Whimsy, Beautiful and Dangerous

A smoking hot lava boulder hurtles toward an unsuspecting Cheyenne!

Moment of impact!

Sweetie is eaten by piranha

Sweetie and Chey die in the lava

As Chey watches in in mock horror, Sweetie is knocked from the platform
by one of Whimsy's aggressive hummingbirds

Written 27 July, 2009

Whimsy, Beautiful and Dangerous

Yesterday, while working in the gardens below Pele with Sweetie, I very nearly became a casualty to the volcano goddess.

To my credit, I heard and saw the big smoking hot lava boulder coming and stepped aside, and it hissed past me and bounced into the lagoon.

But I wasn’t anticipating the flaming glowing tiki man that passed within inches of Sweetie a second or so later and smacked into me. Ouchie!

Whimsy is a most beautiful place, but it’s not without its hazards, which is why I changed the name of the land to Whimsy, Beautiful and Dangerous.

Sweetie liked that. Especially the dangerous part.

Whimsy has great beauty—lush vegetation, soaring birds, waterfalls and cascades, mountainous terrain, water effects.

But Whimsy has great risks, too. The danger from the volcano Pele is obvious— hurtling, smoking, hot lava boulders which can squish your avatar, volcanic eruptions with their noxious fumes, and even a pyroclastic flow (which is triggered by the yodel poseballs in the gardens below the volcano, for god’s sake, don’t sit on them!). But there are other volcanic dangers, too— notably, hot beds of underwater lava and an underwater cave.

And then there’s the wildlife. There are aggressive hummingbirds that can nudge you over a cliff; underwater, there are sharks, squids, octopi, and sea urchins that can spear you with their sharp points. And there’s always the piranha.

Even our great train ride ends in a spectacular wreck. And let’s not talk about the robot sanatorium on Whimsy Kaboom, shall we?

We don’t enable damage on the land, so you won’t actually be killed and sent home; you’ll just get bumped bitten, inked, or squashed.

It’s all about the PERCEPTION of danger, you see.