Halloween "Costume"

If you are not a resident of Second Life who has been through at least one Halloween, you wont realize that it's quite possibly the most popular holiday in SL.  Since you can literally dress up as anything, people can and do. You have to see a club crowd on All Hallow's Eve in SL to really understand the concept of "diversity."

I spend a lot of my time in Second Life wearing outfits that you could call costumes.  From any of the pirate outfits I've made for the Shemale Pirates group, to any one of the Star Trek uniforms I've got.  From an elven look, to my Gogo Yubari outfit, from my anthro bunny avatar to my typical avatar.  My most frequent look being of uncertain gender and ethnic background.  So, since my first Halloween in SL, I have had trouble with a particular question each Halloween.  Which of the many "costumes" that I have should I wear?  If you wear costumes all year long, what makes a costume special enough to wear on the day when everyone wears a costume?  I sometimes try to match my outfit to the local "theme" if I go out to a party in a themed sim.  But this year, I was just trying to come up with something...Interesting.

Lately I've spent a good amount of time browsing through the shared library that is linked into the inventory of every resident of SL.  I've been tinkering at making various things, and there are many useful textures and examples there.  One day, I noticed there are a number of new full mesh avatar kits!  Among them are several horror themed ones.  A vampire hunter, a wolf man, zombie boy and a zombie girl.  But also a full werewolf avi, and something called a "vampire beast."  These last two even included a full AO and control HUD to cause the avatar to howl or slash out with it's claws.  I found these critters marvelously well done for a freebie. But...

There was no way I was going to walk into a club with a "stock" monster costume!  So, I used some of my new found LSL coding skills to make a scripted invisible prim I could wear in the monster's mouth.  It created a greenish mist in pulses, as if it was being puffed from the monster's foul innards.  And roughly in time with this, and the slight rocking motion incorporated in the stock AO, I added a ragged deep breathing sound. Add in some flexi drool and particle drips modified from something Belle Dejour made.  Also a set of horns I picked up as a freebie someplace, already conveniently tinted green like the avatar.  Plus the oldest prim clothing item I made, a set of green silks to fill in as a loin cloth.  Last of all I added a subtle red glow to the eyes and called it done.

When completed, the "vampire monster" looked more like a demon or gargoyle to me, thanks to the horns.  But that's all to the good, cause it was no longer a stock avatar, it was something different enough that even if if someone else wore the same stock avatar, we would not look exactly the same.  With all that said, here's my little horror show.

Image taken in the caves at the Beast Barn play sim.