A friend read through my Gor Story in one sitting, quite a feat I thought given it’s length. When they finished their response was:
“Nicely done. But what are you doing now?”
Well to answer that I’ll have to talk about what happened in-between,since (at the time of writing, April 2019) it has been roughly 9 months since my final rp in SL Gor.
After leaving Gor I went back to Ava’s roots in SL, Bloodlines. Please those that roll your eyes and groan about bloodlines, do read on there’s a moral to this story.
I had been in a Bloodlines family called The Rainbow Princesses (name changed to protect the innocent and guilty alike) for a few years,but not particularly active in it. My SL time had mostly been taken up with my Gor rp. I decided it was time to take a more active role. So I started hanging out at the family sim regions a bit and being more active in the group chat. I’d been away for quite a while so there were lots of new people I didn’t know that I gradually got to know.
I had often not attended the weekly clan parties because of a schedule clash, but that had also changed so I started attending regularly. However these events had begun to become less frequent due to staff shortage and lack of attendance. I felt I wanted to help, so I enquired about hosing at one of the parties, for which I was accepted.
That was a great night,though I was a little nervous, I was alongside a great DJ (who is still a dear friend today) and it was a lot of fun. I only actually ever got to host one other set the whole time I was there. Any offers to host or organise extra events, bring in another DJ were met with a prompt “no”, as if the club manager actually wanted the place to fail.
At some point I heard of a promotion of a member of the group to the rank of Knight,which surprised me.
I knew this person was a new arrival to the clan,actually recalling their arrival. I thought “aren’t these higher ranks for long-standing family members”? It seemed not. So I decided that was what I wanted to achieve. I figured if they could do it,so could I. However I’d have to do it on real merits rather than friends,since I’d already managed to offend a well-liked member of the royalty more than once.
So I set myself the goal to become Knight by Christmas,New Year at the latest.
As well as hosting at the club I began to run regular help with certain Bloodlines Achievements. These are tasks you do using the game’s hud and vary considerably in difficulty. These were well attended to begin with, though I ended up having to space them out to suit people better. I also jointly did an Achievement challenge with one of the other family members. This is where things started to get trickier.
Shortly after that event the other person got promoted, I did not. I was not amused. This may sound childish to some, but not to others including my Leige at the time. They said my reaction was understandable,considering how hard I’d been working in the family. I was told the Council had actually voted to promote me at the same time as well.
When I eventually had my interview for the promotion to Knight which came after a considerably longer time than any apart the King & Queen felt reasonable, I mentioned this. They did take the view of it being childish,also claiming that they didn’t like to promote many people at the same time. In this case that would have been Two. While rummaging for notes to help me write this account I found a Group Notice announcement of Three people at once and reference to preferring to promote in groups,contrary to what I was told. So clearly despite words to the contrary, it’s definitely a popularity contest.
I’m not good at popular. I speak my mind too much for many people’s liking.
So on 13th November 2018 after my interview I was made Knight Prospect. Knight privileges but on a trial basis This could be a month or more, dependent on the whim of the King as I understood it. Mine did run into the “more” timeframe. However since then I’ve had people say that they’d never heard of interviews being held, or extended trial periods within that family.
Apparently things had been stacked against me from the start. The saying about grass being greener on the other side,definitely applies here.
The role of Knight is indeed a priveledge, the trust of all security related permissions covering multiple SL regions is not something to be taken lightly.
However the role can be dressed up and made to sound more prestigious, but you are basically a glorified greeter/security guard for the family land.
I had always felt proud to be in this particular family, but things often look better from a distance. Getting glimpses of the inner workings of things aren’t always a pretty sight.
I spent some months as Knight Prospect gradually becoming more disillusioned as time passed.
In the end it was a simple unnecessary comment that was the last straw and prompted my departure. I’d just had enough of the little comments and attitude from single person.
It hurt me greatly,but it was time to move on. So in February 2019 I used the bloodlines hud to create my own little “family” for a while and then briefly spent some time at a former leige’s clan before I joined the family of another ex-member of the Rainbow Princesses. Where I’m pleased to say I’m happy again.
So to answer the original question of what I’m doing now:
Now I am much happier member of the Twist of Fate family. Who are considerably more active in many ways.
Moral of the story for me: don’t pursue a goal for a goals sake.
For those readers that reacted “ugh,bloodlines”, maybe you can see that families/clans are just like any other social group in SL or elsewhere. They’re a mixture of fun, friendship and also unfortunately drama. We just have to find somewhere with the right balance for each of us.
Updated March 2021:
Twist of Fate was a lot of fun. I helped a lot of people there gain some tricky Achievements (Bloodlines merit badges) which I enjoyed for a while, because I like to help people. Then sadly (in my opinion) in March 2020 we merged with a much larger family. There were good (RL & SL) reasons for the merger, which I understand and accept. But to me it felt more like being swallowed up than merged.
Update December 2021
Twist of Fate is back on its own, out of the large family and back as a small group once again, which is great.
So some fresh faces to get to know since some others emigrated with us. Which means I’m back to doing my bit by running achievements again when people need my help.