Busta (Busta Blakewell, and formerly known as BadboyHi) has over a decade or so, been responsible for many region designs in Second Life. He’s built locations both for himself and the enjoyment of others, and he has designed settings for others, some of which have been opened to the public as well.
I’ve been covering Busta’s work since 2016, including The Rusty Nail, a setting mixing public spaces with private rentals and which I first covered when it was located within a Homestead region (see: The Rusty Nail in Second Life). It has since moved to a Full region utilising the additional Land Capacity bonus, and that was reason enough for me to pop have and have a look.
The first thing to note about this iteration of The Rusty Nail is that while it does offer extensive parcels for rent, they are placed around the outside of the region so that each enjoys a waterfront view. This allows the interior of the setting to be left open to public spaces, the majority of which are separated from the rentals by the looping flow of a body of water cutting into the landscape, although a neck of land does extend out from the south-east corner to connect with the central spaces, also forming a public area of its own.
This latter space, whilst abutting some of the rental properties, includes some foreshore seating locations and a kind of garden space within the remnants of some ruins complete with a meditative shrine and a climb up to the region’s highest point where a deck-straddling lookout / retreat can be found.
The remains of an old church sits at the foot of the climb up the hill, now propped up against its own potential collapse, together with more remnants of the older ruins. The ground here is extensively paved to form the neck reaching out to the centre spaces of the region, whilst a path meanders out to a southern corner of the setting to present a quiet retreat looking out over open waters.
The main bulk of the public spaces sit on a long paved terrace running south-to-north from where it joins to the rest of the setting, and broadly split into four areas.
The first of these is a centred around a pond from which a Kraken rises, with seating available for customers of the Solace Bar and Café. A single pier extends out into the waters, rowing boats moored alongside together with a deserted houseboat
Through the gates from the pond is the main bar and events space. The latter provides room for dancing together with seating to one side under a trellis and a small wild garden. The bar is fronted by the DJ stage, also under an extensive trellis, and is an inspired use of Cory Edo’s Yara Treehouse design, copies of which have been neatly kitbashed together, with one element sitting to one side as a little coffee house.
The final area is given to the main café and a wine bar, the terrace space before them carrying with it Parisian flavours together with a comfortable range of seating, with a further very cosy seating space to the rear of the café.
The detail packed into these spaces very much bring them to life, and it is worth spending time wandering around and through them to see all that is on offer. Outside of them to the east, the paving takes on the look of a waterfront walk, complete with places to sit out over the water, a horse stand for those wishing to rez a horse and take a ride and views out across the inland waters.
Beyond the terraces, the land broadens out into a continuing paved area edged by places to sit by the water and dominated by huge metal frame of a former glasshouse, now forming the nucleus of one of the many wildling gardens cultivated across the region. This area is also home to the region’s Land Point.
Those exploring the wider reached of this area and around the west side of the bar and café terraces will doubtless come across slabs of heavy rock arrange to form broad, shallow steps leading down to the water, where flat-topped boulders provide the means to cross to steps on the water’s far side, where smaller public spaces have been cosied-in between some of the rentals, providing further places to sit and pass the time.
Sitting under the perfect EEP sky – do be sure to use the Shared Environment when visiting – The Rusty Nail is a gorgeous, extremely photogenic region, folding into itself as it does hints of the East, a sense of swamplands without their more claustrophobic elements (or alligators / crocodiles!) and smatterings of cosmopolitan necessities, all wrapped in an idyllic atmosphere and given a sense of tranquil age by the ruins.
As with the rentals in the original Rusty Nail, the houses offered here have been select to fit the environment, allowing them to blend into it rather than standing apart or appearing uneasily placed within the landscape. There is no rental office to clutter the place up – so anyone interested in renting one of the houses (there were at least a couple available when I dropped in), contact Busta in-world.
Should you require rezzing rights for photo props, these can be obtained by joining the local Group. As auto return is not set, please do pick-up your pieces afterwards!
Slurl Details and Website
- The Rusty Nail (Solace, rated Moderate)
- Rusty Nail website
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 