My SL brother asked me early last week if I had ever met his best friend LaTaea, a fiery and witty red-head, and told me she might be perfect post 6 Grrrl material. So I contacted her and we ‘clicked’ instantly. Though we had never met before, the evening of our photoshoot was like a typical girls’ night out, a lot of laughter and nasty comments about life in general and men in particular. She quickly changed from one outfit into the next and we hopped from one sim to the next to find the perfect settings. The places where the following pictures have been taken are Crimson Shadow, the artilleri sim and Tempura Island. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome LaTaea Rayna – Bunny Brickworks
I’ll never forget my “rebirth” into SL. That first day where everything is strange and new. The day where I meticulously worked to customize my gratis avatar into what I thought would look spectacular. And it did! That is until I stepped out of the orientation station and realized that the awkward gait and Elvis bouffant hairdo where NOT the standard of beauty which permeated the pixel paradise that was Second Life. No indeed, here was a place where anyone could be a super model with a few properly placed linden dollars.
I quickly said goodbye to the other avatars around me who wanted to find free things and figured out how to hook my new self up with some real linden dollars. With a few thousand burning a hole in my virtual pocket, and a love for design in my heart, I was soon popping from sim to sim reveling in all the choices that were only a mouse click away.
It wouldn’t be long until I learned how to combine my love of playing dress-up with my love of a great story. While searching for things to do one day, I stumbled upon a medieval role play sim called Lumindor. It was here that my love for role play was born. Where else but in SL can you really dress and talk like an all-powerful magician, Egyptian princess, sword-wielding neko warrior, or a simple slave girl and not get too many odd looks from passers by on the street?
My most recent role play is as a Gorean Free Woman in the soon to open City of Ti. The city of Ti is a part of Project Saleria: 30 sims connected together to recreate the Salerian Confederation of Gor in Second Life. While Gor can be controversial at times; the role play found in sims that stick closely to the books is wonderful and offers a chance to step into the shoes of a character in another time and place. So brush up on your emotes and head over to one of the many spectacularly designed role play sims to immerse yourself in a different lifestyle and perhaps learn a few things along the way.
Lastly and most importantly, SL to me is about the friendships you make. There are those friends that have come to me through role play. However, over and above those acquaintances are the special few that you have known since the beginning and seem to travel with you on your journey through the messed up relationships, the failed shop opening, your SL Wedding (often soon followed by your SL Divorce) or the times when “ruth” dogs your every step. I count myself lucky to have found just a few of those friends who mean the world to me, and make my personal journey through SL so much more worthwhile. (ben, Liv, Nate)
So what’s next? Who knows … it’s my SL … and I’m part chameleon.