LJ Idol Season 6 Week 13 - So Much Cooler Online
o/` "I'm a Sci-Fi fanatic
Mild asthmatic
Never been to 2nd base
But there's a whole nother me
That you need to see
Go check out MySpace" o/`
-- "Online" performed by Brad Paisley
Author's Note: I am partnered with bitterlight for this round of therealljidol, so please support her entry as well.
Back in 1997, the Internet was still in its relative infancy. The age of Facebook, Twitter, and other mass communication and networking sites had not arrived. It was therefore rather unusual and even frowned upon to admit to having met your soul mate on line.
Nonetheless, that is where I met my beloved Mr. Shapeshifter. We connected through a mutual friend in a MUD designed for those with furry characters. His was a ship's counselor in the furry version of Star Trek and mine had been designed as a security officer on the same ship. No one else was logged in and he admitted that while he liked role playing, there was rarely any call for his chosen occupation. I, on the other hand, was too new to be admitted to the current story arc being played out but I didn't want to wait. We talked for a few minutes and then designed a sub plot which would help integrate my character and make better use of his.
As the months went on, I realized that he had a crush on me. One night he asked if my character would pair up with his. This didn't work out because in the course of the story line I'd gotten her involved with someone else but I redirected him to another character I had. Some hurt feelings ensued because Mr. Shapeshifter did not at first realize that both characters were mine and it was me in which he was interested.
We met in person for the first time in May of 1999 and were married in 2000. When asked how we met, he and I would either simply tell the querent that we had been introduced through a mutual friend or that we had met at a science fiction gathering (both of which were half-truths). Neither of us particularly felt like hearing the lectures regarding the longevity of our relationship because it had been started on line. We didn't want to endure the weird speculations surrounding what it meant to be furry, which at the time had a reputation (not always deserved) of being a fetish rather than a fandom.
Things change. People started meeting through applications and on line dating services or through e-mail exchange. Those same people often married and had families. The fetishists got tired of furry fandom and moved on to something else. Those remaining with odd sexual propensities kept them out of the public areas at conventions where the press might get at them. Furry got closer to the mainstream. Some of the artists worked for big name animation companies and others made a name for themselves in costuming. Mainstream writers and comics creators began appearing at conventions. My favorite convention became one of the top one hundred advertised attractions for its area.
Somewhere along the line, I stopped caring whether or not anyone knew we were furry or that we'd met on line in a role playing environment. Now, when you visit us and talk with us, you really can't avoid noticing. I decorated the walls of my home with quality prints from furry artists; our rec room book shelves are filled with books featuring furry characters and they're festooned with the stuffed animals of several species for which we each have an affinity. We yip, howl, and growl at one another in the course of conversation. Our friends know us as Mr. Shapeshifter and Kitty.
I don't bother with the smokescreen any longer when someone asks how we met. I smile and say, "We met in an on line multi-user environment. I played a ten foot tall Amazon tigress with an attitude and he played a timid little red fox, but it was the five foot nothing fairy rainbow Siamese he ended up with!"
Mild asthmatic
Never been to 2nd base
But there's a whole nother me
That you need to see
Go check out MySpace" o/`
-- "Online" performed by Brad Paisley
Author's Note: I am partnered with bitterlight for this round of therealljidol, so please support her entry as well.
Back in 1997, the Internet was still in its relative infancy. The age of Facebook, Twitter, and other mass communication and networking sites had not arrived. It was therefore rather unusual and even frowned upon to admit to having met your soul mate on line.
Nonetheless, that is where I met my beloved Mr. Shapeshifter. We connected through a mutual friend in a MUD designed for those with furry characters. His was a ship's counselor in the furry version of Star Trek and mine had been designed as a security officer on the same ship. No one else was logged in and he admitted that while he liked role playing, there was rarely any call for his chosen occupation. I, on the other hand, was too new to be admitted to the current story arc being played out but I didn't want to wait. We talked for a few minutes and then designed a sub plot which would help integrate my character and make better use of his.
As the months went on, I realized that he had a crush on me. One night he asked if my character would pair up with his. This didn't work out because in the course of the story line I'd gotten her involved with someone else but I redirected him to another character I had. Some hurt feelings ensued because Mr. Shapeshifter did not at first realize that both characters were mine and it was me in which he was interested.
We met in person for the first time in May of 1999 and were married in 2000. When asked how we met, he and I would either simply tell the querent that we had been introduced through a mutual friend or that we had met at a science fiction gathering (both of which were half-truths). Neither of us particularly felt like hearing the lectures regarding the longevity of our relationship because it had been started on line. We didn't want to endure the weird speculations surrounding what it meant to be furry, which at the time had a reputation (not always deserved) of being a fetish rather than a fandom.
Things change. People started meeting through applications and on line dating services or through e-mail exchange. Those same people often married and had families. The fetishists got tired of furry fandom and moved on to something else. Those remaining with odd sexual propensities kept them out of the public areas at conventions where the press might get at them. Furry got closer to the mainstream. Some of the artists worked for big name animation companies and others made a name for themselves in costuming. Mainstream writers and comics creators began appearing at conventions. My favorite convention became one of the top one hundred advertised attractions for its area.
Somewhere along the line, I stopped caring whether or not anyone knew we were furry or that we'd met on line in a role playing environment. Now, when you visit us and talk with us, you really can't avoid noticing. I decorated the walls of my home with quality prints from furry artists; our rec room book shelves are filled with books featuring furry characters and they're festooned with the stuffed animals of several species for which we each have an affinity. We yip, howl, and growl at one another in the course of conversation. Our friends know us as Mr. Shapeshifter and Kitty.
I don't bother with the smokescreen any longer when someone asks how we met. I smile and say, "We met in an on line multi-user environment. I played a ten foot tall Amazon tigress with an attitude and he played a timid little red fox, but it was the five foot nothing fairy rainbow Siamese he ended up with!"