the freckles!

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.

The best kind of rain is a soft summer rain and sometimes it can feel wonderful to be on the beach when it happens, perhaps even take a swim in the rain.

Be My Mannequin’s “Feel How it Feels” pose (inspired by Stranger Things and its usage of Kate Bush’s fantastic Running Up That Hill) was perfect for the image of just sitting on the beach and letting a gentle rain wash down over you. The Lemongrass hair from Wasabi is a lovely, summery style which also comes with a hat for an even more beachy look and the Amelia shirt and shorts set from Salt & Pepper is part of their interactive Aquasense range, meaning it can go from dry to wet and vice versa when interacting with SL water and various scripted objects. Selected colours are on sale for the weekend.

The ancient temple lies half-buried by the desert, its secrets swallowed by the shifting sands. But it is said that at times, when the wind has driven the dunes just so, the legendary Mouth of Truth is once more revealed and those who dare may approach it.

The Mouth of Truth, by Fantavatar & Moonstruck, is based on a marble mask from Rome, likely depicting the face of the titan Oceanus. It has a single pose in which your avatar sticks a hand into the mouth. In her notecard accompanying the product, Luna Barak also shares this:

“According to enduring medieval legend, it will bite off the hand of any liar who places their hand in its mouth, or, alternatively, any who utters a lie while their hand is in the mouth.”

For this scene, I made an oracle out of it instead and placed it among the Ruins by Fanatik. My Truthseeker wears the gorgeous new Pandora gown by Tres, which features three different skirt styles: solid side panels, sheer side panels and no side panels. The skin as well as the eyeshadow and the metallic tattoos are all free prizes in the Free Dove & alaskametro hunt. Don’t miss it, there’s a total of ten prizes, including one more skin. The hair is Echo by Wasabi, which comes with two style options and hair clips that can be turned on or off.

The Klara hair from Wasabi adds a touch of playful innocence, as do the pale lilac of the stockings from Luxuria. But the Ohanna slip from Faida is anything but, with both the top and the skirt made from delicate lace (which Titania Halasy does so well). Altogether, the perfect little outfit for an evening at home…with some special company, of course.

The latest furniture release from Dutchie is a cozy outdoor sofa set with enough space for 6 avatars if all 3 sections are used (for a smaller sofa, you could use just the middle section or put together the left and the right without the middle). To fit in with the rest of your decor, the sofa offers 4 wood options and 7 fabric colours. There is also a matching table with the same 4 wood options.

If you choose the PG version, the sofa comes with 10 solo animations and 10 cuddles. For the Adult versions, some 80 couple animations are added. Adult versions, you say? Yes, the sofa is available in FF, MF and MM, and you can get a set that allows you to mix and match different sections to cater to all your guests. To read more in detail about the various options, see the product page.

I placed my sofa set on the patio of Trompe Loeil’s Modern Villa, overlooking the pool. That gave me an excuse to slip into a bikini by Salt & Pepper and for Ran to be dressed for some casual lounging about. My hair is a new release from Wasabi, a very flattering style called Ash that you can get at Kustom 9.

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.

My badly timed taste of Covid, which has left me with an annoying cough and tiredness as well, has meant that I’ve seen far less of this year’s Fantasy Faire than I would have liked. We’ve now passed the halfway mark, the Faire officially ends on the 8th of May, so I will have to get some serious exploring in the next few days. First up, I had to return to Opet, Alia Baroque’s stunning Egyptian-inspired sim. What better place to show off some of the poses in the Isis set from Astalianda as well as the spectacular Dai crown by Bliensen + MaiTai? The outfit is not from the Fantasy Faire, however, but a new NextUp release from deviousMind for the Secret Garden.

Don’t miss the chance to explore Opet as well as the other Fairelands. And while you’re doing so, make sure to find some donation vendors or donation kiosk to contribute to the fight against cancer.

He laboured long and hard, employing both muscle and magic to forge a wondrous horse like no one had ever seen before. When he finally finished, wheels turned within it and a strange flow of red energy flowed amongst its iron limbs, bringing it to life.

One of the best parts of Fantasy Faire for the last few years has been the reveal of the new Teeglepet. I love my “mortal” pixel horses, but the fantastical ones are extra special. This year is no exception as Teegle brings us Aurum, the Mech horse. I love the way this one is put together, with glowing tubes and spinning cog wheels. Depending on the texture and accent colours you pick, you can capture Steampunk, Cyberpunk, etc. The skin I am showing is not the default but a really cool aged metal skin from Mythril which also happens to be an RFL donation item. The poses I am using for the horse are also by Mythril.

Aurum is also equipped with a new beta Teeglepet update that contains quite a few fixes and addons, two of which I really like the sound of:

—Horses can now have a hovertext name shorter than their object name by using “double quotes”: for example, a horse named “Tapple Gao” Patchy Blue (Shetland Stripped 2.6.69) will have name hovertext of “Tapple Gao”.

—Added driver permission mode “Group”. Only allows people wearing the right group tag to ride the horse.

Ostara’s Altar ends in just a couple of days, on the 30th of April. Have you visited yet for a dose of spring and witchcraft? If you are looking for a few magical pieces, make sure to check out Pete’s Peculiar Pieces, I particularly liked the athame and the witch bottle with various interesting contents. For a witchy dress, a bit ragged and painted with symbols, Witch in a Box has you covered.

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.

The best time of the year for lovers of all things fantasy in Second Life is here, Fantasy Faire 2022 has opened. From now until May 8th you have 20 fabulous Fairelands to explore, filled with both shopping and all kinds of entertainment. The best way to experience the Faire is to wander through all of the regions, but if time and/or lag makes that hard, there is a list of all participating stores with slurls to their booths. There’s also a

Shopping Guide which links through to galleries on Facebook where all of the RFL items are represented. Because as always, the Faire is raising money for the American Cancer Society through the Relay for Life.

I’ve battled a bit of a cold to pay a quick visit to most of the sims and put together a bit of a teaser video. There’ll be more in-depth posts and hopefully more videos in the days to come, once I regain a bit of energy. You’ll find photos of the two outfits shown in the video below as well as credits for those.

I’ve come down with quite a fever, so I hope you will pardon the brevity of this post as I overestimated my remaining energy. Be My Mannequin? put out a more adult pose than they usually do for the XXX Event and of course I had tackle that challenge! It also gave me an excellent opportunity to show off the latest stockings by Luxuria (and nothing else!).