SLife and Times: A Thursday in Second Life

By Grease Coakes

 

In the real world I work for Royal Farms stocking the soda cooler among various other grunt jobs. I can’t complain if my job gives me paid vacation. My boss named Mary to protect her real life identity was nice enough to give me a week of paid vacation during the summer. Now that I have been at Royal Farms two years I have two weeks of paid vacation. So today I wanted to write what I was doing in Second Life. 

 

I started in Shadowquine Maltz’s Ark which is one of Second Life oldest clubs for furries about 4:30am SLT which is 7:30am for me. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Quarabia/96/128/501 When I first discovered there was clubs for furries in Second life when I was a month old or so The ark (Like Noah and the ark saving animals from the great flood.) It happened to be the ark and at the time I was amazed of seeing a club of only furries when before I was hanging in human clubs not knowing about clubs like the ark. Keep in mind I was a newbie so I had no idea what second life was so I was still exploring around. 

 

The theme of the Ark is anything goes so don’t be surprised if you see adult goings on there. For example I was talking with a vixen in skimpy clothing just being friendly about tattoos and something in her profile on one of the dance poles.

 

I happened to run into Stimpy Tripp an old bear of Second Life that I see around now and again. I remember seeing him at Second Life’s 12^th birthday when I djed. He’s also one of Rita Mariner’s Sunweavers. Another friend I ran into was Zebrathingy Heyse AKA Zee. When Anthroxtacy or AX was alive and well we’d go see the same DJ Aurora Avila a few times a week.

 

The DJ Raven Twang had a cool outfit at first I thought we was the dragoon character from Final Fantasy 8. But he corrected me and said, "If any influence for this character is attributed, it would be Mat Cauthon from Wheel of Time. The outfit I’m wearing is not so much the dragoon but based on Mat’s medieval fantasy attire."

 

I myself have read the Wheel of time written by the late Robert Jordan and it’s beyond words describing how epic the fourteen book series is. Mat Cauthon is one of the main characters as one of three childhood friends who are destined to fight what they call the Dark One. Mat is a trickster and always has a smile to charm women. I won’t say more than that except to start the series read Eye Of The World.

 

Shortly afterwards I went to a 500 word dash at Milk Wood (71/59/22), where’s it twice a day 6am SLT and 6pm SLT Monday through Friday. It’s a writing exercise to write 500 words in fifteen minutes based upon a word.

 

Deva (Deva Westland), a faerie, teased me and said as I lag walked and ended up walking on a table, "You know, you can walk around the table, Grease.... hehe."

Deva wrote a scene of a faerie mother having children making sure her small son didn’t wander into danger by entangling his ankle in a vine. Doyle, who writes stories of war, wrote a fantasy theme about a general asking for merchants for supplies despite the high risk.

Raindrops (Gwen Enchanted): wrote about a famous man Tam Lin who is a ballad and here’s what she said, "Tam Lin is a very famous magical ballad. He's a man captured by the Queen of the Faeries, who's saved by an ingenue named either Fair Janet or Lady Margaret, depending on which version of the ballad you know." Arte or Artemis wrote a poem about snugging Doyle cookies and kittens and puppies.

 

I wrote about one my characters doing something terrible, so she is forever banned from someone’s restaurant. Shannon hit Narcosis several times giving her a bloody nose and a black eye. Narcosis offered no resistance as Shannon cursed and yelled at her for endangering herself and her diner and friends.

 

I took a break in real life to eat some cereal and apples and then I come back to Second Life, and seeing nothing of note in my notices I go to the  IYC which is short for International Yiff Center at IYC Addictions (221/62/3001) . I also see Tantari Kim is online so I im her saying hi. She tells me she is applying to the Ark as a dj. She has a library of sets preplanned with different themes like MLP and "Still Alive" which centers around a single song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TERyxFfMqDk called Still Alive by Lisa Miskovsky. I showed Tantari Kim the famous blue vixen this song from electric mudkip.

 

Tantari was nice enough to warp me to Citrus Cove (164/153/2487). an adult sim called Fox Haven Furry City East. Tantari commented it was a nice sim with nice people I mentioned it made me think of Metropolis, Superman’s home, or any other major city. Tantari and I chitchatted about this and that.

 

A little later I took another break in real life, did some laundry and bought a beer and came back logging into the“I Love the 80’s club” at Gecko Isles (215/81/22). I hung out and chilled to Zack Coberts DJing. Everyone was joking that lag was ruining their day and that lag doesn’t exist in SL. I asked the pretty lady Lunavae Longfall to slow dance with me she said sure and I just relaxed and had a good time. There were a couple furries there, not just me. Furries aren’t just staying in furry clubs anymore they come to human clubs now and again watch out humans!

 

I took another break for an hour and played Guild Wars 2, but before I find a LM from Xavier’s A List about some LM that showcases live music. I go to Lionheart Ahadi (121/214/3201). and hear a Zen Arado play ambient music that’s unique and very mellow. In the same sim Tip Corbett came after Zen Arado play live piano music. His live playing was amazing to listen to soothe my soul.

 

Later on 1:30pm SLT I see a notice about a spiritual discussion at New Paris (33/42/22). I warp over to a place called Nirvana Island.RobertDuke Drascol led the spiritual discussion over voice chat with a few other avatars. He was saying to forget ideas of the material world and ignore your ego and listen to your higher self instead. I had tried to leave to see my friend Skunk Mantra Fox Techno (Fox Fraxture) at his DJ set however Robert Duke asked me to stay and make comments about what he was talking about.

 

I stayed until Robertduke said it was time to go. Then I visited Fox Fraxture at Furnication (189/199/27)  and heard his mix of house and techno. I mentioned that he gave me one of his songs that you can hear in my soundcloud mix SL12B called Thouse Paws Up. It has lots of organ sounds and bass booms.

 

A few days ago Amehana Arashi (Amehana Ishtari) and I agreed to meet on Thursday at 4pm SLT for a tarot reading you might recognize the name as she read at Nisa sometimes (the ponydale sim.) She charges a fair price of 300L. I ponied up the cash and asked her where should I look for a publisher for my stories? Amehana suggested look at the local library and perhaps a librarian will help me and suggested to play fair with the editor.

 

At the end Amehana had this to say

 

Elemental Balance:

2 major arcana

1 pentacle

1 wand

1 sword

 

The forces at work here are more spiritual/karmic than material. Physical work is necessary as always, but a good deal of what will be of benefit will only be gained through relationships, the give and take.

Last but not least of about eight months or so of working every thrusday night I go to see Aurora Avila at club midi at Bikini Bay (59/174/1006).

 

One of the club owners,Sky Gunawan, has this to say about Aurora, "Heya everyone~ busy night again. Aurora, you're always bringing in a crowd." Aurora Avila answered, "I can't say I have any complaints about that! "

I asked Aurora a silly question, "Hey if samus aran fought a dragon or two who do you think would win?" She answered, "Samus fights a dang dragon all the time. Ridley just keeps happening. (laughter), so she fights dragons anyway."

 

As per usual everyone has a great time listening to Aurora’s songs based upon video games and dancing the night away. Aurora even called me a Tippyfox for sending tips her way to her "?" block with the mushroom on top. A little later Keesar Cushing one of the dj managers from Anthroxtacy came to say hi Aurora as well as Zee a long time fan of Aurora’s music.

 

It was an excellent Thursday in Second Life and I did a lot. It was fun to share this day with you readers of the Second Life Newser.

Grease Coakes

Book Island Open Mic

By Grease Coakes

Selina Greene is a busy lady as she owns Book Island the sim that's all about reading and writing and promoting aspiring authors. Wanting to change avatars I come on to Second Life after getting home from a hard day of real life work.

A short time later I see a notice for Selina Green's Open Mic at Book Island at Book Island (42/48/25). I say what the hey, if i'm online anyway I can go check it out.

I warp into the Book Island library and there's a large group of avatars there already at 1pm SLT. Selina mentioned earlier that she does hold Open Mic every Sunday at 1pm SLT. She says hello Grease glad to see you come over voice with her smoky british accent. By habit I respond to her over voice when she's done speaking. She asks me politely in IM to use chat instead of voice.

Now I know so for the rest of the event I chat only except when I read my own writing then I was allowed to use voice. Several avatars took advantage of Open Mic wanting to read his or her story. Klannex Northmead went first reading his own writing with a voice Selina seemed to like. His poem was about the spring.

I was next as I took a sample from one of my stories that I wrote for one Rio The Otter. I announced in main chat that I was bought by him at a tail sale. Selina asked what a tail sale was intrigued never hearing the term before. I told Selina, "Yup I was auctioned off so he bid the highest for me. Here's part of what I wrote for Rio."

Rio walked to the end of line which in his good fortune wasn’t very long. Despite the short line a red dragon tried to fly to the front. A pink griffin male fearlessly put his hand up to block the line cutter. He wore a black Club Zero shirt with baggy black jeans but they were well buckled to his waist. 

“Just because you can breathe fire doesn’t mean you’re getting in quicker than anyone else,” the pink griffin spoke with authority, and his eyes could cut through stone the way he glared at the seven foot dragon. The griffin was tall and he had a large frame, but the dragon towered over him. The Dragon tried to fly above the griffin but he merely flew up with him and blocked him again. Everyone in the line gasped.

“He’s a perfect hybrid!”

“He’s muscled and he can fly!”

“They are one in 100,000 or so!”

I stopped reading after a while keeping in mind that Selina gives everyone a time limit making sure everyone gets their fair share of reading time. Leslye read poetry about clementines about their taste. Selina herself read a sample of her story about a collar around someone's neck.

Bhelanna Blaze AKA Bhelanna Resident read a poem named stew which her mother loved. It talked about her stew reciepe was passed down from generation to generation with various herbs and spices put into the stew. She was very sad that her mother passed away due to cancer back in May. She braved on despite her real life loss and read another poem later related to porches and homes.

Klannex Northmead read another poem about god and ego. Another reader James MacCloude read part of a story that sounded something Stephen King would write. Everyone's cellphones were dying as if something really scary was going to happen in his story.

At the end of the event there was a drawing for 300L just for showing up. Sisterbutta resident won the 300L as Selina announced a summer soltice event for the following weekend. Looking over the notecard I saw events like boat rides and tarot readings for both days Saturday and Sunday.

Like the SL Newser celebrating four years Book island is holding on strong always having events to draw in readers and writers to particpate and have fun. If you have a story or poem that you would like to share stop on by at 1pm SLT every sunday for Open Mic.Even if you don't wish to read your own literary work you can ask someone else to read for you. On top of that you could make new friends sharing in your writing and reading interests. And everyone could always use new friends.

Interview With Talia Sunsong, Author of "Twilight of the Star Vampires"

A friend in Second Life media recently told me about Talia Sunsong (taliasunsong), whom had written a science-fiction parody: "Twilight of the Star Vampires." She had been at book readings, and giving out links to where one could get the stories.

Today is the last day for free for book 1, then book 2 will be free for 5 days. It's a trilogy. I'm giving a book reading today at 2pm at Open Books at Four Bridges. You don't need a kindle to read it, as Amazon gives free kindle software.

I met up with Talia, Paula Sunsong in real life, at Open Books between readings. She was in a happy mood, as friends of hers had "really whipped up some magic. My book is #1 in my category, parody."

"So how long have you been writing?" I asked her. Talia answered, "I started writing at the age of 10, hoping to become a novelist. I wrote a roleplaying game published by Hero Games. It was a science fiction game ... 'Star Hero.' ... I also founded a free newspaper called 'The Rallyer.' "

I asked her how the paper went. Talia answered, "As a journalist for 'The Rallyer' newspaper, I covered an event where the police started clubbing people. I myself was hit with a metal baton. I had no major injuries, fortunately. Later the police even shot into the crowd with rubber bullets and I was in that crowd." I winced, "Ouch, how many were hit, and how close did those get to you?" "There were within six to eight feet of me. I did not hear of any injuries. The scary part was, I just saw the police shoot. I did not know whether it was rubber or real bullets." "How did the protest get violent?" I asked. She answered, "The police were actually more violent than the protestors. In fact the police beat uptwo2 police review commissioners who were in the crowd observing. The police did not know they were police review commissioners for the city." She paused, "I guess writing satire is a lighthearted contrast to my journalism career."

"Star Vampires is my first satirical work," Talia told me, "I like poking fun at overbearing corporate marketing and governments. It has several love stories intertwined with action. It opens with the Vullcan Spocko being turned into a vampire. He asks 'Is logic all that there is?' Later, he turns Edward Cullet into a vampire by force, and kidnaps Edward for the Vulcanturi Empire. Edward has two children with Queen Paddymay: Luck and Lela." She grinned, "You might recognized the similarity to Luke and Leia Skywalker of 'Star Wars,' Spock of 'Star Trek,' and Edward of 'Twilight.'Spocko meets Lela, Edward's daughter, when she is trapped on the Dearth Star. Both Being telepathic, they feel as if they are 'soulmates' but Lela is wary of the Vulcanturi Spocko for kidnapping her father."

I chuckled a bit, "sounds like a number of people and things from those three stories get parodied." "Yes it was fun to joke about well known images," Talia told me, "On one planet they meet a 'Keepler elf of Nabiscko' who makes magic cookies in a tree. The Queen threatens to cut off the supply of Mint Milano cookies if the Senate does not help her. If only that threat worked in the real world to keep politicians in order. (laughter) Another love story is Obegone, the Jetti knight, who falls for Brun Solow (Hans Solo's replacement). Obegone also dated "Jabya the Hot" (Jabba the Hut's replacement in the story)."

"Guess 'Pizza the Hutt' was already taken," I mused. Talia chuckled,  "Mel Brooks scooped me on Pizza the Hut (giggle)." She continued, "Obegone met her at "Singles Roulette" where the men sit on a large spinning floor that spins, placing each man in front of a woman as a date. Jabya does not like being dumped by Obegone, but she gets revenge, having Brun Solow frozen in carbonite."

"Was the Star Wars parody 'Spaceballs' any influence?" I asked. Talia answered that it was, "I enjoyed 'Spaceballs' and 'Galaxy Quest' as inspiration. The playfulness of those movies frees my mind to write. Humor is freeing of creativity" "Were there any other influences?" I asked. She told me there were, "I think roleplaying games gave me the opportunity to play different characters, act out plots and joke with friends. That fueled me for writing. Roleplaying in Second Life can mean a lot of things from medieval fantasy to sexual fantasy." She then winked and giggled.

After a chuckle, I asked, "Did any of these games have an especially memorable plotline and scenes?" Talia's answer was, "In person, I started with Dungeon and Dragons, I liked Champions (the superhero game), Star Hero (the science fiction game I wrote) and private eye/spy games. Later I actually became a private eye in real life. Psychologists used roleplaying as therapy decades before roleplaying games were sold. I think roleplaying gives you a new perspective."

Talia being a detective caught my attention, "How did it go?" She answered, "I was a San Francisco private investigator for 3 years, like Sam Spade (smile). I had one case where I was following a man suspected of injury fraud. An ambassador's car with national flags got in between us. I was afraid I'd be arrested for tailing an ambassador (laughter). After a mile or two, the ambassador's car turned off and I was hot on the trail of the suspect again. One man I videod playing baseball when he claimed to be too injured to work. He flipped off the camera. My boss thought it was hilarious, and played it in slow motion to our whole office." She chuckled, "So you could say roleplaying and the silliness of life inspires my humor."

I asked Talia what were people saying about "Star Vampires?" She answered "I got a great five star review" on the book's page on Amazon, "People have said it is entertaining and yet has meaning in poking fun at mass marketing. Caglevision gave it a 5 star review. He is an author himself. ... My 'Twilight of the Star Vampires' is a trilogy and each book will be free for 5 days. The last one will by close the Xmas, like a gift."

"So what are your plans after 'Star Vampires?'," I asked Talia. "I have a fantasy short story about a witch with faulty powers," she told me, "I'm planning on putting it on Amazon. I also have been writing a book on how I put my diabetes into remission with diet and exercise." Of the witch, her spells don't quite work, "Her spells go haywire. Anything could happen with a spell misfire." She chuckled, leaving it to my imagination as to what could happen with such misfires.

"Any advice for those trying to write satire and parody?" I requested. Talia's answer was, "I like to say "Everyone is born with their own unique genius. Everyone  has a story to tell. I'd like to hear your story and to share mine. Today we have the tools to reach billions of people and 'sing our song.' "

It was about this time the interview ended. We chatted a little longer, then we soon went about our separate ways.

"Don't go to your grave with your song unsung."

Bixyl Shuftan

Reading of 100 Word Stories at Book Island

By Grease Coakes

When I was at Book Island last time, Jackson Arthur told me about a beta reading for 100 words so stories for the following week. This sounded fun to me, so taking a mere 5 minutes or so I write a 100 or so story (It went over 100 a little bit but don’t tell Book Island that). I warped over to Olivia Whitsend’s office as she hosted the event. I ran into Relish, the small tiger from last time, and I found out that he is also Brokali the blue alien!

Then my Exodus viewer kicked me off, and I had to log back in. I was telling everyone in the Book Island group that I had a good story, and here it is. Danger Dave had created a notecard launcher where when you send the white square in the middle of a table your notecard goes to everyone in range.

At a telemarketing job was a man and woman. One day Sally pleaded with Phil to borrow $5. Phil said he didn’t like lending money as most times he did not get paid back. But eventually Phil caved in. One day Phil asked Sally if she could he pay him back when Sally got a fat check from a lot of sales. Sally smiled and said she had bills to pay. When Sally was short on money she asked around and no one lent her any money. Phil would have of said yes, but she didn’t pay him back. That night after work Sally had no bus fare and had to walk ten miles in the rain back to her house. As a result she became sick and was unable to come to work the next day.

I got positive feedback on grammar and Relish/Brokali suggested words to add to the power of my story. Everyone’s comments did add to my story.

Jackson Arthur wrote a piece of him using words like jink and pirouette, his character used many fancy words to describe his character wanting to get away from Robert. It ended that he only has enough time for one word.

I will have to be rude. Might be fun! Use your imagination to think of what word Jackson Arthur may have used.

Brokali/Relish’s story was about a lemonade stand at the corner of Filth and Poverty. He told his story about a lemonade stand that was left behind by the current day and age of adults hating having to drive to work. Also the lemonade stand was ignored as people went to get drugs or beer instead or any fast food joint. The point was powerful saying how the lemonade stand is a bygone of more innocent times.

Silver’s poem also had a strong message of a woman walking towards an abyss with footsteps of sorrows and sins. The message I got from her poem was someone thinking of ending their own life after living a depressing and sorrowful life.


Olivia hosting the event gave out a notecard of ideas for next week for 100 or so stories. One of the ideas was gangnam style! I complained saying, "Noooooo! I don’t want to write about that!" Olivia said of course you don’t have to write about that it was only an idea. I assured her that it was an attack on gangnam style not on her. Another suggestion was “Rock and roll is the hamburger that ate the world.”

It was fun hearing everyone’s story and sharing mine. I hung out for the next event Jackson Arthur’s for a little bit, but I wanted to do some real life stuff as well so I did not stay for that. He said you can never have too much coffee I said you can never have too much coffee, ha ha! Book Island is a great place to hang to talk about anything word or book related and hang with fun people.

Grease Coakes

Xymbers Slade’s Interview by Sam Nightfire

About a month and a half after my interview at Virtual Tonight by Sam Nightfire, it was someone else’s turn from Second Life Newser. Our new freelancer Xymbers Slade was invited to appear there.

Xymbers was the last to appear on the show. Before him were a few others. First were two women from the Cheeky Cow Golf course. Next was noted singer Lance Rembrant. Third was Dmitriy Gauseman from the Tombstone RP area. While the show went on, Xymbers had a problem. A SL glitch was causing the eyes on his anthro wolf avatar to bulge out. So he switched to a “Crux” avatar, hoping for the best with this unusual-looking avatar. As it turned out, Sam liked the Crux, impressed with it’s uncommon appearance.

Xymbers was on not to talk about his role at SL Newser, but his fortune telling. He told Sam he had about fifteen years of experience, “I don’t see myself as a psychic ...” He explained what he did as foreseeing potential happenings using tarot cards. He focused on five cards or ten, usually in Second Life a five card reading. Each card, he explained, has a particular meaning, the final card for example representing if the person didn’t change from his or her course.

To skeptics, he often tells them “this seems like the most likely thing to happen.’” He commented dealing with some diehard skeptics was “like arguing religion.” Sam admitted, “I was a skeptic, but ...” She talked about the reading he had given her, “everything you said became true within 5 weeks.”

Sam asked Xymbers if he could do a reading on someone. Xymbers answered he’d need a volunteer from the audience. A boy scout child avatar offered to be the one. Xymbers then rezzed a board, telling the volunteer he needed something to focus on, asking for a location. The boy scout gave his home state, and Xymbers drew the cards.

The first card was pentacles, “foundations, anything you set up now will stand on it’s own, it will stay put.” The second card, Justice, “greater arcana ... karma and fate ... the card of destiny, difficult to change anything.” The third card drawn, Xymbers told him represented a major obstacle, “Upside down knight of cups ... someone about your age.” Right side up, the card represented “the holy grail.” But upside down, “a corrupt knight, someone out for himself, or out to get you. If you take allies, you will get stabbed in the back.” The fourth card drawn was the 8 or pentacles, “work ... establishing ... the knight is going to attempt something, but not get very far.” And the final card drawn, “The Lovers ... I’m tempted to say this means a relationship of some kind. .. like a relationship is starting, someone will try to break it, and fail.”

“Just keep doing what you're doing ... I don't foresee anything negative ... don't take any crap from anybody."

Xymbers went on to say that outside Second Life, he normally does a ten card reading. He could do additional readings, but “do 20 different readings, get 20 different answers,” and asking for more readings to get a better one, he felt, defeated the purpose. The volunteer then admitted to being in a relationship, and thanked Xymbers for the reading. Xymbers did remind him his readings were not a hundred percent accurate.

Xymbers later told me this reading was uncommon in that is was unusually positive. Usually his readings had some kind of warning or caution, such as the one he had given me earlier this year.

A recording of the interview will soon be available on the Virtual World Network website.


Bixyl Shuftan

Xymbers Slade: Second Life Fortune Teller and Online Writer

Xymbers Slade is a resident with an interesting past and present. He was with the Second Life Mentor Volunteer group, until Linden Lab shut them down in November 2009. Another thing he did then, and still does today, is fortune telling.

Xymbers “office,” accessible from his dragon’s lair on Sunweaver Air, has a feeling of Medieval and the arcane about it, with the dragons, pentagrams and other mystical symbols, and more. He describes his business as “off and on,” getting a few clients a week.

He offered me a reading, inviting me to his place, “Have a seat... I'll go right into shuffling and we'll see what comes up here... one sec... “

After a few minutes of waiting, “I don't like the locations of some of these cards, they are not painting a pretty picture for 2011. A lot of this seems to want to focus on your own work and your own paper, too. I want to say some of these cards are more general, but a lot of them seem to be painting you with a pretty big target.”

“Six things stand out here. The first is that I got an upside down 4 of Cups (Apathy) as the ‘ best outcome.’ This is basically saying no one is paying attention to what is printed, or no one cares enough to take action if something ‘bad’ is brought up. Very tempted to say if Linden Labs wanted to pull something shady, this'd be the time to do it, and they'd get away with it.”

“The second thing that stands out here seems to be you. I drew you in three separate locations (yourself as the upside down King of Wands as ‘ next influence,’ you as the Emperor in the Past, coming off of a ‘ spilled milk loss ‘ and you as an upside down King of Swords ... someone up in arms here about something but completely lacking the resources to affect the situation). Have you recently come off of a time where you had to issue a retraction or a series of corrections that left your credibility stained? That 5 of Cups in the Past next to you would suggest so... a black eye that affected harder than it was supposed to.” To this I answered no, “All right, then I don't know what that ‘ crying over spilled milk moment ‘ would have been. Fortunately it's in the past and it hit you when you were strongest anyway, so it's a minor blip at this point.”

“The third thing that stands out here is that it looks like people's resources and dreams are far fewer in availability --- overall situation card is an upside down 7 of Cups (big dreams staying dreams) and we have an upside down Ace of Pentacles as the Emotions card (no profit in emotions/effort, or a lack of needed emotional resources to see projects through). Combined with that apathy card as the best outcome, this is looking ugly.”

“The fourth thing that stands out is that we have two rivals trying to discredit each other. There will be no peace, and if God put the peace branch out, they'd both set fire to it before turning back on each other. That could be a big problem. It will be something you need to stay out of, else they'll turn their viciousness on you. My guess is a possible story that hits about people being jerks to each other. This is Hatfield/McCoy fight levels here. Effort put trying to make things right or bring it to the attention of people is just going to turn a spotlight on you.”

“The fifth thing to stand out is just another ‘ lack of resources ‘ situation. Though this one seems to be pointed at you specifically. It's saying ‘ Ok, there's a lack of potential here. It's all said and done. No one cares anymore.’ And I think revelations are going to be had that put you on a horse off of SL in time. The center three cards on the right there --- 8 of Cups upside down showing lack of potential (combined with the big dreams staying dreams and lack of emotional resources to make things done right from earlier) Then the Moon showing secrets revealed... And then you as a very weak Knight of Cups... you go out on a good note, but off to where is the question. It all stretches back to that apathy. Less and less people are caring about SL in some form or another. It's an underlying current. After 6-7 years, even new twists on old novelties grow old and faded. So I would not be surprised if the paper or even SL ended by the end of the year. These cards want to suggest that if there's any time for it to collapse under its own weight or (given the presence of the Moon), more likely they'll shoot themselves in the foot and wind up having the bullet ricochet and hit them in between the eyes.”

“The final thing that stands out here is the final three cards. I have no idea what context these are for. Upside down Ace of Wands, suggesting growth but in the wrong direction... and right next to that is the Ace of Swords, the Excalibur of victory. So even though everyone goes in the wrong direction, their goals are still achieved pretty solidly. Justice, the card of Karma and of ‘ you get what you deserve ‘ is not liking this one bit and wants to make those victories moot. So I think while goals are achieved, they're like the pixels making up the program. They go away the moment you log off or turn away to look at something else. They're not worth anything if they're not looked at. If that makes any sense.”

“Other than that, that's what's standing out here in the cards. I would not be surprised if you were either out of a SL job or just off SL period at the end of December of 2011 or January of 2012.”

I asked if he meant superficial victories, “I think the word I'd use is that they're all mirages. They're not even superficial victories. Even superficial ones linger. These do not. Everything works well in that one specific moment in which it happens, but the moment it is put down it is forgotten. And no one cares to go back to it.” So he foresaw troubled times for the paper and Second Life? “In a nutshell, yeah. It's like you produce your material, people ‘buy’ it, but it either is not read, or not ‘absorbed’ or something. The stuff doesn't stick. At least according to these cards, anyway. ... Something needs to galvanize the people of SL into a collection of individuals, rather than the mess of things it is now. I -want- to say no organization. Not enough to get -all- involved, which is what I think is to happen. It's not even about ‘ toppling the 800 pound gorilla ’ even. Some grid wide mega event needs to happen free of Linden Lab’s mismanagement.”

“Anyway, those are the cards. Too bad they were not any better; this is one of the more negative reads I've had in the last few weeks.” Xymbers did admit he was wrong on a couple recent readings, “Things like that come and go though. The first couple months of a year are always slow and unfocused as the year gets underway.”

And when someone else did a reading on him, it turned out wrong, “It was mostly warnings about people doing power plays and how people have entered certain businesses only to lord over others, so ‘ watch yourself. ‘ A few things that were almost certain to happen didn't, which was a surprise to both of us. Now I have to go back towards the end of this month because one of the power plays was a few weeks ‘ late ‘ and I have to see if things have changed from its previous incarnation. ... Yeah, always more readings. But at least we act on the knowledge. The reading I got for you suggested no one cared enough to react about anything written or whatnot.”

Besides his fortune telling, Xymbers has also been developing a story for self-publication on the Internet. “People will get to decide how the story progresses at points,” he explained, “The viewers will have a say as to what the heroes do. And if the viewers make the wrong decisions, it might be a ‘Total Party Kill.’ “ He went as far as to have artwork for the original set of his characters commissioned, which are set up in his dragon’s lair.

The story is around several characters in a future Earth of which humans are gone and the world is populated by “Anthro-Kin,” living in a Medieval society of which those with the talent and patience can learn magic. He originally had nine characters, some heroic, some anything but. But the more he thought about the characters, the more he realized some would have little reason to stick around with certain ones, “that adventuring troupe was going to be the focus of the story but they wanted nothing to do with each other and I knew it was bad when my ‘self insert’ wanted nothing to do with them either. ... My characters actively fought me at every step. ”

So he chose four new characters whom could stick in a group, “I finally gave up and asked ‘who wants to come forward,’ and got four volunteers. I'm still banging things out around them though, so I don't have much more than that for now. ... it starts on the 1st and I'm aiming for a twice a week schedule.” Later on, he told me of a fifth character coming to mind.

Of the five characters, the first is Ameris the “bovine bladesinger” whom despite dressing up as a Valkyrie and carrying a long axe insists she’s no warrior, "I'm not a barbarian, I'm a mercenary!" Then there is Target, an obnoxious thin and wry wolf whom dresses in second hand leather outfits, "I'm either in trouble, getting in it, getting out of it, or taking credit for it." There is Soyal the sorceress, a white cougar whose real name is a mystery and dresses all in pink, and woe to those who laugh at her outfit. Fourth is Thrana, a quiet snowshoe hare whose oversize feet can do serious damage, "Actions speak louder. I'll let my paws do the talking for me." Last but not least is Zelda, a blue eyed vixen water sorceress.

Xymber’s story, currently with no working title, is on his Livejournal. More on his fortune telling can be read from the article on him at Second Life Newspaper, and he also does business from a website. His place, Wyvernhome, is at Sunweaver Air at (184, 87, 26).

Bixyl Shuftan