sometime before conejo's existence (2019)..
i was experimenting with adding animal features to the ASR head, combining it with animal paws and a prim nose
i used the bunny girl i was already wearing as a base.. something about the experiment didn't feel right, so i shelved the outfit.
it still has a cuteness.. what a confusing time! .. the haze of second lifes depth was still thick and i mostly played alone
some time later, i took these pieces.. paw hands & feet alongside the white fur body skin.. and combined them with the Cherry Head which was sitting unused in my inventory.
i purchased it in the very beginning of my second life journey & had not found a satisfying use for it yet
i didn't have a texture made yet, so i just blanked the mesh to match the fur..
then i added more stuff i wasn't using.. fox ears & gakupo flexi hair
modding was still mysterious to me.. the default cherry eyes aren't bad, but they had no identity. marketplace had little to no options for alternatives
i did like T.T eyes the cherry head has by default though,
so i kept her on that.
when i finally placed the prim on the nose some insane feeling clicked.
it felt like an accident, just mixing things in the moment..
i loved the look of it a lot, & saved it as an outfit.
she had one face she could do, but this inspired me and her unchanging expression became a part of her character
first proper picture of wafa.. i had a really small parcel on mainland which was constantly being rearranged.. many shitty builds and a lot to learn
some time later i added some angel wings, a halo, and a swim suit.
the decision to make her an angel was because i got these wings from free credits from a store called Blueberry
here is the first picture of wafa with her 1st 'default' outfit.. there are paw gloves as a part of it too, a la di gi charat.. i've mostly retired these from being part of her design since
trying the wings on her ended up really completing the character for me, and i could feel her forming into something serious. the halo is from a cosplay set
i called her Waterfairy because i saw her as coming from the water.. first name that came to mind, and i thought maybe a different name would come
WAterFAiry ~ see? its funny because im called sofa. it works out.
icicle bunny, a blue bunny avatar, came along in 2020.. there were some other characters, but these two with wafa were the 'three main avatars' until 2021.. when wafa became the PRIMARY!
2019 and into 2020 cherry head wasn't that present, most anime avatars were using ASR or M3
i remember at this time ASR head was starting to pick up more with english speaking SL players. in japanese sims, pretty much everyone was wearing ASR, and this bled over. there was a tangible shift, a lot of mods were being made for it and i started making my own too.
anyway, the furry + anime head combination was 'rare' at this time, you saw more just one way or the other
there this feeling wearing wafa that i only felt if i was in a group.. she felt really cartoonish in comparison to most players
early on, a stranger told me "you're the first person i see to be mesh in a sea of prim", referring to the flexi hair
i still think flexi hair and flat 2d head look really good, but it seemed 'outdated' to many at the time.
..basically i was exposed to some stifling standards, so it took some time to feel comfortable experimenting and doing what i wanted, using SL to its full capacity
luckily this didn't take long. i felt in my own lane by 2021.
as i got deeper into SL, conejo started building up more of an identity.. it's own look & people. it became hard to NOT wear wafa
i felt more in tune with myself, i wasn't trying to make an avatar that fit some picture of what avatars should be.. she has a 'living' quality that makes her fun to exist in, whereas some of my other avatars are maybe best only for taking photos.. her design also lent to a lot more versatility with outfits
shes simple, but it doesn't feel like anything is lacking.
eventually i started tinting modify enabled clothing, which removed a lot of dissonance and discomfort i experienced with all my outfits until then
Maitreya Petite joins the avatar here too, with ocasional appearance of glasses.. these are just two things that made me feel more connected
i'm not sure when it was that i changed her tail for a flexi one, but im pretty sure it was this year also
when i decided to move to a region conejo went through a lot of radical changes, and wafa's face changed too
i started to want to make wafa new eyes because it was becoming too easy for people to just switch on that default cherry expression over a blank head and look just like her. (though funny, not ideal)
a lot of that energy now goes into building and maintaining conejo, i usually want to just relax on SL otherwise
avatar making comes from a similar place as drawing for me, which is to say it is usually draining energy that is more valuable for other uses
i still feel very fond of icicle bunny and vampire bunny, and i have some other characters that i'd like to update ..but if im ever in the mood, i end up making new outfits for wafa.
in a way, its a relief. i spent a long time feeling constantly uncomfortable in my avatar, not knowing which to be in the moment.. wafa feels like a no brainer, the connection is just right.
i see my spiritual self as a rabbit, not an arctic fox.. i like the seperation wafa provides, where she feels like a stage persona, an alter ego, and not 100% me, but also totally 100% me at the same time
wafa has lived a lot through me, and i've lived a lot through her..and there is still more to learn
this what captured me so deeply..
but it didn't and Waterfairy was the name.
it was a handful to type though, so i started calling her wafa for short,
..she was my primary avatar first two years of conejo, while wafa was more seperate as a mascot
she was actually a white bunny at first, the lineage of my first ever avatars.. vampire bunny turned pink a few months after wafa was made in 2019, her design was pretty solid and unchanging by 2020
vampire bunny in her usual outfit. have all her outfits archived, dozens of black and white outfits.. most with a goth lolita theme
icicle bunny.. who has many different outfits! she was my first avatar to have many hair styles.. there was a time where she was the one i used the most. she became the design of TA from my RGB PAW fiction. all three megamaiden designs came from Second Life avatars actually, but thats a story for later
it still kinda is that way in some places.
Wafas previous 'default' outfits, which started the association with solid blue color.. once i found things that suited her, the swimsuit was put away
also, the hand paws were changed to the Apricot Paws ones.. which are the same she uses for her feet. i really recommend that store for animal parts..
she felt so right to me somehow
and she is really fun to draw and paint too.
i
old picture of wafa with her hair down.. this was the first outfit where that started to appear
i realized with things that are modify, i could just make them look more flat and conform to the colors i really love
the first outfits i tinted with this mindset, 2021.. after this i didn't look back and a lot of my non-mod clothes went into the shadows. these two color schemes remain the main ones in wafa's wardrobe
this outfit became wafas fourth default ..around that time i made a lot of outfits that remain the foundation to what i wear today. unlike the past default fits she still wears this sometimes.. i love it very much
Wafa's look in 2023, this outfit is her fifth and current 'default'.. hair style changed to those twin-tails, and the headdress shows up a lot now.
i also made a big change that year with bodies, changing from Maitreya to Legacy Perky. luckily a lot of wafa's staple outfits by then had legacy rigs, but there were many things i stopped wearing with this change
it was nerve wracking to change because i was really attatched to the way she was
but somehow i did it..i'd like to make a more thorough mod for her sometime. i really like her face now
Wafa's new face in 2023, and Wafa's new wings in 2024.
i had already actively searched for new wings to no avail.. i found out JOMO had released a griffon avatar set.. the wings are perfect although a bit big
i've slowly stopped making other avatars, mainly because its expensive time-wise & money-wise and i end up not really wearing them
i spend a lot of time doing VN work..
second life can feel like work depending on what you do, which isn't a bad thing if you've got the energy
a fresher wafa from this year!..
..i've talked a lot about this feeling: 'passive roleplaying'
roleplay simply by taking control of an avatar.. a blurred line between you and that character, still some kind of line is present..
it becomes a type of blurry roleplaying.
you aren't consiously writing a story,
just by doing things in the avatar, their experiences happen and pile up into something
with a similar feeling to what comes out when you purposefully roleplay and write up a scenario
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