Meeting Clarence
Second Life was a brand new experience for me - having heard about this place on NPR in late 2006, I decided to check it out. I had no experience with role playing of any kind nor with virtual worlds online. It was terribly disorienting at first, and I was very nervous. I wandered around for a few months, and after several bad experiences with the sex and casino culture in most of the mainland I became an SL hermit. I would venture out a night, fleeing in terror at the first sight of a green dot (indicating someone approaching). I did some exploring and eventually stumbled upon Caledon. After intermittently visiting for about a year, I finally messaged the owner and became a resident of Steam SkyCity. I spent my nights exploring the city, poking into all the obscure corners and learning my way around. I was a bit sad because it resembled a dead shopping mall more than a Steampunk city. Every once in a while a green dot would approach, and I would log out or teleport to another place to escape. That was Clarence trying to welcome me to the City :). He said later his first impression of me was "skittish".
He finally cornered me and struck up a conversation about our shared concerns for the state of the city. This led to further discussions, and then a desire to learn to play EnGarde (a fencing game). Evening after evening we met for fencing and conversation, and planning some events to draw interest and people to our City.
An evening of dancing at a Ball caused me to think about the funny and kind fellow who had become a dear friend in a different light....and wonder if he thought of me in a similar way.
If all this seems like a bad Victorian novel, we strive for authenticity in Caledon :)
All the time spent together organizing and planning the event and the four days of the event itself really caused me to realize that I was becoming terribly fond of Clarence...and was looking forward to the dance he was hosting like a teenage girl waiting for prom :)
The high point of the night was staying up until an unholy hour playing kickball with griefer easter eggs underneath the sea.
Clarence swept me off my feet (requires poseballs in SL) and I have not looked back...I am so fortunate to have found a kind and caring friend with a wicked sense of humor. And I cannot describe the joy of then finding that my friend has captured my heart, and I have captured his....