WINTER AT DARK MOON BOG

Winter Has Again Come To Dark Moon

Yes, winter has come to The Bog! Neph takes off with her faithful fox carriers to see the changes herself, after her researchers have reported the seasonal changes. But Neph also goes to meet her love, Luco, at the Ice Palace in The Bog for a dance.

Through the Forest They Go!

 Neph gazes at the icicle forest as her foxes carry her to the Ice Palace.

Lovely Under the Full Moon

Her faithful foxes carry her on. Through the forest, up the river, and into the bog itself

The Moonfruit Trees Love the Cold!

Neph's trusty fox carriers protect her feet from the cold waters of the bog. She marvels at the growth of the Moonfruit Trees spreading through the bog, as other plant life seems to have died back. It seems also that the fungal growth produced by the now gone tuberplants seem to glow brighter, as if to encourage this bloom.

Snow Mounds

The land seems to be surrounded by snow mounds that protect the Bog from the harsh winds of winter, though the snow falls and melts into the crystal waters.

Finally to the Ice Palace!

But Luco is not there! As the foxes arrive at the Ice Palace, the prearranged place to meet her love, Neph sees Luco has not arrived yet, and with a whimsical abandonment, asks the foxes to continue to tour the land.

On Through an Ice Arch!

The foxes continue through the Bog to higher ground, and discover an ice arch... It seems to lead to the northeast of the land where there is a surprise!

Up the Incline

Neph waits patiently as her faithful foxes trudge upward to this new area. The waters are cold, but the sparkling beauty keep the three of then enthralled. The Ice Palace behind can wait!

An Igloo!

Apparently there are animals here, snow owls, polar bears, penguins, and yes, a warm cozy igloo! It looks inviting, but Neph must see more of the seasonal change and urges the foxes onward!

Off they go! Onward to more exploration. There is the river, and lo, the sound of wolves from just south!

Yes! Wolves! And Neph is concerned, though they do not seem to attack. The wolves and ravens have a pact, helping each other find prey in the cold of winter. The sound of the howling, the bird calls, and even snow owls in the distance, blending into the howling wind, make Neph feel free and wild...she is reminded of a past life when she was a unicorn.

Many know there were once Unicorns at Dark Moon, but few know that Nepherses Amat herself was a unicorn in a past life! Neph believes that her fear of dogs in this life is connected to what happened many years ago, another winter at Dark Moon!

Attacked by wolves in the cold of winter, the unicorn struggled to free herself! She knew they did not need her as prey, and deeply believed that peace was possible. This is what magic is about, after all.

Struggling to her feet, the unicorn got up! It did not take long, just all of her strength, for sometimes we are tested in these ways.

With all her might, she not only stood, but asserted herself, her glorious power and beauty, and kicking and screaming, showed the wolves just who she was! This was a unicorn not to be trifled with! In fact, it was the magic of her species that was capable of bringing many different kinds of creatures to Dark Moon!

But it was not enough to overcome her fate with the wolves bearing down upon her, the unicorn wanted true peace. As we all know, the unicorn's horn is a magical instrument. It is capable of purifying water even! So with this, the unicorn made friends with these wolves. And they to this day do not attack innocent beings that come to Dark Moon, for the wolves learned it is important to not just act instinctively, but to truly see the beauty in all creatures, the magic of the glistening snow, the call of the raven, the wisdom of the owl, the tenaciousness of the badger, and especially the grace of the unicorn!

The foxes had carried Neph halfway up the river, past the swans before she came out of her reverie. The daze of a past life is powerful! She looked around blinking. Now it was up into the forest.

 

It was back through the forest, and past her badger friends on the way to the dance at the cliff before Luco arrived to meet Neph. He showed up not at the ice palace, but just at the edge of the forest near the family of magical hinds. It was there that they danced beneath the full moon, happy in love.

Do not forget, Neph and Luco live here in this magical place called Dark Moon. And the magic follows then time and again, perhaps through lifetimes, once a unicorn, and who knows what else?

(Cozy Igloo by Manda Braveheart of Yellow Rose Designs: Custom Builders. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Locarno/73/144/1002)

Visit Dark Moon! http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dark%20Moon/86/170/20

THE MEEROOS AT DARK MOON

Yes, there are now meeroos at Dark Moon. I swore I would never introduce breedables to my Second Life, but guess what? The meerroos introduced themselves to me. Just as Dark Moon is an ancient ecosystem endemic to SL, so too are meeroos the very first indigenous animal species. Consequently, it is not at all surprising that many have migrated to Dark Moon.

 

 The meeroos seem to prefer the highlands, we have found. So it is there that my research team set up a garden in which to study this lifeform. At first we suspected that the meeroos would run off into the hills, but lo~ they do indeed like the berries we have been providing.

Also brought to my attention, by the research team, was the existence of wild meeroos that only very occasionally would peer into the garden enviornment, as if to see what our now tamed meeroos were up too. We thought they might begin to steal food, but that turned out not to be the case. If anything, the wild meeroos have lured at least one of our research subjects out to the wild.

There is a folk story among the breeding community. Once I got ahold of this story, I was quick to share it with both my research team, and these highly intelligent animals. What follows is one version of the legend:

Once upon a time there was a little autumn coated meeroo who had very low regard (as you most likely know, SL breeders have become competitive and rank their meeroos in regard). This little autumn felt unloved and abandoned. Adding insult to injury (or so she thought at the time), the little autumn coat was released to the wild! Now many captive meeroos have heard rumors that the wild is a very unpleasant place, that "Out There" they will starve, that no one will pet them and they will have NO regard at all! So needless to say, the little autumn coat was terrified to find herself out on her own.

 The little autumn wandered forlornly through the forests and down the paths she found feeling very dejected. But suddenly, upon coming around a bend, the little autumn coat met a unicorn. She was quite surprised by the unicorn greeting her too! The unicorn could see the little autumn was terrified and quickly reassured her. He told her how there was not only a whole community of released meeroos like herself, but that the wild meeroos still lived in the hills, and that these wild ones graciously accepted ferrals into their midst. Not only that, but the unicorn pointed the way to one encampment he knew of.

The little autumn coat followed the unicorn's instructions and soon found herself entering a large glade in the forest...AND IT WAS FULL OF MEEROOS! Some bounded up to her curiously and welcomed her! The whole glade was ringed with wild berry bushes and all the meeroos there were eating and dancing and breeding! Basically having a very good time!

Soon the little autumn coat was befriended by a gang of other autumn coats (and one ursine) who began to explore the wild together. In fact, it was this very gang that discovered an new berry more delicious than any other berry, more delicious than any berries they had ever been fed in captivity! So our little released autumn coat lived happily ever after.

Now it is my policy to read this story to my captive meeroos, and my research team and I often give them the option to be released. We carefully instruct them that the helpful unicorn lives just south of the garden, through the fairy arches . . . however, we don't really tell them about that special wild berry, because we are afriad they might all leave then, and who would we study?

ZOLAAAAAAAAAAA

So this is my good friend Zola Zsun! You can see her blog, Zola Novela, by clicking on the link on the left of this page! Zola’s great! We talk quite a bit, and are constantly modifying our skirts due to the fact that we don’t want to be skinny like the standard Second Life avatars. Well, the human ones at least. Though I must say, I see very creative women about! Not everyone is anorexic. Now I am feeling like I should be saying something extremely intelligent about how avatars reflect our mainstream culture of sexist lookism, but actually, I just wanted to talk about Zola.

Zola Zsun

So there she is. One night we were feeling silly and made a little zoo. Absolutely no reason except we wanted to take all our animals out! Now, you got to realize, this was a very silly thing, nothing elaborate. But a few friends did finally drop by and we all chatted and sat on hippos and things. Sometimes SL is just about hanging out and being silly. Hell, in my case it usually is!

You know? That’s not really true at all! Zola had a great a idea a while back for a Role Play Exposition. She is an educational design and technology grad student who works here in SL. So the idea was to have different role play groups display and demonstrate their stuff. You will have to ask Zola, but I guess the idea is to use SL for interactive, immersive and synergistic learning, not just each student clicking on things alone. Actually, my sister, Elle Bellah is in the field too. Now she is working on machinima for nursing classes. Anyway, Zola had this idea, and I got to do the terraforming! 

Zola, Miss Wright & Me

Dramatic Terraforming!

Zola in all her glory

More terraforming

Each role-play group needed a space that reflected what they did, and it had to be parceled for media and music. If I recall, ultimately it was Pandora, Deadwood, Antiquity, Pern, Toxian City, and Renaissance Island. It was quite a well-rounded sample: three different historical periods, fantasy, science fiction, and a dystopia.

Gianfar

Pandora

Renaissance Island

Antiquity's Tea Area

Deadwood

Antiquity's lighthouse at the site

Toxian City's Miss Wright

After getting commitments from all the role-play groups, terraforming, landscaping, parceling and setting up, Zola decided we needed a tour and party! So I got Ragnarok Dragonash, my good friend to DJ and we set up a fun dance area too! Rag’s a great DJ, btw, he does Celtic music, on Fridays, at Sarras Village’s medieval tavern. Rag and his partner Katje Broek are my oldest friends in Second Life, and own the sim next to Dark Moon. ANYWAY... the tour! Now that was a gas! (hahaha~) Zola got stage fright! But I tell you she came through! We were on voice, and I walked her through the first stop, Toxian City. After that, all I had to do was type in chat, “FOLLOW THE REDHEAD!” and everyone trailed after her. 

The Party

Follow the Red Head!

The dragons of Pern were particularly interesting because they gave a live role-play demo of a dolphin healing a sick dragon! I don’t know about you, but that’s something I don’t see everyday~! 

Tiny Dragon Advising

Einy Marksman & Me watch

Zola is happy the dragon is healed!

 So, as I said, for smart fun, FOLLOW THE REDHEAD Zola Zsun! Kiss, Zola : )