... That's about when they decided to meet each other in person, and at this point, it's worth mentioning that Eddie Escher lives in England-- and Fallingwater Cellardoor lives on the East Coast. So Eddie's first flight out to Fallingwater was no small expense. And no small risk, if things didn't work as well in first life, as they did in-world.
"You want to know my bestest, favoritest happy memory from my life so far?" Eddie asks me later. "It was our first kiss, meeting for the first time in [the airport.] Seriously. Everything around us just melted away, man, for both of us. I have no idea how long we were standing there like that."
And read on update on their story here.
Two more after the break!
Their first date lasted all Labor Day weekend-- pausing only momentarily, so Snow could meet Phil Murdock’s mother. (“Anyone who’d take you to meet his mother is cool in my book,” she notes.)
It’s not often that two people who've spent so much time creating simulations of passion get a chance to engage in the thing itself, together. So later on, I ask Snow Hare about the impact of their avatar lovemaking on what eventually became a real relationship.
“It wasn’t the only reason that we decided to move onto real life,” she tells me. “As everybody knows, there’s more to a relationship than sex. But I would say yes, it did have an impact, positive, in such a way that I knew what to expect… before real life, I knew what he liked and enjoyed, and vice versa. Since we were honest with each other and were very compatible, it was easy to know what to expect in real life.”
His widow re-created him as best she could-- rather, Eshi Otawara remade herself, transforming her avatar to look like her husband. And when she was done remaking him, she took Glenn on a tour through Second Life.
She took him skydiving in Straylight. She took him to Ruta Maya for a butterfly ride. “I get to do things with his pixel body that he'd be doing if he were alive,” as she puts it. She even gave him a flat belly, something she’d known he’d wanted for some time. “I am sure he was cracking up in whatever form he exists now,” she says.
I ask Eshi what it’s like to become the avatar version of Glenn.
“Like he is hugging me,” she says. “I miss his face most. I used to stare at him all the time.”
Happy Valentine's Day in the digital and/or material realm!
Tragic to hear of Eddie Escher's early passing. I hope Fallingwater is doing well. I remember seeing their relationship featured on 'Visions of the Future' with Michio Kaku waaaay back in the early 2010's. It was my first introduction to Second Life, and blew me away how people made real world money in VR.
Posted by: Souporcereal | Monday, February 19, 2024 at 04:53 PM