Creamshop
Owned by: SAZAE Yoshikawa
Age Rating: Moderate
So one evening as I was eating my tv dinner healthy banquet of splendor, a vision came to me. A dream of the intense of all intense atmosphere for my virtual self. I stood up, one foot on my chair, striking a triumphant pose and shouted in my head “Wind! Darkness! Torrential rain! HURRICANE WRATH!”. This was possibly the best idea I’d ever come up with! But after a few minutes of eyes sparkling with excitement and pondering if I may be a masochist, I realized that this just wasn’t quite possible in Second Life. So being the strong, independent girl I am… I proceeded to whine about this to my friend. That’s when I discovered that not all hope was lost. Rewind back to rain. According to her, that part was very much existent. But where is it all? That’s preposterous, I’ve never seen rain in Second Life! Well the fact is, weather in SL is a very rare and special thing. If it was everywhere, we’d suffer even more lag than we do now. Unfortunately, my friend had inconveniently forgotten where exactly she’d seen it so I may as well have been chasing down Bigfoot at that point. I spent what seemed like all day searching for it before finally following a tip off Youtube pointing me in the direction of a place called Creamshop. After finding this place in search, I proudly dawned my umbrella and I was off!
Upon landing, for a moment I wondered if there’d been a mistake. It seemed like I was in some sort of sewer… With the cleanest water I’ve ever seen in my life. In fact, that is some really cool water. That alone is worthy of a backdrop. Why you would want to show your friends how you pass your days away playing in virtual sewers? I don’t know, but I’m sure you could think of something. Well where there’s a tunnel, there’s something beyond the tunnel (Usually. I have come across a few that just drop off into oblivion… But I‘ll take my chances.) so I shuffled along my way, and after emerging outside to see a gorgeous city area, I realized I wasn’t in the wrong place at all.
If there was ever a place where you should set your windlight to something gloomy, this is that place. It gives the whole scene a special moody ambiance. You can hear the patter of rain and see light playfully reflecting off the water. I was in awe from the moment I laid eyes on it all.
Personally I find this to be an excellent place to brood. Just find a place to sit, hang your head woefully, and think “Why…. Why did they eat my last package of ramen? I was saving that.” If you were to try this in real life, you may be be liable to catch hypothermia, get struck by lightning, and be forever marked as “the creepy man/woman that stands in the rain”. Simultaneously. Second life is great, isn’t it?
However, the more time you spend at this place, the more you sense it’s somehow… Haunted. The whole city has an abandoned feel. Even running into other players seems like a rarity, and when you do, they don’t speak a word. Ominous. When you wander around, you start to see traces of bad events. Taped off areas… Smears of blood… Things skewed about. It starts to look like something out of your nightmares.
That’s when you notice that this whole area is in fact a shop like the name would imply. There’s what looks like several storefronts, but they’re really all sections of the same place. Upon first glance, you’d immediately think that the inside looks much more normal than the outside. Really that makes it all the creepier when you start seeing things that make it seem as if no one is running this place.
At that point, it may be fun to theorize what happened here. Perhaps it was the scene of a mass murder. Perhaps a disease wiped out all human life in this city. Or maybe it was just never the same after someone backed their car into it.
But don’t be fooled, this store is very much in business. You can buy all sorts of stuff here ranging anywhere from clothing and accessories to the more bizarre things like a puppet booth. No doubt this creator is very imaginative. And what do you know, they sell umbrellas and rain boots. What I liked though happened to be none other than a cute, cuddly deer.
Now perhaps my dream of pseudo danger wasn’t completely lost either. I wandered back outside to look around one more time, making sure I didn’t miss anything. Rainy weather? Check. Eery atmosphere? Check. Creepy bloodstains? Check. So what was I missing…? And then I saw it.
There’s not only rain, but also lightning. Needless to say, I ran over to stand as close to it as possible (laugh). Even by myself, it seems like I always have a blast here. This is a great location that I think deserves at least one visit from everyone. I won’t be forgetting my trips here anytime soon!
Newbie friendly Rating: 5. This place definitely won’t do any harm to a new player but they won’t find help here either.
Overall Experience Rating: 10
SLurl: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/CREAMSHOP/216/150/21
Ciel Reikaz