“What can I say, I’m a sucker for abandoned stuff, misplaced stuff, forgotten stuff, any old stuff which despite the light of progress and all that, still vanishes every day like shadows at noon, goings unheralded, passings unourned, well, you get the drift.”
― Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves

“There’s something about these obscure vignettes of former lives that’s very powerful. Our woods are full of old cellar holes, tumbled-down chimneys, ancient scraggly lilacs absurdly tall still stretching toward the light.”
― Leslie Land, The 3000-Mile Garden: An Exchange of Letters on Gardening, Food, and the Good Life

With so many events lately, such as the latest round of Chapter Four, Collabor88, and others, I had to finally catch up on checking out things after getting lose somewhere in the enjoyable visions of the Enchantment event, which was the subject of my last substantial post.   So, I took a moment to relax on my Hypnos bed, the latest offering from Jalynne, the mind behind Unrepentant.  This bed, where anyone can recline in the comfort of Lovecraftian inspired tentacles and silky goodness, is available at the Lovecraft Festival 2013, now going on from November 13-17.

For some reason, I felt cradled by the comfort as I contemplated what to blog.  While I enjoy fashion, this isn’t the only reason that I blog, nor my main thing in Second Life. I also enjoy exploring, role playing, and live music, but mainly, I like to see the many wonderful places that Second Life has to offer.  One thing that constantly returns me to Second Life is the feeling of dreaming with my eyes open as I share the creativity that others put into sims, their builds, and other things that are harvested from the imagination.

As I attempted to dream, my mind focused on the theme of the forgotten, those corners of the SL-verse that are not always frequented, or rather even fashioned as places that been ‘lost’ to the annals of mind and time.  I floated upon clouds of clockwork gears, and the cogs turned in my mind, or those pesky tentacles just were squeezing too hard..

I felt my body relax as the world melted away, and I found myself focused on a location filled with clockwork automatons, old buildings left intact but made by humans, and there was the smell of the sea..

As my vision cleared, I found that I was no longer in my bedroom, but standing on a dock, having arrived before a building that had letters that I could just make out. The sign said in bold text – “Welcome to Forgotten City.”  I blinked, and tilted my head, even as my body felt a bit odd.  Where had my dress gone?  Did my dream of being naked in public finally come (horribly) true?!  I looked down while in a rising panic, though grateful that no one seemed to be present for now.

Looking down, I saw that my comfy blue sundress had shifted to something metallic, and my whole body was different and rather robotic.  In fact, it reminded me of  a look seen in old pulp comics or science fiction movies from the fifties.   My suit was a bright silver hue even as a pair of glowing holographic wings seemed to be mounted to the back with a little disc turning.  Okay, my Tron fantasies maybe were getting to my head.  I knew that I should not have eaten that chocolate before taking a nap..

Around me, I could see no people, but I did come across various automatons that each looked like the last, copper and brass men with hats, and I even what seemed to be a large mechanical cat swimming past in the waters that surrounded this city.  All around me, there stretched buildings empty of people, though upon closer inspection, I found signs with suggestions to do in the ‘Forgotten City‘, with mention of a circus as well.

The fabulous sim that I found is called the ‘Forgotten City‘, and its description says ..

“A once great city where the prosperous residents were served by the miraculous mechanical automatons. The people have long since disappeared, but the automatons remained and still take care of the crumbling stone walls, abandoned halls and rusty fences.”

There are various things to do here, such as ski, go to the shooting gallery, hunt aliens, and have a race at the track.  I found the build to both detail, delightful, and imaginative as I wandered about.  There was also mention of a circus that happens at 8 p.m. SL time.  You can also take a row boat around the city, and a balloon tour.  The builders of the sim are Mandy Marseille and Jennie Dibou, who also run the ~JD~ Mechanical Toy Factory, which produces Unique mix of Steampunk, Wasteland and Art Nouveau designs in buildings, clothing and accessories.

I found this place well worth the visit between checking out events, and it fit one of my loves in Second Life of Steampunk.

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Picture one and two –

Setting – My home – Trompe Loeil – Autumn Cottage – Trompe Soleil by Cory Edo (From the last round of Collabor88, now available at their shop.)

Bed – [UN] Hypnos Bed – Adult – Unrepentant by Jalynne Ohmai (Now available at the Lovecraft Festival 2013.)

Bear on head – +Half-Deer+ Dreary Bears [Panda] – +Half-Deer+ by Halogen Magic (Available at the current round of Chapter Four, which starts the 4th of every month and runs for two weeks.)

Hair – Clawtooth: Say Yes (Silent Movie Star Pack) in Black Beauty – Clawtooth by Bubbles Clawtooth

Eyes – {Dead Apples} Sorrow Eyes – Green – Dead Apples by Soleil Reid (Free! Group gift available at the main store. Just join the group, which is free to join.)

Hands – Slink Avatar Enhancement Hands – Casual – Slink by Siddean Munro

Dress – ::TSC:: Sweety Dress – Blue Bug – The Sinners Crossroads by SteviMay Chauveau (Available at the current round of Chapter Four, which starts the 4th of every month and runs for two weeks.)

Feet – Slink Female Feet (AvEnhance) M – Flat – Slink by Siddean Munro

Shoes – *~*HopScotch*~* Sunflower Flip Flops – Hopscotch by Chandni Khondji (Free! Subscriber gift available on joining the Subscriber in the main store.  *Made for Slink! avatar enhancement bare feet, though apparently these can be worn with other feet via some repositioning.)

Pictures taken in Forgotten City:

Location – The Forgotten City Sim

Retro Robot Avatar -(fd) Retro Robot (Full Avatar) – Silver (Includes mesh parts, tattoo layer for skin to wear) – Fashionably Dead by Toast Bard – (Available at the current round of Collabor88)

Wings – Gridwear – Loyalty Shard Wings by DiGi – DiGi by Alesium Resident (Almost Free! – Available as a dollarbie on the marketplace.)

Eyes – {Dead Apples} Sorrow Eyes – Green – Dead Apples by Soleil Reid (Free! Group gift available at the main store. Just join the group, which is free to join.)