Part XXX: These Night Folk, A Skittish And Paranoid Lot

Wake up, sweet Huygens. You've slept the day away.

Funny story. I was taking a short adventure earlier and testing SL on my home computer. I recently "acquired" some more memory for it. It was the reason I rarely had quests at home. The laptop could run it, but not well. Herky-jerky it was. Another reason involves discovering my new work CPU came loaded with an "impressive" 8 MB graphics card. I should probably mention SL requires at least 64 MB.

So there I was, logged on at home, with a rare spare moment in the afternoon. Huygens was still hanging around the area that's his default starting point. I have yet to change it and I always come back here if I die or get booted out of some place. I grabbed my bike out of my pocket and went for a spin on the docks. I came across a midget altering her appearance. I ran her over. I decided to see if I could fly my bike like E.T. but it didn't work. It looked like I was flying with a bike pasted to my torso. Kind of like a bike cape.

I fell from the sky onto the roof of a tiny one-room cottage. It had an open ceiling so I rode, actually dropped, my bike into it. I landed on the floor next to some guy in jams. I felt kind of weird just dropping through his roof like that so I said, "Sorry to drop in like that."

He said, "No problem." Then, we shared an awkward moment of silence. I didn't know what else to say so I mumbled something like, "Nice place." He said, "Thanks. I just rented it today." I said "That's cool. How much did it cost?" He said, "$100." I looked around the cramped cubical and told him, "Wow, man. You got hosed."

Then he exclaimed, "Phone! Sorry gotta go!" I hoped it was the phone and not my insulting his pricey cottage that caused him to leave. Anyway, he didn't say I had to leave and since the only thing in the tiny place was a king-sized bed, I thought I'd take a nap. I opted for the "sleep" icon and not the "dream out loud" one. Frankly, I don't want to know what Huygens dreams about. Or maybe I do.

After the wifey and baby fell asleep in real life, I jumped back on Second Life. I was still snoozing undisturbed and night was upon us. This will be the first time I've had an adventure at night in real life. I wonder if Second Life nightlife is any different than the daylife? I guess we'll see. It can't be any crazier.

I stumbled out of the hut to get my bearings. There was no sign of the guy renting the place. I guess that was a long-ass phone call he had.

I checked my map and saw that there was someone about a mile due west. Torchy and I took to the air and headed that direction to see if we could strike up a chat.

When we got to their land the forcefields were up. Apparently they did not want to be disturbed this late. I yelled, "Let me in!" No response was forthcoming. I tried again and again but got nothing.

What else was there to do but drop a few F-bombs on them. That'll teach that rude-ass.

So, we flew on.

I finally caught up with a couple of folks at an Indian outdoor bar. They appeared to be rapping up their conversation and were at the hugging stage. I said hello to no one in particular. They didn't acknowledge.

The woman said her goodbyes to the dude and teleported away, leaving her BF to prop up the bar. I went up and began to engage him in a little night chat. I said, "Wut up?" He replied, "Not much."

He asked me how I was doing. I said truthfully, "Pretty good." Then all of a sudden he exclaims, "Oh shit...gotta go! Sorry to run off on you. Enjoy!" And then he beamed out. I have no idea what his emergency pertained to, but I'm going to take Mr. Jacobus literally. Maybe he accidentally took a crap in his shorts and had to run to the bathroom to clean up. What was I supposed to "enjoy" here all by myself anyway? He forgot to tell me that before he took a duke and bolted.

So, we took to the air again in search of midnight conversation. We passed a house with a bad-ass light show on the roof.

Touching down a few clicks to the north, we find a lonely lass, aptly titled Lonely Yak, hanging out on her porch. Torchy's did a lovely job illuminating the night air so I strolled on up to the porch to engage this lonely woman.

We walk up the porch only to find her teleported away as soon as we get there. What the hell is up with that? Do we look suspicious or something? These night folk seem to be a skittish and paranoid lot, Torchy.

We soar through the digital night. There's plenty of communist looking Barack posters to look at. "I'm comrade Obama, and I approved the state making these posters!"

We stop to gaze longingly at the moon. If only it was a place to go and not just a 2D render in the night sky. I should check my guide, though. It might actually be a place I could visit.

We enjoy an unintentional grid like pattern in the distance that signifies 2nd Life's inability to raster the far-off landscape.

Ah ha! Found someone! I find a Normus Nootan, hovering above large pictures of squirrels and architecture, not doing much. I started to chat him up with, "Hey there, Normus! Nice night for a fly, eh?"

Dude took off like a chinchilla out of hell. The chase was on. In my best David Gilmour voice I yelled, "Why are you running away!?"

He almost lost me a couple of times until finally he thought he could loose me on the ocean floor. My radar doesn't lie and we found him. I walked up and said, "Yo! What's the dealio? I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to talk."

Then, he took the coward's way out. He logged off without a word and left me high and dry in this soggy place. What an asshole. What's wrong with these people, Torchy!?

There was nothing left to do but take off and search some more. After a few minutes of travel, we found someone else. We touched down in Pan's Labyrinth Piano and Blues Bar to find a gent named LycraBoy Dawner working the strip poll. Torchy suggested we try once more to converse with someone before our adventure was over. It might as well be this guy.

Easy, Huygens. Let's not scare this one off. I greeted him with a casual, "How's it going?" He replied with an equally casual, "Not bad." So far so good. He hasn't wigged out or taken off yet.

He remarked, "That's some flashlight." This irked Torchy quite a bit, but I tried to calm him down by introducing him. I said, "His name is Torchy."

Dawner said, "Cute name." This placated Torchy a little and I said, "He thinks so." I switched gears and told him he was the first person I've met tonight that didn't run away or log off as soon as I approached him. He laughed and said, "Oh well, nothing shocks me."

I said "That's cool. Can I rap with you then." He said sure and asked me what I wanted to know. I asked him, "Is this a gay bar?"

He said, "I don't think so. Why?" I replied, "I dunno. This place has a Liberace kind of vibe going and you're a guy in a tight white shirt working a stripper's poll."

He said, "Yes, it does appear that way (grin)." He was either being vague or coming on to me. Torchy thought the latter which boosted my ego a little. Dawner then asked, "And what are you looking for?"

I told him about my self-prescribed occupation of nomadic adventurer and that I like to document said adventures. He remarked, "Ahh. That sound rather interesting." I told him most of the time it was and asked him if it would be okay if he was included in my next story.

He replied, "Sure, but I don't know what you're going to write about me." I said, "Oh, basically that I just met this dude late at night practicing his stripper moves in a gay bar and he totally hit on me and wanted to make sweet sweet love all night long."

And apparently, I shocked he who could not be shocked. With my last sentence he teleported out with a quickness and without another word. Maybe he wasn't ready to come out yet. Sorry, Dawner. I didn't even get to tell him I was just joking.

But at the time, I was super pissed. I had yet one more person blink out on me and that was the last straw. What else was there to do but yell...

"Asshole!"

...