Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Trouble in Paradise


Written 11 December, 2006

My Volcano

IV. Trouble in Paradise

My first misstep occurred when I pushed the wrong button on About Land and accidentally returned all of Dreamland’s primitives. I didn’t realize what I had done until I visited the rim of the volcano. It had gone extinct! The prims which comprised the lava and smoke-- they which belonged to Dreamland-- had been returned. Grass now covered the bottom of the crater.

My skybox was gone, too. And so was Chrissy’s. The platform that had overlooked the caldera was gone, too, and the bench, and the bathing towel. In fact, the bathing towel never turned up in my inventory. Or Chrissy's skybox in hers.


The trees had been zapped, too, leaving the mountain bare except for its native grass texture.

Uh-oh.

I remembered I had bought something called mini-particle explosion. I pulled it out, and it made a barrage of lights. I threw out 15 or 20 of them, and a dozen or so objects called “smoke.” I found some lava textures, made a prim and textured it, and placed it, recreating the vanished lava. Now the volcano was active again, and looking better than ever. And not only was it looking better, I could go below it by making the lava phantom. I could drop right through it into the light show. It was something new to show friends.

I IMed Chrissy and told I was sorry for making a newbie mistake. I asked her not to freak; we would rehang her box, and I would never press that particular button again. No worries.

More Trouble

The light show had been running for a couple of days when Carcinia Polano showed up. She wasn’t happy with the particles in the volcano. “We will probably revert the land,” she said.

And that’s what Dreamland did. Two days later, the nice flat beaches had been wiped out.

That’s when I formally petitioned for the right to terraform.

The owners of the big lot on the south side of the volcano were Artik and Keri Crimson, a couple who were married in their first lives. Seemingly within hours of purchasing their property, Artik had leveled his portion of the mountain (apparently with the blessing of the Dreamland people) and installed an out-of-theme log cabin.

Artik was friendly and initially more than a bit flirtatious. Keri didn’t seem to be around much, but I finally got to meet her. In fact, I gave Keri and Artik a Christmas tree I had purchased at Pam Havercamp’s Christmas store.

About a week after putting up their house, Artik said, he and Keri had returned home to find a prostitute conducting business in their living room. He told me he had banned her from his land and reported her to her supervisor, who fired her.

Hookers have supervisors? Her pimp, he meant, I’m sure. Maybe he was too polite to say it. And good for Artik. She deserved to get into trouble.

A few days after my land was zapped by Dreamland, Artik IMed me. He and Keri had split up, he told me. They were no longer partnered in SL, or in first life. It was Keri, he told me, who had reported me to the Dreamland authorities.

That bitch! I hope she didn’t wind up with the Christmas tree.


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Photo: Artik’s place

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