“I had to count to ten and take a breath
You think that you don’t have
Beauty in abundance but you do
That’s the truth”
Ed Sheeran – Camera
September is one of those months that can’t seem to make up its mind. Summer isn’t really gone yet, fall isn’t really here, and depending on what time you walk outside you could probably make an argument for either one. I’m perfectly fine with that because I’m not in any particular hurry to say goodbye to summer. Fall will get here, it always does, followed entirely too quickly by winter, and I’ll have plenty of time to complain about that when I’m standing in virtual snow trying to put together another Christmas photo. For now, I’m hanging onto the warm weather for a little longer, and FOXCITY gave me a pretty good place to do it.
Sossego, new this month at Collabor88, caught my attention pretty much immediately. Satomi made it with warmer weather in mind, but also for those of us heading toward colder months who aren’t quite ready to give summer up yet. That feels about right for September, especially when half of me knows fall is coming and the other half would rather pretend we have a little more time before we start dealing with all of that.
The blue and white tile was probably the first thing that got me. There’s a lot to look at throughout Sossego, especially with all of the greenery growing around the walls and arches, but those tiles are what really give the place its look. I knew I wanted them front and center in the photo instead of hiding somewhere in the background, and once I started setting everything up, I realized I really didn’t have to do much else. I have a terrible habit of taking a perfectly good scene and deciding it needs another few things before I’m willing to take a photo, but this didn’t need me doing all of that. Although I did forget to decorate the table before switching over to Black Dragon so that was it’s own adventure.
Sossego comes as a complete scene with optional furniture and built-in sitting animations, and both ended up being a much bigger part of the photo than I originally expected. I had actually been looking at separate couple poses for Mackenzie and I before she started going through the animations included with the chairs. Once she found this one, that idea was done. It put her right there with me, worked perfectly with the table, and actually made us look like we were hanging out there instead of two avatars dropped into a backdrop because somebody had a blog post due. (I kid, really Satomi is A+ tier when it comes to deadlines.)
That’s something I really like about this release. I could absolutely tear the whole thing apart, move everything, add a bunch of stuff and make Sossego completely different if I want to. Anyone who has followed this blog long enough knows there’s a pretty good chance I’m going to try and do exactly that with almost anything you give me. This time, though, I didn’t need to. FOXCITY had already given me the space, the furniture and the pose that ended up becoming the center of the photo. Sometimes leaving well enough alone actually works.
Of course, putting the two of us at a table and expecting me to leave it empty was probably asking too much. I pulled out some old Dust Bunny favorites and suddenly our nice little Mediterranean corner had a burger, hot dog, fries and a chocolate milkshake that might be a little excessive for two people. I’m not entirely sure who ordered what anymore, and with Mackenzie basically sitting on me, I’m not sure who is getting what anyway. It feels a lot more like us than putting some fancy dinner on the table just because the setting is pretty, so I’m calling that a win.
Mackenzie made the rest of my job pretty easy too. She’s wearing Tres Blah’s Fleur Babydoll, new this month at Collabor88, in yellow. Once I saw it in Sossego, that was pretty much it. The yellow with the cream lace looks ridiculously good against all of that blue and white tile, while still giving us a little bit of that September feeling without turning the entire scene into fall. I had absolutely no reason to start covering everything in leaves and pumpkins after that, which is probably better for everybody involved. The pumpkins will get their chance soon enough.
She’s also wearing Lamb’s Aurora hair, another new release at Collabor88. Between the hair, the dress and Mackenzie being Mackenzie, she had her side of this figured out pretty quickly. Meanwhile, I was still moving things around by amounts nobody other than me was ever going to notice and convincing myself they were making a dramatic difference.
I did manage to get dressed somewhere in there. I’m wearing Cold Ash’s Reeve shirt and Mariner necklace, both new this month at The Men’s Dept, with my Deadwool Dean jeans. I went dark blue with Reeve, which wasn’t something Mackenzie and I planned together, but her yellow against my blue ended up working really well before we even got into the scene. Once we were sitting in front of those blue and white tiles, it looked like we’d put considerably more thought into coordinating ourselves than we actually did.
I really like Reeve for this time of year too. It’s still short sleeved and relaxed enough that I’m clearly hanging onto summer, but the darker blue with the jeans works perfectly fine as we start heading toward fall. The Mariner necklace adds some detail through the open collar without me needing to pile anything else on, and the Dean jeans have been around my inventory long enough that they pretty much know the drill by now. Between my blue, Mackenzie’s yellow and everything happening around us in Sossego, that was enough. It’s September. We can let it be September without announcing the arrival of fall in every corner of the photo.
Somewhere while all of this was coming together, I chose Ed Sheeran’s Camera for the song, and that changed where my head went with the post a little bit. I’ve spent more than fourteen years taking photos for this blog, which is kind of ridiculous when I actually stop and think about it. There are thousands of them sitting behind everything I’ve written here at this point. Some I can look at and immediately remember where I was, what I was doing and who was standing beside me. Others belong to versions of Second Life that barely look like the one I’m logging into today.
Everything changes around here. Heads, bodies, hair, clothes, the places we visit and the places that disappear. There are stores I spent years wearing that are gone now, locations that only exist in old posts, and people who were once all over these pages who haven’t been here in a very long time. I’ve changed plenty too. Fourteen years is a long time, and I’d be a little concerned if I was still exactly the same person who started doing this all those years ago.
The funny thing is that when I go back through those photos, the photo itself isn’t always what I remember. I remember what was going on while I was taking it. I remember the one that took forever because absolutely nothing wanted to cooperate, the one that somehow came together in ten minutes, the conversations happening while I was working, and the dumb things that made us laugh that nobody looking at the finished photo could possibly know about. A lot of the time, the stuff outside the frame ends up sticking with me just as much as whatever I managed to put inside it.
Mackenzie has been on both sides of that frame a lot over the last few years. We’ve taken the big photos that meant something, anniversaries, vacations and moments where we knew going into them that we’d probably want to remember them later. We’ve also taken plenty where there wasn’t some giant reason behind it. I had something to blog, one of us had an idea, or she somehow got dragged into whatever nonsense I had decided we were doing that day. I think I like those photos just as much, and sometimes probably more.
This one isn’t marking some giant milestone. There isn’t an anniversary attached to it or some major life event I’m trying to put into words. It’s September 2026. FOXCITY released Sossego at Collabor88, I had a photo to take, Mackenzie had a yellow dress, we somehow ended up with enough food for considerably more than two people, and she wound up practically sitting on top of me while I tried to decide where the camera needed to be. Right now that’s really all there is to it, but I know how this works by now.
Eventually I’ll stumble across this photo again and September 2026 won’t feel like it just happened. I’ll probably remember setting up Sossego and knowing those tiles had to be behind us. I’ll remember Mackenzie’s yellow dress because there was no way that wasn’t going to work once I saw it against the blue. There’s a decent chance I’ll remember the giant chocolate milkshake sitting directly in front of us too, because it’s kind of hard to miss. Hopefully I’ll have forgotten how many times I moved the camera before deciding where I wanted it.
More than any of that, though, I’ll remember that Mackenzie was there. That’s what kept bringing me back to Ed Sheeran’s Camera while I was working on this. I spend an absurd amount of time worrying about the photo, getting everything where I want it, finding the angle, finding the light and making sure whatever I had in my head actually makes it onto the screen. After all of that, the photo still isn’t really the memory. It’s just what gets me back there later.
I think that’s probably why I’ve kept doing this as long as I have. Yes, I love taking the photos and I love putting these posts together, but somewhere over fourteen years they also became this massive record of where I’ve been and who has been there with me. I didn’t set out to build that when I started blogging, but I’m pretty glad I have it now.
Summer is going to end whether I’m ready for it or not. September will become October, the leaves will change, and eventually I’ll get around to those pumpkins I promised not to put all over this photo. That’s fine. I’ve been doing this long enough to know there’s always another season, another release and another photo waiting for me. Right now, though, I’ve got a beautiful new FOXCITY release, way too much food, a photo I really like and Mackenzie sitting there with me. Credits for everything can be found below, as always, until next time…
“A photo could not show
The way my heart is beating, babe
Some visions don’t ever fade”
Ed Sheeran – Camera
Credits:
~Him~
Head: LeLUTKA.Head.NOA.4.0 ~ Jaden Nova
Head Applier: Stray Dog HERVE EVOX TAN (V) NO BROWS ~ Gac Akina
Hair: [MFCNT] THOR Bun – Grooming Hair ~ LeBarbier Alpha
Hairbase: LeLUTKA.EvoX.Hairbase.044 (BOM) ~ Jaden Nova (Comes with the LeLUTKA NOA Head)
Eyes: [ContraptioN] Depthglass Eye ~ Walton Wainwright
Eyebase: Avi-Glam. Prism Eyes – Pack 2 ~ Eye Daddy
Ears: ^^Swallow^^ Gauged S Ears ~ Luciayes Magic
Beard: [MFCNT] Ducky Skunk Beard & Stache ~ LeBarbier Alpha
Beard Layer: PHYSIQUE X – Logan Facial Hair (v1) Tintable ~ PhysiqueX Resident
Body: [LEGACY] Athletic Edition (1.7.1) ~ MeshBody Resident
Skin: VELOUR: PICASSO HOMME Skin for Legacy (FIT/TAN) Picasso Neck ~ Kiria Mama
Nails: Pare.Cure Mesh Nails Both Hands [Short] – Legacy ~ Flazedo Resident
Shirt: cold ash. Legacy M/ Athletic REEVE Shirt ~ ColdAsh Resident ~ NEW @ The Mens Dept (Sept 5-Sept 30)
Pants: [Deadwool] Dean jeans ~ Masa Plympton
Necklace: cold ash. LegacyM/Athletic – MARINER Necklace ~ ColdAsh Resident ~ NEW @ The Mens Dept (Sept 5-Sept 30)
Watch: [Deadwool] “Petite tuile” watch ~ Masa Plympton
Rings/Bracelets: *RE* Atreides Bracelet & Rings ~ Crashnoww Resident
Earrings: = DAE = SXD1 ~ Naomi Darkheart
~Her~
Head: LeLutka EvoX AVALON 4.0 ~ Jaden Nova
Hair: Lamb. Aurora ~ Lamb Bellic ~ NEW @ Collabor88 (Sept 8-Oct 6)
Body: [LEGACY] [BODY] (f) Perky Edition (1.7.1) ~ MeshBody Resident
Skin: #4 a.b – Elodie – Porcelain ~ Shana Banana ~ NEW GACHA @ The Arcade (Sept 1-Sept 30)
Leg Tattoo: [Onyx] Dream Tattoo- Lost(Faded) ~ Norah Bovarro
Dress: Tres Blah – Fleur Babydoll – Yellow ~ Julliette Westerburg ~ NEW @ Collabor88 (Sept 8-Oct 6)
Shoes: complex // supernova sneakers ~ Complex Pixels
~Scene~
Backdrop: FOXCITY. Photo Booth – Sossego ~ Little Snacc ~ NEW @ Collabor88 (Sept 8-Oct 6)
Hotdog: dust bunny . bunburger diner . hot dog ~ Noel Bunny
Milkshake: dust bunny . bunburger diner . milkshake . chocolate ~ Noel Bunny
Burger: dust bunny . bunburger diner . burger basket ~ Noel Bunny
Fries: dust bunny . bunburger diner . fries ~ Noel Bunny
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