Come in, come in! Make yourselves at home! Take of your filthy shoes, you pigs! Actually, pigs are quite clean animals, when given the chance. But where’s this opening paragraph going? Nowhere in particular at high speed, I reckon. Right! What are we looking at today? That top dawg of the underdogs, the NX-Nardcotix David meshbody. It’s my monthly small challenge to find something to wear for a mesh body that is wildly unsupported. What can I say? I’m a glutton for punishment? Oh, if someone with celiac disease decides to eat bread, does that make them a gluten for punishment? *crickets*
I went over to Man Cave (ends February 11th) this month for a couple of warm winter wear options. There’s the highly huggable comfy Reed Cardigan by Ascend which I’m managing to wear both with and without the shirt add-on, using the Gianni size. The jeans I’m wearing with this outfit are the reliable Deadwool Broberry jeans. After a shape adjustment these jeans fit reasonably well in the TMP size and I even can get away with wearing them shirtless.
Another lovely item from Man Cave that works well with David, apart from maybe the occasional little glitch on the cuffs when you’re making strange moves (AO’s can be so weird), is the Yoggi’s Sweater by Tiller. This makes me want to try some cable knitting patterns in real life. Does anyone else take inspiration from SL for RL? Is that life imitating art or just straight up bonkers?
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What’s eating TMP? For starters, people who still refer to them as TMP. It grinds their gears because they’ve been trying to get away from that past with their new name “Meshbody”. Rumour has it (oh, I feel an Adelle song coming on) that they’ve commented on some bloggers who still call them TMP. Meanwhile they keep rubbing content creators the wrong way by offering second class support. Take the latest addition to their male mesh body line up, Athletic Meshbody, for example. That body has been out for months and months and still they haven’t given designers a dev pack. Instead they’ve been telling them to guesstimate the rigging. What the forking shirt balls?! (I have been re-watching The Good Place).
Luckily some items that have been rigged for Legacy Meshbody do seem to work with this Athletic version. The Babylon Crop by Noche is out right now at Equal 10 and fits perfectly. It’s one of those items that includes a hud to add your own graphics, so I popped in a somewhat narcissistic letter B. Then I put on the Noche Robinson pants and socks and the Modulus Lewis Hat & Hair for a complete baseball inspired look. With the Legacy body you would be able to wear the pants without the socks. The knees on the Athletic body are too chunky for these pants, so you need the socks to hide your legs completely.
I don’t think the difference between Legacy Meshbody and Athletic Meshbody is very noticeable. I can see that the abs on the Athletic version are more defined and maybe some other subtle changes have been made to the mesh to allow for a more buff appearance, but in the end the shape you use with it will have a big impact too. If you’re only going to get one mesh body, I would advise against getting the Athletic one, because you’ll miss out on a lot of nice underwear and swimwear options you get with the Legacy version, like the Noah jockstrap you can see on the two other avatars. I rummaged around in my underwear draw, tested some items and found that you can get away with Noche’s Tom Thong on the Athletic body, so I guess the situation isn’t totally hopeless. Other than that, I’m not experiencing any issues with the actual body and of course I think it looks great naked. Duh!
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With this episode my Latex & Leather Fetish series is definitely heading more into the fetish arena, because I can’t quite imagine wearing a kind of muzzle to let’s say, my granny’s Christmas party. As it happens, both my grannies have long since departed, but turning up at their doorstep in this outfit, probably would have brought their departure slightly forward. Anyhoo, what am I doing talking about grannies, while I look hella sexy?! Stop killing the mood you dawg!
The Noche Nath Pup Muzzle comes in two shapes and is resizable, so it will fit most mesh heads. I’m wearing it with a buzz cut, but I’m sure it can look nice with a hairstyle that will cover the top of the mask. The single colour version comes with a hud to change the textures of the metal and the tongue. The fatpack gives you texture options for different areas of the muzzle.
The Noche Baxton Harness was a pretty obvious choice to wear with this outfit. It doesn’t come with a leash, but you can just about imagine attaching one to one of the rings of this harness. Come along doggy!
The last bit of fun that needs to be mentioned is that the Noche Mev Leather Meggings have a clickable front. One click drops them to your knees and a second click of your crotch area (not the meggings crotch, YOUR crotch) will make them disappear. Click again and they pop back up. You can even give someone else access to this strip function, by clicking and holding down the mouse button for a couple of seconds before you release. This will give you a menu with some access options. I’m wearing these meggings in the size 2 bulge and I can actually wear the Noche James Thong in the same bulge size underneath it, which makes the drop-down function of the meggings all the more fun.
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Apparently the cardigan was named after James Brudenell, the 7th Earl of Cardigan who did some things during the Crimean war (I’m paraphrasing). Supposedly he “invented” the garment after he noticed that the tails of his coat had accidentally been burned off in a fire (clumsy sod). Well wasn’t he just the very model of a modern Major-General. I respectfully salute lord Brudenell for his fashion statement.
I prefer cardigans and hoodies over pullovers and sweaters, as they are easier to take off without awkwardly removing your shirt or t-shirt along with it. Cardigans are pretty versatile. You can wear one at home with a pair of sweatpants or even just boxer shorts if that floats your boat. I imagine this is the main use for cardigans at the moment, because the usual yearly habit of doing the rounds to wish friends and family a happy new year in person, will have been put on hold for many of you. The silver lining is that if you’re lucky enough to be in a loving relationship, you will have been able to use the rest of this holiday weekend doing little else then finish off the Christmas goodies and enjoying each other’s company… Being ever so slightly sick of the sight of each other.
When you eventually do venture out, you can of course wear a cardigan under a winter coat, just as you would do with a sweater. Paired up with a simple t-shirt, cardigans can be the perfect solution on days you’re not quite sure what the season is supposed to be. Sometimes you’ll see people sporting a sharper cardigan look with a shirt and tie, but that seems like too much hard work right now.
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While I do admire the athleticism and grace involved in martial arts, the only punches I have thrown in real life have been accidental ones. Surely most of us have unintentionally hit someone right in the kisser while putting on a sweater in a hurry. No? Just me then.
For those in Second Life™ who do want to get engaged in some contact sport, Noche has released hand bandages to assure you’re battle ready should the occasion arise. You can wear the stained with bloody or freshly washed. I suppose that these can also simply be worn as a fashion accessory, especially there’s a version included to wear under long sleeves. Right! Clearly I seem to have better things to do than yammer on and on about this, so I’ll just leave you with the credits.
At least once every year in the holiday season I dive deep into the treasure trove that is my inventory and pull out something that’s no longer available. The Noche Reindeer outfit is a great example of this. This set dates from 2016 and was made for the TMP body only. I actually had to go back to that body to don this outfit, because it doesn’t work well with the Classic Meshbody. I guess that proves that Meshbody actually did make changes to the TMP Deluxe body to turn it into their current Classic Meshbody. There are still no issues with the TMP Deluxe body though. People were telling me that if TMP ever went offline, the body would be useless. Four and a half years later it’s still fully functionally. Then again, as it was a 5000 L$ purchase even in 2016, it better well be!
I use the Noche reindeer outfit in two ways. I either wear the harness, collar, arm straps and antlers with the baggy trousers and studded sneakers from The Shops (also no longer available) and wear the Noche Metallic Thong underneath the trousers (the size 0 bulge is perfect for this). Alternatively I wear the set with the jockstrap that comes with it and also add the thigh straps. Of course this outfit came with a hud that has 10 colours for the fabric, 5 metals and 7 fur textures… A fat lot of good that’ll do you, as it’s no longer available. Personally I get positively giddy at so many colour combination options, especially as I also have those baggy trousers, shoes and the metallic thong in every available colour. And that’s how I spend my Christmas. Such fun!
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The monthly styling exercise with the NX-Nardcotix David mesh body was an easy one this time. I wanted him to either look christmassive or perhaps ready for New Year’s Eve. I found a great new outfit at Legal Insanity that fits in the Gianni size and the muscle mass turned down to 21. This makes David’s arms look less impressive than usual, but not weirdly thin.
The Legal Insanity Grant vest, trousers and necklace are all sold separate in a wide range of textures. I didn’t splash out on fat packs this time but found just what I wanted in this very stylish muted blue version. The necklace is a nice touch and I went for the slightly more daring pink pearls in the colour hud and matched this with some of the bracelets I’m wearing. All I had left to do then was pop on the NX-Nardcotix Jude ankle boots and I was good to go. I have to admit I often feel tempted to give up on these monthly styling exercises with the David mesh body, but I guess my soft spot for an underdog is prevailing and right now he’s looking rather suave.
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Here’s another look at the Lelutka Alain head, which currently is a very generous Christmas group gift until December 26th. To avoid overloading their main store, Lelutka have put up some temporary locations where you can pick up the male and female gift head. Actually, I only picked up the male one myself and just went back to pick up the “Lilly” head, just in case I ever feel like putting together a female avatar.
This time I also picked up a group gift at Clef De Peau. It’s the Jamie skin for Lelutka Evolution mesh heads and it comes complete with body skins for Signature Gianni, Belleza Jake, Legacy Meshbody and Slink. That’s rather unique, because quite often these gifts will include only a skin for a mesh head and then you have to purchase the body skin in the matching skin tone, unless you’re lucky enough to already have that in your inventory . This time we’re getting the full monty, no separate purchases needed. It also includes an extra layer for that red nose effect, because it’s winter after all. I further embellished it with the freckles and beard that come with the Alain head for an altogether adorable look.
I hopped over to the current round of TMD (runs till December 30th) and looked for something Christmassy to treat myself with. The casual sweatshirt by Kalback with a classic poinsettia pattern was just the kind of thing I was after. I tried on several pairs of jeans, but many were cutting through the sweater. It makes sense that the Casual Jeans (Ripped) by Kalback turned out to be the solution to this problem. They come with various options for the patches and I deliberately chose the same texture for all of them making it appear as if might be wearing long johns underneath the jeans. You can wear these jeans with or without a belt and/or briefs. The sturdy Woodcreek boots with socks by Cold Ash complete this winter look.
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