The Luskwood Tribute Party

On Thursday November 29, The Happy Vixen club held a tribute to the Luskwood community. For those who don't know, Luskwood was the original furry community in Second Life, and probably the oldest one still active. They're also the people who came up with the first company to make and sell furry avatars instead of each one being custom-made, also called Luskwood.

The exact date in fall 2003 of it's founding is unclear, but it had always been celebrated every October, their LW10B being a particularly big event. The last few anniversary events have been combined with the Trotsdale community of which the two share ties, the last one being the LW14B/TD6B celebration. But this year, a series of events in real life took up the time of the founders and others that would have otherwise organized another anniversary celebration. So after about a month of waiting, the people of the Sunweaver/Angel community decided to take matters into their own hands with a "Luskwood Tribute" party.

On the day before the Luskwood party, Wednesday November 28, Trotsdale was given it's own event with a "Trotsdale Tribute." The Vixen's own pony DJ Applebloom played the music. While the beach club had pony parties before, this one had more four-footed residents than usual, "All these little ponies! I think I'm gonna die from a massive overdose of cute."

The chat went from pony sims, to the music, to food, "I know Kirins don't have cutie marks but I really do love Cheesecake a lot." "Good cause I want everyone to know how much I like Homemade NY style cheesecake with cherries (smile)." "You're making me hungry for that, silly pony!"

There was a "Best in Pony" contest, of which the board had two pages of entries. Crim Mip and Six String (Roleplayismylife Resident) split the prize, "had a good crowd of ponies in here."

On Thursday at 8PM SL time, the Luskwood Tribute began. The club set out a couple signs with the community's symbol on it. And besides the regulars from the Sunweaver/Angel community, such as chieftess Rita Mariner and Nydia Tungsten, a number from Luskwood dropped by as well. "As the Queeen of Hearts said!  'Off With Her Head!' " "But Rita, we already have the Lusk head logo (grin)."

It was fifteen years ago that Second Life's first furry community (and oldest still around), and the makers of the first furry avatars, came to be: Luskwood. So tonight, we're holding a tribute event for them. Dress up in any furry avatar, Luskwood or otherwise. Our furry bunny DJ Snowbuns plays the tunes.

One of the four founders of Luskwood, Michi Lumin, was there. Michi was thankful for the tribute event, "Sorry guys I just been -completely- slammed lately, that's the only reason we haven't done LW15B yet... (I say yet because I still intend to do it late, but we just haven't had time 'because life')."

Michi is known for her skunk avatar (and steampunkish top hat), and there were a few other black and white avatars around."Beware of the Skunk ..." "We're gonna need more air fresheners." "This is turning into a stinker of a party it seems..." "It's the Fetid Inner Core (grin)."

For the first time ever at the Happy Vixen, a Linden showed up at an event: April Linden. Needless to say, the reactions from most were positive, "A cute purple bunny," though one guy reacted, "OMG, a Lusk Avatar older than mine!" April just giggled, "Hehe, yeah."

DJ Snowbuns (Skylark Lefavre) played the music for the event. Nikkita (Aubrytia Resident) did hostess duty, "If everyone's having a rockin good time, Let's make some NOISE for our Rockin Dj....The One....The Only....The Lovely....The Awsome, Dj SnowBuns!!! as she rocks the club with her tunes for you here at, The Happy Vixen Beach Club!!!"

There were a number of tunes playing, such as "Numa numa." April reacted, "Ooh I haven't heard this song in forever." Someone else went, "This song is jsut as old as SL."

Cynthia Farshore and Shockwave yareach, the latter in a Luskwood Jogauni, which that comes with a quest to find a staff, "I'm wearing a CLASSIC Luskwood avatar."

April Linden soon moved from the edge of the party to in it. DJ Skylark Lefavre ended up with one of April's bunny bears. As more people came by, they commented on April, "You are the first Linden that I've seen and met." Michi remarked, "Heh, I've seen so much, in so long, that to me, Lindens are just more folks, now, with jobs to do.... and I know jobs to do x_x ." April responded, "Luskwood has always had a special place in my heart. (smile) " <3 br="">
<3 br="">

As time went on, there were more than a few jokes, "If SL years are like dog years, we should turn this place into a nursing home." Michi responded, "Eh, people remind me that I'm old (grin)." Rita commented, "You're in nice shape for old."

There was some talk about the early years of Second Life and Luskwood, which Mich described in her 2012 interview. At the party, Michi commented, "Heh I remember standing looking at the map when they were about to add 22 new sims. I think at the time there were like,  9.  And we were standing there thinking all about the future like, 'I wonder what the world will look like with 31 sims. wow.'"

Cynthia commented, "You know if you think about it, it is the furries who made SL happen." Michi responded, "Yeah kind of, most of the people really doing the early work in the community, a lot of them were furries. To the point where it annoyed some people (big grin)." Snowy suggested, "I think the proof in all of this lies outside of SL. The other Grids where there were no furries showed little promise of good content." A fourth added, "I think furries have more reason to be interested in virtual worlds than other people. Gives us a chance to be furry without having to get a fursuit (grin)."

The party would go on for two hours. The contest prize would be won my Cynthia Farshore.

Before leaving, Michi did tell that the Luskwood anniversary wasn't canceled, only postponed. They would have it later on when things settled down in real life for the planners.

With about thirty-five people at the place at one point, it was the most successful event at the beach club in a while, and the first time a Linden dropped by. It was a party that no doubt the Sunweaver/Angels will remember for a while.

Bixyl Shuftan