Seth has met a lovely Japanese woman. Right now, around Second Life, claxons are sounding and the Thought Police are clipping on the riot gear. As pointed out in the last few Episodes, for many SL players this is a scenario that produces an explosion of emotional outrage. Seth’s profile does not explicitly state that he is a ‘thick’ avatar. It does not reveal any information about his RL Operator. And, perhaps worst of all, his Operator is of a different gender to the avatar.
While Revelators, homophobes and advertisers froth themselves into a self-righteous frenzy at this insistence on privacy and self-responsibility, others may simply pause to consider ethics and their relation to Avatar/Operator behaviour. There are some excellent articles about this at blogspot.com or alphavilleherald.com and Seth has done his best to pave the way for a guilt-free and non-toxic ride. He came to his own conclusions and is determined to stick by his decisions honestly. Like the other fictional characters Seth’s Operator has created in her stories, blogs and SL (see Episode 59), Seth set out into the virtual world with his own little bundle of authenticity, integrity and consistency. How did it weather? And what did Seth’s Operator learn about herself?
As stated in Episode 59, Seth’s character manifested as attentive, polite, interested and with a non-sarcastic sense of humour. A thoroughly nice lad. He doesn’t feel the need to ‘get the upper hand’ with chaps or ‘prove him/herself’ with the ladies, as Beth so often does. He is far more relaxed and laid back in social encounters than his Operator is in RL. He is more curious than mischievous, unlike his Role Playing alt. And while there remains a nagging worry (despite vigorous profile checking for the tell-tale signs) that someone he talks to might suddenly morph into a screaming, unreasonable and accusative Revelator (Seth pictures the finger-pointing scenes from ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’), he has only picked sensible people to talk to so far.
He met K in a Zen Garden where she introduced him to meditation pose balls and the noble Japanese art of not talking yourself up as a social convention. What a blessed relief from those annoyingly self-aggrandising Revelators! Seth and K got on extremely well. And Seth went out of his way to NOT imply that he was looking for anything other than interesting conversation, cultural exchange and friendship. So a second meeting was arranged.
They met up in New Toulouse for the ‘Wages of Sin’ murder mystery hunt. If you haven’t done one of these before, Seth would highly recommend it. The pre-arranged start point was a bright, open public square in the middle of the sim. There was a big poster saying “Click Here To Start” (the blindingly obvious is always a profoundly welcome help to the uninitiated, and gets the whole thing off to a positive start). The first clue introduced the murder and then took them off to the scene of the crime a few streets away. There was the option to teleport or follow the Big Red Arrow. Following the BRA became a running joke and was also a fantastic way to explore the sim. It took the pair of erstwhile sleuths to places they would almost certainly never have found if they had just been wandering about aimlessly. And there are some remarkable places in New Toulouse, well worth a visit.
Seth was having some rezzing issues, which made looking for visual clues something of a pain, but K was having much more luck. She found the second clue and triumphantly opened the notecard giving more of the story, another clue and the next destination. With the scent of blood in her nostrils, K turned into a different character. She was rushing ahead, pounding the pavements, barging into buildings and harassing any passer-by for more information. Seth could merely trail in her wake, doggedly tracking the BRA, struggling against the lag and hoping there might be a clue left when he got there.
There seldom was. K was relentless. They stormed through shops, brothels, cafes and the cemetery. They took time out to view an art gallery, dance to jazz and jump on a set of ‘have an argument’ pose balls (which at least allowed Seth to vent some of his lag-induced frustration in a socially acceptable and extremely amusing way). They found lipsticks, lucky coins, bottles of absinthe and trumpet-legend’s trumpets. Well. K did. The absolute low point for Seth was in Kari’s Bar and Dine. There were a number of patrons – New Toulouse regulars by the sounds of things. One was showing off his new avatar – a Transformer that went from a black and white American cop car complete with flashing lights and siren, to a room-filling black and white robot complete with flashing lights and siren. K accosted them for help in finding the clue – but they wouldn’t let on. K found it anyway about 4 seconds later, under the piano. She marched victorious through the double doors calling out “au revoir, tout le monde!” and flounced off towards the next clue. So not only a ninja clue-finder, but she speaks French too! With all the lag-generated stumbling around, the lack of visual acuity and the general less-than-stunning performance so far, Seth was feeling under pressure to make a good impression. He had to come up with something with flair and panache. He was going to have walk and talk at the same time! “Au revoir!” he typed into Local Chat while attempting to manoeuvre himself around to point directly facing the open door. The lag ensured that it was like circling an oil tanker in mid-ocean. He hit the return key to say the words, while launching himself gamely towards the doorway. He missed. Of course. And worse, the wall he crashed into gave him the ‘waggling insect’ treatment big time. So while the bar patrons were amused by Seth’s arse-end jiggling erratically, he prayed that K was far enough in front of him not to notice. He double-clicked on his mini-map and hoped he wouldn’t end up in a fountain. When he eventually caught up with K, she was so distracted with the next clue she appeared not to have noticed his tragic faux-pas.
Twenty clues and nearly four hours later – K and Seth had solved the mystery. They were delighted! The story turned out to be torturously complicated, and they hadn’t worked out even half of it. But when they got to read it in its entirety it was a fabulous tale of murder, theft, disintegrating relationships and dastardly double-crosses. As entertaining as the hunt itself. And not only that – but the final destination held a whole rack of freebies produced by people in the sim to entice you back again. There were clothes, lamps, jewellery boxes and drinking animations. K loved her Cat Fish Mardi Gras gown and Seth was particularly taken with the formal tux with silver piping and couldn’t wait to try it on. Intellectually tested, visually sated and laden down with prizes, the two happy detectives said their farewells and skipped out of SL with the smug glow that comes from a job well done.
So, returning to the ethical issues raised in Episode 60. Had Seth’s behaviour satisfied the Thought Police? Had he misled, tricked, cajoled or conned K by spending the afternoon with her on a murder mystery hunt? Would a Revelator judge him negatively? Frankly, Seth doesn’t give a flying monkey’s chuff. He had a great time, K had a great time and next week they are going out dancing wearing the freebie outfits from their prize haul. Of course, it could be interesting to see who rezzes the pose balls and takes the lead. Because, let’s face it, K’s Operator could in all likelihood – be a bloke! But then, quite honestly – who cares?!
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