Otherworldly

You still have a few days until October 30th and the last day of the current Redeux round, which features (among other things) the Villa Equites from Del-ka Aedilis. A part of the Rome Series, it is an elegant villa with a garden, such as might be owned by one of the Equites. They were a wealthy social class but not as high ranking as the patricians. The villa features a first floor with the atrium and garden and additional rooms, as well as a partial upper floor overlooking the garden and with an attached balcony. There, I placed the banquet triclinium from the Civitas series and did a shot from a set of dancing poses by Nantra and one on the couch.

The outfit is not very Roman! But it is quite sexy, this collaboration between Petrichor & Ersch. There’s a bit of a kimono-feel to it with the wrap and the bow, but of course made a lot more revealing. As usual, you get tons of options for colors and you can choose to hide certain parts.  You also have three different skirt options.

Its the 4th which means we’re getting another round of We Love Role-Play today and this is a really good one! The star of my first post is undoubtedly the Samantha lehenga for Zaara, a more modern take on the classic lehenga inspired by Bollywood movies.  In the fatpack you can mix and match blouse and skirt colours as well as border colours. The cut of the blouse is very sexy and gives a fantastic look to your cleavage.

I paired the lehenga with two more pieces from the event; a collar from Sigma and heels from Sass. Both offer texture options via a HUD.

The hair is from Wasabi for Uber, a high pony tail that is loosely twisted and tied off.

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.

Dreaming Thicket has a wonderful set of Venetian carnival masks available in a NextUp vendor at the Secret Garden event, in a variety of styles and colours and all for a very low price. I opted for a classic Columbina from my blogger set and managed to grab a Volto off the vendor for Ran. A bit of digging into our inventories produced some suitable Renaissance-inspired pieces from the Muses and Stitched, as well as hair for me by F&M Oblivion and boots for Ran by lassitude & ennui. The couple poses come from Nanta and Be My Mannequin and represent a couple of rare entries into the category of couple poses suitable for scenes of courtly love. More of these, please.

The lonely outpost was guarded by a single warrior, but one of surpassing bravery and ferocity. When the skies turned red like blood and the seas froze, making the outpost reachable across the ice, she knew it was time to set out for war.

Sigrun the Winter Valkyrie is a new creation from deviusMind, available at the current round of Epiphany, which now means a regular release rather than a gacha (or any of its replacements).  Be a fashionable Valkyrie in fur, leather and dragon scales, including heels tall enough to use as a weapon if need be.

The build is yet another part of the Laketown set from Del-ka Aedilis, a smaller house with just an open platform at the lower level and a single room on the second floor. I liked the idea of using it as a lookout because of the focus being on the second floor and the fact that there’s a walkway that goes all around the upper area.

For the poses I used Nantra’s Brynhildr set, though I switched out the included horse for my Teeglepet Pegasus (in a wingless makeover).

Today I am out on thin ice. Specifically, on LR & Fanatik’s new Ice Plates, a cool product that includes scripted, breakable ice plates. To give a sense of how they work, I did another video!

I also talk a bit about my new outfit from R3D Studio, a viking-inspired dress and cloak. It looks very warm and sturdy, just right for a cold, northern winter. For full credits, go to the end of this post.

I had high hopes for the latest Enchantment round with the theme of “Viking Saga”, but I must admit that I found it a little slim on really interesting releases. Probably a good thing for my virtual wallet, all considered. ;) And there definitely were some things that inspired me, such as Roawenwood’s “Runecasters Table”. Decor items/props that also tell a story and can be used for role-play always draw my eye and this was no exception.

In Welsh myth, you can recognize the creatures of Annwn—the Otherworld—by their white coats and red ears. If a pack of white hounds with red-tipped ears races through the woods, take care because the rest of the fairy hunt may follow. This seemed like a very appropriate subject for today. Walpurgis Night, the night before Beltane, is the last day of the Wild Hunt, their last chance until Samhain to cause havoc. Here in Sweden, bonfires are traditionally lit to scare off various supernatural creatures that are about on this night (though in some parts of the country, the bonfires have moved to Easter instead, when they primarily scare away witches).

I love it when an idea comes together and the result is a scene where you can feel that there is a story behind the picture. In my mind, I drew some very loose inspiration from the Wheel of Time as it could conceivably accommodate the two outfits we wanted to show off within the range of cultures and clothing styles described for the world. That would make my character an Aes Sedai, perhaps from one of the Borderlands given the style of dress, and Ran could probably pass as a nobleman of Andor. And yes, we used to roleplay on a pair of Wheel of Time MU*s, before A Song of Ice and Fire took over our lives, so for a while we were very immersed in that setting. In fact, the first characters I tried to create a look for in Second Life were my WoT-characters.

After a very busy first weekend of December, I am trying to slow the pace down a bit and enjoy the build-up to the holidays by slowly getting into a Christmas mood. This dress by Faida and Velvet Whip was not intended as a Christmas dress, but I would definitely like to have it for a Christmas party, especially in this frosty silver colour. The dress is will be available at We Love Role-Play when it opens in a few hours, together with a L$50 Christmas special. The earrings I am wearing are in fact the L$50 item from another vendor, Bliensen + MaiTai. Make sure to check all the stalls so that you don’t miss any of them!

My hair is a new style by Wasabi, available with and without bangs and featuring a pretty texture-change ribbon. It is out at Tannenbaum and so is the candle from the Plastik, which includes holdable versions for both your left and right hand as well as a rezzable version. A HUD provides plenty of texture options.

Yesterday, I set about getting this post ready, uploading images to Flickr and the blog. Then, dogs and deadlines happened and here I am, a day and a half later with nothing written yet. And since the deadline is still hovering over my shoulder, this will have to be short and sweet. As I mentioned when reviewing the Quinta Palace from Fanatik, they also had a new castle out. In contrast to the palace, the Stalker Castle is a compact build with a footprint of 30 x 28 m and 170 prims.  There are three levels (plus the roof) and the castle is lit by torches and braziers. The beautiful lighting inside is what made me want to shoot it in the snow and even have it snow inside, which of course is perfectly plausible when you’re a snow queen courtesy of the latest deviousMind release.

It is time for ROMP again and Voluptas Virtualis have two new releases out at the event. The first is a barely there metal bikini, featuring some gorgeous filigree and delicate gemstones. I broke out the Kismet poses from Nantra and wandered off to my stone circle from LORE for some dancing in the mists to summon forth something or other.

The Lootbox gacha event opened just before I left for the weekend, so I managed to get some plays in, which included winning the rare from Analog Dog on my first try. Not my usual luck! I also played the Jian Avian Arcana gacha and came away with some nice birds that I have to work into a post soon enough. But this one is all about this gorgeous belly dancing set from deviousMind.

It took its time, but I think its safe to say that summer is finally here. Of course, the Swedish summer is notorious for being very changeable and sometimes quite wet and chilly, so you can’t always tell it apart from late spring and early autumn. Today, however, the weather is nice (if a bit windy) and I am just indoors because I am still tired after a weekend of dog shows and related activities. But at least that gives me a chance to catch up on some blogging and today it is all about the swimwear.