Pleiades

Unfortunately I have been very remiss with my blogging: The preparations for the store opening of alpha.tribe and my contributions to the endeavor have kept me from finding out about interesting and free or at least very reasonably priced items. I do have a few things though that I have managed to collect and I will start with something that comes from not only mine, but everyone’s favorite content creator in Second Life, the wonderfully wonderful, talented and generous Ms. Eloh Eliot.

Pleiades, tanned…

There are number of things which are wonderful about Pleiades: The first of these would have to be the mouth and the lips, which are highly expressive and realistic – as indeed is the rest of Pleiades. The templates for this skin show a peculiarly speckled light texture and I believe that it is this subtle effect which contributes to a an almost volumetric, touchably virtual skin. Second or rather third down the list of Pleiades wonders is the built in hair tone – no longer will I need to wear my close fitting Second Life texture hair, which never looks quite right no matter what I do to it. Ms. Eliot gives us the base color in 4 tones, thus alleviating a huge problem. at least for me… ;-) For those creating their own skins out of the templates the following is no major issue, however it would have been great if there had also been a baldy version available in the gnubie shop packages since I am assuming that there a quite a few women out there who (like myself) enjoy wearing Mohawks and who (unlike me) do not have the prerequisite photoshop skills to create their own skins.

And there is one tiny criticism when it comes to the templates: Unlike the “another skin” templates, Pleiades has only one set of eyebrows! Ingenious females can bypass this problem by downsizing the finished and merged Pleidaes skin to 512 pixels – sans eyebrows of course!!! – and then copy/paste this merged final layer into the another skin template file and then add the eyebrows there. That said, it would have been great to have a choice of eyebrows in the Pleiades files as well…

Most new skin will need some face shape adjustment, particularly if you have not made the skin but purchased it. In the triple image above, on the furthest left, I am wearing my Xiamara shape, which I have not really changed since I was rezzed. While my old (home-made) “another skin” looks really good on this strongly asymmetrical facial structure when I put on the Pleiades skin on that shape the result (center) was not too great: Not to put too fine a point on it, I look snide and snooty. The crooked mouth which gives my “another skin” face quite a bit of expression, with Pleiades turns me into someone you would much rather wish to avoid. Thus, I had to play around with the sliders in the appearance palette in order to attain a more or less pleasant face, one which is still mine but no longer so very snooty…

I especially liked the dark tone of the skin available at the Gnubie Store, although all 4 tones work very well for me. And incidentally, Alpha has been wearing Pleiades skin of late as well, and she too got her booty from the Gnubie Store. But, I understand that she will be hitting the templates in order to achieve that more sallow look that she has to live with as a look-alike avatar – poor thing…

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The photoshop templates for the Pleiades skin can be downloaded from Eloh Eliot’s website here, however for those of you that are happy to go with what Ms. Eliot herself has created out of her templates, 4 full sets of pale, fair, tan and dark Pleiades skins are available at the Gnubie Store as freebies.

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Ronja Pera

The rezing of a yet another new sister prompted us to make a tribal outing to the Freebie Dungeon recently. And whilst there I looked at the merchandise with a fresh new eye. Is it indeed possible to find things there that are perfectly acceptable not just by newbie standards but by common metaverse standards?

Granted, you do have to look very very carefully. Furthermore you will have to end up buying things that once you put on you will find to be absolutely hideous and immediately delete. But with patience and an unprejudiced eye you can uncover some really remarkable stuff. (Do not let the name mislead you by the way – the bulk of the things at the dungeon are not freebies or indeed dollarbies but set at either 5 or 10$L’s).
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The bulk of the remarkable that stuff that I seem to have found comes from a name that I am already quite familiar with – Ronja Pera, a designer specialized in extraordinarily well made footwear. My guess would be that the output that she has placed in the Freebie Dungeon is her very early design work in the metaverse. Although her current work is of course far more sophisticated, particularly in terms of her textures, (which these days are way more subtle, crisp and refined than the ones used on the apparel at the dungeon); what she has on display at the dungeon is still nonetheless no less better than many a so-called “mature” Second Life fashion designer’s current output. Indeed in my humble estimation with this obviously early work she still easily manages to surpass a good few such…

Shila, comes with a long skirt also. The matching boots you will have to buy as extras. Although the top does leave something to be desired in its cleavage trimmings, the attachments make up for the loss I think.

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Please continue to the special page on Ronja Pera at the Freebie Dungeon to view photos of the full collection which I assembled.

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An announcement!

Alpha is explaining it all on her blog anyway but… I seem to have set a precedent and these days there are 6 active avatars belonging to the tribe of Alpha’s alts on the grid.

2 of them are not avatars in the true definition of the word, indeed one having been rezed only as an official tour guide for Syncretia to lead visitors that go to the Slought Foundation exhibit in Philadelphia. And number 6 is yet waiting to figure out what exactly her role in the overall scheme of things may turn out to be. So, she is hardly ever getting logged in. However, this still leaves 4 of us who are of account: Alpha, the lookalike avatar, who is the virtual clone of the Real Life “persona” of Elif, the woman; myself and Grapho, the animus of Elif, and then finally the mysterious newcomer Furry Incognita, who has an entirely different name in Second Life however prefers to not disclose it.

I shall continue to post here, however this blog will no longer contain any personal posts but only ones that give out helpful tips for newcomers and reviews of free/or nearly free apparel. All else will now get posted under Grapho’s blog, which is now the blog of Alpha’s alts:

http://graphofullstop.wordpress.com/

O. C. Creations…

Orage Creations by Elettra Gausman is a stunning Haute Couture place. Very well made, very expensive, very chic clothes – the type that you would probably be paying a small fortune for in RL and even in SL the range does not really come cheap – however… Mixed into the melee are a number dresses all priced at 20 L$’s: All stunning, all with prim skirts, two come with amazing hats, and one with a peacock feather collar!

The Apiega Dress, worn here with hair by Sheltered Heart (freebie at her shop at Hairspray) and shoes by Melanie Zhao, again a freebie obtained by joining a group.

The Peacock Dress. I am wearing this with a hair that I actually won at a competition organized by Helena Stringer.

Aptly named the Horror Fishnet Dress, this is a beautiful and yet highly decolté garment, worn here with a free hair by Mej Shojo, obtainable at Mau’s and Mej’s. The hat comes with the outfit!

The Silky Puff Dress. I am wearing this with a gift hair from the Hair Fair by Ellie Celt and boots that I got for free from the Freebie Dungeon by Lightwave Valkyrie.

The Joy Dress, worn with free hair by Six Kennedy, to be obtainable at the Gnubie Store. The hat comes with the dress!

The Belen Dress. I have to admit that much as I love this, wearing it has turned out to be somewhat problematic since the torso prim tends to slip as you move… The Thunderdrome hair is a texture tester freebie by Helena Stringer and just about my favorite hair of all that I own and the boots are by Ronja Pera, freebies from the Freebie Dungeon.

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Wonderful wonderful Hair!!!

BabyBoo Glitterbuck, the designer of Here Comes Trouble has made a huge selection of her hairstyles available at 1L$’s a piece. And truly great hair – no cast offs in any sense of the word!

Curly: This double pack contains black curly hair styles of various lengths, all of which flow very naturally…

Suga and Spice: These two separate ponytail/pigtail packs come in over 50 colors! Yay!!!

… as do these beauties called Nice! Nice indeed!!!

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Another generous soul, when it comes to dollarbie hair is Helena Stringer. At her headquarters, the Shrine and the Mausoleum you will need to look for a display stand called texture testers. And yes! All of these beauties are set at 1L$’s per color pack as well.

I have to admit to having slightly re-textured the bangs on this hair since the original seemed a bit too staight cropped for my face. But with or without shaggy bangs – absolutely perfect!

Close-ups of some of the jewelry at Yak & Yeti’s

This is just some, by no means all of the jewelry that can be found at Yak & Yeti’s. No need for a lot of words, the photos really do say it all.

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Again, thank you Annapurna Onomatopoeia…

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She is back…

This development has been something of a shock to me: The main avatar has returned from exile. I did, of course, always expect her to return sooner or later – but quite frankly, I did not expect it to be quite so soon. I suppose I should reveal her identity now, since I am quite sure that she will waste no time in telling the world all about me. She is called Alpha Auer and is the owner of the island Syncretia…

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I have no idea what will happen to me now. The woman reassures me that I, too, will have my place in the scheme of things. Let us hope that she manages to maintain her objectivity. Alpha is after all her virtual representation, the two are very much welded together. So, inevitably, I have these horror visions of Alpha (and not me) going on all those wonderful plane and heli trips with the family, not to mention all the riding on the red truck; chattering around all day long with Mr. Hax, Mr. Hoch and Mr. Hienrichs, building away on the island… All of that, while I am expected to sit at home, working on my stitches and my hems?

Compounding all this worry is that, apparently, Mr. Hax thinks that I look like her! She hastened to make a point of this by sending me an IM – gloating endlessly, as she would of course. But, that is quite understandable, I think. She looks OK for what she is, but she most certainly would be thrilled to be perceived to look like me. A very good designer worked for a very long time to put me together – as she very well knows.

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I will maintain my dignity and continue to try and make myself useful. I mean I have already been quite useful to her: She has rushed out and bought all the hair from the Hair Fair that I gave her the addresses of, not to mention every outfit that she could lay her hands on at Yak & Yeti’s. She has had to throw a good few of those back out, alas: They really did look somewhat ridiculous on a neko, with that scrawny gray tail sticking out from between the folds of all those beautiful saris. She has also put on a customized version of the another skin. Unfortunately it is not looking so good on her, which she is really upset about. And then of course she has been going through all that new hair and has been re-texturing it to black. It is taking her forever too – she simply isn’t as skilled as I am when it comes to the finer things like fixing up your hair. I would gladly help of course, except the computer situation at the woman’s home is not too great for logging in multiple avatars.

Which brings me to this excellent bit of news that is giving me great hopes towards a continued existence: The woman is on her way out now to look at a very nice new HP laptop with a beautiful GeForce 9400 graphics card, which she is considering to buy. It is only 15.4 ” whereas the main computer is a 17 incher. But then the graphics card on this one will be better than that one – that one is only a 8600…

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So, I really am quietly hopeful. And, in time, Alpha will probably come to accept me and hopefully not feel too threatened by my (clearly) superior beauty.
;-)

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Day 30

I think today is day 30, although I am not absolutely sure. However, I will post this anyway, just to be on the safe side.

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We have been taking a lot of photographs of the Yak & Yeti clothes. Also, I have started to experiment a bit with creating avatar attachments. Although I have to say that it really is early days for all of that – nothing even remotely remarkable has yet emerged. But, at least I am beginning to understand how it all works.

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I still spend my time on my own, which truth be told, I quite like. I have been going back to the island to work and especially to take photographs: There is a work area rezzed 500 meters above ground there and that is where we have been taking most of the photographs. The woman has never really used that area, it was for people who were somehow associated with her and for whom she provided a virtual workspace. So, it is a neutral space for her and she is more or less fine up there. So, we have gotten quite a bit of work done.

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I still go to Fisherman’s Cove though. Whenever I have any kind of busy work, like cleaning out my inventory (which since the hair fair has again completely gotten out of hand, I’m afraid), I go there. I no longer go up to the women’s changing room either but stay right on the ground. It feels nice to have life and activity around me, even if I am in no way involved with any of it.

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So, mine is a very quiet virtual life. In limbo really…

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Yak & Yeti

I have been working on this one for a good few days now and although it is not yet %100 finished, I became impatient and decided to post what I already have – which really is the bulk of it.

I am experimenting with these wonderful clothes, combining them with other things and also trying them out with my own attachments, and there I will be adding more to what I already have here…

The shop is no metaverse secret although the woman had not heard of it before. So we owe Trilby M a huge big thank you for this. Yak & Yeti by Annapurna Onomatopoeia specializes in Asian/exotic garments and jewelry; although a few more or less westernized outfits can be found there as well. What distinguishes the shop is that everything to be found in there is completely free.

Please leave a huge big donation when you go there: The quality of what is available easily competes with apparel that sometimes goes into 4 digit L$ figures elsewhere.

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The special page for Yak & Yeti can be accessed from the Booty page or directly from here.

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One really cannot say this enough times. So once again: Thank you Annapurna Onomatopoeia!!!
:-)

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An important evening…

Tonight it happened. I went to the island for the first time. Actually, this isn’t completely accurate, I did go there once before; almost by accident, during the first half hour that I was rezzed. But at the time we didn’t stay there for more than 10 seconds, so I am pretty sure that it doesn’t count anyway.

The woman has really been wanting to get on with taking the photos of the Yak & Yeti clothes, so that is what we set out to do this evening. But we had a lot of problems rezzing things and getting scripts to work all over SL. For some unknown reason Fisherman’s Cove was building disabled. And at the sandbox that we have been using occasionally, the pose stand didn’t seem to work – which is very strange… After teleporting back and forth between various locations and getting progressively more frustrated in the process, the woman finally said “this is ridiculous Xia” and before I knew it, there we were…

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The place was completely deserted, which still didn’t stop me from being highly nervous. I kept looking over my shoulder in anticipation of seeing this little feline person charging towards me claws flexed and ears flapped back, spitting and grrr’ing ominously to a twitching tail. I am not sure what I would have done: I am really not very well equipped for cat fights at all I’m afraid.

But, in the event, we did spend a productive night taking the photographs and after a while I managed to calm down.

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I am not sure what to make of the place: I didn’t see everything of course, we went straight to the back, to the eastern shore. But all those spiky plants she has rezzed? It is a little eerie, isn’t it? I did like the swans though. The woman told me that at one point they had rabbits also (Hasis they were called apparently), really nice shiny round ones, but they had to pull them back into the main avatar’s inventory because they were following people around and getting lost all the time. As I am given to understand, the main avatar loves animals, which is thankfully one thing that we seem to have in common at least.

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I don’t know if we will be making a habit of this. I like Fisherman’s Cove better since when we are there we do not really feel the loneliness that is always hovering just on the periphery of the woman’s consciousness. But then again, if I am to make a serious go of designing clothes I need a good quiet place to work, and if nothing else the island is just that – quiet. You can hear a virtual leaf drop… I am quite sure that the woman felt oppressed by the silence far more than I did. She got very very quiet while we were there. It is her home, although it is not yet mine and she has a lot of memories there, of times when the place wasn’t quite so still. So, it is a good thing that we had things to do, which kept her from dwelling.

I suppose time will tell…

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