Friday, November 17, 2017

Looking Back at Furry Desires


By Bixyl Shuftan

Skylark LeFavre is known in the Sunweaver/Angels community as both a DJ and the manager of the Happy Vixen Beach club. But before she joined up with them, early on in her time in Second Life: Furry Desires.

"First club I worked for before I had my own successful club (was) Ari Sen," Skylark explained to me, "I was a highly paid pink Kani pole dancer. The owners were DJs, and my friends. But drama from a patron divided the club. Now my ex-bosses and friends have their own club, 'Hearts of Gold,' the space phoenix steampunk club. Without them, I would not (have)  taken an interest and learned everything I know. They  set me on my course. The money poledancing then was good, like 10 to 15,000 Linden dollars. But it left me feeling empty. I needed more. I talked with a friend, and we started Furry Desires."

"This was back in early 2009. We were a hangout. We accepted furries, humans, nekos, pretty much anyone. We handled all griefers silently. The owner of the 'Scuzzie Fuzzies' avatars line did security. She also made the final club building. I was co owner and a hostess many loved, complimented about my notices after each event. We had a place for people to cuddle and sit. We had a floor for skating too. Our danceball was made from scratch, well, most things were. We had a smart dance ball. You had furries, humans, taurs, ferals, tinies, etc. The danceball would see what you were and it would choose the appropriate dance for you."

I asked about the danceball, and Skye talked about the person who made it, "Byrnt was a telecommunications programmer. when I ran and hosted events ... (he) made danceballs that networked with ours. This was literally the beginning of using things via UUID. Somehow it saw the kind of av you wore and selected poses meant for it. It never ever made a mistake."

Skye told me he ran into Brynt about three months before the opening of the club at the Isle of Wyrms. Another of the people there was Tsume Serapis, "a friend I met at Alchera Medieval RP. She was our DJ manager. Byrnt more or less set up the image of the club as it was to be run and I had a lot of people skills and kept everyone  happy  and wanting to come back. It was us and the DJs we hired. I did all of the hosting on top of managing." When they encountered a problem, "We ... thought on it and came up with new ways to handle it without letting anyone know. I was the one who delt with the Av vendor people. ... We also had a mall for other things Byrnt and others made. ... Furry Desires (also) had a penthouse suite."

"This did not happen overnight," Skye told me, "It took a lot of work and a lot of time. We were each doing more than one job. We came up with new ideas then thought on them on the best way to do them. Mind you back then there were no dance poles, no contest boards. We simply didn't need them. We were a family safe club, we didn't do nudity or sex, and we were a hangout. People came for fun times good  music and the company. The atmosphere was family oriented. No one ever talked abouty unhappy things. People back then knew what to keep out of places like ours."

The club went on for a while, but then trouble came, Skye explained that Byrnt, "had enough to retire on until his job was cut, and the house fire" after his home had already been damaged, "from Kirinia sucked up all he had. He moved to ******** with his parents and went on disability." For a time, the sim and club continued, "it went on for three months after he lost his job. How? Tips. A sim paid for by tips. You tell me that is not a mark of a  legend? In the end though, we closed it with intentions of reopening it when we could."

Skye did say it was "likely" the club would be back one day, "Byrnt came back to SL, said he had been  learning to do stuff to make things to sell to retore  Furry Desires, and wanted me to resume my place." But Skye felt if the club came back, it would be far from the same place, "Furry Desires was the best years I ever had on SL. Not a day goes by I don't miss what we had. I see what clubs are now, and there is just no way for us to adapt to what clubs are. Furry Desires coming back, (we) will have to make changes we don't want. No one comes (to clubs) for what we offered at Furry  Desires. ... What I want may never exist angain the way I loved and remember."

Besides The Happy Vixen, Skylark also DJs at the Eternal Desires club, and occasionally at Club Cutlass and Club Zero Gravity. But she never forgets the place she helped run years ago.

Bixyl Shuftan

2 comments:

  1. I am Byrnt Ember. I would like to comment that Furry Desires has, indeed, returned. Just like its previous iteration, our core values remain the same. There will be no strippers and no yiffing. We MAY offer dancing positions for those who wish to partake, but they will NOT be of a yiffy-type nature!

    I did let Sky know some time ago of my intent and desire to re-open Furry Desires at some point and now that my partner (SingingTwiglet) and I have decided to move forward with its re-opening, I've let Sky know that her prior position is available should she wish to resume operations at Furry Desires. I have not, as of the time of this posting, received confirmation one way or the other. :)

    Some of the changes she mentioned in the article above are true. We are now using all updated mesh objects and, unfortunately, my old coding is outdated and not really usable any longer. So, in the interim until I can get around to writing all new scripts and creating things in the new Mesh Way, we're using pre-packaged for most things, including the club building.

    This will, of course, change in time and I intend on creating a new mesh for the club as time permits that is more in the vein of the original club, as I simply LOVED its original design. A GREAT friend of mine at the time, creator of Scuzzie Fuzzies - Punkaroo Snoring, created the original building based on my ideas and design criteria. She was instrumental in the look and feel of the original club, and I wish to eventually bring that look and feel back. I only wish she were still in Second Life, but it seems that, like many, she's left for good.

    For now, however, the new club as it currently exists is VERY nice, inviting and open.

    For those so inclined, we also have many gaming tables and will be adding more as L$ and time permit. One of the changes Sky previously mentioned that other clubs have that we did not... Contest boards... We also have now.

    But, beyond that, we also have our own stream for times when DJ events are not taking place. We will eventually play a variety of genres, but currently it's set to techno/electronica since that seems to be incredibly popular (and I personally enjoy it) and is 100% commercial-free.

    While we have not yet officially opened nor had a grand opening event, we are functional and ALL are welcome. Furry and Human and Whatever alike! We are still tweaking things and getting more things lined up and set out in the meantime. Once ready, we will have our official Grand Opening!

    So, if any of your readers are interested in checking out the new, redesigned Furry Desires, we can be found at the following location:

    http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Peaches/147/122/2501

    Hopefully, many good times are still ahead for Furry Desires and its patrons and friends!

    -Byrnt Ember (Furball)

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  2. It's very Lovely seeing furball aka Byrnt unwind, and that I can watch it all slowly happen! The Journey down this Rabbit hole is definitely enchanting. When I drink from the bottle on the glass table or cry tears, what will happen, and who will walk in? What a Pleasure to be by his side!

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