- Joined
- Feb 3, 2021
- Messages
- 347
- Location
- Hic et Nunc
- SL Rez
- 2008
- Joined SLU
- Dec. 26, 2012
- SLU Posts
- 400
Before we begin, an introduction is due:
Way back in 2015, I had tried my hand at story writing, mostly as part of a much-needed and protracted healing process. Truth be told, while I do enjoy writing, I wasn’t particularly satisfied by the result of my efforts, so I decided to start over from scratch. What I’ve kept from that earlier "project" is the first name of the main character, Arianna. From now on, though, her full name will be Arianna Zenovka.
What are these new stories going to be, though? Well, I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from the work of Huckleberry Hax and my conversations with him, as well as Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash novel. So, I opted this new start to consist of short stories, novellas, and maybe even the odd novel, all set in a virtual world, with a possible bleed between cyberspace and meatspace. After all, I never subscribed to the theory that our virtual existences aren’t influenced by our real life (RL) circumstances.
I chose to set my stories in a fictional virtual world named MetaMondo (MM for short), designed, developed, and run by a company named Dalbergia Research (DR for short). I’d be a liar if I claimed this fictional universe is devoid of analogies with Second Life. My inspiration for the stories comes from various sources: my experiences within Second Life, my Real Life experiences, stories I’ve heard, current events, even songs.
Now, Stories of the Inner Sanctum is a series of short stories set in the aforementioned virtual world, narrating events that may be entirely fictional, fictionalised accounts of actual events, or even actual events where names have been changed to protect the guilty. Below, I will give you part of the first story, whose title is the same as this thread's. If you're so inclined, you can read the rest of it on my blog.
Dalbergia Research’s official accounts on social media announced “with great sorrow” the death of Paige Mirabeau. She was known as Mistress Paige Mirabeau in older times, when she was the most popular and influential BDSM and D/s (Dominance & Submission) blogger for the community of Dalbergia’s MetaMondo virtual world – or MM for short.
Her blog, Mirabeau’s World, had started out as a personal – and often very intimate – journal of her D/s relationships, her experiences within the fetish community, and as an advice column for those who wanted to make the most of their fetish-centred relationships. At some point, though, it morphed into something far more mainstream, focusing on MM destinations, art reviews, and developments related to MM and virtual worlds in general. This greatly boosted her popularity and influence. She soon became the go-to source for all sorts of information for every user of the platform.
The news of her passing spread like wildfire. Hundreds of MM residents rushed to her social media profiles to tell themselves and others – as she was no longer around to read these comments – how much she would be missed, how great she was to the community. Even some people she didn’t get along with. Naturally, MM’s entire Inner Sanctum paid their respects, waxing lyrical about her contributions and her kindness, using verbiage of all shades of purple and of all degrees of insincerity.
But what is this Inner Sanctum? At a first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking of them as as MM’s equivalent of your high school’s “cool kids”; the popular ones, the ones whose opinion determines one’s place in the school’s food chain. In MM, the Inner Sanctum is a colloquial term for a loosely-knit group of extremely popular, and well-connected with Dalbergia staff, early adopters, content creators, artists, and bloggers; there were rumours of varying veracity that they get preferential treatment by the company. What is true, however, is that, in the eyes of far too many people, they could do no wrong and that they could ostracise you if they decided they didn’t like you.
Not everyone was as devastated by Mirabeau’s death; there was someone who had distanced herself from the Inner Sanctum, and chose to say nothing. Not at the time of her death, not a few days later, not a month later. Two years after Paige died, however, she posted on her personal blog the following poem:
1 This poem was inspired by Greek poet Manolis Anagnostakis’ poem “Επιτύμβιον“.
Way back in 2015, I had tried my hand at story writing, mostly as part of a much-needed and protracted healing process. Truth be told, while I do enjoy writing, I wasn’t particularly satisfied by the result of my efforts, so I decided to start over from scratch. What I’ve kept from that earlier "project" is the first name of the main character, Arianna. From now on, though, her full name will be Arianna Zenovka.
What are these new stories going to be, though? Well, I’ve drawn a lot of inspiration from the work of Huckleberry Hax and my conversations with him, as well as Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash novel. So, I opted this new start to consist of short stories, novellas, and maybe even the odd novel, all set in a virtual world, with a possible bleed between cyberspace and meatspace. After all, I never subscribed to the theory that our virtual existences aren’t influenced by our real life (RL) circumstances.
I chose to set my stories in a fictional virtual world named MetaMondo (MM for short), designed, developed, and run by a company named Dalbergia Research (DR for short). I’d be a liar if I claimed this fictional universe is devoid of analogies with Second Life. My inspiration for the stories comes from various sources: my experiences within Second Life, my Real Life experiences, stories I’ve heard, current events, even songs.
Now, Stories of the Inner Sanctum is a series of short stories set in the aforementioned virtual world, narrating events that may be entirely fictional, fictionalised accounts of actual events, or even actual events where names have been changed to protect the guilty. Below, I will give you part of the first story, whose title is the same as this thread's. If you're so inclined, you can read the rest of it on my blog.
--- --- ---
Dalbergia Research’s official accounts on social media announced “with great sorrow” the death of Paige Mirabeau. She was known as Mistress Paige Mirabeau in older times, when she was the most popular and influential BDSM and D/s (Dominance & Submission) blogger for the community of Dalbergia’s MetaMondo virtual world – or MM for short.
Her blog, Mirabeau’s World, had started out as a personal – and often very intimate – journal of her D/s relationships, her experiences within the fetish community, and as an advice column for those who wanted to make the most of their fetish-centred relationships. At some point, though, it morphed into something far more mainstream, focusing on MM destinations, art reviews, and developments related to MM and virtual worlds in general. This greatly boosted her popularity and influence. She soon became the go-to source for all sorts of information for every user of the platform.
The news of her passing spread like wildfire. Hundreds of MM residents rushed to her social media profiles to tell themselves and others – as she was no longer around to read these comments – how much she would be missed, how great she was to the community. Even some people she didn’t get along with. Naturally, MM’s entire Inner Sanctum paid their respects, waxing lyrical about her contributions and her kindness, using verbiage of all shades of purple and of all degrees of insincerity.
But what is this Inner Sanctum? At a first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking of them as as MM’s equivalent of your high school’s “cool kids”; the popular ones, the ones whose opinion determines one’s place in the school’s food chain. In MM, the Inner Sanctum is a colloquial term for a loosely-knit group of extremely popular, and well-connected with Dalbergia staff, early adopters, content creators, artists, and bloggers; there were rumours of varying veracity that they get preferential treatment by the company. What is true, however, is that, in the eyes of far too many people, they could do no wrong and that they could ostracise you if they decided they didn’t like you.
Not everyone was as devastated by Mirabeau’s death; there was someone who had distanced herself from the Inner Sanctum, and chose to say nothing. Not at the time of her death, not a few days later, not a month later. Two years after Paige died, however, she posted on her personal blog the following poem:
Continued here.
1 This poem was inspired by Greek poet Manolis Anagnostakis’ poem “Επιτύμβιον“.
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