Otherworldly

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.

With a little (okay, a lot) of help from Del-ka Aedilis, I have started piecing together a little Renaissance-inspired household. The building used is the Townhouse Isabella from the Medici series, an elegant two-story house with beautiful stonework on the outside and different wall colours and floor textures for the various rooms. In one of the rooms, I placed the Atticus closet, the Agrippa storage chest and the Livia cabinet. There are several versions of each piece—plain, Roman ornaments and Medieval ornaments—as well as several wood colour options. Additionally, the storage chest (which can be either open or closed) comes in one empty and two filled versions, with different folded outfits in each.

To fit into the scene, I picked the Raphaelle Gown from Senzafine and the elegant Costanza d’Altavilla hair from F&M Oblivion. The necklace was a gift from Old Treasures at the last Shop & Hop.

Another delicious round of Midnight Order has opened and my visit there resulted in quite a bit of shopping. I absolutely had to have the gorgeous sabatons by Static (and, of course, the matching gauntlets as well), though instead of wearing it with something that might combine more naturally with pieces of armour, I couldn’t resist wearing nothing but the stunning Porcelain tattoo from Fallen Gods. With the right choice of hair and some carefully selected poses and camera angles, I am almost decent. ;)

I don’t apply for a lot of blogger positions any longer, things are busy enough as it is, but I did send in for Petrichor’s latest blogger search since I do like blogging intricate fantasy outfits and jewellery. So this is my first post, featuring the Zarys outfit. This is a release from a little while back that was created in collaboration with Ersch and consists of a dress, optional sleeves (one or both arms) and panties with leg chains as well as some spiky armor pieces (not shown). There are several different packs available with different texturing huds for the fabrics as well as the metals. The opacity of the dress can also be altered via the huds. Sizes included are eBody, Kupra, Legacy, Legacy Perky, Lara, Lara Petite and Mounds.

The hair is Wasabi’s New Year’s Edition of Mystique and the skin is LeLapeau’s Elsa with body skin by Velour. I am stepping out of Fanatik’s Stalker Castle and using a pose by Serendipity.

One can do worse for exotic glamour than taking inspiration from the flamboyant peacock, as Chandra Meehan has done for her Parvani set, available at the NextUp event both in a NextUp version and in a fatpack of all commons and rares. There’s 25 pieces in total in the set; 22 commons divided across tops & panties and belts & tails, 1 rare full outfit, 2 rare props. Two of the common sets feature peacock markings and I am showing one of these, “Lapis Peacock”, together with one of the props. The column includes two leaning poses for showing off your fancy new outfit.

It sits in a harsh, snow-covered landscape, looking from a distance like a large block of ice. The ice is very glossy, looking almost like blue-green crystal in places. When you come closer, you can see that there is a wide opening at the front (and a smaller one, almost hidden, along one of the sides) and that the block of ice is in fact a massive grotto. But, don’t get too close, because the grotto has an inhabitant…

The new Grotto building set from Fanatik consists of 32 different building pieces and 4 additional props. They can be used to construct tunnels and grottos of all sizes and because the meshes have an outside (unlike the Cave system pieces) these can be used in places where they need to be viewed from both the outside and the inside. The set includes several examples in different sizes to give a sense of what you can create; for this photo I am using the largest sample build which is 164 prims. I also added other rocks from Fanatik (Boulders from the Land Shapes package) around it to merge it better with the landscape (created with the Islands from the Land Shapes package).

There are four rock textures included (one of them being this ice version) and seven different ground textures.  You texture via a root prim that communicates with the HUD so make sure to read the instructions for how to build these sets.

Happy new year and time to get used to writing 2023! I’ve had the usual lazy first day of the new year, which has involved a few hours (or so…) in front of the computer. Part of the time was spent setting up a medieval kitchen from Del-ka Aedilis and taking some photos of a bit of virtual cooking, which is about all the cooking I am up for right now after the holidays. I should probably stick to virtual food for a while as well. ;)

The kitchen set includes the hearth, a table setup for sausage making, a sideboard with a basket of vegetables and cutting boards and a simple stool. The set is rustic and nicely detailed, with a very authentic feel. The only animations are in the stool, which has a few basic sits. For the photos, I used animations from Dutchie’s New Amsterdam Kitchen. I would actually love to see a HUD with various simple roleplay animations, perhaps one you could expand with different animation sets. That would be great for matching with sets of furnitures and props that don’t come with their own animations.

With the holidays coming up, one question is likely to crop up more than once—what am I going to wear? I think I have decided what I am wearing for Christmas IRL, but my virtual self is even more indecisive. Not to mention that she has a much, much bigger wardrobe in her overflowing inventory.

What better way to illustrate that well-filled wardrobe than with the latest release from Dutchie, the complete women’s walk-in closet (matching the complete men’s walk-in closet released earlier this year). This modular closet set includes 11 different closets, 3 that are closed and 8 that show different sets of clothing, shoes and bags. A colour-change menu offers the choice of 6 wood colours and if you are comfortable editing and tinting you can customize the clothing within the closets as well. Additionally, extra clothing and accessories are included in the full package (and available for purchase separately), for example the red and black dresses shown in the image. These pieces are perfect props for photos or for personalizing your living space in Second Life with a bit of stylish clutter.

I love the We Love Role-Play release from deviousMind, “Mistletoe”. Not only is it a sexy holiday dress, but the little scythe for harvesting mistletoe hanging from the belt is the icing on the cake. Perfect for the girl who wants to ensure that there’s mistletoe hung wherever it is convenient. Alternatively, if she has any Norse gods to slay and needs to fashion herself a few arrows. The set includes an unrigged piece of mistletoe as well, which you can spot in the background. The rest of the decor is from various holiday sets from Libertine, including the awesome decorateable tree.

Today is the last day of the 12th SL Christmas Expo & Winter Breedables Fair and I’ve let the mustangs out to run wild in the snow. These horses were made with the Teeglepet Fjord Horse and then I applied the new Mustang shape deformer from Mythril. It is available at the Breedables Fair as a donation item for the American Cancer Society and I am really happy with the resulting shape. It gives you a sturdy little horse that looks strong and rugged.

The two horses in front also have coats from the Breedables Fair, from Run for the Roses, and both Santa’s Cookies & Cream and Rustic Pinto are limited editions and donation items. I am afraid I don’t recall what the other three coats are, I didn’t note it down when I set the horses up. (That is probably my number one wish for the Teeglepets, a way to see what applier is being worn.) But I’ll let that slip for this time, since the focusing is on the Expo anyway.

Lighting up the dark winter night with a lantern from 3rd Eye, I went to explore the SL Christmas Expo. Of course I was drawn to the Teegle lot where you can see several of their Teeglepets as well as the brand new Winter Hayride Wagon, a truly festive way to travel. There are also three new Teeglepet deformers from Mythril available at the Expo; Alter Real, Mustang and Tall Quarter Horse. Perhaps one of them will show up on the blog this weekend.

My dress is from Grasshopper St., a brand I have seen at a few previous rounds of We Love Role-Play, primarily with various kinds of period head wear. I have been tempted before and this gown made me take the plunge. It is very nicely made and features lovely textures, so I am really happy with the purchase. This red version has a very Christmassy feel I think. The fact that it is made for Slink as well is fantastic.

Have you been to the SL Christmas Expo yet? The 12th SL Christmas Expo & Winter Breedables Fair runs from December 2 to December 11th and raises money for the American Cancer Society. The theme of this year’s expo is “The Magic Of Holiday Stories” and the beautifully decorated sims offer some amazing winter wonderlands to explore. There is lots of shopping available but also several exciting events. Don’t miss it!

In the words of Siddean Munro:

“I am holding a huge 50% off everything in the store sale - Slink, One Bad Pixel and Cinnamon and Chai - from RIGHT NOW until 11:59 on November the 28th. This sale includes everything. EVERYTHING IN THE STORE. I’ve never had a sale like this, and I never will again! Now’s your chance to grab that thing you have been dreaming about! Only at Slink (Marketplace not included).”

As I have no doubt mentioned a few times, the Slink Physique Original body is my favourite body for a realistic shape. Slink Physique Hourglass is a bit more exaggerated, but I am still very fond of how it handles the stomach and hips. The very best stomach and hips, however, can be found on Cinnamon & Chai, which is the entirely separate body that Siddean launched some time ago. This sale seemed like a good excuse to take a sexy shot of each body, dressed up in clothes and shoes from Siddean’s brands as well.

Del-ka Aedilis latest release is a Roman tavern table (though it will fit into many historical/fantasy scenarios) that offers a selection of single and couple animations, for male and female avatars. Some of the animations, like the eating and drinking ones, include auto-rezzing props. I setup the table in one of the builds from Fanatik’s Roman village set; this one is technically a warehouse but works nicely as a tavern as well. The decor in the background is also from Del-ka Aedilis.

Proper Roman clothing for women is pretty hard to come by in SL, so I opted for more of a fantasy look with the Pandora gown from Tres. The Celeste hair from Magika isn’t all that Roman either, but very pretty. Red hair was quite popular, often achieved with various more or less disgusting bleaching methods and then henna on top of that.

Royalty is the theme for the current round of Enchantment and Fantavatar & Moonstruck has made a chest fit for a queen, with elaborate painted decor on all sides. The chest is scripted so that you can open the lid and use it for storage. At the default size, I think you might even be able to hide a body in it, should the need arise. ;) I’ve sized it down somewhat for these photos and set it up next to a furniture set from the same creator.

The pretty gown is Alisse from Senzafine and the Maia hair another find from Magika’s 50% off sale that is still going on. The castle is one of my favourites from Fanatik, the Dungan Castle; I really love this sitting room with the large fire place and have appropriated it as royal quarters.