Scylla Rhiadra

The colours and light here are so beautiful! As, btw, is your avatar. Really great picture -- where is this???

de·riv·a·tive (Not a butt shot) (PS. Yes, this is a joke.)

Oooh! This is a great pic! I really like the lighting! And your avi looks brilliant!

So, some months ago Taya (@Angelina String) very generously offered to let me take a picture of her. (She's promised me in return that she's going to take a pic of both of us!) And she said she thought it should be something "different." I'm not sure if this is different or not, but it was fun! And Taya totally got the mood I was going for, in her choice of outfit for the shoot. Anyway, thank you Taya!

Yes. Yes you do.

Oh, I love the muted colours and how light it is (despite being relatively dark)! Gorgeous! I don't know that I've been to Missing Melody . . .

(In this story, I suspect that I was the "pet peeve" . . .) At some point in my first few months in SL, a friend at a chat place that was a kind of home to me offered to show me his dungeon. He was an absolute sweetheart -- he bought me my first ever pair of FM boots! -- and I had complete trust in him. (He later took to the GD forum with an alt, and became a very popular poster because he was funny and kind.) So, I said ok, and he TPed me to his place, and gave me a tour of his varied and impressively large collection of BDSM equipment. It was fascinating because I did not, at that point, know much about BDSM, and he did an excellent job explaining, not merely what the devices "did," but what their point was. Finally, we came to a sort of black box that looked a bit like an oversized safe. I've forgotten what he specifically termed it, but it was, he explained, essentially a sensory deprivation chamber for his subs. He thought it might be low-key and gentle enough for me to try. Our ensuing conversation went something like this: ME: So, if I sit in there, I can't move my avatar or do anything? HIM: That's right. ME: And I can't talk to you or anyone else? HIM: That's the idea, yes. ME: And my screen will just be entirely black? HIM. Yes. Would you like to try it? ME: Well, ok, sure. But can you hang on a moment while I go grab a book? Thus began, and ended, my brief and very inglorious career as a sub.

The BEST red dresses are 18th century. (Well, ok. 17th century, really. But 18th century comes in a close second.)

Yay!!! Everyone deserves a red dress.

It's mildly sobering to put on an outfit and realize that it's pretty close to something I might well have worn when I was 22. Am I regressing????

Bike snob.

Can scooters use it too, if I promise to ride responsibly? (I can safely promise "responsibly." It's "competently" I'll have a difficulty managing . . .)

"fully equipped"??? His balcony???? Do the neighbours sit out on their lawns with binoculars at the ready?

Yep. You totally can. And where are you???? Amazing picture! Everybody does red dresses better than I do! And I don't think I knew the Laurie Anderson song! (I do know another red dress poem, which I may use, eventually, though . . .)

Taya, I can't even begin to guess how you did this, but you totally win the thread. Wow.

Girl, you've completely out-red-dressed me! I think, if I remember correctly, that I actually bought my red dress in response to one that you showed off here!

This is another pic from the courtyard at Yúcale, but here, inspired by Sara, I've played with it a bit. The deeper one gets into using the combination of phototools (and Windlights) in-world, and post-processing options in PS, the more one feels a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of options . . .

I love this.

These, especially the top one, are fantastic! (Yum-Yum hair?)

I was going to do all sorts of clever things in PS with this pic, but decided that I liked it pretty much exactly as it was too much. This has been cropped: otherwise (rarely for me!), it's a raw take on the subject.

Thank you Carolina! I haven't killed it yet, but I'd like to think that it's thrashing about a bit and looking a little worried! 😊

The new head is lovely. The picture is glorious.

You have a talent, Tali! And you've captured the spirit of it exactly. (I love Addonizio's poetry. She's got attitude. Check her out!)

Thank you! But how about that goddamned red dress, eh???? Lovely pic, and I don't see anything wrong with the necklace! I haven't tried layering Windlights. In fact, I have no idea how to do it . . . any idea where I can find some guidance?

“What Do Women Want?” (Kim Addonizio, 2000) I want a red dress. I want it flimsy and cheap, I want it too tight, I want to wear it until someone tears it off me. I want it sleeveless and backless, this dress, so no one has to guess what’s underneath. I want to walk down the street past Thrifty’s and the hardware store with all those keys glittering in the window, past Mr. and Mrs. Wong selling day-old donuts in their café, past the Guerra brothers slinging pigs from the truck and onto the dolly, hoisting the slick snouts over their shoulders. I want to walk like I’m the only woman on earth and I can have my pick. I want that red dress bad. I want it to confirm your worst fears about me, to show you how little I care about you or anything except what I want. When I find it, I’ll pull that garment from its hanger like I’m choosing a body to carry me into this world, through the birth-cries and the love-cries too, and I’ll wear it like bones, like skin, it’ll be the goddamned dress they bury me in. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42520/what-do-women-want