Second Life - Week 3 "The Road Trip Begins"

DISCLAIMER: This is a true story. Conversations have been edited to be more reader friendly, but the content remains the same. All names and usernames have been changed to protect those involved.

I ended last week's entry with the idea that I was going to do a road trip of the weird in Second Life. This week, I have developed that idea a bit further. When I began this year, it was with the intention of learning more about narrative storytelling in virtual worlds, and to develop my own writing craft. Discovering Second Life, I hoped to learn a bit about roleplaying. This week, I have set this in action, and created a character for which I am roleplaying with.

His name? Daniel Craye.

Daniel Craye, for a bit of background is a horror novelist in the vein of Stephen King. He writes what he terms pulp-horror books for the masses, and has been somewhat successful at doing it. Until lately, where he has encountered some terrible writers blockage. On the suggestion of a friend, Daniel has entered Second Life, to find the weird, the scary, the bizarre and the uncanny. He wants to hear the "ghost stories" players of second life has to offer, in hopes that he will find something that will truly scare him again.

He began his journey in the dark and mysterious town of Woodbury Falls.

Figuring his best chance of hearing a stranger talk would be over a strong cup of coffee, Daniel headed straight for the local diner in hopes of a burger, a drink and scary story.

The "Greasy Diner." Inside, was dark and dank, but the coffee was hot and strong, enough to keep him occupied for the time being, Daniel thought. Shortly after he sat down, a young black woman walked into the restaurant. As she wandered around, Daniel watched her out of the corner of his eyes, eventually he piped up and asked,

"What brings you here?"

The young woman seemed taken aback at first but quickly replied,

"Hello Daniel." before explaining her purpose in this backwater township: "I like to explore creepy sims."

At this, Daniel assumed she meant simulations.

"Any stories of creepy things?" he asked, then clarifying his intentions, explained: "I'm a horror writer. Have a bit of a writer's block and am interested in people's stories."

The young woman, Mable, her profile name displayed as, sat down next to Daniel. She ordered a drink.

The two got to talking, Daniel told her a bit about himself, how his latest novel "Dog Breath" was fairly popular, but had left him all dried out. How his publishers were up his arse over the first draft of his next book. A book he hadn't yet written.

Then, the conversation took a dark turn.

"Anyway, enough about me. What about you? Why do you like to explore these kinds of places?" Daniel asked.

"I'm an explorer of the bizarre side of SL." Mable replied.

"What's the strangest place you've ever visited?" he asked.

Mable thought for a moment and then replied:

"Terror in SL is in the perverted." she explained, "Not the supernatural, but the men with dark fantasies."

"What kind of fantasies?" Daniel asked.

Mable sighed and took a sip of her coffee, "The kind they can not do in real life, so they come to SL to enact their dreams."

"Do you think SL is an outlet for their twisted desires?" Daniel asked,

"Yes it is." she replied without hesitation.

"Because behind the avatar, you can see a real human being looking for fun in dark things."

Daniel ordered a burger, and thought about this before asking:

"What dark things have you heard of? What do they do?"

"Things that would be a crime in real life."

"Like rape?" Daniel asked, remembering some of the fetish servers he had seen when he first logged into the world.

"I'm talking about killers, sadists, misogynists, rapists, torturers and pedophiles." Mable replied under her breath. When Daniel didn't reply, she reminded him: "I told you I'm an investigator of the dark; I see a lot of disturbing stuff."

"Are these people dangerous?" Daniel asked.

"When you see someone find pleasure in those kinds of fantasies you realize that they could be dangerous in real life." she paused, "You know the deep web?" she asked.

"The place where you can supposedly hire assassins, buy child sex slaves, that whole thing?" he asked.

"Well, Second Life is like a mini deep web. Nobody controls what happens here. This is a space for dark things."

As he stood in front of a burning vehicle moments later, pondering his conversation with Mable, Daniel wondered what was out there in this virtual world. Mable had talked of dark spaces, of men with twisted fantasies. It all seemed rather unbelievable to him, but he had made himself a promise upon entering this virtual world. He would follow the trail of horror wherever it lead him, even down the Rabbit hole if need be. He knew what he had to do. He needed to find these dark places and see them for himself. He needed to know what exact kind of horrors the world of Second Life was capable of holding...