RLV & Commuication

There are a couple of fundamental thrills with bondage, being controlled and having control taken away from you.  A very effective way of doing that is taking away or limiting the ability of the bottom to communicate.

This can, of course, be role played.  I’ve done that and it’s good but it does not compare, for me, to trying to say something to the top only to have gibberish or nothing come out.  It makes me feel controlled.  As a top that is my goal, to have the bottom under my control and RLV can do much to achieve that.

Communication in SL happens in a number of ways

• Chat
• Emoting
• Private Channels
• IM
• Notecards
• Pictures

And other sneakier ways (no I’m not going to tell you, that’ll do for now).  Each of the listed methods can be controlled by RLV, what gets controlled is dependent on the context.  If you don’t know what context means, look it up because I’ll be using that word a lot

This is a big subject, so I’m going to break it up in to a number of posts.  This one’s going to concentrate on Chat and emoting.

Chat

Well this one’s easy, slap a gag in the bottom’s mouth.  That’s as basic as it gets, it can get much more involved, but let’s run with that for now.

Gagging is a bondage staple.  Before we had RLV, hell second life, bottoms would emote being gagged.  It was a choice made by the bottom to respect the covenant that a gag’s in place; something from the bottom might look like this:

bottom mumbles behind her gag, shaking her head violently from side to side.

I’ll be quite frank with you, I still prefer that over what we have with a gagged bottom in RLV

bottom: mmf ppf mmom pfmm

With absolutely no emoting that green spam doesn’t really do it for me on its own.  Something like this works really well though:

bottom: mmf ppf mmom pfmm
bottom’s eyes go wide as she mumbles incoherently behind her gag

Now let’s back up a moment, here.  The top’s directing the scene by gagging the bottom, the bottom is not a passive entity in this.  The bottom reacts to the restriction in an appropriate way that empowers the top.  If the top gags the bottom and the bottom just spams the screen with green gag nonsense, that’s not doing a great deal to convey the import that being gagged has on the bottom.

Tops, you can do something about this.  Let’s say you’ve gagged a bottom and all the bottom does is spam the screen with annoying gagese…let’s pick it up from there.

RR Ballgag applied to bottom

bottom: mmf ppf mom Pfmm
bottom: pff mmmfow pfffme
bottom: mmfwo ppo mmmmow

Top sighs as she shakes her head in bemusement
Top:Silly girl, can’t understand a word your saying. Now hush up, and answer me by nodding or shaking your head.

Top proceeds to play twenty questions with the bottom.  This works on a couple of levels.  Firstly it re-enforces that the top is the one pulling the strings.  The bottom has very limited options in how she can respond.  Secondly if the bottom is not skilled at emoting, it can encourage that skill and that’s never a bad thing.

Deaf

This is an edgy one, I advise against using it with strangers. Deaf does what it says on the tin, it makes the bottom deaf to all local chat.  All the bottom will see is this:

…
…
…

Next to the name of whoever said it.  Thrilling huh?  Well yes, it can be.  It all boils down to context.  Consider the following scenario, the bottom has been bound, gagged etc.  Another party comes along, someone who’s a participant in the scene.  In the days before RLV what would happen with skilled RPers is something like this:

Top roughly manhandles bottom, inserting ear plugs in to bottom’s ears, rendering bottom deaf.

Top leans in to Top’s Buddy, and talks quietly with him; neither Top’s voice of or Buddy’s voice are comprehensible to Bottom.

And the conversation between Top and Buddy would take place in IM.  There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s good RP.  The effect is somewhat spoiled though if this is happening in a public place and the bottom can hear all the chit chat that’s going on around non-participants.  That’s where RLV comes in.

Mute

It’s arguable I should have covered this under the section all about gags, however if you’ve ever tried to totally silence someone (or yourself, you pervert) then you’ll know that it’s next to impossible to silence someone completely.

What would work is locking someone in a soundproof helmet, such helmets exist in SL.  Speech and hearing are facilitated by microphones and speakers; that’s one of the few occasions I’d mute a bottom’s chat.

Emotes

Emotes cannot be completely curtailed with RLV, they can be truncated to 15 characters.  The question is why would I as a top want to limit a bottom’s emotes?

For me the circumstances that this may happen are possibly amongst the most contextual of any RLV restriction.  It goes against what I generally want from a bottom; good feedback through RP.

Off the top of my head, here’s an example where it may be appropriate to truncate emotes.  Let’s say I’ve transformed someone in to a statue.  Well there’s a reason to mute and deaf someone perhaps, maybe just mute.  Deaf/mute would be incredibly boring.  Consider if the bottom is a  wordy emoter, you might have something like this:

Bottom struggles to move but finnds that her body is rigid with no movement possible.  She panics, wondering what is to become of her, only able to hear the voices around her but unable to even moan.

Now as a bit of narrative prose, that’s not too bad but in the context of the scene, is it appropriate?  When’s the last time you walked past a statue and managed to discern that sort of information from it?  No, me neither.  Now ideally my bottom knows to keep quiet and to not emote, but it may pay to truncate emotes just to re-enforce the point.

All that said I have a general dislike for truncating emotes, I don’t allow it on myself and would need a very good reason to do it to a bottom.

Special case: Chat redirection (renaming)

Gagging works by redirecting local chat and garbling it, chat redirection.  It does have another use, though, particularly useful in de-personalisation scenarios.

Some devices such as the Krystal Klaarrs Iso-Helmet, the Mo Renamer and the DD remnamer, allow for either the top or the bottom to change the name associated with chat.  Imagine 3 avs all dressed identically and all speaking with one voice, a true hive mind.  It can be quite disconcerting

 

RLV uses – intro

Recently I’ve become aware of polarizing attitudes with respect to RLV. There are some out there who deride it as being a crutch, replacing RP, being a tool of lazy dominants and overall detrimental to BDSM.

To an extent this is understandable, I’ve seen some appalling uses of RLV. Then again I’ve seen appalling uses of motor cars, bicycles, hammers…see where I’m going here?

It’s not the tools you use, it’s how you use them. Now I’m not setting myself up and an authority on RLV and how it can be used as a tool to enhance your SL BDSM experience; this is how I do things though.

Before I get to that, though, some defining of terms.

RLV is a tool for bondage and control, so I”m not going to be talking doms and subs, I’m going to be talking tops and bottoms. Domination and submission is a completely different subject and RLV will not help you there. It can enhance activities surrounding D/s, but if you don’t have the foundations RLV will do you no good.

Top
The top is the main protagonist of the scene. I use the term top specifically because it has little to do with domination. One can still be submissive i nature and in act yet still be a top in a scene. This is an important distinction because bondage can have absolutely no bearing on D/s, some of us just like bondage.

The top is the pilot for the ride. It’s the top’s job to control the environment for and around the bottom and that leads us nicely to the…

Bottom
Just as a top needn’t necessarily be dominant, a bottom needn’t necessarily be submissive. What the bottom does do though is surrender some control to the top of the scene. The bottom essentially straps in and allows the top to take him or her for a ride.

That does not mean that the bottom’s role is a passive one, oh no. I don’t know many tops who like unresponsive bottoms. The bottom’s role is to react, respond give the top something to work with. It’s a bit of a balancing act for the bottom as there is a risk that topping from the bottom may occur; I’d go in to that in more detail but I’m trying not to lose focus.

 

Hello Unionites

Hi, I’m Shuggi. I’m an opinionated fetishist, I love latex, locks, hoods and all manner or kinky things.

I’ve been writing for some time now over at my blog, aptly named “Shuggi’s Blog” I’m flattered to have been invited here as a contributing author/editor.

What I hope to bring to this site are my opinions on BDSM in general and how some of  the technologies, particularly RLV, can be used to further the experience in SL.  I’m of the firm opinion that BDSM is 80% in the head.  While future posts will appear both in the main feed my past works can be found here.  Future posts will appear in both.

My own blog?  Well I’m hoping to take that in a more personal direction.

Yours, most likely in latex,

Shuggi

Announce: BDSM & Abuse – Kinkster Munch

Kinkster Munch, June 20 11AM
Topic: BDSM and abuse

When does consensual BDSM become abusive? Does it? What constitutes abuse in a D/s relationship? Can harm equal to what happens to some in First Life affect people in a similar way in Second Life? Please join our discussion of BDSM and abuse this Saturday at the Kinkster Munch.

The Kinkster Much Group meets at the Diloba Celtic Pub each other Saturday. If there is a topic you would like covered, please IM either Vannesh Cannoli or Lex Berchot. All people are welcome to listen and participate in group discussions, which are low key, and designed to foster learning and sharing. Please join us, and IM Lex Berchot or Vannesh Cannoi for an invite to the group to gain information on future meetings and topics.

Join the kinkster munch group for
updates and announcements

Tinkerer’s Guide: The MD Pony Boots

Hey all! I’ve been doing some thinking, and I’d like to pick up blogging again, so if you’ve missed me, good things are in store. If you haven’t missed me, well, it’s not like I’m forcing you to read this.

Here in the near future, I’d like to review the relatively new pony kit from Mesmerize Dungeon. However, before I do that, I thought I’d share a little guide to my fellow SL tinkerers.

The new MD boots are really great. They’re some of the tallest boots I’ve ever seen in SL, and they’re reeeeeeally freaking sexy. Shu got me a pair of the knee highs, and I think they’re my new favorite boots.

However, when putting together a pony ensemble, you run into a bit of a problem. The pony boots only come in mid thigh versions. While I have nothing against mid thigh, knee-high is, in my perhaps not quite humble opinion, so much sexier. However, the pony boots have some things that the knee-high fetish boots don’t; namely, the training scripts (like the MD ballet boots), and some pony walk animations that I think are practically worth the L$750 all on their own.

This got me thinking: is it possible to move the scripts around? These are both from the same designer, after all. I put down the L$750 for a pair of pony boots and began tinkering, and it so turns out, ladies and gentlemen, that it is, and it’s not all that hard either.

It’s basically just a straight inventory swap: rez a copy of one of the right-foot pony boots, copy its inventory to your inventory, then rez a copy of the fetish boots and clear it’s inventory, then drop the contents of the pony boot into the fetish boot.

HOWEVER, there are a couple scripts you will want to be careful of:

plugo-color: This is the script that handles the coloring of all the various parts of the boot. Due to structural differences in the boot, I’m assuming that the pony boot version of this script will not work on the fetish boot. You will want to keep the fetish boot’s copy of this script, and not move the pony boot’s version.

kinky boot r: As far as I can tell, this script controls communication between the two boots, the left boot having a script called “kinky boot l.” The pony boots have an equivalent script called “pony boot r” that will not work with the kinky boot, even with the pony boot scripts. Again, you will want to keep the “kinky boot r” script and not copy “pony boot r.”

Once you’ve gotten everything set up, you have a pair of ultra-sexy knee high boots with the added treat of the training scripts and AO from the pony boots. No, you don’t have the ultra-cute horseshoe sole the pony boots have, but this will have to do until we can get Latexina to give us a pair of knee-high pony boots. Personally, I’d also like the pony boots to not only be knee-high, but have MD-cuffs compatible cuffs on them like the ballet boots have.

Anyway, talk to you all again soon! Hopefully I’ll have a full review of the MD pony gear put together here soon!

Love,

- Vel

P.S.: This has been cross posted from my blog, Kinky Kitten Kaboodles.

Subbie Union presents: The Kinkster Munch

Subbie Union presents:

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The Kinkster Munch

 

 

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Please join the Kinkster Munch group for our first BDSM themed discussion event this coming Saturday!  Vannesh Cannoli will give a presentation on the differences between submission and slavery, followed by general response and discussion.  All folks are welcome, whether a long time in the scene, just starting, or just interested!

The Kinkster Much Group meets at the Diloba Celtic Pub each other Saturday.   If there is a topic you would like covered, please IM either Vannesh Cannoli or Lex Berchot.  All people are welcome to listen and participate in group discussions, which are low key, and designed to foster learning and sharing.  Please join us, and IM Lex Berchot or Vannesh Cannoli for an invite to the group to gain information on future meetings and topics.

Location: Diloba Celtic Pub.
When: Saturday 23 May 2009
Time: 11:00 AM SL Time.

See also the announcement here:
If you want to join `The Kinkster Munch‘ Group, you can click the link.

Hope to see you there!

Vannesh Cannoli & Lex Berchot

Rubber doll

Well for the past couple of days I have been playing about with my various outfits, and I came across the idea of dressing myself as a rubber doll. This is not the first time I have played around with this idea. but since I have all new toys to play with, I thought it was time to revisit this topic:

The is the four different outfits below:
(please click on each photo, so you can see the outfits
in up close and personal detail)

Pink rubberdoll with gasmask

Red Rubberdoll with `ER Isolationhood`

Rubberdoll / Bane Outfit

Blue Rubberdoll without a mask

Basically most doll outfit consist off at least a POC catsuit, Fairlight boots and gloves, a *Kas* Corset and Chastity belt, the Hair is also got from ER and can be changed to suit your fancy.

The pink latex doll is probably the most shocking for everyone, as I don’t do pink that often, but I think it’s tastefully enough. The real extra here is the Scorpion Gas mask [1]

The Red latex doll is wearing the lockable ER hood. Sadly this does not come with scripts or a HUD but it’s delicious in the way it looks. I love the detail of the little heart shape locks.

The Bane / Black latex doll is the most basic of outfits and yet perhaps the most evil as well. Because with the bane helmet set to severe settings, it could make life basically pretty hard to live.

The blue latex doll is the least restrictive one. No isolation features, just a tight latex hood which actually leaves the mouth and eyes open. Granted that means you could use it for a whole level of others toys such as gags. etc.

I was thinking of putting a picture here of me as a pony, but I am going reserve that for another blog post. Still if something like that is your interest there is still ways to let me know.

I am going ask you to vote please which outfit do you like best, and leave a comment. Which outfit of me as a rubber doll do you like best, which outfit would you like to see me walking around in. If rubber dolls aren’t your thing, just vote for ‘Other’ and leave a comment what kind of outfit you would like to see me in.

I might pick a random winner for something, from the comments. IF I do and what it will be, I will let you know.

There is a poll running on my blog. So please please please [2] head over there and:

V O T E !!

[1] – Yes I know the name changed, I can’t remember it. bad lexi!
[2] – Yes, I am begging here

New Story Published!! “Cuffed”

Once in a while …..

I actually get to finish things I have been working on for ages. Well, finally after two years, I managed to finalise one of my stories. I can believe it has taken me so long to finally bring this to a successful end.

The story is called “Cuffed“, and deal with the adventure of a girl called “Rona“. Rona is heading to the countries capital and meets the a wonderful woman for the first time in her life. The only contact she had before is over the Internet.

They meet… and the rest that happens, well I will say that it involves some bondage, some teasing, and some other bits and pieces. But really, you’ll need to read the rest of the story yourself.

A big thank you to my best friend elessandra and of course to my sis, Velicia. They both spend time proofreading my story.

As for the rest of you, I sincerely hope you enjoy it.

I give you… “CUFFED“

xx
lexi

[edit]: Fixed the links so they actually point somewhere.

Weirdness: Latest SL Linux Viewer (1.21.6.99587)

I don’t think it’s a huge surprise to most people who know me, that I am a fervent Linux user and a fervent RLV user as well.

Since Marine release the 1.14.* series of the viewer (which is based on the 1.21.6 Second Life Viewer) a big thanks to Loom Kish and Jessica Hultcrantz for taking care of the Linux RLV viewer, I was quickly able to switch to the latest viewer. Or so I thought …

Anyway it seems in their wisdom, LL have decided that they know exactly how the permissions of the files should be. Sadly this means that it has been made “impossible” to run the client in a multi user setup. After digging some around in the second life wiki I came across the following article, which states:

“On systems where multiple people use Second Life, you may wish to unpack Second Life, then have your root user move it to /opt and link /opt/path-to-Secondlife/secondlife to /usr/games. Any user who has access to play games should be able to run Second Life directly from the command line with secondlife.”

Anyway, I am slightly OCPD about how I install my clients. So let me quickly explain:

Basically I install the viewers in the /usr/local/games/ directory, then I use symlinks to hook everything together. The reason I do this is cause I have a ’starter script in /usr/local/bin/ which quickly calls the script that is needed. This gives me the ability to switch quickly between clients and have backup clients installed as needed, by just changing the symlink.

But I digress…

After installing the normal viewer this morning I tried to start it and nothing happened. I tried again, and indeed again, nothing. So after running the ./secondlife binary by hand I got a “permission denied”. When I looked at the permission of the files, to my shock I found out how well `mangled` they were.

I have talked about this in the SL Linux User groups inworld. But the best suggestion was “oh just install it in your home directory“, which frankly is the most absurd suggestion I have heard. Yes it will work, but it is not the way things are intended to run. Sorry, it just is not.

After poking around a little bit, I have decided to write a script that uses a couple of find statements to reset the permissions to files, to a more sane and normal setting. You can find a copy the script on a pastebin here, also since Worpdress.com doesn’t allow scripts or textfiles to be uploaded, I’ll post the PDF with the source code here.

Anyway with the permissions reset like they should be on a normal application: everything seems to be working just fine

PS. Feel free to also IM me in world for a copy of the script if you want it.

xx
lexi

Restrained Life 1.12.3

Right on the heels of 1.12.2, Marine has released Restrained Life 1.12.3. Just a few bug fixes this time, no new real features, except for the removel of the “dust cloud” that happens whenever a restraint sends an owner message, removing the one warning we all had that our dom was up to trouble.

Viewer is available for both Windows and Macintosh, but we’re still waiting on a Linux version.

Edit

The Restrained Life 1.12.3 client for linux has been released.