Ruby woke up one morning seasick and exhausted. On a whim and a wing she decided to descend into the cavern after spending the better portion of the last two years on the road travelling. A little teaching here, a little elixir sales there, making only enough to feed and clothe her against the harsh subtropical winds of North Florida. :suspect:
The seasickness finally subsided. A long nap and a roast beef dinner at Cracker Barrel took care of it, but she felt a quagmire coming over her. Does an explorer whose seen her better days go back down with new transportation. This time the shuttle isn’t a shard. It’s a sim, and she remembers the sim from a time past. Ruby booked a sim in the spring of 2004 after the first live restoration came to full stop. The sim experience was a bumpy, and nearly X rated ride she never wanted to take again. Ruby has a full blown sense of humor, but she’s also a wee stuffy and prudish when it comes to cultural morays and the wearing of clothes. She likes clothes, and lots of them.
Nestled between a nightclub lingerie dealer and a pole dancer did not agree with her. She bought a car, got sick and got out. There is not much more to say about it. Her foray was over, before she got started.
This time was different. There were new ticket exchange offices built along the sim. Ruby could enter the transportation system to get to Eder D’Uru through one of them. She chose the super commercial, but very successful PG (nearly G) rated Faery portal to enter. After being born as a Fae, she took the next TP Shuttle over to Eder D’Uru. Not a single griefer got in her way. The entire trip went without a hitch. Her only problem was flying. It is a common way to get around inside the sim, and Ruby can’t take the heights or the passing terrain. Neither can she look out of an Amtrak window dining car window to the side. The last time she tried, she threw up on her husband’s tweed jacket.
To avoid flying (a try at flying resulted in her episode of seasickness) Ruby walks everywhere or she transports herself through the TP shuttle system. It works. The miles per hour resolution, if set at 1024 X 718 does not bother her to see rush by. The stronger the view the better, and she keeps her eyes on the path in front of her.
Ruby’s ground transportation is a triple core beam me up scotty. Regardless of bandwidth consumption (otherwise known as sim gas), Ruby only goes where she can get a good view. During parties and well attended events, she may resort to a 4 cylinder rider only for the duration of the event. After all she is standing still at that point (unless she is actively engaged in dancing and listening to the wonderful music played by some very professional DJ’s). Her mind can’t fuss about 2 issues at once.
At this time Ruby’s other quagmire, purpose is not so easily determined. She knows she will tell story. It is her life ambition to live out her grandfather’s legacy, and she can do that by telling an old story with new vigor, but she also wants to tell a new story that is only bubbling up from beneath cavern surface now. Most likely there will be conflict of the funny kind now and then. She expects Madge will show up for an adventure or 35. Old friends are certainly going to make the difference. Picking up an explorer shirt in the cavern reminded Ruby of how important it is to belong to a tribe of like minded and kindred spirits. She doesn’t expect to meet a stripper or day bond trader among them.
Out of 12 or 14 Myst like communities along the Sim route, there is bound to be place for Ruby to find old friends and make new ones. Eder D’Uru has that special texture that suits her in particular. Not that other communities aren’t also extending the story. Every one of them does in their own way, but Ruby believes The Voice is never easily replicated. Better to find a new vision for an original concept, than to try to piece by piece lay bricks for an exact copy. Exact copies aren’t possible to do with different technologies and designers at the helm. Ruby, herself is an evolution. She started out as an explorer and fine artist/oil painter museum curator, who came to Myst Island on her own, and only on weekends. At 16 years of age, she lived through virtual life time of antics and mysteries, not all created by game players. Not a moment would she change, but finding the humor in all of it transformed the character of Ruby into someone else. She is no nicer, certainly no wiser, and she is still inept and clumsy. Her wacky assumptions about secret guilds, diverted water, and Riven being withing walking distance of the volcano’s entrance do not help her causes. Ruby has been chastised, fired, rehired, burned, cast out, and not trusted, and all of it brought on by her lonesome.
On the other hand, she is loyal, harmless and ready always to laugh at herself, pratfalls and all. She managed to finagle some over the top gifts, attend a Mysterium in Spokane with friends she will never forget ever, and make more life time friends along the way. Her friendship with Ghaelen is one her of her most precious finds in the cavern. Ghaelen is one of those more than patient explorers that can put up with Ruby. It is Ruby’s blessing and good fortune that Ghaelen listened one night to a play that Ruby adapted.
And for years Tyion, Veralun and LC have also put up with Ruby’s sometimes lack of focus and her decisions to make unwise choices. These alliances are important to Ruby and will be part of the story herein.
In part Ruby believes that many of her issues arise out of her belief that Facebook, My Space and all the other social connection sites have their place, but OOC is not interesting or safe to her. Story and the “sweet rocking safety of a lie” is the line of demarcation between Ruby and her benefactor’s world. Ruby always tells the truth from her perspective. Her benefactor does too. In the in between thin spot (a Celtic place of prayer) lessons are learned for life. Then the benefactor takes the lessons back to the classroom and spreads those life lessons out. Divvying up code is much less arduous than dividing up fishes and loaves (divvying code requires no divinity).
A 95% Ruby O’Degee (Glenfadden) is the only way Ruby will come to the cavern, or any other world wide stage. If 95% of her benefactor’s presence is not good enough for prime time so be it. The remaining private 5% will never be told through the footsteps of Ruby. [Dear reader, this is MY gnarly disclaimer]. As Madge (an original phone bot transformed through Merle’s ingenuity and wit to an avie missing some parts) would say “Don’t be telling your kids to leave themselves open online. It is no place to wash the family’s undergarments or your own.”
What Ruby will do is confess in her own loose cannon style the back story, present and front story of her trials and tribulations, her birth into a cavern, and her attempt to reshape her future until the next best and real thing comes along (Thank you Rod Stewart for reviving that wondrous classic).
Be on the look out for trembling crust.
