Month: January 2022

Update: November 2022: WQNC has relocated – see me December 2022 article for more.

Back in September 2021, I visited Wo Qui Non Coin, a Homestead region design by Maasya, and which appeared to have drawn its name from Cowboy Bebop, an animated Japanese franchise covering television, movies and assorted media cantered on the adventures of a gang of bounty hunters in space. However, not long after I wrote about the setting (see: Wo Qui Non Coin in Second Life), the setting apparently vanished from Second Life – or it may have simply moved.

Courtesy of a recent tweet by Rig Torok, I discovered Maasya has greatly expanded the setting thanks to her now having a Full region utilising the additional private island Land Capacity bonus. Now simply called WQNC, the setting provides an extensive setting for exploration and discovery, mixing a number of environments together in a near-seamless whole, one with (again) a decidedly Japanese lean.

The main landing point is located on the ground level of the region, on the sidewalk of what might be a main road leading into a town. To one side the road is braced by a local railway line; on the other the town rises, grey concrete blocks of businesses and apartment buildings awash with illuminated billboards and crowned by advertising hoardings. Steps wind up between some of the buildings, offering a way into the town, crossing a second railway line as they climb the stepped slopes.

Further narrow streets run parallel with the slopes, offering different routes of exploration, with many of the buildings they pass being complete with interiors and fixtures to give them life.

Sitting towards the middle of the land, and behind the core of the town, a large torii gate provides access to a temple where, it would appear, a cat is central to worship (and quite rightly, as well; as the saying goes: dogs have owners, cats have … staff (or in this case, worshippers!)). Steps from this temple wind down the side of sheer-sided canyon through which a stream rushes, the steps providing a path that follows the stream’s bank.

Overlooking the town and the temple from an eastern hilltop is a large house. It is reached via a separate path, but is – so far as I can tell – also open to the public.

Throughout all this are numerous opportunities for photography, but the ground level of the town is not all the region has to offer.

Across the road from the landing point is a telephone box. It provides access to a sky platform, delivering visitors to the heart of a city  – and possibly a time removed from the ground level.  Once again there is a main street, this one with narrow side streets opening off of one side of it. However, this street is surrounded by high-rise buildings, billboards a mass of glowing signs and neon staring out from above doorways and shop windows.

However, this city is very different to the town on the ground, as a glance into the sky overhead will reveal. At either end of the main street float two giant portals – gateways to elsewhere, available for flying vehicles, as evidence by the flying vans, one of which is emerging from one of them, and the second that looks to be descending from the second gateway in preparation to refuel from a rooftop gas station.  Nor is this all, a platform is also floating close the the gas station, home to a couple of jet-engined sky bikes.

As with the streets of the ground-level tone, the side-streets here offer their own touches of detail, making a wake through and around them worthwhile, while posts and advertising on walls offer a further sense of life and depth to the setting.

I’ve still no idea if the region’s name is directly inspired by the song sung by Radical Edward (aka Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivruski IV as she likes to call herself) in Cowboy Bebop or indeed, whether any part of the setting is inspired by the show – although a sign visible on within the sky platform suggests that it is; but in its expanded location, WQNC still offers an engaging, photogenic visit – although do note, FPS can be low if running on a mid-range or lower system with bells and whistles enabled).

SLurl Details

• WQNC (Bohemian Rhapsody, Moderate)