Well, I was gone for a while. I acted really crazy, bitchy, cryptic, angry with everyone I knew, and one night, I did myself in by pushing the cancel account button — poof, I was gone, everything: the winter palace, the garden skybox, my face, everything I was wearing, my airplanes, my fancy tennis shoes, my robot Minerva. I was drinking a lot virtual gin, then, and it made me totally insane. Life went on as usual in the land of real picnic tables and highways, of course, but I missed myself. Over the course of my time here, I managed to send off for a few prints of my better snap shots. I framed them and put them up on my real walls. I’d look at those pictures, missing myself, missing the place I’d spent so many hours wandering through. One day, I decided to see if they would let me back in. They had me set up in under 24 hours. I logged in, and there I was, exactly as I had been at the moment of my death. I looked in my suitcase. Everything was there, all the trees, houses, dresses. It seems as though no one really dies here; they just wind up in some deep database coma.
The first thing I did was to set up a little squat in the snowlands. It’s a lot more humble than my previous place, but I like it. I have a cabin, a chair, a futon, and a rug. There are some struggling pine trees in the front lawn. I’m going to try to get the fireplace working soon, because it’s getting pretty cold as we move into winter, and I have a few extra prims for a few more rugs. It’s not too far from where I lived before and it isn’t far from the train, so the location is perfect. I’ll see how long it lasts.
After I got set up, I walked down the hill and caught the train. When I reached the end of the line, I just kept walking, all the way up through Sansera, through the channel on the ferry, and all the way around the Atoll. For days I walked. The first thing I did here when I arrived here in 2007 was to walk the railroad tracks. I wanted to do that again. Walking here is so meditative and orienting. I wanted to get back to that original moment and think about it. As I walked, I asked myself for something to do here. Those who have died and come back often need something to do.
I took some pictures along the way. The mainland is different now, more emptied out, more spacious, more peaceful but a little sad in an autumn kind of way. Places I once knew to be thriving were almost totally empty. Still, some sims remain green and alive. It feels like walking at the end of the world. It’s exciting. I’m glad the Lindens kept me on ice while I was gone.
Sachiebade's secondthirdforth 