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.
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I decided that I am going to break up my Relay for Life review into seperate posts. It will make them more readable, and allow me to group everything into seperate catagories that match a general genre. It took me the better part of two days to make it through the entire set of sims, which includes the several hours of 'downtime' we experienced due to the gray texture issues. Despite that, the relay hit the 4 million mark this afternoon which is a huge accomplishment as far as collecting Lindens goes. There are still two days of the fair left, so they may very well break 5 million or more before its all said and done.
Several vendors have RFL vendors set up in their home stores, or have donation boxes for RFL set up. Elikapeka Tirimisu has three set up that she will make matching donations off of, so hurry over to ETD and donate!
There were a lot of signs up at the fair, but this one impacted me the most. It was in the Avilion Mist RFL shop, right there in the center of all the clothing and shoppers. I couldn't get a good image of it, due to lighting and texture issues, but this sign was beside a beautiful sword that was bathed in a sort of glittering holy light. It was very much so like the Excalibur images people have created, and tied the modern day trials back to the forgotten myths of old. Its also in a really awesome font that I just can't stop looking at, heh heh.
For the entire modelling shoot, I wore Totally Betty's Delicate Rose Makeup Skin, an RFL skin that is quite pretty, though its a very soft make up, so a lot of its details are a bit missable. Its only 100 L$, and there is a matching natural skin for the same price. Skins are often way more than that, so its fairly much a steal.
We'll start with the casual, gothic, punk and/or Neko bits first. Now, I arranged everything into outfits, and there were a number of single piece items that I've not got images for. I spent roughly 5k L$ at the fair all together, though I didn't keep exact track because it was for charity...a charity that I may eventually have to use, heh.
The Artiste
This first outfit is a mixture of several pieces I bought at various vendors throughout the fair. I want to have a number of red and black tank tops available to me, and this was for charity after all.
The hair is from Deviant Kitties, the style is called Latha and this is the red with white tips version. Its a fun hairstyle I use a lot more than I expected I would. It was purchased long before RFL, so don't expect to be able to buy it there.
The shirt is by Mischief, and it is available at their RFL booth. Its called Frill Camisole and this particular one is in Cherry. Its got a number of layer options and style options, which is always desirable in practically any and all clothing.
Around my neck is Callie Cline's Tomboy Signature Charm necklace with the black cord instead of the brown. I was a tomboy as a kid, so I was impartial to it after seeing the name...I may have to merge my other two neckpieces into one necklace...
The gloves are by Pushbutton Industries, and are also available at RFL. They're the Bindi Armwarmers in Gloom, and even though the image is at an odd angle to view it, there is a very stylish mehndi patter on the topside of the gloves.
Sitting pretty on my hips is the RFL Belly Chain in Black Iron, by Dark Eden. While the chain doesn't work if I'm wearing most skirts, it is tail compatible with jeans and other non-prim legwear. There's a fair amount of detail to it that is lost due to the size of the image, and from what I can tell its only available at DE's RFL booth.
Artfully torn and paint-splattered, the jeans are from Wrong's Look One and aptly titled "Spattered Black Jeans". Yes, that's a hole in the knee, you're not imagining it. It came with a t-shirt, however I rarely wear them in RL, so I've not bothered with them much in SL. I basically bought the set because it was for charity, and I liked the jeans. >.>
Go figure that after spending three months or so searching for boots I like, I start finding pairs all over after finding the initial pair. These babies are the Gothica Boots in black by *Hexed*, a boot that appears to have been released at RFL. They are very awesome, and actually required very little adjustment unlike most SL footwear. They're hard to see, but there are fashionable little rings on various places, a couple of which seem to be glowing due to the boots texture.
Now, this outfit makes me wanna figure out skin design just to make a skin that looks like my old RL ren faire guild's body paint. I used to hang out with the Wildes in San Diego during faire time, and largely the guild wore white body paint with black stripes along with bits of leather and fur. When I say bits, I mean bits - the Wildes are a Visigoth group, and often wore just enough to cover their private bits.Another DK hairstyle, this is Havok in Red with White tips. Its a messy short bob with a bit of long hair hanging in the middle of the face. Sometimes that little bit of hair gets annoying, sometimes I love how it looks.
I got this at Gritzi's booth at RFL. It actually comes with the corset, two different skirts, thong, long pants, stockings, gloves, collar, heels, tail and ears. All of them coordinate, so you can vary the look without having to purchase more items. The entire set is called Wild Cat - Complete II, and since it does include its own ears and tail, you don't have to worry about being a Neko to dress to the 9 lives.
I don't particularly like the shape of the shoes. I really don't like the way some extreme high heels make the foot look, it just seems kinda cartoony to me. Your feet don't really look like that in RL, they don't magically flatten when you put on a pair of arch-breaking pumps. I may end up trying to take them apart and retool them to work with less foot sheering, because otherwise they're not going to get use at all.
The shoes and collar also bling. I'm not quite sure if this can be turned off or not, but I don't know all the various channels bling scripts use, and there's no notecard included with the set to tell me what channel to use, if it turns off at all. It will be a pity if it doesn't, because its a really nice collar as far as non-scripteds go.
Next we have a super-goth outfit that comes in leather and vinyl, all in the same package. The Spiderweb by Pixel Passion includes two different sets of the top, hotpants and pants for two different looks. I'm wearing the regular version in this image, though the vinyl version looks just as hawt too.
This is another instance of the "I want the pants, but its in an outfit" moments. Luckily the Devilish Cupcake set came with multiple colour varients so I now have several pairs of awesome pants, and several bright baby dolls for if I ever go to a rave in SL.The hair is from Goldie Locks, and was also bought long before RFL. This is Hannah in Russet Red, and its got a braid in the other side that you can't see from this angle. I think its about the trendiest hairstyle I own...
The baby doll is actually three seperate pieces. There's a tanktop-like shirt, the prim flow skirted bit and then small tie prims that rest above the straps of the tank top. I do kinda like the idea behind it, however the colours are just different than anything I wear on a regular basis. This is in Lava Girl, which is about as red as the set gets.
Another thing you can't see is the little fairy drawing on the right thigh of the capri. These are a pretty high capri, and there were cuff bits included that didn't work with the pose. They're a really nice jean pattern though, nice seems and everything.
The shoes are from ShoeFly, which has been running a number of discounts this month. These are Pink's Summer Wedge, and are sorta like a style of shoe I have in RL. I haven't actually found an exact match in SL yet, but these'll do for now.
Holy cow, could tonight have been any busier? ~faints~
So I'd planned to do a bit of Anime shopping and hunting today, but a new release hit, and I was totally enchanted by the promotion.
The Anime kick was inspired by Onigiri's store, mostly her skins and hair got it going. I bought one hair set and the Blood Elf set last night, then ended up getting there sets of skins there today. All three were from the "heavy goth" make up listing, with the red lips since I've got a thing for red. I got one Peach one for during the summer, because that's as dark as I like my tone getting. The Glow set is for the spring and autumn, because its that nice balance between deathly pale and Peachy goodness that occurs during those times. And of course, I got the Goth skin for winter since I'm always quite pale by then.
Here is the Glow skin in heavy black lined goth. The eyebrows are part of my normal skin - Aphrodite from the Another Fundraiser skin drive - while the eyes are again rainbows only this time they are from the 3rd Onigiri anime eye package.
I also got this neat Anime Drow set too. While I was out and about I picked up an =E.M.A= White Skirt & Suit Jacket to wear with it, since I have very little in white colours or brighter colours aside from red and some purple. I may take a trip over to Chaospire and pick up something a little like slinky Drow wear to go with it too, or attempt to make Drow armour...
So there wasn't really any super Anime places that struck me, but Cyria just happens to have a few transmutation circles lying around sooooo....that's where I ended up taking a picture of the outfit I put together for the night.
Along with the aforementioned skin and eyes, I'm wearing the Miaka style hair from Onigiri in Ember with the ribbons set to dark grey. The jacket, gloves, thigh highs, sandles, skirt and right bracer are all part of the Haven Design Battered set in black - there is a really awesome tribal design on the lower part of the silks, but the transmutation circle blocks them. The underpant is actually from the Bast Royale belly dancer set found at The Oh! Factor in Linji, dyed a bit darker to match the rest of the red bits.
A quick jaunt through a couple of the Kin locations looking for new hair for Beetle - yes, she's always looking for new hair - kicked off our Anime night. For those unfamiliar with Kin, the main shop can be found in the Body Politik, another store in Glass Earth, another in Unlimited and a small kiosk in the Manaan Star Wars mall.
Pictured here is Kin's Kadaj hair, as worn by Masi Aeon before he went all super assassin and started wearing a blindfold constantly. I think he's just trying to upstage a certain female assassin that will remain nameless, either that or he's trying to impress here...I'm not quite sure which. The hair actually looks really good on Masi because he's got thin features much like the character it was designed after. I'm sure he won't be too broken up over it being borrowed for the review tonight - he's vain that way. >.>
No Anime night is complete without a trip to Sugar's cosplay store. Netsah Kurosawa's got an awesome creativity, from bringing popular Anime styles into Second Life to creating her own unique outfits that fit right in with their video counterparts.
Beetle won an outfit while we were there, though the pants for it kept graphically glitching so we couldn't get an image of it for this post. Instead I decided to put the promo image for an outfit from Sugar I absolutely love - Rosario.
Its a more sophisticated school-girl like costume, with the typical hits of sexuality all good Anime girls carry without being too blatent about it. The texture is really nice, and I just love the possibilities of this outfit.
Next major stop in our night was Muism. I had to send this to Masi, because its just a really awesome hair - the best Cloud-esque hair I've seen in the game and it comes in a variety of colours too! I was half tempted to buy it for myself, but I think it would look much better on Masi or Zan than myself.
Muism had several great hairstyles, including a set called Nash that tempted me as well. Floaty dreadlocks with an interesting set of headbands over them; I may still get them for with the dark Solid Gold skin I got at the Another Fundraiser skin drive...but that would mean creating a whole corsair or castaway outfit too...hmm...
There was also a good selection of clothing, however I didn't get to see all of it because SL was being laggy. I can tell you, however, that they have some spectacular styles of trench coats, waist coats and conventional coats available...
And then the Anime night was interrupted by an add from RAW - RAW joined the Fashion Consolidated designer core, and was quite celebratory about it. I'm always on the look out for something sexy, yet sophisticated and at least somewhat covering, and the clothing here really impressed me.
First up - Attitude.
I absolutely love this style of fetish wear. From Moulin Rouge to the Infamous/Scandalous set for Aiko 3 and Victoria 4 (popular 3D animation models) and the weird event that was Convergence 13, there is something about a full corset, matching thong, thigh highs and a (often bustled) skirt that I adore.
Obviously, Attitude was done in Latex, which adds another layer of "Mrow" to the outfit set. The style comes in four different colours, though this is as close to my typical shade of red that they got. The blue one was oddly appealing to me as well...well, actually, I kind of want all four of them.
However, tonight was Anime night so I went with something that could be a little bit more versatile with a name all too fitting for yours truly - my mother actually gave me a shirt with this name on it when I was a teen, hee.
I give you...Brat.
This was taken right outside the RAW store in the Innuendo Mall - you can see one of the other shades of Attitude through the window.
At the top, we have a fun little brown beret-style hat resting slightly askew on the Damselfly Native hair in Ruby Twilight with warm tones. The two go well together, with almost no poke through!
Its not too clear here, but the cropped white shirt is actually fairly sheer. Without the spiffy - yes, I just used spiffy as a fashion adjective - suspenders on, one can see nipples quite clearly. The collar, however, was from the =E.M.A= set, but I kinda liked how it looked with the new shirt.
I do believe this counts as the shortest skirt I own, yet somehow it still covers most of my rear when walking. Peaking out from above and sometimes below is that Bast Royale thong, only this time it's in its natural colour to match the stockings and awesome fingerless gloves. I'm so going to get use out of those things, and they match a pair I have in RL...fancy that!
Reprising their role of the best Mary Jane ever are the Triple Strap Mary Jane from ETD. While I had to temporarily take off the EarthStones Magik Vial, my Boho beads are firmly in their place as well as my Gritty Kitty Dragon Blood Snake Charmer bracelet. Speaking of EarthStones, I added the Beaded Bangle in Drama to my accessories tonight; ironically, Drama just happens to be the Cyrian colours? Conspiracy - possibly!
And now, the Brat outfit is transformed into...a Tifa-style cosplay outfit! Every man - and some women! - who has ever played Final Fantasy VIII has had a fantasy about Tifa in a wet t-shirt contest, and if they tell you they haven't they're lying.
Unfortunately, the suspenders had part of the skirt attached to them, so I need to find another pair for use with other pairs of pants or skirts.
The shorts are from Action Surf & Sk8te, a simple pair of denim shorts in dirty dark blue which actually turns out in most lighting to be a lighter shade of black. They come with a nifty chain that clips to a belt loop in front and another in the back, but if you use a custom AO you need to adjust the middle part of the chain for it to look right.
I don't have Tifa hair - yet - so I used the Lynn style from Goldie Locks. I sort of lack most anything but some shade of red with most hair, so the closest I could actually get was Russet Red from Selena Gateaux's red pack III. Even if you're a newbie to SL, you can get some cool hairstyles from Goldie Locks if you're willing to sit in one place for 3 hours and 15 minutes.
Let me preface this next introduction by stating this - I've been looking for a pair of boots since my Rez Day and it took me until last week to find a pair I finally felt were me no matter what I needed them for. These are the Antique Boots from ::69:: in Honmoku, in black for versatility. The Antique Boots have a few different attachable charms to be used with them, the most favoured one being a set of blocks the spell Neko in a 2x2 formation. I'm going to design my own charm for these as soon as I feel inspired, I just haven't decided what to use just yet.
And after much trouble with Blogger, finally finished!