SOMETHING DIFFERENT.

Crossing the border from Ahern over to Lusk I was full of expectations I was expecting furries of all denominations to come rushing up to me with greetings. “Welcome welcome to the forest”. That sort of thing, silly isn’t it ,I don’t know why I expect these sort of things.  I suppose sometimes I feel as though I am in some sort of a fantasy story where the script is for ever changing like RL but  a lot less predictable. Well  there you go, I just thought oh there would  be loads of people here to speak to . Creatures cutting down trees to make houses etc, but there wasn’t. Well I could see a group of 3 or 4 av looking east on my radar . They were up in the massive tree house that stands in the centre of Lusk wood but there was no one on the ground not a single anthropomorphic av peered out  from behind   a tree . Of course Furries are no different than anyone else in SL. It’s  just the skin not the soul within.

 

So I decided to have a look around on the ground first before I ventured up the tree. I had read up a bit on what I should expect to find. I had read up on the history of Lusk and the myths of how non furries might not be welcome and it had explained that this was simply not true and that Lusk was not intended to be a furry sim only. It did attract the fur covered population but all were welcome and the days of griefing were over even that some of the original griefers were integrating with the furry population, what a lovely thought . This encouraged me somewhat as I obviously didn’t want to intrude. Or for that matter get embroiled in some kind of skirmish.

As I finished walking through the houses a river caught my eye so I ventured down to the bank. There’s definitely something about water that attracts me and a lot of others it would seem .Standing by the waters edge felt calming, very settling . It wasn’t till I looked up again that I spied the large missile hanging in mid air .

 

 I had read that spamming weapons had been used against the furries in the past by griefers . This had not been ordinary griefing the type where a giant penis attacks you as you’re casually strolling through a mall or you are propelled 1000’s of feet into the air all for somebody’s idea of fun. No this was griefing for a reason, the reason being difference. Difference was the reason I was on this tour . I was looking for difference. But some people just can’t handle it. Furries were different They didn’t want to aspire to human form They wanted to embrace the animal kingdom and why not. The human form of life has nothing to be proud of in terms of harmonising with its own mother earth, maybe if it was allowed to integrate a bit more with nature, our brave new world of second life could take on a far happier outlook. Of course others would disagree but some weren’t content with just disagreeing.

I decided to have a walk around the woods before venturing up the tree. I wandered a bit too far south and found myself in the sand box of Rizal Just for a moment I thought I saw Zena the girl who had waved me off at the start but it turned out to be  someone else, a little bit scary if you ask me finding this girl wandering around in a bikini at night time covered in tanning oil,  maybe not so for everyone.  I took her pic   and then hurried back in the direction of Lusk .

 

Scary

   There are various walkways and tree house type structures in Lusk. One of the striking constructions in a small clearing of woodland was several massive hollowed out tree trunks with a small nest suspended in their branches high above the ground.

 

 

 The wood also has an amphitheatre and a large pub called the Giant Eltee Head which I understand to be named after the large wooden head carved by Arito Cotton a founder member. I couldn’t see the carving in the pub  but perhaps it was being restored, a fresh coat of varnish maybe.

 

 Next to the pub was a water wheel. The water wheel was not connected to anything that I could see. It was a shame I thought that it would of been good to connect it to an elevator for the tree house or powering the stage equipment in the amphitheatre but it looked nice enough sitting there near the woodland stores.

 

 

 There was a duck pond that also caught my eye as there were  little ducklings swimming around in a frenzy.I sat by the pond for a while then I took a look at what was on offer in the General store.

 

 

 

 Flexi tails and ears, wind chimes, furry clothes  it was a furry shoppers delight . leaving the store I made my way over to the giant central tree. At the base of the main tree was a door leading to a fountain.

 

 There was meant to be a museum here as well according to the guide but I couldn’t see anything there yet apart from one pic of the tree itself  on the wall. Maybe it was still under construction or restoration. It could be that they had ran out of wood  I don’t recall seeing  any  plans for reforestation here.

  Time to head upwards meet some of these folk I thought. The area immediately surrounding the huge tree in the centre of Lusk wood is crisscrossed by aerial walkways. Some are just there to walk along and gain a view from above and others eventually took you to the great tree in the middle although I did have to make a small jump onto the main platform I managed to get there with out falling.

 

 Unfortunately for me, there were only a handful of folks there when i arrived. One of these was a dragon who didn’t move or speak the whole time I was there.  Another was a newbie guy with a wooden cube on his hand and then there was  a couple of furries one male one female. I think they were foxes but can’t be sure.  There was a dance machine over at one end of the platform so I started dancing and asked the small gathering if anyone would like to dance with me as I had noticed you could dance in sync if you so wanted . There was no reply . I asked each one in turn This time the female furry declined saying she was going soon but thanked me all the same , the furry who was sitting on a wooden bar told me I was making him feel awkward ! he just wanted to sit there and watch !  :~?  I only asked if he wanted to dance, but I apologised all the same. The block handed guy said nothing and the dragon just stood there also struck dumb. I started juggling and doing a few magic tricks . i think I generally do this when I’m a bit nervous or to break the ice at parties   it wasn’t working   Hmmm……..I’m not good with crowds even small ones  but at least I had a go , mind you it was about 4:00am stateside so It could well be that these poor souls were just about shattered and needed a few zzzz’s rather than me blabbering on  and acting like a moronic circus act  :)  ,Perhaps I was trying too hard.  I sat down on a deck chair and waited for a bit then a  girl called Millie came on to the platform  and let me take her photo as she used her new shape shifting avatar from Grendal’s children. If you’ve ever been to Grendal’s you’ll know it has an absolutely marvelous array of avatars , so many different creatures and  fantastical av for sale and at a really cheap price also a superb sim to try them out in .So Millie did her shape shifting and I took a few snaps of her along with  the few gathered there.

 

 

 

Sorry Millie for cutting your head off I’m not a great photographer and I didn’t even get a pic of your normal shape  please send one for me to include if you do ever  look this up.

 Nothing else appeared to be happening so I thought I’d jump down from the tree for a while and take a look in the next sim along and maybe come back later. Before rezzing the boat I walked over to a park in the Tehama sim that was still under construction It had  quite a few examples of SL wildlife so I wandered around taking a few pics of the wildlife. After all practice makes perfect

 

 

 

  After my photo excursion  I  took the boat down the little stream that runs through Lusk and Perry  and came  out into the adjacent sim called  Kissling . This sim consists of a very tall  island in the middle surrounded by water with a bit of mainland either side . It has an interesting history full of griefing due to people having differing ideas on  building styles  . You can look it up HERE. in the wiki apparently it still gets griefed but  it doesn’t say why .

 There was a place to moor your boat for a dollar on the eastern shore.  I thought that was kind of cool as it was sometimes difficult to find a place to rez.

 

 

 

So I moored up at the jetty belonging to Joan and Harald Nomad who were part of the Kissling land holders group. They have a boardwalk that has a shop that sells rocking chairs and cafe,  as well as a boat launch and ferry service run by hippo’s! .

 

Joan and Harald had been around since the beta testing days apparently  and they made good quality  and fairly low prim houses to sell in the adjoining sim of Boardman I took a look also at the little town  in the middle of the sim which was high up on a table top mountain . There were various shops and houses and little cars that took you around .

 

 I stopped off at one of the shops owned by Joan  and got myself a doughnut then after taking a leisurely walk back to the jetty hopped into the boat and made my way back to the Luskwood sims.

 I was tired after my little excursion so I sat by the stream again and must of  fallen asleep . I was woken by the sound of chattering in the treetops  The furries had arrived and by the sound of it there was an event about to  happen this evening .I climbed up to the platform again and took a seat at one end. I decided to stay quiet this time and  watch the furry folk.

 there were quite a few this time ,foxes,  raccoons even a giraffe  Many different creatures had  gathered, most of them were waiting for the  charity concert for relay for life  a cancer research charity. While we were waiting one of the furries I think it was the giraffe, called out that he could see a giant prim heading this way. “Incoming” he announced. It was only by turning my draw distance up to the top that I could see this Mega greifing  prim rolling in . It stopped over the tree but disappeared when you put the draw distance back to normal it was difficult to see but It was huge gray and flat and was most probably intended to lag the sim.

 

 

 , very strange indeed I took a few pics of it and also I noticed it on the Slurl site the following morning hovering over Tehama.I’m  Still not sure what it was or what it was intended to do .

 

  several Abuse reports were filed and then everyone carried on as normal until it was time for the concert .

 I made my way over to the amphitheatre and took a seat .

 

 

 The concert was performed by Jaycatt Nico on piano and Frogg Marlowe on guitar. apparently they are regular entertainers at this venue . It was an excellent performance with songs by Snow patrol,Flaming lips, David Gray,Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Marley amongst many others. I couldn’t help but get up and dance.

 

This time I wasn’t on my own. I love Sl live music. The artists really do feel in a way closer to the audience .

The concert ended  And then it was time to go so I threw some money  into the charity box which had gathered something like 40000 lindens  and with a spring in my step and humming ’Yoshimi battles the pink robots’ I  made my way down to  the river again, jumped in the boat sped  around Kissling and up into the Color sims (appropriately named after different colours). Speeding ahead taking just a few pics along the way

 

 

 

 

 I traveled  through Tan then Gray where I hiked to the top of the airport  mountain , Aqua,Green  Brown and Celadon. On the way  getting stuck, sprung up in the air by dodgy sim crossings, pushed to oblivion by ban lines , going both over and under bridges aswell as  having to  trek overland by foot, but eventually reaching  Fuchsia and that is where I stopped to take a breath. 

 I’ll leave you with Jaycatt and Frogg performing   Pink Floyd’s ‘ The Final Cut’

 

More in the near fuchsia    …………… >>>>>>>>>>>

 

~ by Nish Mip on April 26, 2009.