The Wastelands...

Thursday, October 22, 2015

For the most part, I was content to live & let live in my own little corner of the Bog...


I hadn't played the actual Wastelands game too much at this point. Destiny had taught me how to salvage some time back and I had a small collection of items & some food. I had a facebreaker and a crowbill as well. But the only times I really saw others was at Fight Night. I had begun to discover the true beauty of Bog sunsets though...


I didn't bother people and I even made a few more friends. Pirate Graves was happening by my place one day chasing some mutant, but he took the time to stop and say hello. He and I became friends as we had known some of the same people in Jabberwock. I would also later learn that he & Kitty were a couple...


Sunrises in the bog were pretty lovely too...


All was good but I had a strange feeling that things were about to change...

Monday, October 19, 2015

August 28, 2010 was the next Fight Night. I was becoming something of a regular, I suppose. I had friends who were fighters. One who was a champion and she was my neighbor. What wasn't there to love? So I did my Saturday afternoon thing and walked over to the arena...


I was beginning to get a better grasp on how the rules worked. Last week I had been confused by the odd points system that was used. I would later deduce that on occasions like this, the Tinman tends to wing it. This week was a "classic," eight person affair. I remember watching Apo and Dass go at it...



Dass prevailed in that one. I'm not sure if Apo & I were friends at this point but I do know that we were soon after. She had IMd me one day as she was passing by complimenting me on my build. She didn't know it at the time but I was having a really bad day and she really cheered me up with that. I never forgot. Dass on the other hand was beginning to frighten me. I rightly or wrongly thought that she had the disdain for a noob toward me and that Toki's friendship was the only thing keeping me from an ass kicking. Probably all in my overactive imagination, but whenever I'd see Dass hanging around the Bog I'd get nervous...


Kitty defeated Cloudy in the next match. Toki went and dispatched Cigi and Patrice Cournoyer had beat some girl who didn't even have a weapon attached. Kinda chickenshit, I thought at the time but what did I know? Cloudy dispatched both Apo and Cigi to win the redemption rounds that night...


Next, in the regular rounds we saw Toki vs Dass. This was quite the contest. Dass hit some spikes and that made the difference, but I still didn't feel safe around Dass...



The next fight between Kitty and Patrice would be later seen by me to be sweet, as Kitty didn't like Patrice at all and seemed to enjoy slaughtering her...



This left Toki, Kitty and Cloudy in the finals. I just remember it being a whirlwind with Toki winning her third in a row...





I went home after Fight Night like I did every week. I was still too insecure with myself to stick around and socialize. Walking home, I passed by a new build in the Bog next to Apo's place that would prove to be ominous...

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

I had begun to hone in on a signature look for myself. The eye patch was here to stay. I liked this one and It's been my main one ever since my early days trying to play pirate. The creator, Zion Creations seems to be no longer around. I also started a trend for myself around now by wearing the old boots with knives...


I saw a girl wearing a pair somewhere and when I asked her about them she gave me a landmark to this Gorean place. I had heard about Gor and I really wanted nothing to do with it. I couldn't find the pair I was looking for but they had several items that, while not strictly post apocalyptic would work for me...


While this isn't a fashion blog per se, I feel a need to give a shout out to the maker since they're still around and I did wear their boots for quite awhile:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Boots-Huntress-II-black/713423
And these leather trousers were a mainstay as well:
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/graspLeather-Pants-wHot-Pantswomens01/614665
The makers of the belt and the derby are sadly no longer on the marketplace. And Virus, who made the Skull Tophat no longer offers many of the items that I have from them...



I still had some self doubts about my appearance but I was beginning to discover some sources of grungy clothing and with some imagination I began to put together more coherent outfits...

Monday, October 12, 2015

I spent the next week between Fight Nights working on my home and on my appearance. I measure time at this point in this way because Saturdays had been something of a highlight for me. At this point I was spending a lot of time in Second Life and events are a bit of a blur to me now. Time dilation has compressed those first few months in my memory...



This marked my first attempt to display multimedia. I bought a TV on the marketplace with the idea of playing music videos from YouTube. I wasn't at all successful and I abandoned the project only to try to resurrect it later in the desert. I'm still trying to this day to get it right...


I had a couple of different looks going. At some point around this time I ditched the roller skates. I didn't at the time realize that they constituted a vehicle, so I wore the a few time later. I had found some cool looking boots with daggers which I thought was the ultimate in Wastelands coolness...


They were scripty. I didn't know about causing lag at the time. I got them at a Gorean shop. I should have known no good could come from shopping in Gor, but they had some semi appropriate items. This also marked when I found the ultimate in cool belts, also with a dagger. I wear this one to this day. I was getting close to establishing my trademark look...


Life was good in the swamps...


Little did I know that the quiet and harmony that I was enjoying would be short lived...

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

The next Fight Night that I attended was on August 21,2010 but before hand, I saw something strange in the neighborhood. I don't know if it was the fungus or the bloodmoss, but something was making me have visions...


I was still nervous going to Fight Night. I still was hopeless with a weapon, or so I thought about myself. I was working on my appearance, but I still didn't think that I was intimidating anyone. I still felt a bit out of place, but I just loved attending...


This evening was very confusing for me. It was a points based tournament which I had trouble following. I just enjoyed watching the action. Especially since my new neighbor and friend, Tokiko Tigerpaw was simply kicking ass...




After some confusion (http://press.the-wastelands.org/2010/10/01/fight-night-august-21-2010/) and an elimination round, there was a five way battle for the finish...



Toki came out victorious. I remember commenting to Destiny that Toki was my new neighbor and that I was glad to be on her good side. She agreed that Toki could fight. I had missed the previous weeks Fight Night so I had no idea at the time that Toki had won that one as well...



I would later learn that Toki was a Renegade. That's where I first saw Psycho Baroque, cheering when Toki had won. This would actually be the beginnings of my complex relationship with The Renegades, for better or worse...

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

At about this time began a years long hat fetish. For some reason I thought my avatar looked better wearing a hat. I went through many hats during this phase. This one had an emblem on the front that you could change textures. Cool but not really Wasteland appropriate...

 

I wore the derby and the very impressive top hat for awhile...


And these tow were always among my favorites...


So if upcoming pictures show me wearing silly hats, that would be the reason...

Monday, October 5, 2015

Home in the swamps...


For one reason or another I missed the next Fight Night. Something pressing in the material world, I'm certain but I nevertheless had no idea about a newcomer champion. I think that I spent some time trying to refine the look of my new place with a few odds & ends that I had found on the Marketplace. I think this is about when I discovered how beautiful Bog sunsets (and sunrises) could be...



I had alot of fun with some green radiation barrels. I put one out in the yard, one underwater. I still have one going on my land to this day...

 
I also remember working on my appearance some more. My favorite pair of leather trousers had a very un-wastlandy belt so I started looking for belts to cover it. This was also the beginning of what would become an all to lengthy hat fetish...


In the meantime the neighbor with the giant bug/helicopter had moved on and I suddenly had a new neighbor. I had never interacted with the previous tenant but the new one was very friendly and we became friends right off. Toki was very nice and eager to be in The Wastelands. I think that she thought I had been around much longer than I really had. But it was nice to have a friendly neighbor. At the time, I didn't know how lucky I was to be on her good side...

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Not sure how long it took, maybe a week but I finally had something i was happy with:


I had designed out a rough plan going with the land features that the place came with (still didn't know how to terraform). I built it to be defensible in case I couldn't talk my way outta trouble. I still had some refinements to make but this was the core design that remained on that plot till Malady Bog sadly disappeared...


Looks very barren at this point...


The neighbor with the helicopter/bug was still there, but not for long as I would soon discover...

Thursday, October 1, 2015

So, I donned this outfit for building. You've heard of Builder Bob? I give you Builder Babe:

Did this out of whimsy, I suppose. I was still a relative noob and as such still experimenting with various outfits. I "built" (see what I did there?) upon this over time...


So, I then began the process of laying down some prims and stretching, bending and such to my will. I grabbed some textures from what was then the Heap Pile. I was afraid to go into The Junkyard at the time as it was known Black Market territory, but I asked Kitty for permission and she said to go for it. During this time, my curiosity got the best of me about the neighbor and the helicopter. I had RPd that it was a giant bug with Destiny and someone else. That was really my first attempt at RP in The Wastelands and I had fun with it. The neighbor also had some guard dogs...


They kept getting impaled on the spiked fence, so I had some fun RPing throwing them onto the fire that the owner had going...


All great fun while I was building the next version of New New, which is what I had taken to calling the place. I was beginning to realize that referring to a living city was kinda taboo, so I began to consider another name. Or none...