Three Twisted Knots

From The Amazing Catwoman:

I noticed recently that it was getting harder and harder to send messages from Faerie. I talked to Wulfrich about it, and he thinks this is because Gwyneth is becoming more and more a creature of Faerie and less and less a creature of the world from which she came. Her losing her humanity affects the whole Realm of Awenia, so it’s now harder to send messages from there. I started using the alchemical glyphs I’ve been using from Awenia here, but then realised I’m not needing them as much at the Faire.

This year’s Faire has been different for me.

For once, I am not working the Faire! That means I’ve been able to walk around and just enjoy myself. I know, I know; it’s not like I smile a lot in photos, but it feels good, after something like ten years, not to be working security this year.

I mean, not that they didn’t ask me. They did. I just said I wanted to take a break.

I find that in every Faire there are places I come back to again and again, and after my third visit to Necturn Moon, I figured I should probably take some pictures or something.

The thing is, Necturn Moon is a marvel. Not all of the Realms we see in the Faire are so complete. But Necturn Moon is a little microcosm, and not far from the market stalls, you can find the most amazing array of waterfalls and glowing orb bushes and trees. Orbs are everywhere here; I’m glad I didn’t have to do this risk assessment, b because I’m sure someone had to do it, and I don’t envy them. I hated that job last year; it’s one reason why I chose to take the year off. And of course there’s nothing outwardly sinister about the statistically unlikely number of orbs here; it’s just, you know… orbs. I don’t trust orbs. Especially ones that glow.

Now, you might be wondering several things at this point.

1. Why am I, The Amazing Catwoman, distrustful of orbs?
   • Yeah; not gonna tell you. You probably don’t even know me.
2. If I do so mightily distrust orbs, why am I standing on one?
   • I wish I knew.
3. Why do I think Necturn Moon is a marvel, if there are orbs, which I distrust, everywhere?
   • Good question. There is definitely something freaky going on up in here.
4. OK, so, I don’t want to point out the obvious, but I also seem to be underneath a great big honking moon, which, by definition, is a glowing orb. What’s up with that?
   • See previous answer.

So this is when things start to get a little hazy.

First of all, I am seriously just standing on top of an orb, smiling stupidly up at another orb. And then I realise that I’ve had orbs around my head (well, I mean, kinda more 2D type circles, but it’s a related thing) since I portaged into this Realm.

Rational Thought Me would be hightailing my svart alfar arse right on out of there.

But no.

I have absolutely no idea why I stuck around Creepy Orb Realm (stick a “blimey” on the end of that and you know you’re watching Mary Poppins!) for as long as I did, and truth be told, I have only hazy memories of the whole thing. Like, why did I need 63 pictures of orbs in Necturn Moon? Why?

I started thinking about that. Go on and make the jokes: I’ll wait.

You know that part in the horror film where the ingenue’s best friend (who will shortly be known as the ingenue’s dearly departed best friend) says something like, ‘Hey, let’s look in the cellar’! or, ‘If we split up, we can cover more ground’! And everybody in the cinema, or on the couch, cries out in unison, ‘Don’t do <incredibly stupid thing>’?

My line here was clearly, ‘Let’s get really close to one of these huge creepy orb plants and take selfies‘! Because that was a super bright idea. You know what those leaves remind me of? They remind me of Audrey 2. If you don’t know who that is, trust me: that’s a bad place to take a selfie.

Because Who’s got a death wish? This girl! This girl has a death wish!

The fuck is up with this photograph anyway? I do not wink.

I kid you not. Sixty-three.

Go on: say, ‘We didn’t know you could count that high, TAC’. I fucking dare you.

Some of those sixty-three photographs are even kinda good.

Like this one for example. First off, it’s almost orbless, which makes it kinda superior to everything else right off the bat. But you see that in the distance? That’s the magic island on the next Realm over, Living Echoes. Sweet. I didn’t know my iPhone could do that. Too bad there aren’t any Apple Stores in Faerie, amirite? They could have taught me some of this stuff!

I should probably burn all of these. Then again, they’re all digital, so… yeah, maybe not. I like this one, though. Still an orb. Like, if I were only going to keep one, I’d keep this one, because there’s a ring around the moon above Necturn Moon. And that makes me think of this song by Elephant Revival. You’re welcome. (YouTube link below)

Author Disclaimer:

I really love Necturn Moon, and I don’t find it creepy at all. It’s been one of my favourite regions in a Faire year where I haven’t had anywhere near the amount of time I’d like to have had, a place I find myself coming back to again and again. I suspect TAC will probably be back again before the Faire’s over, even if she would never admit it.

Notes, Credits, & SLURLs

• Necturn Moon is one of twenty regions that make up the 2022 Relay for Life of Second Life’s Fantasy Faire, to benefit the American Cancer Society. Mythspire Ridge is designed by Julala Demina and Lil Cinnamon and sponsored by Jinx. Fantasy Faire opened on the 22nd of April at 12pm SLT (that’s US Pacific Time!). Visit before the 8th of May, when all the Fairelands will fade back into the mists, never to be seen again as they are this year.

What’s TAC Wearing?

• The Stunning Skin: Petrichor & Trap, Nariverus, in colourway Silene. For the past several years, Petrichor & Trap have done collaborative skins for Fantasy Faire, and each one is better than the one before it. I love them so much, and Gwyneth is just too prissy to show enough skin to show them off, so TAC usually gets the honour of wearing at least one of these in at least one of her Faire posts. This one is my favourite so far: I love the leafy accents all over, and the materials are just chefkiss gorgeous.
• The Complementary Outfit:
  • Top: AtaMe, Iris Armor*
  • Skirt: AtaMe, Saha Skirt*
• The Rebellious Nails: Eventyra, Lunar Fire

Items not featured at Fantasy Faire:

• The Attitudinal Hair: Mina, Avril (At Uber)
• The Questionably Creepy Lipstick: Misteria, Acherona Lipsticks (At Baroqued)
• The Strangely Orb-Adjacent Halo: LuluB!, SpiritBlossom
• Other Stuff: Body: Maitreya; Head, Lelutka EvoX Ceylon

*Special Thanks to Mystical Edenflower, the girl genius behind MishMash Fusion, who helped me source this outfit and just kept repeating the word AtaMe over and over and over again in IMs until I realised she was indeed the fashion goddess of my universe and this was in fact the correct outfit for this post!