“Insufficient facts always invite danger.” – Mister Spock

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before”

[Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Treck: The Next Generation]

I was a Star Treck addicted since I saw the first episodes on TV back when I was a kid. I always was a little dreamer and the idea of having worlds out of reach, that no one yet had explored and either Captain Kirk or Captain Jean-Luc Picard just took us on their journeys to do exactly that, was just amazing. How often we sat, with the family or with friends, together in front of the TV and watched with excitement, what they would find and if it would be good or bad. For my age it first was Captain Jean-Luc Picard. I was about 10 years old when the first season came out on TV and when my mom realized I do love the whole story, she introduced me to the “older Star Treck” episodes with Captain Kirk and Mister Spock. Even if Jean-Luc will be my all time favorite, I did enjoy the older ones too, especially Mister Spock. The idea of having a life with no emotions, can be attractive if you are a very emotional kid and run into problems all the time*snickers*

That addiction to unknown space and fantasy stories did never go away… it did even grow over the time. Nowadays I still love Star Treck but as well all kind of post apocalyptic movies like Resident Evil, Mad Max, Book of Eli and many more. Fantasy or Sci-Fi as well is a genre that I do love a lot. The idea of machines that get some kind of personality like I Robot, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report or Ex Machina as well are an amazing yet dangerous idea… if artificial intelligences decide, that humans are the major problem in the the end – I would not wanna be part of that. What was an interesting movie as well and maybe a future vision of Second Life, was Surrogates. A world, where people never leave home again and just operate machines to do their jobs. When I saw the movie first, I thought it would be a cool idea, but the more I was thinking about that it was a scaring vision to me. I do have a love for such fictions and I am sure a few were part of what inspired me for todays post.

When I saw the “Space 2099” gacha set from Salt & Pepper, I instantly felt the 60s/70s, retro mood of the old Start Trek series. Then I saw, that Ex Machina made a matching scenery to exactly that gacha, there was no way that I would not blog that amazing collaboration. 2 of my favorite designers, collaborating on a sci-fi inspired set – priceless!

The gacha set from Salt & Pepper contains a body, shoes with long leg parts, sleeves and 2 different interactive tools that cooperate with the clothing AND with the matching props and skyebox from Ex Machina!!! While you can have 5 different colors for the clothing you get 3 options of guns. each gun shoots a different color (slime, hexagon glitter, holo swirls), while you can remove all the splashes with the scanner, which as well is part of the gacha. Sadly I found no other person, as I first had the idea of having a pixel fight with someone and colored slime splashes all over, but then I came on a different idea anyways. Maybe I will do some fun with that interactive gacha in the future ;). The VIP prize, a visor with a color HUD to match the clothing colors. The matching gacha from Ex Machina, as well called “Space 2099”, contains various props, a modular tunnel system and a skybox as rare.

For todays post I used the 2 gachas, but as well some other matching designs from Ex Machina. Hatris Panacek recently released some amazing sci-fi items that just were perfect to furnish the skybox. I first made one level with the modular tunnel system and all the gacha props. When I rezzed the skybox, I immediately had the idea of having a laboratory inside of it as a second level of my interstellar home *grins*. Who does not dream of a separated work/life balance *winks*

When I was done and satisfied with the look (I will credit all parts properly in the end of this post) I again came back on my initial idea of foreign spaces and forms of life. That brought up the neat idea with the little dragon , that just was born in my laboratory. First it looked super cute and then it did demonstrate it’s power and I had to run :p

I do love to tell little stories with my pictures and with that amount of items I wanted to showcase, it had to be a few more pictures than usual, but they all went so well together that I did not want to part them for a post.

Again I used the Axis HUD from LeLutka to animate my face. I know there is various face expressions out there at the moment, but I still think, that LeLutka had the most genius idea with that animation HUD. I already did talk about my first steps and tries wit the Axis HUD (HERE), but I seriously cannot stop to tell how amazing that HUD is. you can make expressions completely personalized and to exact purpose you need it. Sometimes I even modify existing expressions (certainly I mostly use the awesome, pre-made expressions from LeLutka as well), if I just want a little tweak and like the general attitude of the expression. If you not yet tried it, you really should. There is as well a demo HUD available where you can test the way how it works at the LeLutka main store.First I wanted to include a gyazo of my LeLutka HUD in action, with all the worked bones, but  with all my excitement about taking pictures… I again forgot to do that. I will try to remember that for the net time, when I have it excessively in use 😉

Clothing

Body: Salt & Pepper (S&P) – “Space 2099 Body” (Maitreya, Gacha, Common) – NEW @ Epiphany July 2019

Sleeves: Salt & Pepper (S&P) – “Space 2099 Sleeves” (Maitreya, Gacha, Common) – NEW @ Epiphany July 2019

Shoes: Salt & Pepper (S&P) – “Space 2099 Boots” (Maitreya, Gacha, Common) – NEW @ Epiphany July 2019

Accessories

Face Implant: Wicca’s Originals – “Edge Implant” – NEW @ Driftwood August 2019

Leg Lights: Normandy – “Leg Implants” (Maitreya)

Nails: [CX] – “Shredder Claws” (Maitreya, Bento)

Heart: NeurolaB Inc. – “Heart Reactor MK-6”

Hair & Makeup

Hair: lock&tuft – “Stranded (woman fit1)”

Lashes: alaskametro<3 – “Slay” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: NOX. – “Incomplete Lip” (Omega Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Head: LeLutka – “Aida 3.3”

Skin: ~Jeanette’s Joint~ – “Android 2.0 Skin and Tattoo” (Omega Applier)

Eyes: CURELESS[+] – “Spookshow Eyes / Dialated”

Ears: .:E.A.Studio:. – “Nepthune V2”

Facetattoo: the crone – “flesh shell” (LeLutka & Maitreya Applier)

Metal Tattoo: *YS&YS* – Pris Tone ELF” (LeLutka & Omega Applier)

Poses, Props & Tools

Poses: Poseidon

Set 1 (pictures 2 & 3):

Ex Machina – “Space 2099 SkyRoom” (Gacha, Rare) – NEW @ Epiphany July 2019

Ex Machina – “THX Sci Fi Botanical Lab”

Ex Machina – “THX Sci Fi set” (Console, Cannister, Crate)

Ex Machina – “THX Sci Fi set 2” (Vertical Console, Suspension Pod)

Ex Machina – “Advanced Teleporter Pod v1.5”

lassitude & ennui – “Dragon whelp – mystic” (Gacha, Rare)

Set 2 (pictures 1, 4 & 5)

Ex Machina – “Space 2099 Corridor Ending A” (Gacha, Common) – NEW @ Epiphany July 2019

Ex Machina – “Space 2099 Corridor Ending B” (Gacha, Common) – NEW @ Epiphany July 2019

Ex Machina – “Space 2099 Corridor” (Gacha, Common) – NEW @ Epiphany July 2019

Ex Machina – “Space 2099 Intersection” (Gacha, Common) – NEW @ Epiphany July 2019

Ex Machina – “Space 2099 Crate 1-3 Black & Teal” (Gacha, Commons) – NEW @ Epiphany July 2019

Ex Machina – “Space 2099 Power Washer – Black & Teal” (Gacha, Commons) – NEW @ Epiphany July 2019

Ex Machina – “Space 2099 Sign 1-3 Black” (Gacha, Commons) – NEW @ Epiphany July 2019

Ex Machina – “Space 2099 Info Center – Teal” (Gacha, Common) – NEW @ Epiphany July 2019

Ex Machina – “Space 2099 teleporter” (Gacha, VIP prize) – NEW @ Epiphany July 2019

Ex Machina – “Planetary Holographic Scanner”

Tool: LeLutka – “Axis HUD Face 1.1”

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

 

Dreams or Reality?

I know I’ll never know a peaceful night again
Afraid they’ll hear me
They don’t fear me
Punishment for me of a moral crime
The debt was never paid completely
[Disturbed]

I am sure you know what I mean… those “memories” that never leave us even if their clarity fades and they get kinda blurry?
Those things we do not really want to remember, but we can’t completely forget?
I do have those and from time to time they do knock me out for a while. The older I become, the more those memories become emotions and I do forget the exact moment of my life. Sometimes they do feel like faded or blurred echoes. Sometimes they even feel kinda unreal to me, even if I know, that it happened. Exactly that kind of feelings I wanted to bring on my pictures and to me it worked 🙂
I was trying and thinking about that for a longer time, but I never felt like it came out right.
The poses from Le Poppycock, which I found while I was looking for another pose set, gave me the idea, how I could manage to picture my feelings. To bring emotions on pictures, is always a hard challenge for me as I feel it very difficult to bring those on a static picture. Emotions are very personal and everybody will have different impressions and/or expressions of a certain picture.
To me it was the outfit from Enfant Terible, an innocent, sweet dancer outfit with ballet shoes, the dark vibe of the dark vibe of the Asylum from Ex Machina and the morbid skeleton paired with the amazing poses from Le Poppycock, that made the perfect contrast and as well the controversial and mixed feelings I do have with such moments. I did abstain from strong make up to give the whole look a more pure and fragile look. The lightly messy hair from no.match was perfect for the style as well, it underlined the desperation in some way for me with all the wisps and strands of hair.

The “Welcome Home Asylum” from Ex Machina is an amazing background for pictures. It does have 2 different cells and a hallway in front of it. The backdrop has 4 active light sources – 2 in the cells and 2 in the hallway – which can be turned off or edited through your edit window. The whole backdrop looks best, if you turn advanced lightning on, as all textures are baked and use advanced lightning model materials. But even without that high graphic settings it looks stunning and detailed. I really adore Hatti’s texturing skills… Hatris Panacek, owner and genius designer of Ex Machina, states herself that she was inspired by the horrors of the insane asylums of the past catching those creepy atmospheres you can still find in some abandoned structures around the world. I just wanted to share those non edited peeks on the backdrop, because my pictures are dark and I did not want to miss to show all those lovely details of the backdrop – at least the 2 rooms that I used for this pictures. For the other one I will have another post soon 😉

Outfit

Outfit: Enfant Terrible – “Skye Dancer” (Gacha) – NEW @ Epiphany

Makeup & Hair

Hair: no.match – “No.Modify”
Eyeshadow: Zibska – “Noir Pack 06” (LeLutka Applier)
Lipstick: alaskametro<3 – “London” (LeLutka Applier)
Makeup:

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.3”
Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”
Ears: .:E.A.Studio:. – “Thauron”

Poses & Props

Poses (incl. Skeleton): Le Poppycock – “Necromantic” (Gacha)
Background: Ex Machina – “Welcome Home Asylum PhotoScene v1.1”

Model & Photographer