Dave's New Home

by Dave

Photos by Stormy Seas (except as noted)

By this time I’d been hanging out at Otium for three months or so.  Sailing around the islands, I saw the new beach huts that went up on the other side of the hill.  Later I found rocks blocking the way past them - I figured they wanted to offer a little more privacy to the residents, though even this measure didn't seem to make them as private as the homes of my friends who lived on other sims.

But the rustic, weathered style of the cottages and the private beach were compelling factors, and it seemed like a good time to think of getting a place of my own.  What better place than the beach huts at Otium, my favorite spot in SL?

The dwellings had all stood empty during my earlier visits, but when I started looking them over, all but one were taken!  This accelerated my investigation.  I soon learned that the last available beach hut was on the end, which meant I could sail right up to my own beach.

“. . . I can sail right off here - cool!”

I found the next-door neighbor at home.  Her profile said she was a social person, so I decided to go pay her a visit.  The visit cemented my resolve to live in the beach huts - Chalista turned out to be about the nicest person I’d met in SL, and a very charming young lady as well.

Photo by Chalista

Soo . . . next thing you know I was paying up and moving in.  Franz, the landlord, was really a cool dude, he zipped out there in no time and set it up for me - perched up on the roof, made a few magical gestures, and installed the security system around the place.  His partner Danae, who came out and helped him, told me to let her know if I needed anything.   In just a few minutes they had it all ready for me.

“ . . . wonder how he does that?”

After they left I went inside my new beach hut, sat in one of those rustic chairs, and just looked around.  For the first time since I signed up at SL, I really felt like a Resident!

Now, I’m a pretty easygoing guy, and do my best to avoid any sort of trouble.  The problem is, trouble generally seems to find me.  The landlord left the security module stashed up in the ceiling of the hut.  I had watched him set up the perimeter, and wondered if it covered my beach.  Just to check, I opened the controls . . .

The menu said not to worry about setting the perimeter too wide, as security borders could not be set beyond the parcel.  At this point I probably should have checked on the meaning of the word ‘parcel’.  I did not.  I just clicked the button, thinking how nice it would be to have a private place to work on my avatar and learn more about building.

Onscreen I saw a couple of AV’s being ejected from the ‘parcel’.  This worried me a little, but nothing like what followed.  A steady stream of names started going by on my screen, faster than I could read them - as if dozens of people were being ejected.  At this point I knew I was in trouble, I just didn't know how much - not until Franz, my friendly, helpful landlord, showed up at the door of my hut and announced:

“You banned all the people from the sim.”

Well, he somehow managed to fix the problem - even told me not to worry about it.  Still, I figured there might be a few individuals out there who, relaxing on the beach or at the club or maybe talking to friends, would take exception to being dumped en masse at some teleportation hub.  I opened the group communication site and drafted an apology, for what it was worth.  I even asked everyone to excuse the inconvenience . . . yeah, right!

I went back into the hut and sat down, mulling over my misdeeds.  Franz came by and told me he had the problem fixed.  He said these things just happen, and everything was okay now.

He also took the security orb and hid it.

Later on I found it.  He doesn't know that yet. ☺