Melissa the Giant Wood Nymph

I was wandering about and shopping (a dangerous combination) when I happened across a store with some very nice clothing.

It's Chaospire, and if you're interested in fantasy/goth inspired clothing, it's well worth visiting. It's not inexpensive, but... you're getting some beautifully detailed work with wonderful flowing shapes and forms for your money (and service after the sale, from looking at the note that accompanied the clothing I bought!). There are three stories to the store, though only one has inventory at the moment. I am very much looking forward to the time that all three floors are full!

So... off I headed after changing into "Woodnymph" and rummaging through inventory for a little wilder auburn hairdo, in search of woods to appear in. The Lost Gardens of Apollo leapt to mind... and the spot by the statue of Icarus (if it's not Icarus, it should be!) that is beautifully lit at midnight. I took some pictures there, though for my purposes sunset turned out better than midnight, and then headed off to look for other places.


There was a spot by a waterfall that looked nice, so I sat there.. and seemed to sink waist-deep into the ground! "All right," I grumbled to myself, "I'll use this sit pose that seems to raise one up a bit." I ran it in the world... and rose a few feet into the air. Mutter, mumble, mutter, mumble... all right, I'll rotate the POV around so it looks like I'm on the ground! I did so, and then I looked at myself with a wild surmise, like stout Cortez' men (actually Balboa, but that's not important right now)...

Forced perspective.

Flashback to fourth grade: for a time, my sister and I stayed with our paternal grandparents. We got to stay up on Saturday night and watch the late night horror movies. I only remember two of them from that time: Frankenstein 1970, a sad rehash of the Frankenstein story that I guess at least got Boris Karloff a paycheck, and Attack of the Fifty-Foot Woman.

My fourth-grade mind didn't understand the arguments between Harry and Nancy Archer, or why Harry went off with whatever her name was (played by Playboy playmate Yvette Vickers, as I learned later--I thought Allison Hayes was far prettier). It didn't care about the wretched special effects, which featured the black and white equivalent of the weatherman who forgets and wears a suit of the chroma-key color. It just saw the fifty-foot Allison Hayes and was impressed, and wanted to be her.

Back to the present. I took a picture or two..


...and a gentleman walked up and greeted me. We talked about Linux a bit, and I noticed that he was positioned perfectly for my purposes... so I asked whether he minded appearing in pictures I was taking. He didn't, so I took a couple more and then finally undid the pose, stood up, and walked over and conversed, said thanks, and introduced myself like a civilized being (as John Bigbooté would say).


Thanks to Leonardo Delvecchio for allowing the use of his image!

P.S. Since there are tiny avatars out there, I should explain about forced perspective. Signore Delvecchio is of normal height. No avatars were harmed in the making of these images. This is the SL equivalent of standing close to the camera and holding out your hand while your friend stands way back in the field positioned just right to make it look like he or she is tiny and you're holding him or her in your outstreched hand.