Alone On Arrival

 

When I take a look at my friends list, I realize how differently a relationship must be considered here in SL than in RL.

 

You meet someone, add her to your list then poof ! she vanishes for ever leaving her name and profile in your list as a mere souvenir. I sadly have to admit that I clean up my list every month, deleting people who seem to have disappear for good but can’t help keeping a few names in, hoping that, one day, their avatars will emerge again from the other side of the screen.

 

 I know that RL being what it is, some people find it difficult to maintain their presence online and I definitely won’t blame them for that but, oh my, this is so hard sometimes and such a shock to come to understand that the lovely person you shared so many great memories with is simply not about to come back.

 

 Before accepting any friendship offer or adding any new name to the list, one should check the amount of time the person spends online and, if about to leave for a while, the way she tells her friends in advance or not.

 Some people are honest enough to indicate in their profile when and for how long they come online but many seem not to care that much.

 

I have noticed another disturbing element in the field of SL relationships, so strange a factor that it eventually makes me feel less and less inclined to consider any form of official and emotional partnership as a reasonable goal to achieve here.

 

When I meet a newly wed girl, a freshly collared sub or a Domme who recently became an owner, well, guess what ? they all long for their loved half who seems to have deserted the grid almost as soon as both sides agreed to take their romance to some official upper level.

 

 Are people suddenly afraid of taking responsibilities ? do they feel cornered in a way or another ?

 

 Hum, I don’t think so; my point of view is that people feel relieved, they don’t have to look for someone anymore, their search is over and thus, the reason for their presence online too.

 They are now sure that someone do really care for them and went as far as making it official.

 They reached the emotional status they were aiming at, consciously or not.

 And sadly it seems that they consider it enough of an achievement to leave the grid thus breaking the heart of their wife, their sub or their Mistress.

 

Of course I also know lot of people still happily married and many subs whose collar gets all the daily attention it needs but still, I find the number of lonely avatars facing the horizon while waiting for the one they trust and cherish to return too big to be ignored nor neglected.

 

Makes me wonder.

Really.

Avaria

Fed up with subs who drop on their knees on first sight and silently wait for you to fumble into their menu, with  cold and gloomy gothic mansions filled with poseballs toys and with irritating lag waves preventing you from chaining your loved one to the wall of your favourite patio ?

Well I know you don’t actually but let’s take a break in the bdsm rush and go breath some fresh air in one of the most beautiful sim SL has to offer.

 Grendel’s Children, also known as Avaria is an extraordinary ride into pixel wilderness.

 You will arrive in the shopping area where you’ll take the time to look at their wide selection of exquisitely sculpted and animated animal avatars. Ever wished to become a spider, a dodo bird, a fish, a lion or a dragon ? from the tiniest critter to the largest creature, a wide range of species just wait for you to put their skin, scales, feathers and wings on.

 Then you will jump through one of the open spaces in the wall and drop in Avaria, the continent below.

 A quiet lake in the depths of which ancient and mysterious ruins call for exploration, a prehistoric swamp of intricate trees, branches and roots silently cutting out the deep green of the giant leaves and the infinite plains surrounding everything, planted with rocks and mesas, wounded by deep orange canyons, quiet and fearful, an outback of solid beauty wrapped by the wind and the call of some distant animal.

 If you are ready for some action, you can also join the Avarian Expedition, get the basic toolkit in the shop and, with your scythe, your pickaxe and your backpack ready, start to roam the land to look for natural resources that you can trade or craft at the Kobold’s village in order to get some new material or even new pets !

 But you can also just sit in the tall grass under the thick arms of a baobab tree and enjoy the sounds and colours of the Avarian night watching a dragon flying in the distance or a lonely lion resting on a rock.

 Even SL time stops there.

 

 

 

 

 

The omega woman

 So many beautiful sims here in SL.

Hum let me correct this.

So many beautiful empty sims here in SL.

I spent so much time walking along deserted highways, streets with not a single face to smile at, exploring buildings occupied only by pieces of furniture, visiting entire cities solely peopled by the sound of some virtual wind and wandering into vast fields of green solitude under a sky which blue perfection couldn’t make me forget how one may feel lonely when roaming the grid.

I do love exploring, and nothing beats the excitement of stepping in a new land but I have to admit that realizing that, sim after sim, there is absolutely no chance that I stumble upon another sentient being, that I am the only one to witness all the time, the efforts and most often than not the money the owner put in to achieve his dream, makes me feel kind of depressed.

So, usually I check my landmark list and go straight to a familiar place where I know I won’t be alone. It doesn’t mean of course that my social skills will improve but at least, I am not the only element in the set wearing a tag.

I do sincerely enjoy being around people even if I don’t talk nor play much. By watching people and listening to what they have to say, I gradually learn to know them and it makes things easier for me when it comes to actually meet them and, if lucky, share some nice time together.

Anything but this “last woman on earth” feeling will do !

On the other hand, we all know these sims so crammed with people that just trying to enter them makes your avatar’s life a virtual hell or these crowded clubs where dancing eventually becomes totally irrelevant.

May the Lag be with them.

Is the grid too wide for balance to be an acceptable goal ?

Or is SL the mere reflection of the emptiness of our own life ?

Or is this just me, lucky as I am, to land on sims where you can’t even find a single tiny virtual jackalope to kick at ?

Oh gosh, it gives me headaches. Let’s go shopping.

Wrong ways

Last night, Voltek and I collected the last gifts of the Greatest Love Hunt.

This grid wide Valentine treasure hunt, starting at the shop Katkreation and ending February the 28th, takes you everywhere as you must teleport from one shop to another, find its hidden giftbox, get the free gift included but also the LM to the next place to visit. With more than 200 gifts to collect, this well organized event keeps you pretty busy discovering new places and meeting new people.

There is even a special group to join in case you get stuck so you can ask for hints and help.

Well I really should have done that yesterday and had one of the LM Voltek and I were about to use checked because we definitely didn’t land where we were supposed to.

Instead of the next shop on the list we arrived in a small junkyard area apparently devoted to some sort of urban rp. As soon as we landed, three brainless teenager trash beefcakes surrounded us and started to show their obvious lack of manners and education, considering that slapping a girl’s ass was certainly the best way to communicate with her. For a short while we didn’t react the right way nor flew away as we thought we were still at the right place. To make it worse these three guys didn’t speak nor seem to understand a single word of English (which I doubt) but I could easily figure out the meaning of some of the words of the Latin language they used. We finally flew away to be followed and harrassed by one of them until I told him that I was going to report Linden Labs and have them banned (oh my, I can be so good at telling lies sometimes). All of a sudden they remembered the Globish they learned at school to express their astonishment and anger as they just couldn’t understand what was wrong with their behavior.

Voltek and I teleported somewhere else and were finally able to find the right path to keep up with the treasure hunt.

Well I sadly have to admit that this small adventure pissed me off a great deal. The fact that men, or more obviously kids, may think that playing such characters or simply adopting such a primitive behavior can be considered as funny or of no consequence at all makes me deeply sad and angry. I know that this is stupid and that I should not overeact in such a sensitive manner but I can’t help thinking of all the girls and women, over there, on the other side of the screen, who have to suffer daily because some piece of  chauvinist S… is apparently experiencing serious difficulties in reaching some state of maturity.

I am not a men hater and I am happy to say that I actually met some really fine gentlemen here in SL but another experience like this would certainly lead me to add some nasty lines in my profile. And that would be sad. Garbage should be kept RL.

Second Life is my refuge. I don’t want it to become a shelter.

Sorry about all this.

SL routine

To me, logging is like waking up after a long bad night. I need to take my time, to yawn, stretch, scratch my head a bit, slowly open my eyes and wait for everything to rezz (and you all know how SL can be good at making it a slow process).

Some friends of mine have this strange tendency to IM me as soon as I am online, I mean the very second I land and as in RL I would let the phone ring a few times before answering it, I most often than not wait a little before whispering a feeble “hey” into their ears. That’s the way I am, sorry folks !

When I feel fully awake (sort of) I go to the antique city of Rome (a beautiful sim) to play flute in the temple of Apollo the God of poetry and music.

Then I TP to Avaria and let my giant lizard, Pops, jump out of my inventory to get some fresh air and ride it for a while. We explore the vast plains and climb the rocky hills of this gorgeous place to finally rest near the lake where we enjoy the view and, if lucky, can even take a glimpse at the local fauna.

Once Pops back into my inventory I go sunbathing on one of the sandy atolls of Bora Bora where I let some bittersweet memories slowly invade my brain. Bora Bora used to be Gabrille’s favourite spot in SL and I sometimes can’t help feeling her lying next to me as the song of the waves gently strokes my heart.

If Voltek is online I go to her place and sit in the grass and watch her skilfully struggling with some prim until it becomes another beautiful fruit of her restless imagination and if she is not busy slaying orcs and dragons in World of Warcraft we go shopping or exploring together.

I also love dancing in SL. I consider dancing one of the best things to do here as it combines lovely animations with good music and, you can enjoy all this while chatting with your partner. I usually go to Lesperado, a girls only club and spend some time there dancing by myself or with someone. Sometimes I chat with my partner but most often than not remain quiet, merely enjoying the romantic tunes they play and the beauty of the synchronized dance. Every Friday, at 1 pm second life time, you’ll find me at the Bratz Club where the amazing Virgo Babii manages to fulfil any request you may have. A real friendly bunch there.

If not sweating on a dance floor or savouring Voltek’s company I just drop my latex butt in a chair of the patio at one of my favourite bondage themed sims, Stonehaven, the Slut Park or Secret Passion. If lounging for hours without uttering a single word was considered as a martial art I definitely should be granted a black belt Grand Mistress title. I know ! shame on me ! Not only can I remain silent for quite an extended period of time but I also have this bad tendency to wave and poof as soon as the place starts to be crowded.

Finally I stop by the French Ladies in Bondage sim to chat with Beane Bade, its lovely owner and her sub Ambre.

Well that’s the way I spend most of my time here in SL, not much huh ? But hey, that’s the way I am, sorry folks !

Gabrille Leiner

 Gabrille is the only sub I ever owned in SL, she was and will always be my little one and even if one day I meet someone who manages to make me reconsider my position concerning any form of serious relationship here, I definitely doubt that she will be able to fill in the cold void that Gabrille left in my heart.

Ok the story went like this:

Gabrille and I kept bumping into each other at every corner of Stonehaven. I liked this strong spirited beautiful redhead but, as strange as it may seem, never took her keys in spite of the fact that she was obviously more than willing to let me use them. But we felt very attracted to each other and often enjoyed the opportunity to chat together and finally one day, I became her Mistress and she became my little one.

Gabrille and I shared some really lovely moments together, exploring, chatting, cuddling and playing but it seems that as soon as we started to be “officially” together, RL and time zones differences decided to make it hard on us until that fateful day when I received the notecard in which she told me that she was leaving SL for good. Everyday I can’t help thinking about what I’ve done wrong although her notecard makes it clear that only RL issues forced her to leave so abruptly.

We didn’t even have time to say goodbye. She didn’t even have the time to use the windsurf board I bought her for Christmas. She loved windsurfing and Voltek and I spent some time looking for a very nice board filled with the latest plugins and animations for her to enjoy.

I guess the wound will take some time to heal.

That’s Second Life isn’t it ?

Voltek Atansoff

Oh my, so many things to say about Voltek, I just don’t know where to start.

Well, first of all, she is my friend here since day one and our friendship grew and flourished ever since.

She is loyal, deeply nice and lovable and always thinking about something new to build. She constantly has something boiling inside her brain and just can’t stop moving, working, stretching SL abilities until her sore eyes send her to bed. Her house, her garden, her pieces of furniture are all homemade and bear the very signs of her poetic imagination.

When she is not up to create something she explores the grid and comes up with tons of new spots for us to visit. And when we both feel too tired to do anything we just drop into one of the soft and deep huge sofas she built to relax and chat for hours.

Oh I almost forgot ! Voltek also loves to shapeshift a lot and just can’t resist trying new shapes, hair and skins. This girl is a constant source of astonishment and I remember one day when she appeared as the cuttest white baby tiger you could have seen !

Well Voltek is very precious to me and will always own the biggest half of my heart and I often whish that such a treasure could be found in RL too but that’s another story.

Definitely my SL experience wouldn’t have been the same without her and she makes this strange piece of world a better place to be.

I love you Voltek and sorry if most often than not I appear not to be really good at showing it as much as I should !

Muah !

Hello second world!

Hi everyone and welcome to my very first blog attempt.

I am far from being good with words but still feel like sharing some impressions about the places I went and the people I met in this so-called virtual reality built and owned by Linden Labs

I know that I am not much of a talker, so let’s hope that writing will make things easier.