A New, 130-year-old, Second Home

Today I rented a two-story stone home in 1888 Victorian London.  One of my girls (I don’t use names here) found this fascinating RP sim for us to try, and the environment and activity that seem to be going on are interesting and intriguing.

I always hesitate to start something new; will this just stretch me even farther; cause me to decline into doing too many things, and none of them well?  At this point my primary activities take place at my home (the hub of the House of Trina) and at the ponyplay sim Frilly Filly Farm.  I am now a Senior Trainer there, as well as (through my alt av) a Thoroughbred Pony.  I enjoy FFF very much, and wish to do what I can to help it to be continuously successful.

My hope for the 1888 sim is fourfold.  First, that (as a recognized pony trainer) I can provide a historical experience to ponies from FFF and other farms and ranches.  The second is that I can provide a bit of my own energy and style to 1888.  Third, that this may be a new and interesting place for my own Group members to come and join me, becoming a place (as is FFF) that draws them to me, rather than pulls me away from them.  Finally, of course, I hope that the experience will be fun and rewarding for Me in my role as a Duchess of 1888 London.

Time (and we’ve got 130 years of it before we reach Now) will tell.

When a real person dies in a virtual world

I met Morgane about two years ago, in a club in Second Life.  She was a dancer, I was a lone visitor.  We spoke, we IM’d, we connected.  We became very close friends.

A few months later, Morgane told me she was diagnosed with cancer.  She had good medical care; she would get all the treatments; she would fight it and win.

Still the most intense time I’ve ever had in SL was when I came to her one day in my mermaid form.  I pulled her close to me, and I told her to visualize herself focusing all of her energy on the cancer cells within her; surrounding them, and then pushing them out of her body and into mine.  A mermaid is immortal (as everyone knows), and we both imagined the cells being destroyed within my body.  We did this for over an hour, until we were both exhausted.  The next time I saw her, she told me how much better she felt afterwards.  She said, in fact, that I had saved her life.

Perhaps I did help add some time to her life.  I like to think so.

She was getting better after that.  But then she disappeared for several months.  None of her friends knew where she had gone, and we feared the worst.  But then she made a contact; she’d gone to the country to recuperate, far from Internet access, but she was back.

I lost touch with Morgane for a while; we just kept missing each other.  And then, back in fall 2009, I discovered she was managing a club called Amouresque.  My alt KaTrina was looking for a place to work, and Amouresque was beautiful and welcoming.  It was wonderful seeing Morgane again, even for very brief moments, as our schedules still didn’t match.

And then, shortly after, she disappeared again, without a trace.  Once again, we feared the worst, and this time our fears were founded.  Amouresque’s owner contacted the employees and let us know that Morgane had lost her battle with the disease, and was gone from us.

What do you do, when someone whom you knew only through their avatar, dies in the real world? There is nobody to wrap your real arms around; you do not know the family; you can not visit their home or place a flower on their grave.  And yet the pain is every bit as real as if losing someone you have walked with on a beach, or had dinner with, or laughed with.  Because we did all of those things, even though only on a screen.

(If you are reading this, but have never been involved in a virtual world like SL, this may all sound completely strange or insane to you.  But please believe me, I’m not alone in becoming so close with these virtual friends who, after all, have real human beings behind them.)

Trying to get some closure

I was aware of the American Cancer Society’s work in Second Life, and that their Relay for Life fundraising project for this year is underway.  I went to the ACS building; there were staff members there who directed me to a donation kiosk.  Giving something to the kiosk in her memory was cleansing; it felt good.  And I talked with the staff for just a moment; letting them know this was being done for a friend.

And then one of the staff flew me to a beautiful place; their Memorial Garden, where anyone can place a photo of a departed loved one, and then buy a candle or flower to place there.  She gave me a candle; I set it on what would be her space, and it warmed me.

Memorial to Morgane Kirax at the American Cancer Society garden in Second Life.

KaTrina then send the word to the Amouresque employees and owners who had been her closest friends.  When I returned a few days later, her memorial was lit with the glow from many candles and adorned with a photograph of her in real life; a vision I had never seen.

Now it is a few days later, and the pain is less severe, although still very deep.  But I am heartened knowing that Morgane lives on, through all the people whose lives she touched, all the love she gave, all the beautiful things she did.

Should you, reading this, be someone who knew the real world Morgane, please give yourself and others around you a hug that comes from me.  I have no arms to do that myself, only a screen, and my words, and my tears.

With love,
Trina

SLURLS TO HER MEMORIALS:

At the American Cancer Society Garden:  http://slurl.com/secondlife/American%20Cancer%20Society/84/224/25

At the Remember Our Friends island:  http://slurl.com/secondlife/ROF%20Coalition%20Island/45/204/25

“The Little Mermaid” at the Ballet

MerTrina writes:

I’ve never wanted someone to grow a tail so badly in my life.

I am just back from an afternoon leaving my tail behind to experience “The Little Mermaid” at the San Francisco Ballet in RL.  For someone who spends some of her life as a mermaid, I was expecting something powerful from this, my first-ever viewing of live professional ballet.

I was awestruck from the moment the curtain went up.  Things were happening in me on so many levels I don’t even know how to write them here, but I’m going to try.

As theater, the settings, lighting, costuming; even the theater itself–the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco–are all breathtaking.  The company created an underwater scene using undulating–I have to call them “glowing ropes of white light–above, with everything bathed in blue.  Most of the mermaids (who, of course, are cursed with having legs) were created with long, flowing skirts, flying out from their bodies as they whirled around.

But a few, including the Little Mermaid, wore flowing pants that were actually longer than their legs and billowed out from their bodies, so that the dancer could be lifted from the floor to swim horizontally, as an “invisible” dancer in black spread their tailfin behind her.

Let me pause a moment to explain that this is NOT the Disney “Little Mermaid.”  The ballet deals with the very mature themes of intense love, transformation and rejection.  It was intensely painful at times for me as a mermaid, but I’m sure for most of the humans in the audience as well.

When you don’t really get ballet, it is a big help to know the story in advance.  The Poet (who would represent Hans Christian Andersen) is the main character in the ballet.  He loses his closest friend to a marriage and the loss hurts him deeply.  He then creates this imaginary world in which perhaps he can keep together the people he loves.  His friend becomes the “handsome prince,” his new wife also becomes his bride in the ballet (NOT what he’d fantasized!), and the Little Mermaid–well, she’s really the Poet himself, projected into his own story to win back the love of his friend.

Oh, when he awakened on the beach after being saved from drowning by the Little Mermaid, WHY did he have to see that human girl first?  He thought she saved his life and fell in love with her instead!

As a mermaid viewing this, I could not believe the pain I felt when, in order to leave the ocean and try to win the Prince, she convinced the Sea Witch to replace her long, blue tail with two spindly legs.  Cast up on the beach, she could barely walk; and her stumbling around caused the Prince to find her amusing, but completely unattractive.  Why did she have to become human? The Ocean offers so much more…

I tried to think about how I could write this for a mer audience.  Imagine going to see a ballet entitled “The Little Human.”  There are 1,000 of us, gathered in an ocean amphitheater.  The story involves a human girl who meets a handsome merman on a beach and falls in love with him, although he sees her only as a pretty novelty (and he doesn’t really believe humans exist anyway).  She pines away for him, and convinces a magician to replace her legs with a tail so she can become a mermaid and win his love.

But when she swims, she crashes into rocks, stirs up the sand, and slaps other mers with her tail when she tries to dance with them.  Her merman plays with her anyway; she is a nice enough mermaid, but just a plaything compared to the beautiful siren that is his love.  Think of yourself, dear Mermaid, as you watch him be wedded to her rival, having given up the most valuable thing you could possibly have (in this case, her legs), and have no choice but to live her life now among us, in our beautiful ocean, but never truly able to know the joy of who we are.

So many levels, this ballet, and this story.  I wish I could say it ends happily; the incredibly beautiful closing scene with just the Poet and the Little Mermaid can be interpreted many different ways, and I will leave you to come up with your own.

This is the first production in the United States, and I’m sure The Little Mermaid willl be around for a very long time.   This mermaid can highly recommend it as a “first ballet” for any adult; long-time ballet lovers were raving about the show as we came down the long stairs from the balcony.

And I am so happy to be immersed again, with my own long, blue tail curving smoothly out beneath me as I write this.  It will never be far from me.

..and again! For good, this time

I am SO BEHIND!  Our house moved again since that last post.  But this time, we’re on land that I own.  We are on a beautiful water sim with a Polynesian-style house built on piers over the water.  A skybox dungeon floats several hundred meters above.  Although I no longer have the wide-open spaces for my girls to wander in, we do look out on miles of Linden-owned ocean.

As I write this, we have grown to more than 80 members, in spite of having purged the list of some who have not logged on for months.  We seem to be big enough that young residents find us on their own, without me going out recruiting.  And it is especially gratifying when one of the girls, perhaps absent for a long time, returns to us, finding that she was missing something in her life that House of Trina provides.

A major event at the House this week, as two of my girls, who met here a long time ago, were married (Mistress officiating) in a lovely ceremony on our beach.  Being able to bring people together is such a big part of why the House exists, and this was a culmination of all that.

Our House Moves Again

Moved from Website October 2009

Posted by Trina Varriale on Thursday, July 23, 2009

After seven months at Emerald Springs, House of Trina had to move once again.  This time it was the state of the (real) world economy, forcing our landlady/benefactor Misser Sweetwater to terminate her lease on the land.

I’ve done this enough now that I don’t panic.  I put the word out and found several options for us.  Each one I found would have required the House members to help pay for the space, either with L$ or their labor. That would not have necessarily been a bad thing; it would have shown the level of commitment of our members in a new way.

But then, one of my women came through for us.  (I try not to use names here, BTW, since this blog is open to the public.)  She had just added a large parcel to her own land, and had lots of prims she could give us for a sky platform.  This was my dream, once again fulfilled as it has been twice before.

Yesterday, 21 July 2009, we had a small gathering at Emerald Springs to say goodbye to our home and to thank Misser for her kindness all this time.  It was very emotional for me; I cried a lot of real tears yesterday. Afterwards, I removed all the furniture and de-rezzed the house.

Every end is a new beginning, and that beginning was today, as I started moving in our furniture and equipment.  It’s hard work for someone as minimally-competent at interior decorating as I am, but it’s fun too.  I definitely have to buy some new furniture!!  We need a living room set badly.

So, as I write this on that afternoon, our new home is now in the Ambiance Peaks region, and we feel welcome and blessed once again.

More on Collaring

Moved from Website October 2009

Posted by Trina Varriale on Saturday, March 14, 2009

Slaves come and go, it seems, and the meaning of “collaring” definitely varies among slaves, and among mistresses.

Since that last post just a couple of weeks ago, I added a slave, had two of them leave me (still as close friends, but for new owners), and then add one more.  My inworld time has been cut back lately, and they want and need more attention than I’ve been able to provide, and I’m sad about that.

But it also shows the value of House of Trina–the girls come, they explore, they meet other women of all types, likes and backgrounds.  And sometimes, that’s going to mean that they discover something new, or someplace new, where they would rather be.  House of Trina is not about Me; it’s really about Them.  I think about that, and am pleased and happy again.

Collaring Ceremonies

(Moved from Website October 2009)

Posted by Trina Varriale on Saturday, February 28, 2009

The formal collaring of a Slave is very important in the world of Domme/Sub play and relationships.  The Collar is a symbol of ownership, but really reflects an incredible level of love and trust between Mistress and Slave.

As of today, I have collared three Slaves, as well as my House Slave who assists me in managing the house and its members (sort of like a HR Director).  Others are waiting, either just for us to be online together, or until the Slave and I both know she is truly ready for the commitment.

I know that other Mistresses will Collar a slave at the drop of a hat.  But I take it more seriously than that, and it takes quite a while knowing a girl before I will offer this formal ceremony.

It is another whole level of what we’re doing at House of Trina.

New things every day…

(Moved from Website October 2009)

Posted by Trina Varriale on Friday, January 9, 2009

Today I met my first Drone.

I’ve known an Av named Delta for quite a long time. She’s a serious submissive in RL; knows what she’s doing.

So, I was over at the Lesbian Palace in the XXX Region.  Saw her name on my radar, and went excitedly over to see her!

Only, she’s WAY different now.  She looks, moves and acts like an android (or, in the parlance of the company that transformed her, a Drone).  Her skin is plastic, she.talks.like.this.as.a.machine.would, and she is totally controlled by her owner, who is the Company owner and her creator.  She is programmed to obey every wish of her Owner.

Delta (or as she is called now, “Deltabot” or simply addressed as “Drone”) is recruiting; looking for Avs who want to be transformed into Drones, and also for Masters/Mistresses who might want to transform a slave or two, or to possibly buy an already-transformed Drone.

Just another fascinating way that SL extends the imagination, especially in the world of dominance and submission.

Introduction

(Moved from Website October 2009)

Posted by Trina Varriale on Thursday, December 11, 2008

I’ve never really known what to put into a blog post, when I’ve got the entire rest of the site in which to write whatever I want.  But I guess the Blog environment allows for a more stream-of-consciousness kind of writing.  (If you’re reading this, you’re not expecting anything earth-shattering, right?)

So at this, the beginning of my second year in Second Life, I’ll try to post the interesting things that happen to me, or thoughts that come to mind and that I want to capture.

I would love to hear your thoughts, too!  IM me inside Second Life and I promise I’ll respond.

(Not in SL?  You can Email me.  To figure out my Email address, just take my first and last name and smash them together likethis , then add at yahoo.com.  I hope that bit of screwing around keeps the spam out.)

More on Collaring

(Moved from the Website October 2009)

Posted by Trina Varriale on Saturday, March 14, 2009

Slaves come and go, it seems, and the meaning of “collaring” definitely varies among slaves, and among mistresses.

Since that last post just a couple of weeks ago, I added a slave, had two of them leave me (still as close friends, but for new owners), and then add one more.  My inworld time has been cut back lately, and they want and need more attention than I’ve been able to provide, and I’m sad about that.

But it also shows the value of House of Trina–the girls come, they explore, they meet other women of all types, likes and backgrounds.  And sometimes, that’s going to mean that they discover something new, or someplace new, where they would rather be.  House of Trina is not about Me; it’s really about Them.  I think about that, and am pleased and happy again.