Friday, September 12, 2014

Ioh Meets Blue Anew


Ioh Meets Blue Anew
Theme: Pump

An RP I happened upon at the Midian Bunker a while back. Yes, I do remember Blue, and I think I remember about the time that I met her. And if I remember correctly, Beast was the one who first mentioned to her. Not sure, but I just might have the old RP of their first meeting buried somewhere. Not exactly sure what I still have left from before the last reboot of Ioh's photostream.

Anyways, a fun bit or RP. And yeah, the drum cadence linked as theme is pretty cool too. =~.^=



Wandering About In The Bunker

Ioh looked around. He didn't see too much of immediate interest. Staring at the makeshift fountain for a bit,  he gave up on there being any fish. He walked up the the stairs until he came around the wooden walks  where he spotted a feline. Not certain if he knew her, he flicked his tail for a moment in contemplation, then shrugged. Might as well greet and find out. "Hello there."

Standing off to the side, using the shadows and her dark attire to her advantage, the other feline finished her cigarette, tossing the butt to the crates below. No sooner had the embers and ashes stared their journey to the ground was there heard a sound. Creaking boards caught her attention. "Evenin'." Her voice was rocky and used. Her nose and eyes took in Ioh's scent and physique. She fouind him curious, and maybe familiar, but she couldn't put a claw on which sense it was.

For a moment, Ioh continued contemplation over the feline. He picked up in her scent as he got close. There was something that teased at a faint memory. Noticing this, and where he was, he had to be wary. Not all that were familiar were friendly. Regardless, he smiled. "A slow evening."

The other feline was being wary as well. Her one good eye kept a constant gaze as she watched him. She was also in a corner, which only added to the necessity of alertness. Her cybernetic optics zoomed in and out, showing visuals and collecting what data it could. "It has been lately. Lots of people are venturing out. Many are tired of waiting around and living what could scarcely be considered survival." Turning to face him, her metal arms crossed in front of her chest. "May I ask your name?" Maybe finding that would help trigger her memory.

He listened to her talk, but for now wouldn't mention that he was from without and had recently ventured in. No reason to say that. Probably no reason to be cryptic, either. Even so, for her answer, he riddled, "I would ask the same of you. I don't think that this was just a meeting out of the blue. Yo soy el que soy – I am who I am.  And if you know who I am, I'm certain I may know you."

She smirked at his riddled response and continued sizing him up. Her long tail twisted and drove around behind her as she considered his words. As she smiled, her sharp feline fangs peeked out. "Well, I do have this sneaking suspicion that I know you from somewhere." She tapped her metallic pointer finger upon her lips as she sank into thought.

"Considering where we're meeting right now, " he added, keeping with a calm, almost laid back posture with a slight grin, "It's not a long stretch to say we first met some time ago in what used to be Midian."

She let out a little chuckle as she glanced over top the make-shift tents below. "You're probably right," she said softly, then shot look back at him. "I wouldn't know, actually. Lost a lot of memories in an accident a while ago. Lots of people I had to re-meet." She gave a lazy shrug. "My name's Blu, let's start with that."

Ioh's tail swayed more relaxed as she chuckled. A humored response could be positive. Then again, good humors had a way of turning sour. Still, he listened to her, and, when she gave a name, and one he somewhat recognized, he assented to being given her name by her. "Then if you must know, you can call me Ioh." For all he knew, she may have once known him as Joe.

As far as Blue knew, she was meeting him for the first time. His scent kept nagging at her nose as being familiar, but that wasn't much to go off of. "Ioh, huh? interesting name. I like it." She looked away as she bit the inside of her lip. Her tail still flicked and swayed about behind her non-stop. She was really hoping her heat wasn't noticeable yet. She hadn't expected to run into a male hybrid so soon after getting back from the swamps.

"It's of a certain Latin origin." Or close enough. Even among felines similar, he couldn't say the true origins. Their history was better off lost in this moment among the current generations. He noticed her tail swaying. His own gave a slight flick in its sway as he approached closer. "So, what brings you here." He tried to carry on the somewhat casual conversation.

Blue tensed up when he moved closer to her. She held her composure. Her tail flicked as she tried to relax it as much as she could get it to. "Shelter. The kitty family I have left. Just making sure all the younger kits are doing alright." She eyed him again, now that he was closer. "What about you? Did you wander in recently?"

He came a few steps closer then paused. "Family, eh?" Among the cats in Midian, that had at least two possible meanings. Either a litter of their own, or a certain group that lived on the rooftops. Though intrigued to know which, he crouched his curiosity in an assumption, "I bet you have quite a lovely litter."

She chuckled a little at his assumption. "I'm sure I would if I had one. I mean the people I consider family." She swallowed back the lump in her throat as she tried to ignore the way her body was feeling.

He had a better idea who she meant, but it was of no concern. She did say she had no memory, right? Besides, something compelled him to come closer to her. His tail flicked as he realized her scent indicated something more than familiarity. "Well, it's good to have a few cats..., close."

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Problem - Ariana Grande (Cover/MIDI Arrangement)

A couple versions of Ariana Grande's single 'Problem' done with slightly different synths.



The only thing I did was play with the synth, recording, and video edits, with Jane Catwalkin'... sorta.





Saturday, September 6, 2014

Prairie March

Started composing this Thurs night ( 9-4-2014). Began as a melody that popped into my mind after choir practice.  The cello has the initial melody. From there, a sort of round and various counterpoints formed.  Then the drums filled it out with  a sort of 18th or 19th century sort of cadence.  I swear, I haven't listened to Gorges Bizet in a while. Though 'Carmen' is a pretty cool opera. <.<





Friday, September 5, 2014

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Another Midian Revival?

Despite not really being much on SL for a while, I still have been able to manage to hear the rumors about Jade possibly starting up 'Classic Midian' again.  There's talk that the Pack and the Catwalkers will return.  But then there's also talk that it might be human only, which makes no sense, considering that the Pack and Catwalkers are both famous and notorious for being hybrid groups.  In fact, I remember long before I came to Midian the first time back in 2007 this talk in clubs and stores about some sim that had a gang of cats, of nekos.  It intrigued me, being that I had already grown accustom to Ioh's leopard spots back then, wearing the Jungle Voodoo Golden Leopard skin.  My concept of what a kitty gang might be back then was something like Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats musical, and, I don't know, maybe Heathcliff?  So the Strays, Catwalkers, and Pack brought about some pretty cool experiences in developing RP that had its fun moments. Sure, there were ups and downs, but overall there were some memorable moments worth their while.

But what about reviving Midian... again?  I don't know. Can't re-create the past, but can't wipe it out completely either. But certainly, we have to define what it was to people to have any idea as to what it ought to become. For despite that classic progressive liberal angst against looking back on the past, even science has to remember that they would not be able to see as far as they could without standing on the shoulders of giants. That is, even progress has its predecessor that helped mold and make the progress better be able to move forward.

But I'll keep it basic. So the first question to ask, though can be the most difficult is:

1. What is Midian?

This is a two-fold question, really, since the two questions being asked are:

1a. What is the owner's vision of Midian?

and:

1b. What is the vision that the players have?

The first part of it may be easy for the owner, but the difficulty comes because, if you want a sim to flourish, especially if you want vibrant RP with great storytelling, you have to consider what the players bring to the table.  Yes, they come to the house as guests.  But even in real life, people visit friends and family for a variety of reasons. Or with a business, you don't just open a coffee shop to sell coffee, you also sell an experience. And that experience is not, and will never be the same for any two people.  Similar, true, but not the exact same, and no one really wants that sameness. If they wanted the bland atmosphere, they wouldn't go out to a coffee shop or to a restaurant.  And even at home, no one wants a dull home experience either. Peaceful, yes, but not dull.

The other question is:

2. What are Midian's limits?

This relates with the vision, which is the internalized concept of what one wants or believes they want to see.  However, this poses the question of the outward projection of how the concept is actualized in real time.

So here, the twofold is better asked:

2a. What does the owner perceive to be the goals and expectations for what happens in Midian?

and:

2b. How do the players that go to Midian perceive these goals and expectations.

At the moment, it seems that both concept and perception are not coming to any common ground between the owner and the players.  Without such ground to found the RP on, it's not going to lead to a healthy, nor successful atmosphere for the RP, and it will most likely choke and die again.  And if you're going to put thousands of dollars on an RP sim in SL only to see it go bust again because neither the owner nor the players can come together and find that fertile common ground to plant the RP in, well, I'd say save your money.  I'd also say it would be a much cheaper venture to take it onto an Opensim grid, since, at least if you don't get a lot of traffic there, you wouldn't be pissing away near as much money and, in some grids, little to no money at all.

But you know, I do agree that concepts and perceptions change over time.  The things that interest me about RP have matured a bit, and I'm not looking for an RP sim what desires to be 'hard core' or 'hard and nasty'.  There's plenty of sex sims out there for that, and even many of them have pretty slow traffic at times.  Maybe sex doesn't always sell, or maybe people want more out of their SL experience than just sex.  The same could be said about meter battles, which are becoming less compatible with certain changes that have happened with the way direction and jumping function.  For some reason, SL seems to be wanting to go away from the more FPS style and experiments with the click and move aspect.

But anyways, I digress. What's important is that common ground gets established between owner and players.  If this doesn't happen, there's really little point to investing in Midian.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Tuesday, July 1, 2014