So very very late Tuesday night, my real life best friend brought his new gaming laptop over to get a few Vista issues straightened out, to have a better wireless connection for a while, and to get into a couple of online games and such. I'm really excited that he's going to start gaming, because since we stopped working together, I only get to see him about once a week though sometimes he'll stay over a night or two. Still, going from seeing him practically every day to just once a week has left me kinda down, and its not like I can just pick up and go see him whenever I want because he lives almost two hours from me and gas is hideously expensive. So being able to hang out online and have stuff to do is a good way of settling.
Now, this time while Drae was here, I didn't get much done if it wasn't something we could do together mostly because he didn't really fall asleep until around when I did. Generally he falls asleep earlier than me out of habit, and I'll do whatever it is I want to do while he's passed out and then go to bed myself. A lot of the times he used to have to wake up early to go to work, however this week he's had off because he's changing companies to get a better hourly wage, so he could be a bit of a night owl as well.
Of course, The Man's platform was a definate requirement. He'd seen me working on a few things a while back, and asked about it, so Drae was completely into joining. Unfortunately, the current last name set was kind of dull compared to when I joined, and after many refreshes of the list, he settled on Starek though we considered Atlas, Staryk (which we never got back, sadly), and Byk.
First thing first was to define a new shape for Drae. Since he was actually here, I didn't have to go through the weirdness of flipping into a man's shape and building it. I just built it directly on his new little resident; his facial structure was designed after the actor Chris Evans, though the avatar nose does not conform the ways it needed to shape for an exact replica. I long for models with as many options and flexability as the Victoria 4.2 model for Poser and various other 3D programs were available to us in-world.
The next order of business was to get a skin for him. I had a freebie mens skin for him, however it had next to no shading on it, as well as caterpillers for eyebrows and a fairly hairy chest. Some women find it crazy, but I'm not a big fan of chest hair and neither is Drae - probably just because he lacks having any despite being a Marine. Though I did add muscle to his shape, it wasn't very well defined and clear on him with the skin, and he wanted to look cut in ways he can't be in RL because he has such lean muscles. Don't get me wrong, he's a strong man, he's just wiry instead of bulky.
Now, if I can gather up the 2000 needed, I prefer to get any man starting out a skin from The Abyss. The quality of the work there is phenominal, and there are quite a number of options for each skin tone. Unlike most of the people I know, Drae is very much so into having nicely tanned skin, though he wasn't quite so for some time due to working inside all the time. Now that he's back into construction again, I won't be surprised if he ends up as tan in RL as his avatar is. His skin is from the Osiris line, version D4 which gives him a definate Egyptian flair; I always did say I like my men in eyeliner...
Even bald, Drae was looking good, and I won't be surprised if he occassionally goes without hair to totally rock the Egyptian look. But everyone needs hair, especially since the majority of the Cyrians seem to be hair connosuires, so we traveled several places in the search of a cut Drae liked. He's weird, and likes short and closely cropped hair, or any type of buzz cut like most military men have. In the end, we spent a lot of time at Naughty's hair shop, since there were a number of shorter styles with more colours than most of the ones elsewhere. Sadly, the hairstyle that we both liked didn't come in the Sable colour he needed, so I begrudgingly got him the Deception style instead.
Is it just me, or does it not scream "Zell" from FFVIII?
Everyone has a distinct hatred for the newbie clothes, so it was off to Bare Rose to pick up a free AO to hold Drae over while I built him a custom AO and to shed the last visible vestments of newbness. He selected four sets that provided a mixture of gothic, preppy and grunge - the Short Vest, Leon, Eric and Block outfits; without any promting, he began mixing and matching them into several different outfits that were quite fitting for both his real life tastes and the styles used for Cyrian role play.
Next, it was off to Fairy Grove Creations to get Drae set up with an appropriate Passion Crystal Hunter outfit. Here is where I began to wonder if he and I have some sort of telepathic link - the male version of the White Celtic Sentry costume was at the top of his short list of likes. After a good bit of laughing, he purchased that outfit, so now Drae and I have matching costumes even though its not my main hunter garb.
Since I wanted to match Drae for pictures, I wore the freebie Bare Rose Drow skin instead of my Onigiri Drow skin, however the Celtic Sentry Outfit looks just as good with that skin. I think I might even try this really dark mocha skin I got a while back at some point, but I couldn't remember which one it was. I still haven't gotten around to really looking into some white and lighter hair colours, so I faked it using ETD's Phoebe hair since I had an all-colour pack. I don't like the shape of the boots, however, so I used my trusty Shoe Fly Gladiator Heels in black. Now I have to find men and women's white boots to match these outfits, as the whole pointy toe thing just doesn't work for either of us...oi!
Later on, Beetle gave me one of the most awesome presents ever. She and Aradia had found a mehndi tattoo set at Gardens of Ku that was just perfect! The patterns chosen are just amazing, though I kind of wish that it came in black and the natural henna colours, but the pack is truly beautiful all on its own. I may find a coloured tattoo to wear with it, but for now its all on its own and on paler skin, it stands out. My prior tattoo looks super good on Drow skins, so I will be using it for that from now on.
I didn't want to diminish the quality of the patterns by make them as small as I normally do for my blog images, so these are a bit longer than usual. The first one here is of the front of the tattoos, and the second one is largely of the back. Both sides dip down below the hips, though I try to keep things as work-appropriate as possible as some people like to look at stuff from work.
So they're going to bleed into the next little part of the blog, but its about real life, so I don't have to worry about pushing any other images out of their right place, which is why I saved the story for last.
Now for a minor RL shopping story. My aunt had bought some dresses for my grandmother for Easter, however the crazy old woman claims they're not her size, when we're all quite sure they are. So something else was found to give as a present, and my aunt gave me the store credit from the dresses to get clothing for work.
Well, after finishing up in that store, we went and purchased a few more things at another clothing store and the book store (the only place I'd spend more than I do at a clothing store is at a book store, btw) my mother was going to pay in cash. She could have sworn she had more on her, when I pointed out that my aunt had given her 65.00 so we could stop buy the store and get my aunt a carton of cigarettes and some green tea.
It appeared that my mother had accidentally spent my aunt's cash on our other purchases. The Borders bookstore manager seemed pretty amused by it all, and we were laughing as well; my mother could easily go to the ATM and replace it, but it was rather hilarious that she'd done it in the first place.
After sorting through things in the car, it turns out she didn't spend the money we were supposed to use to get my aunt her stuff, however it was still hilarious until we were able to find the other cash. Only in my family, hah.
Ads
Note: This was posted on AnnaH's blog, and I think it needs to get out to as many bloggers - well know, moderately known and even new bloggers - as possible, and perhaps a sudden shutdown of many, many blogs and fansites would be a wake up call to The Man about the new trademarke issue. Until they clarify what bloggers can and can't use in their posts, I will be calling the company and its general overall presence "The Man".
Dear Linden Lab®,
Your recent change of policy regarding the usage of your trademarks — Second Life®, Linden Lab®, and others registered by Linden Research Inc. — will effectively prevent the operation of the very vibrant community of bloggers, forum posters, websites, community portals, and even 3rd party services, that have provided Linden Lab® with links and driving traffic to your blog, and raising brand awareness for free for your product Second Life®.
Probably thousands — if not dozens of thousands — of sites include (now illegitimately) the name “Second Life®” or “SL®” somewhere in their names. From sites like Reuters (which has a Second Life® channel) to whole companies that have a “Second Life® Division” (and promotes your product by the explicit naming of it), a plethora of online communities, products, and services — some free, other commercial, many in the limbo between both extremes — include, in some way, your registered trademarks.
Your previous policy, established in May 2004 (”Second Life® Fansite Tolkit”), and later reinforced with referral programmes like “Viva La Evolution”, positively encouraged the widespread use of your trademarks, so long as it was quite clearly displayed that no infringement was intended. To requote your own terms of agreement for the usage of your trademarks:
USE OF SECOND LIFE MARKS
While you are in full compliance with the usage guidelines described here, you may use the “Second Life” name on your website, as well as the related logos and graphics available at Toolkit, solely in the form described there. Additionally, you may use screenshots from Second Life to the extent that Linden Lab has the right to authorize use of the content within such screenshot, including screenshots of Linden in-world objects and Linden avatars, subject to these usage guidelines.
Under those very friendly terms, a plethora of fansites of all sorts popped up, driving traffic to Second Life®’s main website, its blogs, forums, and other related sites — making SL®’s own ranking quite high on Google, Alexa, and other systems — while at the same time, in a period of a little less than four years, allowing the number of registered users to skyrocket from 10,000 to 13 million.
Fansites, blogs, 3rd party sites, Second Life®-related online communities, 3rd party sites that create products and services related to Second Life® are the “off-world” counterpart of the dynamic and enthusiastic community that made Second Life®, as a brand, get world-wide recognition — without the need for Linden Lab® to spend millions in advertising and campaigns on the media. We worked for free on the promotion, brand awareness, and market recognition of your products — while, at the same time, we also worked for free creating the fantastic content of the 3D environment that makes Second Life® a place worth to visit, to enjoy, to chat, to socially connect, to do business, and launch the pillars of the upcoming metaverse — fulfilling Philip ‘Linden®’ Rosedale’s dream of having more users in Second Life® than on the Web.
We’ve been the ones ultimately promoting that vision, spreading it around, and making sure that the world noticed your product and your brand. We were very successful — thanks to your gentle and encouraging former policies.
And for four years, you have been thankful enough to allow us to do that promotion, by establishing very reasonable and clear guidelines of the terms of usage of your trademarks.
Your sudden reversal of position — effectively limiting the display of the name “Second Life®” on most sites, domain names, products, and services, through a mechanism of explicit approval that you fully admit “can take long and might never finish” and will only be available to a very limited number of sites — means that suddenly all the off-world promotion of Second Life® will necessarily have to stop; or face a lawsuit in court; or, at the very least, receive a Cease & Desist letter from your lawyers and be forced to shut down.
The current terms can be aggressively enforced or not. According to your blog, we are supposed to have a 90-day grace period to remove all mentioning of Second Life® and its logo from our fansites, blogs, forums, or 3rd party sites offering products and services related to Second Life®. In fact, what this means is that we are forced not to talk about Second Life® any more — or, if we do, we cannot explicitly name the product at all.
This is, obviously, absurd.
The compromise between Linden Research Inc. (owners of the registered trademarks) and the community of volunteers that have so faithfully promoted your product, Second Life®, was quite clear for the past four years. We had clear guidelines of what we could do and what we couldn’t. Abuses could still be effectively dealt with by your legal department; to the world’s knowledge, these cases were few and scattered, if any. They were not significative to prevent a vast number of dozens of thousands of sites of all sorts to draw traffic to your own site; to reach out the huge audience on the Internet; and to drive new users to register. The numbers fortunately speak for themselves: with almost zero promotional costs, you managed to grow a thousand times in four years, thanks to crowdsourcing the promotion of Second Life®.
The “inSL” programme is definitely interesting, but a small new logo, worthless to an audience of hundreds of millions of users that are familiar with the eye-on-hand logo, without a massive campaign of promotion behind it to reflect the logo change, is not enough. “inSL” doesn’t say much, and it cannot be expanded to talk and promote Second Life® directly. And, anyway, the same restrictions apply to the usage of “inSL” as with all your other trademarks. We appreciate the grant to use that new logo, but we also feel it will be unable to gather the same support and promotional effort as the old logo and the product name did in the past four years.We would thus kindly request that you clarify your position regarding the usage of the trademarks Second Life® and the logo on all fansites, blogs, forums, or other 3rd party websites offering products and services related to Second Life®. This clarification should be as easy to follow as your previous policies on the usage of those trademarks. They should make clear that all people intending to promote your product and raise your brand awareness are not facing lawsuits because they have faithfully used your trademarks using the old policy, and wish to continue to do so in the future.
We consider that an appropriate response should be forthcoming in the next few days, or we will be forced to shut down our own blogs, websites, forums, community portals, and other 3rd party sites to avoid litigation — and thus deprieving Linden Lab® from the traffic generated by millions of direct links and millions of viewers that learn first about Second Life® through all those sites.
Personal note: This blog will enter on strike on April 15th, 2008, for a period of 3 days, if no clarification by Linden Lab is published before that date.
By: Gwyneth Llewelyn
I'll be shutting down my blog on the same dates as well, as well as the this fashion group I manage here on Facebook. Hopefully, they'll get the hit from the Klew-By-Four.
So last night an RL friend of mine from up-state New York finally joined Second Life. He's been trying to find an MMO to RP in for a while now after leaving EverQuest II, and I sent him the information about Cyria and its RP. He's really good at dark or evil nobility and dark/evil in general, so his interest was definately perked by the traditional gothic romance novel style of Cyria.
I didn't snag a before picture, but he was your standard preppy blonde male that I believe is the most yuppy looking duck walker in the bunch you can select at creation. Wiegraf didn't get to spend a whole hell of a lot of time in the newbie area, mostly because we teleported him straight away. After making him a temporary shape so he didn't look quite so newbish, Beetle, Aradia and I took him out for an actual make over.
First stop was to get a better skin, as we don't have a whole lot in the way of male skins since we three are female. Splitting half the cost with Aradia, Wiegraf got to select a skin from The Abyss. For those who live under a rock, the male skins are absolutely fantastic even though they are quite a bit more than what I'm used to for skins. Definately worth it.
Wiegraf got Scorpio Dystopia C4, which has scarring over the one eye. A bit of pop eye adjusting will probably make that look like his eye was clawed out, but I didn't really get into much advanced customization just yet. The skin itself is quite pale compared to the other types available, though its not drop dead Goth white.
After that, we went through a couple of hair shops because Wiegraf wasn't finding anything that really fit with what he was going for. He found something that suited him at Sirena's, selecting the Dante style in white tips, which also includes a black with white tips version. All of Sirena's hair styles have built in face lights, which I often forget about since I have a number of styles by her - take them off, and the world goes a bit darker, and I never remember to re-equip my other face lights.
The next stop soaked up the majority of our time during the trip, due to render times and sheer amount of products to go through. One of the best ways to help a newbie look fantastic is a trip to Bare Rose's HQ, which is also a great place to pick up a newbie's first AO since they have a basic male and female freebie available.
Its always at least mildly busy at Bare Rose, to the point of where the sim has shut down scripts even though a few scripted items are available there. Even though it was a bit later at night, the place was still quite packed so the rez times ran a bit long; Wiegraf and Beetle didn't even render for me until after we'd walked over and got the little newblet his first AO. Needless to say, it was tough to advise Wiegraf of anything quickly due to the fact I couldn't see anything but blurs for products.
After a small obsession with some of the newer armours available, Wiegraf got the Noble of Dawn set. There are actually several versions of one outfit in each set, typically containing what seems to be the default colour scheme of black, pink, red, green and blue in some form or black and white/light and dark variations. Noble of Dawn is one of the later, even though there later was a Noble of the Dusk added to the menswear, which was more like the former colour scheme mentioned.
Yes, that's a spinal column in the background and yes, that's sinewed tendons sticking up out of that lava. This image was taken when all was said and done, and we were down in the Cyrian dungeons watching Lucia work her magic on the latest addition to the castle. Every dark, creepy castle has an ominous dungeon, and Cyria is no exception...well, aside from the fact ours has a comfortable observation platform...with fluffy pillows...
The second outfit that Wiegraf selected was the Ethereal New Heaven outfit for the male avatar. I've been wanting to see this set on someone for some time, however it wasn't quite fitting for Masi or even Tobin to get, so I was quite content that someone finally will be wearing it around me. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to mention to Wiegraf that sometimes you have to manually unequip something, so he's still got a bit of the collar from NoD on.
This was taken in Shapes by Zada's main store, where we got Wiegraf a pair of Eyefidelity Realeyes in Mahogany. Ignore the rainbow in the background...it totally throws off the dark evil lord look that the black version of ENH is going for!
This also comes in white with the same golden accents on it, for a good noble/bad noble combination. I'm curious as to what it would look like if one mixed the two schemes together, but didn't want to overload Weigraf's brain at that point.
Today we went back to Bare Rose to get him some armour. He was torn between three different sets, but I like the look of the Lord Black Bizard the best, plus it comes with three different coloured of cloaks. I'm note sure how the set looks outside of Windlight, but damn it's shiny!
Its kinda creepy how his hair seems to be part of the helmet until you get to the white tips, and realise its actually part of his hair. Now all he needs is some sort of fancy sword to look incredibly knightly, though I'm not quite sure if I want to go into the whole scripted vs. non-scripted weapon talk just yet.
The cape is fairly simple, and of a thinner variety than what most of the capes in Bare Rose sets are. It comes in red, blue and I think the other colour was green but I may be wrong about that. Honestly, I like it more than I've liked the fuller Bare Rose capes, it just seems a little bit more natural in the way it moves than the others have.
I suppose its more than late to mention that the Cyrian setting is sort of medival feudal, hence the lordly sort of formal clothing we were looking into for Wiegraf, and armour. Depending upon what role he takes, he may also be getting a sort of rogue set of outfits as well...trip to Fairy Grove Creations, yay!
Last night I also finally settled on a basic look for my Passion Crystal Hunter style. It's got pieces from several different sets I've bought over the past few weeks, and I may be adding some sort of stockings to it once I decide which ones I like best with it, if any at all.
Starting at the top, the hair is Style 2 in Red with Black Tips by Wrong. I don't really think the hairstyle is going to be a super set thing, mostly because I have a ton of different hairstyles, especially after buying up a bunch during Wrong's Easter sale. >.>
The shirt is from the new Bare Rose Scout set, as are the gloves and the nifty skirted utility belt. I didn't really dig the pants from the set for my costume, so I am using the Crimson Hunter Armour panty by DeFleur...not that it is visible.
I'm using the *Hexed* Gothica boots here, though I may be purchasing the Leather Cavalier Boots from *~* Illusions *~* for this costume. I've not decided yet. It will probably depend on whether or not I use a pair of stockings or not.
The cloak is the small black cloak from the Crimson Hunter Armour set, and its actually semi-sheer. Along the back attaching it to the Scout armour are little gemstones, so its still quite pretty and feminine. I tried the longer one but with where the attach point looked best, it was way too long and I didn't feel like modding it much.
I got a Yuffie costume at some point, but I forget where it is from. I plan on making my own weapon of a similar style, mostly because I've always liked her little, okay massive ninja star thing. I may also figure out a way to use the staff I have and the cape, but it might take a bit if attachment re-ordering...
So my newbie make over was successful, for what it was for, and I have my own costume finished now. Rather constructive day!
Last night was the Vampire Ball at Nocturne. Everyone dressed up extremely fancy for it, though its often hard to take snapshots when everyone is dancing and moving, and there are poseballs scattered everywhere to allow for multiple people dancing together. I don't know why, but I hate having poseballs in images, even though they are a common item seen in SL. I will edit them out if its fairly easy to do so, otherwise I just won't take a picture that contains them.
The music was provided by Zan Eldrich, and was mostly of the Gothic and/or Industrial style - a few of the darker alternative rock songs got slipped in. He also weaved some of the vampiric standards in, and he even was able to find Sanctum Sanctorum by The Damned, which used to be extremely rare. The Evil Manipulative Daniel years ago spent something like two months helping me try to track down a copy of my own, back before music downloading was more than hours and hours of a dial up connection getting a song in bianary from an alt._____ newsgroup. He also played Bloodletting by Concrete Blonde, Deception (Ravnos Theme Song) by the Cruxshadows, The Vampire Club by Voltaire, Cry Little Sister done by GERARD MCMANN not the god damn Sisters of Mercy, Zan and a couple of other super vampiric songs.
Zan, who is consistantly super tall, dark and spooky was even more spooky and seemed quite a bit taller than usual. Something about nearly max height gentlemen and top hats makes me feel like I'm using my super short starter avatar again, though I imagine I'd feel like I was about the size of a gnat if I had actually been using it. I totally forgot to ask him what he was wearing, though I do know that cape is a Lucia Cyr creation...the cloaks she's created for her Cyrian nobles and vassals is quite unmistakeable. They are not for sale, and please do not bother asking her if you may buy a copy - they are part of the Cyrian role play in Ave Maria, for specific characters. She does, however, produce items with a similar dark theme in her LostHaven shop.
Beetle was there as well, somehow making vampire mix well with clockwork doll. She wore the First Princess outfit from Bare Rose in Red, though you can't really see much of it here, with a pair of boots from Draconic Kiss. Her hair was from Goldie Locks - in case anyone missed it, Cyrians are hair freaks - and is the Aphrodite style in Black with gold ornaments.
I should probably mention her eyes, since they are quite visible here, and not entirely normal. She picked them up at Atomic Kitty, which is also where we got our 'trendy' ear and tail sets from. Beetle has a lot of really neat eyes, and she typically has one coloured blue and the other coloured green; I actually got the idea for my blue and violet eyes from her.
The fan came with the set, from what was mentioned, and has a very nice animation to it. A lot of times, they hand pose ends up going into the fan itself, making it look like the fan is cutting the fingers off of the hand. This one doesn't do that, and I am almost tempted to buy the set for the fan alone!
For the majority of the night, since there is a nightly themed contest, I wore the Evening Together gown from LVS & Co. I really do like the look, and it reminded me so much of Mina that I figured it was completely appropriate for the theme. After PatricLoren won the contest, though, I decided I wanted to see what the other part of the outfit's set looked like...
...totally vampiric Cabaret ring mistress look. Except I lacked a bullwhip and a chair...
I'm not sure which I would like better with this outfit, the ShoeFly Gladiator heels in black or the black Gothica boots by *Hexed*. I may just try and find some non-decorated boots, maybe a pair of equestrian boots in black, just for this look.
The other thing I might change here is the hat, which is from my . I might tilt it so its covering one ear instead of resting atop both of them. I may also go pick up the La Petite Morte hat from Snatch for it. I discovered later on that it also looked pretty killer with those sexy pinstripe pants I found the other day.
All and all, the Vampire Ball was really fun, and I was glad I actually got home at a decent hour from work so I could go.
Since I mentioned ShoeFly, I have a little story to tell. I had bought a pair of the Gladiator platform heels in red latex, however due to one of the many horrible bugs that a merchant could have occur, the invis prims weren't working on them. I sent a quick note to the own, CCTV Giant, and went off to bed.
The next time I logged in, CCTV had sent me a new pair of the shoes along with an explination of what caused the first pair not to work right. A complimentary gift was included as an apology for the mix up, even though it wasn't really CCTV's fault. I already was becoming a fan of ShoeFly, but the awesome customer service from the owner has totally sealed it for me. Needless to say, if you're looking for shoes - especialy ones with sound, check this store out.
This was from some little application on Facebook. Its close, in a way, but it doesn't fully describe me.
Tradition and customs are important to you and prefer sticking to these rather than experimenting. You want stability- be it career or in a romantic relationship and honesty and loyality is what you have to offer in return. You need a companion - friend, philosopher and guide without whom you might feel lost at times.
And now for the final part of my RFL adventures - the formal wear section, with a minor stop in the lingerie department. Some of these would work well in fantasy as well, however I think they're a bit more modern than the other things featured in the Fantasy bits.
For some reason, Blogger decided to break its formatting options with this post, so the names of each sub-section aren't over their images in some cases as they were in the prior RFL posts. I'll try again later to fix that.
A Bunch of Nonsense
This little number was another Devlish Cupcake contribution. The dress is a bit weird for my tastes, but it wasn't a whole lot of Lindens, and they were going to charity so I decided to snag it early on.
While it looks pink, this is actually the red version of the dress. I had to try on the pink version just to assure myself that this was red, and compared to the pink, it definitely is.
A little unnatural, that jagged change into the white skirt area is apparently intentional. I adjusted the skirt prim several times before finally getting it to look alright with the rest of the outfit. This is another outfit that I'll keep on hand in case I end up going to a rave-themed club or something similar.
This is available at Devlish Cupcake's RFL booth, though I can't recall which of the four sims it was in. Their sign is really noticeable, so you can't miss it if you are looking for it.
The hair used in this image is another Goldie Locks creation, this time its Lynn appearing in Russet Red. I've got a large amount of Goldie Locks hairstyles, if you hadn't noticed already. There was quite a lot of it that I liked, and it was largely inexpensive compared to some other hair places I found near my rez day.
They Called Her the Wild Rose...
Generally, I avoid florals like the plague. Mostly because they usually entail some sort of pastel colour scheme, which is so not what I tend to wear. This outfit, however, was for charity, and for once it was all about dark colours and flowers. I really like the way the skirt for this dress looks too.
Presented by Awesome Design as their RFL contribution, this takes the little black dress and fancies it up with a fresh wreath of roses around the top of the bodice and the upper arms. The arm roses are actually prims, while the bodice has roses painted about its top.
I really like what was done with the skirt of this dress. Black chiffon fading into a nice dark red tone, uneven due not only texturing but the layering of the skirt itself. I'll probably end up making or finding a few additional bodices for this skirt, just because I like the way it turned out.
In hindsight, I probably should have worn the black Gladiator heels I have from Shoe Fly, but I really was digging these boots still. They're just not quite the same as a fashionable pump shoe with this dress, though I suppose I know now for the next time I wear this dress.
Lil Club Princess
I'm a huge fan of Bare Rose. It was one of the first stores I was taken to, and I've come to adore the quality work for a decent cost. Especially for male clothing - everything on the male market seems to be quite pricey compared to its female counterparts, but Bare Rose has some great male looks at the same price a lot of their female wears are sold.
This is Cassis, an outfit that makes me think of classic princesses being modernized for a night at the local dance club. Clubs have about the same kind of drama that noble courts used to, when you stop to think about it, so its only fitting. The front looks much like the gathering used on some of the more famous princess dresses, though a friend did say it looked more like a reverse bustle to her.
I didn't quite have the kind of hair I wanted for with this dress, but Hyacinth in Russet Red from Goldie Locks was a decent fill in. I thought I had one of their hairstyles that had roses in it, but I think that might be on the one of the alt accounts I have. At least it looks good with those Gothica boots - they're turning out to be quite the favourable addition to my non-existent shoe collection!
So I'm picky about shoes...I can't help it!
She had fire in her soul...
Something about Digital Darkes' Goddess Heart gown makes me think of the Santana/Chad Kroeger song Into the Night. Its got that same kind of style that a lot of sensational flamenco dresses have, though quite a bit more edgy than most seen on the actual flamenco dance floors in Spain. I actually went and watched the music video, mostly because so far I've only heard the song randomly, oddly enough, in conjunction with a particular person.
The neck may look a little odd to most people at first. It actually is just a simple ring encircling the neck, with the fabric of the dress threading through it once before twisting back down the body. This helps create the dramatic keyhole effect down the center of the bodice area of the gown but it causes a bit of uneven texture around the neck itself.
The fiery fade effect lends even more of a dramatic effect to the Goddess Heart gown, though I think it would have been a bit more eye catching if it drifted into a golden yellow a bit more than just slightly about the edge. I really didn't have the shoes needed for this, so the Shoe Fly cork wedges filled in again - I need a vibrant pair of shoes for with this outfit, as black heels just didn't look quite right.
I also need to find hair to match it. The one pictured here, Style 4 in Red with Blonde Tips by Wrong, just doesn't quite have the vibrancy needed to handle this dress. I may actually see about finding a darker skin for with this dress, and using Style 4 in Black instead, since I have it for my Tifa outfit.
Interview with the Vampiress
Mmmmm, underbust corsets. I've dressed in a manner very similar to this in RL, however the corset wasn't mine so I had to return it. Now I have my own, in SL at least!
This was from LVS & Co's RFL booth, and I just couldn't resist it in the slightest. Its called Formal Evening Together, and it actually has the dress, then a corset/thong/garter set with it for an entire evening's use. The stockings that came with it are fairly nice, plain with a sort of embroidered top edge...not that they're visible in this image.
In order for the outfit to look right, the skirt has to be adjusted down to just below the edge of the black corset, which is on the jacket layer. Once it is lowered - or raised in some cases - it makes the corset look even more realistic, seeming to flow out from beneath the black material. The skirt itself is rather full, and the patterns on it make it appear to have more layers than it actually does. The skirt hides any shoes unless moving forward quite a bit, so boots or heels will work with it. I think I might find some ankle boots, like the Victorian buttoned kind, for with it though.
For this outfit, I chose the Style 4 by Wrong in black. Though not really like anything she wore, the outfit reminds me of Mina from Bram Stokers' Dracula and the subsequent novel Mina that goes into what happened to Mina after the familiar story ended, after all, she did still have quite a bit of vampiric taint within her. If you enjoyed either the films or the book itself, I suggest reading Mina though it can be a pain to find sometimes.
All for the Kiss of a Gypsy
When I found Evie's Closet for the first time, this was the dress style I wanted the most from the shop. I have a massive thing for all things Gypsy in RL, especially after most of my friends compared me to them prior to having the rheumatoid arthritis kick into overdrive because I rarely stayed in the same place for more than six months at a time. I've been to every continental state except for the Dakotas (and after the drama incident in EQ2 involving a South Dakota boy, I don't wanna go there!), which apparently isn't something a lot of people can say.
For RFL, Evie's Closet released an alternate textured Romany Kiss dress as a gift for anyone who visited the booth. As far as gifty items go, this was a steal because of how gorgeous a dress this is. It took all my will power not to buy all four colours of the dress when I walked in and realised what the shop was.
The skirt was slightly confusing at first. I put it on with just the glitch pants, and it didn't look right compared to the promotional images; if you don't put on the special leg prims, it doesn't get the same effect. They're darker, like the glitch pants, which helps create that darker burgundy colour in the center of the skirt. I'm often amazed by how different techniques create different effects the same way they do in real life, which gives me hope for some of the things I've thought about trying to create.
I used the slightly messy short style Native by Damselfly for with this dress, though I want to find a messy braid or partially tied back hair for with this - something that looks like its been tussled by the wind. I might find one that would work with all five colours of Romany Kiss, because I want to eventually own them all.
The Kitsuneko Doll
Well, not quite. The various attachments for this costume and my nine tails don't get along quite yet, though I'm working on various other attachment points for the tail. Aradia Hextall coined the phrase Kitsuneko because I have nine foxtails but tend to run with a Neko style and crowd outside of Cyria.
Ironically, I was just at Passionate Neko Dreams the other night, debating on getting some of their other fashions. I wasn't much in a doll mood that night, but this was a special Relay For Life Dollie costume so I decided to snag it for later use. Unfortunately, SL and I decided to have an argument at that point, as it did not dispense the requested item. Saur Holt got it squared away quickly, though I'm not surprised the typical vendor bug hit RFL at all.
There is a cape that comes with the set, however I didn't want to wear it. I'm finding that I generally don't like capes in SL, but then again, I'm extremely picky about my cloaks in RL so that's not too surprising. The corset for this costume comes on two different layers, which is always a plus in my book because of the tattoos.
Now, I haven't worn too many doll costumes before, and I wasn't expecting the bows on the skirt to be stationary. I noticed as I tried finding a pose for the costume that the skirt was floofing without the bows, and couldn't help but giggle at how odd it appeared at first. Seeing this does help with several things I was trying to do with various prims and flexi prims though, so I'm glad I noticed it. I'm not sure how often I'm going to use the skirt, since its not exactly my normal style, but I am quite impressed with how full and tu-tu like it is.
Lacking conventional doll shoes, I'm using ETD's Triple Strapped Mary Janes again. I've looked at a lot of flat soled mary janes, and just haven't found any that knock my socks off. Maybe its just because I don't like flat shoes in general, or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong shops. Personally, I'm all for running around barefoot constantly, however in the cold of winter where there is actually snow, that doesn't work quite right.
I didn't have much that would work well with the hair bow that was included with this costume, so I used the closest thing I had - Ceridwen in Russet Red from Goldie Locks. It still didn't match up exactly with the bow, so if I can't find any suitable hair, I'll be moving the bow down from the crown. I'm not sure if I like the bow that much, but only because it reminds me of the ginormous bows my mother used to put in my hair when I was a little kid. I was a tomboy...with a giant chiffon bow holding my hair up, it just totally went against the image I was going for.
A Little Italian Lace
This brings us to the last of the formal outfits I bought during my 'official' RFL trip. Designed by Haute Style & Co, the particular black lace pattern over the satin used to create Ginnalli reminds me of a few dresses I saw on an Italian fashion school's website. Several different dresses, one of them sort of like this one, used a similar pattern of lace over various pieces of the designs.
I used the Jasmine hairstyle from Sirena, though I think it would look better if the style came in a darker shade. The downfall of red hair that is unless its close to the same shade as a piece of clothing, it will look discordant and out of place. The other downside is that most reds are split into two or more packs, and you either end up with the brighter set or the darker set, or having to buy both.
Ginnalli actually looks really good with the Gothica Boots, though that may just be because the skirt largely hides the rest of the leg. I might try wearing the black Gladiator heels with this dress, though I don't much like exposed calves. I might also try wearing the bodice with something else...like jeans; I really like the way its cut around the chest and neck area.
Naughty Nymph
Lastly, one of two lingerie purchases at RFL, though my inventory started having issues loading so I don't have any images of the other RFL set. I've been searching for a black bra that was cut in a fashion I liked, and I just happened to find it at the clothing fair.Persona had a set by the name of Greta available in black. It has the classic demi-bra cut that I like, a matching thong and it was at a reasonable price for two pieces of under clothing. Its surprising how expensive even just a set containing a bra and thong can run in SL - it makes Victoria Secret look cheap!
I couldn't just do a straight bra and panty image without feeling a little ah...Playboy bunny-ish, so I decided to show off the new belly dance jewelry I bought at the Dark Eden booth. It came in a couple of different tones, but I liked the Goddess Chant set in silver the best, and most of my other gypsy stuff is silver.
Wind-blown hair suddenly looks like a bed-tussled bob when the Damselfly Native hair style is paired with a set of lingerie like this. I was really surprised by how my perception of the hairstyle changed after looking at this pose in the Greta set since I'd never thought of it that way before. Now I look at the Native style and just giggle slightly whenever I see it.
And that concludes my trip to the Second Life Relay for Life Clothing Fair, at least the time there that I officially set aside for blogging. I still am running back to the fair to grab a couple of things as I give in to temptation, and have to alt it up a bit to snag a few things I saw that are better suited on a different avatar.
Right before I logged, the count for Lindens made this RFL season was just short of five million Lindens. I hope that they pull in over five million before everything is taken down, but I'm fairly sure they will. Not everyone could rush to the fair during the work week, so there's still plenty of Lindens to be donated.
And who knows, maybe you're helping a fellow resident receive the treatment they need to fight cancer.
This part of my SLRFL post is going to be about the fantasy clothing I found. I was so torn on what all to get, since I'm a huge fantasy nut, and our sim mostly leans towards that kind of style. Everything was at a great price, and most had at least some if not all of the proceeds going to RFL so...I justified all purchases as charity ventures. ^.^
Elven Enchantress in Crimson
Fairy Grove Creations came close to owning my soul. They had a lot of different outfits that I wanted. All of them work with the theme of the Cyrian sim, and they're all fairly pretty in design.
The first outfit I bought from them was the Crimson Elf Enchantress. You can barely see it, but it comes with a spell book that has its own held pose built into it. Just like the stave you see a bit if, it can be used with the Spell Fire system, though there are SF enabled and non-scripted versions included in the set.
The only thing I dislike is that the shirt is on an undershirt layer, which means no tattoos without it looking odd. The corset is absolutely gorgeous though, and I've been tempted to contact FGC about purchasing the undershirts from the outfits I bought on other layers.
You can't really see them, but the outfit comes with a nice pair of matching boots. They're the standard adventurer style in shape but use a crushed red velvet similar to what is seen on the skirt. Its got accenting similar to the skirt waist embellishments, as well as a bit of the look from the jewelry.
This is a really nice coordinated set, and its available for a bit cheaper than usual (I think, I can't recall the main store prices) at the RFL booth FGC has. Really wish the corset was on more layers...
This next outfit was released at RFL by Avilion Mist as their contribution. Initially, I wasn't going to get it because it was purple, which is usually reserved for accents, however it was a special edition, and really gorgeous as well.This actually has ten different pieces to it. There is the shirt, which is shown here, and an undershirt for those who are a bit more modest than I am. There is a skirt layer skirt, however it wasn't fitting right so I didn't wear it for the image - the glitch pants were enough for a simple pose, especially with how full the skirt is.
Though they look like part of the scripted capelet, there are sheer prim sleeves that attach where the shirt ends. They're fairly sizable sleeves too. They look much like the skirt, with a sort of glittery effect to them.
Now, there are two seperate head pieces. One has just a long, flowing veil down the back, beneath most hair while the other has a veil over the face. Both have the silvery circlet that you can see here.
The hair is Avalon (Chained) by Goldie Locks. I really like the style but its one that lends itself more towards elegance and such than towards daily use outside of an RP sim. Still, it goes well with this costume, though I'm considering getting a different colour to match the dress.
The Crimson Huntress
One of the many outfits I picked up at DeFluer - hey, they're mostly 200 L$ a pop, which is a huge discount on a lot of them - was the Hunter Armour in Red.This outfit is actually quite versatile. There are twenty eight parts included in the package. There is the armor shown here on the shirt layer, a bikini top on a shirt and an undershirt layer, and a chainmail undershirt for starters. Then there's a choice between just the armor on the underpants layer or adding the leather leggings over them. There's an armor skirt, and two different versions of the hip armour, the lower of which is shown here as well as a belt. Then there's a full chain skirt or the partial chain skirt like I chose for the image. All of the leg armor could be worn, as it was here, or only part of it can be worn and different boots used. There are three different kinds of cloaks, the regular long one shown here along with the shoulder armour and gloves.
There's so many ways to wear this outift, though there are six shown on the promotional poster at DeFluer's RFL booth and main store. And I'm quite sure they'll mix well into other fantasy costumes or even every day use.
The style of this particular RFL gown reminds me of Romeo and Juliette due to its cut, however the colours are far brighter than they would have been back then. Created by Evie's Closet and used for their primary donation item, this dress is a lot more light and flowing than an image can show.The hair is again by Goldie Locks, only this time it's Sienna in Russet Red. This is another one of those styles that I don't often use on a daily basis, as its just a tad too elegant for my everyday wear. When I first started SL, I used an extremely short avatar, and this hair used to get stuck in the floor weird which is part of why I never used it. Now its a good length, and really is made for people over 5' tall.
Devotion - shown in Blaze - is one of the few empire waist dresses I've liked in SL, as most usually move weird no matter what you are doing. This one flows quite a bit more than I expected, making the satin folds shift in an interesting manner. Its almost as supple as flexi hair, as you can see by this image, but not quite enough to make it annoying while walking.
There are actually two RFL boards up for this outfit in Evie's booth, and it was fairly crowded when I stopped by, so there's good reason for it. I've actually been trying to remember the name of this place for ages, after stumbling upon it with another character. So glad to have found it again!
Snowbound
I think I may end up using this as the armour for the Drow set up I got at Onigiri the other night. I need to go get a few hair styles in pure white, rather than the blonde I used here, but the armour has potential Drowness.This is another reason why Fairy Grove Creations nearly owns my soul. I was really torn on the different colours offered since there was no red or crimson in sight for it. In the end, I went with the White Celtic Sentry which has a scripted sword that can be used in the Spell Fire system.
The developing trend between myself and FGC is that they make all their corsets and shirts on the undershirt layer, which deprives me of my lovely tattoos. I really do wish they'd offer more versatility with this, since not everyone is adept at skins so their tattoos are built in.
And I'm not quite sure how I feel about the shoes. They're far too thin in my opinion, though I honestly haven't put forth effort to widen their look. I realise they are designed to look like certain plate armor sabatons, but I really don't dig how skinny it makes the feet look. Hopefully its something silly like the design used larger than size 0 feet, which is easily altered as opposed to having to widen the prim parts of the shoes.
The hair is from Damselfly, its called Storm and this particular version is in Voodoo. They're scarcely seen here, but the tips are a nice red colour. This looks like Storm from the X-Men's hair, and I really couldn't convince myself to get it in Red. My inner Comic Geek was too angsty about it, so we settled for the happy medium of Voodoo.
And that does it for my fantasy costuming bing. Well, I did buy more today, but that was only after figuring out that DeFluer had some really good deals running for RFL featured items only. I've gone off to acquire the various bits from her that I've thought of getting before, but never quite convinced myself to get.
On to the formals...with a minor nod to lingerie!