VARGSANGEN

A beautiful Viking/Scandinavian theme location that has a wonderfully cold wintery atmosphere to it. It looked great when I arrived and started taking my snapshots, then I remembered to turn on Shared Environment setting and wow, the place took on a whole new feel.

I find it’s always good to look behind you when you arrive at places, you never know what you’ll find. This is why most of my posts have a rear-facing shot near the beginning.

Most of the time it’s a blank wall, this is one of those times that it’s not, there’s a set of steps leading up the hill from the beach.

There’s a few houses and meeting hall which all look great and fun to explore. You can see from up here all across the bay, the waters seem to go on forever, but there is also a far shore that needs exploring!

Back down the steps there is a log bridge that takes you into a dense woodland. But this is no walk in the park! There’s an assortment of animals in here, not all of them friendly.

A couple of bears are far enough to not be a worry, but the wolf pack (you’ll hear it before you see it) deserve a wide berth, so as not disturb their catch. This small scene is actually really effective with animated deer and wolf snarling sounds, makes it feel real.

Further along the path widens into a small clearing containing someone’s home. There are a number of these dotted around, their simplicity compared to the houses suggests outcasts or solitary individuals keeping away from the main local community.

This place is on the end of a land peninsular so has water in 3 sides, I went across to the beach to get a closer look at something I saw in the distance from the landing point. A rather large creature circling in the water, definitely a place for a paddle!

Retracing my steps through the woods there is a steep set of steps leading up the mountain (by SL proportions). It’s quite a walk up to the top, with some great views as you go up and from the top.

There are signs of some old structures half buried in the ground as you approach the summit. When you reach the top (giving the solitary howling wolf plenty of space) there appears to be an area of worship, with standing stones and a sacrificial altar. You can also see from here another little home, on the beach below a large statue. In the opposite direction is a barren clifftop view over the sea, which can be quite calming to enjoy with the sounds of whistling wind.

Up here I met with the regions creator and we had a nice chat. I said I kept expecting to find an NPC of Floki (a crazy little guy from the Amazon series Vikings) in one of the huts. I asked her about RP in the region and she told me there was none organised, but people were welcome to come and use it for that, she just wanted to create a beautiful place.

Which in my opinion she has achieved and surpassed. If you’re a fan of the series or anything like Viking culture, you will love this place.

To get the best experience I would suggest you enable Shared Environment setting, so it looks how the creator intended it.

If you’ve not got this turned on, in a Firestorm goto the World menu select Environment then “Shared Environment”.

Enjoy exploring!

Landing point: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/White%20Widow/101/205/23

Outfit credits :

This post was featured on the SecondLife Community Blog on 29th January 2021.

Morning Caffeine

Ava slowly turns on the pole as her dancing shift comes to an end she flips her legs up and looks down to count the tips scattered on the podium below. Her eyes sparkle behind her visor as she sees several high value notes lying there. She scoops those up quickly and tucks them away before the greedy owner sees, it’s been a good night indeed! Flipping back down she collects the rest of the money.

With a wave to the other staff she wanders out the club as she is, not bothering with a coat since the artificial atmosphere keeps the whole place comfortably warm. She just taps a button on her top making it no longer transparent, not wanting to give the public a free show. She walks across the plexiglass floor to the cafe opposite and orders her usual drink, needing some caffeine before she showers and changes for her day job.

Location:Location Closed 12th March 2021

Review post of location: Varuna Project: Entertainment District

Outfit Credits:

Related Posts:

Caught!

As Ava cracks the last digit of the security code on the door of the facility, she hears footsteps and a voice behind her. “Stop! Raise your hands and turn around!” says the secuity guard. Ava complies slowly with a startled look on her face, convinced that the guards shouldn’t have been passing here for another few minutes.

Outfit Credits

Location: Location Closed 12th March 2021

Review post of the location: The Varuna Project

Related Posts:

Time Portal WW1 simulation closing.

I read this morning on Twitter that one of the Time Portal locations in SL, a WW1 simulation was to be closing, so I thought I’d do as the message suggeste. Go have a look before it’s gone!

The location is due to be gone “by years end”, so go check it out. Turn up your sounds and lights down for best experience.

Landing Point: https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Time%20Portal/117/104/3887

A look back at My 2020 in SecondLife

While we may not all want to look back at 2020 in the Real World, doing so for my Second Life isn’t half as depressing.

Looking at my previous posts over the last year I was actually busier than I thought. I did quite a bit of RP in SL Gor during first few months of  the year tracking down old friends,

Pondering what adventures are to come with my return to Gor

before moving on to a Prison RP  which had me chasing escapees for a few weeks.

I caught up with one of the escapees in a bar

 

Then along came Fantasy Faire,where this year I was able to have early access the empty lands before the masses arrived.

Empty streets of Fantasy Faire

This was through my involvement with the NeoVictoria Project as opposed to the FF Bloggers (since I didn’t make the official list,maybe next year!)

This gave me a new perspective on the Faire that I wrote about. I also wrote two short stories  based around the Faire as part of their “Faire Folk” challenge, called Under the Pass and Casseopeia. How could anyone not be inspired by the Faire?

I next moved onto a different more futuristic RP, a cyberpunk location inspired by the city of Helix.

The city didn’t survive the RL lockdown,but it has led to a small but thriving group,making a life for themselves in a dusty Martian crater.

Bits of ruined machinery in the dusty crater

Halloween came around fast and all the spooky places sprung up for October and I had great fun blogging some of them.

Shortly before the *actual* date of Halloween arrived I was at a club called Ohana that I’d visited several times in the past and they mentioned Hosting vacancies,so I applied and was taken on after a trial set that went great.

Debut Set at Ohana Rock Club, 19th October

Finally in December I decided I’d try to go along to the SL Book Club readings. I’d seen the Twitter activity about it weekly (who could miss Draxtors enthusiasm?)but never actually got around to attending. I went along two and a half hours early,just intending to have a look and take a Landmark.

I realised I’d unwittingly taken myself hostage,the place was already half full and if I’d left,getting back in wasn’t guarunteed. Fortunately I’d already done my whip around of Christmas advent calendar clicking that day!

Already half-full hours early!

Which pretty much brings this year of Second Life adventures to a close.

However..

I’ve explored more places than I got around to blogging about, so I’ve lots of photos of places that deserve long posts of their own. Maybe I’ll write those next year if the locations are still there in the New Year.

For now I’ve simply made small galleries of some of the different places I didn’t feature on the blog, as well as some one-off snaps,in chronological order:

A storytelling evening at NeoVictoria (3rd January)

Furry Night at Kitty Kaboom (23rd January)

Bikini party at Kitty Kaboom,from PG angle. (13th February)

Hayo as a Tarn (18th May)

Tarns are large birds,ridden by some warriors in the fictional world of Gor.

Sci-Fi Con 2020 (21st May)

 

Ash Falls (15th July)

Murder City (21st July)

SecondLife 17th Birthday explorations via train (24th July)

Pandemonium (7th August)

Delerium (12 August)

 

Tea with Sheree (15th September)

Hayo preparing for Halloween (4th October)

 

Jeep Antics with Sheree and Hayo (11th October)

NeoVictoria 10th Anniversary Roleplays (22-24th November)

 

Boggying with Nyte after my set at Ohana (19th December)

Boogying with Nyte at Ohana

 

SecondLife Book Club (16+23rd December)

This post was featured on the SecondLife Community Blog on 28th December 2020.

Drune Crossroads

Drune is back!

I missed the last incarnation of this place, since it doesn’t seem to stay for long, so I’m pleased I got to visit this time around. Hopefully it’ll still be there for you to visit when you read this.

To set the scene this is the land description:

Drune Crossroads
A drift down memory lane, with an eldritch tone. Cyberpunk Streets, Cyber Punk City, Sci Fi, Bladerunner, Lovecraft

So you can expect lots of bright neon lights, dark alleyways and (non-drivable)flying cars.

The arrival point is an Underground (Subway) station.

exit through the ticket barriers up the escalator as you would a real station.

This takes you up into a waiting room

Now we get to the interesting part, exiting this area takes you out into a main street where you are bombarded with the expected neon and shopfronts.

You then come to what must be the proclaimed “crossroads”.

You may have noticed in the last picture in the previous gallery I passed a blue Christmas tree, this becomes relevant when you reach the crosroads.

There’s different coloured trees in different directions, this helps you keep your bearings, when at street level at least. I picked red and went that way.

Drune has lots of little nooks and crannies full of detail, as I walked I saw a sliding door open slightly and had a peek.

This one was a car repair place,not super interesting from my point of view, but illustrates the detail put into the place.

When I got to the end of the road there was a junction

I headed right towards the pink neon lighting a stairwell and wasn’t surprised what I found..a bar with a some rather evocative statues at the entrance and some fun solo dance furniture.

Heading through to the back I had a look down at the street below

Next I retraced my steps down to ground level and took the opposite alley that took me to a ground level bar with a somewhat classier feel.

I then took a nearby fire-escape style staircase which seemed to go on for ever, when I reached the top I look over the edge…it’s a long way down!

However up at the top is a whole nother way of seeing the city, via a maze of walkways.

When I reached the apparent end there seemed to fortunately be a lift back down

But when I took it down and followed the subsequent corridor..It led to a locked door!

I had no choice but to go back up and walk around the gangways. But as I said, it’s a bit of a maze and couldn’t find the stairs! I decided to abandon my pedestrian approach that I try to stick to when exploring and took the express route back to the ground, that you could only get away with in SL, jump over the railing. The fall seemed even further than it looked.

Back on the ground I’d landed in what at first glance was a sex venue of some kind, til I read the second line “Cosmetic Surgery”, not what you normally might associate red or pnk neon with, also not a roleplay avenue I’d want to pursue!

On the whole another great incarnation of the cityscape, worth visiting for sure, lots to be found with lots of attention to detail.

Arrival point: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Real%20Angel%20Estate/33/128/37 Region Rating: Adult
(although it could probaby get away with being rated Moderate, if it weren’t for a few revealing photos on an upper level,since the signage everywhere appears to be merely suggestive and I didn’t find any furniture with adult animations.)

This post was featured on the SecondLife Community Blog on 14th December 2020

What SecondLife is about for me

Last night I watched Mika Snow interview the inspirational Strawberry Singh, blogger turned Linden. Following on from my post yesterday, I’ve another fun dancing snap. As I said yesterday, to me SL is about friendship, it’s also about Fun!

How people have their fun in SL can vary considerably in a world where pretty much anything is possible, but me right now it’s these simple things.

Strawberry echoed this yesterday, when she said that as a newbie, this was mostly what she (and most newbies) did; Made friends, danced and partied.

Ava is now waaay beyond the newbie phase at age 7 in SL, but I still love a good party. So much so I recently took a hosting job at Ohana Rock Club, which is great! The picture above was taken at one of my hosting shifts by Tina Twine, who labelled it “Hip-Grinding at Ohana”. To twist a Forest Gump quote “That’s all I should say about that!”

Ohana arrival point: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Ohana%20Cove/234/61/25 Region Rating: Moderate.

Featured on SecondLife Community Blog 24th November 2020.

Aluvyn skies

This interesting place I came across via a Discord Server called “Seeking Roleplay” where people can chat about roleplay and related topics as well as advertise locations. This is the description given:

Aluvyn Skies… In a world where everything hovers over an ancient Abyss, and one mis-step can mean death… or worse… how will you choose to find your fate? The floating isles of Aluvyn are home to a host of creatures, some familiar, some fantastic, but all are an integral part of the story, and we’re looking for you to join it! Come join us in this unique medieval fantasy world, and see where you fit in – or not… Perhaps it’s your time to make a difference instead of just ‘get along’… Both dark and light creatures fill this universe, and each has their own allure, but you won’t know where your place is unless you try.

It certainly sounded alluring so I went to visit. It’s divided up into a number of different areas, with intriguing names.

[07:59:02] Obibor's Spring: Obibor's Spring is is rich with the scent of rain and river mud. The grass is soft and damp, welcoming to the bare foot. The spring was formed by the God's as one of the ways for residents to claim water, and most wells in the world are filled from one of the springs that are spread around. This specific one is guarded by a Cairn named Obibor. He is gentle, friendly, but protective of the spring. Should anyone try to cause harm to this island, it is said he will remove them rather violently. The spring is open to all who need water....Ava Bloodrose
[07:59:52] The Stone Garden: The Stone Garden is the true geographical center of Aluvyn, as well as the religious center. This island is entirely neutral, no faction or island owns nor operates here. all are welcome to worship and contemplate the universe in the peaceful garden as they walk as close to the gods as one can get. The Stone Garden is thick with magic, and even the plants seem to exhale it. This place is for refreshing oneself, and replenishing the natural pool of energy within one's soul....Ava Bloodrose
[08:10:53] The Traps: The Traps sprawl before you, darkened by greed and a rather think layer of dirt. There is black market trading everywhere you turn, and you might just land yourself with something valuable once in a while. But be wary, you might end up on the pointy end of a blade if you cross the wrong person....Ava Bloodrose
[08:19:57] The Swamps of Vorst: The sound of cicadas, frogs, and the gentle buble of water greets your ears as you enter the swamps. The air is heavy, but somehow still cool in the shade of the cypress trees. Rare herbs and wood can be found among the Swamps, and though the residents of the Swamps are often hearty and strong, they do not prevent wanderers and visitors from traveling and gathering needed materials. You may find them giving sacrifice to Vorst in the depths of the Swamps, or having a cookout around a giant campfire in the village compound....Ava Bloodrose
[08:38:02] The Smog Islands: The heavy scent of incense and opium greet your nose as you enter the Smog Islands. The air is thick with it, and it's hard to tell if the ever lingering fog is a result of the constantly burning incense or if the air here just creates it endlessly. The island is busy with mine workers and traders coming and going, and you get a sense of authority and direction from the imposingly large building that stands over the docks....Ava Bloodrose

Usually I’d insert my images in-between those quotes of local chat, relating to each specific area. However since several times the messages weren’t always triggering when I landed but when I was leaving by the nearest TP arch, it wasn’t always clear which was which. So rather than wrongly organize the images, I’ve made a gallery of all the snaps I took. Of course doing it this way should also be more incentive for you to go explore for yourself.

Landing Point: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wild%20River/112/114/4000

Website: https://aluvynskies.enjin.com/

Fun with Friends at Shazzam

I realised that my blog that is supposedly “Chronicles of Ava’s SecondLife Adventures” misses out quite a lot. It’s become more of a Destinations blog, which is fine, I like visiting new places and writing about them. But I just wanted to show other stuff I do as well when not exploring, so here’s a snapshot from yesterday. Hanging out at a club with some great friends, which is one of the most important things about SL for me. Friendships. From Left to Right: Me,Sheree and Abby.

Hellas Crater – Watchtower and Bunker

I have an update to share about the Hellas Platina Crater Roleplay set on Mars.

So what’s new? After the expansion I wrote about  (and was featured on Secondlife Community Blog) at the beginning of August,a new RP area has been added. This consists of an office, a watchtower and a security bunker. Penny, who I first met IC (In-Character) during The Unexpected Delivery RP, showed me the new additions.

Penny and I at the new RP area

The largest of these additions is the bunker.

The Bunker entrance

Having a dedicated security headquarters,will give my character more of a functional base to work from rather than a container crate home. It was decided my character with her history of dealing with weapons (see The AMZ Delivery Lady) should take on the role of handling crater security and the bunker is where that will be run from.

With these additions, there have also been removals. The cargo container accommodations previously mentioned have been removed.

The storage container homes have been removed

These container homes are all very well as being a known story element location to refer to, but since most people don’t usually RP in them much, they don’t actually need to exist.

Penny reworked the area with some greenhouses once they were removed.

I’m looking forward trying out theses new areas in an RP, maybe we’ll need a troublemaker that needs dealing with. Come along and join in!

Landing Point: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Kind/182/178/3001