The Sim Changes

Written 31 January, 2007

The Sim Changes

It was Friday night when I got the first indication that something was afoot.

One of my neighbors—Carlos is his name-- was having an open house, and his partner Mendez wasn’t there. No show, no call.

At my open house on Sunday, Carlos told me Mendez had a bad case of the flu.

I didn’t believe it for a minute.

Then, when I popped in world Monday evening, there was a message from Carlos.

“Don’t freak. I just needed the prims for the house I’m building for myself.”

I rushed over to look at Carlos’ property. Sure enough, his formerly lavishly furnished property was now mostly bare.

I flew up to 600 meters, where Carlos was working on his new house. He was friendly, but wasn’t revealing anything. I knew then for sure that there was trouble in paradise.

By Tuesday evening, everything on Carlos’ property was gone. His House. His trees. His pier. Even the giant humpback whale that lived in the bayou and which could be heard from Pele Gardens (formerly Pele South). Gone.

I IMed Carlos. “Are you hurting?”

Yes, he was hurting, although he of course didn’t come right out and say so.

We were soon hanging over the river, having a heart-to-heart. Yes, he and Mendez had split—and since Mendez owned most of the property, Carlos indeed found himself short of prims.

I hadn’t seen Mendez since the previous week. The Friends indicator had shown him to be offline, but I sent an IM anyway—and he responded. I guess he had set Busy. He was coming to his land to do some terraforming, and when he did, we had a chat. He and Xubi also had a talk. He said we made him feel better.

From talking to both guys, it sees to me the actual breakup stemmed from a minor event which led to a series of misunderstandings. Maybe there are serious underlying issues. I don’t know. I only know that I really like both guys and they’re a lot of fun and I’m heartbroken every time I see those 13,000 square meters of empty sand.

I wish them both well and I hope they both choose to stay in Forsaken.

:(