Three Twisted Knots

From Gwyneth:

It’s my favourite time of the year. Time for the entire household to relocate to one of the many Faireland Realms and make our home here for two solid weeks whilst we enjoy shopping, music, lively tours, author talks, shopping, and parties. There’s even a film festival these days. And … Did I mention the shopping? It’s the best in any Realm, any world. Because the portal travel was a little tricky this year, we portaled to a nearby Realm and then entered Glimmering Meadows by boat. And that, my darlings, is the best way to see Glimmering Meadows, unless of course you can hover a few inches above the surface of anything with little effort. Because there are very few places, excepting merchant tents, in Glimmering Meadows that are not waterways. Poor Friðrós thought the water must be shallow and jumped in at the earliest opportunity; she was rewarded by ending up waist-deep in … well, it might be glimmering on the surface, but her shoes were silt-logged, and it’s a good thing we are who we are; those clothes would never be wearable again without the magic of, well, magic.

Now, Friðrós is only young yet, so she felt we were being unkind when we were really only teasing her; Wulfrich said something about her being “hung up wet”. Where does he come up with these revolving expressions? TAC was at least as unkind, and I couldn’t resist a chortle myself. But now she’s in a sulk, so I’ll let her tell you that tale when she’s ready. I have never seen a young Fae strip off her clothing and glamour a new outfit so quickly. Then she stalked off somewhere, probably a merchant’s tent, and we didn’t see her for hours after that.

The Fairelands are massive, and so of course we didn’t want to leave her, so we decided to make the best of it and spend the afternoon in Glimmering Meadows. It’s a lovely place to spend an afternoon, even when there’s a teenage faery (and by teenage, I mean 175 or so) in your retinue who might very well just wander into the next Realm and get herself abducted, or fall in love with a mortal, or something.

Well, never mind. The shopping in Glimmering Meadows was worth spending some time there; I found some beautiful things to browse over, and much to my delight, Alea of Enlight was there, and she gave me a lovely skin repaint! One of the things I look forward to about Faire every year is the sheer variety of skin painters there, and this year is no exception, of course! I encountered the lovely Moth of Moth & Moon as well, so I’ll definitely be showing you some paints from her as well! They are both such delightful (and delightfully different!) folk: I hope for your sakes that you will encounter both of them at this year’s Faire.

It is hard, though, to find a place to rest in Glimmering Meadows. Everything is in motion, what with the water everywhere, and so Brán and I, when we finally found a little island to rest on, took advantage and had the demifae whip us up a picnic lunch. Some of the centaurs (weirdly, the place is positively full of centaurs!) came round to speak to us, but they may have been more interested in Clutie’s cupcakes than chatting it up with Fae royalty; the Faire is also positively full of Fae royalty as well, of course. Would it be rude or uppity of me to say that I kind of avoid them? It’s a cliché to say that we all hate one another, because that’s not exactly it. We just have a … healthy(?) suspicion of other Houses, and I have a suspicion of anyplace with a Court structure. It’s just not in me to polarise myself like that, even though I am somewhat opinionated. I can hear Nathaniel laughing at that, and his response, ‘Somewhat opinionated, my dear? Somewhat‘?

It would be wrong of me not to mention the beautiful flowers in Glimmering Meadows. There were so many different varieties, just an explosion of colour. We have a fortnight here at the Faire, but I always worry, since the Realms will fade back into the mists and not be called again, at least in their present forms, that I won’t get to everything.

It’s easy to keep that worry, when folk are exploring the Faire, that there won’t be time to see absolutely everything.

But sometimes, as the saying goes, you must stop and smell the roses.

This cluster of flowers appealed to me particularly, and I never know why things do that. I will have to see if there’s a gardener here who can tell me what they are called; I would love to get some cuttings to take back, as a memory.

These details are one of the things I love most about the Faire. So many of the beautiful things in my Awenia were found here, and it’s those memories I turn to when the world is dark. I try to experience them all and take as many home as I can.

Speaking of beautiful things, this gown is from the marvellously talented Synjari of Senzafine, who sent an advance copy all the way to Awenia, just because she knows I love to arrive at the Faire in one of her gowns. Of course, it’s not a custom job: you can buy it here at the Faire if you would like one just like it or very similar to it.

Brán nearly had a heart attack when he saw that I was going to touch this flower. ‘Step away, Your Majesty! It could be poisonous’!

Really, Brán. There’s protective, and then there’s overprotective. So I said, ‘I’m going to taste it, too’! That shut him up.

It was near dark when Friðrós returned. We were all tired and aching to get to our digs in WooHoo! Bay by that time. She offered no explanation of where she’d been, and I stared, but did not lecture (I’m proud of myself) at the skin paint she’d spent half the day getting. It’s … well, it’s not my favourite colour, but again, that is her story to tell.

And then, with Friðrós and me rather pointedly not speaking at each other, we made our way to the portal that would transport us to WooHoo! Bay. The Bay is everything it’s hyped up to be, but I was too tired to write about it, so you’ll have to get that story another time. But the warmth, the comfort, and to be honest, the dry land were exactly what we all needed. We settled in; Nathaniel and I took to the little study on the first floor of the large (hey, when we say Shining Throng, we mean a Throng that is Shining…) FaeB&B we’d arranged for the duration, Brán to the office downstairs, and Friðrós to her room (the door slam was epic!). The rest of the Throng went to something called a Lizard Rave, which sounded just a little too much for me, so I was glad of the necessity of a beauty sleep before we got up to do it all again the next day,

Notes & Credits:

Items featured at Fantasy Faire:

• Gown: Senzafine, Alisse, in Candy. It’s available at the Senzafine Faire Store in Sialdor.
• Headpiece: Drunken Brokkr, Gloriana Tiara. It’s available at the Drunken Brokkr store in Nysaris.
• Torc: Drunken Brokkr, Brisingr Torc. It’s available at the Drunken Brokkr store in Nysaris
• Wings: Aii&Ego, Fairy Wings, with textures from the Moon Ripple recolour HUD. Both are available at the Aii&Ego Store in Szystrum Synod.
• Skin: EnLight, Jen. It’s available at the EnLight / ND/MD store in Glimmering Meadows.
• Eyes: Banana Banshee, Marienne. They’re available at the Banana Banshee store in Glimmering Meadows.
• Nails: Frick-n-Frack, BSBN Faery Wings Sprite. They’re available at the Frick-n-Frack store in Glimmering Meadows.
• Ring: I can’t tell you: it’s a secret! But before long, you might have a chance to get your very own!

Other Fancy Stuff:

• Hair: Truth, Covert.
• Eyebrows:Rarer, Petal Brow Gems.
• Eyeshadow: Hexumbra, Bridget eye makeup in Pansy
• Gwyneth is styled on a Maitreya mesh body with a Lelutka EvoX Gaia head.
• Poses: Luane’s World, I love My Gown

About the Region:

Glimmering Meadows is one of 22 regions at the 2023 Relay For Life of Second Life Fantasy Faire, sponsored by Jinx and designed by Jinx and Lil Cinnamon.