More cubes

Now that the project I started working on back in June is getting out and onto the grid (as one of our Femdom Hunt gifts) it's time for me to think of starting on something new. There's another thing I've been wanting to do with/for Z&A for quite some time and, last night, I started tinkering:

Those first dew days of a new scripting project, where it's all just cubes, are so much fun.

Finished the hunt

As mentioned yesterday, Miss Vila and I finished The Femdom Hunt today. The final few went pretty smoothly and we got to meet a few interesting people along the way. Of course, as was expected, I was kept in the box right until the end. Here we are in the Bane room at Mo's new shop:

By the time we got home Miss Vila was too tired to even think about starting on unpacking, so that'll be left until tomorrow at the earliest. However, she did let me out of my box so I could have a quick look at one of the gifts I was especially interested in trying on to see how well it fits:

Of course, to see if it fit well it needed to be locked, which Miss Vila did. And she decided that she liked it enough that she wasn't going to unlock it again. And then she decided that she'd lock my ankle cuffs too. So, while I'm free of the box, I'm now locked in a yoke which denies far touch, and locked on my knees which means I can only shuffle about and sit-tp is denied. In other words I have to get very close to anything I want to touch or sit on.

This also now means that it's a lot more effort to get the gifts-given count from our hunt shoes. I'd facepalm if I could. Which I can't.

Almost there

It goes without saying that Miss Vila and I go out on, and do, The Femdom Hunt together. However, because of our timezone differences we have to do it in lots of little bitesize chunks -- normally around 10 per session (sometimes more, sometimes less -- it depends on if anyone needs help, if a location is especially distracting (in a good way) or if someone strikes up a conversation with us).

We've made it as far as #50 so, all being well, we'll finish tomorrow.

Today, after working through #41 to #50, we had a nice relaxing sit and chat on our recently-built back patio:

Well, one of us had a relaxing sit anyway. ;)

Hopefully, if I'm lucky, we might finish tomorrow and I might be allowed out of the cage. I'm rather keen to be in a position to try some of the items we've got on the hunt -- especially some of the RLV toys.

A cell in a cell

So, last night, due to an unfortunate timing error relating to my curfew (see one of Z&A's TFH hunt gifts for more details), I ended up inside my cell. Not just inside my cell but inside a little cell inside my cell.

I sure hope Miss Vila has never seen Inception.

Out on the hunt

As normally happens it's taken us a couple or so days to get out on The Femdom Hunt. The first weekend tends to be pretty busy with keeping on top of things so it makes sense to wait until it's all settled down a little. Today was that day.

Before heading out I asked Miss Vila how she'd like me to dress. "Something that shows off your tattoo but is mature-friendly, possibly latex". So, in other words, something that shows off some of my backside without being totally naked. I had just the latex catsuit too. So, I slip into that and think I'm all ready.

I wasn't. The next thing I knew Miss Vila used one of Z&A's hunt gifts to drop me inside a Bondage Witch Project drag cage:

And it seems this is how I'll be doing the hunt. And not just while we're out on the hunt either. Oh no, I've been left in it!

Hopefully we'll finish the hunt pretty quickly.

I'm not even sure my tattoo is showing so well.

RLV around the house

Ever since Miss Vila and I "consolidated" homes in January this year our house has been mostly RLV-free. Aside from my cell we've had very few RLV-enabled items in the house. This wasn't so much a deliberate policy of being mostly RLV-free (far from it, we're both huge fans of the use of RLV) and more a case of acknowledging the fact that our garden and extended home have tons of RLV goodies.

With the new house we've changed this a little. Again, rather than building a "play room" or a "dungeon" (which, like I say, we have on our doorstep and share with the public) we've taken the approach of using items that make sense and blend in.

For example, in the kitchen there's a blackboard with a shopping list and todo list chalked on it, that also serves the purpose of keeping a subbie out of the way while the kitchen is busy:

and in the bedroom a Z&A Display Sconce serves a similar purpose:

And then there's the cupboard under the stairs:

That was just begging to be RLV-enabled in some way. So, a couple of prims (one to touch and sit on, one outside for the hover-text display when needed)...

...and appropriate animation and our display devices scripts later, with a sprinkle of 100% transparency, and we have an RLV-enabled cupboard:

Because of this I've given myself a little background job: I'm going to look around the house and see if there's any more "homely" builds that would make sense. I think they'd make great products to add to the small range that's on the go that includes the Display Sconce, the Display Board and the Ceiling Fan.

Now it feels like it's almost here

No matter how much work I do on The Femdom Hunt, it's only when I throw the flags out around the place that it really feels like it's almost here. ;)

Miss Vila approves

As mentioned yesterday, last night I handed over ownership of the custom-built cell in the new house. Miss Vila then spent a few moments setting up and putting it in trap mode (in other words, the door closes and a random timer starts if I step inside it). I then offered to step inside and be 100% sure that trap and timer were working okay. Miss Vila said I should.

And, as you can see, it worked a treat. The timer (set to a maximum of one hour -- at least that's what she tells me) kicked in just fine and gave me around 40 minutes. So, that test being done, I waited for her to open the door.

And waited. And waited. And...

...Mistress spent the next 40 minutes shopping for bits on the marketplace because she really hates opening a locked cell. Still, she did find something to make the new cell really useful:

Cells. Not just for storing subs.

Making my own cell

For as long as I've been with Miss Vila, and as long as she's had a house on the grid, I've had "my cell". My cell is the place where I'd be dropped as a punishment for various things, or just for her amusement. My cell is also the place that is set as the "home" location for products such as my Sub-Allowance. My cell has also always been a very particular cell. It's a very attractive Sweet Torments cell (sadly Sweet Torments aren't on the grid any more -- much to Miss Vila's and my disappointment).

Every time we've gone house shopping, or every time Miss Vila has built a house, the ability to position the cell somewhere has been a consideration. Until a couple of days ago. We were sure the cell would fit somehow but the house really grabbed us and we had to have the house. Sadly, after trying, it turns out that the cell wasn't a good fit. Just a little too big to go anywhere without getting in the way.

So we hatched a plan. There's a section of the first floor landing that was going spare, so to speak, so it was decided that I'd build a custom-fit cell. Better still, I'd build it so it was part of the house itself. I just finished the last bit of work on it this evening:

It's scripted with a slightly tweaked copy of the Z&A cell code (the tweak being that the timer is random as Miss Vila prefers that) and built to make maximum use of the surrounding house. I think I pulled it off pretty well. And Miss Vila is very pleased with it.

And the nice thing is that it takes up hardly any room:

All that remains is that I transfer it to Miss Vila so she's the full owner of it and I have no access to the menus (when on the outside -- I can't access them when on the inside even now) and I have a new "home".

Not even the wrong trousers

For a long time now I've been after a certain style of trousers. Something that's open and laced up both sides, from cuff to waist. Today, while having a rummage around the latest stuff under male apparel on the Second Life marketplace I stumbled on a rigged mesh version of just what I was looking for. Perfect!

Annoyingly, even though the listing said that there was a demo to try, there was no link to a demo version. It seems the idea was that you had to go to the shop and grab the demo in person. Okay, a bit of a faff, but I'm happy to support people's in-world stores (it's not like I'm not a little bit proud of mine after all).

As it was, it was worth the trip. I landed in a pretty neat shop and one of the first things I saw was one of my own products!

I always get a kick when that happens.

It took me ages to find the demo for the product I was after (huge store) and, sadly, when I got the demo home I just couldn't make it fit. Well, I could, but the modifications I had to make to my shape ended up with me not looking very me at all -- I'm happy enough to make mesh-friendly tweaks if they're not outlandish but this product demanded too much. A shame.

A little later Miss Vila turned up and I went to the MP to find the trousers again so I should show them to her. As I did a house popped up in the featured product area. And it looked a little bit us too. Even since we moved onto our current plot (to make way for the expansion of Z&A) we've been meaning to buy a new house. The Woolman Tower has served us well enough but we wanted something more home-like. So we dived in-world and went and had a look.

Looking turned into planning. Planning turned into serious consideration. Serious consideration turned into purchasing. Within no time we were taking our last photos of our (old) home:

and replacing it with the new build:

There's still a fair bit of work to do. Much of the furniture needs replacing and we've still got to decide many of the internal textures but, already, it's feeling like home. It's actually nice to have something a little more conventional again. And Miss Vila is overjoyed at all the windows (she really isn't a fan of walls that don't have lots of windows).

What I really like is that it's really cosy inside:

So, there you have it. That's how a shopping trip for new trousers resulted in me not even buying the wrong trousers.

We went a little Sith

As well as the set choice for yesterday's dance being a tricky one due to time and options there was also the issue of deciding outfits too. Again, the options were so many and time was so short that we were kind of stuck. Until we decided to do what we've done before for some dances and just make up our own thing, that's on-theme, and has a slight goth feel to it.

Miss Vila as a Sith Lady (or Sith Lord, seems either is the correct term), with her apprentice, seemed to work well:

Jabba's Throne Room

Coming up with a build for today's dance was a bit of a problem. Not only was time against me (mainly because The Femdom Hunt IV is starting to hot up), there was also the issue of their being so many choices and ideas that it was tricky to pick one.

In the end I think I hit on a reasonable one. While it's not a perfect recreation of the scene in question, I think it works as a backdrop that has the right feel:

I'm looking forward to seeing what people turn up wearing.