Fashion Plate (Or, What Has Cristalle Been Up To These Last Months)

Roleplaying in SL is fraught with obstacles.  Primarily, the problem is human beings and our failure to communicate.  I don't claim to be perfect in this regard, but I try - and malice is something that I don't really get into.

I like to look at people's hearts and their intent, rather than focusing on their actions and how their actions hurt me.  People who do things thoughtlessly or with innocent intent can be forgiven fairly easily, especially if it's the latter.  But unfortunately, not everyone can do that and some people have to be right and remain a victim rather than choosing to be happy.

So, another rp sim that I was in but didn't blog about closed.  Too bad, because it had a lot of potential, but a lot of human drama closed it.  I am not going to get into any details here, it's not worth writing about - but it's a shame because I had some really meaty stories going on.  As an aside, maybe one day I'll transcribe the logs and bring them here.  The bigger shame, though, was in losing someone I thought was a friend, but I guess we were not truly so in the end.  There was a miscommunication on my part, that I will own up to upon rereading logs - but a strange unwillingness to forgive was the death of the relationship.  That's all I will say about that, publicly.

Myriah Nymeros Martell, one of my favorite characters to play, wearing LOGO Alex.

In the meanwhile, I've taken a break from rp and got back to my roots - building and sailing.  But I have also been on a mad quest to modernize my avatar, getting rid of a lot of old clothing.  Now that there are more clothing choices for the Maitreya body, I've blown a lot of Linden dollars getting mesh clothing (and some appliers, but mostly mesh) that fits my curves.  It's still a challenge sometimes as some designers still design for skinnier bodies and it shows, but some people are bang-on with the design and it just fits, even with my avatar's generous bosom.  I get a serious thrill to find those pieces, because that means that I don't have to compromise my shape in any way to please anyone else's aesthetic of what they think a body ought to look like.  

The New Me: Lelutka Karin with DeetaleZ Ana Lucia head applier.

Granted, my look is still (at least in my opinion) well within the bounds of normal.  There are some people who prefer to make some very extreme shapes and it's still shocking to see it.  Ugly is the new pretty, so they say, but ugly is very subjective.  But it's still their second life, they ought to do whatever pleases them.  Live and let live.  We cannot please all the people all the time, and all that really matters in this medium is ourselves and those closest to us. 

A fun shot with the Eve'Olution head from Eve (Absolut Creations) and Pink Fuel Morgana head applier

I've had some fun, as I have gotten on board with mesh heads.  The technology is still young, and there are changes coming in the near future that will make heads more customizable, hopefully.  It would be lovely to be able to change more than just the general roundness or ovalness of the head and adjust bone structure a bit.  We'll see if that happens.  

My daily driver for "me" is from Lelutka, the Karin head.  But I have Stella as well for rp and several appliers that really make it beautiful.  I just got the new one from Pink Fuel, Vera, that was designed for the Lelutka Simone head but looks fabulous on all of them. I also have LOGO Alex and the Eve'Olution head from Eve (Absolut Creations).  I am not yet ready to expend more cash to get the Catwa head.  It looks good but that magic combination of head and skin hasn't come up yet that makes me say I have to have it.  Still, Catwa is the gold standard when it comes to features.  Maybe someday soon I'll add that to my collection.  It's gotten a lot of traction  among the popular skinmakers, very quickly, and it's a game changer that has made other makers scurry to keep up or open up their systems to third party support. 

Lelutka Stella with Pink Fuel Vera applier, for my next character :)

This pic above is probably going to be the face of my next rp character.  I can't wait for that one.  I am not telling anything about her here, nyah nyah.  :)

I've enjoyed this time off, upgrading my look without any human drama hanging over head.  But I'm itching to get back, a bit.  We'll see what happens.