Culture Shock

Life in the mall was always hectic, not that bright, shiny, piped in music and crowds of happy people clutching plastic sacks of purchases way of malls from the time before. The malls now were the walkways of the sky, only marginally safer than the rubbish strewn streets far below. Even walking through the better zones you were just as likely to get caught in the crossfire of a laser fight between mall militia and gang members as you were to spot a bargain deal in the high priced stores. Illya had had enough for one night. She worked in one of the darker clubs in the sanctioned bar zone, the kind frequented by the rich kids looking for a thrill, one where their richer parents would hate to think of them being, but which held a much lower death rate than others in the lower levels of the mall. Heading away from the pounding headache of noise created by different genres of music all competing within the confined space she moved quickly towards the blue zone.

It was quieter here, the stores mostly winding down in the small hours of the morning, a few, not staffed 24 hours, were shuttered and dark. Smiling to herself as she passed by a couple getting hot and heavy in the shadows she walked on, not disturbing them, her boot heels clicking alternately on concrete and metal gratings, no fine marble down here. Pausing in front of a store window, she checked her reflection in the glass, as a blue light glowed, scanning her head to foot. With a soft hiss the glass panel slid back and to the side, allowing her to step on through. As she emerged again, hair teased high, the piercings replaced on her face. The skimpy work outfit discarded, she was now wrapped in black web, each thread woven with care, fine as silk, harder than steel. She was ready to greet the friends who awaited her, ready to start her own night out in the darkest depths the mall and the streets beyond had to offer.

Culture Shock is back! The “Culture Shock” event in May 2012 (May 4th – May 26th) is a large and important event in Second Life fashion culture. Celebrating trends and trendsetters within our business, and incorporating music and art, all with reflections of our own personal first life cultures depicted in our creations. It is brought to you by CHIC Management (www.chic-management.com) and sponsored by Modavia Productions.

174 store are showcasing their products, including a minimum of 1 new and exclusive item each – contributing 50 – 100% of their profit to charity. While you are there - be sure to check out the amazing artworks decorating the walls on the ousides of many stores.

The charity chosen is Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and is an independent humanitarian medical aid organisation. Committed to providing medical aid where it is most needed, regardless of race, religion, politics or gender and also to raising awareness of the plight of the people they help.

You can find the sim here...

http://slurl.com/secondlife/CHIC/136/131/6

Image 1

Dress :  [*RD*]*Sugar & Cyanide Dress-Black*  150L  50% Profits to Médecins Sans Frontières. 3 Different versions in pack, some more revealing than others, here wearing 'cleaned out' version with pasties.
Hair : ::Exile:: Groove Theory: Blacks -  250L (5 colour pack) 50% Profits to Médecins Sans Frontières. Mesh hair, comes with alpha layer for hiding any pesky bits of head that could show through, as I was also wearing boots that needed an alpha layer - Id suggest using any black hairbase.

Image 2

Outfit, Piercing and Additional hair : ~plank couture~ horoscopae - Leo ad Widowa  Arachniae  250L  50% Médecins Sans Frontières. This outfit also comes with two skirt versions - not shown here, one static, and one animated.

"Further along the Path" at LEA2 - Free of Words

Words… spoken in various languages, reaching out like feelers, looking for another fellow human to touch, to establish contact with. Words… reaching out like tentacles, wrapped around fellow humans, slowly suffocating them. Words… but did she need words so desperately in order to relate? She was slowly moving her fingers now, observing them, discovering the message they were sending out… and her eyes, her face, each and every muscle in her body was talking by now, chattering without speaking, the new kind of message softly filtrating through apparently solid boundaries. She was free of words… and she was smiling. She was free. Irrevocably free.

Today, Friday May 18^th at 1 PM SLT a new art installation, “Further along the Path”, will open to the public at LEA2. The organiser and originator of the project is a household name in the world of SL art, Bryn Oh. In order to know more about the participating artists and the concept, please read her blog entry here: http://brynoh.blogspot.com/2012/05/while-ago-wonderful-group-of-artists.html

Elif Ayiter aka Alpha Auer, the “chief” of Alpha Tribe, is one of the contributing artists. She offers the magnificent “Asemic” avatar as a free gift... and whoever has ever owned or even seen an Alpha Tribe avie in SL will certainly rush to LEA2. Visit “Further along the Path”, allow yourself to be involved... listen, watch, think, enjoy.


Avatar: Alpha Tribe "Asemic" in male and female versions - a free gift at LEA2.
Pose: No Strings Attached "Fred Astaire" - not available any more. 

Surprise in the morning

The sound of the waves was calming but none the less the feeling of dew on her skin wasn't something Martha enjoyed. For some moments she curled together trying to hide her bare feet deeper in the wide pants she was wearing. After some more minutes of uncalm sleep she realized that she was at the wrong place. This was definitly not her or Phil's home. Slowly she pushed herself up. The pain in her head made her regret this. But while pressing her eyes together she forced herself to get on her feet. It wasn't a big surprise that the rest of her body did ache as well. The veil was something which surprised her. There was dirt on it so Martha supposed that she had used it as cushion or blanket. Not that this was important. She was wearing a veil, didn't remember what had happened during the night it was clear that it finding out what happened in the night would be way less fun than those things she forgot.
Miamai's latest relase is a wonderful brideswear collection. Of course it is outstanding,especially the Marlene Outfits. This consits of elegant meshtrousers (in standard sizes) with a frilled top and a big veil and also fitting upper sleeves. The upper part of the veil and the sleeves are made of unrigged mesh so its possible to resize them. The lower part of the veil is made of flexi prim which allows it to move.
The red hair comes from Wasabi Pills. It's the Dragon Hair which is very versatile.
Purple Pose released a set of pinup poses. The pose on the first picture belongs to those.
Adornotropia, the sim where the picture have been taken is not officially open yet. But it is allready possible to visit it. If you have a chance to do so take a ride in the rollercoster.

Outfit: Miamai_WeddingCollection2012_Marlene White (1400 L$)
Hair: /Wasabi Pills/ Dragon Mesh Hair (1500 L$ for fatpack 250 L$ colourpack)
1st. Pose:PURPLE POSES - Pin Up Poses (sold at Perfect Wardrobe)

Location: Adornotropia

NSA4 Hunt - Forgotten Doll

She couldn’t recall the name of her owner any more. She remembered that the girl had worn nice frilly starched dresses, Nanny had carefully curled her blond hair every morning so that the corkscrew locks would tumble down on her shoulders, and she had had a pair of big blue innocent eyes. But her name....? Mabel? Victoria? Abigail? Gertrude? Maybe it was Mabel... or was it Maude? All this had happened more than a hundred years ago, after all.

Mabel-or-Maude was a rich and happy child and she used to adore her lovely doll. “She’s almost like a living girl! Look, Nanny! She can move her arms and legs, and her eyes open and close!” – and she gave the doll a hug, or she went to comb its soft, natural hair. All was so idyllic... until one day, when everything suddenly changed. Mabel-or-Maude and her nanny went for a walk but only Nanny came back and she was crying, then everybody in the house was crying, too... then they packed in big trunks everything Mabel-or-Maude had ever owned, including her beloved dolly.

Ever since that day her life had been silence. Now and then she could hear some rumbling noise or maybe some steps in the attic of the huge abandoned house... but soon everything became silent again and all she could do was remembering and waiting... and remembering again.

Doll shape and skin: [dirty.little.secret] “Dolly” – Face Your Phobia Hunt prize (1 L$). The hunt is on until May 31^st.

Outfit: Grim Bros “Flutterby Darlin’” – No Strings Attached 4 Hunt gift (0 L$). It’s a lovely dolly dress that includes the butterfly attachments on the head, shoulders and arms – but this is not everything. Cutea Benelli has shown her customary generousness again and put the petite version of the outfit in the gift box as well. The hunt is on until May 31^st, so go and pay a visit to Grim Bros!

Hair: Laqroki “Camellia” in Black – freebie in the shop (0 L$).

Makeup: Acid and Mala “Maiko Doll” – it’s a previous hunt gift, now the pack containing six makeup versions is available for 60 L$.

Eyes: Avatar Bizarre “Anime Eyes” in Mica – previous Lucky Chair prize currently available for 35 L$.

Shoes: this pair of black mary janes has been sitting in my inventory for years, and now it seems their creator is not in SL any more. All I can tell you that they’re still pretty. :)

Poses: HelaMiyo “Puppet” - the pack contains five poses with a resizeable marionette prop not shown here (200 L$).

The pictures were taken at Noctis, a haunted ship-cum-furniture shop. :)