17 December, 2011

you were there, you were small; there was screaming down the hall

[20:00] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: I have an emergency.......
[20:00] Txxxxx Wxxxxxxx: what sort?
[20:00] Exxxxx Zxxxxxxx: what would that be?
[20:00] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: my 16year old sl son is at the alter
[20:00] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: anyone do weddings as in minister like right now wedding starts at 8:30


So, several group members halted at that one, but thankfully, others were on the ball with comments:

[20:00] Zxxxxxx Ixxxxxx grabbs first aide kit
[20:00] Oxxx Axxxxx: 16 O_o
[20:01] Sxxxxxx Kxxxxx: Have your pets spade and neutered ...
[20:01] Emilly Orr: 1. Your minister ditched the wedding?
[20:01] Exxxxxxxxxx Sxx: sorry I do hanfasting but 16 is a little young and mine are real
[20:01] Lxxxxx Fxxxxxx: minister???...dont you mean you need a shrink?
[20:01] Emilly Orr: 2. He's getting married *at sixteen*??
[20:01] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: n our person never showed
[20:01] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: more like knocked the bride to be up
[20:01] Sxxxxxxxx Vxxxxxxx: Is this a shotgun wedding? ;)
[20:01] Emilly Orr blinks


Because yeah, at this point, I was trying to process the fact that, in SL, some sixteen-year-old was being forced to marry another virtual avatar because the other virtual avatar had become fake pregnant...I mean, yeah, RP, sure, but guys...

[20:01] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: I need a preist
[20:02] Mxxxxx Dxxxxxx: see what happens when some doofuse closes the teen grid ?


Yeah, really. Which again, not that I haven't run this point into the ground, but still remains the very bestest reason ever to not date on the grid.

[20:02] Oxxx Axxxxx: you need child protective services
[20:02] Txxx Axxxxx: you need parental consent lol
[20:02] lxxx Txxxx thinks someone needed a condom
[20:02] Mxxxx Dxxxxxx: I am minister but I require people to be of age
[20:02] Axxx Yxxxxxxx: 16 yrs old?


People kept coming back to that. Sixteen years old and getting married on the grid. The hell.

[20:02] Cxxxx Axxxxxx: can I assume the actual person playing your SL son is older than 16?
[20:02] Emilly Orr slowly and carefully steps away from the RP, nodding calmly.
[20:02] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: hehehe
[20:02] Yxxxx Nxxxx: In Vegas.
[20:03] Mxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: laughing my ass off
[20:03] Exxxxxxxxxx Sxx: and why are you asking this in TT group chat


And I'm surprised it took only three minutes to ask that question.

[20:03] Mxxxx Dxxxxxx: is someone here his parent?
[20:03] Lxxxxxxxx Sxxxxxxxxx: depends on the [state] there in and if it can be verified
[20:03] SxxxRxxxx Vxxxxxxx: If you have a gun..I can find a priest
[20:04] Cxxxx Axxxxxx: pretty sure this is a RP situation, and the person behind the 16yr old is actually older than 16. In which case, you need to be finding a RP priest, not an OOC one.
[20:04] Pxxxxxx Sxxxxxxx: or someone who can marry them


And the frantic seeking soul here is still not perceiving the difference between RL priests/ministerial sorts (which we, being a building group, had actually been talking about), and SL priests/ministerial sorts. I figured on being impaired somehow, intoxicated on something, because the other assumption was that he was just that dim, and...for a group devoted to learning new building techniques, and discussing texturing, for the most part, that just hurt to think about.

[20:04] Fxxxxxxxxx Ixxxxx: who knocked the bride up, the minister or the groom??[20:04] Exxxxxxxxxx Sxx: whoa is there a baby involved
[20:04] Mxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: omg now I am crying
[20:04] Axxx Yxxxxxxx: hate to say, but you can get in pretty bad trouble for that shit
[20:04] Axxxxxxxx Lxxxxxx: just jump over a broom
[20:04] Mxxxx Dxxxxxx: it still falls under the heading of contributing to the delinquency of a minor
[20:04] Mxxxx Dxxxxxx: i do have a broom
[20:05] Mxxxx Dxxxxxx: swat his hiney with it and tell him to go read a book
[20:06] Cxxxx Axxxxxx: and you reaaaalllyyy need to make that more clear when you ask for something, especially in a BUILDERS GROUP


Yeah, exactly. And again, so surprised it took six minutes to bring this up!

[20:06] Axxx Yxxxxxxx: and do his homework before bedtime
[20:06] Fxxxxxxxxx Ixxxxx: whatever happened to living in sin??
[20:06] Exxxxx Zxxxxxxx: ahh, the good old days!
[20:06] Mxxxx Dxxxxxx: some of us would rather live in grace
[20:06] Exxxxxxxxxx Sxx: sin can be very graceful


Or at least encourage flexibility, if nothing else.

Then the L$20,000 question arose:

[20:07] Sxxxx Hxxxxxxx: Well since its RP can't someone in the wedding party pretend like they are certified to do weddings? I mean really how do you become "official" in SL anyway?

It's a damned good question. Really, in SL, you're only who you say you are. But then, that goes right to the heart of pseudonymity, doesn't it? When does who we pretend to be cease to be a valid expression of who we really are? And who gets to decide that?

At any rate, this conversation, start to finish, in an RP group? I wouldn't have batted an eye. Even this conversation, start to finish, in Caledon would only have earned an arched eyebrow.

But this question in a store group devoted to textures and building...well. It was bizarre, to say the least.

And I'm still not sure the fellow in question actually got his pretend minister for his pretend son to marry his pretend knocked-up damsel...who may or may not be sixteen in real life.

Either of them, the son or the daughter-to-be. Just odd.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Catching up on my Aethernet reading... I've performed a few SL wedding ceremonies myself. In my case, I'm "official" insofar as I've rezzed a church and have run services in the past. Granted, not for the most conventional of deities, which I'm always careful to point out.

(At some point in the conversation when somebody's looking to hire me, I note that I have no actual Linden-given authority, and am essentially a glorified actress. Still, I already have a cassock, so that saves on costs...)

Emilly Orr said...

Well, yes. As far as it goes, I've been at several different styles of weddings in SL. I've been at ones which were complete roleplay events, start to finish. I've been at ones where the wedding was officiated by a real minister, but it was an SL wedding, and established as so. And I've been to one memorable one where the couple in question are doing their utmost, years after the event, to make it a real wedding on this side of the screen.

I hold all of those as valid, for what they are, but this wasn't clearly established. And again, in an RP group, that's one thing; or at least in a group where occasional RP happens, fine (like FallnAngels Designs' store group: the chat flows nearly imperceptibly between product discussion and roleplay, and back again).

But in a store group? Where the store sells textures? And there has never, previously--at least, in the three-plus years I've been in the group--been any roleplay discussions?

Yeah. It was kind of weird.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I agree with all of that! I was just jumping off the "how do you become 'official' in SL anyway?" point. (I probably should have been clearer about that...)

Emilly Orr said...

Oh, I did get the point, and actually, that's almost a whole other point. What makes you married? Paying the Lab ten bucks. Yes, but how do you get married? Any way you want to.

It goes more profound with very little thought--what makes you female? (Checking the Female box when you're making your first avatar.) What makes you able to perform weddings in SL? (Saying you do.)

I guess it all comes down to presentation, in a way.

hide away, they say, 'cos we don't want your broken parts

Yeah, so...remember that thing I was recovering from? You know, last year ? Yeah. I did it again. So this is Em Faw Down Go Boom part ...