End of an era (sort of)

Recently, at Z&A, we've been on a push to retire our very early releases, replacing them with new products that fit a similar purpose but which have our newer device system in them and which are made of mesh (so generally have more detail and lower land impact). During this process we have already retired a few of our original 14 products but, today, a very significant event happen. It sort of felt like an "end of an era" moment for me.

Today I retired (replacing on the marketplace and deleting from the shop) the very first full RLV device I ever made. This was, in effect, the very first Z&A product. While it wasn't made to be a Z&A product -- when I made it I had no intention of going into business or anything like that -- it was the first thing I made that went on sale after Zardia had twisted my arm into having a go.

So you can imagine I paused for a moment when faced with this...

What's interesting to note about it is that it did a lot less than our more recent releases and yet had a much higher script footprint. It also had a pretty large land impact too with a prim count of 13. Back when I made it that wasn't so bad but now, with mesh making it so much easier to create devices with less impact, that seems horrifically high.

As far as I'm aware it was the oldest linkset of prims in the shop, dating from February 8th 2010.

Mistress did suggest that I should put it in a glass case and keep it on display. I'm actually rather tempted to do that. After I've found a really nice low-LI glass case... ;)

Pod Prison time

This week is much the start of a busy couple or so months in Z&A's calendar. Come Friday we'll be announcing the dates for, and opening applications for, The Femdom Hunt V. Because of that this is the week that we tend to have our first proper search for new femdom regions and places and we go visiting them with a view to adding them to the invite list.

After Mistress and I had spent an hour or so TPing around the grid, looking at locations, I'd long run out of TPs in my allowance. Also, because we'd been chatting with people, I was very low on talk allowance too. Getting a top-up cost me the following (which were adding to my backlog):

• Wear the punishment log for 6 hours.
• Be denied teleport, confined to a sim of your Domme’s choice, for 2 hours.

and also reminded Mistress that something needed to be knocked off it too. So I was leashed and marched into the Raven Park Mansion and locked in the Pod Prison for 3 hours.

Normally, when Mistress does this, she locks me in a pod in the subterranean portion of the prison. There's something rather cosy and safe about that. Unless someone calls the pod up for inspection I'm nicely alone. This time, however, Mistress decided to lock me in one of the pods in the main prison room!

Even though I can't interact with anyone I can't help but feel rather exposed and vulnerable.

Mistress wished me a goodnight and left me to three hours of watching the comings and goings in the Mansion. Now I get to consider what my next period in the pod prison will be like, that one's a 5 hour sentence.

The Punishment Log

Today, still with a couple of hours left to do in the ass mask, Mistress and I met in world to work on a little project I needed some help with (picking some final names for poses in the new sofa we made for the Raven Park Abbey). Before doing so though I needed to ask for a top-up of walk allowance as I was getting very low. Of all the allowances on the Sub-Allowance HUD this is the worst one to run out of. The others still let me get on with most things -- if I run out of walk I'm stuck on the spot.

Payment was 3 hours in the punishment log.

This does make doing things in-world fairly tricky as I'm denied the ability to touch anything more than 1.5m away from me (it could be worse, it does have the ability to deny all touch). So, until I'm free of it, I'm using the time to do some "paperwork" for The Femdom Hunt (more news on that later next week).

Miss Vila's Ass

Today, after a perm/pack session on some new Z&A products (out later on today) Mistress and I spent a little bit of time together. It was time to get my hands uncuffed (actually, yesterday was, but RL kept Mistress away from me) and I was also in need of a top-up of my teleport allowance.

So, into the office we went, Mistress uncuffed my hands (while keeping the cuffs locked, of course) and I touched the punishment giving book and got...

Be blindfolded for 3 hours and also gagged for 8 hours.

Despite the backlog being rather long Mistress decided to go with that one there and then. I've got work to do in the shop and workshop later today and, unlike pretty much everything else on the list, this wouldn't make it impossible for me to work -- just rather tricky.

Mistress tends not to like to leave me totally blindfolded when she's not logged in so a more general version of "blindfold" is used, normally the Z&A Contact Lenses. It was decided that she'd go with that while trying out something I'd made a couple of nights back. I'd scripted a purchase I made at The Secret Affair so that it's RLV and works as a gag and renamer, as well as an eyesight blurring device (essentially it's a version of the Z&A Plague Mask code).

The mask is locked with a gag set and the renamer set so that if I speak in local it says I'm "Vila's Ass". I'm also denied the ability to start IMs. I can receive IMs and reply to them. This means I can still help people and talk to people if they get in contact with me first.

The contact lenses are locked and set so that I can't see names, maps, location or hover text. Mistress also claims that she set them on not quite the darkest level of forced darkness, although I'm not convinced by that. They seem as dark as usual...

Before Mistress logged off the gag managed to get me in trouble. Trouble I thought I'd got away with too. Mistress just loves to misinterpret gag-speak and I said something that came out looking like I'd said "fuck you" (I believe it was "Thank you Miss", which comes out as "CFhuhnk uhuhu Miss"). That didn't go down well at all and she said that she had half a mind to add an hour to the gag just for that. I didn't think any more of it and assumed I'd got away with it (I normally do).

Some time after saying goodnight to her I checked the time left on the hood and.... it was saying I had 8.5 hours left to go, on a 8 hour lock. It seems she really did add that extra hour after all.

The contacts didn't get anything added, thankfully.

I really need to be more careful what I say in future.

Released, shopping and then blindfolded

After a weekend of shuffling around in a hogtie I met up with Mistress earlier today and she listened to my plea to be let out again. I mean, sure, it was supposed to be for 3 days and today was the end of that 3 days but Mistress does so hate unlocking things.

In the end I think what won her over was me reminding her that she'd picked up lots of demos on Friday that she wanted to buy the full versions of. So, I was unlocked...

...and we both got changed...

...before heading back to The Secret Affair so Mistress could pick up the items she wanted (and so I could buy a thing I had my eye on too).

We had a quick wander around so Mistress could make her purchases and I could make mine (something I'll be working on in the next day or so -- the item is copy and mod and just begging to have some Z&A RLV scripts added to it) and then we headed back home. Mistress spent a little bit of time trying out one outfit and hair combination before heading over to the workshop with me so I could run a couple of new builds past her (one of which will be out this week, the other likely next week).

Finally it was time to think about tucking her up in bed but, before she went, she reminded me that it was time to apply another restriction from my allowance list. Given that the next day or so means I need to move things around in the shop, etc, it was suggested that I use my one remaining wildcard item and select wisely (the other items on the list aren't quite so conducive to building and editing and Mistress laughed lots when I suggested that perhaps her wildcard choice (she has one on the list too) would also be such a choice). So I decided to pick being locked in a blindfold that I'd scripted up using an item I'd bought at Romp last week.

I've scripted it similar to our Contact Lenses. This means that, rather than flat-out blind, I'm walking around in a very dark world and am denied things like names, hover text, access to maps and so on. This allows me to carry on with my work, albeit in a greatly hindered way. Once the more recent vision-oriented additions to RLV make it into RLVa too (and so, hopefully, into most RLV(a)-enabled viewers) I aim to make use of them as well (likely as an option).

On top of being blindfolded Mistress decided that I should have my hands cuffed too, otherwise I might be tempted to remove it. ;)

Part of my "wildcard" choice was that, while I selected the restraint, Mistress would select the time I should wear it for. Initially she set it for 4 hours, but then she decided to go easy on me and reduce it by 1/2 hour. Only, instead of removing a 1/2 hour, she added it, and started the timer. There was much laughing and reminding me that her doing these things just before bed can never go well for me, and then we said goodnight in-world before logging off to say goodnight in RL.

Only then did she mention that she'd actually taken pity on me and, while we were saying goodnight in-world, with the help of Mal...

...she'd modified the time to better match what she'd originally intended.

Mistress is too kind.

So, that's me for the next few hours, in a very dark world and not able to see very far, or who's on the region, or around me if I go anywhere else.

Doubtless I'll find something to do while I'm like this. ;)

More shopping, then hogtied for the weekend

Yesterday Mistress and I went shopping again. After the previous day's trip to Romp it was the turn of The Secret Affair. Mistress already had a list of things she wanted to look at and get demos for so there was a very clear plan for the day. So it was on with the shopping bags and off we went...

The build itself is stunning and really well laid out, if a little hard on the viewer (both of us suffered from a good bit of client-side lag, presumably from the abundance of textures visible in such a small area). As intended, lots of demos were grabbed -- both of items that Mistress wanted to try and also of items that we discovered along the way. I even saw something I quite liked the look of (Mistress liked it too) and will have to go back and pick it up next week some time.

While there were a few gatcha machines around it was nice to see that they weren't overdone. There's nothing more frustrating than seeing something you really like the look of, only to find that you have to waste time and money playing a gatcha to get it (or, more likely, walking off and forgetting about it).

Once done we headed home and into Mistress' studio so she could try the demos on. I think this might have been the first time ever that we've come back from a shopping trip and every demo has gone into the "go back and buy" pile. Some of the items she picked up looked stunning on her.

All too soon though it was Mistress' bedtime and the start of a weekend where we won't get to see each other. Mistress got dressed again (and I threw on something to sort of match) and we headed back down to the house, where she reminded me that the allowance list needed working on.

As "luck" would have it there was an item that I should remain hogtied, only able to shuffle around to get where I need, for 3 days. That'd take us to when we next see each other. So, with the click of locks, I was swiftly dealt with.

While I am able to get around slowly I can't "sit tp" anywhere. That means that if I want to be somewhere I can either do a normal TP (and use my TP allowance, making things worse again) or I can shuffle the long way. This tie is also one where I can't get up the stairs of the house. So, last night, and until Monday, I get to sleep with the cats.

I can't (and never would) complain though. At least I can build and get things done. For now. There's a couple of items left on the list that will make that pretty impossible and I fear they'll be coming up soon.

A brief visit to Romp

A little earlier on today I met up in-world with Mistress so she could let me out of what I've been locked in for the past 4 days. After I was unlocked and relocked with my usual cuffs we decided that we should pop and visit Romp.

On and off, recently, we've been talking about how a kink/Femdom/RLV/BDSM-friendly fair might be a good idea. Fairs seem to be the thing at the moment so something aimed squarely at that adult end of the grid would, we thought, be very welcome. Kind of in the way that The Femdom Hunt first started, we kept talking about how, if nobody else is doing anything like this, perhaps we should so that it would exist.

And then Mistress found out about Romp at the start of the week, meaning we could give up on the idea 'cos someone had already thought about it! Even better, it describes itself as "a celebration of elegant kink". Kind of hard not to be excited about that.

The location itself is a really pretty build, albeit one we weren't expecting. I'm not sure what we were expecting but "elegant kink" sort of conjures up images of the mansion from Eyes Wide Shut, or something similar. Instead it appears to be more of a fantasy-like wooded glade that looks like it should be inhabited by fairy folk and similar creatures. Not a bad thing, and like I say, very pretty, just different from the image the description had created in our minds.

The location itself is easy and logical to navigate (something that can't always be said of fairs where form seems to trump function a lot of the time) and, we found, pretty fast and easy to load. Many of the shops, however, are rather small. We found that if a couple were in a shop having a look it made you want to move along and make a mental note to come back later -- it would seem crowded and like you're invading someone's space.

Another odd thing we found was that there seemed to be a general lack of information-giving. Some of the boards in the shops lacked useful information such as permissions and every shop we dropped in on appeared to not want to reveal the location of their main store. Really, the latter was the oddest part. Every shop has a really pretty blackboard sign outside which looked like it was the sort of thing you should touch to get information on the creator, perhaps a bio and a landmark, but a touch did nothing.

We also noticed that one or two displays didn't seem to be working, or were supposed to be static props that, while for sale, actually didn't do anything (again, a lack of information meant that there was no way of getting notecards or something else to tell you what the product did).

Those quibbles aside though, I think it's well worth a visit if kink is your thing. While one or two of the stalls appeared to have items totally unrelated to kink (stores that don't even nod towards a theme seem common at most fairs I've been to) most had something on theme. I was even excited to see that one or two items were appropriate for male subs too (I made two purchases, both of which are copy and mod and so I'm aiming to script as RLV items for Mistress' pleasure).

If anything I was a little surprised that we didn't see any of the names we'd normally recognise from the kink-oriented business in SL. While it was good to see names I'd not seen before making such items it would have been nice to see some new builds from some of the more familiar names (I know if we'd known about it, or had been invited, we'd have had loads of fun making a few things).

Sadly our visit was fairly brief, I think we only managed to spend about 40 minutes there. We have promised ourselves a return visit, perhaps next week (even though it was a couple of days into the fair a couple of the stalls were still missing so, hopefully, that'll give them time to get in place).

Upon getting home, before Mistress had to log off, we switched over my SubHUD to a new test version. I've been working on a new module for it (which will be a free update to all users of the retail version) and it needs a bit of dogfooding before being called a finished release. Part of setting up the new version meant setting my home (as seen by the HUD) inside my cell.

Given that the cell auto-shuts and starts a random time when I appear inside it, this happened. And, of course, given that Mistress hates opening a cell with a running timer.... that's how I said goodnight to her, through the bars of the door.

Still, I'm free of any serious restrictions for at least the next 24 hours. I suspect that another item on my allowance list will be put into effect tomorrow.

Strapped for four days

Today, after a bit of a window-shopping trip (we may or may not be looking at new houses), Mistress reminded me that the weekend's fun was over and it was time to return to knocking more items off my allowance payment list. I'd recently suggested something I'd like to do as one of my wildcards (the punishment where I get to pick it) and, as it happened, I'd acquired another payment at last night's dance (I ran out of talk and needed a top-up there and then) that would be a perfect match.

So, along with "wear nothing but a chastity belt for 4 days" (the one that had come up last night)...

...I'm also wearing leg and arm straps (my wildcard choice)...

I'd also said to Mistress that, as part of my wildcard, she chooses the length of time I remain in them. Of course she decided that it should be the full 4 days I'm denied clothing except for the belt.

While none of this has any harsh restrictions for the next 4 days it does mean I can only move around by jumping. This is a lot slower than normal walking and I have to stop for a rest every so often so that I can keep my speed up. And, of course, it limits where I can go for the next few days too -- I'm not exactly dressed appropriately for some locations.

Also, before Mistress left for bed, I needed a top-up for TPs. That got me another wildcard payment; Miss Vila's wildcard, that is. She gets to pick anything she wishes.

No longer a pony

Yesterday, a day later than planned, I ended my period as Miss Vila's pony.

I was unlocked of all my gear and stripped of my outfit and, fairly quickly, I was back to my old self.

With this change of status I was given permission again to use the house. This means I can use the transporter pad in the house again, meaning I can quickly get to the workshop -- no more trudging all the way across the region to the Z&A main store to get the transporter pad there.

After having all my pony gear removed we retired to Mistress' studio to work on out outfits for tomorrow's Raven Park dance. After sorting outfits we went shopping for a few extra dances for the Raven Park dance system. That had an amusing (for Mistress) moment where we went to one store that, unknown to me (because my mini-map turns off when I'm with Mistress thanks to Sub-Focus), spanned two regions -- both of them general. I'm "banned" from general regions by the region monitor in my SubHUD but I'm also okay on general regions if Mistress is there when I enter.

Of course, at one point, I crossed the region boundary before she did, so I was in a general region without her, which meant that I was force-teleported to my cell.

Rather than come and rescue me (apparently it was all my own fault for not paying attention) Mistress let me serve the time the cell had randomly picked (about 1/2 hour) while she carried on shopping.

In the end I got out again and we finished off the dance shopping before adding the new dances to the dance system.

We're now all set for the dance.

Boots are trained

Earlier today Mistress and I were hanging out in the garden, having a chat and planning a few things while I walked around in circles, working on the last bit of (re-)training of my pony boots.

This paid off because, after not too long, I did it, I finished level 4! I was finally in a position where I could walk at normal avatar speeds, would be able to walk as far as I liked without falling over, would be able to run and also jump.

It'd taken quite a lot of time (on and off, of course) and I was really excited to have fully-trained boots again. Until, this is, I noticed something wasn't quite right. During training, at least, the boos play a whinny sound, along with a great little animation that Mistress loves, when you hit the normal avatar crouch key (PgDn for most people). That was now lost. No whinny sound, no cute animation.

Mistress wasn't too happy about this. But, a quick check of the manual later, and she had a solution to the problem. Now that I'd fully-trained my boots she could set what level I walk around on. A quick test later confirmed that setting me back to any of the training levels got the whinny back. And so, as of 10 minutes after I'd finished training my boots, I was back on level 4. For good.

While I'm tempted to suggest that all that walking around Zindra got me nowhere, what it really did was give Mistress full access to all the levels so she could set them how they please her. That thought makes it not quite so terrible.

Before she headed for bed I also had to ask for a top-up for teleports as I was getting rather low. That got me a payment of "Be cuffed, hogtied, so you can wriggle your way to where you need to go, for 3 days".

The list grows...

A brief visit to Wildfire Stables

Today, after perming and packing some new Z&A releases ready for tomorrow, Mistress and I retired to her back garden for a short while to have a chat and just hang out. Well, I say have a chat, I'm still gagged so I didn't chat so much in-world. ;)

Keen to knock more off my allowance list Mistress noted that there was one item that could work for a pony: to be left leashed in a public place on a region of her choice. This is one I particularly dislike as I'm not a huge fan of being in a place where I might have to interact with strangers, even if they're kink-friendly strangers. And, of course, Mistress knows me well enough to be able to mess with my head with this.

So, one moment she's there, the next she'd TPd away. I was then pulled after her. The first thing I saw on landing was that wherever we were they had excellent taste in RLV vehicles!

Mistress decided that we should take a Z&A Pipe Trap and I could take her on a tour of the region while she looked over the (rather long) rules notecard.

By now I'd noticed we were at a place called Wildfire Stables. It, and the region next to it, are really nicely laid out and decorated. It's the sort of place where we both felt at home. Many of the details were the sort of thing you could (and in some cases can) find on Raven Park.

Mistress was especially excited to find that there was ice cream to be had.

And, of course, she couldn't resist.

As we got near the end of the tour Mistress mentioned that she was very keen on the idea of hitching me up on the region somewhere and leaving me for the hour mentioned earlier. The only thing that was a cause for concern for her was the fact that in the notecard everything, while talking about being accepting of many forms of BDSM play in general, and pony play in particular, only even spoke about pony girls. Everything was worded as if only women sub. While we don't have a particular issue with that view of the world (the wonderful thing about SL is we can all build little worlds for "our tribes", as it were) it was a cause for concern as we didn't want to be in a position of using the region in a way that would be unwelcome.

In the end our wondering and worrying about this became moot because we got the region restart warning -- today's rolling restart had hit.

So that payment stays on my allowance payment list, for now. And we also have a really pretty region to explore some more -- especially when Mistress has me locked in pony gear.

Boot training on Zindra

The past few days have been a bit quiet here on the blog, mostly because I've been busy building and working on a longer-term project but also because, while I've been locked up as Miss Vila's pony again, there's not been much movement on the allowance front.

However, Mistress did note that I didn't seem to be doing much work on training my boots -- the vast majority of my walking being the walk to and from the shop (to get to the workshop) once a day -- and she decided that this needed fixing. As it was I had an item on my allowance payment list to the effect of being dumped on any region she wished and then denied all forms of teleporting for 5 hours.

So, yesterday, before Mistress headed for bed, I found myself on the very edge of Zindra once again, denied TPs for 5 hours of in-world time, a top up of walk allowance (which obviously increased the size of my allowance payment list again), and a pat on the backside and told to get to work on finishing off training the boots.

The resulting walk was pretty epic for me, and was very different from my banishment periods on Zindra in that I knew where I was, I could see where I was going and I had maps so I could plan a route. In the end I more or less crossed the continent twice before the timer ran out. I have an album of photos I took along the way. Here's a few highlights:

I found wildlife on the way

I even found some proper hills on the way

I stumbled on the supplier of my first
SL penis

I discovered that Zindra has a dam,
it even has different water levels
either side of it

I can remember when the owner of
this shop was asking about land
buying/renting advice in a group.
Was good to see such a big shop

Found someone with excellent taste
in RLV vehicles ;)

As I was near the end of my time I heard the sound of a motorcycle tearing down the road behind me. I step to one side to let whatever lunatic was riding it past and....

...if it wasn't my favourite maker of yokes and second favourite Drow!

Turns out that, without even realising it, I'd walked past the Sunshine Technology main store. We stood and had a good natter for quite some time before I had to head back home and tidy up the shop ready for some new releases this week.

In the end I managed to get my boots up from around 20% to 50% (on level 4). Although I, as I normally do, dreaded the idea of being away from home for 5 hours I actually enjoyed the journey in the end. Despite what so many people seem to think Zindra has a lot to see and, while the roads aren't as pretty and the geology isn't as interesting as other mainland continents, it's never boring.