Luskwood and Trotsdale's Anniversary Events

by Bixyl Shuftan

On the weekend of October 22 and 23, the Luskwood and Trotsdale communities held a double celebration of their anniversaries this month. It was in September 2003, just a few months after Second Life was officially opened, that Luskwood began. But it's anniversary celebrations have been in October for as long as this writer can tell. Trotsdale was one of several pony sims that appeared after the collapse of the original Bronyville, probably in September 2011 as it's fourth anniversary was celebrated in September.

Over time, the communities have helped one another, notably Luskwood founder Michi Lumin helping with the pony sims' financing. But the Trotsdale anniversary celebration had always been a separate one, until this year when it was decided to combine the two, as well as giving both a Halloween theme as the date would be late in the month, Saturday October 22, and Sunday October 24. There would be one event in the pony area, and the rest at Luskwood.

Things started off in a forest at night high above the Trotsdale sim at 2PM.The darkness gave the place a spooky look, though all those ponies around helped give a cartoony kind of spooky feeling. There were all kinds of pony avatars around, including some sporting a costume of some kind such as a cape, or wearing a pumpkin with a space cut out for the nose. Someone showed up as the character "Nightmare Moon." Another showed up in a giant pony avatar that must've been close to 20 feet tall.

Not everyone was a pony as there were a number of furs around, notably Luskwood regulars, a couple four footed ferals, and a couple normal humans. Among the costumes that stood out was a  kind of battleship outfit on Hagalaz Nilsson, which he later called a "Yamato," that was worn like a jetpack, with swiveling turrets all over. Another was a kind of armor or robot that looked like it was from an 80s or 90s video game, and a feral with a "dogecoin" (a digital currency made as an alternative to bitcoin with an Internet meme as it's logo) in it's mouth. A couple of the Luskwood founders were there, including Michi Lumin.

DJ Crayzee was the pony DJ spinning the tunes for the first hour. For the second hour, Luskwood's DC Cyberfoxy took over. There was also a 'sploder, which most experienced residents will recall as a party game in which people put in amounts of cash and it either gives it out randomly with one lucky winner getting a larger share or half ends up in the hands of the last one who chipped in. But after their 'sploder went off the first time, it was obvious it was giving out far less then it was taking in. So it was set to not accept more cash from all but the staff, and would every so often shower the crowd with cash, some getting more amounts than others. Yours truly got totals from 2 Lindens to over 50L that added up to a few hundred over time.

At 4 PM, the celebration moved to Luskwood at the Perry Amphitheater. For two hours, there were live music performances. The first was by singer Keeba Tammas and her band of tiny avatars, the "Tiny Maniacs." The Maniacs were their usual funny selves with their squeaky voices , one holding a sign "I want your body." Following Keeba was Shannon Oherlihy, who sung while playing her guitar. People watched from the stands, or standing in a few boxes above the stands. There were some anniversary shirts available for anyone to take, but these were from last year's anniversary.

At 6 PM, the party moved to a new platform, one that Luskwood dubbed "Heck." Teleporting over, the place was mostly a hellish scene with a molten lava river and rock, with bleached bones and red sky, with only a couple small corners where anything alive grew. In the center was entched a red circle and demonic-looking symbols around it with a yellow dragon and pentagram in the center. Why this place of fire and brimstone was called "Heck" I never asked, though as swearing is discouraged in Luskwood and outright forbidden in Trotsdale, it was most likely a joke about their policy.

Haley Maruti, Lusk's squirrelgirl DJ spun the tunes for three hours as the crowd danced away apparently the ground not too hot for their bare feet (perhaps the rune offered some protection). When she was finally done DJ Apoth took over. The schedule only required him to play until 11PM SL time, but he continued on until close to Midnight, entertaining the group of furs, with a few ponies and a couple normal humans mixed in.

During this time there was much wisecracking and joking, with a few oldtimers such as Beatfox Xevious dropping to to make a once in a blue moon appearance. Besides Michi, founders Liam Roark and Eltee Statosky. The crowd remained thick until about Midnight SL time when Apoth hung up his headphones and got out of heck, "Goodnight everyone, thank you again for letting me help celebrate Luskwood's 13th." This was followed soon by Michi, and others began following soon after. It was indeed a heck of a party in Heck.

The next day, Sunday October 23, the celebrations went on with two performances that day. At 2PM, the dragon guitarist Alazarin Mondrian and his "Invisible Band" performed on stage at the colorful platform that was the setting for most of their performances on their tenth anniversary celebration, still called the "LW10B build." There was less dancing then standing and listening this time as the dragon gave a firey performance for an hour and a half.

Following the rock concert, there was a three hour break in the festivities, then one last event at 6PM when Frogg Marlowe of the popular Jaycatt and Frogg musical duo performed at the Perry Amphitheater. As it turned out, Jaycatt was on vacation, but he was on his way home and managed to get his laptop connected to the Internet in time to watch the show in the audience. It was an hour of relaxing music, a smooth end to a busy two days of celebration. 

There were numerous praises of Luskwood and it's founders and staff during the course of the event, by both regulars and friends who made their home elsewhere but come back once in a while. Among them, "just want to thank you Luskies for some of my happiest and most memorable memories. I know I'm not around much at all anymore but I'll always have a ton of love for this place. Thank you for getting me through a really rough time in my life and for being friends to me. I do appreciate it a lot. Very much."

For me, Luskwood was more or less where I got my real start in Second Life. While I might have moved on, I still come back to say hello. And the red fox avatar I got here in summer 2007 is still my main one over nine years later. One never forgets where they came from, and it's nice to drop by once in a while at the Big Tree to chat with those who still make it their home.

On a final note, the partying isn't over this month. It was announced later on that there would be a separate Halloween party after all on Saturday October 29 at 6PM at the "Perry Graveyard" at Perry (150/139/2016). So they still have plenty of celebrating to "scare up."

For more pictures of the event, check out those on their imgur account (here).

Bixyl Shuftan

The Furry Fashion Halloween Hunt for 2016

By Bixyl Shuftan

Like may of her customers, Amethyst Crystal, the owner of Furry Fashion, has a great love for Halloween. So for weeks she and her staff have been working on a special Halloween area: The 2016 Furry Fashion Halloween Hunt: The Drageth School of Magic."

"Our take on our own version of a magic school," Amethyst called the place, "I'm a big fan of fantasy and magic. I have the Harry Potter books on audio, I listen to (them) quite often."

Just the look of the place is enough to bring people, the overall spookiness, the erie-looking woods, the creepy creatures, the tentacled horrors, the tombstones, "R.I.P Skyler Glasswing: Lost in Teleport," and the haunted castle where the School of Magic is. The castle has numerous hallways, passages, and rooms. And you never really can know what's behind those spooky-looking doors until you open them.

But of course there's more. This being Furry Fashion, there's a number of stalls and vendors offering a variety of outfits and avatars. There's witch, convict, bat, spider, and more.  The majority are fitting for a Halloween event.  There are also textures for modders and builders.

And of course there is the hunt. Placed throughout the area are thirty magic books. Each contains a prize, such as shorts, dresses, jewelry, and more. To give those looking around an idea what to look for, there's a sample spellbook on the fireplace next to the arrival point. While they have the same shape, they do come in different colors and some are better hidden than others. They are both in and outside the castle.

Besides the Halloween area, Furry Fashion still has it's everyday avatars and outfits at ground level, as well as the Furry Fashion Lounge which has events every day except most Mondays. No doubt many of these parties will give shoppers a chance to wear their outfits before and after Halloween.

As for next year, "I've already got staff giving me suggestions to what to do for next year," Amethyst told me, "One of the staff is obsessed with skeletons so wants a undead ballroom. She loves anything to do with skeletons, bone mods,dancing skeletons, etc. Another suggested Alice in Wonderland."

To get to the Halloween area, those at ground level at Furry Fashion can teleport up there via a fireplace, "on the ground level of the sim between FF Main store and the Gacha Resell Shop. ... people can click the flames and it turns into a teleporter." Furry Fashion is also taking part in the "Quest Fur Cover" shopping hunt, so it's hunters will also receive the landmark to it. Or one can just head to Furry (198/167/2480).

Bixyl Shuftan

Fishiversary

Fishiversary took place this weekend in two sims, Iridium and Osmium. This is a yearly “festival” of the fishing world of 7Seas Fishing. 

Many fish custom creators are invited to get a plot in the sims and build a fishing haven where people will fish for 24/7 from Friday to Sunday, perhaps longer if the sims don’t disappear too quickly. It is great fun fishing up the created customs. 

One of my favorite prizes is The Galaxy Certificate that entitles one to live on board the ship for a week . It makes a great gift for weddings and rezz days. 

Some of the customs are clothing , hats or outfits, wearable rods and other fishing accessories.  Others are blueprints to build an item of use. 

There were some fishing contests held. Most of all I enjoy the fascinating builds that people put up all around the sims. Here are some pictures of the amazing builds and and fisher people in the sims.  

Gemma Cleanslate

Editor's Note: Talking to Jen Shikami of the 7Seas team, she was "Very happy with how the event went. I'm just glad to see everyone in the community still having fun and creating such amazing things. It reminds me of why we started this in the first place. I also have high hopes that I can get my RL organized enough to be in SL more, get more projects going for the 7Seas community."

Luskwood's Tenth Birthday Party

By Bixyl Shuftan


The name Luskwood means different things. To some, it's a social platform where one can pretty much count on someone always being there. To others, it's the original furry avatar company, the one who laid the groundwork for all others and is still around. To another group, it's the oldest furry community in Second Life, possibly the oldest community of any avatar type still around, and where many furs (and a few not so furry) got their start in Second Life. Luskwood is all of these things, and more. And it recently celebrated a milestone very few places in Second Life can boast. It was ten years ago when the place came to be. And on October 19th, Luskwood held it's tenth anniversary party.

 The celebration wasn't held at the Big Tree, but was held on a special platform over three thousand meters high. Designed by Eo Fenstalker and Kumba Digfoot, the place had a trippy, glowly look that was set at nighttime. Aside from the avatar vendors there, presumably partily to keep the illusion of this being the regular place transformed and partially for anyone wanting to make a purchase, it looked very different from how the Big Tree usually is. And indeed not having checked the landmark, my first thoughts were wondering what had happened to the place.

 A small entrance platform was connected to a main platform much like the one on the Big Tree, which was connected to a stage platform. Live music acts performed on the stage, while DJs performed at the main platform on a glowly DJ booth. The crowd mostly followed where the music was. There was a box of glowsticks for people to take one, which added to the rave-like glowly light look of the place. There were also some free hats to take, a tenth anniversary baseball cap, plus a "fox hat" that resembled the top half of Luskwood's symbol.

From Noon SL time to 1 PM, Keeba Tammas performed on stage, followed by David Csiszer from 1 to 2PM. From two in the afternoon to 3:30PM, Alazarin Mondrian and the Invisible Band was on stage. After a brief intermission, the action moved to the main platform at 4PM where DJ Zairo performed. At 6PM, the crowd moved back to the stage to see Shannon Oherlihy on stage. At 7PM were Jaycatt and Frogg, who do live performances at Luskwood every month. Following "Effnjay" at 8PM was squirrelgirl DJ Haley. And from 11PM to 1AM, DJ Soul spun the tunes late in the night.

The place was packed with over fifty avatars in the sim while I was there, and presumably it was so during the whole time of the party. There were furry avatars of all kinds, Lusk and otherwise, including some heavily modified such as an eight foot tall huskygirl. There were also a number of pony and human avatars present. Present were the four founders, Arito Cotton, Eltee Statosky, Liam Roark, and the popular Michi Lumin. Most were there just part of the time, but Michi was around the whole time I was there.

There were also a number of Luskwood's "Core," or helpers present, such as Furry Rosewood, Tengu Yamabushi, Dougal Jacobs, and Ardy Lay. Beatfox Xevious, known for his design of flexible tails when they were new on the Grid, had been taking a break from Second Life, but made an appearance at this special party.

As the party went on, there was quite a bit of chatter and jokes. The "fox hat" became a source of humor as people playfully debated whether  or not it was redundant for someone in a fox avatar to wear one. Then Michi put one on, but not wanting to part with her top hat put the second hat over it. The result was hilarity, "Oh my God! Michi's hat is wearing a hat! IT'S ALIVE!!!" And some hilarious stunts in the past were brought up, such as "Dougal's Milkshake."

And like many times before, prizes were given out in this anniversary. These were Linden cash prizes given out at random, and usually with a humorous comment. They started out small, at 100 Lindens, and as time went on, the amounts went up, from 250 to 500 Lindens. After 9PM SL time, the prizes became 750, and then one thousand Lindens. After Midnight SL time, five people who stuck it out were lucky enough to get 5000 prizes, Lily Rothschild, Slicky Oh, Braya White, Starywarrior18 Resident, and Viener (Vienersnitzel Resident), "It sounds a bit wrong to say i'm paying L$5000 to a Viener (vienersnitzel), but 'ere it is."

Michi and I talked a little via IM. Michi was busy as the popular skunkgirl is often deluded with dozens of calls, but she talked a little, part of the conversation allowed on the record. Of the original Lindens all but gone from the Lab, Michi commented there were "four Lindens who still know who we are, but I'm sure most of them are rank and file and don't know or don't care what's going on inside. … though 'We're all in this boat together.' So, so it goes." She did promise to protect Luskwood should the Lab's intentions to the residents becomes antagonistic, "I never think anything is a dead end, and I don't quit until its over. … I have a bit of a track record of being a bit of a pit bull and not only in the SL domain.  Whatever comes to pass, I won't take it laying down."

But for the most part, such issues were put aside for the happy occasion. After the last DJ hung up his speakers, Michi was there to put up a stream, "I think we're officially wrapping up here soon. … We've wrapped up but folks are welcome to stay." Dougal pondered the time, "Ten years is 3650 Days. Ten Years is 87,600 hours. Ten years is over 5 million minutes." One quipped, "Add 2 days for leap years, Dougal." "In ten years, the Voyager 1 spacecraft has travelled over 3 billion miles, nearly the distance from Earth to Pluto." There seemed to be signs of a griefer in the distance with a screen-crasher, but it was too far away to affect us, "At least he waited until the party was over."

It was about this time someone noticed among the late partiers was one resident just a couple days onto the Grid. He was happily welcomed to Second Life, and he commented he already had a fantastic beginning. Dancing near Michi, someone joked about the irony of a newcomer dancing with one of Lusk's Founders, an "old and the new" scene.

The comments continued, "I'm glad I managed to catch the whole thing, and stay to the end." "Thank you all for coming out and celebrating ten awesome years!" "Thanks Lusk for making this party possible." "Thanks for creating beauty... not just visually, but between folks' ears." "Thanks to everyone who came and took part in our celebrations with us." "Yes! Happy 10th! Everyone who's put so much of their lives into bringing us wonderful times." "Tenth Birthday is best birthday!" "Happy 10th Giant Tree!" "Great stuff guys, never seen a party like this in my admittedly limited experience on SL. Thanks for putting it on." "Thank you everyone for the fantastic party all day! Happy 10th BDay Luskwood!" "Congratulations on a Decade Luskwood!" "It was a lot of fun. Thanks to all the DJ's and Lusk for making it happen."

And so, most of those remaining began to head off for bed, "See you all in ten more years. Or is 25 the next big number?" " … if I survive that long I'll be glad to raise a toast with you!" Michi reminded, "There are some things going on tomorrow, like open mic night (smile) and yes, thank you to EVERYONE and everyone who's been a part of this community!"

There was an art show at the base of the big tree, and the next day was a two hour "Open Mike" show at the Retro Skunk Cafe. But these were small compared to the bash that had taken over a dozen people at least to pull off, and attended by who knows how many residents throughout the day. But for those who couldn't make the big bash, or miss the festive feeling, Lusk will be having it's Halloween party on October 26 (warning, Lusk vampire bats have a bite animation already built in).

Luskwood's faced a few challenges over the years, from human avatars who question why a mostly furry place should be right on the mainland (and several sims east of Bay City, to other furries who grumble about the enforced PG atmosphere, A Lab that seems more and more distant, and of course the griefers whom can be so numerous I've heard one Lusk regular joke you're still a newbie at the place until you've witnessed at least one. But the people have handled it all. And so, the Big Tree passed a milestone made only by a handful of sims, and probably the first that has maintained a thriving community.

"Happy 10th Birthday Luskwood!"