There's No Place Like Home.

So that other thing I was going to get to.

Why, when we can only afford a 64 x 256 metre of mainland, would we want to continue. When everyone (who belonged and RPed in more than one sim) had a place to go, why would we even bother trying to keep the dream alive?

I have asked myself this a lot. The only thing I did know is I felt a nasty gap in the place my Second Life once was. While everyone else was moving on, I had never felt so alone in-world. You would think I would log out and do something else. But when something has been part of your daily life for so long, it isn't so easy to do. Home is a complicated issue for me in both on and off the Grid, and I admit that this is factoring heavily into my real life at the moment.

So I went looking, at all the many fantasy sims that I could find. (Fantasy is the only thing I am interested in when it comes to Second Life) I found plenty of good RP sims, maybe a couple where we could fit. Either with alts or with seriously modified story lines.

But the reasons I couldn't settle was more than my snobbish frowning upon sims with furry and child avatar hatred. The reality is, I don't have any alts so crucial to my happiness that I could depend on them solely. And editing people out of our main's joint storylines was sort of like erasing parts of their own character's core personalities. Basically, making them different characters.

I don't think it is a secret that the conception of The Seven Isles and it's vision predated me, nor was the philosophy of family and acceptance my own. Except I knew when I found it I had found home. Because I knew when I found it, that this is what I would do, if I were to start a community in Second Life. You could say, that is why I joined up on staff when the opportunity was offered to me. The Seven Isles wasn't just the perfect sim, it was practically my real life dreams of Utopia.

A simple life, something no one has in the real world. Epicurus called it Ataraxia. Ataraxia is very important to me in my personal life as well. I have mentioned before that RP was my Ataraxia.

What I have learned is that out of all of these good RP sims, We actually did provide something unique. No classes, no cliques, no guilds or factions. Instead we had equality, families and trades that helped us express and celebrate our individuality. I have always known that we were never a big and as bad ass as a lot of these other sims, I never really wanted to be.

Uniqueness is not what people usually want, no matter what they say. People want familiarity and mainstream for a reason. One knows what to do and what to expect in those situations, and that is understandable. People like structure and leadership. But for me, those are "chains" in a way. there is a Jim Morrison quote that sums it up for me,

"People are terrified to be set free – they hold on to their chains. They fight anyone who tries to break those chains. It's their security"

What he is saying here, is people can not always feel safe enough to do something with out some firm parameters. Perhaps that is why our community in itself, was unique people without parameters. I can not speak for anyone else but myself, but this is why I felt so lost.

So I guess you could say, our very humble (and perhaps doomed) desire to rise from the ashes are for selfish reasons. However knowing that we had something that others did not, I can not help but think there are others out there seeking what we had. Perhaps it *is* a minority (and Gods know lower numbers don't pay the bills) but I think it is a minority worth at least trying keeping alive.

I just need a world where things made in imagination are flesh. I need a world where children play and explore. I need a place of growth, and intrigue, and peace. If I want to beat the shit out of something I'll play Dungeon Siege

Avry's Blog

My little 'taur (I'm sorry, "Officer") has started his own little blog.

http://avrytaurus.wordpress.com/

((for those of you who don't know... we do not alt Avry. A friend whom we trust with the lives of our RL children, took him over and I honestly think it is the best thing that has happened to our little family since we met Neria. So check out his blog. He really makes Avry come alive and makes me realize that alting him just didn't do the character justice.))

So go check him out! add him to your blog rolls. Frolic in his read-ability!

::is so proud of her 'taurians!::

Wakefulness Corinda (third person)

...As the sleepy fog cleared from her eyes, she found herself in a glade surrounded by the beautiful faces and auras of glamour that only the nymphs could possess and see.  She was certain, that this had to be a dream, she'd seen so few nymphs since she returned home to the Seven Isles.  But it was the sweet smell of (blossoms) that filled her mind, and stirred her to accept the reality.

Even though her drowsy mind could not accept how, or why she woke up in a place different to where she fell to sleep, in the heavy arms of her barrel chested-larger than life beloved, but she knew where she was; Kýpros.

With one of the maps she made herself, and a pocket full of gold from his father. Avry had paid his way back to the island where his father was born,  where nymphs were plentiful, and their lore of plants and minerals and their healing properties were rich.  It was the nymphs that nursed her out of her coma, and restored glamour inside of her that returned the bark-like patterns to her skin, and the branch like kinks and twists to her hair that had fallen flat over the years.

She knew in her heart that Eacen --more than anyone-- would love to see Kýpros again, so there must have been a good reason for him not to accompany her himself.  Of course, he had a sister, and a daughter too small for travel to care for.  There was a community, he felt a part of and could not abandon.

Kýpros may have been Eacen's home, but Corinda realized that the land she ran to looking for fellow nymphs, and fell in love with the man she would start her family with; it was her home too.  The proof was in the fact that much like being away from Seven Isles weakened due to the distance from her tree, and her family.

But she had clearly been defenseless from the changing of seasons, and the lack of presence of nymphs.  The temperate climate and special magic of the island held some form of renewal for her, too.  And she wondered, at times, if this was where her father was from, and if he had the restless traveling spirit that she and Avry possessed.  Maybe her link to Kýpros was more than just one of romance, and sisterhood.

In any event, it did not matter now.  She was awake, and invigorated and it was time to go where her heart was, to her family she had missed, even as she slept.  It would be hard to leave the now serene lands of Kýpros, but it was harder, to be away from her home, it was her Alpha and Omega.