“Out of the ashes a clear light will shine
A power like the sun, but the heat is all mine
Blinding to all those too close to the light
I’ll bury your souls in the dark of the night”
Tommy Vext – I Bring The Darkness
Let us take another journey outside of the theoretical box again because I have done a lot of the more standard stuff lately. This idea really didn’t have much of a flashpoint to set it off, it was just kind of the thing that happened at the end of late-night messing around. I’ve had this backdrop for quite a while now but never had an idea to work from. Sure I could go the Medusa route, snakes, all that good stuff, but it never sat right when I was looking at it. So I made the poor decision (because my alarm goes off at 5:30am) to shoot this a 2am. I’m glad I did though because I was able to mess around with some of those outside-of-the-box things that I love.
I pulled together [Deadwool]’s The Tux that you’ve seen before here and on many Flickr feeds, leaned into black and green, and pulled out MINIMAL’s Minerva Secret Scene. I only used the Cave portion of it because that fit this better, but as with anything MINIMAL, both parts are epic. It still needed a bit more spicing up to really get where I was content with it so I turned to E.V.E to add some smoke and some eyeballs for good effect. Of course, I could post-process that kind of thing later and I did with some additional smoke layers, but shooting things inworld has always been preferable to me. I like that I can see it in front of me and it at a minimum gives me a basis to work around when I do go into editing it.
The timing of finally getting to finish writing this ended up being somewhat perfect because not only is the photo darker and moody, but I’ve spent the last day or two taking shots from pretty much all sides. With that being said I’ve got some things to get off my chest because if there’s one thing about me, once you’ve pushed too far, you’re getting a response.
We’ll start with revisionist history because on one side that’s what I’ve got. I know full well what happened as do all but what seems to be one person, who should certainly know how things went down. Sadly they’re choosing to place all of the blame at my feet (some is merited because we’re not perfect) but when you’re all out full of it on very specific things, you’ve made a mistake. What I can say is I was 100% clear on where I stood, where my head was, and what my thoughts were. You want to tell the world you made the choice and walked, fine go for it, but in reality, where most of us live, I made the choice and you full well know that. But spin your story, like they say you’re always the villain in someone else’s story, I’ll be the villain, enjoy the enchantment, but grow up and stop spinning up bullshit stories about what happened or who is involved or things that are not happening. You look foolish doing it.
Lastly, I’ve had a certain pain in the ass in the World of Warcraft who has been pushing my buttons for over a year now and they finally pushed too far last night in the midst of everything we were doing. This won’t make a ton of sense to people who don’t play or are unfamiliar with how we operate but I need to get it written down. As guild master everything ultimately falls to me at the end of it. Sure I have my team who support me and vice versa, but at the end of the day the heat lands on me. I’m okay with it, it’s part of the deal and I’ve long since learned to accept it. During our raid, I run the Loot Council, which consists of myself, 4 of my officers (our raid leader is not included and only rules on a decision if we cannot), and two rotating members each week. We set it up this way to give every equity in the decision-making process and to be transparent to all on how we handle it and involve them all.
I always tell them that if they have an issue with a choice to talk to me after and we’ll go through it. The council vote is always what stands and I do not overrule a decision made because that is not my job. Last night we made two decisions based on what best benefited our group, as that is our job to oversee everyone, not just gear up one person. One particular individual had an issue with it because we chose to not let them roll for a piece that we put two other people up for. Our reasoning was simple, they already had a piece similar to it that could turn into the same piece that was being rolled out next week. It doesn’t make sense for us to give them the piece when someone else will benefit more. This person disagreed obsessively with our decision and I spent an hour after we finished explaining the reasoning and why we chose the direction we did.
Instead of understanding that and seeing that I had already blown an hour from 1am to 2:30am to do this, they made it personal and used a line they use often, “that’s patronizing and belittling”. The issue there is that what led to that was me pointing out that another Raider fell into the same reasoning and did not complain for even a second. My explanation included “we chose the same route with Person A, and I’m not dealing with this with them, but I’ve sat here for an hour explaining it to you.” When I say if you have an issue to talk to me after, I mean what I said.
I explained it, why we did it, the logic, the gains to the group as a whole, and that I stand behind my team because we all made the choice. They continued to complain about it and by the end of it I, as well as my leadership team (who saw everything I did because when you’re dealing with guild-altering decisions you bring everyone in) made the choice that maybe this person is not a good fit with us anymore when we’ve dealt with numerous issues with them already, this being the one that broke the camel’s back. I gave them a final response and left it there. Conversation over, I’m done debating with a wall, move on, whatever you choose to do, I don’t care anymore. So what has this week taught me? Sometimes you can be honest and clear yourself and the other side is still going to see and hear what they want. You can take the high road and say nothing (I would have preferred that) but sometimes you just have to pull the ripcord and let it out. Talk your shit if that’s what you want to do, but know I see it and we both know the story. Credits for everything can be found down below, I’ll see you next time for something hopefully more cheerful. Thanks for letting me vent.
“I watch you wander, as you go under
Words to the unwise
The story’s ending, and I’m attending
The scene of your demise
(End, end, end, end of days)”
Tommy Vext – I Bring The Darkness
Credits:
Head: LeLUTKA.Head.NOA.3.1 ~ Jaden Nova
Head Applier: STRAY DOG – GREG – LELUTKA – TONE 04 ~ Gac Akina
Hair: [MAGNIFICENT] THOR Bun – Grooming Hair – LeBarbier Alpha
Hairbase: LeLUTKA.EvoX.Hairbase.044 (BOM) ~ Jaden Nova (Comes with the LeLUTKA NOA Head)
Eyes: Avi-Glam. Glory Eyes – 703 ~ Eye Daddy
Ears: ^^Swallow^^ Gauged S Ears ~ Luciayes Magic
Ear Tattoo:HANZ – Snake Ear Tattoo [Fresh] Gauged S Ears ~ Victor Voxel
Beard: [MAGNIFICENT] DUCKY SKUNK – Beard – LeBarbier Alpha
Beard Layer: Volkstone Rey Facial Hair // 004 TINTABLE (BOM) ~ Daves Hexem
Body: [LEGACY] Athletic Edition (1.5.1) ~ MeshBody Resident
Skin: STRAY DOG – Legacy Skin – TONE 04 (BOM) ~ Gac Akina
Tattoo: DAPPA – Reckoning Tattoo. [FRESH] Lelutka EvoX. ~ Devil Fae
Scratches: Landgraff – Impolite Set – 06 ~ EvanMartinez Resident
Suit Coat/Shirt: [Deadwool] The Tux – Jacket ~ Masa Plympton ~ NEW @ Main Store
Pants: [Deadwool] The Tux – Trousers ~ Masa Plympton ~ NEW @ Main Store
Shoes: [Deadwool] Oxford Shoes ~ Masa Plympton
Earrings:= DAE = SXD1 ~ Naomi Darkheart
Rings/Bracelets:**RE** Grim Reaper Bracelet & Rings ~ Crashnoww Resident
Skull: ::DisturbeD:: Halloween – Horned Demon Satanic Skull ~ TalRam Resident
Backdrop: MINIMAL – Minerva Secret Scene Backdrop ~ MINIMALgroup Resident
Pose: Ana Poses – Athens 9 ~ Fanny Finney
Eyes: E.V.E Eye of the Storm ~ Noke Yuitza
Smoke: E.V.E Tornado B&W Nebula ~ Noke Yuitza
LuckySpiritor.Com 