Chapter 9 – Lost In Space
GoSpeed rotated her head back so she could look straight up again after Rav situated himself on the ground. The ground was hard, cool and slightly damp. “Yuck, I hate being wet in my clothes”, she thought. That’s OK, I can rez some dry ones later, she realized. A few birds flew overhead and she watched them go from one side of the sky to another as they disappeard behind some trees. A slight puff of wind would occasionally blow across her making the tip of her nose feel cool only to warm up again from the sun’s rays. The smell…. earthy, grassy, maybe a touch of decay from dead leaves. A few hundred yards away somebody started their riding mower and it emanated a low rumble and hum heard throughout the subdivision. Even closer, to her right, a few children were in the yard playing with their toys and engaging in playful banter.
After becoming accustomed to the sights and sounds around her she began to focus on herself. While on the Grid her senses were limited. There was sight, some sound and a vague sense of touch. Her body was a set of stiff objects flexing about pivot joints and her insides were almost hollow. Much like a pinata or paper mache doll she was pretty much a pretty shell. Here, where she was now, it was different, very much different. She felt thick,like she was full of stuff. She could push things and they would move with a bit of effort. On the grid you could move things with touch, but the results were unpredictable and erratic. She could breathe here and feel it as the air filled her insides, her lungs. The breathing was involuntary as it was on the grid, but she could only pause it before long before a strong urge to breathe made her gasp for air and continue. She could also not only feel the ground press against her, she could also feel herself press against it. She especially noticed the sensation of sinking into the soft couch. Smell and taste were just totally new things to her. She also realized in her short time here that they were linked together. Of all the senses touch was her favorite. On the grid you could touch something and you would notice a scripted reaction or some sort of reaction from the physics engine on an object. But there was no tactile feedback. She ran her finger on the seam of her pants feeling the texture of her pants. Raching out she felt the grass grasping at individual blades. She felt a thin stem of a dandelion and yanked. She held the white puffball in front of her face and studied it. Pursing her lips she blew across it sending little white parachutes up into the sky.
Rav brushed the seeds out of his hair and was about to chastise GoSpeed when he noticed her smiling. Not unlike the way his daughter smiled at the simple things. His ass was wet and he didn’t like it but he chose to be quiet. Go was like her daughter in many ways, innocent, naive, and full of wonder. Why wreck this moment? He faintly recalled doing this very same thing as a young child. The fact he could still remember it meant it was a very important moment to him.
Go looked over and saw Rav looking at her with faraway eyes. She blushed and looked away suddenly feeling self conscious. “What am I doing here lying on the grass?”, she thought. She looked straight up again as a hawk flew across a small puffy cloud.
“Nobody lives up there. Closest thing to a skybox is the International Space Station and that’s up a few hundred miles”, said Rav.
GoSpeed almost chuckled. Her body made the convulsive movements but no sounds came out. She widened her eyes and tilted her head as if to say ” Oh, aren’t you the funny one!”
The joke got her over her momentary embarrassment and she looked at Rav again. They weren’t kidding when they said Real Life people don’t measure up to avatar standards. Whoops! Shit! I hope he can’t read my mind! Well, he’s been around 44 years and I’ve been around for about 2 years. I should cut him some slack, she thought. As she looked at Rav she began to sense what he may be feeling. As she was mostly concentrating on physical sensations it occurred to her that Rav’s backside may be a little on the damp side. Umm, well, I think we should go inside, she mumbled internally. Picking up on her facial expressions Rav got off the ground, brushed the grass leaves off of his pants and then offered a hand to GoSpeed. Go took his hand, noticing how soft the inside of his palm was, yet calloused and rough on the edges. Izabella’s hands were much softer than Rav’s she recalled. Standing up she noticed something else was very different now. Her boobs moved, they moved! They’ve never moved before. Which considering some of the outfits she had worn was a good thing! She had to remind herself not to look down lest Rav notice and make a joke about it. Oh hell, he’s seen me naked a bazillion times. Wait, no, that won’t fly here in this place. It wasn’t as carefree here in the real world. She had better learn to refrain from certain impulses here.
“I have a crazy idea. Lets log onto SL and see what happens. I haven’t logged in since your arrival.”
Ooooh, now that would be weird, she thought. I can log in as myself, how ironic would that be? Or what if her avatar had been removed from the database? Can I exist in two places at once? Or am I a copy? This was getting to be downright mind boggling. Damn, lets just see what happens.
Rav walked ahead of Go and opened the front door failing to notice her suppressing a giggle as she noticed his wet backside……
. However I was surprised to get an offline IM that several objects were returned today, Thursday the 21st. One was returned with this message :
