Sunday, December 12, 2010

On Being Zyx, Part 1


Those who frequent Lucky Chairs and other devices that give prizes in Second Life have developed strategies to gather the most prizes or to increase the odds of getting one they really want. As a very long time member of the Lucky Kitty Crew, one of SL's oldest freebies/shopping groups, I've probably tried them all, save for one: Alts. Then Zyx Flux, my cute pixy girl, came along. I was at a Lucky Chair that insisted on giving it's treasure only to those whose first name began with the letter Z. Getting frustrated at having to wait 20 minutes until it (hopefully) cycled to another letter (usually going to Z again, though) I took the time to make an Alternate Character named Zyx.

I chose the name as an expedient, simply typing part of the alphabet backwards. She could have been Zaphod or Zeta or Zimbo (thanks, Grampie!) or any of a number of names that came to mind, but I thought if I'm going to take the time I might as well make the Alt useful. The name made me think the character would eventually be a gender neutral robot, especially as I chose Flux as a surname. Then the sign-up sequence suggested that I join via a Community. I'm fond of the Steampunk regions (SLurl) so I almost picked the Caledon group, but the Fairy community intrigued me and so Zyx went swiftly through their "portal" and on to help me conquer the Lucky Chair that so vexed me.

Later that day I thought back to how nice the noobie experience was at Faery Crossing (SLurl) and took Zyx back through, more slowly. It came to mind that having a role play-specific character might be fun. After all, SL is full of people who enjoy being someone other than themselves or exploring a narrow aspect of themselves by focusing on it via role play. Despite having lived on Tamerthon (SLurl) at one time and peripherally participating in the medieval-ish community, I had not really tried this part of our world.

But elves were everywhere, I didn't really feel like Tinkerbell, and drows really don't do a thing for me. As a fan of Kim Harrison's "The Hollows" books I had one alternative left: Pixy. These four-inch tall (on average) creatures love families, battle hard, and are greatly underestimated by anyone but their fiercest rivals, the fairies.

"But," you say and I cut you off before you can finish asking "pixys and fairies are the same, right?" Yes, and no, I need to say. Here's what I have in Zyx's profile Picks:
Many silly humans think that pixys & fairies are the same creature. Both are magical woodland creatures who love gardens, are allergic to silver, & are very territorial. But pixies are smaller, usually have colorful skin (like blue or green), & don't need a wand to do their magic. Fairies are often mean, bossy, & almost never have colorful skin. I'm a pixy. Tinkerbell is a fairy (or fae). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixie
Second Life has some limitations so I've made adjustments to the Real World pixy and taken a few liberties, as well. For example, Zyx's body is as small as I can make it while keeping the proportions right, made her blue with a nice but very inexpensive skin, and started a back story that I'll relate via this blog in subsequent posts. I should confess here, though, that she is a child avie. Well, she's like over a hundred years old, but that is a kid by pixy standards (a liberty that lets her be Adult Verified while being rather child-like). This will make more sense if you look for Zyx Resident in-world ... a grown-up Zyx. More on that later, too.

Zyx Flux and Uccello Poultry, July 4, 2010, on Menagerie Isle

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