I have one little secret to confess

I took the decision of participating in this year's edition of NaNoWriMo a few months ago when I was, of course, busy with something else. The part that scared me the most was trying to think of a long story to write (not just very short tales like I do), but I think I've reached to a point where I could go for it.

I have my two main characters already defined: the leading role and the antagonist. The antagonist still needs more detail but I'm getting there. I've scribbled notes about their past and how they cross paths. I'm now writing down a timeline of the future events. Together with them, the rest of characters begin to show up. I stopped worrying about writing about something that others have written before. I don't think it's the originality in the topic what makes a story a good one.

What helped me was reading all those articles about story-writing. A long story doesn't come out of nowhere (unlike my short tales) and I don't think it could be improvised without a plan. Rather, I feel it's a mix of who are the characters involved, what situations do they live, in which environment, and everything else. Since I had no idea about what story to tell, I started writing about the characters. And then, it happened.

Writing about the past of the main character I started writing pages and pages. Small pages, since I'm writing all this in a notepad book-shaped, but more than ten anyway. (I like scribbling notes on physical paper.)

The main character had a lot to tell and I decided it was time to give time to their antagonist, which has also turned out to be chatty and tells me many things about their life, how they think and why they think what they think about all life matters. That has been an interesting experience: You start writing without a clear plan, trying to define a consistent character, and then it jumps to your fountain pen and writes itself, controlling the words your hand writes. (Yes, I like scribbling notes using a fountain pen.)

The story is now growing inside me and the plot is defining itself practically without my assistance after I defined the main characters: they are doing the work for me. All I have to do is sit down, write down on paper what my characters tell me, and review the notes each time I sit for more writing to avoid holes and contradictions in the story.

What's the story about?

I'm afraid I won't say until NaNoWriMo is over. Anyway, as the saying goes, time flies, so it's not going to be such a long wait. I can say though that it's not going to be a fight between Good and Evil. I believe that people are far more complex than that, even those without conscience.

Meanwhile, the very short tales will continue to come, because they simply jump out of my thoughts when I create some pose sets. It's as if the story was waiting for me to start taking photos to flow though my fingers. I still don't understand how that works.

I'll leave it for now, presenting the Shadows short tale, which was inspired by my last poses set (or was it the other way?)

Have a great weekend :-)

Shadows

I'm back for my next story, and I've chosen you to be the lead character.

You will barely notice that I slowly reach into more private areas of your mind, reading your most important secrets. When the closeness scares you, I will speak about concern and you will believe me. Concern is a feeling I've learned to pretend very well, but you will never know the secrets hiding behind my own walls.

Eventually, you will know that something is off in me. When you reach to that realization, you will want to warn others about me and inevitably, we will fight. My survival is at stake.

Your weapons are logic and reason. Those would be lethal in an ideal world. But this is not an ideal world, and I take advantage of that. My weapons are feelings and offense. It doesn't matter how right you are about me. It matters how helpless everybody else will perceive me. Did I tell you I'm a great actress? Now you're a monster in their eyes.

While everybody is busy tearing you apart, I will retreat to the shadows, to quietly see you shatter. These so convenient shadows will hide the glint in my smirk and I will rise stronger, ready for my next story... All while the darkness I use as my cloak smothers you, pushing you into the road to madness, a road I've known nobody to ever come back from. In your nightmares from now on, you will hear me sing a lullaby. Good night... Good night...

OUTFIT CREDITS

Mesh body: Lara, from Maitreya
Mesh hands: Lara's hands, from Maitreya
Mesh feet: Lara's feet, from Maitreya
Mesh head: Karin, from Lelutka

Eyes: Phantom Eyes, Snow, from Dead Apples
Face Applier: Pom-Pom, Porcelain, from KOOQLA
Skin Applier: Porcelain tone, from KOOQLA

Hair: Rooskje (no materials), from Mina
Horns: Uninvited Horns, pitch, from BOOM

Dress: Suhina Sequin gown, onyx, from Zaara
Collar: Dahlia collar, black, from Baiastice
Gloves: Long gloves with claws, black, from Baiastice
Shoes: Zora heels, Noir, from Ingenue (not showing in the photos)

Spider wings: Spider legs backpiece, from Zyn
Birds: Abadon Orbit 1, 2 and 3, from Zibska
Face Thorns: Rose Face Thorns (L and R), Dark, from LaGyo
Arm Thorns: Rose Arm Thorns (L and R), Dark, from LaGyo

Pose: Shadow #1 set coming for Lazy Sunday, Black Tulip (mine)

Background: Cemetery de Morte, from Pandemonium
Windlight Sky: Places Kingsport

The Witch

This may be hard to believe, but... I've created a gacha set! I'll talk about reasons and how the creating experience has been, as an OCD merchant, but before that, I want to tell a little story. The story that started to write itself in my mind when I had completed the first two items, and that decided which would be the rest of items despite I had written down to create something else. The story of The Witch.

There are places in the world whose names have been forgotten. Ghostly places, enshrouded in ancient magic, almost like if they weren't there, are waiting for inadvertent visitors that step within their boundaries to never be seen again.

One of these places was once called Inhn, but nowadays nobody even knows the place exists. Back in time, Inhn was inhabited by a cruel witch. She was nameless, for part of her power lied in being an unknown entity to those that fell in her small realm. Her cabin and the graveyard around were surrounded by a forest. Only part of the forest was reached by this ancient magic, enveloping it, but it was enough to set a trap for those who were wandering by the other side of the forest.

The witch was known to mutilate her victims to then transform them into disturbing creatures that lost their humanity. Those creatures were then caged like birds and set outside the house, in the darkest part of the graveyard, left alone to die.

She fed on their suffering and their blood. She kept all of their limbs to continue torturing them even after they died, for the torment of their souls trying to reach the hands that no longer they could touch and reach was a delightful scene for her to watch. Their limbs in jars was what those poor souls wanted to recover, but even being next to them, they could never be complete again. Their despair and denial about the situation was what tied them to stay in the place, exactly where she, the nameless, needed them.

But even witches grow old, and as she aged, she was losing her power. She needed more people than before if she were to regain strength, but the forests around Inhn had been forgotten, and barely if ever new visitors showed up. She had sowed pain when she was young, and now she was too tired to watch her own back.

That's how one night, it happened. The legends aren't clear about what happened exactly. The only thing we know nowadays about the events is that the last two of her creations that despite dead, still were able of breathing air, buried her alive. Exhausted, their bodies fell and rot over her grave, and since that moment, their souls guard the nameless' tomb, to make sure she'll never raise among the dead.

This didn't put an end to the witch's victims' torment. Their souls had been tied to their mutilated limbs, and day after day, their weeping laments could be heard if you walked close to the limits of the safe part of the forests around Inhn. As time went by, those souls forgot about the nameless, they forgot what led them to be dead without hands, and slowly, they started to vanish forever, in sorrow and pain that would accompany them until the end of time.

That's how another tomb at the graveyard was abandoned, and the power of the witch started to grow back within it, whispering a song in the wind that started to attract people into walking near the forest.

The legend says, this other tomb is waiting for the next lost traveler that crosses the frontier to Inhn and sets foot into that haunted land. The tomb will then announce to the traveler that the day is their last day alive, and this new death will have power enough to bring the rejuvenated witch back to life.

This story is also published in The Night Corner

As I've mentioned at the beginning of this post, The Witch is my first gacha set, created for the Wayward Halloween event, by Wayward Events. Despite the set title, no actual witches show up. The first item I created was a rare, the Witch Cabin, and my first idea was to create furniture for it, and some witch poses. This is what happened next in my mind:

Perhaps a tree outside the house, with a tomb, could fit. Since we talk tombs, why not adding ghosts? Not plain ghosts: Ghosts that show by close presence, and hide otherwise. [Insert Blender break time here while creating the tomb and the ghosts, then scripting them.] Forget about the tree, I like the ghosts with the tomb. Since I'm making ghosts, why not another ghost mourning the separation of his hands from his body? Ohhhhhh... That could have been the witch! And what else happened to these pour souls?

And that's how I ended up creating a set that had nothing to do with my first idea (except for the Witch Cabin), and writing the story of The Witch.

As a consumer, many people that know me, know that I do not play gachas. The reason is simple: I know what I want, I know which choice of permissions I want, and if I cannot get what I want, with the permissions I want, then I do not spend money.

However, as a merchant, I can no longer stay blind to the fact that many people like playing gachas, and even though I don't share their like, that shouldn't be a reason to not give gachas a try, from the merchant perspective. But I didn't blindly apply to the first gacha event I saw showing up. I applied to one that I knew would motivate me (Halloween is every day in my heart.) And I put special attention to likes/dislikes/requests coming from people that like playing gachas, in many threads in Plurk.

One of them is: I've tried making a set where each piece is independent of the other. This isn't an armor set that makes no sense unless you have all pieces with the same color. This is a decoration set where each piece can have its own life alone. In other words: You don't need to get several decoration pieces to create something that makes sense.

Another one is: I'm willing to trade your complete no copy set for a complete copy/no transfer set as long as you obtained the pieces by playing in my machine, using my gacha script. I studied what other merchants do when it comes to their gacha sets and the customer service part, and I wrote my own gacha policies, contemplating the trading complete sets case. If you plan on playing my machine at the event, I recommend you to check these policies and make sure you understand them, for they will be useful in the (nonexistent, let's hope) case you have a delivery issue, or if you want to trade a complete set. I will say here as well: If you obtain the complete set from another place than my machine (yard sale, gift, Marketplace...), I will not trade it. Trading is a benefit for my customers, since I will be taking the time of checking that everything is correct before trading. I'm saying upfront that I'm not responsible, at all, about what happens outside of playing my machine.

I've also paid attention to explanations from merchants about how their gacha scripts seem to work, about complaints coming from customers that rares seem to be extra-hard to obtain and wonder if the machines are rigged, about alarming facts that make me wonder how many gacha scripts contemplate the case of somebody using a modified viewer to pay the machine whatever they want rather than pull price...

... and developed my own gacha script.

It will be soon ready for general release, once I polish a couple of details, write the final documentation, and give it a final beta-test round. But as of now, my gacha script is the script that will be used in my machine at the event, and that's how I will know if you've gotten the full set by playing in my machine.

As for packing the gacha items to load the machine, and checking permissions for next owner... Oh hellish hell! The hell of all hells for someone suffering OCD!

When I wrote the preparing your products for sale, permissions and more chapter of the Merchant Help series, I talked long about setting permissions, and at the end of that section, I said:

Important for Gacha Merchants
Gachas, by its own nature, mean that permissions should be set to no copy. You may want to send blogger/review copies of these gacha items. Do you send them as no copy too? If you do that, then you should be aware that bloggers could sell the items before the event opens, whether they blog them or not. Not all of them will do, but the possibility is there. You should set permissions of the review packs to copy/no transfer, and remember: This means that you have to change permissions of contents too!

And it's anything but funny to do this. I swear by the Old Gods and the New =)

You have to prepare your bloggers pack with all items copy/no transfer. Send it to your alt. Check permissions of the oh-so-many items you've decided to include in your set. Then, you have to prepare one box per gacha item, containing the gacha goodies, store landmark, ad (or gacha key) and a notecard explaining things.

I repeat: One box per gacha item.

Send them to your alt. Check that the boxes arrive in inventory as no copy, yes transfer. Unpack them. Rez all the items. Check all the permissions. Pray some more to the Old Gods and the New for you haven't made any mistakes. Curse a little (or a lot) when you find out you've made some. Fix them. Start again.

And when that double permissions check is done, you're finally ready to load your machine.

Enjoy The Witch, coming October 16th. It's been an experience to me :-)

A broken switch

The priest was smiling to her. She was confused and a little scared. A strange thought was wandering in her mind, an incomplete phrase. It was the voice of the priest, saying to another man "do not worry... she will like it, and will come back for more, and again... and when she resists, we will..." When the priest approached, she didn't like how familiar it felt. He told her that she would find her room outside, in the little build next to the church, and what her job was. His finger felt like concrete, scratching, when he brushed her cheek.

A flash came to her memories. She had accepted a gift from the priest, some time in the past. So they met at some point, despite she had no recollection of this. Trying to remember what was that gift, all she would get was a headache, as if somebody were screaming inside her mind.

The days went by. Nobody ever stopped by, not even by the graveyard, which she visited daily. The candles in the darkness of the church always brought flashes of lost memories to her mind, but she didn't know what to do with them. The images made no sense. A box with a snake? Another man, examining her from the distance?

The priest would always smile at her in a way that made her tremble, freeze. Something in his expression told her that he was waiting... for the right time. She decided she had to run away from that eerie place. She would do the next day.

That night, she had a strange dream. In her dream, she was in bed. She could hear the priest and another man talking about her past, the sin, the shame she had brought. Then she saw what was the gift. She wanted to take it but remembered, this was not the first time. Something happened next, all the other times.

A hooded otherworldly creature showed up in her room, the bed cover was suddenly a mess and she could feel the creature was coming for her. She screamed, screamed while trying to stand up and avoid that ghostly touch... and woke up. Her heart was still racing when she looked to the left. The moon light coming by the window allowed her to see that the creature was still there. Her voice failed and she tried to turn the light on. The light switch wasn't working. Rigid, scared, she then looked to the right. Lying next to her, on the bed, there was another of those hooded creatures. She screamed loud but her voice wouldn't come out. The creatures showed their faces. One of them was the priest. And the other one... Could it be? Could it really be?

Father...

This story is also published in The Night Corner

PHOTO CREDITS

OUTFIT, POSE AND WINDLIGHT

Mesh body: Lara, from Maitreya
Mesh hands: Lara's hands, from Maitreya
Mesh feet: Lara's feet, from Maitreya

Skin: Lulu 02 C, Jamaica, from Glam Affair
Freckles: Cassiopea Cosmetics, A (tn), from Glam Affair
Hair: Teddy, Reds02, from Truth

Slip dress: Silk Slip Dress, black, from ISON

Pose: Looking inside (the mirror) #6, Black Tulip (mine), out now at Oneword.
Facial expression: Afraid.

Windlight: Phototools- No Light

FURNITURE

Dutchie summer bed bondage II, from Dutchie
Bedside Tables, from LAQ

For the hooded creatures, I rezzed this item: Ruby Cloak, from Apsara (It was available at the Little Redhood edition of Enchantment, February 2014, so I don't know if this is for sale anymore)

House: Autumn Cottage, from Trompe Loeil

Waiting for you

I can't remember when I sat on these steps to wait for you. All I know is that it feels like a long time. You asked me to wait here, no matter what. You said you'd be back in an hour, but the truth is that I have no recollection of what happened. Did I really see you show up? Were you the one carrying that needle in your hand? I don't know. Those images are blurred in my memories, then they fade to black. I can just say that I'm here, waiting for you, as you asked me to do. But there's so much I don't understand. I feel empty, and... is this cold? Why does it feel so dark? Why I cannot feel my body anymore?

I'm scared... Where are you? Will this wait take any longer?

This story is also published in The Night Corner

The ghost is out already for tomorrow's round of Woeful Wednesday.

Mourning

The story of my life isn't but the story of the stories I choose to remember, imagine, reinvent, and tell. Some of them get better and more detailed as time goes by. Others, richer in pain, gloomier and darker. Others cease to exist as I no longer feel interest for them. And others have a special place in my heart, because I was never able to remove the knife.

"I mourn my mother. I mourn my other mother. I mourn so many people that are still alive. When did my life turn into a cemetery of living dead?"

This story is also published in The Night Corner

No outfit credits this time. I logged off before thinking of writing that down. From the top of my head, I'm wearing Coco's Doll, hair is from Truth (Felicity?), the corset is from Zenith, the headdress from Baiastice, the necklace from Maxi Gossamer, the wings are from Remarkable Oblivion, and the Spider from DRD (which I can't remember what brand is.) Oh, and the pose is mine, from the Dark Valentine set.

UPDATE - OUTFIT CREDITS

Mesh body: Coco Doll (Bandage & Cut), from Coco (Cocoro Lemon)
Mesh hands: Coco Doll, Hands (1), from Coco (Cocoro Lemon)
Mesh ears: Coco Doll, Ears (Human), from Coco (Cocoro Lemon)
Mesh head: Coco Doll, Head 002A, from Coco (Cocoro Lemon)
Mesh eyes: Coco Doll, Eyes 002 (Blue), from Coco (Cocoro Lemon)

Hair: Felicity, Reds, from Truth
Corset: Orianna Lace Dress, Black (Coco Doll Size), from Zenith
Headpiece: Dahlia hat, black, from Baiastice
Necklace: Misha Dark Fairy, Chocker, from Maxi Gossamer
Spider: Spider face, from DRD (Death Row Designs)
Wings: Eternity Wings, Carnal, from Remarkable Oblivion

Poses: Dark Valentine #2 - Mirror, Dark Valentine set, Black Tulip (mine)

Death at sea

There's another round of A Tattered Page about to begin. This time, the chosen book is 20000 leagues under the sea, from Jules Verne. For some reason, death makes my eyes to stare at it. Maybe trying to understand, maybe clinging to my life while I can still claim it, mine. That's why The Coral Kingdom chapter was the one to inspire my new item. It is a poses set, but as I was creating the poses, a story on its own started to be told in my mind. A story that comes next.

Click here for the story, published in The Night Corner

OUTFIT CREDITS

Mesh body: Lara, from Maitreya
Mesh hands: Lara's hands, from Maitreya
Mesh feet: Lara's feet, from Maitreya

Skin: Lulu 02 C, Jamaica, from Glam Affair
Lipstick: Sylvia Lipstick 03 F, from Glam Affair
Freckles: Cassiopea Cosmetics, A (tn), from Glam Affair
Eyelids: Mesh eyelids, from Slink

Hair: HAKU, True red (and tinted), from Argrace
Panties and babydoll: Dahlia, Black lace baby doll set, from Blacklace
Necklace: Imperial opal necklace, from Ashira

Poses: Death at sea #1 to #5, Black Tulip (mine), coming for A Tattered Page on March 7th

WL Water: Phototools - Chandra sea
WL Sky: [TOR] HORROR - Rancid Milk

Cold heart

Everybody wears a mask, and during our life, we polish it, adapt it to the image we want to see reflected on the mirror, and tell ourselves, this is me. We repeat it until we no longer remember who we are, deluded into believing that we are the image on the mirror, forgetting that there's something under the mask. Someone. The real us.

I have chosen ice and blades for my mask, and I have called it Patience. I can listen to you as long as you don't walk too close. Close to my heart, or close in your words and deeds to the memories of who I was once, which is someone that I now despise.

When you reach me, the blades of my mask will hurt the two of us. I am used to live with my bleeding wounds, but you will walk away, and when you turn around to ask me why I did hurt you, then you will realize about the smiling ice on the mask. You will leave me behind saying "she deserves it, she has a horrible cold heart." And I will turn around and go back to my dark places, hiding my tears and painting nightmares with them, under the stinging comfort provided by my perfect, cold mask.

This post is also published in The Night Corner

OUTFIT CREDITS

Skin: Sia 02 NB, Pearl, from Glam Affair
Freckles: Cassiopea Cosmetics, A (tn), from Glam Affair
Eyes: Phantom Eyes, Revenge, from Dead Apples
Makeup: Tattoo'd makeup, from La Petite Morte

Hair: Felicity, Reds, from Truth
Headpiece: Forest flowers, red/black, from Enfant Terrible
Earrings: Varda rose earrings, red, from Illusions
Dress: Anita Empire Dress, Coal, from The Secret Store
Pose: The Dress #4 (from the set The Dress #1), Black Tulip