Otherworldly

The tavern was lit by flickering torches and candles, adding a play of light and shadow to the performance of the graceful dancer. The man seated at the table watched her every undulating move.

We return to the Hot Pot Inn by Cosmos, this time for some of the evening entertainment. I love the Estrelle set from deviousMind, sexy and sparkly with minimal coverage and lots of gemstones. It leaves plenty of skin bare, which makes it perfect for showing off the Flourish tattoo from Nefekalum. To this I added a brand new hair style from Analog Dog called Fanta, a beautiful set of wild curls.  The poses are from Nantra, a set called Kismet, and the idea for the dancing girl on the table was all Ran’s, I was stumped for a good way of showing this set.

The April round of We Love Role-Play opens today and you can whet your appetite with the Shopping Guide as well as with the blog posts that are starting to crop up. Such as this one!

For this post, I am mixing up the releases from lassitude & ennui, Moth & Moon and Misteria, the result being a fae who rides in the Wild Hunt, here on the prowl on her on with her black steed. The soft green skin from Moth & Moon blends nicely with the Dryad gloves from Misteria (BOM layers and appliers included), and the Wild Hunt shoulder piece from lassitude & ennui adds a touch of menace. This is not a fae you want to meet in the woods on the wrong night.

I am also using a new release that isn’t from WLRP but which deserves a special mention because I find it so neat. RVN Store is a new-to-me store which I came across at the Level event and they have several different add-on deformers for mesh heads. Now, I have seen deformers for mesh bodies before, which allow you to achieve shape variations that the sliders can’t do. But with such body alterations you run the risk of clothing not fitting, so I haven’t found them that interesting. But face deformers? I had not seen those before and I am excited. The set that I am using pieces from here is called Chic Cheeks and it alters your upper and lower cheekbones. Perfect if you like sharper cheekbones. I am also really intrigued by their nose deformers since I am a sucker for strong noses, so I may have to give those a try too.

Spring may be just around the corner, but the weather we’re having lately makes it feel much further away. Fortunately, with the lovely new trees from Fanatik I am able to enjoy some lush greenery in Second Life instead.  Fanatik has released two sets of trees, the poplars I am using in this post and also a Nordic pine set. The poplars include six different shapes and come in Winter, Autumn and Summer variants, with texture differences even within the ranges.  The sizes are easily modified, but of course the land impact will change if you do so. At sizes up to 10 meters, they are 1 prim each. You may also notice that the leaves do not cause alpha issues with the background even though that is a common issue when using a mesh surround.

The Monk Outfit from Cosmos is one of several releases for male avatars at the current round of We Love Role-Play and while I don’t own any of the male bodies it is rigged for, the covering nature out of the outfit meant I could get away with using my Slink Physique Male body to show it off for you. This is a nicely meshed and textured outfit which is made very useful by the texture HUD that offers three different colours (brown, red and white/grey) and also options for different symbols on the chest (or none, as here).  That means you can use it to portray monks of different varieties.

This particular monk is of the sneaky kind, out to explore a secret passage in an occult library. This is a release from Fantavatar & Moonstruck for Chronicles & Legends: “Creatures of the Night” and as you can see the middle section of the shelf set can be clicked so it slides sideways. For best effect, of course, you need a door or a passage behind the opening. Here I am using one of the lower levels of Fanatik’s Arkaig Castle.

Mixing it up with a bit of We Love Role-Play and a bit of Skin Fair. The impressive horns by Vae Victis and the altar by the Eschaton belong to the former and create a nice Sword & Sorcery feel for the scene.  The horns can be extensively customized, here I am not showing the drape or the pendulum accessories.  The altar set also includes a dais that isn’t visible in this closer shot.

From Skin Fair comes the beautiful skin from Petrichor. Amatheia Summer, here in the Korianal version, includes both a full skin and a tattoo overlay to use with other skins. It also has options for either a regular BOM face or an EvoX face, something which I very much appreciate given that I still have some non-EvoX heads that I like to use. That said, this is the EvoX face and it is very pretty! The skin includes a female as well as a male version.

I featured the Prima body a while back, but for Skin Fair it has been updated to 1.2 and if you already had the Elite version that means you get the two new breast shapes for free if you redeliver.

Finally, we have a sleek new hairstyle from Wasabi for Access, with four different style options to how it frames the face.

Musa has a lovely set of five poses (plus mirrors) at We Love Role-Play and these served as the inspiration for this setup. A beautiful young girl, vaguely Grecian in her garb, dancing for unknown—perhaps imagined—audience. The Hypatia dress from Belle Epoque features an ornate metal harness and a short skirt and goes well with the Astrid foot wraps from Sass, especially in this kind of scenario. The texture HUDs for both pieces allowed me to match them up nicely.

The skin I am using is a brand-new Skin Fair release from alaskametro called Elle, for LeLutka EvoX. The alaskametro “Fit” body skin has also received updated shading for the Fair, so if you own that since before make sure to redeliver it. Also new, but a mainstore release, is Magika’s Cordelia style, a simple updo with an optional leaf accessory on one side that can be textured in natural colours or as metallic. For the decor I used Nomad’s Aqua Spadanae set, which was out for this weekend at a sale price.

A lonely tower by the sea, a queen in self-imposed solitude. That is my second offering for We Love Role-Play, featuring the new releases from Grasshopper St and Les Encantades.

From Grasshopper St comes the Berengaria Crown and Medieval Veil. These are beautiful pieces, perfect for an accurate medieval look. The crown can be stripped down a bit by removing some of the ornaments and the HUD also includes several metal and jewel options. The veil comes in silk and cotton and rigged as well as unrigged.

The Revna gown is an intricately adorned dress that offers a lot of flexibility in how you combine the colours if you have the fullpack HUD. I had some minor quibbles with the fit of Blanca, the other Les Encantades gown I showed, but Revna is clearly a newer mesh and perfectly rigged to Maitreya Lara. It also includes fits for Belleza GenX, Kupra, Legacy and Reborn.

One day, she came to his cottage in the middle of the woods, wearing clothing in the colours of the wood and with a strange mark on her forehead.

There’s a new round of We Love Role-Play on its way in just a few days, so of course I’ve got to tease a few upcoming things. But first up, a look at the Woodcutter Shed from Del-ka Aedilis, a simple but nice addition for any medieval, norse or just rustic setup. A log is ready for being worked on, a stack of logs are stored against the back and on the side of the shed hangs an axe and a saw.

As for what you an expect from WLRP, the Blanca dress from Les Encantades has a rustic fantasy feel, especially in this colour combination. I found the fit on Maitreya a little so-so in terms of a lot of alphaing being needed, though with a dress that really doesn’t matter so much. The Eye of the Forest cosmetic set features eyeshadow and a forehead design and comes from Reviver.

The beautiful long hair with the charming strands of hair falling over the face is Iliana from Wasabi, out at the Fifty. I love most things about this style, though it seems to expect rather larger breasts than my avatar has.

Few were granted the honour of meeting with the King’s favourite in her private apartments, from where it was said she ruled the King and thus the kingdom. She was beautiful, garbed in green and gold, and very dangerous.

From Zaara comes the beautiful Kashmira Lehenga, consisting of a beautiful, embroidered top over a skirt and accessorised with a scarf.  The fatpack allows you to mix and match all the colours, for some lovely combinations. The elaborate hair jewellery is made by Antaya and the HUD includes a good range of colour options for each section, so it was easy to match it to the outfit. Finally, I added part of the Ceres tattoo from Nefekalum, with materials for an extra bit of golden sheen.  All these new releases are from We Love Role-Play, whereas the decor consists of older releases from Old Treasures, Del-ka Aedilis, Libertine and Paper Moon.

She visits the stone they raised for his departure once a month, to look out over the sea for any sign of the striped sails on the horizon.

From Rakshasa/R3D comes the lovely Helga dress, a viking-inspired design with really great detailing both in the mesh and the textures.  It is available in four single colours or as a mix-and-match fatpack with twelve colours where you can achieve some very striking combinations. With sizes for eight bodies, chances are good it will fit the body of your choice. If not, there is also an alpha layer included. You’ll find Helga at the current round of We Love Role-Play.

We Love Role-Play has opened its February round. The sim has changed from Riverhunt to We Love RolePlay, so make sure to use the new address!

Del-ka Aedilis has released the At the Lupanar - Chelidonis set, centered around a large daybed with additional accessories in the form of a paravent, a sidetable, an oil lamp, a set of flacons, a washbowl and an amphora. It is a set designed for a Roman brothel, also called a “Lupanar”. The animations in the daybed are selected for this purpose and feature one menu of single poses and the rest are either for couples or threesomes. 

I decided to set it up in one of the Roman houses released by Fanatik a while back, imagining it as the “front parlour” of the brothel, with an upstairs available as well. Not historically accurate, but then neither is what I am wearing. ;) But for a fantasy take on a Romanesque setting, this Petrichor & Ersch collaboration makes for a pretty fetching outfit for our “Lupa”. I did forego some parts of it, which was easy because it comes with a HUD that allows you to full control over what to hide and show. Very handy!

A taste of what will be on offer in the upcoming round of We Love Role-Play, which I have gotten a chance to become a blogger for. Since it has been my favourite regular event for years, I am thrilled and hope to have lots of fun with it. Trying more new-to-me roleplay-oriented creators is always a delight!

The massive Multi Map War Table from Cosmos features three different maps options: Westeros, Gor and Witcher. The illumination of the table and the candles can be turned on and off and former has a nice effect where it slowly fades in or out when toggled.

My outfit is, believe it or not, an applier layer. It reminds me of the great work that Chaospire used to do, but this is by Reviver, a brand I have not noticed before. It has baked on or painted on lighting and while I would not have minded a materials add-on, it works quite well as it is. The applier also works for both male and female avatars.

The final piece from WLRP is the Isolde Crown from Sacrilege.  Despite the name it is unisex and the included HUD offers six metal textures, three accent colours and five jewel textures.

We Love Role-Play opens on the 4th of February and there will be a new SLURL, so keep your eyes open for that.

Roleplay-oriented gowns in Second Life are quite often on the fancier side, suitable for the ladies of the realm. But sometimes you want to portray other sides of the story and fortunately Senzafine has a new gown out at Genre‘s Medieval round (which is awesome in general) which is perfect for that purpose. Feel like playing Cinderella before she found her prince? Now you have the right dress for the occasion. And if you visit We Love Role-Play, you can pick up a great oven and cookware set from Noble Creations so that you can get your work done too.

Skin Fair opens on the 11th of March, so expect to see a lot of skin here in the upcoming posts. Which of course may not be that different from what the upcoming posts usually would have anyway… The first skin I am taking a closer look is the new line from alaskametro, a very nice hybrid skin that mixes photosourcing and handdrawing. I am also featuring releases from Roawenwood, Luxuria, The Plastik and EMO-tions.

I wasn’t quite sure in what direction to take this post, but then the new wolves from Jian for We Love Role-Play (which opens today!) landed in my inventory. All of a sudden, a more gothic scene was born, in a dark and lonely manor out on the English moors. A grand bookcase from Noble Creations helps set the scene and a few pieces of heirloom jewellery from the Plastik finishes off the look.