Over the past few months, I have noticed a small but subtle shift in the Steamlands from residental build environments to a heavier emphasis on role play in virtual environments. Not that this is a new dynamic in virtual Steampunk – role play has existed since “back in the day”, harkening back to when Caledon was smiply known as “Caledon I”, and New Babbage was in its conceptual stage. However, with role-play focused Steampunk sims such as Neo-Victoria (with its expertise in Steampunk Machinima), Goatswood, and a few other, various aspects of Steampunk (and by association the Victorian era) have come to the forefront, including more adult aspects of the era.Arrival Skybox at the Victorian Corrective SpaThe Victorian Corrective Spa (VCS) is one such entity, with one foot in the Steampunk/Victorian era, and another found in RP. Sadly, the term Steampunk has been an often abused seachword in Second Life (used for SL limited search function), but the VCS is a unique in its niche, by allowing those who might be intersted in a bit of adult-focused RP, but concentrating on Victorian aspects of a scarely mentioned aspect of the era.A brief introduciton to “Female Hysteria” (Wikipedia link here)The Steampunks Guide to Sex review which was published a few weeks ago (and happened to be one of the more visited entries of the past twelve months), is an excellent introduction to many of the real life goings ons of the era, relating to, shall we say, private interaction. The Victorian Corrective Spa allows those interested individuals to go one step further, and involve themselves in an era-representational style.The ouside grounds of the Victorian Corrective SpaWhile the specifics of the interaction are adult-realted, Ms. P. Faerye, and Mr. J. Spires have built a representation of a turn of the 20th century spa, (akin to what ws representated in the the Road to Wellville, at least for some atmospheric references). For true to life references, one can view the original Battle Creek Sanitarium, which resided in the state of Michigan (US), and was the inspiration for the original cinematic production, and have done a wondeful job of recreating the evirons.
The interior foyer of the SpaHowever, to address additional needs beyond basic health, it was rumored there were speciality facilites for treating specific illnesses, thus, the Victorian Corrective Spa is the virtual equilivant of said facilities. Describing itself as “being somewhere in upstate New York”, it exisits as a faclity to “cure women of female conditions” (as would be stated in 1890s terminology).One of the many facilites at the spa, including robes for modsty…As a faclity with an adult-oriented topic, the VCS does have its criterion provided in a notecard at its arrival skybox, and fitting with the era (e.g. era human characters). In addition to some general guidelines regarding some specific SL issues (e.g. addressing Gor/Carp, av sizes, etc), if one wishes to engage as either a worker or resident, their arrival description explains additional opportunities that exist at the VCS. Also, the faclity holds a number of events, of which the latest was an era discussion of medial topics, including their latest topic regarding the appreciation of certain body parts. … and further facitlies for treatment (with RL advertisements for addressing “hysteria”)As a new Victorian sim with an adult focus, from the times I’ve visited the Victorian Corrective Spa, I have been quite impressed with their friendliness and congenality – thus, if this genre piques your interest, I would most certainly make a point of visiting… the virtual coach will lead you to grounds, located at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/aigle/94/39/3251/
Best be going, lest I awake the Doctor Bellog!…(Alas, it appears that during my absence, not only had the Victorian Corrective Spa moved to a different location… and is now gone (or at least I’m unable to find it in search…)
