Ayashe Ninetails

Underlined bolded and italicized for emphasis - you lost me right here. 😂

Visa overstays tend to be more common.

Oooo, I have never been to a vampire club. But velvet does make the occasional (or not so occasional - depending on the event) appearance in the club scene as well. Velvet, lace, brocade, silk, satin. These guys look like they spent ALL DAY getting dressed and they could give a good damn if anybody likes it! You're lucky to get a "thank you" instead of an "I know" when giving them a compliment. 😂

I love that level of confidence!

Ohhhhh, I so have. There are some fierce male fashionistas out there who don't give a dip what anyone has to say about what they're wearing. 😂 Also, not really in the fashionista category (well, maybe), but a lot of goth clubs are like this. Sometimes the men dress better than the women and I doubt it's solely for us because you can never drag their attention away from the mirrors posted around the club!

I totally understand why that would deter people from continuing to go there, yeah. Same with my uncle who used to travel quite frequently to Brazil. It just got too dangerous to keep going on a regular basis (he got most of his dental work done there, too). But seeing as how I'm living right smack in MS-13 territory, I guess I'm not overly fazed. 😂 I shouldn't laugh as there are several nearby cases of people getting caught in crossfire just sitting at traffic lights, but it's one of those "laugh to keep from crying" type of dealios. I know Mexico isn't guaranteed to be much safer, but I'm not really seriously considering that as an option anyway.

Also not Scylla and also vehemently disagree. Granted, my definition of sexy is wildly out in left field sometimes. I'm personally far more attracted to shattered gender norms than anything else - a man in a skirt or dress gets my attention FAR quicker than the shirtless, tight jeans, heavily muscled look that many tend to go for, and for everyone else, I'll go ga-ga over someone rocking a well-tailored suit before I'll drool over a skimpy bikini or somesuch, so I'm coming from an entirely different perspective here. But yeah no, the way I dress myself has absolutely nothing to do with trying to attract anyone. SL-wise, I love leather, I love latex, I love hardware, I love everything goth/industrial/punk. RL-wise, same. Ironically, I feel a lot sexier in a full suit (as long as it's not right smack in the middle of summer 😂), so it wouldn't even occur to me that I'd be turning heads in the skimpier stuff. Hell, I'd still be rocking it if men up and disappeared off the planet. It's just who I am and who I've always been.

Best is verrrrrrry subjective. There are so many different skin stores and styles out there. This is also going to vary quite heavily depending on what head you're purchasing a skin for. You can start by checking out some of the more popular stores, maybe? Check out The Skinnery, 7 Deadly Skins, Velour, DeeTaleZ, Glam Affair, Session, Not Found, Bold & Beauty, Ives Beauty, etc.

That's a very broad question. I have...I dunno, a few hundred skins maybe. What type of skin are you looking for? Human vs. Fantasy? What type of features are you interested in? How old do you want to be? What tones are you looking for? How much do you want to spend? On and on and on...

This isn't really super on-topic but I'll just point out - Big Pharma heavily, heavily lobbies our government and pumps quite a ton of cash (billions) into both parties. So this isn't really a Rep/Dem thing - it's a both thing. The only way to "fight" anything is to essentially unravel all that and get the money out of politics entirely. Neither party as a whole is interested in making much change on this front. A few individual politicians mention it here and there, but the others don't take them very seriously when the topic comes up. This is why you often get people just saying screw it and going abroad for their medical care. There isn't much we (meaning, the little people) can do at the moment.

Yeowza. Lemme tell a quick little personal story since we're on the subject. Years ago, I met a guy from France - college student at a local state university. Long story short, he got into a massive car accident which left me believing the poor guy would never walk again (hit a tree - no one else hurt thank goodness). I visited him in the hospital every day - he was on like 4 different major pain meds (all the biggies at once) and required major, major leg surgery to get back on his feet. His hospital stay - over 1 month. Keep in mind - international student with only college-supplied health insurance here. I had NO idea what the resulting costs of this would be, but let's just say once those bills started to hit (and other issues - the fool had been drinking so probably legal problems to follow), suddenly he called me up, told me to come over, told me he's going back to France, we said our goodbyes, and he was gone. Gave up everything - his university education, all of his professional contacts, a potential internship his mentor was negotiating with NASA = all of it. Now had that been an American student or worker (which I'm sure happens regularly, especially here - we have stupidly high DWI rates) - just imagine. Instant bankruptcy.

Healthcare, what's that? 🙃

This has been written about fairly extensively. There are travel bloggers, adventurers, students, and other career professionals who left the US and went abroad seeking a better life and spent a lot of time writing about it. Some wound up in Europe and elsewhere. I believe the general consensus seems to be it's "okay," as the day-to-day challenges they face are slightly different than those in the US, but those who found themselves in Central and South America and other regions seem to have better experiences (sometimes - really depends where you go, of course - lots of places have their challenges). Random articles (most from a Black female perspective, but you can Google around for others - soooo many have been written): https://candaceabroad.com/best-cities-black-women-to-live/ - this one has links below the sections that lead off-site to more in-depth articles. https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/black-expat-experience https://fortune.com/2020/08/10/black-african-americans-leaving-us-moving-abroad-professionals-race-opportunity-careers/ https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/a34327214/black-women-leaving-america-healthcare/ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/09/black-americans-expats-costa-rica

Passing them down does sound like the right thing to do! That's a pretty solid idea. As far as my location and climate change goes, I honestly never even think about it. Our weather has always seemed weirdly all over the place and we aren't immune from damaging hurricanes, the occasional tornado, flooding, homes being swept off beaches, etc. It would be difficult for me to figure out if things are getting progressively worse or not in that arena. Seems kind of the same for me as of right now. One thing I'll say - it's not enough to keep me planted here. And the current political climate has little to do with me wanting to move on. That feeling started eons ago when I was 18ish. Like right after high school I wanted out. I had planned to go away to college back then, but couldn't settle on a major at all (I've always been all over the place on that front - interested in wayyyy too many things). I wound up staying local and working through my first degree here until I could figure things out. Silly me - I should've left way back then and done a full 4 years abroad as I would've stood a greater chance of it all becoming permanent.

Well-supported + athletic + not Maitreya = Legacy. That's about the closest you're going to get on that as the majority of female bodies cater to curvier shapes. Belleza Isis (or Venus? I forget which) could be made thinner, but I rarely ever see clothing fitted for either of those. Kalhene Erika can do more athletic shapes (well, athletic + curves), but now you're falling out of well-supported territory. Stuff is around, but nowhere near the level of Maitreya/Legacy.

Ummm I don't have many "to go" coffees, but I really like Hive. They're quite customizable, too.

So here's me showing up for a meeting with the school principal. Kidding. Just me judging y'all alongside my judgy little kitten.

OMG you're the best. Thank you so much!!! Your look is FIERCE btw! Great job with the hairstyle! I've been looking for something like that forrreeeeeeeeeeeverrrrrr.

Omg that's a great idea! Thank you! Yaaaaay.

I'm not sure if I even do! I know I have...one set of bangs. I'm going to need to start buying addons like crazy now. Thank goodness the weekend sales exist!

Omg. They're making us put in WORK to get these hairdos!

It looks like 3 parts. The top main "pulled back" piece could be one of a number of styles (I've seen pieces like that around everywhere). The two photos posted by Pandora use bases from Doux (Henrique) and [taketomi]_ (Kenji). The pony itself could be...well, from a lot of places. One uses one from Doux and the other is using one from Beusy.

LOL I'm inspired now! Time to build a hair inspiration folder made from RL styles and then go zip around the grid collecting every bang, flip, flop, braid, quiff, pony, and bun I can find! You know how easy something like this would be to make? I'm so mad at myself LOL. Just wish we had some more unique hairbases. I dunno if I'm feeling making THAT myself, too.

I used to make prim hair from scratch. I have no excuse! I'm like...completely baffled I never considered the build-a-style route. In all this time!!!!! There are so many styles I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for that I could probably just build on my own from bits and pieces I find around the grid. 🤣

Wait. Why did it never occur to me to build my own hairstyles?! I mean, I did it once but...the idea never stuck. 😳