could we fix you if you broke?

[14:40] Taymi shivers and whimpers, as its clit is nibbled softly...

For a moment, even being a sex-positive sort, I was extremely irked at seeing this message in open chat. My sim had apparently glitched, or the server halted, and I'd been shunted off to a welcome hub, which is always disorienting and guaranteed to make me more than wee bit cranky in the process.

[14:40] Taymi writhes, its belly muscles clenching, as its clit is suckled rhythmically

Then I looked up. The region I was in said Araipaima - Safe Hub (Adult). Ah, the natural default "safe zone" hub whenever Caledonian sims are having trouble on the grid.

[14:40] Taymi gasps as loving fingers slide smoothly into its pussy
[14:41] Emilly Orr sighs. Wonderful. So the grid's having problems again?
[14:41] Taymi shudders with desire as its clit is captured between teeth and tongue...

I ported off as soon as possible, and logged out and back in for a system refresh before getting to work. But seriously, now, in all the months this has been happening, I still have two major questions:

1. When, in any rating of sim, is this ever considered not deeply tacky, at the least, if not offensive? And--

2. Who was the idiot who decided an Adult rated sim was the perfect place to shift the neo-Victorians?!?

Because that? That right there is a design flaw, people, and it's been a design flaw since Zindra went up. And believe me, I would adore knowing who the bonehead in question was, because that should be going on his or her permanent file at the company.

I can't conceive of the thinking that even goes into that process. Is the Adult continent simply that near Caledon? Not that I can tell. Did someone think it would just be funny, to send the bustles-and-boots set to anything-goes Zindra? No real clue.

Really, the only thing I do know is that the Arapaima hub seems even more afflicted with stupid than every other hub on the grid. The welcome hub system needs to be seriously revised, damn it, and long before now.

Miss Taymi Criadic is a Brazilian lass, by the way. I hate to sound biased, though I very clearly am, but really, does that surprise anyone? She was also born January 10th.

Of this year, yes.

In idle perusing to see if anything had hit the blogs yet on Dame Ordinal, I came across Architect of the Diamond Age; I highly recommend the interview to all and sundry.

Her blog, by the way, is back. The outpouring of contact, or her own desires, brought the final decision to leave back into the realm of maybe; she is keeping her land (though nothing will be there), and she is staying on the grid (though likely seen on a terrifyingly rare basis). It doesn't make the base issues which drove her away any easier to apprehend, however.

This world is not for me, she says on her latest entry, and increasingly, I think that's how many of us feel. But for us, it's also paired with there's nowhere else to go, which keeps many of us here, as well as it USED to be for me, and that is the one that burns, children. The world we embraced, flaws and virtues alike, and eagerly told our friends and families about; the world we happily walked in, learned in, embraced, danced in, loved in, built in...increasingly, and, it seems, in large part by design, is pulling away from us.

We are still here. We still want to walk the world. The world is trying to put away.

And it's not just one thing that we can point to, it's everything, really. Dame Ordinal says she doesn't blame the Lindens; I cannot be that fair. If the world they've built has soured, since the new management took over, I must level the finger of blame at the new management. It may not be that they, directly, are trying to drive away all their residents by deliberate intent; but something is going on, and it's going on in deep enough, permanent enough ways to drive long-term and short-term residents alike far, far from the grid.

When do the Lindens wake up and see this? They haven't for all of last year; I've lost all hope they ever will, frankly.

In the meantime, [42] is closing. Miss Imandra Wycliffe may or may not be starting another business; I truly have no idea. What I do know is that, until the store closes, all of her skins--which are yes, all female, but which also yes, come in shades of flesh far from the norm (and by that, I mean all skin tones, but also green, purple, blue, yellow, and a host of other interesting shades) are going for L$42 each. (In some cases, you can buy fatpacks of skins or clothing for L$42 for the job lot.)

She also has a line of Replicant skins. Which are also L$42 each during the closing sale. This amuses me greatly.