Ayashe Ninetails

I took ballet classes as a kid. That's bringing back nightmares. 😂 I quit after my first summer on pointe. I'll always be a combat boots/stompy boots kinda girl at heart, but I will toss on a pair of heels *on verrrry raaaaare occasion* if the situation calls for it (dressy flats are just not my jam at all). Once it ends in inevitable disaster, I'm back in my comfort zone.

Oh man, sleeping in trees brings back memories. I had a big chonky tree I used to climb that had a perfect little spot to park my butt and would stay up there all the time. It wasn't high up at all - just a few feet, but enough to make me think I was actually going somewhere, lol. Not far enough that a fall would hurt. And I would sit up there and nap and relax. Read a bit. So cozy. Meanwhiiiile, flip a swing? I haven't even mastered high heels in the 27 years I've been trying to wear them. Flip a swing! You know how many times I've walked straight into my door frame, missing the wide open door? Flip a swing! 😂

I don't know why all these platforms opt for the colorful concert stage environment. Giving me those Tiësto vibes. 😂 He's got a good point about Fortnite emotes being limited, though, unless you've opened your wallet. That said, I'm not sure if you guys saw what Fortnite did in 2021 with the Ariana Grande Rift Tour Event (which is a LOT more impressive than whatever that static stage thing was that they did before). I don't know if I'd call this a metaversy-type event or what, but it was actually pretty interesting and looked like a lot of fun. The first 5 minutes is a fully interactive event with a few short activities you can participate in that ends with a big multiplayer boss fight. At around 5 minutes in, it becomes Ariana's show where you can still move around freely for the most part, but it's a more guided audio/visual experience and you're pushed along to follow her as it goes. At one point, you can change your perspective and position in the performance area by running through portals. It's pretty amazing, really. I did not experience it live, though. I knew the servers were going to be a nightmare, so I just watched the event on Twitch when it first launched.

This forum needs an OMG reaction. I have never, ever, ever been able to do that! I'm waaaay too clumsy!

For some people, the things lurking in the bushes are right outside our homes, too. I wouldn't even attempt walking around in daytime, let alone at 1am to get some groceries. Hell, sitting in the car too long at a stop sign is a risk on some streets in this crazy town. Couldn't even convince me to answer the doorbell, honestly. 😂 There are never any guarantees of course, though, having numerous family members that have done a lot of moving and shifting around between various countries, I don't have any international relocation horror stories to tell beyond the occasional annoyance (and in my personal case, a minor college mishap). I do have plenty of horror stories about this neighborhood, town, county, and state, though. 🤷‍♀️

You're supposed to land on your feet?!?! LOL this reminds me of a tweet I saw a few years ago where someone asked what our bodies would do today if we leaped off swings at max height like we did as kids. I don't even think I'd get enough momentum to get off the seat I'm so tired these days. 😄

I remember when my gen got criticized for being too addicted to TV (we were the MTV generation after all). And too addicted to video games. And not going outside enough. Every gen gets complained about, really. I do think there's value to being exposed to both outdoor and indoor activities (whether that's through summer camp, glamping, school sports, rolling around in a river somewhere behind the house, trampling someone's flowerbed and having to replant it oops, etc.), but I do agree with you that getting a sense of a world outside of your own at an early age is more crucial in today's world. From what I've seen, it seems like kids still enjoy doing all of those things.

I dug through their Discord a bit more and found someone who asked this question and got a response that mayyyyybe explains it? Q: Is it possible to create an eye applier that only applies to one eye? It seems in order to have different colour eyes, you must specify an uuid for each eye A: For a Lelutka script applier you have to set a texture for each or both eyes. You can do one eye only for an Omega applier, though. After you set up the Omega HUD you can then click on a color and a menu pops up asking if you want to applier to left, right or both. I know for sure I'm not using Omegas, so maybe that's why I'm having trouble mixing/matching from different stores. It overrides the first eye's selection once I put on the new HUD and choose a new texture for the second eye. But for some reason, I can do it fine on Catwa, so maybe it's just something in the way their appliers are set up. I have no idea. Luckily it's not too big a deal as most of the stores I favor do include mesh eyes, but it's kind of nice not having to reposition things all the time, so I just stick with the Catwa as much as possible if I need a split look like that.

I did both. My inner 6+ year-old paleontologist made an absolute disaster area out of my backyard with a single wood-handled shovel that gave me more splinters than it did fossils or dinosaur bones. I made holes so deep I got stuck, I rarely ended a day not caked in hard-packed dirt, I convinced myself I could dig my way through the entire world and come out the other side and set out to prove it numerous times (even wrote stories about it like I was teaching the world something new, LOL), I dug my way under the fence separating my best friend's backyard from mine so her dog could come and assist in my endeavors, I got yelled at for digging too damn close to the flowers on the "good side" of the yard, I climbed trees, I fell face first off a swing set and magically did NOT break my nose, I did that thing where you'd swing yourself to the highest point and leap off into the air because apparently all kids are Superman... And I also spent rainy days camped out under the dining room table with snacks watching Faerie Tale Theatre and Saturday morning cartoons. Participated in the Summer Reading Program at the library and challenged myself to read 10-20+ books every summer vacation. Got my hands on an Atari and wasted whole afternoons playing Frogger and E.T. Once I discovered computers, I got hardcore addicted to the C128 and wasted entire DAYS playing Kawasaki Music Synthesizer (which was my very first introduction to music production, which is still a major hobby of mine), Windham Classics games, and everything else under the sun. I owned various musical instruments and practiced to death despite sucking at them terribly (definitely more of a computer music kinda kid). I wrote more stories. I taught myself to draw. The computer obsession saw me through the development of Geoworks all the way through today's modern Windows. Sierra Games through modern MMOs. And consoles? Ohhhh how I played the hell out of them thar consoles... In between all that shenanigans, I still got dirty. And accidentally lost control of my body (as one does when hyped up on sugar) in the middle of a cartwheel downhill and flew out into traffic. And did all that goofy dangerous "omg I'm still alive?!" stupid stuff kids do. If I had to say what I miss doing most as a kid - the safer indoor activities had a larger impact on who I am today. I did initially plan to make paleontology a career, but nah, I'm too much of an indoor nerd. I've rolled around in enough dirt for a lifetime. I come from a time when kids carried pagers around in high school (lol, the 90s were so stupid), so I can't really comment *much* on phone-to-the-face culture as that's not my generation, but as long as they've got varied interests (which many kids still do, even if they're more indoorsy), I'm sure they'll be just fine. Toss them a pencil and paper and a Bob Ross video or something and they're good to go (seeing as how there are so many very young illustrators and artists with their commissions open on Twitter, this seems to be fairly common).

It's definitely interesting! I have to look at what it entails, if indeed you can just hop on over or need some offer of employment first, how the visa process works, if there's really an offer of dual citizenship, etc. It's the first time I'm learning about it, too, even though they've been making that pitch over the last few decades, according to some articles. I likely did hear rumors of it during the protests, but my mind was genuinely so pre-occupied with my own thoughts during that time, I couldn't focus enough to pay close attention to anything going on around me, let alone what was happening around the world! I will say, having only done some very basic preliminary searches, Accra looks kinda cool! I'm digging the architecture. I have to sit my butt down and watch some videos on YouTube. Oh funny aside - my brother emailed me last night and he told me he's ready to get up out of here, too. I mean, he's BEEN ready, but...after the events from yesterday, ahem, we both agreed that it's time to seriously buckle down and figure this stuff out. His wife's niece and nephew are both off in Europe now - her niece just left NYC very recently for Eastern Europe via a company job transfer (due to the Roe news), and her nephew has been quite happy in Berlin for a few years - just working on permanent residency now. I feel like there's been a slow exodus of people leaving around me for quite a bit now (my sister's close friend has been happily off in Ireland for a few years now, too). Oh and re: Mexico - find personal blogs written by people who moved there and really read through their day-to-day lived experiences. Watch YouTube videos of people doing city/town/neighborhood walkthroughs (I love watching those!), research your face off, etc. Mexico can be great, but it can also be not great, depending on where you go. Like a lot of places, of course. Maybe it's worth it to visit a few times first, too, before heading over with all your stuffs. I'm in that same boat - I need to set up some trips before I let myself decide on a single thing because I know me - I've already done the "YOLO I'll find out when I find out!" jump on a plane thing and yeah that worked out once (mostly), but I'm not sure if I'd try that again, LOL.

All of my heads are 3.1. Do you have a photo of that working? I've never been able to get that to work with two different eye applier HUDs from two different stores (for example, in the photo below, Madame Noir on my right, Vain on my left). I wound up using mesh eyes to get this effect with Lilly. Edit: I just checked the Lelutka Discord channel and this question has come up a few times. The answer given was "The applier needs to be made to be able to apply textures to individual eyes." It's possible my appliers are set up differently, but I haven't had any trouble getting them to work with my Catwas, so I'm not sure.

I shop for art on occasion - oddly, some of the original paintings I have are Mod/Copy. They allow for resizing, which I really, really appreciate as I'm always swapping homes/using them to decorate other homes with and some of the pieces in original size are quite huge. Some are definitely No Mod/No Copy, though. Depends on the artist and gallery. Honestly, I'll buy art with any perms if I'm sure I can fit it on a wall somewhere without needing to resize (and if I'm okay with losing the piece if I'm using it in someone else's build).

Facelights are terrible outside of photography. So there. That said, you won't regret upgrading. That new HUD ❤️ Also, other people can edit your face, if you're truly not wanting to bother with it. You'll also get a HUD-based shaping tool that works separately from the normal Appearance sliders, too!

Oh absolutely. This is a constant problem. I've been so hesitant to give up my old Velour because of that. I wonder if Izzie's has a fix? I honestly haven't checked. I find that old Velour and Pumec skins are pretty even.

They dooooo! I also like Nuve and Tres Beau.

Maybe I'm just a weirdo, but I can't see how Fortnite, SL, Ylands, or Roblox are anything alike. 😂 Outside of the "we can build stuff!" portion, anyway. Should also just toss in Valheim, Craftopia, Trove, Stardew Valley, Portal Knights, Satisfactory, Rust, Conan Exiles, and Ark while we're at it! Yes I'm just being silly. I'm pre-coffee, lemme alone 😄

I'd totally recommend tossing on your Flona demo and trying it with your current skin, then. Check all the little problem areas - eye corners, eyelids, under the eyes, around the mouth, around the ears, etc. - if you see something that looks off, check Izzie's shop and see if she's got a corrector (chances are she will!). Then demo that on top of your demos until you're in demoception!!! If it looks good to you, play with the HUD, test the light, test the makeup, play with the features, etc. See how you feel after all that!

Upgrading from Lona to Flona wouldn't be too difficult, all things considered. Flona is what, HDPro's newest? It's really pretty, but I haven't personally demoed it. I wear the free Queen HDPro. I'm looking at Lona right now, and I do see some similarities with Flona (maybe you'd want to tweak the nose a bit). So you should definitely give it a demo! The good news - upgrading from base Catwa to HDPro doesn't require much of anything at all. You'll be able to still use Catwa makeup appliers (even if they aren't HDPro), BOM is compatible between the two (you can also rock Genus and Evo classic if you really wanted to), and you'll have many skin options for darker tones, which is huge. Izzie's has a lip concealer that I use to properly fit my lipstick, if needed, since Catwa HDPro-specific lipstick is somewhat limited, but you can wear anything not EvoX and get it to work out with some fixes. The biggest reasons to upgrade IMO are the animations and the HUD. I absolutely loathe Lel's anims and much prefer Catwa's, even though they're way more exaggerated. They're just hilarious to me and I can't give them up full-time (I have almost every anim in rotation on a cycle). The new HDPro anims are really expressive - slightly moreso than base (in the eyes, especially). As for the HUD, the old Catwa HUD? It's an absolute nightmare and you can completely forget it ever exists. The new HDPro HUD is so much better, fully streamlined, easy to understand, and comes with quite a lot of options. The facelight is HUD-controlled - intensity, brightness, etc. I have mine off and never use it, but it's there for if/when you need it. But the major, major benefit to staying with Catwa for me personally is the eyes. The HDPro allows you to apply two completely different eye textures to the left and right eye, which is something I do frequently and cannot accomplish with Lelutka as Lel only applies textures to both simultaneously. I have to resort to separate mesh eyes in that case. But Catwa's HUD allows for eye selection before using a third-party applier, which rocks in my specific case. As for Angel Rock, I'm familiar with them, but I don't really like their skin tones at all. If you're dead set on them, try demoing some base Catwa skins and see if they work out. I'm not sure if they upgraded to HDPro. There are other skin stores that make great tones, too. I'm just really not into the Velour bodies whatsoever and do my best to avoid having to wear their body skins, so I'm a bit picky with my choices. The highlighting is so wrong to me. Right now, I'm currently in an older Velour face that works with an ItGirls body, thankfully. So anyhoo, grab the demo, and grab skin demos. If you want to browse skin stores that do HDPro, one of the Catwa CSRs maintains a gallery here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/mjbella/galleries/72157716173821608/

Awesome! I wear HDPro, so I can help ya out with that when you make your post. Peeve: We really do need more HDPro skins, tho. The struggle is real (well, we've got some great ones but...I'm a skin hoarder so).

Lol, that's exactly what you *shouldn't* do.

Give it to me, of course. I'll work for it. Need something decorated or want a makeover? 😂

Congrats! It really is a unique feeling. I totally understand what you mean about feeling less fear, too. That happened to me as well when I moved to London, once I got settled in, though perhaps for different reasons. I let that lack of fear go straight to my head to where I felt way too confident and comfortable walking around in the middle of the night alone, lol. Barely anyone around on the streets but me, leaving the club on a Tuesday night or grabbing groceries, oh this is fiiiine off I go! Home isn't that far it's only a 25 minute walk I got thiiiiiiis! 😂 I felt so free living in London, but it only intensified when I moved to Oxford. It was cheaper for me, it was very friendly, plus there were very affordable super comfy coach buses that ran between the two cities every other hour so I could make it back to London for classes. And yes, I still found myself taking walks to the grocery store at 1am. Old habits die hard I guess, lol. I miss Oxford so much, but I'm not sure if I'll return. My brain is locked in "time to try something new" mode.

Ghana basically reached out to Black Americans after the Floyd protests and said y'all need to get your butts over here 😂. They've done that before, too. That's likely why I'm seeing some recently written blog posts like screw it off we go! Though the number of Americans that actually settled over there is pretty small - around 3,000, last I saw. Still an interesting proposal, lol. I believe they've got a streamlined dual citizenship process, but again, I reallllllly haven't looked into it too deeply yet.

Nope, not retirement only. Same as most places - need property, money, or a job with a company. You used to be able to set up a business for it, but that might have changed in 2021. The remote work/freelancer visas other places offer are likely my best option, since I have little intention to go back to being a full-time employee.

I've been to Cornwall. It's super cute and quite serene, but definitely not for me.