random freebs/cheaps discovered due to boredom (pt. II)

Mostly this is the result of running several random search terms through the Marketplace. It's a hit-or-miss process. There are also more freebies and dollarbies (and cheapies on several different sale days; I should run down how many at some point) available in world at the stores themselves.

But in the meantime, here's the rest of what I found, for now.

(from the Topping Out album)

Blue Firelyte's "Carnival Stripe" bandage top; comes on all system layers, as well as being packaged with Lolas' Tango appliers. (There's also a Carnival Stripe tee for the same price, also with appliers.) L$1

(from the Topping Out album)

Rising Moon's innovative counter-offer to matching outfits with appliers: a heathered teal and slate blue mesh dress with a built-in busty look. L$1

(from the Topping Out album)

Toxic Candy's blue dot tied top; can be worn with or without the enclosed appliers for Lolas' Tango and Puffy implants. L$1

Understand, I'm also going by very particular (and damn picky!) categories, here:

• Does it make me uncomfortable to wear alone? 
• Does it make me uncomfortable to wear around others? 
• Could I go shopping in it (at least to non-Caledonian zones)? 
• Does it make me look like I charge by the hour? 

Let me go on record and say there are both women who don't have the modesty hang-ups I'm working on reinforcing in world, and who charge by the hour, and that both are fine. But for me, I want to look reasonably well-covered when I leave the house. I can handle flirty; what I can't handle is completely unclothed save for genitalia, basically. Or insanely sheer outfits that might as well be walking around nude, anyway. (I did some of that back in my escorting days, mostly because I was too young to know better. I'm not saying I didn't adore some of my sheer outfits, but at this point, I've moved on.)

Both of those are well-made, by the way; in fact, most of Hart's offerings are well-textured, well-designed (for what they are), and pretty reasonably priced. (And even the high-priced items are well-made enough that, were I to need some expensive bit of fetishy froth, I'd be overjoyed to have them. (Though in all honesty, if I'm going to pay high prices for fetish gear...Graves, hands down.)

My point is, there are other freebies out there, I'm just listing the ones that I might, personally, wear and see if I like, or can adapt around an existing outfit.

random freebs/cheaps discovered due to boredom (pt. I)

Some of these are old, some new, but all available now.

(from the Topping Out album)

Tekila Candy's "Sweetz" black strapless top, simply but nicely textured, and attractively made, comes with Lolas Tango appliers. No idea what layers it comes on. (There's also one offered in dark pink.) L$0

(from the Topping Out album)

ADN's "Dark Light" outfit: half-transparent black lace/silver lamé dress, with appliers for Lolas' Natural, Lolas' Push-Ups, Lolas' Tango, Mused, and eCorp breasts. Not my usual thing, but pretty nonetheless. Moddable prim skirt, upper and lower system layers. L$1

(from the Topping Out album)

Omigawd's purple plaid tube top: a strapless little bit of nothingness, but again, nicely textured, and could overlay something neatly with a bit of work. No idea which layers it's on, but it comes with Lolas' Tango appliers.L$1

(from the Topping Out album)

.BadLuck.'s Black Cami Top: a simple black midriff top with positively skeletal spaghetti straps and a cute rhinestone bow detail. System layers for shirt and undershirt, can be worn without included Lolas Tango appliers. L$1

(from the Topping Out album)

LC Fashion's "Camia" summer dress: a frothy pink, flowered confection that comes with appliers for Lolas Tangos. Tap pants, system top, mini skirt, flexi babydoll skirt. L$2

More to come!

Lola's Gatchas, and why I should be designing more clothes

There are frequent times where I feel vastly out of step with my culture, on various levels. This one hit me very strongly, how'ver, and I felt it must be shared.

I'm currently standing at Zero Cool Design's Crazy Spring Gacha Festival--to be more specific, in front of A.R.C. + F.N.'s Lola's Gatcha Top vendor:

F(from the shopping album)

...Yeah.

So, it's not that I haven't known this for a while now, but I really think I am massively out of step with the rest of the busty community. It's not the bustiness I mind (well...sometimes it is, but those are usually specific cases of lunatic proportions), as much as it is the lack of clothes.

Look. There are some cute designers out there who make scraps and tatters to wear. I get that. I'm not saying they're unattractive. What I am saying is that I want there to be more options for the busty set.

When I first heard of Lola's Tangos, I thought it was going to be that earth-shattering revolution we'd all been waiting for. Finally, we had essentially a drag-and-drop implant texturing option. We could make ANY clothes we wanted, clothes for Lola's Tangos, with 90% less muss and fuss.

In the months since I've owned them, the bulk of outfits I've seen, nearly universally, have fit into five distinct categories:

1. corset or tank top that's slipped below the nipples (or that outright reveals one breast)
2. shredded top or shredded minidress (this also fits all the openwork netting folks seem to adore designing) that shows more than it ever covers
3. the 'Band-Aid and a cork' school of beachwear design
4. suspenders worn over the breasts, with or without a crop top (this also includes the tops designed specifically to show sideboob or underboob)
5. lingerie that cannot, in any setting, be taken as actual streetwear

I mean, look. I like chocolate as much as the next girl. But if that's all you plan to feed me, I am going to start seriously longing for a salad and some protein. Anyone would.

So I've taken some of today's not-ill-gotten-gains, and turned them into templates so I can play with dress design again. Here's to that working out. Because by all the gods, if I can't find it out there, then I may just need to speak a pox on all their houses and make what I want to wear my own damn self.

Implant Nation and why their vendors aren't working

So, information is slowly drifting out about Tangos and tone matching. The Sugar Garden has a short, but excellent entry on tinting and adjusting. The Blogging SL blog has an entire tagged section just for posts involving Tangos. Both seem to be good resources for proper Tango management.

In the meanwhile, there were odd rumors about Implant Nation, so I tried to find out more:

[00:07] Emilly Orr: So, who knows more about the Implant Nation thing?
[00:15] ℳş 乇ℓуąℓєşιąηą (jxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx): Oh sorry Emilly i don't
[00:15] ϲɾմʍքҽէ հմɾìҟɑղ (txxx Axxxxxx): something happened?
[00:15] Axxxxxxx Lxxxx: there wer such impmants?
[00:16] Emilly Orr: All I've heard are the Implant Nation vendors are taking Lindens, and not dispensing product. The rumor: that the maker behind the Universals has left SL.
[00:16] ϲɾմʍքҽէ հմɾìҟɑղ (txxx Axxxxxx): oh wow
[00:17] Cxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Bart of Implant Nation seems to have had RL difficulties, so he's focusing on that rather than SL business at the moment. The main shop and the sim it was on are closed down until further notice.

So...that explains that. Whether the rumors are true--that Bart's left SL, never to return--the fact that the Implant Nation main store's evaporated does explain some things.

[00:18] Cxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: The server for the Implant Nation vendor boards was on the sim, of course. Anybody with an IN vendor board should take it down.

Like that. Because people do tent to get irked when they pay out for items they never receive.

[00:18] Emilly Orr: Okay. That's definitely better than the rumor, but yeah, the vendor situation is troubling.
[00:19] Cxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: Unfortunately, Bart's vendor boards didn't have any sort of remote shutdown feature.
[00:21] Cxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: I've seen that there are Marketplace listings for the Universal primboobs, and the shapes add on pack, and a couple other things. Not sure if the Marketplace is delivering them, but an MP failed delivery should be easier to get a refund for :)

Really. But I still had questions. So I joined the group to see if there were any group notices. Turns out there were; two that I think are relevant to reproduce. This was the first, from a notecard sent to Ms. Lane, an officer in the group:

Bianca Linden

Hello Hotie,

Thank you for contacting support. This region has been taken offline intentionally and it shows no indication of being reactivated at this time.

I have brought the region back online for you to retrieve your objects. This region will be taken back offline tomorrow.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us back.

Best Wishes,
Bianca

Which still doesn't answer why the region has been taken offline, but Bianca doesn't have to answer that to my satisfaction, or anyone's, beyond the sim owner. And maybe the sim owner already knows.

The other one I wanted to mention, which was another communiqué from Ms. Lane:

Hold off on conducting any transactions with Implant Nation.

If you have a vendor that sells implants please remove or block them from being used. Myself or Bart will let you know what is going to happen until then for all vip please keep faith.

So that seems to be that.

I'll stay in the group for a bit longer, see if I hear anything else. In the meantime, don't buy anything from Implant Nation vendors, because they are not, I repeat not delivering.

Marketplace update!

I now know why everyone and their catgirl is coding for Lola's Tangos. It's entirely due to the coding on the applier, which is to say, there's not much coding at all to worry about. Capture the UUID; copy it into the notecard; use the settings mentioned in the manual; you're done!

With that in mind, I now present my first ever implant-friendly outfits:

(from the [black witch moth] album)

So this is the Queen Pink tank set, which comes in two versions: this one, and one with a "modesty" (not really, but go with me on this) lace insert. I did some simple work on a soft version of leggings, in a vintage hibiscus print, and I've got it priced at L$100 on the Marketplace.

(from the [black witch moth] album)

This is a closer look at the lace insert. I'm really proud of how it turned out.

(from the [black witch moth] album)

This is the same tank in green, lace insert shown first. For this initial foray into new territory, I'm working off a template purchased from AngelRED Couture, and it impressed me so much I joined her group. The name's also a reference, because if I hadn't found this pack, I would still be pondering appliers and how they work.

Her prices are high, but not unreasonable, and while most items are lower-cut than I'd like, this particular tank turned out to be easily modifiable.

(from the [black witch moth] album)

And this is the version without the lace insert. Both are included in each pack, on all layers I could think of, one applier for each version included. This one's also for L$100 on the Marketplace.

Yay! They're listed, they're live! Today has been a very good day.

Hello Titty hunt: end round!

There's a "survivor" package at the end of the hunt, which I'm again wearing with American Bazaar's "Smexy" black jeans:

(from the fashion album; the "I Survived" shirt from the Hello Titty hunt)

And this is another case of "gosh-it's-cute-but". Because of the logo.

(from the fashion album; the "I Survived" shirt from the Hello Titty hunt)

I can't deny it's neatly made, though. The woman who created it is behind both the Bewbapalooza event, and [QE] Designs, and--strictly as a wearable shirt--it's well done. It's just the logo, though this is enough to make me want to visit her store.

It comes with appliers for Mused, Lola's Tango/Lush, B-Busty, and Lola's 2.5.

One of the good things about this hunt: it introduced me to a lot of new stores. Many of them had freebies out, or special gifts in addition to the hunt gift out. Also, if you follow this hunt start to finish, I guarantee you'll figure out which fashions you like, and which you don't. Because of this, I ended up in several new store groups, and not just for the gifts.

I'd say it's definitely a hunt worth doing, and it goes until February 15th. So strap on your implants and go hunting!

(Style card: My skin's still from Mystic Canvass, and it has another long name: "Trixie Skin-CL Pout Super Gloss Lip". Indeed. The hair's an older style called "Micah" from Exile [vintage 2010!], in Chocolate. The eyes come from Sin Skins; I'm fairly sure they're no longer available, but you're welcome to write Portia Sin and ask: they're the "Intense Obsidian/Garnet Eyes". And the shoes are from DV8, the Danse Macabre ballet boots in Pewter. They're no longer available.)

Hello Titty hunt: part 10!

We're down to the last few stops on the Hello Titty hunt...which is a good thing, because at this point, I'm actually heartily sick of being parked inside my workbox! I swear, when this is all over, I'm retexturing the damn thing.

Stop #27 is [Cynful], and it's a sweater dress in dark teal:

(from the [Cynful] Fashion's gift for the Hello Titty hunt)

[Cynful] named this one "Vale's Sweatshirt dress", and it possesses a very low scooped neck; even so. I liked this one. It's simply textured and nicely aged, and since I happen to be a fan of teal, so I think it's a good color choice.

(from the [Cynful] Fashion's gift for the Hello Titty hunt)

The genius touch for me, though? (And the touch that's going to pull me into their store, even though their applier prices are on the high side...) They include three different skirt prims--one the "normal" pairing of two wedges for the prim, followed by both rigged and unrigged mesh panels. If you can't find anything that works for you, your best bet may be to change your shape. I'm wearing the plain prim panel, but if I hadn't wanted these two poses for the shot, I'd be in one of the mesh versions.

Only two appliers are included--one for Lola's Tangos, and a generic "other" applier. If neither work, it might be worth it to visit their store, or talk to the designer behind the brand, because there's now an entire store section that's just appliers for various brands, for their outfits.

Stop #28 is actually a gesture shop. Their offering for the hunt? But of course, a gesture:

[04:02] Emilly Orr: ▷✴◀
[04:02] Emilly Orr: o(‧”’‧)o
[04:02] Emilly Orr: (⊙) (⊙)
[04:02] Emilly Orr: ��ҽ����ơ ╄ℹ╄╄ℹ����

...Yeah. That's...about all it does. I have no use for it. We'll just move on.

Stop #29 brings us to D&G:

(from the fashion album; D&G's black and pink skimmer dress for the Hello Titty hunt)

...and a malfunctioning skirt prim. Which was somewhat soul-crushing, after seeing how perfectly [Cynful] set up their minidress prim. What's so bad about D&G's skimmer dress?

(from the fashion album; D&G's black and pink skimmer dress for the Hello Titty hunt)

That skirt prim. The dress itself isn't bad; at this point on the hunt, with fully half the stores (at least) turning in a black, a pink, or a black and pink gift, it's a bit derivative, but frankly, there was no way for D&G to know that in advance. I think the little ribbon detail along the torso is sweet, and they continue the quasi-confection vibe with the actual shade of pink used, because it's so pale.

But no, it all comes back to the skirt prim. It's no-mod. All I can do is move it up and down, and that really doesn't help. And if it were able to be modded, I could mod it for my shape, but as it is...Another cute dress gone. It's a pity.

Finally, we hit stop #30, SugahTitz, and...well...

(from the fashion album; SugahTitz' gift for the Hello Titty hunt)

...yeah.

I should note: I don't think this lingerie set is terrible. It's a simple set with a (figleafed slightly in this image) V-shaped white lace insert on the panties, and overall, quite serviceable. My only problem is that, after thirty stops on this hunt, I was thoroughly tired of seeing yet another black and pink entry.

(from the fashion album; SugahTitz' gift for the Hello Titty hunt)

It's not SugahTitz' fault in the least. The designer calls this the "Lazy Dayz" set, and it has some nice shading along the back, and the added conceit of the label is rather charming, all things considered.

(from the fashion album; SugahTitz' gift for the Hello Titty hunt)

There are some side-seam issues; they're not overly distracting, though, and to be fair, you'd only see them if you were looking for them.

It only comes with one applier, for Lola's Tangos/Lush combined. (And a wrap-up post follows this one.)

(Style card: My skin's still from Mystic Canvass, and it has another long name: "Trixie Skin-CL Pout Super Gloss Lip". Indeed. The hair's an older style called "Micah" from Exile [vintage 2010!], in Chocolate. The eyes come from Sin Skins; I'm fairly sure they're no longer available, but you're welcome to write Portia Sin and ask: they're the "Intense Obsidian/Garnet Eyes". And the shoes are from DV8, the Danse Macabre ballet boots in Pewter. They're no longer available.)