When I first landed in Silent I thought something was wrong with my monitor. Everything was black and white, even the ubiquitous VOTE pillar. Except everything wasn’t black and white. I wasn’t. And I could see flashes of color in the distant store interiors.
I’d stepped into a film noirworld (at least visually). It’s jarring and beautiful and leaves the impression of an eerie quiet (hence the name of the region, I guess). The store interiors stick wih this aesthetic, with only the product displays in color. This actually makes the products pop out in interesting ways. The stores range from the usual suspects (one of my favorite stores, Civvies, but with some special Silent products) to Coif, a store that sells quirky hair… displayed on skulls. There’s a nice variety of clothing and non-clothing establishments.
The main shopping area of Silent looks like a New Orleans French Quarter stree (albiet quite a bit wider than the real thing). Explore slowly… there are all kinds of details to enjoy if you take the time. There’s a rooftop covered with white scrawls, and KATRINA, YOU BITE painted on the adjoining building. In front of one store a ghostly doodle appears out of thin air, but only if you happen to approach from the right angle.
From the map, Silent is shaped like a skull and crossbones, and it’s at ends of the bones that you find the most interesting stuff. Walk down a quiet moonlit path and you’ll find yourself in a flowing garden of flower doodles.
Follow a winding path down to a dock, and you’ll enter a little realm of color. In this case it seems to be the cabin of someone practicing voodoo — complete with dead chickens.
On the other side of the island there’s a creepy graveyard. Except when you enter the mausoleum it turns out to be a living love letter to swirly. As you approach the colorful shrine a disco loop starts to play softly. It’s an odd kind of tribute, but perfectly in keeping with the quirkiness of the region.
The region is anchored at one end by the store Kyoot. In fact, when you land on the island there are scrawls on the ground, pointing to Kyoot in one direction and “Everything else” in the other. Kyoot is housed in an interesting old mansion, and even in here there are pleasant surprises, such as the horde of dress forms in the attic.
You might think that all of this is a distraction from the stores, but far from it. It actually encourages poking around all the nooks and crannies of the region, including the stores. There’s more to find than what I’ve mentioned here (I don’t want to spoil all your fun). And wouldn’t you know it, I came away with a couple pairs of boots.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Silent/128/204/41
