Grendel's Children and Avaria featured in new Nitwacket machinima + A chat with Flea Bussy

Posted by Bettina Tizzy

Perched high in the sky over the four Avaria sims in Second Life® is a place that holds as much magic as the virtual constellations that surround it, for within the Grendel's Children store are the seeds of imagination and playtime where grownups go to shrug off the stress of their daily real lives and explore other parts of themselves. This, the largest emporium in virtual worlds for non-human avatars, is the land of pretend... turbo-charged.

Flea Bussy, the founder and lead creator of this empire, didn't set out to provide tens of thousands of people with therapeutic tools, but I can personally attest to their power. To put it in purely quantitative terms, I must own over 200 avatars from Grendels (not including color variations) and I've worn every single one more than once.

It's been nearly 18 months since I last did a serious post on Grendel's, and Pyewacket Bellman's latest machinima - gorgeous! - featuring Avaria and several of their newest avatars prompted me to touch base with Flea.

I thought I'd kick it off by asking him to update me on some of the fast facts I published back then. His responses in italics:

FAST FACTS ABOUT FLEA BUSSY

* Rez day: 6/29/2006
* Flea is only 22 years old!
I'm now 20 years old! Wait, no, that's not right, how do we do this again?
* Works an average of 20 hours a day, 7 days a week
Works 25 hours a day, sleep was given up in the 24th hour! 365, all year!
* Was kicked out of art class
* First store opened on September 1, 2006
* Grendel's Children has produced more than 800 avatars
Grendel's has made way too many avatars to count. It hurts my little brain! [Note from Bettina: Many, many hundreds more]
* Average price per avatar: $150L to $250L, with many freebies available
Average price per avatar: $1L to $150L, with many , many, many freebies available

Favorite recent creations?

Flea: Does my staff count?

You and several members of your staff collaborated in-world while in Skype conference back then. Are you still doing this?

Flea: Oh, depends if we have to have little meetings on new ideas or such. Otherwise it's just normally us typing in the box actually. [Bettina: Working in Maya, plus Skype, plus the SL client is a formula for lag.]

How has the environment changed for avatar creators in the past year? Copybotting, more advanced sculpty work, a stabler grid, etc.

Flea: We wouldn't know, we kinda just stay in Avaria. I'd assume that those things like a stabler grid might exist, but, only in stories n song, you know, mythological stuff! We've never noticed anyone bothering to copybot what is almost all free here anyway. It's probably more work to copybot our stuff then just get like, $5L and buy it.

Avaria & Grendel's Children from Nitwacket Machinima™ on Vimeo.

The Avaria sims, were rebuilt in just 5 days and are now unified by a single river cutting through sandstone canyons and lined with hardwood forests and surrounded by drier pine uplands.

Terraforming: Flea Bussy, Ryan Snook, Psyra Extraordinare, Sanje Batra, Constant Riel, and Toady Nakamura

Rocks, sculpts, caves, tree and plant creation: Flea Bussy, Ryan Snook, Sanje Batra, RaptonX Zorger, Merlin Falworth and Toady Nakamura.

Prim installation: Flea Bussy, Ryan Snook, RaptonX Zorger, Sanje Batra, Psyra Extraordinare, Constantine Riel, Merlin Falworth and Toady Nakamura.

Village: Flea Bussy, Ryan Snook

Scripting - Craft System: Flea Bussy
Scripting - Drakelets: Piper Zuhal
Scripting - Geysers, sun dial, sound prims, rockfalls: Toady Nakamura
Waterfall and statuary particles; water and motion - Flea Bussy

Teleport to Grendel's Children directly from here, and don't forget to explore the Avaria sims below.

See also:

* Flea Bussy's empire: Grendel's Children, one wacky avatar at a time...

* Climbing walls, sky dancing (in HD!), and weightless sex/showers - Part IV in our Gravity in Virtual Worlds series

* Flea Bussy - Makin' stuff for the love of orks 'n goblins

Climbing walls, sky dancing (in HD!), and weightless sex/showers - Part IV in our Gravity in Virtual Worlds series

By Bettina Tizzy

In previous blogposts for this series, I promised to share new and interesting products and concepts with you in the ZeroG space, so to the point...


There ain't no place I can't go...

In Real Life, Niklas Galler has developed the biometric based C-Bot (still not commercially available), that can make its way up vertical walls or spherical surfaces and is operated via GPS or a 3D-map.

Now your avatar can do the same in Second Life®. I was contacted last week by scripter and builder Nexii Malthus, who not so long ago was a Resident of SL's Teen grid, about a product he's developing at Rostok, a private region designed for inter-alliance combat. "Something really impossible in Real Life... walking on walls, but having gravity shaped dynamically as you move: any angle, any surface. I always wanted to do that in Real Life."

Nexii, who hails from the UK, sees this as a useful tool for battlemechs and combat "stuff." "It is, in the simplest sense, a vehicle. You rez (it), sit on it, go into mouselook and move around. It's not for sale and commercial applications still seem far off, unless enough people bug me."



"It's still a behind-the-scenes thing as its in development and highly experimental, but I would love it if I could get a publically accessible place and put a version of the system down for the public to try it."

Meanwhile and over at the gorgeously remodeled Grendel's Children (teleport directly from here) , Flea Bussy's technicolor Avaios Shadowcrawler comes in a power package costing a pidly $250L that includes 9 colors, two genders and an impressive AO that offers dozens of animations and sounds, but the breakthrough here is that it crawls up and down and sideways on walls... effortlessly.


The tricky part for me is getting on the walls. You must leap onto them while holding down your shift key, but once there, the rest is easy-peasy


You're such a light-weight

Then... here is something I haven't seen in any film yet (remember the fab hair-drying sequence in Blade Runner?) but I think its time has come. In Real Life, astronauts take sponge baths, but Oni Horan over at his highly imaginative RPG sim Space Colony Necronom has figured out how to keep the water contained and recycled for a practical and sensual bathing experience.


I know, I know, my avatar has all her clothes (by Eshi Otawara, btw) on! Take your own shower in whatever state of dress you prefer by teleporting to Necronom here

Oni has also created a weightless sex module, for couples who prefer to keep it lite (also available at Space Colony Necronom).




Dance me to the moon

Finally, no story about gravity in Virtual Worlds would be complete without including choreographed sky dancing. The visionary and sovereign in this category is, of course, DanCoyote Antonelli (aka DC Spensley), together with his ZeroG SkyDancers.

For the uninitiated, ZeroG SkyDancers is a form of ensemble performance that uses the airspace of Second Life to effect something between a water ballet and aerial acrobatics. Wearing colossal flowing costumes called 'cascades' - that are many times larger than their avatars - the SkyDancers move through space, and become part of the stage themselves. Altering and evolving, their flight triggers audio samples, which provide a unique layer to the original musical score.

The fourth production, Let Love Live, conceived and directed as always by DC Antonelli and hosted by Larry Pixel (aka Larry Johnson) and the New Media Consortium (NMC), has introduced an unprecedented 3000 meter (3km) reactive-interactive stage set that is repeatedly and dramatically transformed over the hour long performance as seating flies through gravity-defying monoliths of breathtaking beauty, created in collaboration with DC Antonelli by artists Glyph Graves, Strawberry Holiday, Selavy Oh and Sabine Stonebender.

This full redesign of the SkyDancer show since the troupe's founding in May of 2006, also features an all-new musical score by ZeroOne Paz, all-new choreography performed by the SkyDancers: Anhinga Chaika, Tatiana Kurri, Angelique Menoptra, Lina Lageos, Buffy Beale, Pielady Smalls, Talula Bancroft and Wytchwhisper Sadofsky, as well as all-new cascade costumes by DC Spensley and Josina Burgess.

The ZeroG SkyDancers are real people who log into Second Life from all over the world to perform for audiences in real time. Hot Tip: In deference to the economic strain some Second Lifers may be feeling, ZeroG SkyDancers has reduced the price of the tickets to their stupendous fourth season to a mere $1,000L. And yet another Hot Tip: Following the performance of Let Love Live, audience members are provided with their own spectacular cascade costumes and invited to play tag with the dancers. Seating is limited, but the show runs twice a week during the first 90 days of 2009. For ticket information, contact Lina Lageos in Second Life or DC Spensley at dc@spensley.com.

The best video to date of any ZeroG SkyDancer performance, in my view, was filmed and edited by Gary Hazlitt. A couple of days ago, I wondered out loud if he might remaster that footage into a HD version, and I am very pleased to share the results with you at this time. Herewith, the ZeroG SkyDancers Spring 2007 Production at Ars Simulacra, NMC Art Showcase in honor of the Second Life Fourth Birthday Celebration and the ZeroG SkyDancers 1st year anniversary... in High Definition.


See Gary Hazlitt's remastered HD - Widescreen version for YouTube here.

For this performance, the SkyDancers were:
Assistant Director Anhinga Chaika
Assistant Producer Callypian Christianson Deborah Stranglove
Prima - Tatiana Kurri, Angelique Menoptra, Lina Lageos, Kensai Uriza
House Manager Onyx Bijoux
Technical Director ZenMondo Wormser
Costume Designer Sabine Stonebender


See also:
+ Overcoming gravity (and reality) - Part I in our Gravity series
+ I can fly, but meh - Part II in our Graivty in Virtual Worlds series
+ Oh, those intrepid gravity challengers - Part III in our Gravity in Virtual Worlds series
+ Flea Bussy's Empire: Grendel's Children... one wacky avatar at a time

Flea Bussy - Makin' stuff for the love of orks 'n goblins

Flea Bussy: Orks. I adore em. We have funny, clumpy, rough, mean orks. Nobody buys em, and they are dirt cheap for what you get: sounds, AO, tons of parts of armor... 'n they happen to be an older av, though... but they don't sell well. And goblins... um... We're going to be redoing them a ton better now, but we never expect them to do well anyway.

This was Flea Bussy telling me about a newer line of avatars he and the staff have been making since I blogged about him and his much-celebrated Grendel's Children store (teleport directly from here).


There's the Fae Lawyer, available in spring, summer, fall and winter versions...


Open the Fae Lawyer's portfolio and glimpse at the briefs

Flea Bussy: I dunno. I got to thinking that there's a lot of folklore 'n stuff people don't know much about. Everyone knows about the two 'common' dragon looks... the western ones 'n easterns... and Anubis, and so on... So for fun, me 'n the staff been thinking there's so much other lore that isn't touched on.


Bato has an AO that enables you to hang upside down. Ears stand up pertly (as shown) or flop down or sideways, if you prefer

Flea Bussy: Baba Yaga is one I remember from my childhood, hee. I noticed... 'gee, everyone wants to be mages 'n wizards... where's the old style toxicky goopy witch?' I am a bit of a silly one though. I feel bad for everyone who makes those kinds of things, like Baba Yaga or witches as... well... ugly. So I decided to make em look fancy for a change.


Since all the avatars at Grendel's Children are fully modifiable, I wore my own shape, skin and hair with this Baba Yaga avatar

Flea Bussy: Avs have their fads that come 'n go. We ignore most of it 'n do what we like, which is what I think people like about us. We're not, indeed, cashing in on Superman 'n Spiderman and Final Fantasy, etc...


Both Baba Yaga (above) and Murkwitch have AOs that enable all sorts of particle and AO effects


The huds at Grendel's Children just keep getting better and better... and note the super sculpty hat!

Flea Bussy's empire: Grendel's Children, one wacky avatar at a time...

Once upon a time, there was a troll who started a business in Second Life... Fourteen months, 800 different avatars and four sims later, Flea Bussy is regarded as one of the most prolific and best-loved content creators in the metaverse.

FAST FACTS ABOUT FLEA BUSSY
* Rez day: 6/29/2006
* Flea is only 22 years old!
* Works an average of 20 hours a day, 7 days a week
* Was kicked out of art class
* First store opened on September 1, 2006
* Grendel's Children has produced more than 800 avatars
* Average price per avatar: $150L to $250L, with many freebies available
* Ten full time employees; 23 employees all told
* Grendel's Children now covers four sims. Teleport directly from here

Odds are, if you have even one non-human avatar in your inventory, it is from a store called Grendel's Children. I spent one of the most enjoyable evenings in recent memory with its founder and creator, Flea Bussy, and had several surprises, not to mention lots of belly laughs, along the way.

Flea Bussy: I live up in Canada, and am in Quebec! I am, indeed, able to speak French and act as the French translator for staff!
Bettina Tizzy: There is the matter of... is Flea a man or a woman? Or do you care?
Flea Bussy: You can be anything in Second Life, which is what we're devoted to do. It happens that Flea is an old character from early on who's stuck with me as the most fun to 'be,' so I tend to wear (her) as the best representation of myself. I don't really care if people think I'm a he, a she... an it. I answer to all three, and even expletives!


The sort of "official" Flea Bussy avatar

Bettina Tizzy: What were your first days in Second Life like?
Flea Bussy: The first day was like anyone's! You're alone, lost and dumbfounded by the whole world, heehee. Then I figured SL was just a pile of cube homes 'n weird stuff and was preparing to give up on it... and accidentally warped - as my last stop - into a sandbox. And thus, my adventure began.

I saw somebody's massive 3000 prim mech avatar, detailed to the brink. That's when I realized SL is only as bland as you make it to be, and started learning how to build, link, attach... all by reading what resources we have in-game, too! Within 2 days I had the (now free) Viperbug avatar, and by the next day, my (longtime) 'official' avatar "Spikey Armor."

I was just as clumsy as anyone else who tries building: the ol' box to the head, bad prims all over, terrible attempts to animate... but never ever did give up and so, just by always treating any mistake as a learning experience, it has taught me also how to improve my own outlook on RL, too. Nothing like a mistake to teach you something valuable!


Flea's "Spring Treant" is also available in Summer, Fall and Winter avatars. It has a very comprehensive HUD that enables you to emit particles, open and close eyes and mouth, and stomp around rather impressively and *loudly* - The AO is a hoot

Bettina Tizzy: You weren't doing graphic arts or anything of the kind in real life?
Flea Bussy: Naaaahhh, I failed my high school art class and never really learned 'official' ways to do things. (I'm) very much self taught. Hee, 'n you know why I got booted? Well, we're all supposed to draw, say, the bowl of fruit 'n whatnot...so I did, and then added alot of things...and was always told 'you're only supposed to draw what's there!' I think it was some butterfly-like creatures. Very pretty, too. Shame, he ripped it up. Point being, that's when I decided 'art schools aren't for me.' (Today) I paint all our textures by mouse, and that is one skill I would think is very useful to know! Everything is more original since you can always adjust as you draw. It gives something more life, more zip...


This photo by Luna Zolnir

Bettina Tizzy: How soon after those early days in the sandbox did you realize that this could become a full time endeavor?
Flea Bussy: August (was) the learning period, and after one month my friend Shay loaned me and my buddy Lasair a plot of land. She knew we might be able to make it, so she helped set up the space. Grendel's was born on a 2046 sq. m plot. We had a massive tree, and the original Shansu guarding the store.


The first Grendel's Children store opened on September 1, 2006

Bettina Tizzy: Were we ever at risk that you might become a house builder or clothing maker? Sounds like you knew from the getgo that avatars were what interested you.
Flea Bussy: My favorite thing is 'monsters' but, given the fact (that) I'm a 'troll' so to speak (and not from Warcraft - thanks! - I was one before they knew what a troll was!) I always liked making what felt right about 'em.
Bettina Tizzy: So you are a unique troll and not representative of your species? Not a typical ambassador?
Flea Bussy: The joke is I'm the least representative of the species, probably, and far from the most dangerous one.


Nowadays, the store section of Grendel's Children is in the sky above the Avaria sims, which provide a natural habitat for avatars of every sort to explore

Bettina Tizzy: Now you have a four sim business... and how many employees?
Flea Bussy: The count is... 23 or so, and roughly 10 do actual building and are here everyday. Many of the other staff aren't active (life has stolen them away!) but out of honor to them, they stay part of the group. They are free to do as they please, as all are staff! I don't shackle them to the build box, if anyone's shackled it's me! lol The main staffers (who are) on everyday 'n hammering out the delicious things you all enjoy, are numerous and all loveable! Piper Zuhal, Barney Boomslang, Ryan Snook, Rris Greenfield, RaptonX Zorger, Heiko Decatur, Chroma kolache, Psyra Extrodinaire, Memnoch Matzerath, Max Hatfield, Risa Mosuke, Constantine Riel, Sililos Backbite, Lasair Griffis... The others on staff are generally on/off 'n mostly support, hee...


The Snow Leopard, photographed here by Luna Zolnir, was co-created by Flea Bussy and Memnoch Matzerath

Bettina Tizzy: Do you have some sort of group ritual before you make an avatar, or does everyone just go and make something and come back and say "look!"
Flea Bussy: If you count throwing insults and ideas around a ritual... We're extremely close knit. Say I start doodling an idea (and) we're all on voice chattering. Soon we're throwing ideas off each other and often, one avatar grows into many, many things. For example, I did a Shadowcrawler, and it's AO (animation overider) inspired a good dozen other avs both done and being meddled with still. Hee, well, Shadowcrawlers were good, and the AO was then edited to form Kobolds, and added flight to the ao, and it caused gargoyles, fused scavengers, etc...


This photo by Jaid Marsi

Bettina Tizzy: How do you share your doodles, via email?
Flea Bussy: Doodle? Nahh, we build in SL, straight away, and being so used to how we speak, ideas (tend to) flow very fluidly in designs. Our build box is just nuts to be in. Stuff gets painted, thrown together... we do nothing but build n' work, often forgetting to eat/sleep.


This photo by Stephen Venkman

Bettina Tizzy: So, 17 months of very little sleep... were you always like this? Even before SL? Is this your nature, or did SL bring it out?
Flea Bussy: I'm one of those people who's bread and butter is imagination. I always wanted to make, say, 'stuff for video games,' a very common dream of teens 'n such, 'n then you grow up realizing it's not easy, and not like you'll just get scooped up by some game company 'n be all hailed. And, over a bit of time, I realized I'd hate (it) if all the things I invented existed as they do in 90%of games: 'just kill it.'



Flea Bussy: Always was heavily interested in interactions, ecologies, biology, all that sorta 'ecological/sociological' thing going on. When we do things, we also try to make them as...hmm, whats the word... 'not typical' for one... Like the Sirens! Everybody loves em, and they're a play on mermaids.
Bettina Tizzy: ...so unusual even if it is a known species or something we think we know? I adore your sirens, btw...
Flea Bussy: ...and I adore deep sea fish, and thought 'why can't we make one like that?' and hoo boy, did that one ever explode.



Flea Bussy: Hee, well, when it's something we know folks will go nuts (over) for realism, we will bust our chops trying to make it right. Real animals tend to fit into that category, but it's saddening... because even when you do the best SL allows, there's always a horde willing to complain it's 'not right'... the same horde that refuses to take the time to learn to build to see what difficulties they face trying to make something 'real.'


One of many types of goldfish by Flea, shown here in front of Douglas Story's new and soon-to-be-unveiled art installation. Photo by Douglas Story

Bettina Tizzy: I know people who must easily own over 100 avatars of yours. How many people do you know of like that?
Flea Bussy: Uhh well, we do know the Grendel's Wanderer group (for updates/notices) is over 950 people, and a good...maybe..three quarters of 'em probably own more then a dozen avs of ours (a piece).


Flea's Ankylosaurus roams the grid looking quite realistic. This photo by Mylena Aquitane

Flea Bussy: People like when we do real animals, but all Grendel staff's best stuff is probably when we let our minds run free on a form...from Psyra's pheonixes to Rapton's dragons, Mem's mammals or Ryan's beasties...when you stop thinking why you 'have' to do things when the more demanding customers complain, har har - we just like making something up. Like dragons. Nobody can tell you what's right or wrong about em, and it's amusing to see folks try to fit in sometimes what we do into 'what they've thought was the only way to do it.'


This photo by Luna Zolnir

Bettina Tizzy: What programs are you guys working with for your sculpties?
Flea Bussy: Sculpties are fun! Anyone who doesn't like them is missing out, because they can really give something a look you really wanted
Bettina Tizzy: That is the first time I have ever heard them referred to as "fun"!
Flea Bussy: Well, how can't a sculpty be fun? Sure, anyone's first sculpts look like rhino turds or something, but take time 'n patience, and you'll learn what you like best to do.



Flea Bussy: We use Maya, Blender, and I forget the other program... We're very basic program users (or I am anyway), barring Maya.
Bettina Tizzy: Flea, people are going to school these days for three years to learn these tools... you just picked them up ... boom, like that?
Flea Bussy: ....to be honest it's not exactly rocket science.



Bettina Tizzy: Care to hint at your age?
Flea Bussy: I'm only 22!
Bettina Tizzy: 22???? You are so articulate. Big reader in the past?
Flea Bussy: What, there's this misconception I'm some 46 year old creepy guy who has a PhD? No way.


This photo by Luna Zolnir

Flea Bussy: Yeah, before SL I used to read tons. Sl's a bit time consuming though now. I get my books read to me over voice! ;) The best thing in life is a story, a good one. Some folks like to rock out 'n build, some like to listen to movies or stuff, but possibly best times, I've found, is when we staffers trade stories, 'n conversations, often deep ones. and out of it come feelings often grafted into avatars... perhaps (it is the) secret of why the things we do have such vibrancy. We do what we do not for money, but for the joy of building.



Flea Bussy: I do my best to try and make those tired brains get up and want to be here, to do things, to start seeing things differently. Why does anyone give up, I always wonder, when there's so much you can do. Even if SL, tommorrow, became land owned by some corporation and we (were) all just stuck in wee sandboxes to build, I'd be there, building. No platform I have ever seen before allows a person to do whatever they dream. You just cannot let your imagination rot.



Bettina Tizzy: Your family... are they fascinated?
Flea Bussy: Hee, mostly I tell folks I just stay at home n do "stuff." "What kinda stuff?" "Oh, you know, 3D 'n all that." They snicker 'n say I'm wasting my time. Heh, I don't argue. Maybe when I'm old I can point 'n laugh! 'Who wasted their time? Whassat? I can't hear you over my GazTank's Engine!'



Flea Bussy: Something every content creator should remember, what also drives us to fits of rage... I've had some waltz in here, drag me down from helping customers or working on something very delicate (you know when you've got that prim inside something juuuust right), and proceed to tell me a.) how I should run Grendels and b.) Why I need them badly to be on staff to put their overpriced stuff up on the walls because otherwise I will c.) go out of business, being a cheapy factory... It makes me very sad to see content creators all over let their 'success' go to their heads. I can go on for hours (with) the horror stories customers have told me about the terrible things other content creators have done to them: snobism, elitism, overpricing, you name it... It should never be for money, it should be for the joy.


The lights really are on 24/7 at Grendel's. Here you can see which employees are online and IM them directly

Bettina Tizzy: How much of your day is devoted to customer service?
Flea Bussy: All the time? Been doing it while we talked. Folks like to talk to us... we actually answer. If we don't, we're either afk or your IM got capped. Like 3 seconds ago a person was asking for an update. We do those free. Why charge for an update? People know all staff here work 24/7. Grendel's never sleeps... always some staff on, passing the torch 'n working.



Bettina Tizzy: Your prices are very low compared to most.
Flea Bussy: Ayup, because if you figure it out...aside from anything you upload...SL is free. The prims don't cost anything, the scripts are written in here. The L they pay us goes to fuel the sims tier and upload fees.
Bettina Tizzy: You are making a living this way, are you not?
Flea Bussy: Ayup, but I'm very very very low cost. Ask staff, I eat stuff that isn't really consumeable!
Flea Bussy: Ryan, do we EVER waste ANYTHING?
Ryan Snook: Yeah, Flea eats the moths attracted to the light or something.

I spoke with at least a dozen people who avidly collect avatars from Grendel's, and all wanted to show me their latest ones and send their best wishes to Flea and the staff. It is easy to engage a Grendel's avatar collector in conversation!
Bettina Tizzy: So, how long have you been collecting?
Trip Messmer: Probably about 6 months
Bettina Tizzy: Have you ever had occasion to contact Flea or the team for customer service?
Trip Messmer: Sure, they are there all the time. Flea often gives out free avatars when she brings out a new one. For the record, the crew at Grendel's are some of the most creative builders in SL barr none. The imagination and hard work, and also the attention to detail, are probably what makes them so popular.

In spite of the fact that this has turned into the longest blog post ever here, I didn't even touch on Grendel's Children's amazing Draklets eggs, the Avaria sims below the store where you can roam, or all the awesome freebies you can pick up. Need a lampshade to wear on your head? Grendel's. A particle Christmas tree? Grendel's. Fact is, even if you aren't looking for an avatar, there is so much to see and do at Grendel's. We will have to do another story sometime soon on the Draklets, which have hundreds of people in a perfect tizzy (hah!)

Finally, dear Reader, forgive me the vanity, but I must share with you that I am completely gaga over three Grendel avatars. Dunno if I will ever take on a human shape again! There's the Canyon Cactus Dryad for those prickly days...




and the Hybridized Reptile



I like her a lot!



A LOT a lot!!


She will be on the market soon, and there will be a "he," too. Flea tells me they are still going to add wings. Personally, I subscribe to Coco Chanel’s timeless maxim “Always take off one accessory before leaving the house,” so I'm happy to do without the wings :P

But this Paralegal Imp is just too sublime to ignore. Her legal briefs portfolio! Her firey words as she types!


That's me and Douglas Story in the background... heh, another sneak peek at his upcoming show

A special shout-out to Flickr NPIRLers Luna Zolnir, Stephen Venkman, Mylena Aquitane and Jaid Marsi, for allowing us to illustrate our story with their extraordinary photographs. It seems we are all fans of Grendel's Children.

P.S. I had so much fun taking the pics for this post, that I created a NEW NPIRL Flickr group called "Avatars - Not Possible in Real Life." Please join in the fun!