TO KILL AN AVATAR by Kelsey MertelBased on image number two
They numbered ten – five women and five men – and that included Virgil Mertel, the leader of the Real-atars. Eventually they would be caught – the snapshot bulb momentarily blinding their eyes – yet through it all, until the very last moment, they defended their case for killing avatars.
Virgil pleaded the most vociferously. It was Virgil, after all, who had started the ministry of Real-atars. For some time they had gathered in what Virgil called a 'real' place (Virgil's basement), which was located in a 'real' city (Tulsa), to discuss 'real' things (the 'unreality' of Second Life was a favorite topic). It was in the opinion of the Real-atars that all forms of human expression should be kept inside the ‘real’ world; all other environments were false and dangerous. Second Life in particular was a “game designed and promoted by evil no-gooders hell-bent on ruining the real world and its good old fashioned family values,” said Virgil Mertel. “Those avatars – the way they fly around (fly!), talking to God-knows-who (God-knows-who – probably a terrorist, that’s who!) – the entire lot of them are a threat to our security. To our freedom!” he added. “My God, they must be stopped!” he shouted.
It was in this frame of mind that the Real-atars decided to kill all the avatars. What they didn’t realize, of course, is that killing an avatar is not as easy as killing a human being. One cannot take a hammer and simply bash the skull of an avatar, after all. It must be done in accordance with the natural laws of the avatar’s environment. But the Real-ators were so accustomed to the real world, and the ways in which real people kill other real people in the real world, that they had no idea how to kill inworld.
The avatars took pity on them. Since the Real-atars wanted to kill avatars so badly, yet they had no idea how to actually kill them, the avatars decided to recreate the act of killing, from start to finish, in Second Life. To begin with, the avatars gave the Real-atars weapons (guns and knives and hammers), then they built appropriate killing grounds (dark alleyways and deserts), and finally they devised a variety of gestures to make it look like the avatar who was being attacked by a Real-atar was actually being attacked and eventually killed.
Of course, just as in the real world, the avatars created a police force to hunt down the Real-atars. It didn’t take long for them to be caught and booked (flash! went the flashbulb), then tried in court (“we did it for the real people!” testified Vergil), after which they were convicted and finally imprisoned. And there they sat, Virgil Mertel and his gang of Real-atars, feeling quite smug that they’d killed so many avatars – that is until one of the avatars that they had supposedly killed walked past their jail cell.
Kill an avatar? Perhaps. Kill the imagination behind it? Never!