ThePrincess and MT tie the knot

On the evening of Friday December 28th I was roaming aimlessly through the streets of Colonia Nova, deep in IM discussion with Jon Seattle about theories of learning. I was suddenly contacted by ThePrincess Parisi, who urged me to join MT Lundquist in a pub. I found this a bit odd, since ThePrincess was obviously somewhere other than at said pub, but I told her I was interested. I mentioned this to Jon, who was game to go along, and ThePrincess replied that MT would send us both invitations to teleport. I stood waiting for a while on the main square of Colonia Nova, and when I received the TP invitation I clicked my way to the pub.

I found MT Lundquist sitting at the bar, surrounded by a few CDS residents that I knew - Brian Livingston, Sleazy Writer and Alexicon Kurka - and a couple of SL residents who were new to me - JT Vale and Tyrant Labber. Behind the bar was the pub owner Ham Rambler, and helping him was one Rosa Petlyakov. After saying hello to everyone, I took a seat on a barstool, and listened to the conversation. I heard it said that this was MT's last night as a bachelor, and I suddenly remembered the marriage. A week before ThePrincess had invited me to their wedding, and now MT was having his bout of drinks with the boys!

I wondered why Jon was taking so long to show up. Someone said they'd just seen him fly by the window, and he was soon seated next to me, swivelling back and forth on his stool. I asked him how he did that, and he told me to use the arrow keys. I did so, but soon regretted it. I was rather lagged in the pub, and each time I swivelled my stool in one direction, I'd touch the arrow too many times, and turn farther than I wanted. I spent most of the discussion facing away from the others, in various directions, so when I finally got back into the right position, I just stayed put.

The conversation got onto some technical issue about computers and software, which was a bit over my head. We were then unexpectedly joined by plump Bertha Dalglish, who asked whether we thought appearance is important in an avatar. That led to collective musings about virtual identity, during which Boris Janus, a big black cat, landed on the bar and began alternately prowling and lolling in front of us. People started to leave, so I congratulated MT one last time, said goodbye to all, and then logged off.

On Saturday I logged on just in time for the wedding. Since I knew ThePrincess Parisi and MT Lundquist as CDS citizens, I had assumed the marriage would be held in the Neufreistadt church. It was instead held at the church in Icewater, next to their home. When I got there MT was standing out front with JT Vale, who was best man, and Phos Noel, who acted as the priest. We all went inside, and the guests began to arrive. In addition to those already mentioned, some of the residents I saw in the church were: Zanni Honi, JerryDon Lane, Catz Jewells, Celeste Balogh, Mizou Vavoum (of Carpe Diem Design), Sleazy Writer, Beaver Stansky, Sudane Erato, Satir Decuir, Kelmo Columbine, Markko Ondricek (of Witchlight), Poppy Spire, Bells Semyorka, Robbi Rockett (of Swingsnthings), Dominique Littlething (of Katmandu), Andrew Laguna (of Knights of Arcadia), Pastor Carnell and Rain Ninetails. Who did I miss? (And whose name did I misspell)?

While we were waiting for everyone to show up, JT Vale, who was standing in front of the altar next to MT, made jokes to pass the time. I was awkwardly using the alt-mouse utility to try to survey the scene, when my screen froze up, and I crashed. My first reaction was to send an IM to MT, asking for a teleport, but there was no reply, so I sent one to Sudane Erato, and she TP'd me back into the church. During my absence the ceremony had started, and I understood that MT had been too busy to even read my IM, let alone reply. Phos Noel made a long speech, pretty much based on the traditional Christian rites, and the bride and groom kissed, and everybody applauded and said hurrah. The newly married couple walked down the aisle together, and the guests began filing out to go to the reception, held in a large building next to the church.

It was only at this point that I realized how inappropriate my outfit was. Everyone there was wearing their finest clothes, and I still had on my newbie jeans, and a dirty leather jacket that I had found among some free clothes that Sleazy Writer had given me. So instead of going straight to the reception, I went to hide around behind the church, and stood in the snow in my shorts, trying to change into something more suitable. There was in fact a dinner outfit in the clothes Sleazy had given me, but I didn't find it, and had to settle for just a better pair of pants and a more spiffy leather jacket. I made a few wrong clicks somewhere, and the jacket suddenly came down to my knees, and then only to my armpits. I finally got it back to the right length, and ventured in to the reception.

I must have been changing during a rather long time, because when I finally got to the reception, it was ending, and the guests were already leaving to go to the dance party. But I was on time to get the address, so I teleported over to the night club in Featherman. There I ran into Sleazy, who had apparently also changed his outfit after the church ceremony. He was now wearing an oversized top hat and garish Bermuda shorts with huge polka dots on them! Why did I bother?

I entered the ballroom, and found Brian Livingston standing there, watching a few couples who had started to dance. But I heard no music, so I checked whether my audio streaming was correctly turned on, which it seemed to be. I asked Brian, who reported that he had briefly heard some music, but that now he heard nothing. So I stood with him blankly staring around, until finally whoever was at the controls got the music to work, and we were bathed in rock and roll. I used my standard 8 dance steps again, cursing myself for my failure to have taken the time to procure a decent dance script.

The remainder of the dance party was a bit difficult for me. Real life intervened heavily, and I had to leave my avatar standing stupidly inactive for long periods. I also crashed a couple of times. But I was still on hand towards the very end, after the married couple had left. Michel Manen made a brief appearance, just after the departure of the newlyweds, and went off himself, perhaps in search of them. There were only a few couples left, including Phos Noel dancing with Kelmo Columbine, and Celeste Balogh dancing with Lostshang Banshee. I saluted them for their perseverance, and said goodnight.