Discovering the patterns of my soul and where it’s placed

TUNES
I am creation, both haunted and holy
Made in glory
Even the depths of the night cannot blind me
When You guide me
Creature only
[- Half Alive // Creature -]
Clothing

Corset & Garter: [CX] – “Firmly Bound Harness – Black” (Reborn)
Underwear: Ricielli – “Heather Lingerie” (Reborn)

Accessories

Nails & Blood: ::.Seduction.:: – “Interactive Nail Clavos” (unrigged)

Head, Body & Tattoo

Head: CRYPTID – “The Maw [fem]” – NEW @ Engine Room September 2023
Body: eBody – “Reborn v1.69.6” + MAZE.mods – “Soft Thighs mod (eBody Reborn)”
Hands: CRYPTID – “Talons” (Reborn) – NEW @ Engine Room September 2023
Legs: CRYPTID – “Striders” (Reborn) – NEW @ Engine Room September 2023
Tattoo: .:Vegas:. – “Tattoo ( LeL. EvoX ) ( Medium ) Lady Ganesha” (BoM)

Poses, Props & Tools

Pose: BodyArts – “Body Language Female 02”
Spikes: BodyArts – “Tenebrae intus me”
Backdrop:: [CX]  – “Crucem Inverso”

Model, Stylist & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Follow me to the other side…

TUNES

There’s no one no one to replace you, you’re the one that shines for me.
Gotta go where no one else can go, I’m the one, the one that will follow.
And I see a ray of light, you’re my beacon in the night.
I can feel, feel you coming, gonna kiss the deadly sin.
and I hear, hear you calling; now I’m answering
I still can see you and I’m at your side.
I still can feel you, cause I’m there, on the other side.

Come with me to the other side, follow me to the other side…

[- Beloved Enemy -]

Finally I have summer holidays and now I can focus on catching up blogging properly 😉

The last 2 school weeks with exams, this year the floods and certainly Covid adding up to the last school weeks stress, made it insanely awful – more than usual… I was so exhausted sometimes, that I just sat on my couch when I was done with RL work and fell asleep not even finishing my coffee. Who knows me .. knows as well I would NEVER waste a coffee… so you can go figure how that past weeks felt kinda.

Anyways, now I do have holidays and the fun can begin \o/

And it does begin with great news from Midnight Order and some of my favorite creators 😉

Midnight Order is done by Second Life Syndicate. They do put a lot of love and a hell of  work in their events to have the best designer of the grid creating for their themed events. I love their themes a lot as they are always something out of the box. With the Midnight Order they touch the dark fantasy and mystical souls and certainly that is something for me *winks*

Today I am coming to you with amazing news from cinphul. They created 2 amazing items for the Midnight Order event, the “council of flesh” dress and boots. A perfect set, even if you can purchase both separately. You will get a HUD with 7 different colors for the base texture as well as the freaking awesome claws all over the dress and boots – simply a must have for all those, who love the dark side or life or having fun in being creative for pictures and art!

Certainly I had to pair that incredible outfit with some other designs that just fit in the same mindset *grins wicked* So my tattoos for this special look must come from Nefekalum Tattoos. The  top one called “Archaic” and with its materials, the long sleeves and the amazingly ornamented chest perfectly matches that crazy look while the lower one called “Redemption” gives a nice accent instead of wearing stockings – I hate having ‘naked’ legs so that tattoo just was the perfect fit for me.

Last but not least… for an ‘insane’ look I needed my “Ziekling’s Tongue” from CerberusXing and the “Damned Ears from L’Emporio. I immensely enjoyed to create those pictures and it did remind me that I really should go for the ‘crazy’ looks more often again. For those who care about me – I am ok it just was fun I didn’t drift off to the dark side completely again… yet 😉

Clothing

Outfit: cinphul – “council of flesh [dress]” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Midnight Order // July 2021

Shoes:cinphul – “council of flesh [boots]” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Midnight Order // July 2021

Gloves: Human Glitch – “WTCHVRM” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Midnight Order // July 2021

Accessories

Bindi: Wicca’s Originals – “Carvis Bindi”

Nose Piercing: Wicca’s Originals – “Jadeon Piercing” – NEW @ The Warehouse Sale // July 2021

Septum: -[TWC]- – “Thirst Septum -Silver-“

Nipple Piercing: [CX] – “Mahlat Tongue – Silver” (Maitreya, Gacha, Common)

Collar: Human Glitch – “REPTRX” (Maitreya)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: Action Inkubator – “Liberty”

Eyeshadow: .{PSYCHO:Byts}. – “Drusilla Eyeliners” (LeL. EvoX HD Applier) – NEW @ Midnight Order // July 2021

Face Art 1:  Nefekalum Tattoos – “Hunger #01” (Lel. EvoX BoM, Materials)

Face Wounds: .The Rotting Lab. – “Hard Love” (EvoX BoM) – NEW @ Midnight Order // July 2021

Head, Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLUTKA – “EvoX Avalon 3.0”

Ears: L’Emporio&PL – “*Damned Ears*-Bento-Size1 -Linked”

Teeth: [CX] – “Strigoi’s Fangs”

Tongue: [CX] – “Ziekling’s Tongue (Red) No RLV” (with animation to open the mouth)

Body: Maitreya – “Lara V5.3

Tattoo 1 (upper):  Nefekalum Tattoos – “Archaic (Crimson)” (BoM, Materials)

Tattoo 2 (lower):  Nefekalum Tattoos – “Redemption (Carved)” (BoM, Materials)

Tattoo 3: TF: – “Machinist” (BoM)

Wounds: A! – “Apocalyptic Wounds Legs only Scrapes” (BoM)

Poses, Props & Tools

Poses: Poseidon

Deco 1: cinphul – “azrexok”

Deco 2: [CX] – “Dystopian Junk – Exhaust Pipes (Red)”

Deco 3: [CX] – “Dystopian Junk – Wires”

Model, Stylist & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Thought Contagion

TUNES

Strung out, falling from the big time
Welcome to the infinite black skies
Brain cleansed, fractured identity
Fragments and scattered debris

Fall down, learn when to count it out
Prop me up before I blackout
Withdraw before you’re out of time
Clean slate and buried war crimes


You’ve been bitten by
A true believer
You’ve been bitten by
Someone who’s hungrier than you
You’ve been bitten by
A true believer
You’ve been bitten by
Someone’s false beliefs
Thought contagion

[- Muse -]

Clothing

Outfit: [CX] – “Nimue” (Maitreya)

Top 2: Mug – “Elina Top” (Maitreya)

Body Wrap: Mug – “Tasha Cords Base” (Maitreya)

Sleeves: .:E.A.Studio:. – “Xavyer Arms Sci-Fi” (Maitreya) – NEW @ ACCESS Cyber Fair // March 2021

Legs: [CX] – “Legwraps – Leather” (Maitreya)

Shoes: :)(: – “Slavia” (Maitreya)

Accessories

Glasses: .:E.A.Studio:. – “Naruky Mask Woman”

Necklace: Kibitz – “Meadow’s Necklace”

Nails: L’Emporio&PL – “*Scripta Manent* (Maitreya, Bento)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: :::Phoenix::: – “Arianna [Size S]”

Scars: . The Rotting Lab . – “Waster – Scar – Pale” (BoM)

Lipstick: Zibska – “Folia Lips 17” (BoM)

Lip Art: .:E.A.Studio:. – “Deadly/Virtues – Mouth Justice” (BoM, Gacha, Common)

Head, Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLUTKA – “Erin 2.5”

Ears: L’Emporio&PL – “Athan”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara V5.3”

Tattoo 1: .:Vegas:. – “Tattoo ( Dark ) Existence” (BoM)

Tattoo 2: TF: – “Machinist (F) :: Without Sore – Light 50%” (BoM)”

Tattoo 3: TF: – “Mort :: Veins :: With Eyeshading” (BoM)

Poses, Props & Tools

Poses: Foxcity

Backdrop: Foxcity – “Photo Booth – Mixed Feels (Rez)”

Cellphone: [CX] – “Mobile” (TWS Group Gift)

Model, Stylist & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

“Just a whisper. I hear it in my ghost.”

Originally created for AUDAZ – https://audaz-sl.com/

When I float weightless back to the surface, I’m imagining I’m becoming someone else.”

[- Motoko Kusanagi -]

Clothing

Collar: :::SOLE::: – “GRPE – Charged Collar (White)” (Gacha, Ultra Rare)

Shoulder Harness: :::SOLE::: – “GRPE – Harness EX (White)” (Gacha, Common)

Bra: :::SOLE::: – “GRPE – “NCore (White)” (Gacha, Rare)

Belly Plate: :::SOLE::: – “SA – armor STC01 (White)” (Maitreya)

Belt: :::SOLE::: – “GRPE – Riv Belt (White)” (Gacha, Common)

Panty: :::SOLE::: – “GRPE – Crotchguard (White)” (Gacha, Rare)

Arm Bands: :::SOLE::: – “GRPE – CArm (White)” (Gacha, Common)

Leg Bands: :::SOLE::: – “GRPE – CLeg – Lara Base (White)” (Gacha, Common)

Accessories

Headset: :::SOLE::: – “GRPE – “Headset (White)” (Gacha, Commoin)

Glasses: :::SOLE::: – “GRPE – “Visor (White)” (Gacha, Common)

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

Tail: :::SOLE::: – “SA – SG Pad (White) Tail”

Hair & Makeup

Hair: adoness – “beanie”

Face Tattoo: Nefekalum Tattoos – “Snow Shaman” (BoM, Hunt Prize)

Head, Body & Tattoo

Skin: YS&YS – “Immortal NO Brows” (BoM)

Head: LeLUTKA – “Erin 2.0”

Ears: [Cubic Cherry] – “{Altered} Ear”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara V5.3”

Shape: Denver’s Shapes – “Amy for LeLutka Erin head”

Tattoo: Nefekalum Tattoos – “Empowerment (Mana)” (BoM)

Right Arms: SPARROW – “hand / chloe [anim] #42” (Gacha, Common)

Legs: SPARROW – “feet / chloe [anim] #30” (Gacha, Common)

Poses & Props

Pose: SAPA – “Cyber 2020 – 72.7” (Bento)

Backdrop: The Bearded Guy – “Prodigy – Jack Back”

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

At Night…

TUNES

Sunk deep in the night
I sink in the night
Standing alone underneath the sky
I feel the chill of ice
On my face
I watch the hours go by
The hours go by


You sleep
Sleep in a safe bed
Curled and protected
Protected from sight
Under a safe roof
Deep in your house
Unaware of the changes at night

At night
I hear the darkness breathe
I sense the quiet despair
Listen to the silence
At night
Someone has to be there
Someone has to be there

Someone must be there

[The Cure]

Clothing

Top: [Sexy Princess] – “Sinful Maitreya Bra” (Maitreya)

Harness: [CX] – “Vice Crew / Harness – Black” (Maitreya, Gacha, Common)

Pants: [CX] – “Wild Hazard Shorts B” (Maitreya, Gacha, Common)

Legs: [CX] – “Wild Hazard Leg Harness – Black (A) + (B)” (Maitreya, Gacha, Common)

Feet: [CX] – “Ankle Bellets – White/Silver” – NEW @ Mainstore (Maitreya high feet, tinted!)

Accessories

Piercing 1: .:E.A.Studio:. – “Septum Blade/Tag (L) ULTRARARE” (Gacha, Ultrarare)

Piercing 2: -SU!- – “Medusa Piercing” (Group Gift)

Pasties: +Psycho Barbie+ – “[Cross Mesh Pasties] M Lara” (Maitreya)

Ankle Cuffs: [CX] – “Fallen Filth Cuffs” (Maitreya)

Toe Nails: [ Conviction ] – “The Claws – Feet – Maitreya – High” (Maitreya)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: no.match – “No. Army” – NEW @ TRES CHIC // May 2020

Makeup & Lipstick: CAZIMI – “Arrant HD Makeup (LeLutka) Set 01 Neutral” – (LeLutka Evo. HD Applier) – NEW @ Designer Showcase // May 2020

Head, Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLUTKA – “Lake 1.2”

Freckles: Izzie’s – “Pores & Blemishes – Freckles” (BoM)

Contour: Nefekalum Tattoos – “Cheek and Nose Contour (Tintable)” (BoM)

Ears: [CX] – “Ostium Impaler Ears”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 5.1”

Tattoo: Vegas Tattoo – “Tattoo Dark Revelation” (BoM) – NEW @ VANITY Event // May 2020

Poses, Props & Tools

Poses: Le Poppycock – “Comfort Zone” (Bento)

Set:

Curtains: [Cb] – “Cornice Drapes Floor Open Satin” (tinted)

Chair: (Fluke) – “Pose Chair” (store closed)

Basket: 22769 – “Magazine Basket” (Gacha, Common)

Table: 22769 – “Monochrome Couch Table without Decoration”

Magazines: 22769 – “Black and White Magazines”

Pizza: [La Baguette] – “Box of pizza 1 slice left (1Li)”

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

You only have to look at Her straight on to see Her…

TUNES

“The cavern cracked and groaned. Dirt, rocks, and glow worms rained on their heads. With a wave of panic, Andy swung around and dashed into the next cavern. “Run!” The ceiling collapsed. Behind him, Medusa laughed, her snakes still hissing.”
[A.P. Mobley, The Helm of Darkness]

Finally my favorite season arrived… October is here!!!

Now I can be freaky, scary and dark without being asked if I am ok or being called weird and a freak – not that I do really care during the year, but these days I can feel “normal” *giggles*

So the first one today – kinda my annual brake-free – features some new releases from Salt & Pepper and Nefekalum Tattoos and some of my long time favorites like CURELESS[+], UTOPIA@Design, Avanti and one of our latest releases, as it did fit in so nicely.

First I wanted to do a scary Medusa typical picture and the Salt release her “Guardian” for the Salem event. I t looked so cool, that I could not wait for another post and so I gave myself the challenge to find an idea, how I could use both. The result was the vision of a gatekeeper for an old, mystic cave with lots of cobwebs and spiders.

Recently I love to play with lights and projectors, as well as with new Photoshop tricks a lot. The result is, that I tend to use a plain dark background, to be able to add in some layers and basically try create the background in Photoshop. With additional lights and my new drawing pad it is a lot of fun to play with different brushes and as well even draw parts of it – even if iI really need more practice with that damn pad and pencil. Sometimes It feels even more easy to draw with the computer mouse, even if that sounds ridiculous for those who have more experiences with it.

I always loved strong contrasts. With many of my past pictures I wanted more depth as Second Life had to offer and now finally I found a way how I can do that with some tricks I found in Youtube tutorials. It took a while until they did what I wanted, but for me it was worth the time and I really found new inspiration and motivation with learning new techniques. It felt like unlocking new doors to have more possibilities to achieve what I was looking for a long time. I am still practicing and with every new picture I come closer to what I desire.

I lately was talking to a sweet lady, which I recently feel like a good friend. She does the wonderful sweet and smooth art, which I tried a lot of times but never could do – maybe it just isn’t in me or I did not yet find it… it always feels awkward when I try to do this kind of pictures and moods. She helped me with my tribute for Autumn Rose a lot, as that required exactly that way of art (HERE).

In the past it felt like I would have to have the ability to feature all kind of styles, but the more I turn into my personal favorite direction, the more I feel secure and my pictures do have way more impact  – at least it does feel like that!

I am not saying I will not still try other things, but I took the pressure of myself that I HAVE TO do so. For now I will do enjoy the dark season as much as I can and hope that I can get all my ideas done in time, before the cozy Christmas times will start… or maybe the dark times turn into dark scary “Krismus”? *eyes “The Nightmare before Christmas” DVD over there in the shelf*

Clothing

Outfit: Scandalize – “Nicole Harness” (Maitreya)

Gloves: Wicca’s Originals – “Ryn Gloves (Scales)” (Maitreya)

Stockings: .:Avanti:. – “Ripped Nylons V2” (Maitreya Applier)

Shoes: UTOPIA@Design – “Halloween – V2” (Maitreya)

Accessories

Dragon Skelleton & Spider Legs: Salt & Pepper (S&P) – “The Guardian” – NEW @ Salem

Collar: [CX] – “Hell’s Harbinger (Black Out+Gold)” (Maitreya)

Tounge Piercings: LeLutka – “BDYART-TBRBL” (Bento)

Hair & Makeup

Hair: Salt & Pepper (S&P) – “Medusa Head Dress” (Part of the Outfit Medusa) – NEW @ UBER

Faceart: Nefekalum Tattoos – “Shaman Series – Fire” (Omega Applier) – NEW

Makeup: alaskametro<3 – “Impressionist” (Omega Applier)

Lipstick: Izzie’s – “Black Lipstick” (Maitreya Applier)

Body & Tattoo

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.4”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Eyes: CURELESS[+] – “Seerees Eyes”

Poses, Props & Tools

Poses: Poseidon

Face Animation Tool: LeLutka – “Axis HUD Face 1.1”

Model & Photographer

Wicca Merlin

Wicca’s Originals @ World of Magic

Wicca’s Originals @ World of Magic // February 15th – March 3rd

The World of Magic event is a brand new, sim-wide, one-time sales event celebrating fantasy and magic inspired by the world of Harry Potter. For this special event we have created an outfit inspired by the game of Quiddich – Cedric for the fellas and Isobel for the ladies.

It comes complete with Bento gloves, goggles, and cape that can be removed. The outfit is one piece (including the boots) and all of it can be color changed. You can even add your team’s texture! There are two versions, dark and colors. Isobel is designed to fit Maitreya only and Cedric is designed to fit Signature Gianni. Other bodies for both may work since the bodies are largely alphaed out, but be sure to try the demo!

Just for fun we made a little bento picture pose set to use with your favorite broom and our Isobel & Cedric outfits (broom NOT included!)

TAXI: World of Magic

Pose Studies with HelaMiyo

HelaMiyo – “Ankles Action” Pose Set

Poses are something very personal and as well to me they are a very important part to my pictures and blogging. We all spend a lot of time to dress up our pixels to get a cool look for our posts. I need the same amount of time as well to find the poses I do want to use for certain outfits. A real cool outfit can be super boring and not exciting at all when you use the wrong poses in my opinion.

HelaMiyo – “Ankles Action” Pose Set

If you have a wonderful detailed outfit and you just do a standing pose with lots of background and ambience around you, all those pretty little details simply vanish. It took me a long time until I figured out a way for me to keep those details and as well have a cool picture. Poses are very often too underestimated. Sometimes poses that look crazy and weird on the first view, can become very interesting if you play with them, turn them around or just have a crop picture where you only can see certain parts. Maybe that requires more pictures to showcase an outfit properly but I do not mind that at all if I am satisfied with the picture itself.

HelaMiyo – “Ankles Action” Pose Set

For shoes for example you can do so much more than just have shoes and feet on the picture. Like with the pose I used on the picture above. The shoes are the definite focus in that picture, but I still have nearly my whole avatar shown and the outfit it self as well. The same pose from another angle can showcase something different. So one pose can be used more than once and maybe sometimes you cannot even tell that it was the same pose with a totally different angle on it (at least I could not :p)

HelaMiyo – “Ankles Action” Pose Set

Sometimes I get asked, why I am doing more than one picture for my blog posts and if one picture would not be enough. Maybe sometimes one would be enough but then, if you style your avatar with time and passion, would you not like to show all the details you styled to it – Maybe a back view or a closeup? For clothing I usually do not have more than 3 to 5 pictures, if I do not have a picture story or something like that. Then I try to have one full body shot, one head shot and maybe one with shoes, nails or a little detail that would be overseen in one of the 2 others. But if I play with poses, I do have more than that. Usually, one pose set has more tha one or 2 poses in it and how I could showcase a pose set with just one picture if I do not wanna stuff all poses into one picture?

HelyMiyo – “Ankles Action” Pose Set

If I want to do pose studies with more than one pose set, I have to have more pictures to really showcase the work a pose designer put in to it. To be honest it is as well fun to change poses and angles while you take pictures. I sometimes find angles and crops I never would have thought about, by just turning and rotating my pose stand *giggles*

For this post I had over 80 snapshots and in the end over 20 pictures from them, that I wanted to use. but since 20 pictures is a lot I forced myself to cut it down under 15 for one post and do some more on a second post, so I will not beat you down with too many pictures 😉

HelaMiyo – “Our Darkness” Pose Set

For todays post all poses are made by HelaMiyo.

HelaMiyo is not a new pose store. Miyoko Magic entered SL in 2008 and HelaMiyo was born back then as well. Miyoko always had very unique and impressive poses that not just were ‘simple standing’ poses. If you ask her you will find out that all of her poses have a linked story to her RL as she states on her website (http://helamiyo.blogspot.de/) . Maybe that explains as well why all of her poses are so unique 😉

HelaMiyo – “Our Darkness” Pose Set

I still remember one of my first pose sets from HelaMiyo from when I started modeling and was working for a store named Staged back in 2009. We were standing on a round platform and we got a puppet hanger to wear so it looked like hanging puppet/string dolls instead of just usual store models – I really loved that idea and I still have those hanger and poses 😉

That was the first time when I discovered HelaMiyo poses 🙂

HelaMiyo – “Our Darkness” Pose Set

The more I was happy that now, about 8 years later, I got to know the person behind th poses! I am usually too shy to talk to designers if I am just one of a million customers, because I always think they are so busy with creating and I do not want to bother them with me and my questions 😉

The more I was excited that Miyoko IMed me after one of my last posts, where I was talking about the difficulties to do pictures with gowns (https://wiccamerlin.de/i-am-a-pants-person-but-i-am-not-a-gown-enemy/).

She sent me 2 amazing pose sets for gowns (which I still have to post as well, as soon as I find a gown I do like) as she really proved me that there ARE gown poses who are not just boring and without any action 😉

HelaMiyo – “Rock” Pose Set

What I do like a lot with the HelaMiyo pose sets is, that you always get a mirrored version of each pose. So you can decide either what direction you want to look at and as well you can do amazing pictures with a mirror or even fake reflection. It is really fun to experiment with that kind of pictures if you have the possibility of a second, mirrored pose.

HelaMiyo – “Contemporary Jump” Pose Set

HelaMiyo – “Contemporary Jump” Pose Set

I really think, that poses are sometimes underestimated and we just use them for the purpose to have a pose for our amazing styles and we rarely see the work and effort that posemakers as well have to do, so that we can shine in our amazing outfits on our pictures and on the virtual fashion runways. Because of that, I like to do the “Pose Studies” posts here and there, where I can mainly focus on the poses and give them the attention and time they really earn.

HelaMiyo – “Contemporary Jump” Pose Set

As well that is a personal challenge as well as you have to find an outfit that cooperates with all the poses no matter what 😉 You have to find a look, where the poses come out clean and proper without breaks in the clothing or having your limbs inside your body. Sometimes that even asks for lightly shape changes to make your shape fit the poses as well. I did not have to change my shape for the HelaMiyo poses but the outfit was quite a challenge as I wanted to use some specific poses that have a lot of movement to them.

I hope you enjoyed my little pose journey as much as I did while iI was doing the pictures and  I am sure that will not be my last one as I have a few more amazing HelaMiyo poses left to showcase 😉

HelaMiyo – “Ground Sit” Pose Set

Details

Outfit & Accessories:

Body & Jacket: [sys] – “Samhain” (Maitreya)

Stockings: .:Avanti:. – “Ripped Nylons” (Maitreya Applier)

Shoes: N-Core – “Ballet” (Maitreya)

Eyepatch: .Shi – “Patch Mechanics 4.1”

Rings: MEVA – “Bento Maitreya Rings Silver” (Maitreya)

Collar: Pure Poison – ” ‘W’ Love Collar”

Hair & Makeup:

Hair: Vanity Hair – “Crown Royal-Greedy”

Makeup: Zibska – “Augusta” (LeLutka Applier)

Lipstick: Zibska – “Asya” (LeLutka Applier)

Body & Tatoo:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Facetattoo: Izzie’s – “Pores & Blemishes” (LeLutka Applier)

Poses & Props:

Poses: HelaMiyo

Model & Photographer:

Wicca Merlin

HelaMiyo – “Ground Sit” Pose Set

 

Bound by Prejudices

“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures bristling with prejudice and motivated by pride and vanity.”

[Dale Carnegie]

“Never judge others. You both know good and well how unexpected events can change who a person is. Always keep that in mind. You never know what someone else is experiencing within their own life.”

[Colleen Hoover]

How often you wondered why a certain person is not talking to you, even if you never ever had any conversation with that exact person before?

This post will be very personal out of my own experiences and opinions in my very own past and I will try my best, hoping I will make sense and will be understood right. I am not a native English Speaker so I hope that you will be lenient with me 😉

I am sure you know that situation, if you poke someone, to get some information and then you are being ignored for a long time without any answer. The after some time you dare to ask again, because the information would be really important for you and you could not find any other source of information and again you are ignored completely. you start to be scared and question yourself what you could have done to that person before, but you cannot even remember that you ever spoke to that person before. so you think your pokes might have got lost and you take all your strength and ask a 3rd time because you think your first two attempts failed, since you heard nothing back and all of a sudden you get yelled at O.O Not with the information you asked for – more like how you can dare to ask 3 times after you got ignored already before…

That did not happen too often thank god, but those kind of situations happen here and there again and again. Usually not that harsh but in the end it hurts the same if you just wanted some information and just get silence.

I mean if you could figure it out by yourself… fine then I would not even say a word but sometimes you have to ask for information of you cannot continue working on something.

The other side of the coin… How often you caught yourself avoiding several people just because you “heard” something about them?

I was thinking about that a lot lately. sometimes I just tried to avoid people because good friends of mine had real bad experiences with them and I felt I would betray them by talking to those people or even work with them. One part of my heart – out of loyalty – still believes in that, but seeing it from a business perspective the other part of my heart calls against it.

Maybe it is part of being a human that you try to protect your true friends by not making relation ships with people who hurt them but on a business perspective should you not be open minded and not biased by some things?

What about the phrase that everyone deserves a second chance? Is it not possible to be with people not mentioning or talking about a certain person?

It is a tricky subject I guess and maybe the intensity of what has happened and as well the particular story and facts might have a great influence on that.

It would make a difference if someone was ‘just’ rejected for something or somebody, or if he or she really was personally hurt. That maybe leads to the next problem, that some people take things personal quite fast… and who would be the judge to decide if it was real bad or just a misunderstanding? I guess I did wrong decisions in that case as well but I always try to be as neutral as I can especially if it comes to business stuff. Saying that, if I maneuver myself in such situations without aiming for that (and I am good in that for what ever reason) I try to be transparent and honest with that, so every party knows very well about my role and intention.

All my life I tried to not hurt people in any ways and still it happens sometimes without me knowing it. If that happens I never did want it like that, but it happened. So I have to – if I get the chance to do so – explain why it happened and maybe apologize if that is still possible, as I probably cannot make it undone (I would if I could, ,that’s a given). I had to learn the hard way that if you have an own opinion you might hurt people with it even if you do not want to. Just because sometimes things hurt people, even if you not ever thought about.

My grandfather used to say “You are the only one that decides what can/will hurt you and what won’t”

It took a long time, until I fully understood what that means and even now, I know it does not always work. But I as well learned being open minded for new acquaintances and situations even if people tried to warn me.

Even if I sometimes wish – after having my own experiences – I would have listened, I as well got to know people different, than what I was told. I was allowed to see different and amazing sides of people who I was told to never talk to. Sometimes you need to take a risk, maybe to get your own experiences and your own point of view about people. I just can say for my own personal opinion, I probably would take the risk of being hurt again, over the fact of just being biased or ignoring/blocking people just because I was told to. Even if it is the minority in such cases, I was allowed to meet wonderful people by just ignoring warnings and having my own experiences and I would not want to miss them in my life 😉 . Humans are different. Some do go along and some do not but without having my own experience I at least try (it does not work always 100%) to be open for my own experiences even if I might get hurt again, just because the only thing I dare to judge is myself (if that makes any sense… I hope it does).

Sometimes it is worth it to just slough off the ropes and bands that tie you down, to get up after you maybe got hurt and get rid of the bad feelings, that your experiences might have caused. The possibility that you can have a different experience with a different person is there, it just has to be made.

I try to tell that to myself everyday and most of the time it works. How we all could have learned to walk when we were young, if we would not have stood up all the time after we fell and had bruises and open knees? I am ready to get up again and to take off the blindfold and the bonds of my old experiences to make new ones, better ones and some that I never will forget. I won’t be infallible – I am human being – but I will try – every day again 🙂

Details

Outfit & Accessories:

Top: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “Vixen Bra 1 & 2” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Bound Box

Harness: [Cynful] – “Shamless Top & Bottom” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Bound Box

Pantie: Enfant Terrible – “Locked Heart Chastity Belt” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Bound Box

Gloves: .:Avanti:. – “Domina Gloves” (Maitreya Applier)

Knee Bracers: .:Avanti:. – “Jersey Knee Warmers” (Maitreya Applier)

Shoes: [MODA] – “Dakota Heels” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Bound Box

Gag: ::Axix:: – “Beloved Nocturnia Gag” (Maitreya) – NEW @ Bound Box

Hair & Makeup:

Hair & Blindfold: +Spellbound+ – “Babygirl” – NEW @ Bound Box

Body & Tattoos:

Head: LeLutka – “Simone 3.0”

Body: Maitreya – “Lara 4.1”

Poses & Props:

Sari-Sari – “Puppet Skybox”

Model & Phototgrapher:

Wicca Merlin

 

Bird of Prey – Pose & Picture Processing Studies with DARE Poses

Pose Studies Dare 5

..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Collar” (#81)

I more and more find my own fun, in playing and fooling around with poses, experimenting with angles and learn new picture processing techniques…

Pose Studies Dare 8

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 63 – “You Can’t See Me” (#63)

When I started blogging, I always saw the need toa full body shot, a head shot and maybe even some close-ups of certain accessories. Nothing wrong with that, but the longer I was blogging, the more it was kinda boring to do always the same kind of pictures for each post.

What is a very common way of blog pictures – and yes I tried that as well *grins* – is to have one big picture and then include little close up circles or squares for more details. Nothing wrong with that either, but over the time I more and more had the desire of making more artistic looking pictures, which still showcase the designers work properly.

Pose Studies Dare 2

..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Imma Burrito” (#82)

If you have a full body shot, often enough the shoes, the jewelry or even nails often enough are too tiny to really showcase them as the full avatar gets kinda tiny when you try to have all of your body on your picture. Mostly I had the feeling then, that I had more ambience and background on my pictures, than the actual items I wanted to showcase. I thought by myself, what would be wrong to have real closeups as a full picture… sometimes maybe my head or face was missing but is that so important, if I want to showcase an item that my face is on the picture as well? Yes and no… certainly you want to show that the pictures are of yourself and brand yourself for marketing purposes, but sometimes you can even show your face in one closeup and have other pictures with certain parts of your body or furniture. I realized, that if I do that, I need to find interesting angles for the pictures, as if I just crop them they can look boring very easy.

Pose Studies Dare 11

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 46 – “I Work Out” (#46)

I already talked about how you can twist and turn poses to weird angles and in the end they turn out as amazing crops or closeups. Some pose stores help with that kind of pictures and ideas, as they make unusual, editorial poses, which sometimes look weird if you see them as a whole or just from the wrong angle. Exactly those poses can be the most interesting if you go for crops, closeups or even interesting angles.

During the last Ferosh Fashion Weekend, I discovered a pose store, which I basically know for a long time but kinda lost out of the view over the time – to be honest I do not really know why…

Chance Greatrex, owner and creator of DARE poses, has a very special vision for his poses. They are really out of the box and different to so many I found on the grid. Just the fact that all his poses have each a unique and story telling name, shows that there is way more behind his poses than just an animation 😉

Pose Studies Dare 1

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 62 – “The Struggle Is Real” (#62)

Lately I got s pose set called “Face Hands”, which probably was made with the intention to feature a hand/face combination for example for makeup and nails, rings or hand jewelry. They re perfect for closeups and different angles and while snapping I even had a hard time to sort out the ones I love the most, since I cannot overload a post with over 20 pictures*snickers*

 Since I wanted to do a pose study, I decided to go for something simple but still with ym personal twist for the outfit. I realized, that La Petite Morte has a sale going on where Voshie gives her skins away for 100 lindens! As I still do experiment with my new Catwa head and do not have much skins for it yet, I TPed over to the La Petite Morte and took a look. I was very surprised as I just expected older skins to be on sale, when I realized there are as well newer ones with appliers for several mesh heads and bodies!

Pose Studies Dare 3

..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Bedtime” (#78)

I have to admit, I have a weakness for fantasy skins even if I am not able to use them too often, but for pictures they always add something special to the whole look. When I was looking around – after I found the TP to the sales room… typical me… – I immediately fell in love with the “Belle” skin in diamond. It comes with a Catwa applier and when I tried the demo, it looked so stunning that I could not resist to get me one 😉

The face has a wonderful ornament around the eyes and the lips are one of the most stunning lips I ever saw on the Catwa head. With the light purple/grey touch and a shimmering finish, the skin screamed for something mystical or fantasy looking.

Pose Studies Dare 13

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 46 – “I Work Out” (#46)

To not disturb the view on the body too much I went with the “Siren Set No. 1” by Pixicat. The tight fit on the Slink Physique and the minimal covering of the body was just perfect for a poses and skin showcase. The cool “Bird of Prey” head-piece, we made a little while ago for a themed event, and it just went perfectly with the rest of the look, even if it is a pity that it covers the amazing eye makeup of the skin… that requires another post with this incredible, amazing skin soon I guess :p

Pose Studies Dare 9

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 55 – “Now You See Me” (#55)

The cool finger rings I found at the last round of On9 made by [Since 1975] and I am pretty sure they will be at their main store now.

For the hair I wanted something pulled back, what did not interfere with the head-piece too much and so my choice fell on a ponytail from [taketomi].

Pose Studies Dare 4

..::DARE::.. – Face Hands – “Damn Hot Coffee” (#80)

What as well took me a lot of time lately was polishing my picture procession. I played less with windlights and tried more to work with a graphic program to post process my pictures by painting and drawing certain things like shadows and lights and as well I tired to find new techniques to create certain effects. Fog was something I really wanted to learn for a long time, something that looks realistic and not just painted on and edgy looking. As well, how I can create shadows without using the SL shadows, or my shaky hands to draw fuzzy lines 😉 YouTube has a lot of offers for learning new things and from time to time it is really exciting to test something new, like green screen against white screen shots and the possibilities you have with those kind of photography.

So for this post I mixed clean pose studies with interesting angles and new techniques of picture processing and even if it took me a while it was a very intensive learning time, which I really enjoyed 🙂

Pose Studies Dare 14

..::DARE::.. – Runway pose 18 – “Edgy Leaned Feet Apart” (#18)

Details

Outfit: Pixicat – “Siren Set No. 1” (Gacha Item at their main store)

Headpiece: Wicca’s Wardrobe – “Bird of Prey Mask”

Hair: [taketomi] – “MamiPlared_Bento”

Nails Rings: [Since 1975] – “FangRings”

Shoes: :)(: (Pixelfashion) – “Slavia Shoes” (for Slink high feet)

Skin: La Petite Morte – “Bella”

Body: Slink – “Physique”

Head: Catwa – “Jessica”

Poses: ..::DARE::..

Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin

Pose Studies Dare 12a

..::DARE::.. – Editorial pose 49 – “Floppy Wings” (#49)